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Thursday 17 April 2008 - Ricoh Arena,
Home of Coventry City FC, UK BREAKTHROUGH Marketing Conference Preview Resurgent resellers…and how Here are 10 powerful reasons why you should attend the 3rd Annual BREAKTHROUGH Marketing conference on Thursday 17 April 2008 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, UK: 1. Learn how progressive resellers are beating the BIG BOX players…real David slays GOLIATH stories 2. Get the inside story on Depot's destruction first hand from Rick Marlette…the biggest OP news story worldwide in decades
3. Cut Costs…Cut Carbon. Dealers #1 opportunity in today's marketplace |
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4. The SOUL of Staples…inside story on how the global #1's easy plans to leave competitors trailing 5. Be among the first UK dealers to 'match'n'beat' Viking, Depot and Staples prices whilst increasing profits. Launch of a new dealer service 6. How manufacturers should reach Lucy the ultimate user chooser…lessons from master marketers, the innovative 3M company 7. How ECi2 holds back the growth of the independent dealers…how new emarketing/web tools will invigorate growth 8. How to make successful acquisitions and grow organically…lessons from the master merger-makers Oyez Straker. |
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9. How the power channel plans to retaliate against the superdealer resurgence 10. Megatrends 2008-2012 – Top 10 dealer performances in 2007… 10 to follow in 2008 The BREAKTHROUGH conference has been kindly sponsored by Antalis, Channel Info, M-real, Spicers and XMA The full programme with bios for the top cast of speakers can be viewed here next week. Booking Fee £198.00 each (+VAT = £232.65)
Dealer Group members 20% off £158.40 each (+VAT = £186.12) Please reserve your place now, click here for Booking Form. __________________________________ |  |
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BREAKTHROUGH'07
Marketing Conference Highlights
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"Inspirational…the best conference…a great speaker line up…snappy"
BREAKTHROUGH'07 Marketing conference achieves 82% delegate approval rating
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The story of 'the bunny with a pancake on its head'
27 April 07
The BREAKTHROUGH marketing conference held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry yesterday achieved an 82% approval rating from a packed house of UK and European dealers, wholesalers and manufacturers . Seven of the ten top cast of the market leading speakers achieved 78% or more approval with over half gaining 100% ratings from many delegates.
"This was a fantastic response from delegates…a record in my experience" exclaimed Peter Frost from organisers Proficiency Group. Typical comments from the delegate surveys were "One of the best conferences I've attended" Sara Diggle, Brother; "Top class line up of speakers" Ian Bradbeer, Trodat/Dormy; "Inspiring, very interesting, very informative"Jane McAra, McAra Office Supplies, Croydon; "Exceeded my expectations" Shaun Chatterton, CPD/Maxima.
There was a glittering array of marketing talent in the line-up sponsored by RICOH, Antalis, Spicers and XMA.
Conference Report
'Get Ready for the Dawning..' from Roachford gave the conference a resounding musical and highly relevant 'sting' intro to a hugely successful conference at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on Thursday.
"Get ready for the dawning of office productivity…the dawning of genuine personalisation…of eco-productivity…of PROPS, the personal service providers" enthused Peter Frost from Proficiency Group, as he kicked off the second BREAKTHROUGH conference. |
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Megatrends
Frost gave a presentation of the latest Office Megatrends 2007-2011 and latest Proficiency Index market data on the leaders on the global office market. He covered trends in the fast growing SME markets, the slowing corporate market…emarketing and 24/7 webstores; the growing strength of women in business…the new majority; the inexorable growth of search marketing, online marketing and eCRM.
He pointed to the growing awareness of green issues and the huge eco-productivity trend whereby concerted action to cut transaction costs e.g. delivery and processing, effectively reduces carbon dioxide emissions. |  |
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Frost highlighted the eco-champions in the global market: Staples' carbon neutral drive, the green biz agenda of Office Depot; the Commercial Group's CSR initiative, and the eco-productivity initiative of leading UK dealers e.g. Allens, Bluefish, Red Box, Winstonmead, and YBE.
The bunny with a pancake on its head
Controversially, Scot McKee from leading UK B2B marketing agency Birddog (www.birddog.co.uk), had provoked industry marketers beforehand by claiming that "Office marketing sucks". Scot opened up his presentation with typical images of paperclips, file folders and printers on offer at discounted prices. He asked what grabs your attention most 'a bunny with a pancake on its head' or the same old lifeless suspension file on offer at 50% discount?
Scot then took delegates through a rapid fire presentation of how to bring brands to life. He was awesome, a truly inspirational marketeer. From a potentially difficult situation, he took the delegates on an engaging journey from same old, same old 'whateva' mailings and still life product shots towards dream experiences, personalised and soulful marketing which whetted users appetite…YES users, not the usual target: emotionless executives, buyers and Sally Savers who make logic-only, BOGOF decisions on commodity products. |
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 | Oh and before you ask 'Yes, but how successful is this creative genius?'The answer is very. Scot showed examples of his inspiring campaigns featuring attention grabbing situations e.g. Market Scan/ Superman; the Plan-net/ 'pants'; Salmon/ecommerce junkies; Blue Pumpkin work force management; Sony broadcast and Botox/the natural look. All were measured response/ROI campaigns totally accountable with transparent results. |
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Scot closed with his opening line 'Don't forget the bunny'….get a life!
Personalisation the Viking way
Richard Carvell, general manager of Viking Direct, the industry guru in personalised direct marketing gave a best practice case study into the phenomenal growth of Viking from start up in the UK in 1990 to £400m+ in 2007. He demonstrated in a very powerful way how Viking has increased response levels, driven sales and developed customers one at a time.
Richard illustrated the various devices in hard and soft messages to drive demand…highlighting the 'bought before, buy cheaper' option as still the most effective tool. He showed how Viking has progressed rapidly in building order values with cross and upsell techniques, extended warranties on higher ticket items e.g lamps.
A big success factor at Viking has been their ability to retain and develop customer account values…a key performance measure of the Viking's master marketer Irwin Helford. Richard illustrated how Viking have optimised their impressive rates of profitability by adopting a more personalised, customer centric model away from their previous campaign driven strategy. |
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Finally, whilst Viking has developed a world class direct marketing model, which would lead best practice in any marketplace, Richard emphasised that technology is not enough. " 'We are a human face in a push-button world' and we will never give up on Irwin's mantra 'Customers will forget what you say, they will even forget what you did, BUT they will never forget the way you made them feel.'" A terrific case study into the #1 brand and most profitable marketer in the UK OP industry.
Putting YOU first…the Ricoh view of the future
Chas Moloney, sales and marketing director of Ricoh, the main sponsor of the conference gave a fascinating view of future technology trends, the office environment and the growing opportunity to deliver print and document management solutions |  |
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Chas analysed customers' needs and their value requirements. These were to increase productivity, reduce cost, reduce risk, increase competitive advantage and to support environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility drives. He highlighted Ricoh's initiatives to cut CO2 emissions and invest in carbon offset projects e.g. Seeds for Africa.
The Google Effect
Russ Cohn (pic below), head of B2B vertical markets for Google, gave a tremendous insight into the world's #1 brand and search marketer. Google have just passed the $1Bn profit mark in the UK and are in the throes of taking over web-measurement company Double-Click for $3Bn.
Russ rammed home very quickly Google's clear focus on reaching the user, the holy grail for most dealers. The internet was now matching TV as the largest ad medium with Google about to overtake long term #1 ITV. The web and search marketing is the fastest growing and soon to be the largest ad medium. OP marketers must understand this…Staples, Viking and Euroffice do. |
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 | An impressive advantage point that George Karibian had introduced earlier, was the 'long tail'…the ability to extend the range of choices infinitely in the same way that Amazon can offer millions of titles compared with the average bookstore. Russ reaffirmed this advantage of providing infinite choice and the combination of offline limited range catalogs to drive users to to online stores for maximum choice. |
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Finally, Russ announced details of the new 'Checkout' secure service for buyers and sellers. Buyers will be able to track orders and purchases with one login everywhere, complete with protection against fraud and spam emails. Sellers will benefit from a faster and more secure service and will receive more leads from the greater interest promoted by confidence in Checkout's easy service.
The most productive provider on the planet
George Karibian, CEO of euroffice, the UK's #1 internet dealer and star of the BREAKTHROUGH'06 conference has seen his company's sales soar by 60% this year. Euroffice reached £20m in sales with 20 very talented people, making them the most productive dealer in the OP business worldwide with sales of £1m/employee ($2m). |
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| George described the success factors that were key to driving sales: technology, technology and technology. The aim to make it easy for customers to buy, minimise costs and automate order and payment processes.
Customer acquisition cost is a key metric for Euroffice, and they are a key exponent of Google's 'pay per click' service. They have found that new customers that reach them via Google still route themselves that way after a few transactions.
George stressed the advantages of providing a wide choice for customers and the power of strong partnerships with leading wholesalers e.g. Spicers. |  |
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The Bluefish blueprint for growth
Mark Heath, MD of Bluefish Office Products, Northampton (UK) gave a very punchy and impressive debut performance, describing the rapid sales growth from start-up in 2001 to £15m($30m) in 2007. |
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Mark's father Peter had run a successful regional dealership called Arkle who reached £10m in the early 90's before being taken over by Ofrex/Guilbert (now Office Depot).
Mark described his commitment to total supply with his customer base…sourcing/stocking virtually any business supplies item. A key performance measure then, was customer net profitability. This and a relentless drive to achieve high rates of productivity were the basis of the Bluefish net profitability model.
The Bluefish productivity ratio is £250,000 ($500,000) sales/employee comparable with the best in the USA WBMason and Garveys in Chicago.
Recently, Bluefish announced details of a more intimate relationship with their wholesale partners Spicers with the production of their own full-line catalogue.
Finally, Mark described his commitment to running a green business…"customers' #2 concern next to cost." On Tuesday 1 May Bluefish will be holding an EcoExpo for their customers and prospects. After a seminar on eco-productivity by Peter Frost entitled "Cut costs…Cut carbon" Mark will be announcing plans to go carbon positive by 2008. The Expo will be supported by all the leading UK manufacturers. |
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Powerful stuff from a great example of the future 'Provider of Office Productivity Solutions' model.
The Marvellous Masonville Story
Peter Frost opened up the 'Stock less…market more' afternoon session with the story of the phenomenal rise of the WBMason company from Brockton, Mass (USA)…the original stockless dealer. In 1993 supplies sales were $5m…in 1995 $50m…in 2000 $200m and in 2007 are expected to be well in excess of $500m.
Frost listed the USP's that make "Who But WB" the most inspirational dealer on the planet. Super sales people, passionate customer service, dedicated delivery drivers with the cleanest trucks and the most creative 'fun' marketing programmes.
Frost showed examples of the captivating catalog covers inc. Sergeant Pepper Hearts Club; the 'Low Price Assurance Detectives' and latest 'I want my WB' TV/Radio ads. The WB focus is clearly on 'users' from kids to boomers. There is no evidence of boring B2B marketing. |
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This is illustrated by the WB webstore which is open 24/7 to prospects, customers or users. Furthermore, the commitment to local communities and sponsorship of baseball giants Boston RedSox, NY Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.
WBMason's progress has been driven by Leo Meehan and his enthusiastic team. The management team has been together for nearly 30 years and in 1993 they teamed up to develop the 'stockless model' with their main partners, the US leading wholesaler United Stationers. |  |
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The Masonville sales territory started in the Boston/New England area, expanded into NY and New Jersey, then to Philadelphia. Next stop Washington/Baltimore?
Marvellously inspiring…a great success story.
Marketing to the office
Rob Vale, CEO Spicers, gave a very popular presentation on the future opportunities for the independent dealer channel and the way to go after them. He ran through the UK market stats and identified the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities facing the dealer channel. Looking at threats, Rob viewed the moves by Wal-Mart in the USA and Tesco in the UK, as real in the supply of home and small offices.
He covered the dangers of commoditisation. "If you want to selll commodities you'd better decide to be the lowest cost supplier" emphasised Rob. People want more choice…more personalised service,,,dealers are well placed to satisfy this need. |
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He stressed the importance of a wide ranging choice compared with the narrower offerings of some contract stationers e.g. Lyreco. The internet today provides the wide range of choice that the original catalogues once did.
Rob talked about brands and stated that "Your brand is what customers say it is…so ask your customers how they view you" |
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How would Spicers be organising themselves to support more enlightened dealers? Our focus will be to "Understand…get closer…and develop strong relationships with our customers." Something we've not been great at recently, but are now even more determined to achieve. |
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People first…customers second
Ian Lawson, training and development director for Lyreco UK, was recruited 10 years ago by Rob Vale, then MD. Within a few weeks Rob was off to manage Europe for Lyreco. Since then Lyreco has been the growth machine in the UK office supplies delivery business. In 1997, sales were approx. £60m…in 2007 sales will be close to £300m…most of the growth has been organic. How did they do it?
'Grow your people first…to grow your sales' has been Ian's mantra. Lyreco do what others talk about…they train, train and train again. |  |
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By creating a positive environment with enthusiastic leaders and motivated employees success in attracting the right customers is almost assured
Currently, Lyreco employ 600 sales people in the UK…average sales/rep £500,000, a strong average for such a large sales force in the SME/contract space…most dealers average £350,000 each. This people ethic extends beyond the sales force to the service support in customer service and logistics.
A key strength of Lyreco is their relentless efficiency drive which shows through with exemplary productivity levels in logistics. Add to this, their narrower range model (up to 5000 items stocked/catalogued) and what results is a high GP and a high net profitability model. The Lyreco model originated in France in the 80's has now been replicated around Europe and Canada, the Far East and Australia.
Ian's enthusiasm was infectious, a great ambassador for Lyreco and for their people ethic which has achieved #1 status in Europe
From closed 'stationery cupboard' web-sites to 24/7 mega-webstores.
James Wilson of InovaVision building on the points so well made by Google, euroffice, the Masonville story and Spicers, gave a powerful demonstration on the potential of 24/7 webstores carrying the full range of the OP marketplace to provide maximum choice.
James highlighted the best practice examples of webstores e.g. the 3 world leaders Amazon, Staples and Office Depot/Viking. In contrast, most OP dealers were shy of opening web-sites to enable prospects to view online catalogues. Furthermore, once open the site was little more than a commodity product listing with lifeless product images. |
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 | James called for a better shopping experience for the user…special offers 3/2's, new product samples/intro offers, demo video clips, application shots, long copy for high ticket items, warranty and testimonial information.
He reminded delegates that most business users were now experienced web-shoppers with sites like Ebay and Amazon. "Why should they browse and buy from a site which didn't offer a minimum click/entertaining experience?" Most dealers' web sites are dull in this respect and in need of urgent upgrade to at least match the power players.
James concluded with a strong call to action "The time for dealers to invest in a mega-webstore experience is now."
Stellar Staples – the double digit dynamos
"This year I expect Staples to achieve close to $20Bn in sales and $2Bn in operating net profits." forecast Peter Frost, commenting on the top performing marketer in the OP industry. |
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Frost covered the phenomenal growth story of Staples across the board in retail, mail order and contract staionery…the latter up 16%, their ecommerce drive, now 78% of their delivery business; the eco-friendly initiatives. He reported on the European recovery particularly in the UK where the marketing mix had failed to produce results, but was now on making good progress.
"In almost every category: growth, marketing, CRM, ecommerce, eco initiatives, low cost to serve and net profitability, Staples are a beacon of inspiration" said Frost.
GET READY…"Act now! Embrace the new era of office productivity, genuine personalisation, emarketing, web stores,personal service providers and eco-productivity" urged Frost in his closing summary of an excellent conference
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 | Euroffice
Breakthrough
BIG time!
Report on the industry's first marketing conference
26 May 06 |
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 | The first BREAKTHROUGH Marketing to the Office conference sponsored by M-real's DataCopy brand, IT wholesaler XMA and Channel Info magazine was held at the 'nouveau chic' Cumberland Hotel, London on Tuesday 23 May. Over 100 OP dealers, manufacturers and wholesalers attended the event.
The delegates gave the conference an impressive 71% approval rating. Feedback from the attendees gave star ratings to industry leaders George Karibian, CEO of the burgeoning euroffice and Ray Peck, CEO of leading UK superdealer office2office. |
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Organisers Proficiency Group were keen to bring fresh insights from outside the industry too. This was provided in spades from top notch marketers including: Chris Boorman from CRM online specialists Salesforce.com; top web-marketer, Kevin Rossiter; PR guru Richard Merrin from Spreckley; Magali Tardy from FutureBrand and Gareth Allcock from leading B2B specialists Anderson Baillie. |
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"It's time to move on from products to productivity. It's time to move on from 'spray and pray' mailings of 'kitchen sink' flyers towards personalised eMarketing…at a time which suits Lucy, the typical user chooser. It's time to BREAKTHROUGH! " enthused Peter Frost when opening the conference.
Starting with the theory and best practice combination approach the conference moved from the most effective corporate selling methods through eMarketing, marketing to women, CRM and sales force management, a PR case study of Avery, the making of the "Bulldog and the Baby" shredder ad…'the best office ad in 10 years' and PROM the new personalised emarketing system.
phil@proficiencygroup.com
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See pictures of the conference below...
Ray Peck from Office2Office
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