Tom Peters’

Re-Imagine!New Customer

Excellence in an Age of Commodities

IDDBA/Las Vegas/06.01.2003

Slides at …

tompeters.com

1. The New Value Added

Revolution: Beyond “Satisfied

Customers.”

Base Case: The Sameness Trap

“While everything may

be better, it is also increasingly the same.”

Paul Goldberger on retail, “The Sameness of Things,” The New York Times

“When McDonald’s first started exporting its formula of quality, cleanliness and service, it was

something of a novelty. … These days, quality, cleanliness and

service are a given—and people are becoming more interested in what they are eating.” —FT/12.21.2002

New Customer Excellence: Re-making

the Value Equation

Gerstner’s IBM: Systems Integrator of

choice. Global Services:

$35B. Pledge/’99: Business Partner Charter. 72 strategic partners,

aim for 200. Drop many in-house

programs/products. (BW/12.01).

“No longer are we only an insurance provider. Today,

we also offer our customers the products and services that help them

achieve their dreams, whether it’s financial security, buying a car, paying

for home repairs, or even taking a dream vacation.”—Martin Feinstein, CEO,

Farmers Group

Nardelli’s goal ($50B to $100B by 2005):

“… move Home Depot beyond selling ‘goods’ to selling ‘home services.’ …

He wants to capture home improvement dollars wherever and

however they are spent.” E.g.: “house calls” (At-Home Service: $10B by ’05?) … “pros shops” (Pro Set) … “home project management”

(Project Management System … “a deeper selling relationship”).

Source: USA Today/06.14.2002

It’s All About EXPERIENCES: “Trapper” to “Wildlife Damage-control Professional”

Trapper: <$20 per beaver pelt.

WDCP: $150/“problem beaver”; $750-$1,000 for flood-control

piping … so that beavers can stay.

Source: WSJ/05.21.2002

2. A World of Scintillating/

Awesome/ WOW “Experiences.”

“Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from

goods.”Joseph Pine & James Gilmore, The Experience Economy:

Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage

“Club Med is more than just a ‘resort’; it’s a means of rediscovering oneself, of inventing an

entirely new ‘me.’ ”

Source: Jean-Marie Dru, Disruption

“The [Starbucks] Fix” Is on …

“We have identified a ‘third place.’ And I really believe that sets us apart. The third place is

that place that’s not work or home. It’s the place our

customers come for refuge.”Nancy Orsolini, District Manager

Experience: “Rebel Lifestyle!”

“What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride

through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”

Harley exec, quoted in Results-Based Leadership

The “Experience Ladder”

Experiences Services

Goods Raw Materials

1940: Cake from flour, sugar (raw materials economy): $1.00

1955: Cake from Cake mix (goods economy): $2.00

1970: Bakery-made cake (service economy): $10.00

1990: Party @ Chuck E. Cheese (experience economy) $100.00

Bob Lutz: “I see us as being in the art business. Art,

entertainment and mobile sculpture, which,

coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation.”

Source: NYT 10.19.01

“Car designers need to create a story. Every car provides an

opportunity to create an adventure. …“The Prowler makes you smile. Why? Because it’s focused. It has a plot, a

reason for being, a passion.”

Freeman Thomas, co-designer VW Beetle; designer Audi TT

Hmmmm(?): “Only” Words …

StoryAdventure

Smile Focus

PlotPassion

Plot

Sharper Image … 8+ Smith & Hawken … 8

Crate & Barrel … 7Williams Sonoma … 5

L.L.Bean … 3

I Know It (Plot) When I See It!

Draeger’s (Menlo Park, CA) … 10+Roberts of Woodside … 10+Peltiers (Dorset VT) … 10+

Whole Foods … 10+*

*WF = 4S = Nirvanna

6 Chain Groceries in May

Selection … B-* (*0A)Presentation … C-* (*0A)

Personal service … C/C-* (*1A, 2D)Experience/WOW … C-* (*Kind, 0A)

Spontaneous purchases … 2

This Is Soooooooo COOL: Food/Fantasyland/Field of Dreams/DisneyWorldPlus

Dairy!Deli!

Bakery!Wine!

(Fresh) (Packaged) Produce!Flowers!!!!!!!!!

Prepared Meals!(And the rest is details!)

First Step (?!): Hire a theater director, as

a consultant or FTE!

Experience …

Cirque Du Soleil

DO YOU MEASURE UP?*

*If not, why not?

“Most executives have no idea how to add value to a market in the metaphysical

world. But that is what the market will cry out for in the future. There is no lack of ‘physical’ products to

choose between.”

Jesper Kunde, Unique now ... or never [on the excellence of Nokia, Nike, Lego, Virgin et al.]

Extraction & Goods: Male dominance

Services & Experiences: Female

dominance

2+. Embracing the “Dream Business.”

DREAM: “A dream is a complete moment in the life of a client.

Important experiences that tempt the client to commit substantial resources. The essence of the desires of the consumer. The

opportunity to help clients become what they want to be.” —Gian Luigi

Longinotti-Buitoni

The marketing of Dreams (Dreamketing)

Dreamketing: Touching the clients’ dreams.

Dreamketing: The art of telling stories and entertaining.

Dreamketing: Promote the dream, not the product.

Dreamketing: Build the brand around the main dream.

Dreamketing: Build the “buzz,” the “hype,” the “cult.”

Source: Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni

3. The [Mostly Ignored] “Soul” of “Experiences”:

Design Rules!

Design Transforms even the [Biggest] Corporations!

TARGET … “the champion of America’s new design democracy” (Time) “Marketer of the Year 2000”

(Advertising Age)

All Equal Except …

“At Sony we assume that all products of our competitors have basically the same

technology, price, performance and

features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the

marketplace.”Norio Ohga

Design “is” … WHAT & WHY I LOVE.

LOVE.

Design “is” … WHY I

GET MAD. MAD.

Design is never neutral.

Hypothesis: DESIGN is the principal difference between love and

hate!

Message (?????): Men cannot design for women’s needs.

3+. Packaging Power!

Thomas Hine: The Total Package: The Secret History

and Hidden Meanings of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and

Other Persuasive Containers

“The most fundamental difference between a traditional market and

the places through which you push your cart is that in modern retailing

all the selling is done without people. It replaces people with

packages.” —Thomas Hine/The Total Package

“Packages have personality. They create

confidence and trust. They spark fantasies.

They move the goods!” —Thomas Hine/The Total Package

Oatmeal/1870: “horses and a few stray Scots”

Oatmeal/1890/Quaker: “a delicacy for the epicure, a nutritious dainty

for thr invalid, a delight to the children”

Difference: Packaging!

Thomas Hine/The Total Package

“Salt is salt is salt. Right? Not when it

comes in a blue box with a

picture of a little girl carrying an umbrella. Morton International continues to

dominate the U.S. salt market even though it charges more for a product that is

demonstrably the same as many other products

on the shelf.”

Tom Asaker, Humanfactor Marketing

Research: customers aware of 11,000 packages in 1,800 seconds

walking the aisles.

Opportunity = 1/6th second!

Source: Thomas Hine/The Total Package

“What’s important to recognize is that fast-food and motel chains are

not ‘like packages’, but that they

are packages—packaged

places and experiences.” —Thomas Hine/The Total Package

4. “It” all adds up

to … THE BRAND.

“WHO ARE WE?”

“WHAT’S OUR

STORY?”

“We are in the twilight of a society based on data. As information and intelligence become the domain of computers, society will place more value on the one human ability that cannot be automated: emotion.

Imagination, myth, ritual - the language of emotion - will affect everything from our purchasing decisions

to how we work with others. Companies will thrive on the basis of their stories and myths. Companies will need to understand

that their products are less important than their stories.”

Rolf Jensen, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies

Branding: Is-Is Not “Table”

TNT is not: TNT is: TNT is not:

Juvenile Contemporary Old-fashioned

Mindless Meaningful Elitist

Predictable Suspenseful Dull

Frivolous Exciting Slow

Superficial Powerful Self-important

4+. Branding’s Bedrock

Brand = Talent.

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

5. Trends I:

Women Roar!

?????????

Home Furnishings … 94%Vacations … 92% (Adventure Travel … 70%/ $55B travel

equipment)

Houses … 91%D.I.Y. (“home projects”) … 80%

Consumer Electronics … 51% Cars … 60% (90%)

All consumer purchases … 83% Bank Account … 89%

Health Care … 80%

91% women: ADVERTISERS DON’T

UNDERSTAND US. (58% “ANNOYED.”)

Source: Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team (Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women)

Carol Gilligan/ In a Different Voice

Men: Get away from authority, familyWomen: Connect

Men: Self-orientedWomen: Other-oriented

Men: RightsWomen: Responsibilities

FemaleThink/ Popcorn

“Men and women don’t think the same way, don’t communicate the same

way, don’t buy for the same reasons.”

“He simply wants the transaction to take place. She’s interested in

creating a relationship. Every place women go, they make

connections.”

“Men seem like loose cannons. Men always move faster through a store’s

aisles. Men spend less time looking. They usually don’t like asking where things are.

You’ll see a man move impatiently through a store to the section he wants,

pick something up, and then, almost abruptly he’s ready to buy. For a

man, ignoring the price tag is almost a sign of virility.”

Paco Underhill, Why We Buy* (*Buy this book!)

Read This: Barbara & Allan Pease’s

Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“Resting” State: 30%, 90%: “A woman knows her children’s

friends, hopes, dreams, romances, secret fears, what they are

thinking, how they are feeling. Men are vaguely aware of some short people also living in the house.”

Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

“As a hunter, a man needed vision that would allow him to zero in on targets in the distance … whereas a woman needed eyes

to allow a wide arc of vision so that she could monitor any predators sneaking up on the nest. This is why modern men can find their way effortlessly to a distant pub,

but can never find things in fridges, cupboards or drawers.”

Barbara & Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps

Senses

Vision: Men, focused; Women, peripheral.

Hearing: Women’s discomfort level I/2 men’s.

Smell: Women >> Men.Touch: Most sensitive man <

Least sensitive women.

Source: Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women

Editorial/Men: Tables, rankings.*

Editorial/Women: Narratives that cohere.*

*Redwood (UK)

“Women weren’t comfortable in our stores. So I figured out where they would be comfortable—most likely their own homes. The [first

Nike Goddess] store has more of a residential feel. I wanted it to have furniture, not fixtures. Above all, I

didn’t want it to be girlie.” —John Hoke, designer, Nike

Read This Book …

EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women

Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold

EVEolution: Truth No. 1

Connecting Your Female Consumers to Each

Other Connects Them to Your Brand

“Women don’t buy

brands. They join them.”

EVEolution

“War has broken out over your home-improvement dollar, and Lowe’s has

superpower Home Depot on the defensive. It’s not-so-

secret ploy: Lure women.” —Forbes.com

“Home Depot is still very much a guy’s chain. But women, according to Lowe’s

research, initiate 80 percent of all home-improvement purchase decisions,

especially the big ticket orders like kitchen cabinets, flooring and bathrooms. ‘We

focused on a customer nobody in home improvement has focused on. Don’t get me

wrong, but women are far more discriminating than men,’ says CEO Robert

Tillman, 59, a Lowe’s lifer.” —Forbes.com

1. Men and women are different.2. Very different.3. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.4. Women & Men have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing in common.5. Women buy lotsa stuff.6. WOMEN BUY A-L-L THE STUFF.7. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.8. Men are (STILL) in charge.9. MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.10. Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.

6. The Passion

Imperative: Leading in a “Post-

Satisfaction” World.

G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

“Grocery” Opportunity No. 1

Entertainment-Experience-Dreamketing

Disneyland!/Field of Dreams!Pure aesthetic-sensual pleasure!

Feminine!(Best defense-offense re Wal*Mart)