So, What Is Your Business Philosophy? (Part B)

Hey guys. My apologies for making you wait so long for Part B of the article.  At my day job we have a new Chief Operating Officer so it has been hectic.  In Part A we were talking about the various of business philosophy in terms of their pros and cons.  We talked about the Mass Production Strategy and the Production Centred Strategy among others and we concluded that while these were good approaches, to some extent, they lacked something.  By using these strategies you were always going to be left vulnerable to attack in one way or another.  I also wanted you, as you went through the article, to determine where your business fits among those types of business philosophy and to decide whether or not you wanted it to stay there. 

So let us get straight into that approach that I highlighted at the end of Part A.  The mother of all types of business philosophy.  Well, at least until someone comes up with something new.  This one is better than everything else that we talked about in the last article.

The Comprehensive Marketing Approach

All of the types of business philosophy that we have talked about were created as a result of the changing business environment.  As you can see they progressively moved towards being centred on the customer, especially the marketing approach.  Issues came up that made the think tanks sit down again and, think.  For example, the Marketing Approach focused so much on the customer that the staff members were ignored.  The staff were made to overexert themselves for the delight of the customer.  As a result they got demotivated and you guessed it, they took it out on the customers.  Such instances gave birth to the need to create a new approach that covered this angle and others.  Let us touch on the various components of the Comprehensive Marketing Approach.  We will discuss these components in the context of some Zimbabwean companies.  This will help us to see whether or not they are using this business philosophy.

A) Building Relationships

According to newzimbabwe.com ‘In the tender fraud case of Chikumba and Pfumbidzayi.  It is alleged that Chikumba and Pfumbidzayi enlisted the services of Navistar to provide aviation and insurance cover without going to tender. They allegedly terminated the services of other existing companies.’  This is evidence of the type of relationship that Air Zimbabwe has with some members of its marketing network.

I remember the days when my mother used to work at Air Zimbabwe.  I used to get free tickets to destination A, B or C.  Many a time the flights would be delayed.  The reasons for this would range from fuelling delays, delays caused by Catercraft, their catering company etc.  I am sure that such issues played a part in the airline’s demise as it destroyed its relationship with its customers.  When Emirates and the likes came into the game that was it.

Aside from relationships with customers other important aspects of relationship building are your suppliers, distributors and marketing partners.  Most companies make the fatal error of thinking that they are their supplier’s masters.  If you treat your partners well they will develop an emotional connection with your firm and ultimately they will do the best that they can for you.  When you partners do not do well, primarily because of the type of relationship that you share with them, it reflects on your business.  On Air Zimbabwe the food was not very good, so much that on short trips to places like Victoria Falls I would opt to have a drink only.  Some of the relationships that Air Zimbabwe had with its marketing network are i) Not getting fuel from its suppliers on time ii) Catercraft providing low quality inflight meals iii) The air hostesses wearing uniforms that were not very nice. I do not know who supplied them with those.  It came as no surprise that Chikumba and Pfumbidzayi were charged with tender fraud.  How were some of these suppliers even given the chance to do business with Air Zimbabwe?

Relationship building would have seen Air Zimbabwe using ethical processes to select the right partners for its marketing network.  The right partners would provide the right inputs which would manifest as superior service.  Superior service would have created a base of loyal customers who would have buoyed them when its enemies entered the scene.  Such a business philosophy would have enabled them to survive.

B) Blended Marketing

That is the showroom of Premier Auto on Leopold Takawira St.  Everytime that I pass through there the shop floor will be empty.  I have never gotten the courage to get inside.  The place is just too scary.  How do I then get to dream of Jaguars and Range Rovers when I cannot touch them?  Their business philosophy is stopping me from dreaming about their products

I always pass by the Premier Auto shop which is located at the corner of Leopold Takawira Street and Samora Machel Avenue.  I gaze at the lovely machines on display wondering if I will ever afford one, or if I will ever ride in one to say the least.  I look at the Jaguars and Range Rovers and marvel at their design, class, and aura.  I always leave the place thinking of the time that I am going to buy my Range Rover from the United Kingdom.  Wait!  According to Google Maps the United Kingdom is approximately 12620 km from here.  So why is this the case?  Why not support a local business that is in my own back yard?  Let’s see.

Blended Marketing is all about ensuring that all of your marketing activities operate in a complimentary manner so as to create, communicate and deliver value for your consumers.  This is done through four pillars mainly product, price, place and promotion.  Let us see how Premier Auto is doing with regards to this business philosophy.

i) Product:  There is no doubt that Jaguar is a wonderful car. I will not even waste time talking about the product itself.  As far as product quality is concerned they are covered.  Since I am afraid to walk into Premier Auto I decided to do the next best thing that a timid potential customer would do, that is look for their website.  I thought that from there I could dream in peace, without inhibitions, from the safety of my laptop.  I googled Premier Auto Zimbabwe and landed on www.jaguar.co.zw.  I did not notice that I was on a Jaguar website until I started to look for the Range Rovers.

I quickly realised that there was a problem of product variety.  The Range Rovers are on the shop floor but I could not find them on the website.  The United Kingdom suddenly felt a whole lot closer.  To me there are no Range Rovers at Premier Auto because they are not available on my preferred platform.  Is this the message that Premier Auto want to communicate to me?  Next stop, www.autotrader.co.uk.

Other things to consider strategically are: product design; product features; brand name; product packaging

ii) Price:  A price is very important as it helps people to make decisions.  Apart from making decisions on the spot it helps a person to make decisions for the future.   In my case I want to know how much these cars cost so that I know what I have to do in life in order to afford a Range Rover.  Would I need to remain an employee?  If so what rank would I have to attain?  Would I need to start a business instead?  If so on what scale?  My life story should fit in with Premier Auto’s brand story so that we walk together until the day that I step onto that showroom floor and splash the cash.  I could not find the prices for the new cars, just the old ones.  That is a problem right there, something was amiss in their business philosophy.

There is no price on the offer on the Premier Auto website.  So I cannot decide, nor dream.

There is a price on the Mercedes website.  And guess what, a lot of you can afford it (if you lived in the United Kingdom that is).

The fact that this website does not tell me what I want to know and websites in the United Kingdom tell me what I want to know draws me to them.  So far Premier Auto is giving me the impression that they do now want me to know about their products. Maybe their business philosophy is centered on current buyers and not potential, future buyers?

Other things to consider strategically are: discounts; allowances; payment periods; credit terms

All these items should work together to tell the story that Premier Auto wants to tell me.  A story which their target customers will relate to and will make them do what Premier Auto wants them to do, and that’s buy their cars.

iii) Place:

There is no search bar on this Premier Auto website.  This is akin to having a grocery store without signage.

The ‘place’ is the channel through which the product is distributed to the consumers.  It should also work all the other components so as to deliver a consistent message to me, the customer.  So far the lack of product variety and the lack of pricing has reinforced my belief that Premier Auto does not want me to associate myself with them.  I am sure that those that they care about are approached privately and given all the information that they need.  The rest of us just have to scrape around for the information.  Is that a good idea though in such an informal economy were a lot of the money is kept outside institutions like companies and bank accounts?

That said to me the ‘place’ for me in this instance is the website.  There is no search bar on the website.  Go ahead and check for yourself on www.jaguar.co.zw.  This reinforced the belief that I had that they do not want me to get to know them better since everything seems to be hidden.  A trade channel has to be very convenient especially in this case where there is no one to help me to navigate.

I realised that they had a section that was labelled ‘Approved Used’.  As you know we Zimbabweans love used cars, so I clicked on the menu.

That is not a Jaguar XJ.  That is a Jaguar XF.

This is a Jaguar XJ.  Pretty different, isn’t it?

As you can see they had the wrong car in the wrong spot.  A Jaguar XF in the spot of a Jaguar XJ.  It is like you are in a shop and you find tissues in the fridge.  To confirm this note where it is written (in the image on top) ‘Exterior – Vapour Grey’.  The car in that photo is white.  What message am I getting about this dealership?  What type of business philosophy do they have? Do they pay attention to detail?  If I am to deal with them how could these traits that they are showing possibly affect me and my $150 000 Range Rover?  Would I like to try and find out?

Other things to consider strategically are: coverage of outlets; assortment of products; location of outlets; transportation and delivery

iv) Promotion:  There are various components that companies use to sell products to customers.  One of these components is the sales force. I plucked up enough courage to give Premier Auto a call because I really wanted to get an idea of how the sales force does its thing.  First of all I visited www.jdpower.com in order to get an idea of what I was up against.  J.D. Power provides crowd sourced performance ratings for brands and products.  I decided to look up Land Rover and this is what I found:

This is how Land Rover is rated across the board.  What does that say about their business philosophy?

The purpose of my call to Premier Auto was primarily to see how they would do under the categories ‘Sales Satisfaction’ and ‘Customer Service’.  J.D. Power had them on 2/5 for both aspects.  I called their showroom on (04) 758441.

The phone rang for 30 seconds before it was answered.  I told the sales person that I needed to buy a new car and that I needed to ask a few questions.  Before I could go any further the ‘gentleman’ cut me off and insisted that I send him an email with my questions instead.  It seems like he did not want to talk to me on the phone.  He did not tell me his name and he was not friendly, at all.  I even told him that I lived in Glen Lorne and he was not moved.  To rub salt into the wound he asked which company I was from.  Who said only companies buy nice cars?  Is their business philosophy focused on companies only? I did not send the email and he did not get back to me to check why.  A person cannot act like this when they are selling anything let alone $150 000 exotic materials like Range Rovers.  My interaction with him confirmed the statistics on the J.D.  Power website, the Zimbabwe dealership seems to be worse.  Find my ratings below:

Sales Satisfaction – 0/5

Customer Service – 0/5

The message that I got across the various components of the strategy was reinforced once more.  That I am not needed at Premier Auto.  Do you agree?

Other things to consider strategically are: advertising; public relations

As you can see comprehensive marketing entails combining various components so as to deliver a consistent message to the customer. Each component is used to cater to various stakeholders and forces in the environment to ensure that all angles are covered.  This reduces the chances of you being attacked by the competition.  The use of various components also makes it harder for the competition to attack you because the battle will now be fought on numerous fronts.

To this point we have touched on two components which is Relationship Building and Blended Marketing.  Relationship building is used to create a strong bond with all your stakeholders to ensure that you have a network that gives you a competitive advantage.  We saw how Air Zimbabwe’s failure to manage its marketing network contributed to its demise.  Blended Marketing is all about combining various components so as to deliver a consistent message across all platforms.  The purpose of this message being for the customers to engage with your company profitably.  We have also witnessed how Premier Auto is probably reducing its revenue as a result of not consciously managing its marketing.  This has resulted in it sending the wrong message to the public.

We are not done yet though.  Building relationships and marketing well are not enough to make a business successful.  Other angles will still not be covered.  We will cover the last two components in Part C of the article.  Read on because building an empire is not easy.

Thanks

Ruvimbo