CVS and their Hedgehog Concept

CVS Heart

CVS Heart

CVS stopped selling smokes?  This is a bold move. It has been said they will lose $2 Billion (with a B) in revenues, Now  they made $123 billion in revenues in 2012 so maybe $2 billion will not be missed. But in a business where you answer to shareholders every penny counts. What I see in this story is a company following their hedgehog concept.

The Hedgehog concept comes from an amazing book called: Good to Great by Jim Collins.  Your hedgehog concept comes together when you find the common ground between three questions: What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What drives your economic engine? A hedgehog concept breaks down as depicted here: hedgehog graphic-01

CVS’s hedgehog concept is selling products that make people healthy. Selling tobacco products is glaringly contrary to that concept. I applaud CVS for making the bold move to stop selling a profitable item because it dose not fit with their mission or hedgehog concept. The next question that comes to mind for me is: How far will they go? Will they stop selling soda, alcohol, or candy? I don’t imagine they will but what would be the next appropriate step? Related note: CVS released a new logo to correspond with this change.

What is your hedgehog concept? What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What drives your economic engine? Figuring this out will help you make decisions that will help grow your business in the long run and avoid bad short term decisions. Also check out Good to Great it has the potential to change your business life!

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Beware of Hashtags

DiGiornos Twitter Fail

 

This week Ray Rice was cut from the Baltimore Ravens.

While another post based on the decisions of the NFL in regards to marketing maybe in order, that is not what we are here to discuss. I believe the hashtag #WhyIStayed surged in popularity because of the despicable and public choices of Ray Rice. The hashtag #WhyIStayed was made for women who had been part of abusive relationships to help others understand why they stayed in that relationship. Similarly interesting is the #WhyILeft hashtag helping others see the reason why it is worth leaving an abusive relationship.

DiGionro's did look into hashtags

Enter DiGiorno Pizza. The social media manager at DiGionro, hopefully, unwittingly tweeted “You Had Pizza”.  Now if the hashtag was referencing any number of other things #WhyIStayed: in the stands during the Rams Blowout, on the couch while that terrible movie was playing, on the live feed during Apple’s latest announcement, it would have been appropriate and potentially funny.

There have been lots of great funny hastags (#removealetterruinaband)but there have been very few serious ones. Understandably the assumption of the tweeter may have been that the hastag must have been a humorous one. Before you join in a hashtag conversation be sure that you at least look at the tag in use to get the context of its use. Clicking on the hashtag will show other people’s use of it. If the social media manager at DiGionro had done this he would have seen some heart wrenching tweets.

Feel free to use hashtags and join in on conversations on twitter but do so with caution.

What is your favorite hashtag?

 

 

Text Marketing to College Students

Influence on College Students
via Marketingcharts.com

Another helpful chart this week from MarketingCharts.com. Depending on your business, college kids can be a great customer base to target. This is especially true with affordable restaurants, entertainment venues, and clothing stores. College students love to spend time with their friends and frequently that comes in the form of sharing a meal, shopping, or going to a concert. As with all the age groups, college students love word of mouth, after all it is the best way to find out about the new hip restaurant or store in town. The other two mediums in the top three are very affordable to utilize.

Online coupons can come from email marketing, a page on your website, a special on social media, or a deal with a local online deal program (here in Jackson, Snagmob.com is popular). Mobile ads are really easily done with text message marketing. Text message marketing can be done cost effectively and because you can send out time sensitive deals on a slow night of business they can help drive traffic strategically. They can also be used to bring attention to specific deals and events you have going on. People frequently forget things you have announced earlier through more traditional means of marketing and a text can give them a very timely reminder.

Adelsberger Marketing can help you with getting an email or text messaging campaign set up for your business. Send me an email at: kevin@kadelsberger.com to set up your free consultation.