Archive for January 27th, 2011

Which party created the gov’t bureaucracies ?

January 27, 2011

Everybody knows that Fed Dept’s have many overlapping and redundant agencies … and that inefficiency rules the day.

My POV: getting Fed spending under control can’t be done simply “at the margin” by squeezing all agencies 10% or so. 

Rather, major surgery needs to be done – eliminating agencies or whole departments.

I assumed that most of the bureaucracies were set up by Dems, and was surprised to learn that out of the 15 Departments in the Executive Branch … 

  • The Founding Fathers created 3
  • Democrats created 5
  • Republicans created 7

Republicans created these Departments;

image

Hmmm.

Posted in Debt - Deficit | 1 Comment »

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again … unless it’s not working, that is.

January 27, 2011

TakeAway: If what you’ve done in the past isn’t working, understanding why and communicating changes to consumers is imperative. 

But if what you are offering is not what the consumers want, no amount of restaging will solve the problem. 

It’s also important to understand where in the PLC your product is and what are the feasible alternatives for stretching maturity out as long as possible.

* * * * *

Excerpted from AdAge, “Pantene set to try again to reverse slide,” by Jack Neff, January 17, 2011

After a second restage in three years failed to take hold with consumers last year, the Procter & Gamble Co. brand is preparing another course correction later this month for what remains the leading brand in U.S. and global hair care.

P&G believes it’s identified and will soon fix problems with the latest restage. … problems included consumers being more loyal to discontinued products (particularly two-in-one shampoo-conditioners) than the brand, and restrictive policies at Walmart that kept the brand from communicating changes to consumers…

But some say the problem goes deeper to the basic premise behind the restage. Traditionally hair-care products touted what they do for your hair — be it volumize, smooth or add shine. Pantene took a different approach — organizing into ranges based on hair types, not solutions.

One hopeful sign is that the midcourse correction following Pantene’s last restage, which included more readable packaging and more focus on value positioning vs. salon brands, ended a similar skid.

Even so, the restages and tweaks have engendered skepticism among analysts. Pantene may be facing consequences of line extensions that aimed to blunt advances by competitors leaving Pantene with a complex product lineup and growing distance from its “healthy, beautiful hair that shines” equity.

To be sure, the U.S. hair-care business has been brutal for big players and design firms beyond P&G — though the mass business did begin growing again last year after two years of decline. Unilever last year discontinued Sunsilk in the U.S. four years after its launch and little more than two years after a 2008 Super Bowl ad for the brand created by design firm Desgrippes Gobe (now BrandImage) and positioning specialist BrandThinkTank. L’Oréal Vive, launched in the 1990s, is hanging on in drug and grocery stores, but is off shelves at Walmart and Target.

Edit by HH

 

Posted in Mktg - Brands, Mktg - Positioning | Leave a Comment »