Competition | The Barefoot Spirit

Breakthroughs Are Rarely as Spontaneous As They Seem

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 13:28:45 +0000

Today it seems like we are hearing about a new breakthrough every day.

It’s easy to get the idea that these breakthroughs are instantaneous bolts of clarity from very gifted people. Once in a while there is a sudden stroke of genius that leaves us all in awe. But most of the time the real breakthroughs are years in coming and the result of much cooperation and analysis.

Sure, there are the “Why don’t we just…” moments, but most practical and lasting breakthroughs require a team. Here’s what we experienced with several breakthroughs that occurred in our business.

1. Other industry practices

We had a problem with keeping our advertising signs up on the supermarket shelves. The competition, or the cleaning people, would take them down regularly. Sometimes we couldn’t even get our marketing materials to the shelf. They were thrown in the dumpster by our distributors. We were spread so thin we couldn’t cover all the stores with our own limited staff.

One day we noticed that some soup cans had an award medal affixed right to the can to communicate value to the shoppers. It took us two years to work out the mechanical issues necessary to put our award stickers on our bottles, on the bottling line. That meant that finally we had at least one piece of merchandising material that made it to the shelf every time and couldn’t be removed.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Label Damage Screams “Damaged Goods” to Your Customer

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 17:00:37 +0000

In the packaged consumer goods industry, the condition of your label telegraphs the condition of your goods. Even though it has nothing to do with what’s inside your package, your consumer will avoid purchasing any product with a damaged label or package. And it makes sense, because she can only see the damaged package and is unable to determine the quality of the product until she opens it.

Space is at a premium in retail stores. You are lucky to get shelf space at all, let alone more than one space or “facing.” Brands can get pushed around by the competition, mispriced by the store, not reordered even though they are selling well, and stay in the back room and never make it to the shelf. So just “making it to the shelf” is an achievement.

You work your way up from the bottom shelf, where folks generally don’t look, to the eyelevel shelf. Eyelevel is the most coveted real-estate in the store because it’s where the customer naturally looks. We used to say, “If you’re not in their face, you’re not in the place!” But now that you made it, anything that is wrong with your label or packaging works against you.

For one thing, you can’t be in every store to inspect every one of your products, although you should try! Even though you have great quality control in your production facility, once it leaves the condition of your label is in the hands of folks who can scratch it, scuff it, and stain it between the back room and the shelf.

That label damage can impact sales in many ways:

First Impressions. A scuffed or otherwise compromised label or package can turn off a potential first time customer. “The product is still good; it’s just the label that got a little scuffed.” You want to say that, but you can’t! So customers buy another product with a pristine label.
Sales Blocking. If you have only one space on the shelf, you are at the mercy of the condition of the label that’s in front of your narrow line of products. If that label isn’t perfect, she won’t pull that one out and grab the one behind it. She will buy another brand. The sales of all your other products lined up single file behind the one in front with the scuffed label are stopped.
Spoils Pick Ups. The retailer will eventually notice that your sales have stopped and want to discontinue your product. But you will send a representative to that store to see why sales have stopped. You will have to pick up what the retailer considers spoils, or damaged goods if you want to continue in his store.
Lost Customers. You can even lose previously loyal customers due to a scuffed label. They may feel the quality is going down and try another brand in your category, like it, and leave you. All because of a damaged package.
Deliberate Damage. We sometimes discovered deliberate damage from competitors who knew the effects of an imperfect label. This is yet another reason for constant vigilance at the store level.

Here’s a tip we found very useful: If the label got scuffed, it was usually on the edges. So we avoided the appearance of most label scuffing with labels that were white on the edges, the same color as the paper underneath the printed image. Thus, many of the scuffs were not visible because we allowed a lot of white space around the edges.

But there’s no replacement for actually being there at the shelf once a week!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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C-Suite Network – Sales and Consumer Care May Know More About Your Customers Than Marketing and Production

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 22:07:43 +0000

Your marketing people have done a fine job of creating a marketing plan, strategy, and package. They’ve considered the market, the competition and the delivery systems. They have honed the message, dialed in the positioning, and developed the compelling logo, catch phrase, and merchandising materials. But like any aircraft designer, they must eventually launch it; then be ready to redesign it based on the constant feedback they get from the pilots who are actually flying it through the headwinds, storms and down drafts. Read more….

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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American Business Ethics are Based on Good Business

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 21 May 2015 17:00:29 +0000

We are often asked to speak about the financial advantages of American entrepreneurial practices when we speak to people in emerging markets. Even though some American entrepreneurs may have forgotten, it is our ethics that ultimately give us the edge. Compare this to the new emerging economies where cultures of fear, desperation and dog-eat-dog may appear to be the order of the day.

One of the themes we keep coming back to in our keynote speeches is that integrity and good business values just plain make good sense. Beyond the warm and toasty feeling doing the right thing brings, we’re also talking deposits here. The term “ethics” has been overdone, dated, and evokes a goody-goody image, but don’t limit it to that. Being reliable, trustworthy, and fair are real business advantages today and in the future.

Buyers have many choices when it comes to products and services. They look beyond for companies that stand behind their products and resolve quality related issues quickly. When buyers have a positive experience with a company, they become not only loyal customers, but strong advocates.

Having empathy in every business relationship is the true guide to treating customers, employees and associates right. When you put yourself in their shoes, you know what they would ideally like to happen in any given situation. This insight is the blueprint for the action you and your company must take to maximize these relationships.

For instance, you can significantly reduce your need for capital, so important to a start-up, by being honest with your bankers, investors and vendors. Meeting with them often and laying out your business plans will give them the sense of confidence they need to make allowances that can increase your credit and extend your terms.

Bending over backwards to bring mistakes to the attention of the effected parties before they find out will build your credibility and demonstrate your honesty, and show them that you are the kind of company they want to do business with. This demonstrates that you have their best interests at heart and may result in more beneficial programming and promotion of your products. Further, they gain respect for you because of how you handled a foul-up, missed delivery, or defective product.

Rather than fighting your competition, get out of the negative cutthroat mode and into the creative mode. Distinguish your products and services. If you want to compete, do so with yourself, and do better this year than you did the last. We build Barefoot Wine by attacking where the “enemy” was not. The retailers in remote areas were so happy to get attention from us, they strongly supported us in places most people never heard of. This gave us a firm financial foundation to expand into the more popular markets.

These are just a few ways taking the high road will pay off financially. By framing these values in business terms instead of moral terms we hope to appeal to a wider audience. Often, the threat of ruthless competition, shorting the customer, doing the minimal, and ignoring your commitments are sold as shortcuts to fortune. We are told that everybody is doing it and if you don’t, you will be left in the dust. We find this fear-based attitude is taking hold in the developing economies. And for a while it may appear to be advantageous, but in the long run it is short sighted and forgets that people remember. Ultimately this cut-throat approach will cut your own income.

We offer an alternative to sustainable entrepreneurship that is based on loyal customers, increased credit, and mutually beneficial strategic alliances. There are no short cuts to the bank!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 New Year’s Resolutions to Improve Your Bottom Line

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 19:30:19 +0000

We all want to see our businesses prosper in the New Year. We want our products and services to become more relevant. We want to reduce turnover, reduce our need for capital, and see our people more engaged and empowered. We want to reduce costs and increase profitability. But where do we start?

This year we have been asked for our top 5 New Year’s resolutions to improve any business. Since it’s easier to shake the tree from the top, we’ll start with the boss. If that is you, your attitude toward business relationships will make all the difference. Here are the top 5 resolutions that will improve your business for 2015 and beyond:

1. Resolve to treat your employees like owners. If you want your people to act more entrepreneurial, treat them like owners. To make sure they know where the money comes from – the customer – show them a “money map.” Make sure they know that everybody not in sales is in sales support by making their bonuses dependent on sales. Let them know-the-need instead of only what you think they need to know. Give them written appreciation acknowledging a job well done, and copy it to your entire team.

2. Resolve to treat your customers like family. You wouldn’t want to offer inferior products or service to your own family. If you were selling to your grandmother, you would deliver 110%. You would listen, and then adjust your product/service and it’s delivery to her feedback. You would honor your commitments to your family and exceed their expectations. You would want to make them happy and do whatever you could to please them. Do the same for your customers.

3. Resolve to treat your vendors like partners. They’re not just salespeople selling you services and supplies. They are strategic allies who benefit when you benefit. They want to see you succeed, because your success means they can sell more to you. Don’t blind-side them when you can’t pay your bill – give them a heads-up in advance so they have time to make adjustments. Generally, all they need to increase your credit is trust in you.

4. Resolve to treat your financiers like friends. Meet with them regularly. Tell them everything, not just the achievements and goals, but also the challenges. Look to them for advice. Make them feel like they are part of your company, and they will surprise you with their support. They can lengthen your terms, reduce your interest and give you timely short-term loans to help you through the tight spots and underwrite your growth. Few of their debtors really level with them and your transparency can give them the confidence they need to make exceptions and bend the rules in your favor.

5. Resolve to treat your competitors like mentors. Instead of looking at your competitors as adversaries, study them and learn from them. Notice where they are missing the market, and where they are capturing it. Take note of where they are becoming less relevant and don’t jump over that cliff with them. Zig when they zag. And especially if you are starting out, sell where they are not. Don’t try to copy them or you will make the same mistakes. Don’t compete, distinguish.

New Years is merely a celebration about the passage of time, but you can transform it into something more meaningful. Make and keep these resolutions and you will transform your key relationships. After all, it is our relationships with others that we rely on for our success.

Happy New Year everyone!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Tailor Your Message to What Your Audience Wants to Hear

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:11:17 +0000

If you want to make a statement, tell them what you want to say. If you want to make a deposit, tell them what they want to hear. Sounds simple enough, but what do they want to hear and who are they anyway?

Every successful business learns eventually that there are a whole lot of folks between them and their end-user. Each one wants to hear a different message for a different reason. Sometimes we get so excited about our new idea and how well it will go over with the general public that we forget how essential it is to get it to them. Focusing on the benefits to your end-user is fundamental, but don’t forget all the other folks in between and what each of them wants to hear.

“What’s in it for me?” is the question they all want you to address. It may surprise you that it has little to do with those end-user benefits you are so excited about. Research, experience, questioning and listening can tell you what they want to hear.

Your own staff may want to hear how they will share in your success. They may want to hear about the incentive programs, benefits, working conditions, days off, and advancement opportunities. They may also want to hear how your idea will make the world a better place. They want to hear about your previous successes and your ability to weather a storm.

All your middle men want know how your product improves their strategic position versus their competition, how you are going to help them sell it, how they can get it for less, and how much you have budgeted for marketing. They want to know who will buy it and why.

If you depend on retailers, they will want to hear how your product fits into their existing categories, what kind of point-of-sale promotional materials you have, and what kind of a warranty you provide. They want to know that you have a representative in their area. They also want to hear how you will send customers to them to buy your product.

Your idea may be a game changer, but are they ready to play a new game? Sometimes pioneering a new concept can take years to catch on. Your initial buyers may buy for reasons you never dreamed of. If you are changing the world, get ready for some missionary work and some unlikely initial customers. Be ready to change your message to stay relevant with the market as it is now and as it changes.

Does your product weigh a lot or is it inexpensive? That’s all the more reason to be ready with multiple messages. Internet product sales, with the exception of downloads, require shipping whether or not it’s included in the price. Somebody pays for it. Most heavy or inexpensive items can’t compete with conventional brick and mortar store pricing because of shipping costs. If that sounds like your product, you likely will want to go through the general retail market. Identify what each person between you and your end-user wants to hear, and give them what they want.

Don’t just make a statement, make a deposit!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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