Making Customer Information the Lifeblood of the Organization

1. Making Customer Information the Lifeblood of the Organization

2. Group 7 - Members Profesor: Cheng - Nan Chen

3. Agenda • Background information. • Anheuser Strategies. • The Marketing intelligence system. • Needs and Trends (Macro environment) (trend / mega trends). • What Were Anheuser-Busch’s Keys to success in the market? • How Companies Gather Information?

4. Agenda • Why is data so important? • How The intelligence can be collected? • Competitors reveal intelligence information through. • Recommendation. • Result • Question.

5. The Anheuser-Busch Family Budweiser Michelob Busch

6. Background Information of Budnet A marketing system that accurately pinpoints who is buying their products, and from where. Then, the marketing becomes persuasive; thus increasing sales. The MIS network that has increased sales and allowing Anheuser-Bush to be the market-leader in their industry. • BudNet is widely considered to be the most advanced, thorough consumer gather system in the marketing industry. • A system that uses aspects from technology, accounting, and inventory in order to create the most accurate MIS possible.

7. Background Information of Budnet • Budnet, Anheuser-Busch's top-secret data network, gives the brewer a leg up on the competition by tracking beer-lovers' buying methods, as well as their rivals' product-display strategy.

8. Anheuser Strategies a) The Marketing intelligence system • Tailor marketing campaigns. (Dynamics Strategy) • Know what you are, know what to act'. • Know the competitor. • Be customer. b) Needs and Trends (Macro environment) (trend / mega trends) • Healthy trend

9. Anheuser Strategies • Anheuser uses the data to constantly change marketing strategies, to design promotions to suit the ethnic makeup of its markets, and as early warning radar that detects where rivals might have an edge.

10. Anheuser Strategies • BudNet, used by the company's U.S. distributors, representatives and drivers, is a brick-size handheld PC that tracks accounts receivable, past sales, package placements, and other data pertaining to Anheuser-Busch's products, as well as product-display information about competitors. • The data allows the beer giant to track what beer lovers are buying, as well as when, where, and why. The company uses the information for marketing strategies, for promotions targeted to certain markets, and to determine where competitors may have an edge

11. What Were Anheuser-Busch’s Keys to success in the market? *Information* • Lean Supply Chain • Good and abundant raw data • Sell thing that market need

12. How Companies Gather Information… • Research & Development. • Surveys (inside and outside public). • Searching on the Internet. • Industry Journals • Reading industry specific newspapers, magazines, books. • Talk to experts in their specific fields • Job Posting • What kinds of expertise are they looking for?

13. Information • Information is coming from data. • Update your data is essential. • Analyze your information.

14. Why is data so important • To know your customer • Easier to communicate to your supplier. • To understand your industry. • To predict the future of business.

15. How The intelligence can be collected? • From company inside: • Executives • Engineers • Scientists • Purchasing Agents • Sales force B. From company outside: • Suppliers • Resellers • Key customers

16. From Competitors • Observing competitors • Monitoring their public informations • Buying and analyzing competitors' products • Monitoring their sales • Checking new patents • Examining various types of physical evidence • Ex1: One company regular checks out competitors' parking lots – full lots might indicate plenty of work and prosperity; half full lots might suggest hard times. • Ex2: Some companies have even rifled their competitor's garbage, which is legally considered abandoned property once it leaves the premises( Oracle, P & G)

17. Competitors reveal intelligence information through. • Their reports • Business publications • Trade show exhibits • Press releases • Advertisements • Web pages • Internet

18. What can we get? • Strategies • Markets • New products • Facilities… Ex: Bill Gates found out that Google might be building something to compete with Microsoft when Google was looking for engineers with backgrounds that had nothing to do with Google's Web-search business but everything to do with Microsoft’s core software business => You can find many intelligence from Internet.

19. There are thousands of online databases in internet. Free Ex: U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s database provides a huge stockpile of financial information on public competitors Ex: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases reveals patents competitors have filed. For a fee:   Ex1: Dialog, Hoover’s, DataStar, LexisNexis, Dow Jones News Retrieval, ProQuest, Dun & Bradstreet’s Online Access.

20. Recommendation • Not only try to get the intelligence information of competitors but also need to protect their own information.  Ex: Unilever made a training for employees. They warned employees that anyone can be spy even the drivers of mini cab company they used. • Company should take advantage of publicly available information. However they no need to break the laws.

21. Result • Anheuser-Busch, Inc. was being the market leader for U.S. beer market when the company’s volume share reached $75 billion in 2004. • Prestigious Awards of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. in 2008: • Fortune America’s Most Admired Companies  Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies • Recently, the merging between Anheuser-Busch and InBev created the world’s largest brewer which would have yearly sales of more than $36.4 billion beating the current No. 1 brewer, London-based SABMiller.

22. Result • Many companies who provide marketing intelligence information have been born from the need for accurate and valuable consumer data. • i.e. : LexisNexis, ProQuest, Dun & Bradstreet’s Online Access, DataStar, Dow Jones News Retrieval, Hoover’s, etc • Significantethical issues have been raised, such as; • Dumpster Diving has become more common by companies nowadays • Some action for gathering information were done illegally • Customers’ privacy is decreasing • Benchmarking other company’s marketing strategy is increasingly occurring • Google was looking to compete with Microsoft’s core software businesses

23. Question • Why do you believe a system like budnet is so important to a company like Anheuser-Busch? Answer – BudNet is important because it allows for real-time responses to the market; without such state of the art technology, company would not be able to react to changing trends, tastes, and demographics of their customers.

24. Question • How could the budnet system used as a distributor motivator? Answer – Our answers may vary, but it could create closer ties between the customer and the supplier, and allow for better collaboration. Moreover, the distributor should be able to sell more product as it will have accurate numbers for the customers and will be able to get enough inventory to cover any immediate increases in demand. It will motivate distributes because it will allow for eventual increased sales and profits.

25. Question • What ethical implication, if any do you see in a company having this much knowledge about customers? Answer – Again, Our answers will vary---some will think it’s another case of “Big Brother” watching us at all times, while others will feel that if it’s not through BudNet, it’s some other way that companies are keeping tabs on who is buying their products and therefore it’s not a big issue.