Saturday 28 May 2011
Monday 23 May 2011
Sunday 22 May 2011
Saturday 26 March 2011
Sunday 6 March 2011
Saturday 5 March 2011
Monday 7 February 2011
Sunday 6 February 2011
Friday 4 February 2011
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Taking on the giants: How Carman's ate its rivals for breakfast | Robert Gottliebsen | Commentary | Business Spectator
Taking on the giants: How Carman's ate its rivals for breakfast
Robert Gottliebsen
Published 3:45 PM, 31 Jan 2011 Last update 10:20 AM, 1 Feb 2011
Around Australia, smaller operators are working up the courage to take on the giants, in a way we have not seen for many decades.
I am going to open my 2011 Management MasterClass interviews with a series about people taking on the giants. We will look at some of the lessons they have learned and how they’ve shown that, some giants, are not nearly as powerful as everyone thought they might be. One of the most spectacular success stories is that of Carolyn Creswell, whose Carman’s Muesli has captured - an incredible - 20 per cent of the Australian muesli market.
What on earth were the majors, Kellogg’s and Nestlé’s Uncle Toby’s, doing? Creswell explains that they were too busy pushing their products down-market to combat a perceived threat posed by the growth of generic cereals, leaving the way clear at the top-end, for her company, Carman's Fine Foods, to step in.
It wasn’t easy because the buyers at the big supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, used every excuse in the book to show Carolyn Creswell the door.
She persisted, however; sometimes waiting outside buyers’ offices, watching a whole stream of Kellogg’s people fly out the door, before going in as a lone hand.
Management lesson number one: enthusiasm wins in presentations; Creswell’s enthusiasm, eventually, won the day. Lesson number two must not be forgotten, though: the product must be right. In the case of Carman’s Muesli, once the customers had a chance to try the product, they kept buying.
Creswell shows just how powerful enthusiasm and the right product can be, in a market where buyers are looking for something different.
Now she has actually captured the top of the muesli and muesli bar market, and in a strange way, she is the giant; although, of course, not in size.
Being at the premium end of the market means you get better margins; and there must be a lot of soul-searching at Kellogg’s and Uncle Toby’s (Nestle), as they wonder how on earth, they let a third group, cut into such an important top-market sector.
How you view the Carolyn Creswell interview will depend on who you are: if you are an executive at a corporate giant and see how relatively easy it was, for a small operator, to outmanoeuvre two very respected companies; if it can happen to Kellogg’s and Uncle Toby’s, it can happen to any giant. Or, if you are a small operator looking to challenge a giant, you will find Carolyn Creswell full of very interesting strategies and techniques, which actually work.
You must not forget, however, enthusiasm and product. Meanwhile, the number of people trying to emulate successful 'giant killers' is rising rapidly because, in many areas, the cost of entry has been reduced.
I stumbled on the Carman's range of products some years ago and have been a loyal fan and evangelist for ever since. It exemplifies for me the 'goodness' that the food advertising talks about but rarely delivers.
