The Pulse -- November 2005

Perry Ellis Makes a Play for Brand Exposure

Perry Ellis International Inc. (PEI) signs a multi-year agreement with the Miami Dolphins and Dolphins Stadium to promote the company's brands at games. The agreement is expected to drive sales for Perry Ellis at retail stores through use of Dolphins team and stadium logos, in-store displays and merchandising, and player and cheerleader appearances. With the start of the Miami Dolphins regular season, the Cubavera logo will appear on one permanent sign for all stadium events that yield a combined 2.5 million attendees each year. The agreement gives PEI the rights to place the Dolphins Stadium logo on PEI merchandise and stadium employee uniforms as well as use logos on point-of-purchase materials for retail promotions. "We are excited about the opportunity to promote our brands to local fans as well as a national television audience," says Perry Ellis International Vice-Chairman, President and COO Oscar Feldenkreis. "Our connection to the Dolphins will also enhance our grassroots marketing efforts."

Coca-Cola HBC Promotes Enterprise Mobility

To help increase productivity and improve operational efficiency within its organization, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) S.A. in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) selects Symbol Technologies to provide an enterprise mobility solution. Serving more than 500 million consumers across 26 countries, Coca-Cola HBC will equip more than 6,000 associates across EMEA with Symbol MC9000 mobile computers. The Symbol mobility platform replaces a range of working practices based on paper, laptops and PDAs. Coca-Cola HBC expects the solution to support its mobile enterprise strategy of capturing and delivering accurate information while workers are on the road, such as inventory, delivery schedules and store set-up and displays to its mobile workforce, customers, partners and suppliers in a timely fashion. "The MC9000 mobile computer provides us with the ability to both capture data and have timely access to business critical information from various points in the supply chain," says Vagelis Ballas, manager of IT mobile solutions, Coca-Cola HBC. "The MC9000 mobile computer offers an intuitive mobility tool for increased productivity within our sales, driver and technician teams."

Starbucks Discovers Success IN Asian Market

Research conducted by Starbucks Coffee Company reveals that chilled cup coffee is the best bet to succeed in the Asian market outside of retail stores. In response, Starbucks developed the Starbucks Discoveries coffee drink: a fresh, ready-to-drink chilled cup coffee recently launched in Asia -- a first outside of North America. Starbucks Discoveries will initially be offered in two flavors, Seattle (latte) and Milano (espresso), and is available in the refrigerated case of convenience stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area and nationally in select convenience stores in Taiwan. "Expanding into this new channel in Asia helps to strengthen the Starbucks brand and reinforces our reputation for innovation, coffee quality and expertise," says Gerry Lopez, president, Starbucks Global Consumer Products. Starbucks entered into an agreement in Japan with Suntory Ltd., one of the leading Japanese producers and distributors of food and beverages, for the manufacture and distribution of Starbucks Discoveries coffee drink. In Taiwan, Starbucks entered into a distribution agreement with President Starbucks Coffee Taiwan Limited, the company's joint venture partner in Taiwan, for marketing and distribution of the new product. Uni-President Enterprises Corporation will manufacture the product for Taiwan.

Price Cuts to Speed RFID Adoption

The hype within the consumer goods industry that claims cost as the main hindrance in achieving ROI from RFID investments seems to be deflating as Alien Technology and Avery Dennison announce price cuts for their RFID tags. While Alien reduced the price of its straps to 12.9 cents, Avery Dennison is offering inlays at 7.9 cents. "These new low prices may represent loss-leaders," comments Erik Michielsen, director of RFID and ubiquitous networks, ABI Research. "But when you tie them to the new products and services offered by software companies to help end-users make sense of their RFID data, and to the recent spate of EPC Gen 2 announcements, we may have a three-headed âbenevolent monster' that will promote demand." In addition, Applied Wireless Identifications (AWID) is dropping reader prices by about 70 percent, marking the first time that a Generation 2 RFID reader has fallen under the $1,000 price barrier.

Mattel Unites Toy Brands

Mattel Inc. will consolidate its Mattel Brands and Fisher-Price Brands divisions into one division called "Brands." The new global Brands division includes the Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price mega brands as well as licensed entertainment properties, including toys for Batman, Dora-the-Explorer and Sesame Street. "The combination of Mattel Brands and Fisher-Price Brands into one global division is a logical extension of our âone Mattel' approach to doing business, by better leveraging and capitalizing on the scale of the world's largest toy company and fostering best practice adoption within the organization," says Robert A. Eckert, chairman and chief executive officer of Mattel Inc.

On the web

How is your company meeting the needs of a Demand Driven Supply Network

"These responses are intriguing, and I would agree they're probably in the right proportion. I'm glad to see the recognition that a lot of DDSN is process, but would have like the people part to be a little higher," says Kara Romanow, Research Director, AMR Research. "The technology piece absolutely plays a supporting role, yet this is where most companies are focused initially. They are trying to understand how to get the demand signal data and what to do with it, but oftentimes don't have the process in place or don't have people motivated properly to really make an impact and realize the benefits of gleaning insights from this data. I'm curious about the ânone of the above' response -- is this due to lack of recognition of the benefits of a DDSN strategy, or the need for an executive sponsor?"

Levi's Online Store Dons CRM Improvements

The Levi's brand Web store taps GSI Commerce Inc. for an e-commerce solution, which recently launched for online shoppers in the United States. Through a multiyear agreement, GSI Commerce will provide the Levi's brand with core online technology, fulfillment, customer care operations and CRM services. The brand's online store showcases the full line of Levi's brand products found in the Levi's brand retail stores, from the brand's iconic 501 Original jean and other Levi's Red Tab products, to the brand's premium and Levi's Vintage clothing collections.

R&D Spending Doesn't Guarantee Growth

A recent global innovation study conducted by Booz Allen reveals that there is no direct relationship between R&D spending and sales growth, profitability and shareholder return. However, the world's top 1,000 corporate research and development spenders -- identified in the study as the Booz Allen Global Innovation 1,000 -- continue to accelerate R&D spending based on the belief that enhanced innovation is required to fuel growth. Key findings include:

In North America, the annual growth rate for R&D spending from 1999 to 2004 was 6.6 percent. Companies in North America, Europe and Japan account for 96.8 percent of the Global Innovation 1,000 R&D spending and are likely to remain dominant players for the foreseeable future.

The top 10 global R&D spenders in 2004 are Microsoft, Pfizer, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, General Motors, Siemens, Matsushita Electric, IBM and Johnson & Johnson. 4Innovation spending is still a growth business. The 2004 Global Innovation 1,000 spent $384 billion on R&D in 2004, a 6.5 percent annual growth since 1999.

Spending more on R&D doesn't necessarily help, but spending too little will hurt. Companies in the bottom 10 percent of R&D spending as a percentage of sales tend to under-perform competitors on gross margins, gross profit, operating profit and total shareholder returns.

Hormel Cures Trade Promotion Pains

Hormel Foods Corp. will leverage Siebel Business Analytics and Siebel Consumer Goods to improve its customer relations, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of marketing investments. The Siebel solutions are expected to help the direct sales team supporting the Hormel Foods Consumer Products Sales group unlock valuable customer insight to help the company better serve its retail partners. "Turning raw data into insightful information will allow us to better plan, execute and manage our trade promotions and build more meaningful customer relationships," says Chris Boever, director, Category Sales Management for Consumer Products Sales, Hormel Foods.

Liz Claiborne cuts time-to-market

To reduce time-to-market and product costs while improving product quality and information exchange, Liz Claiborne Inc. standardizes on PTC Retail, Footwear and Apparel solution for enterprise product lifecycle management. Specifically, the company will leverage Windchill, PTC's Web-based product data management and collaboration solution, to enhance global product development. The adoption of a PLM strategy is in line with the company's transformation plans to become a highly integrated supply chain development model. "The business landscape in which we operate is changing dramatically, and we are adopting aggressive strategies and global infrastructure investments to drive future growth," says John Sullivan, senior vice president of Systems, Sourcing and Service, Liz Claiborne. "Implementation of PLM-based technologies will enable more agile, collaborative and integrated product design and development process across the entire value chain. Supply chain optimization is integral to developing and delivering compelling, trend-right products in an increasingly competitive business environment."