Learning from the Success of Toyota Prius

Toyota in the first quarter of 2008 has just overtaken General Motors as the #1 automaker in the world in terms of global sales. And part of that success comes from their hybrid car innovation, the Prius.

San Francisco Chronicle has a great article on how Prius came about in Toyota. Legend has it that Toyota executives believed that the ever-increasing pressures on oil and gas, as well as the pressure on oil and gas prices due to the emergence of China and India as industrial powers, would put significant pressure on the world's oil supply. As such, Toyota engineers proposed a small-fuel efficient car.

So what lessons can be gained from the success of Toyota Prius? Robert Herbold in his book "Seduced by Success" discusses the lessons we can learn from Toyota:

• Toyota anticipated a key inflection point --rising gasoline prices -- and assigned top talent to investigate its impact
• Do a thorough job of reading the marketplace.
• Study and reapply what works. Honda was the first in the market with electric cars, but failed. Toyota took full advantage of the learning and came up with a creative solution to the problem

Here are some other articles on the success of Toyota Prius:

• New York Times Say ‘Hybrid’ and Many People Will Hear ‘Prius’
• NPR Toyota's Car of the Future Had Distinctive Beginning
• Fortune Magazine The Birth of the Prius

Kashi: Building Impressive Customer Relationship

Kashi is a company that produces high quality healthy natural foods, from cereals to waffles to frozen foods to snacks and bars.

But their website is more than a store to sell their products. The company, whose goal it is to encourage an overall healthy lifestyle, is using the Web to reach their extremely loyal customer base and create a place that touts the benefits of their products to the uninitiated. As such, Kashi actively markets the healthy lifestyle by building a community of health-conscious online fans.

Kashi is a perfect example of how businesses can demonstrate their commitment to developing strong relationships with customers and target audiences. If you are looking to build a strong brand with loyal fiercely loyal customers, study how Kashi presents itself on the Web.

Through the company's focus on wellness goals, Kashi exemplifies how to build a personal brand that puts human relationship with their customers up front and center. They've built an active community that discusses recipes that can be done from their products, daily challenges of keeping a healthy lifestyle, even the benefits of turning off TV. The site also contains testimonials, success stories, recipes and weekly diet planners. The most loyal users sign up to become a Kashi "Fan Addict" giving them added benefits such as coupons, weekly newsletters and access to special promotions.

Kashi has also done an excellent job of "humanizing" their business by identifying a few of their employees, and giving these employees a platform to discuss their own wellness goals, barriers and motivations.

How Adjusting the Search Box Can Improve Conversion

When trying to convert visitors into buyers, the search box is a critical element, and its size and location can have a huge impact on sales.

InternetRetailer.com reports that home furnishings retailer Black Forest Décor saw a 34% increase in their conversion rate by making the search box easier to find and use. They moved the search box from the upper right corner to the center of the page just under the top navigation bar as well as increased its size by 72%.

In addition, Black Forest Décor changed the Go button next to the search box with a Find button. The retailer also made some color changes, using a lighter shade for the search box and putting it against a dark background color to make the box pop visually.

Aside from the conversion rate increase, the percentage of web site revenue from customers who used site search after the redesign was 42%, up from 35% previously.

Experiential Marketing: Learning from Patagonia

Experiential marketing is all about "engaging" a customer by creating a shopping atmosphere that is relevant to the customer. It is easy to engage a customer who walks into the door of a store where a sales consultant or business owner can talk to the customer and present the products; and harder to do on the Web. But it is doable.

One of the best examples of experiential marketing on the Web is the outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia.com. Patagonia uses dramatic photos of athletes actually using their clothing and gears in remote locations, giving customers a taste of what it feels like to wear Patagonia products.

Called "Ambassadors," Patagonia uses athletes (both male and female) in the fields of rock climbing, alphine climbining, men's surfing, women's surfing, paddling, nordic skiing, skiing and snowboarding, and trail running. The Ambassadors are prominently featured in Patagonia's Shop By Sport section, giving them humanizing stories and describing their adventures. And of course, the Ambassadors talk of their favorite Patagonia products!

Patagonia.com shows you what you can buy, and why you should buy it. The overall impact is to showcase the experience to you -- and make you want to buy that jacket or shirt.

Exemplary Commitment to Service: Vermont Country Store

To demonstrate to its customers their strong commitment to service, Vermont Country Store offers 100% customer satisfaction guaranteed. But what makes them stand out from the crowd in terms of their obsession to giving the best service is their cleverly written formal Customer Bill of Rights.

The Customer Bill of Rights lists nine (9) rights of the customer -- from expecting polite and courteous service to expecting the company to stand behind their merchandise. Their Customer Bill of Rights takes the satisfaction guarantee to a whole new level.

What their Customer Bill of Rights convey is that this is a company that really wants to make their customers happy -- and with their Bill of Rights accessible to every page of the site (located at the bottom navigation), they want this promise to be visible to all online customers.

Sell More by Informing the Consumers

One of the most effective ways to improve sales and set your business apart from the competition is by making your products more user friendly. One of the worst assumptions you can make is that customers will instinctively know what to do with your products, or even how to use it. This can be achieved by helping customers understand your product better, and even showing them how it works.

The personal organization company Buttoned Up http://www.getbuttonedup.com/ has made educating their customers an integral part of their strategy. This small business sells organizing systems such as their Life.doc® Organizing Binder for important documents and Valuables.doc™ for cataloging and keeping track of valuables. The company founders believe that customers do not instinctively know how to use organizers and what information or papers to put in their organizers.

As such, the company focuses on guiding customers on how to best use their products. Their products contain detailed instructions on how to fill up the forms and how to use their organizers. Their website is also content rich full of organizational tips and articles, which is also nationally syndicated. Their blog is also full of information on how to organize your life.

Buttoned Up believes that if customers know what your product is for and how to use it, you are giving them more reasons to use your products. And with sales of more than $1 million last year, this small business has found a strategy that works!

Learning from Craigslist

Unless you've been living under a rock, you may have heard or even used Craigslist. Craigslist is the massively popular classified ads site where users can post and respond to ads for goods, services, real estate including apartments, jobs, and other things you can think of.

From various interviews of the founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, and Craigslist's CEO Jim Buckmaster, here are some insights on why Craigslist is a success:

"To be honest, I had no vision at all. I just started ... a simple events list. People suggested more stuff, and I followed through. And people suggested more, and I followed through. And now to this day, we're listening to what people need and trying to follow through."
- Craig Newmark, “hislist,” eM+C, Sept/Oct 2007, p. 20

"Keep things simple. Be patient. Focus on user feedback. Don’t take outside money if you can do without it.”
- Jim Buckmaster, “Questions for Jim Buckmaster,” Fortune Magazine, Aug 2007, p. 30)

"Treat people the way you want to be treated."
- Craig Newmark, “hislist,” eM+C, Sept/Oct 2007, p. 20

"I guess if one is building a community kind of site, whatever that means, people are really good at telling whether you're doing so through an honest intent of connecting with the community, of trying to connect with other people, or whether you're just trying to make a lot of money right away."
- Craig Newmark, "On the record: Craig Newmark," SFGate, Aug 15, 2004

Let people do what they do best. "I was a pretty good programmer. There are a lot better. Probably my whole tech stuff is better than I ever was."
- Craig Newmark, “hislist,” eM+C, Sept/Oct 2007, p. 21