by Adam Hartung | Jul 26, 2013 | Current Affairs, Food and Drink, In the Swamp, Leadership
Both Coca-Cola and McDonald's have produced good investor returns over the last decade. From stock lows in early 2009, Coke has more than doubled. After shutting many stores and investing heavily in upgrades as well as supply chain efficiencies, over the last decade McDonald's has risen 6-fold!
But recent quarterly returns have not impressed investors as both companies failed to meet expectations. And for traders with a short-term focus both companies are off their 2013 highs. The open question now, for patient investors with a multi-year focus, is whether either, or both, companies are going to go back to long-term valuation growth (meaning they are a buy) or if their value has fizzled (meaning they are a sell)?
This question cannot be answered by looking at historical performance. As all investment documents remind us, past history is no assurance of future gains. Instead investors need to look at trends, and whether each company is positioned to take advantage of major trends as we head toward 2020.
One major trend is obesity. And not in a good way. The USA is fatter than ever, and shows no signs of thinning as one in 3 people are now considered obese. For Coke and McDonald's this is not a good thing, since their products are considered major contributors to what some call a national epidemic.
Over the last few years this trend has led schools to remove fast food and soft drink dispensers. America's first lady has started a national campaign to fight childhood obesity. And the nation's largest city's mayor has tried to make large portion sizes illegal in New York. While all of this might seem like crank activity that isn't making much difference, truth is that soda consumption per capita has been declining since 1998, and 2012 declines now put soda drinking at the lowest level since 1987!
Even if this still seems like much ado about nothing, investors should be aware of the long-term impact when products are seen as unhealthy. Cigarettes were a common consumer staple well into the 1960s, but when that product was determined to have adverse health impacts advertising was banned, consumption was restricted to adults only, dispensing was severely limited as machines were eliminated, taxes shot through the ceiling creating a 20-fold price increase and consumption was banned in buildings and many public places. None of this happened overnight, but eventually these actions caused the sales and profits of tobacco companies to decline — despite their heroic efforts to fight the trend.
If the Centers for Disease Control takse the point of view that soft drinks are a major contributor to diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Coke could find itself in a situation somewhat like Phillip Morris did. If the CDC made the same determination about certain fast food items (such as double-patty burger sandwiches or large french fry orders) the amount of advertising, free toys, discounted product and super-sized packaging available to McDonald's could be severly curtailed. It could become a requirement that Coke and Big Macs have warning labels educating consumers about the possibility of long-term illness from consumption. And product sales could only be limited only to people over 18.
This may seem extreme, even bizarre, and far off into the future. But this is the direction of the trend. There seems no solution for obesity at this time, so public policy is starting to point toward doing something about consumption.
Recall that when alcohol-related deaths showed no sign of decline it didn't take long for much tougher drunk driving laws to be enacted, then for a string of adjustments lowering the level at which people were considered drunk. Public policies that took direct aim at product consumption.
Looking at the tobacco and alcohol analogies, Coke and McDonald's are behaving a lot more like the R.J. Reynolds than Miller-Coors.
Tobacco companies fought the trend, and ended up in a very expensive and long battle they inevitably lost. They denied there was any public health problem, and denied they had anything to do with the nation's, and their customers', health issues. The fight lasted a very long time. Now their customers are often ostracized, and the industry is contracting.
Liquor companies took a different approach. While not admitting anything, they aggressively promoted "responsible" consumption levels. They promoted individual abstinence (non-consumption) in group settings so there could be a "designated driver" while actively promoting product bans for people under age. They did not fight drunk driving laws, but instead worked with organizations to reduce deaths. Though far from angels, the industry players did not fight the trend, and managed to find ways to avoid the kind of bans dealt tobacco.
Coke and McDonald's today are denying the obesity problem and their contribution to it. While they both have healthier products, they remain committed to the least healthy offerings. Watch a Coke ad and you'll always see the traditional, sweetened red label product receive top billing. Likewise, you can purchase a salad at McDonald's, but the ads and promotions always feature the far less healthy burgers and fried foods which characterize the company's history.
Neither company promotes responsible consumption levels, nor does anything to discuss the importance of limiting use of their products. To the contrary, both like to promote larger package sizes and greater consumption – often beyond what almost anyone would consider healthy. Neither works aggressively to improve the quality of healthy products, nor showcases them as preferred products for customers to purchase.
One would not expect Coke or McDonald's to fail any time soon. But the trends which made them huge companies have reached an end, and new trends are headed in a direction which do not support growth. Both companies seem unwilling to recognize the new trends, and find ways to align with them. Future revenue growth is up against a difficult environement, and historical cost reduction activities leave little opportunity to improve future earnings without revenue growth. While the valuation of both companies are unlikely to remain flat, it is hard to identify the bull case for either to provide long-term investors much gain.
by Adam Hartung | Jan 18, 2010 | Current Affairs, Disruptions, In the Rapids, Leadership, Openness, Web/Tech
Over the last week everyone has heard stories about how Facebook, and Twitter, became primary communication conduits for people with connections in Haiti. Telephone and slower communication vehicles simply have not been able to connect family and friends in this crisis like Facebook. When shift happens, it accelerates as new uses come to the forefront quickly. For everyone trying to connect with employment candidates, suppliers and customers this shift has immediate and important impact on behavior.
Source: Silicon Alley Insider
For advertisers, the impact is significant. Where should ad dollars be placed? On a traditional home page and search site – like Yahoo! – or on Facebook?
And it's not just the sites themselves, but how long people are on these sites. From an advertising point of view, you can start to think about Facebook – and YouTube – almost like a "channel" from early television days. Where the audience comes back again and again – offering you not only a large audience, but more opportunities to reach them more often. Facebook and YouTube are beginning to dominate the "user views."
Source: Silicon Alley Insider
Source: Silicon Alley Insider
Of course, the impact isn't just regarding the web, but how any business would use media to reach a target audience. Most advertising agencies, and ad people, are still focused on traditional media. But, as we can see, that WILL shift — even more than it traditionally has.
Source: Silicon Alley Insider
Anybody investing in newspapers, expecting a resurgence in value, is pretty foolish. Newspapers are going to lose ad dollars – not gain. Relatively, newspapers already are getting too much of the ad spend. Talk radio has growth. And clearly the web. Since we can expect that newspaper and magazine readership will continue recent downward trends, and television is fragmenting as well as stalling, the big growth is on the internet.
The market shift is really pretty clear. We aren't speculating about the market direction with this data. The question becomes, will you be an early adopter of these new media channels or not? Given that the web and mobile have the lowest ad rates of all media, why wouldn't you? Over the last 2 months Pepsi has decided to NOT advertise on the Super Bowl, instead putting the money into social media. And after introducing the Granite Concept car at the Detroit auto show, even behind-the-times GM is now considering a launch of this vehicle, intended for buyers under 35, using only web advertising.
So what are your plans? Do you have scenarios where Facebook and YouTube are integral to your marketing? Do you have pages, groups and channels on these sites? Do you post content? Are you using them to interact with potential customers, vendors and employees? If not – what are you waiting on? Do you need a Disruption to create some White Space and get started? If so – isn't it time to get going?
by Adam Hartung | Dec 30, 2009 | Defend & Extend, General, Leadership, Openness, Web/Tech, Weblogs
As we enter 2010, is your business expecting a very different future – and have you started planning to implement new approaches based upon a different future? For example, how do you plan to acquire new customers, employees and vendors in 2010 and beyond? Do you still rely on traditional advertising? Do you use a web site? Is most of your on-line IT budget still dedicated to web site development? How much of your plans for 2010 are extensions of what you've been doing on 2009 – or maybe an ongoing trend from much earlier in the decade?
According to the Wall Street Journal in "Linked In Wants Users to Connect More," the number of Linked in users almost doubled in 2009, from 31.5M to 53.6M. And to drive additional user traffic the site is working hard to add applications which can help companies with recruiting, marketing and other business functions. With users jumping, and time on site increasing, is your company blocking access? Or is it figuring out how to leverage this leading web site to find new customers, recruit aggressive new employees and build a stronger business?
But Linked-in is considerably less successful than Facebook. Do you still think of Facebook as a site for college kids to plan drinking parties? If so, you've missed a tsunami in the making. Facebook's user base, at 350 million, is over 6 times Linked-in. According to ReadWriteWeb.com "It was a Facebook Christmas; Site Hits #1 in U.S. for First Time." On 2 days Facebook actually had more site hits than search giant Google! And Facebook was the #1 Google search in 2009. Facebook use is exploding. The average Facebook user spends over 3.5 hours in a session. Many Facebook users log in daily to keep up with their network and what's happening in markets of interest to them.
Increasingly, people don't do web searches to find out about restaurants, movies, products, services – or even jobs. They go to social media sites like Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter. If you depend on people to use your web site to learn about your business – that may be too late. When referred by a friend, what is the first impression a potential customer (or recruit) gets when reaching out to your LInked-in, MySpace or Facebook page? What applications or groups do you support to demonstrate your business and your ability to grow? How are you reaching out through these environments to meet the people who should be a customer, employee or vendor?
Increasingly, people don't even make their first touch with your business via your web site. iPhone users, and the soon-to-explode Android phone users, as well as all the other "smartphone" (or mobile device) users learn about your business from a very small screen that brings in small bits of information that is largely text. They often go to a PC and search a traditional web site only every few days. So how is your information presented? Is it largely graphical, with embedded objects that don't show up well (or at all) on a mobile device? Is it lengthy HTML pages that requires scrolling on a phone?
Increasingly, people looking for you will blow off traditional web pages in favor of easier to access and read information. You may hate the 140 character Twitter limit – but it's becoming a standard (the new "elevator pitch.") So is your on-line impression being driven by web developers, or by mobile device developers? Is your on-line environment all about driving people to your web site – which may never happen – or are you effectively connecting with them via Facebook, et.al. and informing them without asking them to go to your environment? Are you letting users control their access to your information, making it easy for them, or are you trying to control their behavior — and putting off many?
There are many reasons to think that in 2010 how people acquire business information will shift from traditional web sites to social media sites. First impressions, and a lot of the decision making process, will come from Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter. Is your business positioned for this shift?
Pepsi recently made a decision that appears forward-focused rather than following tradition. Pepsi is abandoning Super Bowl ads in favor of spending more on-line. MarketingDaily.com reports in "Compete: Pepsi's On-line Push a Smart Play" that Pepsi is reaching more people at a lower cost by investing in on-line marketing. Despite the historical role Super Bowl ads have played for big consumer products companies, Pepsi's decision is positioning the company to better connect with more users and drive more sales. Coke's decision to remain with traditional advertising looks increasingly expensive – and out of step with how people really make purchase decisions today.
Smart companies are already making changes to reach the tidal wave of people relying on social media. They are building a strong impression, and business applications, that help them grow using environments like Linked-in, MySpace and Facebook. And they employ people to keep their Twitter communications clear and strong.
So is your business taking actions – making implementations – that will support where the market is headed in 2010? Are you putting yourself where the customers and recruiting targets are? Or are you trying to do more of the same better, faster and cheaper?
by Adam Hartung | Aug 7, 2009 | Defend & Extend, Disruptions, Food and Drink, General, Leadership, Lock-in, Music, Openness, Television
"Pepsi Launches Own Music Label in China" is the BusinessWeek headline. Clearly, the Pepsi staff has some new ideas. Recently Pepsi's Chairperson, Ms. Nooyi, made a trip to China for 10 days. Apparently frustrated, she commented to the Wall Street Journal in July that she didn't see enough Disruptive thinking on the part of her folks in China. She indicated the market was robust, but it was different and would take a different approach. It now sounds like her China leadership got the message.
In addition to launching a music label, Pepsi is producing a "Battle of the Bands" show in China. It's almost like a reformatted page from the aggressive growth years of Starbucks. Instead of just expanding into a new geography (China) with the same old playbook (like the floundering WalMart), Pepsi is figuring out how to be a big success. And that may mean producing television, producing music and making people into stars. China's culture is unlike anything in the U.S. or Europe. So doing new and different things will be critical to success. When you see a business developing its own scenarios about the future, taking actions its competitors (Coke) are too hide-bound to try, acting Disruptively to compete and using White Space projects to test new ideas you simply have to be excited!
On the other hand, "Tide Turns 'Basic" for P&G in Slump" is the Wall Street Journal headline about the latest "new" product at P&G. Please remember, the departing P&G CEO was lauded for creating an innovative culture at P&G. But it appears the legacy is a culture of sustaining innovations intended to do nothing more than Defend & Extend the old P&G brands. Now slumping, P&G needs to identify market shifts more than ever, and create new solutions that help it move with market trends. Instead, the company is rushing into reverse! Management not only seem to be driving the bus looking in the rear-view mirror, but actually driving it that way as well!
Tide has been around a long time. Ostensibly a very good product. For reasons explained in the article, managers at P&G felt the best way to sell more product was to make it less good. Really. They removed some of the chemicals that help you get clothes clean, renamed it "Basic" and launched the product at a lower price. It's not "new and improved." It's not even "better." It's literally less good – but cheaper. Sort of like store brands, or private label – only maybe not as good? Doesn't that sort of obviate the whole notion of branding?
People don't ever like to go backward. We like to grow. To learn and get more out of life. When we find a product that works, why would we want a product that works less well? And the folks at P&G missed this. Only by being insanely internally focused, terribly Locked-in, can you think this is a good idea. Looking inside a person could say "well, we want to jam the shelves with more of our branded product. We want to have the word 'Tide' smeared everywhere we can. We think people so identify with 'Tide' that they'll take a worse product just to get the name brand. We're willing to create a less good product thinking that we will get sales simply because it's cheaper than the stuff people really want to buy." Seem a little mixed up to you?
When you want to grow you figure out new ways to Disrupt the marketplace. You develop new solutions, new entry points, new connections with shifting market trends. You figure out how to be the best at the right price. You don't try to give people less, and tell them they are cheap. And Pepsi clearly gets it. They are willing to expand into music recording and TV production. Stuff P&G did when it was really creative and innovative – after all, that's why we call daytime TV "soaps", because P&G produced them just to sell soap. Now we see Pepsi applying that kind of scenario planning and competitive obsession, along with White Space, to develop new market approaches. Unfortunately we can't say the same for P&G — clearly stuck on trying to cram more stuff with the word "Tide" on it through distribution.
by Adam Hartung | Apr 20, 2009 | Current Affairs, Food and Drink, General, In the Rapids, Leadership, Openness
"PepsiCo bids to buy its bottlers for $6billion," is the Marketwatch headline today. Another big Disruption, this time at the industry level, orchestrated by PepsiCo's Chairperson/CEO Indra Nooyi. Now that changes are being made with the product line, packaging and brands this latest move will allow Pepsi's beverage division to much more quickly implement changes to align with market needs. While Coke is doing little, Pepsi is disrupting the industry organization changing the marketplace and placing serious challenges onto all competitors. And without waiting for the recession to end.
Many leadership teams should pay close attention to what's going on at PepsiCo. By moving fast to align with future market needs they are catching competitors unwilling to take action due to recessionary concerns. Their Disruptions are creating changes that will help Pepsi return to the "muscle building" organization created in the days of former Chairman Andrall Pearson. And the changes coming out of White Space are helping Pepsi to develop a stronger Success Formula for competing in the post-industrial age.
Investors, employees and vendors should be encouraged by Pepsi. Competitors had better be worried. And all leadership teams can learn from the action being taken to gain share during this period of uncertainty. As companies hit growth stalls the tendency is to "wait and see". But winners react quickly to Disrupt and use White Space where they overtake delaying competitors – returning to the Rapids of growth and gaining share.
