How to undermine your business....

[ik9000]

A little free corporate strategy advice as those MBA toting suits seem to be losing the plot.

Today's news:

City AM page 17:

BA to cram 10 seats into the width previously given to 9 seats in their 777s "to bring us into line with many of our competitors". Not all competitors, and those competitors aren't usually on long haul routes you understand, but sod the people who have to fly transatlantic for 10 hours in cattle class. Let's cram them in. They claim to offer lower prices - but watch this space. I bet you don't see a difference. This is the same airline who have now stopped offering in-flight meals and snacks on short-haul flights to offer "better value" (yet the cost of the ticket hasn't changed). Ditto the ability to choose your seat - stopped unless you pre-pay, and not available to hand-luggage only fliers.

They really don't understand competitive advantage. You can't charge more and do the same. You can't compete in a price war with a bargain basement airline, you won't win, when you go low, they go lower. The BA pension burden and landing-slot overheads will always see them lose. You have to maintain CA by being BETTER, offering more, and charging accordingly. BA if they're not careful will be the master of their own demise.

Toblerone (BBC website)

Taking out chunks to keep the package the same size while 10% less content! And apparently "nothing to do with Brexit" this appears to be just a greedy US-owned firm giving the two-fingered salute in the name of profit maximisation.

Now, time will tell if people keep buying these, but the new form is "a joke", and undermines the very brand idenity and image associated with the product. When differentiating on form and distinctive marketing it is an odd gamble to mess with that. Toblerone would arguably not fair as well in a regular bar format - which this seems to be a step towards. People don't like paying for empty packaging, nor the feeling that they are being duped into thinking they are still getting what they're used to. This is a move in an odd direction and the could, if this continues, end up destroying their own marketing strategy to date as the shape moves ultimately towards a flat slab.

[SeriousSam]

In regards to Toblerone I agree that the new shape looks decidedly odd and am surprised that they didn't try other "forms" to reduce contents by 10%. However, saying it is profit maximisation is putting it a bit strong as realistically they are likely keeping the same margin. Cadbury's did the same with the change in shape of Dairy Milk etc. A number of ingredients used in chocolate manufacture have been increasing steadily over the past 5-10 years.

Plus it could be worse as cocoa prices have been easing downwards recently. Had they continued on their upwards trend from a few years back, we'd be looking at significant price increases for chocolate.

[TooNice]

Aww, spending a good part of my youth in Switzerland, I've always had a soft spot for Toblerone. To be fair, I am not too bothered about the shape since I've always liked it for the taste.. but I wouldn't want to get less chocolate. That said, I could've sworn that the next size above 100g was 200g. Unless I am mistaken, and there are both 170g and 200g it seems like they've sized down before already?

[wazzickle]

Customers tend to be pretty stupid and just let themselves get shafted.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Toblerone bar now looks stupid.

[DDY]

Aside from the outrage of selling us less chocolate for the same price, what I can't figure out is why they didn't thin out the base rather than turning the mountainous peaks we're familiar with in to pathetic spikes.

[ik9000]

exactly. It makes no sense. It would be like Apple putting an orange on the front, or Audi only using 3 rings. When you have a strong brand icon you don't erode it on a whim.

I wouldn't mind betting that some dumb ass did a cost analysis of changing the packaging vs changing the production and thought that this was the cheaper option. Presumably to overhaul the packaging process costed more than blanking out the moulds. Despite the fact it is now kicking up more stink than if they just made the bar 1 or 2 chunks shorter where I reckon no-one would have cared to the extent that it made the news.

[ik9000]

The Toblerone bar now looks stupid.

yes. Now where have I seen that before?

[TooNice]

What I find it interesting, is that Toblerone is sold globally, and they chose the UK to try out their new design. Since they say it's nothing to do with Brexit, there is no arguing with that, but wouldn't it make sense to test it in a smaller market? I am sure there are market bigger than the UK, but I also doubt that the UK is so insignificant to the testing ground for design with unproven popularity. I won't hold my breath for it, but I wonder if it they could still reverse the decision it really affect sales.

Question to all: Do you think that the public would be happy if they went back to the old design but making it smaller to match the current new weight? I've said it before, but despite my soft spot for the chocolate itself, it's not really the shape I care about.. and if they were to redesign it to something else and give me MORE chocolate for the same price, I'd happily take it

[ik9000]

They won't give you more for the same price. It's either less for the same price or the same amount for a higher price. I would rather it was the latter. And the person who thought that the new shape was a suitable compromise should be moved to another department. No cost in keeping the same bar - no change to packaging/shipping/production/moulds etc. How they decided it was a better idea to change the product, with the expense that incurs rather than simply increasing the price is a really odd thing IMO.

There is always slight probability than the odd shape has been given to the UK market due to the full of the pound but is not being implemented for the European market. Which is just plain stupid, but apparently this is not the case - though it without a quick European trip it is difficult to find this out.

[Dashers]

I heard about this, but even so, if I had opened one up and found that I would have taken it back as clearly defective. They've removed every other peak! What's next? A peak at each end with a huge gap in the middle?

[kalniel]

True, they've clearly missed a massive opportunity for cost savings - Toblerone should be designing the seats for BA.

[TooNice]

@ik9000

It was a hypothetical question. My casual Googling suggests that the change in shape is making more headlines than the decreased quantity (which happens all the time I suppose). Whereas for me, Toblerone could be triangular, round, square or whatever shape they want to make (provided it's not a big hassle to get a piece) and I'd happily take it if I end up with more for my money. Not saying it could happen, but just pondering what people care more about. The ironic shape Tablerone is known for, versus MOAR CHOCOLATES

[ik9000]

@ik9000

It was a hypothetical question. My casual Googling suggests that the change in shape is making more headlines than the decreased quantity (which happens all the time I suppose). Whereas for me, Toblerone could be triangular, round, square or whatever shape they want to make (provided it's not a big hassle to get a piece) and I'd happily take it if I end up with more for my money. Not saying it could happen, but just pondering what people care more about. The ironic shape Tablerone is known for, versus MOAR CHOCOLATES

I am willing to bet that a large proportion of their sales is due to the unique shape - based on the alps let's not forget. It's what differentiates this chocolate vs say hazelnut milka or similar. They really need to be careful - and whatever shape they are not suddenly going to give you more chocolate. That means more weight, which means more ingredients and more shipping cost. Simply not going to happen without a price increase to match.

[ik9000]

True, they've clearly missed a massive opportunity for cost savings - Toblerone should be designing the seats for BA.

Only if they apply the same adding gap strategy, no-one wants a gap reduction in airline seats.

[BobF64]

My assumption on BAs plans, having not read anything other than they were adding an extra row of seats, was that they would change from a 3-3-3 layout to a 7-3 layout by removing an aisle.

Would suck quite a lot of you want a window seat and like to get out of your seat during the flight.

Maybe the seats are wider than those on other Boeing planes and can be made narrower, or they plan to provide customers with girdles to they fit in them.