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Bringing RFID sales and marketing stories to Taiwan
Issue #208 | Oct. 1, 2009 | by Andy Kowl
The Taiwan RFID Applications Conference starts next week on Oct. 8th and I don't mind admitting I am excited to be a featured speaker there and to be covering the conference. Many of our readers are road warriors, for whom a trip to Asia is just another long plane ride. Not so for me.
Close to 40,000 attendees are expected to visit TAITRONICS, The Taipei International Electronics Show that Taiwan RFID is part of. My first trip to China was two years ago when I was asked to speak in Beijing. I'll let you sort out the politics of whether that makes this my second trip to China.
Sitting here a few miles outside of Washington it is easy to think you can see the whole picture. The opportunity to meet with many Asian electronics executives is incredibly valuable for a far richer understanding of where any technology is really headed; and I look forward to sharing reports from this trip.
Creative RFID innovations beyond tracking
Too often companies only think of RFID as a way to save money or increase efficiency in industrial, transportation, storage & retrieval and other logistical settings. Guilty as charged – all true that these are great places to implement RFID.
In preparing my presentation, I've been focusing on benefits of the technology people rarely consider beyond supply chain and prototypical asset tracking. My goal is to stimulate alternative ideas—yours, too—by including some creative RFID usages from around the world.
Here are a few of those applications which directly increase sales for those companies creatively expanding the horizons of RFID use. The only problem is there are so many RFID marketing and sales success stories to sort through.
RFID as a rockin' business builder
Elite Racing of San Diego is a racing event firm which began promoting the San Diego "Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon" about ten years ago. The goal was to create a festival atmosphere around a marathon race, with dozens of bands and a health & fitness expo to draw thousands, more to "an event" than a marathon. As they expanded they noticed elements of both the customer experience and of their own management of the events which could be improved.
At the start of each marathon, participants were grouped 1,000 people per "corral," based on their rated and projected run time-range. The race officially started at 7:30 a.m. for the best of the runners. But the immense organizational logistics meant many of the volunteers had to be there at 5 a.m., a huge inconvenience and probably not the best way to hold onto volunteers.
Beginning with a Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Antonio, Elite placed RFID reader at the starting line, and throughout the course, created a system that could determine the actual start time for each of the thousands of runners as well as their overall time.
Some only ran a half marathon. Thousands either did not start or did not finish. With an RFID tag on the runners' shoelaces and throughout the course, all of these issues were solved, while at the same time providing participants with detailed times of performance throughout different segments of the track.
Improving the customer experience has helped Elite Running expand their franchise into a number of other cities including Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Jose, Virginia Beach and Nashville.
Return on Experience
Just a few months back we talked about Vail Resorts, the largest U.S. ski resort operator, using RFID as a means of "transforming the customer experience" since the 2006-07 season. Vail's CIO Robert Unwiler explained, "We sell an experience. You leave our resorts with memories."
The most important result of any decision they make is what Unwiler calls ROE, Return on Experience. They see that since RFID "reduces the hassle factor" – for example, you no longer have to unzip your jacket and produce your ski pass. Attendants use handhelds to scan the skiers as they enter the resort area or a particular lift line. Lines move more quickly. Happier skiers, better memories; they achieve a direct ROE – Return on Experience.
Selling more consumer goods
Usually when you see a consumer product good promotional display it is tied to a television, radio and/or newspaper advertising campaign. Having products available to buyers when they hear the ads is essential. On-time execution of getting CPG promotions displays onto retail floors can result in 20-50% higher sell through rates, according to RFID Street contributor Venkat Krishnamurthy of Checkpoint Systems.
Every promotion is time bounded – there is a fixed start date and end date. In some cases reviewed, the displays were moved to the floor too early and the product sold out in advance of the promotion. Still other times, the displays were on the floor one or two days late. Either way you have unhappy customers who didn’t get the product.
Retailers create aggregated "promotion performance" reports on a per store basis. Most of the promotions Krishnamurthy's reporting tracked moved to the sales floor between 3 and 7, even 10 days before the start of the promotion. Often the product sold out prior to the kick off. By using RFID, the CPG manufacturer was able to detect, and flag, these stores and ensure they were replenished in time for the start date.
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