WE Chairman talks about Optimism, Marketing & 2014
December 2, 2013
Dear Colleagues
The annual Watercoolers Europe gathering is behind us. It seems that the majority were very happy with the professionalism with which this event in Berlin was organized. We changed the formats from previous years, took some risks and invested time and energy to make it succeed. Thank you all for making this possible.
We are now full of energy and optimism towards a successful event 2014 in Budapest.
What conclusions can we draw from Berlin?
First of all, what really struck me was to see the beginnings of positive expectations towards 2014. After a few years of waiting on standby, operators are now open to discuss new investments and view the future in a cautiously optimistic way.
Point Of Use continues to gain ground, and although it may never bypass the number of bottled water coolers, it is certainly part of our industry environment today. There are issues of profitability of POU versus BWC in some mature markets, but the fact is that it is there. This trend was reflected in the attention dedicated to POU during the WE Trade Fair in Berlin.
WE took the initiative to invite 2 speakers for the conference to tackle totally different subjects outside of the usual classic topics dedicated to watercoolers only.
One was Mr. Karl-Heinz Land triggering our interest in Generation “Y” and taking us through the whole world of digital communication.
Mr Land explained how the world of tomorrow will change and how we must take the digital world into consideration. The speed at which news gets spread via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks means we must learn to work with them. He made a convincing case that these social media will become more and more important as marketing and selling tools, helping us create and defend the image of our companies and products.
People are speaking about you on social networks and your company often will not even know about it or ever attempt to use them. The world is changing around us, and we need to keep up with the movement towards these kinds of media. In that perspective Mr Land’s presentation was most probably an eye opener for many members present at the conference.
Interested to know more? Go to this link where you will learn more about the future of social network and the usage that our customers are making of it in order to make us or break your business.
The second alternative topic was presented by Mr. Raf Stevens and was dedicated to marketing and storytelling. Whereby Mr Land treated the topic of communication, Mr Stevens tackled the content of our communications and how we should pass our message to the customers. His discussion of the power of words, and how we can use them was most enlightening.
Interested in knowing more? Go to this link where you will learn more about storytelling and what to do to convey your message to your prospects and customers.
Understanding the “how” (media) and the “what” (content) about communication are vital for what we do. Watercoolers Europe will continue to pursue these subjects and other exciting marketing/ sales topics in Budapest and if any of you has any suggestions on specific topics you would like to see tackled in the workshops or conference, please let us know.
We are heading now towards the end of the year, a period of the year slower for the commercial aspects of our business and very active in the preparations of business plans for 2014. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all, personally and from all the Execo, a good end of the year as well as a great beginning to 2014 in peace, joy and happiness.
Your Chair,
Alain Adler