Starbucks’ quest for healthy growth: An interview with Howard Schultz
The company once grew fast. Now CEO Howard Schultz wants it to grow with discipline—in emerging and developed markets alike.
MARCH 2011
..When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO in early 2008, after a hiatus of nearly eight years, he quickly concluded that growth had become a “carcinogen” and that the company needed a transformation in its culture and operating approach. As he was leading that change process, Schultz also chronicled it in his new book, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul.1 In this edited conversation with McKinsey’s Allen Webb, Schultz answers some of the questions raised in his book, describes the insidious impact of breakneck growth on Starbucks, and explains how he hopes to keep the company on a healthier growth trajectory. Emerging markets have a significant role to play in powering future growth. So does Starbucks’ transition into what Schultz hopes will be the first company to excel as both a retailer and a purveyor—in supermarkets and other mass-market channels—of consumer packaged goods.
Howard Schultz on Starbucks' quest for healthy growth
The CEO describes his plans for the company to grow with discipline—in emerging and developed markets alike.
Launch InteractiveBack to topThe Quarterly: In your book, you say that growth became a carcinogen at Starbucks. What do you mean by that?
Howard Schultz biography
Howard SchultzVital statistics Born July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York
Married, with 2 children
Education Graduated with a BA in communications in 1975 from Northern Michigan University
Career highlights Starbucks (1982–85, 1987–present)
Chairman, CEO, and president (2008–present)Chairman (2000–08)Chairman and CEO (1987–2000)President (1987–94)Director of retail operations and marketing (1982–85)Il Giornale Coffee (1986–87)
Founder, chairman, CEO, and president
Back to topHoward Schultz: Let me try and put growth in the context of the last 15 or 20 years of Starbucks’ life, and then I’ll try and specifically answer the question. You have to understand that in 1987, Starbucks had 11 stores and 100 employees, and we had this dream to create a national brand around coffee and a unique experience in our stores that, hopefully, we would be able to extend from the West Coast to around the country.
And from that point on, the dream started becoming a reality, and it almost had a life of its own. What we were building seemed to work wherever we opened stores. We had a little bit of luck and business acumen and perhaps just the fortuitous opportunity that comes along with perfect timing. For 15-plus years or so, almost everything we did worked as we built this very unique brand around coffee and a values-based organization.
When you look at growth as a strategy, it becomes somewhat seductive, addictive. But growth should not be—and is not—a strategy; it’s a tactic. The primary lesson I’ve learned over the years is that growth and success can cover up a lot of mistakes. We’re going to make more mistakes. But we’ve learned a great lesson. And as we return the company to growth, it’ll be disciplined, profitable growth for the right reasons—a different kind of growth.
The Quarterly: So turning the clock back to 2008, what were some of the things you were seeing that felt carcinogenic?
Howard Schultz: When we reviewed some of the underperforming stores, I was horrified to learn that the stores that we ultimately had to close had been open less than 18 months. When you look at that—the money invested and the money that we had to write off—those decisions were made with a lack of discipline. Also, I think there were times, during that period when we were chasing growth, when we were making decisions that were kind of complicit with the stock price. That’s a very, very dangerous road to go down.
The Quarterly: One thing you did, soon after returning, was to stop reporting same-store sales.
Howard Schultz: Correct.
The Quarterly: Why did you do that, and how did it work out?
Howard Schultz: Well, there’s a fine line between trying to manage the company in the most appropriate fiduciary way—and at the same time providing analysts with 100 percent transparency, which they deserve. And I say “fine line” because you don’t want to start making decisions that are based on a P/E or stock price. However, when a P/E gets to a certain point and a stock price gets to a certain point, you begin to believe that the organization, the enterprise, is worth that. And then you get to a point where you’re managing to either uphold it or to increase it.
An albatross around the neck of most retailers and restaurant companies is this metric that Wall Street created many, many years ago: the calculation of the growth of stores open for more than one year. Taking one unit and seeing whether or not that unit is growing, year over year, is a solid case study of whether a company is healthy, but not the only one. In any event, Wall Street became enamored with this number. And as a result of that, most retailers and restaurants report comp-store sales on a monthly basis. What that does is produce tremendous fluctuation in stock prices on a monthly basis, because God forbid you get a down month.
I thought, when I came back, that we had become linked internally to the comp-store sales number, and we started making decisions that were driving incremental revenue and perhaps were not consistent with the equity of the brand. I wanted to remove that albatross from the necks of the operators.
So I announced, one day when I came back, that we were going to stop reporting monthly comps. And you would’ve thought the world came to an end. It didn’t come to an end. Now, at the time, since we were not performing, I was accused of not being transparent and trying to hide things. But what I was trying to do was make sure that our people were managing the business for the most appropriate constituent, which is the customer.
The Quarterly: What is an example of the kind of decision making that was concerning you?
Howard Schultz: I once walked into a Starbucks, and there was a table of teddy bears in the store that had nothing to do with coffee whatsoever. I asked the manager about this, and she said she was really enthused and excited because it was adding to her comps. You know, this doesn’t make any sense.
The Quarterly: You established an agenda when you came back—a seven-point transformation agenda. And you didn’t abandon growth as part of that. In fact, one of the planks was to “create innovative growth platforms worthy of our coffee.” Why set a goal like that when just fixing your core business was such a key priority for you?
Howard Schultz: You can’t attract and retain great people for a company that isn’t going to grow. No one wants to go home at night and say, “I’m working for a company that’s getting transformed.” It’s not very exciting. It’s so vitally important to give people hope, to provide aspirations and a vision for the future. And I knew from day one that when I returned, it wasn’t only going to be about restoring the company back to its original form. We had to instill a deep sense of commitment to growing the company.
The Quarterly: What did you mean, exactly, when you said you hoped to figure out a different way of growth for Starbucks, a different growth pattern?
Howard Schultz: This is a unique inflection point for Starbucks; I think we’ve identified a very big opportunity to do something that really has not been done before. And that is the following: there are many, many companies, domestically and around the world, that have built a domestic national footprint around retail stores, just like Starbucks—the Gap, Costco, Wal-Mart, Coach, Zara. And there are many consumer-packaged-goods companies—Pepsi, Coke, Kellogg’s, Campbell’s. There hasn’t been one company I can identify that has been able to build complementary channels of distribution by integrating the retail footprint and the ubiquitous channels of distribution—in our case, grocery stores and drug stores.
So the model is, Starbucks can seed and introduce new products and new brands inside our stores. We introduced VIA instant coffee in our stores. Instant coffee is a $24 billion global category that has not had any innovation in over 50 years. And no growth. If we took VIA and we put it into grocery stores and it sat on a shelf, it would have died. But we can integrate VIA into the emotional connection we have with our customers in our stores. We did that for six to eight months and succeeded well beyond expectations in our stores. And as a result of that, we had a very easy time convincing the trade, because they wanted it so badly.
We can draft off of our stores into ubiquitous channels of distribution and then integrate that into the capability and the discipline we have around social and digital media. And this is not a pipe dream. This will happen in 2011. Right now, one out of every five transactions in our stores happens off the Starbucks card. And it’s growing rapidly. Sometime in 2011, not only are you going to be rewarded for buying something at a Starbucks store, but buying Starbucks-branded products in a grocery store is also going to give you a reward off your Starbucks card. So we’re going to integrate the reward system, in a way that has never been done before, between our retail stores and the wholesale channel.
The Quarterly: Let’s shift gears and talk about Starbucks’ potential in emerging markets.
Howard Schultz: The big opportunity, in terms of total stores, is what’s happening in China; we’ve got 800 stores in greater China, 400 in the mainland. When all is said and done, we’ll have thousands. We’re highly profitable there. We’ve been there 12 years, and I would say that the hard work—in terms of building the foundation to get access to real estate, design stores, and operate them—is well in place.
We started out, like most Western brands, going to the two major cities, Shanghai and Beijing. In the last couple of years, it is stunning to see what we’ve been able to do in secondary and tertiary markets—these markets have five to ten million people in them. This past month, we opened up in two cities that people never heard of. One is Fuzhou, which has a population north of five million people. In a rainstorm, people were lined up in the morning waiting for the Starbucks door to open.
I was in China last month, and a government official told me there are now 140 cities in China with a population north of a million people. We don’t have a rollout plan for 140 of those cities, but we strongly believe that the discipline and the process are in place for us to execute a very big growth plan in China, learning from the mistakes we made in the US.
Every consumer brand imaginable is rushing to these emerging markets, with China being the number one. I wasn’t around for the gold rush, but I suspect that’s what it’s like: everyone’s just throwing stuff against the wall, hoping something’s going to stick. We want to be very thoughtful and disciplined—not get carried away, not go to too many cities. I don’t want to go so wide. I think success in China, for us, is making sure we go deep in these markets before we spread out to so many markets around the country. It can be seductive; we’ve got to be very disciplined.
The Quarterly: So how do you choose?
Howard Schultz: There’s a whole team, a real-estate team—that is, a local one—that is working with our people here in Seattle. As you might imagine, we have built, over the last 40 years, a very refined model in terms of demography and understanding where our stores should be located. And based on the success we’ve had in China over the last few years, we’re now mapping those statistics and metrics in a way that gives us a very good understanding, with great predictability.
The Quarterly: What other emerging markets strike you as particularly important?
Howard Schultz: I just came back from India, and we will open up stores there, hopefully within the next 12 months. I think we’re significantly understored in Brazil, where we’ve got 50 stores or so—with a very big upside. We’re not in Vietnam yet; we’re looking at Vietnam with a close eye. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get there by 2012.
The Quarterly: How do you think about prioritizing growth opportunities in those countries?
Howard Schultz: It’s clear that the number-one growth opportunity is China. We believe that we can build a major business in India, but we’re not there yet. So our international team created a growth plan for the next three years in terms of the number of stores, the number of markets. The US team has done the same thing on a parallel track, and then we’ve laid onto that the investment that we’re making currently in building a significant capability and business model around CPG,2 which is what I described earlier.
The Quarterly: You said in your book that you’re particularly cognizant of not wanting the same things to happen in China that happened in the United States. What are you doing to guard against that?
Howard Schultz: All of the learning in the last two and a half years of the transformation is now being layered onto every international market in terms of how we operate the stores and how we enhance the customer experience. Now, with regard to China, given the fact that it is a big opportunity, we are providing the China team with resources that, perhaps, other markets are not getting—senior people who are managing big businesses at Starbucks are going over to China to ensure that the China team has the benefit of all the things that we’ve learned, as well as the benefit of the mistakes that we’ve made. I’m spending a disproportionate amount of time there myself; maybe it’s my own paranoia.
What we want to do as a company is put our feet in the shoes of our customers. What does that mean, especially in China? It means that not everything from Starbucks in China should be invented in Starbucks in Seattle. Now, the Chinese customer, like many customers around the world, does not want a watered-down Starbucks. But we want to be highly respectful of the cultural differences in every market, especially China, and appeal to the Chinese customer. So as an example, the food for the Chinese stores is predominantly designed for the Chinese palate.
Now, this is not a company that did these kinds of things in the past. We were fighting a war here between the people in Seattle who want a blueberry muffin and the people in China who say, “You know what, I think black sesame is probably an ingredient that they would rather have than blueberry.” And I would say that goes back to the hubris of the past, when we thought, we’re going to change behavior. Well, no, we’re not going to change behavior. In fact, we’re going to appeal with great respect to local tastes. So we have a list of core products, in almost every country we’re now doing business in, that is right down the center to appeal to the local consumer.
What we’re trying to do is create a balance between this being a Starbucks store with all the trappings and, at the same time, a very deep level of sensitivity to local relevancy. That’s hard to do when you’re all over the world in 55 countries. The reason it’s working is that we’re decentralizing and, for the first time, trusting that the people in the marketplace know better than the people in Seattle.
The Quarterly: What’s your biggest growth constraint?
Howard Schultz: It’s not financing. We’re sitting on about $2 billion in cash. And what I’ve said publicly to the Street is that this probably will be the first time in our history when we will be quite opportunistic about potential acquisitions.
Rather, it’s human capital. We want to attract world-class people who have values that are well aligned with the culture of the company. And we want to make sure that the growth of Starbucks in the future doesn’t in any way cover up the mistakes we’ve made in the past.
The Quarterly: How worried are you that growth could become carcinogenic again?
Howard Schultz: I’m not worried about that at all. I can’t count on one hand how many times the leadership team or the company has celebrated over the last 18 months. And the truth is, we’ve had a lot to celebrate. We’ve more than quadrupled the market value of the company. We had record revenue, record profit for the year, for the quarter.
But we are actually turning over rocks and looking at the things that perhaps we didn’t get right and constantly, I think, beating ourselves up. If you walked into our Monday morning meeting, you would think this is a company that is still trying to transform itself. I would describe the team and I as spending as much time as we did then looking in the rearview mirror—at the things we’ve just done to ensure that we’ve laid the right foundation and that the culture is preserved as we grow the company. It’s quite a different discipline and mentality than we had in the past.
There is a discipline of being very self-critical, with real quantitative metrics to study the investments that we’re making across the board, whatever they are—return on investment in stores, return on investment in advertising, return on investment in new-product introductions; looking at the entry cost of new markets in a different light; looking at the supply chain in a different way. This is a company that took $700 million of costs out of its operations in the last two years. And we’re still looking for more.
About the Author
Allen Webb is a member of McKinsey Publishing and is based in McKinsey’s Seattle office.
In this blog, teachers, students and all those who have some kind of interest in the English language will find useful, interesting, curious and funny things to be used in their classes or for their personal enjoyment.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Mc Kinsey Interview-Howard Schultz-STARBUCKS Video-2011
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Starbucks_quest_for_healthy_growth_An_interview_with_Howard_Schultz_2777?pagenum=1#interactive
Sunday, March 27, 2011
HBR-Magazine article-2011-HR
When to Reward Employees with More Responsibility and Money
January 12, 2011
by Amy Gallo |
Managers who want to recognize employees for good work have many tools at their disposal. One of the more traditional ways to reward a top performer is to give her a promotion or raise or both. But how can you know whether someone is truly ready for the next challenge or deserving of that bump up in pay? HR policies and company culture often dictate when and how people move up in a company. However, managers in most companies have a good deal of input into the decision, and in some cases they are the ultimate decision makers. Whether you have this authority or not, promotions and raises need to be part of an ongoing discussion with employees about their performance.
What the Experts Say
"Many times a manager feels responsible for finding their people their next step in the organization," says Herminia Ibarra, the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Faculty Director of the INSEAD Leadership Initiative. It's critical that managers make these decisions about promotions and raises carefully. "I think who an organization promotes is a very strong index of their core culture," says Susan David, co-director of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching, founding director of Evidence Based Psychology LLC, and a contributor to HBR's The Conversation blog. Managers should recognize that who they reward sends a signal to the rest of the organization. Therefore, they need to be sure they are endorsing behavior that is in line with the organization's values. For example, an employee who exceeds his targets but treats his team members poorly should not be rewarded in an organization that values teamwork.
Similarly, the way an organization promotes people has implications for an individual's success. Organizations often assume that a promotion should involve giving star performers responsibility for managing more people and developing — rather than just executing — strategy. "Yet, these are not areas of genius for all. Many organizations lose some of their best operational people because of creating single pathways to organizational success," says David. It's possible to reward people in other ways. "Organizations who create multiple, flexible pathways to success will keep their best people, keep them engaged, and keep them for longer," says David. Next time you are trying to decide whether to recognize strong performance with a promotion or raise, follow these principles.
Assess current performance using multiple sources
As a first step, you need to be sure the employee is able to do the job you are considering promoting her into. Take a look at her performance. "There will be markers even in the current job that show how they'll do in the new role," says David. She recommends you use multisource feedback: draw not only on your own assessment but talk to others as well. It is especially important to seek input from people who interact with the employees in ways that you don't. Talk to peers, team members, and people she manages. In some cases, you may find that she's already doing parts of the new job. "Some people do their job as it is described and some enlarge their job; they innovate around the parameters of the job. That's the best evidence of all — when they're already doing the job," says Ibarra.
Consider the "competence-challenge balance"
"We all want to be and feel we are good at things. We also have the need to feel we are growing and learning," says David. A good indicator that you may need to promote someone is if he is expressing a desire to learn more and take on a new challenge. People who are particularly good at their jobs may quickly master them and need to be stretched. "If in their current jobs employees are reaching points where they are over qualified, this is a strong risk factor for disengagement and loss of those employees," says David. You need to always be assessing your people and be sure they are working at the edges of their abilities. If they are performing well but not learning anything new, a promotion or an alternative assignment may be best for both the individual and the organization.
Make sure there is a match
Before promoting someone into a new role, consider whether it's something she will enjoy doing. Many managers fail to consider that just because someone is good at a job, doesn't mean she will take pleasure in it. "One of the greatest tools a manager can use is an authentic, honest conversation with the individual," explains David. Ask your employee whether she is interested in and excited about the new responsibilities. If not, consider creating an alternative role that stretches her, fulfills her, and fills a need in the organization.
Experiment before making the new job permanent
Occasionally, you may need more information to judge the employee's expected performance in a new role. As Ibarra points out, "It gets tricky when performance in a current role is not a good predictor of performance in a new role." In these cases, design an assignment that is similar to the tasks and challenges of the new job to test the employee's ability. Be transparent with the employee about this experiment. Make it short-term and outline clear success criteria and an evaluation timeline. Be careful though — you don't want to invisibly promote your people without recognizing their contributions. Providing more responsibility without a corresponding change in title or raise can sap motivation.
How much of a raise?
With some promotions, it may be obvious how much of a raise you should give based on how much others doing the same job are paid. However, many job changes are not as clear cut. The employee may be retaining some of her former responsibilities while taking on new ones. Create a job description for the new role. Take a look at all of her duties and try to benchmark them against other jobs in the company or in the broader employment market. If you don't have similar positions in the organization, look at increases that went with other promotions in the organization. If most promotions come with a particular increase in salary, stick with a similar percentage.
When you have to say no
There are people who will ask for a promotion even if they're not ready and those who will hold back even though they are ready," says Ibarra. Your job is to help calibrate those requests. If your employee raises the idea of a promotion but you worry he's not ready, have an open discussion to hear his reasoning and share your concerns. Be clear about what competencies or experiences he needs to gain in order to be promoted and create an action plan for how he can do that. Provide him with the tasks and assignments he needs to expand his skills.
Remember, there are other ways to motivate
Due to a limited budget, you may have to say no to someone who is deserving. "With the financial crisis, a lot of people haven't been able to use promotions and raises as motivational levers," says Ibarra. There also may not be the right opportunity. In order to promote, David says, "there needs to be a strategic need in the organization" that this person can meet. These can be tough conversations. Be honest and transparent.
Explain the rationale and be sure the employee understands that you value him. Give him stretch goals that help prepare him for the future when the company is better positioned to give him a promotion or raise.
Most importantly, find other ways to keep the employee engaged. "Leaders are often comforted by their capacity to give a raise or a promotion because these strategies are seen as tangible and executable. However, while these extrinsic motivators are a useful and important part of keeping employees engaged, they are certainly not the only ones," says David. Instead, rely on intrinsic motivators, such as recognizing contributions, providing opportunities to gain new skills or experiences, and supporting autonomy and choice within a job. For example, you may have leeway as a manager to make modifications to the employee's current position so that he is spending half of his time on his current job and the other half on new, more challenging responsibilities. Doing this may be more motivational in the long run and can often inspire loyalty. "Overreliance on pay and promotion as motivators leads to an organizational culture that is very transactional and disengaged," says David. Employees who feel valued are likely to wait out the hard times.
Principles to Remember
Do:
Make sure your people are working at the edge of their abilities
Create an assignment that helps you assesses whether the employee will excel in a new role
Find other ways to motivate your people — beyond raises and promotions
Don't:
Say no to a request for a raise or promotion without a clear explanation
Rely solely on your assessment of the employee's performance — ask others for input
Assume that a promotion will make the employee happy — look for a fit with the person's interests and abilities
Case Study #1: A new role for the firm and the employee
Elise Giannasi was hired by Katzenbach Partners in 2006 as the executive assistant to the managing partner. A year into the job, she was receiving glowing reviews and Shanti Nayak, Katzenbach's director of people, says it was clear that she was a star performer. In particular, Shanti noted that Elise had done a great job of building relationships with clients. Her relationships had been instrumental in setting up key appointments and ensuring that bills got paid. The managing partner felt she was ready to move up. But according to Shanti, "there was no typical role for people to move into unless they were on the traditional consultant path."
At the time, the firm didn't have a staff person dedicated solely to business development. People throughout the firm were doing it as an "extracurricular" task. However, the recession forced the firm to develop a much more formalized process and they needed someone to be responsible for it. Shanti explains that they had two debates going on simultaneously: was this a role they needed? And if so, was Elise the right person for the role? While Elise was doing small pieces of client development already, she had never filled a role like this before. Shanti knew that Elise had worked hard to develop the right relationships both inside and outside the firm and she had confidence she could do it. When she talked to others in the firm, they endorsed her assessment. In the end, Shanti says, "It felt like a risk worth taking." Shanti explained that since this was a new position, it was difficult to decide how much to pay Elise once she was promoted. They looked at what other promotions carried in terms of a raise, in particular the percentage increase that associates received when they became senior associates. Elise was given a similar percentage increase and a new title: manager of business development.
Case Study #2: Job sculpting to prepare for the next step
When Sarah Vania joined the International Rescue Committee as the senior HR partner in late 2009, she was particularly impressed with an HR administrator named Nicole Clemons. Nicole was studying for her master's degree while working full time. She commuted two hours by bus to her job, using that time to study. Nicole had always received very good reviews. Sarah thought, "Here's a high-potential person who has earned her right to development." When Sarah sat down with her for their first review together, Nicole asked, "What's the path ahead for me?" She had applied for an open HR partner role but because it was two steps up from her current role, the organization didn't feel she was ready. Without a logical next step for her, however, she would be stuck in her current role. "As a manager, I owed her a career path but I didn't have the budget to create a new role and hire a new admin," says Sarah.
Instead, she decided to create an alternative role for Nicole. Nicole would continue her duties as an HR administrator but also take on two of Sarah's client groups to manage. This apprentice model would allow Nicole to learn on the job what it means to be an HR partner with Sarah providing her feedback and support. "It helps her learn in a manageable, supported way rather than trial by fire," explains Sarah. Sarah spoke with the leaders of each of the client groups. She made it clear that although Nicole was still learning the role, she would make their groups her first priority and Sarah would be there if any issues came up. "I asked for their help and explained the benefit," says Sarah. Nicole has since taken on more responsibility and Sarah says she is well on her way to qualifying for the partner role.
January 12, 2011
by Amy Gallo |
Managers who want to recognize employees for good work have many tools at their disposal. One of the more traditional ways to reward a top performer is to give her a promotion or raise or both. But how can you know whether someone is truly ready for the next challenge or deserving of that bump up in pay? HR policies and company culture often dictate when and how people move up in a company. However, managers in most companies have a good deal of input into the decision, and in some cases they are the ultimate decision makers. Whether you have this authority or not, promotions and raises need to be part of an ongoing discussion with employees about their performance.
What the Experts Say
"Many times a manager feels responsible for finding their people their next step in the organization," says Herminia Ibarra, the Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Faculty Director of the INSEAD Leadership Initiative. It's critical that managers make these decisions about promotions and raises carefully. "I think who an organization promotes is a very strong index of their core culture," says Susan David, co-director of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching, founding director of Evidence Based Psychology LLC, and a contributor to HBR's The Conversation blog. Managers should recognize that who they reward sends a signal to the rest of the organization. Therefore, they need to be sure they are endorsing behavior that is in line with the organization's values. For example, an employee who exceeds his targets but treats his team members poorly should not be rewarded in an organization that values teamwork.
Similarly, the way an organization promotes people has implications for an individual's success. Organizations often assume that a promotion should involve giving star performers responsibility for managing more people and developing — rather than just executing — strategy. "Yet, these are not areas of genius for all. Many organizations lose some of their best operational people because of creating single pathways to organizational success," says David. It's possible to reward people in other ways. "Organizations who create multiple, flexible pathways to success will keep their best people, keep them engaged, and keep them for longer," says David. Next time you are trying to decide whether to recognize strong performance with a promotion or raise, follow these principles.
Assess current performance using multiple sources
As a first step, you need to be sure the employee is able to do the job you are considering promoting her into. Take a look at her performance. "There will be markers even in the current job that show how they'll do in the new role," says David. She recommends you use multisource feedback: draw not only on your own assessment but talk to others as well. It is especially important to seek input from people who interact with the employees in ways that you don't. Talk to peers, team members, and people she manages. In some cases, you may find that she's already doing parts of the new job. "Some people do their job as it is described and some enlarge their job; they innovate around the parameters of the job. That's the best evidence of all — when they're already doing the job," says Ibarra.
Consider the "competence-challenge balance"
"We all want to be and feel we are good at things. We also have the need to feel we are growing and learning," says David. A good indicator that you may need to promote someone is if he is expressing a desire to learn more and take on a new challenge. People who are particularly good at their jobs may quickly master them and need to be stretched. "If in their current jobs employees are reaching points where they are over qualified, this is a strong risk factor for disengagement and loss of those employees," says David. You need to always be assessing your people and be sure they are working at the edges of their abilities. If they are performing well but not learning anything new, a promotion or an alternative assignment may be best for both the individual and the organization.
Make sure there is a match
Before promoting someone into a new role, consider whether it's something she will enjoy doing. Many managers fail to consider that just because someone is good at a job, doesn't mean she will take pleasure in it. "One of the greatest tools a manager can use is an authentic, honest conversation with the individual," explains David. Ask your employee whether she is interested in and excited about the new responsibilities. If not, consider creating an alternative role that stretches her, fulfills her, and fills a need in the organization.
Experiment before making the new job permanent
Occasionally, you may need more information to judge the employee's expected performance in a new role. As Ibarra points out, "It gets tricky when performance in a current role is not a good predictor of performance in a new role." In these cases, design an assignment that is similar to the tasks and challenges of the new job to test the employee's ability. Be transparent with the employee about this experiment. Make it short-term and outline clear success criteria and an evaluation timeline. Be careful though — you don't want to invisibly promote your people without recognizing their contributions. Providing more responsibility without a corresponding change in title or raise can sap motivation.
How much of a raise?
With some promotions, it may be obvious how much of a raise you should give based on how much others doing the same job are paid. However, many job changes are not as clear cut. The employee may be retaining some of her former responsibilities while taking on new ones. Create a job description for the new role. Take a look at all of her duties and try to benchmark them against other jobs in the company or in the broader employment market. If you don't have similar positions in the organization, look at increases that went with other promotions in the organization. If most promotions come with a particular increase in salary, stick with a similar percentage.
When you have to say no
There are people who will ask for a promotion even if they're not ready and those who will hold back even though they are ready," says Ibarra. Your job is to help calibrate those requests. If your employee raises the idea of a promotion but you worry he's not ready, have an open discussion to hear his reasoning and share your concerns. Be clear about what competencies or experiences he needs to gain in order to be promoted and create an action plan for how he can do that. Provide him with the tasks and assignments he needs to expand his skills.
Remember, there are other ways to motivate
Due to a limited budget, you may have to say no to someone who is deserving. "With the financial crisis, a lot of people haven't been able to use promotions and raises as motivational levers," says Ibarra. There also may not be the right opportunity. In order to promote, David says, "there needs to be a strategic need in the organization" that this person can meet. These can be tough conversations. Be honest and transparent.
Explain the rationale and be sure the employee understands that you value him. Give him stretch goals that help prepare him for the future when the company is better positioned to give him a promotion or raise.
Most importantly, find other ways to keep the employee engaged. "Leaders are often comforted by their capacity to give a raise or a promotion because these strategies are seen as tangible and executable. However, while these extrinsic motivators are a useful and important part of keeping employees engaged, they are certainly not the only ones," says David. Instead, rely on intrinsic motivators, such as recognizing contributions, providing opportunities to gain new skills or experiences, and supporting autonomy and choice within a job. For example, you may have leeway as a manager to make modifications to the employee's current position so that he is spending half of his time on his current job and the other half on new, more challenging responsibilities. Doing this may be more motivational in the long run and can often inspire loyalty. "Overreliance on pay and promotion as motivators leads to an organizational culture that is very transactional and disengaged," says David. Employees who feel valued are likely to wait out the hard times.
Principles to Remember
Do:
Make sure your people are working at the edge of their abilities
Create an assignment that helps you assesses whether the employee will excel in a new role
Find other ways to motivate your people — beyond raises and promotions
Don't:
Say no to a request for a raise or promotion without a clear explanation
Rely solely on your assessment of the employee's performance — ask others for input
Assume that a promotion will make the employee happy — look for a fit with the person's interests and abilities
Case Study #1: A new role for the firm and the employee
Elise Giannasi was hired by Katzenbach Partners in 2006 as the executive assistant to the managing partner. A year into the job, she was receiving glowing reviews and Shanti Nayak, Katzenbach's director of people, says it was clear that she was a star performer. In particular, Shanti noted that Elise had done a great job of building relationships with clients. Her relationships had been instrumental in setting up key appointments and ensuring that bills got paid. The managing partner felt she was ready to move up. But according to Shanti, "there was no typical role for people to move into unless they were on the traditional consultant path."
At the time, the firm didn't have a staff person dedicated solely to business development. People throughout the firm were doing it as an "extracurricular" task. However, the recession forced the firm to develop a much more formalized process and they needed someone to be responsible for it. Shanti explains that they had two debates going on simultaneously: was this a role they needed? And if so, was Elise the right person for the role? While Elise was doing small pieces of client development already, she had never filled a role like this before. Shanti knew that Elise had worked hard to develop the right relationships both inside and outside the firm and she had confidence she could do it. When she talked to others in the firm, they endorsed her assessment. In the end, Shanti says, "It felt like a risk worth taking." Shanti explained that since this was a new position, it was difficult to decide how much to pay Elise once she was promoted. They looked at what other promotions carried in terms of a raise, in particular the percentage increase that associates received when they became senior associates. Elise was given a similar percentage increase and a new title: manager of business development.
Case Study #2: Job sculpting to prepare for the next step
When Sarah Vania joined the International Rescue Committee as the senior HR partner in late 2009, she was particularly impressed with an HR administrator named Nicole Clemons. Nicole was studying for her master's degree while working full time. She commuted two hours by bus to her job, using that time to study. Nicole had always received very good reviews. Sarah thought, "Here's a high-potential person who has earned her right to development." When Sarah sat down with her for their first review together, Nicole asked, "What's the path ahead for me?" She had applied for an open HR partner role but because it was two steps up from her current role, the organization didn't feel she was ready. Without a logical next step for her, however, she would be stuck in her current role. "As a manager, I owed her a career path but I didn't have the budget to create a new role and hire a new admin," says Sarah.
Instead, she decided to create an alternative role for Nicole. Nicole would continue her duties as an HR administrator but also take on two of Sarah's client groups to manage. This apprentice model would allow Nicole to learn on the job what it means to be an HR partner with Sarah providing her feedback and support. "It helps her learn in a manageable, supported way rather than trial by fire," explains Sarah. Sarah spoke with the leaders of each of the client groups. She made it clear that although Nicole was still learning the role, she would make their groups her first priority and Sarah would be there if any issues came up. "I asked for their help and explained the benefit," says Sarah. Nicole has since taken on more responsibility and Sarah says she is well on her way to qualifying for the partner role.
HBR-Magazine article-2011
Building Resilience
by Martin E.P. Seligman
What business can learn from a pioneering army program for fostering post-traumatic growth
Douglas and Walter, two University of Pennsylvania MBA graduates, were laid off by their Wall Street companies 18 months ago. Both went into a tailspin: They were sad, listless, indecisive, and anxious about the future. For Douglas, the mood was transient. After two weeks he told himself, “It’s not you; it’s the economy going through a bad patch. I’m good at what I do, and there will be a market for my skills.” He updated his résumé and sent it to a dozen New York firms, all of which rejected him. He then tried six companies in his Ohio hometown and eventually landed a position. Walter, by contrast, spiraled into hopelessness: “I got fired because I can’t perform under pressure,” he thought. “I’m not cut out for finance. The economy will take years to recover.” Even as the market improved, he didn’t look for another job; he ended up moving back in with his parents.
Douglas and Walter (actually composites based on interviewees) stand at opposite ends of the continuum of reactions to failure. The Douglases of the world bounce back after a brief period of malaise; within a year they’ve grown because of the experience. The Walters go from sadness to depression to a paralyzing fear of the future. Yet failure is a nearly inevitable part of work; and along with dashed romance, it is one of life’s most common traumas. People like Walter are almost certain to find their careers stymied, and companies full of such employees are doomed in hard times. It is people like Douglas who rise to the top, and whom organizations must recruit and retain in order to succeed. But how can you tell who is a Walter and who is a Douglas? And can Walters become Douglases? Can resilience be measured and taught?
Thirty years of scientific research has put the answers to these questions within our reach. We have learned not only how to distinguish those who will grow after failure from those who will collapse, but also how to build the skills of people in the latter category. I have worked with colleagues from around the world to develop a program for teaching resilience. It is now being tested in an organization of 1.1 million people where trauma is more common and more severe than in any corporate setting: the U.S. Army. Its members may struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but thousands of them also experience post-traumatic growth. Our goal is to employ resilience training to reduce the number of those who struggle and increase the number of those who grow.
We believe that businesspeople can draw lessons from this approach, particularly in times of failure and stagnation. Working with both individual soldiers (employees) and drill sergeants (managers), we are helping to create an army of Douglases who can turn their most difficult experiences into catalysts for improved performance.
Optimism Is the Key
Although I’m now called the father of positive psychology, I came to it the long, hard way, through many years of research on failure and helplessness. In the late 1960s I was part of the team that discovered “learned helplessness.” We found that dogs, rats, mice, and even cockroaches that experienced mildly painful shock over which they had no control would eventually just accept it, with no attempt to escape. It was next shown that human beings do the same thing. In an experiment published in 1975 by Donald Hiroto and me and replicated many times since, subjects are randomly divided into three groups. Those in the first are exposed to an annoying loud noise that they can stop by pushing a button in front of them. Those in the second hear the same noise but can’t turn it off, though they try hard. Those in the third, the control group, hear nothing at all. Later, typically the following day, the subjects are faced with a brand-new situation that again involves noise. To turn the noise off, all they have to do is move their hands about 12 inches. The people in the first and third groups figure this out and readily learn to avoid the noise. But those in the second group typically do nothing. In phase one they failed, realized they had no control, and became passive. In phase two, expecting more failure, they don’t even try to escape. They have learned helplessness.
Strangely, however, about a third of the animals and people who experience inescapable shocks or noise never become helpless. What is it about them that makes this so? Over 15 years of study, my colleagues and I discovered that the answer is optimism. We developed questionnaires and analyzed the content of verbatim speech and writing to assess “explanatory style” as optimistic or pessimistic. We discovered that people who don’t give up have a habit of interpreting setbacks as temporary, local, and changeable. (“It’s going away quickly; it’s just this one situation, and I can do something about it.”) That suggested how we might immunize people against learned helplessness, against depression and anxiety, and against giving up after failure: by teaching them to think like optimists. We created the Penn Resiliency Program, under the direction of Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham, of the University of Pennsylvania, for young adults and children. The program has been replicated in 21 diverse school settings—ranging from suburbs to inner cities, from Philadelphia to Beijing. We also created a 10-day program in which teachers learn techniques for becoming more optimistic in their own lives and how to teach those techniques to their students. We’ve found that it reduces depression and anxiety in the children under their care. (Another way we teach positive psychology is through the master of applied positive psychology, or MAPP, degree program, now in its sixth year at Penn.)
In November 2008, when the legendary General George W. Casey, Jr., the army chief of staff and former commander of the multinational force in Iraq, asked me what positive psychology had to say about soldiers’ problems, I offered a simple answer: How human beings react to extreme adversity is normally distributed. On one end are the people who fall apart into PTSD, depression, and even suicide.
In the middle are most people, who at first react with symptoms of depression and anxiety but within a month or so are, by physical and psychological measures, back where they were before the trauma. That is resilience. On the other end are people who show post-traumatic growth. They, too, first experience depression and anxiety, often exhibiting full-blown PTSD, but within a year they are better off than they were before the trauma. These are the people of whom Friedrich Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
I told General Casey that the army could shift its distribution toward the growth end by teaching psychological skills to stop the downward spiral that often follows failure. He ordered the organization to measure resilience and teach positive psychology to create a force as fit psychologically as it is physically. This $145 million initiative, under the direction of Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, is called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) and consists of three components: a test for psychological fitness, self-improvement courses available following the test, and “master resilience training” (MRT) for drill sergeants. These are based on PERMA: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment—the building blocks of resilience and growth.
Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
by Martin E.P. Seligman
What business can learn from a pioneering army program for fostering post-traumatic growth
Douglas and Walter, two University of Pennsylvania MBA graduates, were laid off by their Wall Street companies 18 months ago. Both went into a tailspin: They were sad, listless, indecisive, and anxious about the future. For Douglas, the mood was transient. After two weeks he told himself, “It’s not you; it’s the economy going through a bad patch. I’m good at what I do, and there will be a market for my skills.” He updated his résumé and sent it to a dozen New York firms, all of which rejected him. He then tried six companies in his Ohio hometown and eventually landed a position. Walter, by contrast, spiraled into hopelessness: “I got fired because I can’t perform under pressure,” he thought. “I’m not cut out for finance. The economy will take years to recover.” Even as the market improved, he didn’t look for another job; he ended up moving back in with his parents.
Douglas and Walter (actually composites based on interviewees) stand at opposite ends of the continuum of reactions to failure. The Douglases of the world bounce back after a brief period of malaise; within a year they’ve grown because of the experience. The Walters go from sadness to depression to a paralyzing fear of the future. Yet failure is a nearly inevitable part of work; and along with dashed romance, it is one of life’s most common traumas. People like Walter are almost certain to find their careers stymied, and companies full of such employees are doomed in hard times. It is people like Douglas who rise to the top, and whom organizations must recruit and retain in order to succeed. But how can you tell who is a Walter and who is a Douglas? And can Walters become Douglases? Can resilience be measured and taught?
Thirty years of scientific research has put the answers to these questions within our reach. We have learned not only how to distinguish those who will grow after failure from those who will collapse, but also how to build the skills of people in the latter category. I have worked with colleagues from around the world to develop a program for teaching resilience. It is now being tested in an organization of 1.1 million people where trauma is more common and more severe than in any corporate setting: the U.S. Army. Its members may struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but thousands of them also experience post-traumatic growth. Our goal is to employ resilience training to reduce the number of those who struggle and increase the number of those who grow.
We believe that businesspeople can draw lessons from this approach, particularly in times of failure and stagnation. Working with both individual soldiers (employees) and drill sergeants (managers), we are helping to create an army of Douglases who can turn their most difficult experiences into catalysts for improved performance.
Optimism Is the Key
Although I’m now called the father of positive psychology, I came to it the long, hard way, through many years of research on failure and helplessness. In the late 1960s I was part of the team that discovered “learned helplessness.” We found that dogs, rats, mice, and even cockroaches that experienced mildly painful shock over which they had no control would eventually just accept it, with no attempt to escape. It was next shown that human beings do the same thing. In an experiment published in 1975 by Donald Hiroto and me and replicated many times since, subjects are randomly divided into three groups. Those in the first are exposed to an annoying loud noise that they can stop by pushing a button in front of them. Those in the second hear the same noise but can’t turn it off, though they try hard. Those in the third, the control group, hear nothing at all. Later, typically the following day, the subjects are faced with a brand-new situation that again involves noise. To turn the noise off, all they have to do is move their hands about 12 inches. The people in the first and third groups figure this out and readily learn to avoid the noise. But those in the second group typically do nothing. In phase one they failed, realized they had no control, and became passive. In phase two, expecting more failure, they don’t even try to escape. They have learned helplessness.
Strangely, however, about a third of the animals and people who experience inescapable shocks or noise never become helpless. What is it about them that makes this so? Over 15 years of study, my colleagues and I discovered that the answer is optimism. We developed questionnaires and analyzed the content of verbatim speech and writing to assess “explanatory style” as optimistic or pessimistic. We discovered that people who don’t give up have a habit of interpreting setbacks as temporary, local, and changeable. (“It’s going away quickly; it’s just this one situation, and I can do something about it.”) That suggested how we might immunize people against learned helplessness, against depression and anxiety, and against giving up after failure: by teaching them to think like optimists. We created the Penn Resiliency Program, under the direction of Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham, of the University of Pennsylvania, for young adults and children. The program has been replicated in 21 diverse school settings—ranging from suburbs to inner cities, from Philadelphia to Beijing. We also created a 10-day program in which teachers learn techniques for becoming more optimistic in their own lives and how to teach those techniques to their students. We’ve found that it reduces depression and anxiety in the children under their care. (Another way we teach positive psychology is through the master of applied positive psychology, or MAPP, degree program, now in its sixth year at Penn.)
In November 2008, when the legendary General George W. Casey, Jr., the army chief of staff and former commander of the multinational force in Iraq, asked me what positive psychology had to say about soldiers’ problems, I offered a simple answer: How human beings react to extreme adversity is normally distributed. On one end are the people who fall apart into PTSD, depression, and even suicide.
In the middle are most people, who at first react with symptoms of depression and anxiety but within a month or so are, by physical and psychological measures, back where they were before the trauma. That is resilience. On the other end are people who show post-traumatic growth. They, too, first experience depression and anxiety, often exhibiting full-blown PTSD, but within a year they are better off than they were before the trauma. These are the people of whom Friedrich Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
I told General Casey that the army could shift its distribution toward the growth end by teaching psychological skills to stop the downward spiral that often follows failure. He ordered the organization to measure resilience and teach positive psychology to create a force as fit psychologically as it is physically. This $145 million initiative, under the direction of Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum, is called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) and consists of three components: a test for psychological fitness, self-improvement courses available following the test, and “master resilience training” (MRT) for drill sergeants. These are based on PERMA: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment—the building blocks of resilience and growth.
Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
HBR-Magazine article-Marketing-2011
Why Most Product Launches Fail
by Joan Schneider and Julie Hall
Getting attention for a new offering is a big challenge. Five causes of flops—and how to avoid them
As partners in a firm that specializes in product launches, we regularly get calls from entrepreneurs and brand managers seeking help with their “revolutionary” products. After listening politely, we ask about the research supporting their claims. The classic response? “We haven’t done the research yet, but we know anecdotally that it works and is totally safe.” We’ve been fielding these calls for so long that we can often tell from one conversation whether the launch will succeed.
Can You Hear Me Now? One of Our Biggest Misses
Most won’t. According to a leading market research firm, about 75% of consumer packaged goods and retail products fail to earn even $7.5 million during their first year. This is in part because of the intransigence of consumer shopping habits. The consultant Jack Trout has found that American families, on average, repeatedly buy the same 150 items, which constitute as much as 85% of their household needs; it’s hard to get something new on the radar. Even P&G routinely whiffs with product rollouts. Less than 3% of new consumer packaged goods exceed first-year sales of $50 million—considered the benchmark of a highly successful launch. And products that start out strong may have trouble sustaining success: We looked at more than 70 top products in the Most Memorable New Product Launch survey (which we help conduct) for the years 2002 through 2008. A dozen of them are already off the market.
Remember Any of These Short-lived Successes?
Numerous factors can cause new products to fail. (See the sidebar “40 Ways to Crash a Product Launch.”) The biggest problem we’ve encountered is lack of preparation: Companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game. Here are five other frequent, and frequently fatal, flaws.
40 Ways to Crash a Product Launch
Flaw 1: The company can’t support fast growth.
The Lesson: Have a plan to ramp up quickly if the product takes off.
Mosquito Magnet
In 2000 we worked with American Biophysics on the launch of its Mosquito Magnet, which uses carbon dioxide to lure mosquitoes into a trap.
The timing was perfect: The West Nile virus scare had elevated mosquitoes from irritating nuisances to life-threatening disease carriers.
Mosquito Magnet quickly became one of the top-selling products in the Frontgate catalog and at Home Depot. But American Biophysics proved more adept at killing mosquitoes than at running a fast-growing consumer products company. When it expanded manufacturing from its low-volume Rhode Island facility to a mass-production plant in China, quality dropped. Consumers became angry, and a product that was saving lives almost went off the market. American Biophysics, which had once had $70 million in annual revenue, was sold to Woodstream for the bargain-basement price of $6 million. Mosquito Magnet is making money for Woodstream today, but the shareholders who originally funded the device have little to show for its belated success.
Flaw 2: The product falls short of claims and gets bashed.
The Lesson: Delay your launch until the product is really ready.
Microsoft Windows Vista
In 2007, when Microsoft launched Windows Vista, the media and the public had high expectations. So did the company, which allotted $500 million for marketing and predicted that 50% of users would run the premium edition within two years. But the software had so many compatibility and performance problems that even Microsoft’s most loyal customers revolted. Vista flopped, and Apple lampooned it in an ad campaign (“I’m a Mac”), causing many consumers to believe that Vista had even more problems than it did.
If Vista were launched today, the outcome might be even worse, owing to the rising popularity of Twitter and YouTube and the prevalence of Facebook “hate” pages. As social media and user-generated reviews proliferate, the power of negative feedback will only increase—making it even more imperative that products be ready before they hit the market.
Flaw 3: The new item exists in “product limbo.”
The Lesson: Test the product to make sure its differences will sway buyers.
Coca-Cola C2
For its biggest launch since Diet Coke, Coca-Cola identified a new market: 20- to 40-year-old men who liked the taste of Coke (but not its calories and carbs) and liked the no-calorie aspect of Diet Coke (but not its taste or feminine image). C2, which had half the calories and carbs and all the taste of original Coke, was introduced in 2004 with a $50 million advertising campaign.
However, the budget couldn’t overcome the fact that C2’s benefits weren’t distinctive enough. Men rejected the hybrid drink; they wanted full flavor with no calories or carbs, not half the calories and carbs. And the low-carb trend turned out to be short-lived. (Positioning a product to leverage a fad is a common mistake.)
Why didn’t these issues come up before the launch? Sometimes market research is skewed by asking the wrong questions or rendered useless by failing to look objectively at the results. New products can take on a life of their own within an organization, becoming so hyped that there’s no turning back. Coca-Cola’s management ultimately deemed C2 a failure. Worldwide case volume for all three drinks grew by only 2% in 2004 (and growth in North America was flat), suggesting that C2’s few sales came mostly at the expense of Coke and Diet Coke. The company learned from its mistake, though: A year later it launched Coke Zero, a no-calorie, full-flavor product that can be found on shelves—and in men’s hands—today.
Flaw 4: The product defines a new category and requires substantial consumer education—but doesn’t get it.
The Lesson: If consumers can’t quickly grasp how to use your product, it’s toast.
Febreze Scentstories
In 2004 P&G launched a scent “player” that looked like a CD player and emitted scents (contained on $5.99 discs with names like “Relaxing in the Hammock”) every 30 minutes. The company hired the singer Shania Twain for its launch commercials. This confused consumers, many of whom thought the device involved both music and scents, and the ambiguity caused Scentstories to fail.
When a product is truly revolutionary, celebrity spokespeople may do more harm than good. A strong educational campaign may be a better way to go. The product’s features provide the messages to build brand voice, aided by research and development teams, outside experts, and consumers who’ve tested and love the product.
Flaw 5: The product is revolutionary, but there’s no market for it.
The Lesson: Don’t gloss over the basic questions “Who will buy this and at what price?”
Segway
The buzz spiraled out of control when news of a secret new product code-named Ginger and created by the renowned inventor Dean Kamen leaked to the press nearly 12 months before the product’s release. Kamen, it was said, was coming up with nothing less than an alternative to the automobile. When investors and the public learned that the invention was actually a technologically advanced motorized scooter, they were dumbfounded. Ads showing riders who looked like circus performers perching on weird-looking chariots didn’t help, nor did the price tag—$5,000. Instead of selling 10,000 machines a week, as Kamen had predicted, the Segway sold about 24,000 in its first five years. Now it sells for far less to police forces, urban tour guides, and warehouse companies, not the general public. If there was ever a product to disprove the axiom “If you build it, they will come,” it’s the Segway.
Some of these problems are more fixable than others. Flaws 1 and 2 are largely matters of timing: If the launches of Mosquito Magnet and Microsoft Vista had been postponed, the manufacturing and quality problems might have been resolved. Even though companies may be wedded to long-established or seasonal launch dates, they would do well to delay if waiting might increase the odds of success. Flaws 3, 4, and 5 are trickier, because they relate more directly to the product itself. Managers must learn to engage the brand team and marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, and web professionals early on, thus gaining valuable feedback that can help steer a launch or, if necessary, abort it. Hearing opposing opinions can be painful—but not as painful as launching a product that’s not right for the market or has no market at all.
by Joan Schneider and Julie Hall
Getting attention for a new offering is a big challenge. Five causes of flops—and how to avoid them
As partners in a firm that specializes in product launches, we regularly get calls from entrepreneurs and brand managers seeking help with their “revolutionary” products. After listening politely, we ask about the research supporting their claims. The classic response? “We haven’t done the research yet, but we know anecdotally that it works and is totally safe.” We’ve been fielding these calls for so long that we can often tell from one conversation whether the launch will succeed.
Can You Hear Me Now? One of Our Biggest Misses
Most won’t. According to a leading market research firm, about 75% of consumer packaged goods and retail products fail to earn even $7.5 million during their first year. This is in part because of the intransigence of consumer shopping habits. The consultant Jack Trout has found that American families, on average, repeatedly buy the same 150 items, which constitute as much as 85% of their household needs; it’s hard to get something new on the radar. Even P&G routinely whiffs with product rollouts. Less than 3% of new consumer packaged goods exceed first-year sales of $50 million—considered the benchmark of a highly successful launch. And products that start out strong may have trouble sustaining success: We looked at more than 70 top products in the Most Memorable New Product Launch survey (which we help conduct) for the years 2002 through 2008. A dozen of them are already off the market.
Remember Any of These Short-lived Successes?
Numerous factors can cause new products to fail. (See the sidebar “40 Ways to Crash a Product Launch.”) The biggest problem we’ve encountered is lack of preparation: Companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game. Here are five other frequent, and frequently fatal, flaws.
40 Ways to Crash a Product Launch
Flaw 1: The company can’t support fast growth.
The Lesson: Have a plan to ramp up quickly if the product takes off.
Mosquito Magnet
In 2000 we worked with American Biophysics on the launch of its Mosquito Magnet, which uses carbon dioxide to lure mosquitoes into a trap.
The timing was perfect: The West Nile virus scare had elevated mosquitoes from irritating nuisances to life-threatening disease carriers.
Mosquito Magnet quickly became one of the top-selling products in the Frontgate catalog and at Home Depot. But American Biophysics proved more adept at killing mosquitoes than at running a fast-growing consumer products company. When it expanded manufacturing from its low-volume Rhode Island facility to a mass-production plant in China, quality dropped. Consumers became angry, and a product that was saving lives almost went off the market. American Biophysics, which had once had $70 million in annual revenue, was sold to Woodstream for the bargain-basement price of $6 million. Mosquito Magnet is making money for Woodstream today, but the shareholders who originally funded the device have little to show for its belated success.
Flaw 2: The product falls short of claims and gets bashed.
The Lesson: Delay your launch until the product is really ready.
Microsoft Windows Vista
In 2007, when Microsoft launched Windows Vista, the media and the public had high expectations. So did the company, which allotted $500 million for marketing and predicted that 50% of users would run the premium edition within two years. But the software had so many compatibility and performance problems that even Microsoft’s most loyal customers revolted. Vista flopped, and Apple lampooned it in an ad campaign (“I’m a Mac”), causing many consumers to believe that Vista had even more problems than it did.
If Vista were launched today, the outcome might be even worse, owing to the rising popularity of Twitter and YouTube and the prevalence of Facebook “hate” pages. As social media and user-generated reviews proliferate, the power of negative feedback will only increase—making it even more imperative that products be ready before they hit the market.
Flaw 3: The new item exists in “product limbo.”
The Lesson: Test the product to make sure its differences will sway buyers.
Coca-Cola C2
For its biggest launch since Diet Coke, Coca-Cola identified a new market: 20- to 40-year-old men who liked the taste of Coke (but not its calories and carbs) and liked the no-calorie aspect of Diet Coke (but not its taste or feminine image). C2, which had half the calories and carbs and all the taste of original Coke, was introduced in 2004 with a $50 million advertising campaign.
However, the budget couldn’t overcome the fact that C2’s benefits weren’t distinctive enough. Men rejected the hybrid drink; they wanted full flavor with no calories or carbs, not half the calories and carbs. And the low-carb trend turned out to be short-lived. (Positioning a product to leverage a fad is a common mistake.)
Why didn’t these issues come up before the launch? Sometimes market research is skewed by asking the wrong questions or rendered useless by failing to look objectively at the results. New products can take on a life of their own within an organization, becoming so hyped that there’s no turning back. Coca-Cola’s management ultimately deemed C2 a failure. Worldwide case volume for all three drinks grew by only 2% in 2004 (and growth in North America was flat), suggesting that C2’s few sales came mostly at the expense of Coke and Diet Coke. The company learned from its mistake, though: A year later it launched Coke Zero, a no-calorie, full-flavor product that can be found on shelves—and in men’s hands—today.
Flaw 4: The product defines a new category and requires substantial consumer education—but doesn’t get it.
The Lesson: If consumers can’t quickly grasp how to use your product, it’s toast.
Febreze Scentstories
In 2004 P&G launched a scent “player” that looked like a CD player and emitted scents (contained on $5.99 discs with names like “Relaxing in the Hammock”) every 30 minutes. The company hired the singer Shania Twain for its launch commercials. This confused consumers, many of whom thought the device involved both music and scents, and the ambiguity caused Scentstories to fail.
When a product is truly revolutionary, celebrity spokespeople may do more harm than good. A strong educational campaign may be a better way to go. The product’s features provide the messages to build brand voice, aided by research and development teams, outside experts, and consumers who’ve tested and love the product.
Flaw 5: The product is revolutionary, but there’s no market for it.
The Lesson: Don’t gloss over the basic questions “Who will buy this and at what price?”
Segway
The buzz spiraled out of control when news of a secret new product code-named Ginger and created by the renowned inventor Dean Kamen leaked to the press nearly 12 months before the product’s release. Kamen, it was said, was coming up with nothing less than an alternative to the automobile. When investors and the public learned that the invention was actually a technologically advanced motorized scooter, they were dumbfounded. Ads showing riders who looked like circus performers perching on weird-looking chariots didn’t help, nor did the price tag—$5,000. Instead of selling 10,000 machines a week, as Kamen had predicted, the Segway sold about 24,000 in its first five years. Now it sells for far less to police forces, urban tour guides, and warehouse companies, not the general public. If there was ever a product to disprove the axiom “If you build it, they will come,” it’s the Segway.
Some of these problems are more fixable than others. Flaws 1 and 2 are largely matters of timing: If the launches of Mosquito Magnet and Microsoft Vista had been postponed, the manufacturing and quality problems might have been resolved. Even though companies may be wedded to long-established or seasonal launch dates, they would do well to delay if waiting might increase the odds of success. Flaws 3, 4, and 5 are trickier, because they relate more directly to the product itself. Managers must learn to engage the brand team and marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, and web professionals early on, thus gaining valuable feedback that can help steer a launch or, if necessary, abort it. Hearing opposing opinions can be painful—but not as painful as launching a product that’s not right for the market or has no market at all.
HBR-Magazine article-2011-Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
February 25, 2011
by Heidi Grant Halvorson |
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.
3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.
4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.
5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't.
Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.
9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.
Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson
February 25, 2011
by Heidi Grant Halvorson |
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.
3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.
4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.
5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.
7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.
To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't.
Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.
8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.
9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.
It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.
Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Cloud Computing-Explained-Video 2011
http://www.silicon.com/videos/view/features/cloud-computing-explained-61446145/
Friday, March 18, 2011
PR-PUBLIC RELATIONS/MARKETING-2011
Beyond Beaches and Pyramids: Mexico Turns to PR to Repair Its Tarnished Image
Ever since Felipe Calderón Hinojosa became president in 2006, Mexico has waged a determined battle against organized crime -- a war against drug trafficking that has cost the lives of 23,000 people. Mexico’s image abroad has deteriorated not only because of this battle, which has involved troops and police sent into areas controlled by drug cartels, but also because of the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, or “swine flu,” in April 2009. In February, the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Tourism declared that Mexico was projecting an image of insecurity and unhealthiness. That led Calderón to announce in June the launch an unprecedented public relations campaign to clean up the country’s image, and to promote Mexico as a destination for foreign investment and tourism.
According to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico attracts more foreign tourists than any other country in Latin America. But in 2009, its tourism revenue declined by 15%, notes the country's Tourism Ministry. In 2010, the country expects 22.6 million tourists, versus the 21.4 million who visited in 2009. The projected figure would bring tourism back in line with the numbers seen in 2008. Yet violence and drug trafficking are eroding Mexico’s image as an idyllic vacation destination, experts say.
Fausto Pretelin Muñoz, professor of international marketing at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, notes that because of intense media coverage, many people believe that nothing occurs in Mexico but shootings and beheadings, and that negative image has a sharp effect on tourism. According to Pretelin, Mexico’s inability to develop a clear communications strategy to support the army’s battle against organized crime means that outbreaks of violence will only cause fear among visitors.
Carlos Chávez, professor of communications at Anahuac University and a political communications consultant, says that Mexico is negatively impacted whenever a foreigner has a bad experience there and then spreads the word at home. “Dirty, polluted beaches; robberies and assaults on public roads or in public transportation; sudden appearances of demonstrators, criminals and armed forces at a hotel; physical disturbances and confrontations during traditional celebrations such as the Guelaguetza” in Oaxaca state are the bad impressions that visitors mention most often, he notes.
News about violence and drug trafficking can similarly increase risks to foreign direct investment. Chávez says it is undeniable that suppliers of capital -- both foreign and domestic -- must evaluate the costs and benefits of their investments, as well as the risks involved. “They must decide if the financial returns they expect to derive justify running a certain degree of risk if their managers are kidnapped, their offices and vehicles are attacked, and their goods are robbed. If the risk is very high, it is more likely that they will direct their investments to another country.” Nevertheless, Chávez says, “Investors are concerned about the level of security in a country, but what matters more when making decisions are the financial issues: profitability, tax regimes, legal certainty.”
A degree of disinformation exists about Mexico’s reality, so a campaign to correct that perception is needed, Pretelin, Chávez and other experts say. “A public relations agency committed to this project would try to explain the harsh nature of the war against drug trafficking,” Pretelin notes, “and explain what organized crime consists of, since the manifestations of this situation are different in Mexico than they are in other countries and situations.”
Enlisting the Best PR Agencies
When President Calderón made his PR campaign announcement during a working trip through the state of Baja California, he noted that Mexico’s image needed to be relaunched in every respect -- not only for traditional tourists, but also at travel exhibitions and conventions, and in the international communications media, specialized magazines, and non-tourism publications. He didn’t offer specifics, saying only that he would put the best PR agencies to work in the near future.
“It is not just about placing [stories about] lots of beaches and pyramids in the communication media around the world,” Calderón said. Rather, it means “explaining the problems that we have, and how we deal with them.” According to Chávez, such a campaign will not only boost tourism, but could also “help improve the image of the government itself, and more specifically of President Calderón, in an effort to win international respect and credibility."
Pretelin says a campaign of this sort could also target decision-makers such as business executives and politicians. He suggests that a PR campaign is more effective when it has an element of surprise, and people have few preconceptions about what you’re doing. “The fact that in this case they have announced a launch says this is an extreme situation that is very complicated and must be addressed. You have to explain to people what the government requires people to know, rather than be limited by the agendas of the communications media. Terror has spread, generated by the reaction to organized crime, and the social perception could exist that these [criminal] groups have no limits, that they are prepared to do anything to protect their interests.”
Pretelin argues that such a campaign is intended to send an official message, and not necessarily what the media want to hear from the government. “Since it is a public relations campaign, its message is not as obvious as one in an advertising campaign. The agency hired is in charge of getting closer to opinion leaders and other global media, and asking them to communicate the official version.” He adds that it is important to clarify that the official version is not necessarily a lie or a manipulation; it is simply the view of the facts that is closest to the interpretation desired by the federal government. It enables everyone to formulate their own views. “The message attempts to soften the way information is perceived. Published photos and images speak for themselves, and they may need some nuances that explain the violence and terror that they present.” He warns, however, “If the official version, whether presented in advertising or in PR campaigns, is not close to reality, then the campaign will be completely useless.”
Pretelin says it is still an open question what kind of impact Mexico’s image of insecurity is having on foreign investment. He believes people should look into what would have happened to foreign direct investment levels “if this crime wave had not broken out.” The only relevant data are from the Ministry of the Economy, which forecasts US$18 billion in foreign direct investment this year, compared with US$11.42 billion in 2009 and US$18.60 billion in 2008.
A Prototype, from Colombia
Colombia’s campaign to reverse an atmosphere of insecurity linked to drug trafficking can serve as a prototype for Mexico, Chávez says. Its goal was to gain credibility in the eyes of the U.S. public and its leaders during the administration of President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 2000. Colombia wanted to persuade the U.S. government not to impose economic sanctions, and obtain more assistance in the battle against drug trafficking.
That Colombian campaign was aimed largely at the print media. Full-page advertisements appeared in such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, El Nuevo Herald and El Diario La Prensa (the last two of those in Spanish). Headlines said, “America: We are going to clean up our country for the benefit of our children, not just for yours.” In text, 10 of the 17 paragraphs explained the drug problem, and what the Colombian government was doing to improve the situation. Experts stress that the Colombian government wasn’t trying to attract foreign tourism, but to win the sympathy of Washington.
Chávez notes that communications campaigns have already been undertaken for numerous goals in Mexico: to attract foreign tourists; to become the site of an international sporting event or conference; and simply to improve the country’s international image. But the violence and insecurity have reached unprecedented levels.
What Mexico is living through is comparable to what the United States experienced during Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, when gangs smuggling alcoholic beverages fought each other, argues Chávez. “For more than ten years, American cities experienced a war in the streets. There isn’t any record of the U.S. government having undertaken a specific image campaign; rather, what it did throughout that period was to strengthen the idea that it was doing the right thing for the health of the American people. From that point on, the country emerged as a great economic power. The United States did not need to clean up its image for anyone, either in the battle that it waged against the gangsters of alcohol, or much less to attract tourism.”
The Ideal Campaign
Pretelin believes that Mexico needs to figure out where to distribute its message that “Mexico is a safe place to visit.” He believes it makes sense ideally to run a campaign targeted at those countries that send a larger number of tourists to Mexico. “A market research agency must find out how people in those countries react when they hear the word ‘Mexico.’ Very probably, the answer is ‘violence,’ ‘insecurity’ and/or ‘drug trafficking.’ They must undertake their campaign using that information; they have to find a way to break that [mental] association.”
Pretelin adds that “advertising campaigns are superficial, while PR campaigns are a craft, and they go very deep. If the government seeks to improve its image before the end of this six-year [Mexican presidential] administration, then only an advertising campaign could help. A solution involving a public relations campaign will take a long time since it would not have any results during the current administration,” which runs until 2012.
Chávez proposes two campaigns and one process. First, he suggests “a ‘surgical’ campaign for promoting foreign tourism in Mexico. [It would be] oriented generally at potential visitors; above all at companies, agencies, organizations, institutions and groups associated with tourism that is recreational and historical in nature; linked to medicine, the arts, the environment, business, conferences, sports and entertainment. It would be worthwhile to take into account to what degree [these groups of tourists] can be differentiated in terms of their activity, age, areas of interest, place of origin, size, and importance for the tourism sector.”
Second, another campaign should be targeted at opinion leaders in the international media, as well as at governments in general. “This would be designed to gain credibility, trust and respect for the government of Mexico in its battle against organized crime, especially against drug traffickers.”
Finally, Mexico needs to undertake “an educational and cultural process targeted at all Mexicans, especially those who live in areas where there is a lot of tourism. That way, whether they work in the hotel industry or they don’t, people become aware of the role that they can -- and must -- play as hosts for foreign visitors. That way, they can visualize what they and all Mexicans can gain” from tourism, he says.
Ever since Felipe Calderón Hinojosa became president in 2006, Mexico has waged a determined battle against organized crime -- a war against drug trafficking that has cost the lives of 23,000 people. Mexico’s image abroad has deteriorated not only because of this battle, which has involved troops and police sent into areas controlled by drug cartels, but also because of the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, or “swine flu,” in April 2009. In February, the Mexican Council for the Promotion of Tourism declared that Mexico was projecting an image of insecurity and unhealthiness. That led Calderón to announce in June the launch an unprecedented public relations campaign to clean up the country’s image, and to promote Mexico as a destination for foreign investment and tourism.
According to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico attracts more foreign tourists than any other country in Latin America. But in 2009, its tourism revenue declined by 15%, notes the country's Tourism Ministry. In 2010, the country expects 22.6 million tourists, versus the 21.4 million who visited in 2009. The projected figure would bring tourism back in line with the numbers seen in 2008. Yet violence and drug trafficking are eroding Mexico’s image as an idyllic vacation destination, experts say.
Fausto Pretelin Muñoz, professor of international marketing at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, notes that because of intense media coverage, many people believe that nothing occurs in Mexico but shootings and beheadings, and that negative image has a sharp effect on tourism. According to Pretelin, Mexico’s inability to develop a clear communications strategy to support the army’s battle against organized crime means that outbreaks of violence will only cause fear among visitors.
Carlos Chávez, professor of communications at Anahuac University and a political communications consultant, says that Mexico is negatively impacted whenever a foreigner has a bad experience there and then spreads the word at home. “Dirty, polluted beaches; robberies and assaults on public roads or in public transportation; sudden appearances of demonstrators, criminals and armed forces at a hotel; physical disturbances and confrontations during traditional celebrations such as the Guelaguetza” in Oaxaca state are the bad impressions that visitors mention most often, he notes.
News about violence and drug trafficking can similarly increase risks to foreign direct investment. Chávez says it is undeniable that suppliers of capital -- both foreign and domestic -- must evaluate the costs and benefits of their investments, as well as the risks involved. “They must decide if the financial returns they expect to derive justify running a certain degree of risk if their managers are kidnapped, their offices and vehicles are attacked, and their goods are robbed. If the risk is very high, it is more likely that they will direct their investments to another country.” Nevertheless, Chávez says, “Investors are concerned about the level of security in a country, but what matters more when making decisions are the financial issues: profitability, tax regimes, legal certainty.”
A degree of disinformation exists about Mexico’s reality, so a campaign to correct that perception is needed, Pretelin, Chávez and other experts say. “A public relations agency committed to this project would try to explain the harsh nature of the war against drug trafficking,” Pretelin notes, “and explain what organized crime consists of, since the manifestations of this situation are different in Mexico than they are in other countries and situations.”
Enlisting the Best PR Agencies
When President Calderón made his PR campaign announcement during a working trip through the state of Baja California, he noted that Mexico’s image needed to be relaunched in every respect -- not only for traditional tourists, but also at travel exhibitions and conventions, and in the international communications media, specialized magazines, and non-tourism publications. He didn’t offer specifics, saying only that he would put the best PR agencies to work in the near future.
“It is not just about placing [stories about] lots of beaches and pyramids in the communication media around the world,” Calderón said. Rather, it means “explaining the problems that we have, and how we deal with them.” According to Chávez, such a campaign will not only boost tourism, but could also “help improve the image of the government itself, and more specifically of President Calderón, in an effort to win international respect and credibility."
Pretelin says a campaign of this sort could also target decision-makers such as business executives and politicians. He suggests that a PR campaign is more effective when it has an element of surprise, and people have few preconceptions about what you’re doing. “The fact that in this case they have announced a launch says this is an extreme situation that is very complicated and must be addressed. You have to explain to people what the government requires people to know, rather than be limited by the agendas of the communications media. Terror has spread, generated by the reaction to organized crime, and the social perception could exist that these [criminal] groups have no limits, that they are prepared to do anything to protect their interests.”
Pretelin argues that such a campaign is intended to send an official message, and not necessarily what the media want to hear from the government. “Since it is a public relations campaign, its message is not as obvious as one in an advertising campaign. The agency hired is in charge of getting closer to opinion leaders and other global media, and asking them to communicate the official version.” He adds that it is important to clarify that the official version is not necessarily a lie or a manipulation; it is simply the view of the facts that is closest to the interpretation desired by the federal government. It enables everyone to formulate their own views. “The message attempts to soften the way information is perceived. Published photos and images speak for themselves, and they may need some nuances that explain the violence and terror that they present.” He warns, however, “If the official version, whether presented in advertising or in PR campaigns, is not close to reality, then the campaign will be completely useless.”
Pretelin says it is still an open question what kind of impact Mexico’s image of insecurity is having on foreign investment. He believes people should look into what would have happened to foreign direct investment levels “if this crime wave had not broken out.” The only relevant data are from the Ministry of the Economy, which forecasts US$18 billion in foreign direct investment this year, compared with US$11.42 billion in 2009 and US$18.60 billion in 2008.
A Prototype, from Colombia
Colombia’s campaign to reverse an atmosphere of insecurity linked to drug trafficking can serve as a prototype for Mexico, Chávez says. Its goal was to gain credibility in the eyes of the U.S. public and its leaders during the administration of President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 2000. Colombia wanted to persuade the U.S. government not to impose economic sanctions, and obtain more assistance in the battle against drug trafficking.
That Colombian campaign was aimed largely at the print media. Full-page advertisements appeared in such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, El Nuevo Herald and El Diario La Prensa (the last two of those in Spanish). Headlines said, “America: We are going to clean up our country for the benefit of our children, not just for yours.” In text, 10 of the 17 paragraphs explained the drug problem, and what the Colombian government was doing to improve the situation. Experts stress that the Colombian government wasn’t trying to attract foreign tourism, but to win the sympathy of Washington.
Chávez notes that communications campaigns have already been undertaken for numerous goals in Mexico: to attract foreign tourists; to become the site of an international sporting event or conference; and simply to improve the country’s international image. But the violence and insecurity have reached unprecedented levels.
What Mexico is living through is comparable to what the United States experienced during Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, when gangs smuggling alcoholic beverages fought each other, argues Chávez. “For more than ten years, American cities experienced a war in the streets. There isn’t any record of the U.S. government having undertaken a specific image campaign; rather, what it did throughout that period was to strengthen the idea that it was doing the right thing for the health of the American people. From that point on, the country emerged as a great economic power. The United States did not need to clean up its image for anyone, either in the battle that it waged against the gangsters of alcohol, or much less to attract tourism.”
The Ideal Campaign
Pretelin believes that Mexico needs to figure out where to distribute its message that “Mexico is a safe place to visit.” He believes it makes sense ideally to run a campaign targeted at those countries that send a larger number of tourists to Mexico. “A market research agency must find out how people in those countries react when they hear the word ‘Mexico.’ Very probably, the answer is ‘violence,’ ‘insecurity’ and/or ‘drug trafficking.’ They must undertake their campaign using that information; they have to find a way to break that [mental] association.”
Pretelin adds that “advertising campaigns are superficial, while PR campaigns are a craft, and they go very deep. If the government seeks to improve its image before the end of this six-year [Mexican presidential] administration, then only an advertising campaign could help. A solution involving a public relations campaign will take a long time since it would not have any results during the current administration,” which runs until 2012.
Chávez proposes two campaigns and one process. First, he suggests “a ‘surgical’ campaign for promoting foreign tourism in Mexico. [It would be] oriented generally at potential visitors; above all at companies, agencies, organizations, institutions and groups associated with tourism that is recreational and historical in nature; linked to medicine, the arts, the environment, business, conferences, sports and entertainment. It would be worthwhile to take into account to what degree [these groups of tourists] can be differentiated in terms of their activity, age, areas of interest, place of origin, size, and importance for the tourism sector.”
Second, another campaign should be targeted at opinion leaders in the international media, as well as at governments in general. “This would be designed to gain credibility, trust and respect for the government of Mexico in its battle against organized crime, especially against drug traffickers.”
Finally, Mexico needs to undertake “an educational and cultural process targeted at all Mexicans, especially those who live in areas where there is a lot of tourism. That way, whether they work in the hotel industry or they don’t, people become aware of the role that they can -- and must -- play as hosts for foreign visitors. That way, they can visualize what they and all Mexicans can gain” from tourism, he says.
MARKETING ARTICLE-2011
Irritated or Remorseful? The Importance of Unsatisfied Customers’ Emotions
How many of us haven’t occasionally gone to a hotel or restaurant and felt cheated because the service didn’t meet our expectations or because the company made unrealistic promises? We all have been unhappy consumers at one time or another and have had different reactions.
The consequences can be negative for the service provider. An unsatisfied customer may abandon his or her relationship with, or speak negatively about, the service provider. The service provider’s next steps are vital, and can determine a consumer’s behavior in the future. A customer’s decision to abandon a relationship often relates not to the failure itself, but to the company’s inadequate response.
Yet not every unsatisfied customer communicates his or her feelings to the company. Some choose silence, making it impossible for the company to win back the customer’s trust, perhaps through discounts or apologies.
Consumers’ negative emotions are the subject of a recent study by researchers at the University of Valencia in Spain. “Consequences of consumer dissatisfaction: A study of hotel and restaurant services” was published in Universia-Business Review. Authors Enrique Bigné, Rafael Currás-Pérez and Isabel Sánchez Garcia begin with the supposition that these negative emotions have specific characteristics that determine how consumers react. They believe that understanding how these patterns of behavior reflect a predominant emotion -- in this case, anger versus remorse -- would be valuable for managers who want to restore service.
Anger versus Remorse
The authors chose anger and remorse because “those are the two emotions that usually come to the fore when the consumer experiences dissatisfaction.” The nature of these emotions, they explain, is very different. Anger involves the perception of a high level of responsibility and control that other people have over negative events. “These kinds of consumers feel that if they are exploited, they can experience feelings of violence, and focus on the unjust nature of the situation,” the researchers say.
Remorse is felt when people realize or imagine that they would have been better off if they had made another decision. For example, a tourist could feel remorse if he decided not to pay more for a room with a better view and later realizes that the extra charge would have been worthwhile. The typical response to remorse is for people to blame themselves and to have a strong desire to change the situation. While “angry people blame someone else -- the company or one of its employees -- for what has happened, remorseful people blame themselves for the unsatisfactory experience,” the authors say.
The contrasting nature of these emotions is reflected in the ways that customers complain about negative experiences and react to companies’ strategies to restore their trust. The authors studied hotels and restaurants because they involve “a high degree of pleasure, and one would expect that emotions would be heightened whenever consumers react to a negative experience.”
The researchers spoke to consumers in Spain who were at least 18 years old and who had had an unsatisfactory experience in the tourism sector in 2008. The researchers ultimately collected 660 valid responses and divided the participants according to the predominance of one emotion or the other.
Appearances Can Deceive
The responses demonstrated clearly that so-called "angry" consumers tend to complain more to the company verbally or formally, by filling out claim forms, asking for refunds, contacting consumer groups and undertaking legal action. “This outcome makes sense because angry people believe that the company is the cause of their undesirable condition, and that the company is the unjust party in this situation. They feel as if they are overwhelmed by their emotions, and that leads to a greater tendency to use their complaint as an escape valve for alleviating all the tension accumulated during the experience.”
Such a customer is likely to create situations that are more delicate for the company and its employees than customers who feel remorse. However, angry customers provide valuable information, giving companies an opportunity to rectify the problem and prevent recurrences.
The remorseful consumer, on the other hand, considers himself partially responsible for the service failure and empathizes more with the company’s employees. Such a consumer behaves more calmly and is more conciliatory about an unsatisfactory situation. Nevertheless, the authors warn that the apparent positive attitude presents a genuine danger for the company because such customers “do not complain and do not communicate their lack of satisfaction; they just fail to come back and they talk badly about the company.” As a result, the remorseful customer, unlike the angry one, “can pass unnoticed by the company, being equally dangerous in terms of negative behavior,” which complicates efforts to apply strategies for restoring confidence. In this sense, the authors say, “angry people are more transparent and easier to detect than remorseful ones, and the company can carry out compensation strategies more rapidly.”
Actions Speak Clearly
The authors recommend that managers make amends with dissatisfied customers. Companies should make every effort to reduce the likelihood that customers become angry or remorseful, not only through initiatives to improve service quality, but also by drawing up detailed maps for achieving that goal (known as “blueprinting”). They write, “It is also fundamental to develop strategies of segmentation and positioning that match the competitive advantages of the organization; companies must also communicate their positions in a clear way, promising people only those things that they really can fulfill.”
If consumers could compare a company’s services with those of its competitors, companies “could reduce the number of remorseful people by helping them make choices that are more satisfying.” For example, “a hotel that targets mainly families should not try to sell itself also to couples, since couples are usually looking for peace and quiet, and that is something harder to achieve whenever children are around. If the hotel emphasizes that it is for families that have children -- without trying to emphasize that it is also suitable for couples -- it will reduce the number of remorseful customers and, as a result, reduce negative behavioral consequences.” Because hotels need to offer impeccable service, “they cannot simultaneously satisfy every segment.”
The quality of every aspect of a customer’s experience needs to be planned appropriately. The authors recommend “actively listening to customers.” Service providers should offer advice as well as consider the customer’s needs, and not just attempt to sell the product. The authors cite the need for waiters to intervene so customers don’t order too much or too many kinds of food, which could lead to their having misgivings about their choices. Because customers often fail to express their lack of satisfaction, employees should ask customers if they are satisfied without being too aggressive about figuring out the answer.
The authors consider it worthwhile to train employees about observing external signals (attitudes, phrases, body language) that “reveal if a particular person is having second thoughts or is angry or has other emotions.” An entire area of psychological research analyzes the anatomical-physiological language of emotions so that other people can associate facial expressions with specific emotions. “Facial expressions such as raising the eyebrows or pinching the lips have been associated with feelings of anger,” the researchers note.
Assuming Total Responsibility
On the other hand, if an employee finds himself with a customer who is angry or has misgivings, he should try to restore trust. If someone has experienced remorse, the employee “should direct his efforts at reducing the feelings of guilt and responsibility that go along with the misgivings; for example, by making an apology and assuming total responsibility for the unsatisfactory result; recalling the differences from other alternatives in the market (minimizing the attractiveness of the competition); presenting this case as something isolated and infrequent; and offering compensation in the form of discount tickets.”
This should help soften the negative effect of remorse and any feelings that this person might abandon the service provider. Angry customers also have such feelings, but people who have misgivings are more aware of the existence of marketplace alternatives. “When he made his decision, this sort of consumer was better informed than the angry customer was” when he made his decision, the authors say. “The angry customer often has no other alternatives in mind, or simply doesn’t know that those other alternatives are more appealing than the one he chose in the first place.”
The authors suggest that managers carry out similar measures to restore service when the predominant emotion is anger. That’s because their research did not discover any differences between the two types of people when it comes to various service-restoration strategies. With both types of people, they write, “offering an apology and explaining the reasons for their dissatisfaction, and then saying what your company is going to do to resolve the problem, can be more effective approaches to softening negative emotions than offering people a discount or another sort of economic compensation.”
Companies should never provide silence instead of an explanation of an unsatisfactory customer experience. After all, their response determines whether they lose those customers and whether the customers spread negative word of mouth about their experiences.
Ultimately, managers should try to derive the greatest advantage from the experience, even if it has not met the customer’s expectations. They should try to use feedback in a process of continuous learning that enables them to prevent such situations from recurring. The authors suggest that managers establish a bi-directional, fluid system of communication -- from the personnel who contact the customer to management and then in reverse -- to enable the company to maximize the learning effect.
How many of us haven’t occasionally gone to a hotel or restaurant and felt cheated because the service didn’t meet our expectations or because the company made unrealistic promises? We all have been unhappy consumers at one time or another and have had different reactions.
The consequences can be negative for the service provider. An unsatisfied customer may abandon his or her relationship with, or speak negatively about, the service provider. The service provider’s next steps are vital, and can determine a consumer’s behavior in the future. A customer’s decision to abandon a relationship often relates not to the failure itself, but to the company’s inadequate response.
Yet not every unsatisfied customer communicates his or her feelings to the company. Some choose silence, making it impossible for the company to win back the customer’s trust, perhaps through discounts or apologies.
Consumers’ negative emotions are the subject of a recent study by researchers at the University of Valencia in Spain. “Consequences of consumer dissatisfaction: A study of hotel and restaurant services” was published in Universia-Business Review. Authors Enrique Bigné, Rafael Currás-Pérez and Isabel Sánchez Garcia begin with the supposition that these negative emotions have specific characteristics that determine how consumers react. They believe that understanding how these patterns of behavior reflect a predominant emotion -- in this case, anger versus remorse -- would be valuable for managers who want to restore service.
Anger versus Remorse
The authors chose anger and remorse because “those are the two emotions that usually come to the fore when the consumer experiences dissatisfaction.” The nature of these emotions, they explain, is very different. Anger involves the perception of a high level of responsibility and control that other people have over negative events. “These kinds of consumers feel that if they are exploited, they can experience feelings of violence, and focus on the unjust nature of the situation,” the researchers say.
Remorse is felt when people realize or imagine that they would have been better off if they had made another decision. For example, a tourist could feel remorse if he decided not to pay more for a room with a better view and later realizes that the extra charge would have been worthwhile. The typical response to remorse is for people to blame themselves and to have a strong desire to change the situation. While “angry people blame someone else -- the company or one of its employees -- for what has happened, remorseful people blame themselves for the unsatisfactory experience,” the authors say.
The contrasting nature of these emotions is reflected in the ways that customers complain about negative experiences and react to companies’ strategies to restore their trust. The authors studied hotels and restaurants because they involve “a high degree of pleasure, and one would expect that emotions would be heightened whenever consumers react to a negative experience.”
The researchers spoke to consumers in Spain who were at least 18 years old and who had had an unsatisfactory experience in the tourism sector in 2008. The researchers ultimately collected 660 valid responses and divided the participants according to the predominance of one emotion or the other.
Appearances Can Deceive
The responses demonstrated clearly that so-called "angry" consumers tend to complain more to the company verbally or formally, by filling out claim forms, asking for refunds, contacting consumer groups and undertaking legal action. “This outcome makes sense because angry people believe that the company is the cause of their undesirable condition, and that the company is the unjust party in this situation. They feel as if they are overwhelmed by their emotions, and that leads to a greater tendency to use their complaint as an escape valve for alleviating all the tension accumulated during the experience.”
Such a customer is likely to create situations that are more delicate for the company and its employees than customers who feel remorse. However, angry customers provide valuable information, giving companies an opportunity to rectify the problem and prevent recurrences.
The remorseful consumer, on the other hand, considers himself partially responsible for the service failure and empathizes more with the company’s employees. Such a consumer behaves more calmly and is more conciliatory about an unsatisfactory situation. Nevertheless, the authors warn that the apparent positive attitude presents a genuine danger for the company because such customers “do not complain and do not communicate their lack of satisfaction; they just fail to come back and they talk badly about the company.” As a result, the remorseful customer, unlike the angry one, “can pass unnoticed by the company, being equally dangerous in terms of negative behavior,” which complicates efforts to apply strategies for restoring confidence. In this sense, the authors say, “angry people are more transparent and easier to detect than remorseful ones, and the company can carry out compensation strategies more rapidly.”
Actions Speak Clearly
The authors recommend that managers make amends with dissatisfied customers. Companies should make every effort to reduce the likelihood that customers become angry or remorseful, not only through initiatives to improve service quality, but also by drawing up detailed maps for achieving that goal (known as “blueprinting”). They write, “It is also fundamental to develop strategies of segmentation and positioning that match the competitive advantages of the organization; companies must also communicate their positions in a clear way, promising people only those things that they really can fulfill.”
If consumers could compare a company’s services with those of its competitors, companies “could reduce the number of remorseful people by helping them make choices that are more satisfying.” For example, “a hotel that targets mainly families should not try to sell itself also to couples, since couples are usually looking for peace and quiet, and that is something harder to achieve whenever children are around. If the hotel emphasizes that it is for families that have children -- without trying to emphasize that it is also suitable for couples -- it will reduce the number of remorseful customers and, as a result, reduce negative behavioral consequences.” Because hotels need to offer impeccable service, “they cannot simultaneously satisfy every segment.”
The quality of every aspect of a customer’s experience needs to be planned appropriately. The authors recommend “actively listening to customers.” Service providers should offer advice as well as consider the customer’s needs, and not just attempt to sell the product. The authors cite the need for waiters to intervene so customers don’t order too much or too many kinds of food, which could lead to their having misgivings about their choices. Because customers often fail to express their lack of satisfaction, employees should ask customers if they are satisfied without being too aggressive about figuring out the answer.
The authors consider it worthwhile to train employees about observing external signals (attitudes, phrases, body language) that “reveal if a particular person is having second thoughts or is angry or has other emotions.” An entire area of psychological research analyzes the anatomical-physiological language of emotions so that other people can associate facial expressions with specific emotions. “Facial expressions such as raising the eyebrows or pinching the lips have been associated with feelings of anger,” the researchers note.
Assuming Total Responsibility
On the other hand, if an employee finds himself with a customer who is angry or has misgivings, he should try to restore trust. If someone has experienced remorse, the employee “should direct his efforts at reducing the feelings of guilt and responsibility that go along with the misgivings; for example, by making an apology and assuming total responsibility for the unsatisfactory result; recalling the differences from other alternatives in the market (minimizing the attractiveness of the competition); presenting this case as something isolated and infrequent; and offering compensation in the form of discount tickets.”
This should help soften the negative effect of remorse and any feelings that this person might abandon the service provider. Angry customers also have such feelings, but people who have misgivings are more aware of the existence of marketplace alternatives. “When he made his decision, this sort of consumer was better informed than the angry customer was” when he made his decision, the authors say. “The angry customer often has no other alternatives in mind, or simply doesn’t know that those other alternatives are more appealing than the one he chose in the first place.”
The authors suggest that managers carry out similar measures to restore service when the predominant emotion is anger. That’s because their research did not discover any differences between the two types of people when it comes to various service-restoration strategies. With both types of people, they write, “offering an apology and explaining the reasons for their dissatisfaction, and then saying what your company is going to do to resolve the problem, can be more effective approaches to softening negative emotions than offering people a discount or another sort of economic compensation.”
Companies should never provide silence instead of an explanation of an unsatisfactory customer experience. After all, their response determines whether they lose those customers and whether the customers spread negative word of mouth about their experiences.
Ultimately, managers should try to derive the greatest advantage from the experience, even if it has not met the customer’s expectations. They should try to use feedback in a process of continuous learning that enables them to prevent such situations from recurring. The authors suggest that managers establish a bi-directional, fluid system of communication -- from the personnel who contact the customer to management and then in reverse -- to enable the company to maximize the learning effect.
MKTG-Logo Overhaul:Starbucks
Logo Overhaul: Will Customers Still Answer the Siren Call of Starbucks?
Starbucks has emerged over the last 20 years as one of the premier consumer brands in the world, alongside icons like Apple and Nike. Now, the company has decided to give that brand a facelift, revamping its ubiquitous logo. While logo overhauls can successfully communicate a company's evolution and growth, those changes are also fraught with peril. Redesigns that are poorly conceived, or considered too radical, have triggered a backlash among loyal customers, the very people who give the brand its power. In the case of Starbucks, the new logo highlights a strategic shift for the company -- but it has also sparked criticism from many outspoken fans.
The new Starbucks logo is an obvious departure, but not a radical shift, from the logo that has adorned the coffee chain's cups since 1992. It retains the company's signature siren (a twin-tailed mermaid figure) still in the traditional Starbucks green. When Starbucks was founded in the 1970s, the mermaid was selected as a nod to the seafaring nature of the coffee business (the chain's namesake is Starbuck, the first mate character on the whale ship depicted in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick). But gone are the words "Starbucks" and "Coffee," a move that highlights the company's expansion plans.
Wharton marketing professor David Reibstein says retaining the green color for the logo was critical. "You can show that color, and people will recognize it as Starbucks. That color is really important to them. In a similar way, Apple has taken the most benign color, white, and owned it. You see that white cord running from someone's pocket to their ears and everyone knows they are 'cool' because they are using an iPod." According to Reibstein, the siren itself is secondary to the color. "I teach a case about Starbucks, and one of the things I ask is, 'What is on the logo and why?' Many people don't even know it is a mermaid."
The deletion of the words "Starbucks Coffee" from the logo is obviously significant. Dispensing with a direct connection to coffee signals that the chain, which sells sandwiches, baked goods, music and other products in its stores as well as branded coffee through supermarkets, is angling to diversify further. "Our brand identity will give us the freedom and flexibility to explore innovations and new channels of distribution that will keep us in step with our current customers and build strong connections with new customers," founder and CEO Howard Schultz wrote on the company's website in early January.
At the same time, dropping the name altogether plays to the company's global ambitions. In the spring of 2010, Schultz said Asia represented the company's biggest growth opportunity and that the chain would ultimately open thousands of stores in China. In early 2011, the company also announced plans for entering the market in India. With no verbiage on the new logo, the company avoids the complication of translating its name into the languages of those countries as well as other future markets.
Of course, there are potential downsides to stepping away, even subtly, from what made Starbucks a sensation in the first place. According to Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger, other companies have made similar moves to make their brands less narrow, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, which dropped a direct link to chicken by becoming KFC, and Dunkin' Donuts, which has favored the Dunkin' half of its name in a bid to become less identified with just breakfast snacks. "You think about coffee when you think about Starbucks, and that can be restricting," Berger notes. "But the danger is they become so watered down in so many categories that the brand has no strength, that they become known for nothing."
Bryant Simon, a Temple University professor of history and author of a book on Starbucks, argues that the company is making a mistake in taking the word coffee off its logo. Simon says the company moved away from its coffee roots in the mid 2000s, an ill-fated maneuver that prompted founder Schultz to return to the chain and refocus on the basics. "They are saying they want to move beyond coffee, but that didn't work once before," Simon states, adding that while Starbucks is trying to give its brand a more modern, cutting-edge feel, that does not play to the company's strengths. "People buy Starbucks' products for their predictability and dependability, not because it is a status symbol. This is a mature, successful brand that is trying to act like a teenager."
For others, the more controversial move is dumping the Starbucks name from the logo. Gary Stibel, founder and CEO of the New England Consulting Group, says, "There are places in the U.S., and many places around the world, where people don't know the Starbucks name." And he points out that unlike the logo for Apple, the siren is not a simple visualization of the company name. "To walk away from the Starbucks name when you don't have to is a serious marketing mistake."
A Badge of Recognition
While some may not be fans of the new direction, brand experts note that the redesign is an understandable effort by the company to mark a new phase in its history and a break with the difficulties of the last few years. After expanding rapidly, Starbucks was forced to slam on the brakes and retrench in 2008. Within months of retaking the helm, Schultz announced the chain was shuttering 600 stores (about 800 were ultimately closed) and laying off thousands of workers. Tony Spaeth, president of brand consulting firm Identity Works, says the brand overhaul is as important for employees as it is for customers. Those employees, according to Spaeth, have been through a lot of turmoil over the past several years and the rebranding is a way to reenergize the troops, who "in many ways are more familiar with the problems [than customers]."
The logo redesign by Starbucks is one of many overhauls by well-known companies in recent years, some successful and others less so. "We have seen the redesign of many visual brands over the last couple years as the role of packaging and aesthetics have become increasingly important," according to Patricia Williams, a Wharton marketing professor. She says the rebranding has been driven by the realization that "the point when [customers] are standing in front of the shelf [examining the product] may have more impact than the ad you saw three days ago." In many cases, including the Starbucks revamp, those logo changes were toward a simpler, more streamlined design. Identity Works' Spaeth notes, "If it is simple, you see it quickly and you get it -- you are not trying to make sense of several different ideas at once."
There is no doubt the right symbol can be powerful. Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed II says logos are like badges, a symbol people wear to show their connection to a larger group. And he says even small changes to packaging can change how people view a product. Reed points to the experience of the Adolph Coors brewing company, which changed the tagline on its beer from "Banquet Beer" to "Original Draft" back in 1988. While the beer itself had not been changed, many customers wrote the company complaining about the new taste. "That label change created the perception the product had changed -- when it had not," Reed notes.
In fact, research has shown the impact a strong brand can have on consumers, even subconsciously. Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, published a paper in 2008 that studied how 800 people responded to various logos. In the study, people were shown a logo on a screen so quickly that it did not register consciously that they had seen it. Then Fitzsimons gave them a test to measure their creativity, such as a challenge to come up with a long list of uses for an object like a brick. Those people who had viewed the Apple logo were 30% to 40% more creative than those who did not see the logo. (People who had been shown the IBM logo actually showed less creativity than those who had seen no logo.) "When you see the Apple logo, that triggers a series of associations in your mind with things like creativity and innovation," Fitzsimons states. "And once those ideas are activated in your mind, it also activates in you a goal to be more creative."
Altering a logo can create a backlash, particularly among consumers who closely identify with the brand. Vikas Mittal, a marketing professor at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business, and two other co-authors published a paper in 2010 in the Journal of Product and Brand Management that found that consumers who were most attached or committed to a brand tended to react negatively to a logo change, while less loyal customers tended to react positively. And the dislike for the new logo among committed customers also dampened their enthusiasm for the brand in general. In fact, committed customers had three times more negative thoughts about a brand after a redesign than non-committed customers did. And for those committed customers, the likelihood that they would purchase the brand decreased after a redesign. "Those committed customers have a strong connection to the brand and logo," says Mittal. "Any change in the logo is seen as a threat."
Out With the New, Back With the Old
Those dangers have been borne out by the experience of some companies with a logo redesign. Wharton's Williams points to the new package and logo Tropicana rolled out in 2009. The orange with a straw coming out of it, which had been the brand's trademark, was ditched in favor of a package that still had the Tropicana name, but had a bland orange and white design. "The packages were too clean, too spare and too generic," Williams notes. "It was a fairly radical change." After an outcry from irritated consumers, Tropicana went back to the old logo.
A similar debacle was seen when Gap unveiled a new logo in 2010. Gone was the traditional blue box with the "Gap" printed in white. The new logo was the word "Gap" in black with a small blue box over the letter p. "That was a disaster," says Wharton marketing professor Cassie Mogilner. "They changed it altogether, and it didn't communicate what we know to be the Gap brand." That new logo was swiftly dumped in favor of the old.
Still, logos can evolve in ways that strengthen a brand. Many point to Apple, which migrated from a multi-colored apple that highlighted the company's strength in computer graphics to the silver apple. "They very deliberately moved toward that lightness," says Wharton's Williams. "There is something ethereal about the brand. It is clean and spare, but not sterile." And the company also dropped the word computer from its name in 2007 to reflect Apple's broad offering of devices, including the iPhone and iPod.
Williams also points to Walmart's new logo in 2008 as a success. "The old logo had the name in upper case, blocky letters which made them look like a big mouth behemoth," Williams states, noting that in the world of social media, typing in all caps is the equivalent of shouting. "Now everything but the 'W' is in lower case and the color is a lighter blue, which makes [the brand] seem more gentle and approachable." She says the logo was effective in signaling a shift at Walmart. "They had an image as the bully in the room. This redesign reflected a concern they were hearing from customers and they addressed it in a visual way."
In fact, Starbucks' new logo may be in part aimed at boosting its expansion efforts in Asia. In a soon-to-be-published paper co-authored by Rice's Mittal, researchers found that more rounded logos were favored by people from interdependent, collectivist cultures, including many countries in Asia, while angular logos were more popular in individualistic cultures, such as the U.S. As a result, Mittal says Starbucks' new logo -- which is less angular than the old one -- is more likely to appeal to new customers in places like China.
Still, Mittal and others argue that Starbucks missed an opportunity with the new logo. Sundar Bharadwaj, a marketing professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, points out that with the explosion of social media, customers can communicate quickly about a new logo. That is why he thinks "firms should bring people into this process of change from the beginning, and start a real conversation with them." Mittal agrees. "It is important to put a process in place that minimizes the downside of a logo redesign. That would involve warning customers about the change, showing them different proposed logos and allowing them to comment on them."
Despite lack of such an effort, the Starbucks logo redesign is unlikely to spark the backlash that other overhauls have. The change is not radical and many of the familiar elements remain. "It doesn't seem like a home run," says Wharton's Williams. "But it doesn't look like a disaster either."
Starbucks has emerged over the last 20 years as one of the premier consumer brands in the world, alongside icons like Apple and Nike. Now, the company has decided to give that brand a facelift, revamping its ubiquitous logo. While logo overhauls can successfully communicate a company's evolution and growth, those changes are also fraught with peril. Redesigns that are poorly conceived, or considered too radical, have triggered a backlash among loyal customers, the very people who give the brand its power. In the case of Starbucks, the new logo highlights a strategic shift for the company -- but it has also sparked criticism from many outspoken fans.
The new Starbucks logo is an obvious departure, but not a radical shift, from the logo that has adorned the coffee chain's cups since 1992. It retains the company's signature siren (a twin-tailed mermaid figure) still in the traditional Starbucks green. When Starbucks was founded in the 1970s, the mermaid was selected as a nod to the seafaring nature of the coffee business (the chain's namesake is Starbuck, the first mate character on the whale ship depicted in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick). But gone are the words "Starbucks" and "Coffee," a move that highlights the company's expansion plans.
Wharton marketing professor David Reibstein says retaining the green color for the logo was critical. "You can show that color, and people will recognize it as Starbucks. That color is really important to them. In a similar way, Apple has taken the most benign color, white, and owned it. You see that white cord running from someone's pocket to their ears and everyone knows they are 'cool' because they are using an iPod." According to Reibstein, the siren itself is secondary to the color. "I teach a case about Starbucks, and one of the things I ask is, 'What is on the logo and why?' Many people don't even know it is a mermaid."
The deletion of the words "Starbucks Coffee" from the logo is obviously significant. Dispensing with a direct connection to coffee signals that the chain, which sells sandwiches, baked goods, music and other products in its stores as well as branded coffee through supermarkets, is angling to diversify further. "Our brand identity will give us the freedom and flexibility to explore innovations and new channels of distribution that will keep us in step with our current customers and build strong connections with new customers," founder and CEO Howard Schultz wrote on the company's website in early January.
At the same time, dropping the name altogether plays to the company's global ambitions. In the spring of 2010, Schultz said Asia represented the company's biggest growth opportunity and that the chain would ultimately open thousands of stores in China. In early 2011, the company also announced plans for entering the market in India. With no verbiage on the new logo, the company avoids the complication of translating its name into the languages of those countries as well as other future markets.
Of course, there are potential downsides to stepping away, even subtly, from what made Starbucks a sensation in the first place. According to Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger, other companies have made similar moves to make their brands less narrow, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, which dropped a direct link to chicken by becoming KFC, and Dunkin' Donuts, which has favored the Dunkin' half of its name in a bid to become less identified with just breakfast snacks. "You think about coffee when you think about Starbucks, and that can be restricting," Berger notes. "But the danger is they become so watered down in so many categories that the brand has no strength, that they become known for nothing."
Bryant Simon, a Temple University professor of history and author of a book on Starbucks, argues that the company is making a mistake in taking the word coffee off its logo. Simon says the company moved away from its coffee roots in the mid 2000s, an ill-fated maneuver that prompted founder Schultz to return to the chain and refocus on the basics. "They are saying they want to move beyond coffee, but that didn't work once before," Simon states, adding that while Starbucks is trying to give its brand a more modern, cutting-edge feel, that does not play to the company's strengths. "People buy Starbucks' products for their predictability and dependability, not because it is a status symbol. This is a mature, successful brand that is trying to act like a teenager."
For others, the more controversial move is dumping the Starbucks name from the logo. Gary Stibel, founder and CEO of the New England Consulting Group, says, "There are places in the U.S., and many places around the world, where people don't know the Starbucks name." And he points out that unlike the logo for Apple, the siren is not a simple visualization of the company name. "To walk away from the Starbucks name when you don't have to is a serious marketing mistake."
A Badge of Recognition
While some may not be fans of the new direction, brand experts note that the redesign is an understandable effort by the company to mark a new phase in its history and a break with the difficulties of the last few years. After expanding rapidly, Starbucks was forced to slam on the brakes and retrench in 2008. Within months of retaking the helm, Schultz announced the chain was shuttering 600 stores (about 800 were ultimately closed) and laying off thousands of workers. Tony Spaeth, president of brand consulting firm Identity Works, says the brand overhaul is as important for employees as it is for customers. Those employees, according to Spaeth, have been through a lot of turmoil over the past several years and the rebranding is a way to reenergize the troops, who "in many ways are more familiar with the problems [than customers]."
The logo redesign by Starbucks is one of many overhauls by well-known companies in recent years, some successful and others less so. "We have seen the redesign of many visual brands over the last couple years as the role of packaging and aesthetics have become increasingly important," according to Patricia Williams, a Wharton marketing professor. She says the rebranding has been driven by the realization that "the point when [customers] are standing in front of the shelf [examining the product] may have more impact than the ad you saw three days ago." In many cases, including the Starbucks revamp, those logo changes were toward a simpler, more streamlined design. Identity Works' Spaeth notes, "If it is simple, you see it quickly and you get it -- you are not trying to make sense of several different ideas at once."
There is no doubt the right symbol can be powerful. Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed II says logos are like badges, a symbol people wear to show their connection to a larger group. And he says even small changes to packaging can change how people view a product. Reed points to the experience of the Adolph Coors brewing company, which changed the tagline on its beer from "Banquet Beer" to "Original Draft" back in 1988. While the beer itself had not been changed, many customers wrote the company complaining about the new taste. "That label change created the perception the product had changed -- when it had not," Reed notes.
In fact, research has shown the impact a strong brand can have on consumers, even subconsciously. Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, published a paper in 2008 that studied how 800 people responded to various logos. In the study, people were shown a logo on a screen so quickly that it did not register consciously that they had seen it. Then Fitzsimons gave them a test to measure their creativity, such as a challenge to come up with a long list of uses for an object like a brick. Those people who had viewed the Apple logo were 30% to 40% more creative than those who did not see the logo. (People who had been shown the IBM logo actually showed less creativity than those who had seen no logo.) "When you see the Apple logo, that triggers a series of associations in your mind with things like creativity and innovation," Fitzsimons states. "And once those ideas are activated in your mind, it also activates in you a goal to be more creative."
Altering a logo can create a backlash, particularly among consumers who closely identify with the brand. Vikas Mittal, a marketing professor at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business, and two other co-authors published a paper in 2010 in the Journal of Product and Brand Management that found that consumers who were most attached or committed to a brand tended to react negatively to a logo change, while less loyal customers tended to react positively. And the dislike for the new logo among committed customers also dampened their enthusiasm for the brand in general. In fact, committed customers had three times more negative thoughts about a brand after a redesign than non-committed customers did. And for those committed customers, the likelihood that they would purchase the brand decreased after a redesign. "Those committed customers have a strong connection to the brand and logo," says Mittal. "Any change in the logo is seen as a threat."
Out With the New, Back With the Old
Those dangers have been borne out by the experience of some companies with a logo redesign. Wharton's Williams points to the new package and logo Tropicana rolled out in 2009. The orange with a straw coming out of it, which had been the brand's trademark, was ditched in favor of a package that still had the Tropicana name, but had a bland orange and white design. "The packages were too clean, too spare and too generic," Williams notes. "It was a fairly radical change." After an outcry from irritated consumers, Tropicana went back to the old logo.
A similar debacle was seen when Gap unveiled a new logo in 2010. Gone was the traditional blue box with the "Gap" printed in white. The new logo was the word "Gap" in black with a small blue box over the letter p. "That was a disaster," says Wharton marketing professor Cassie Mogilner. "They changed it altogether, and it didn't communicate what we know to be the Gap brand." That new logo was swiftly dumped in favor of the old.
Still, logos can evolve in ways that strengthen a brand. Many point to Apple, which migrated from a multi-colored apple that highlighted the company's strength in computer graphics to the silver apple. "They very deliberately moved toward that lightness," says Wharton's Williams. "There is something ethereal about the brand. It is clean and spare, but not sterile." And the company also dropped the word computer from its name in 2007 to reflect Apple's broad offering of devices, including the iPhone and iPod.
Williams also points to Walmart's new logo in 2008 as a success. "The old logo had the name in upper case, blocky letters which made them look like a big mouth behemoth," Williams states, noting that in the world of social media, typing in all caps is the equivalent of shouting. "Now everything but the 'W' is in lower case and the color is a lighter blue, which makes [the brand] seem more gentle and approachable." She says the logo was effective in signaling a shift at Walmart. "They had an image as the bully in the room. This redesign reflected a concern they were hearing from customers and they addressed it in a visual way."
In fact, Starbucks' new logo may be in part aimed at boosting its expansion efforts in Asia. In a soon-to-be-published paper co-authored by Rice's Mittal, researchers found that more rounded logos were favored by people from interdependent, collectivist cultures, including many countries in Asia, while angular logos were more popular in individualistic cultures, such as the U.S. As a result, Mittal says Starbucks' new logo -- which is less angular than the old one -- is more likely to appeal to new customers in places like China.
Still, Mittal and others argue that Starbucks missed an opportunity with the new logo. Sundar Bharadwaj, a marketing professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, points out that with the explosion of social media, customers can communicate quickly about a new logo. That is why he thinks "firms should bring people into this process of change from the beginning, and start a real conversation with them." Mittal agrees. "It is important to put a process in place that minimizes the downside of a logo redesign. That would involve warning customers about the change, showing them different proposed logos and allowing them to comment on them."
Despite lack of such an effort, the Starbucks logo redesign is unlikely to spark the backlash that other overhauls have. The change is not radical and many of the familiar elements remain. "It doesn't seem like a home run," says Wharton's Williams. "But it doesn't look like a disaster either."
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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Biotechnology-2011-Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories, maker of popular Brufen painkillers, may have to swallow its own medicine for years...
Abbott Laboratories, maker of popular Brufen painkillers, may have to swallow its own medicine for years as it sweats to recover the Rs 17,000 crore it paid to buy Piramal Healthcare’s formulations business.
The American drug-maker which has spent a century in India without anything spectacular to show off, is taking a giant leap to grab the market share in fast-growing India, competing with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, and Pfizer of the US.
It may be second time lucky for Abbott in its attempt to grow through acquisition after legal hurdles marred a deal to buy Wockhardt’s nutrition business. Creditors of Wockhardt, a domestic drug maker which is being restructured after default, blocked the sale.
The buyout will crown Abbott numero uno in the Indian market, ahead of domestic giant Cipla, with a 7% share in a $7-billion market that is growing at 15% a year. While the growth opportunities may be enticing for a company that operates in markets growing at less than 3%, it may be a long time before returns flow in.
“You can’t justify this investment in the next five years,” said Muralidharan Nair, partner at consultants Ernst & Young. “The company must have seen value beyond that.”
After a hundred years of selling drugs, Abbott’s net sales in India was at Rs 784 crore and net profit Rs 77.5 crore for 2009. Cipla, a company set up quarter of a century after Abbott India, had sales of Rs 5,410 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,082 crore.
“There is a scarcity of assets in the Indian market,” Michael J. Warmuth, senior vice president, established products, pharmaceutical products group, Abbott, told ET. “Piramal was the best asset because of its leadership in the Indian market and brand strategy.’’
Abbott that had global pharmaceutical sales of $16 billion last year, is increasing emphasis on emerging markets, including India, Russia, China and Poland.
The Illinois-headquartered Abbott set foot on the Indian soil in 1910 with 15 employees and a distribution warehouse on the Mahatma Gandhi Road in Mumbai. That has grown to 4,000 staff now and the purchase of Piramal business will more than double it.
In 2011, combined sales from Abbott’s existing India unit arm and the newly bought unit will be $700 million, said Warmuth. “We are looking at the growth potential in the next 10 years. It is important for us to have scale in emerging markets. In Piramal we’ve found what we believe is a best fit.”
While it has paid a high valuation, it gets a jump start. The price paid also prohibits it from seeking any further buys in the country.
“We are not interested in any more mega mergers,” said Warmuth. Abbott may push some of its patented drugs here with a larger sales force, said an analyst with an international brokerage who did not want to be identified. Abbott will get a staff of around 5,500 people as part of the deal.
“Patented products will form 35% of the Indian market in three-to-four years, from just 4% now,” said JS Shinde, chairman, All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists.
Just like most global drug makers which use the low-cost India as a base for exports, Abbott may do too.
“India is an increasingly important market for Abbott, and is becoming a base from which our company will expand into other emerging markets,” the company said on its website.
Abbott Laboratories, maker of popular Brufen painkillers, may have to swallow its own medicine for years as it sweats to recover the Rs 17,000 crore it paid to buy Piramal Healthcare’s formulations business.
The American drug-maker which has spent a century in India without anything spectacular to show off, is taking a giant leap to grab the market share in fast-growing India, competing with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, and Pfizer of the US.
It may be second time lucky for Abbott in its attempt to grow through acquisition after legal hurdles marred a deal to buy Wockhardt’s nutrition business. Creditors of Wockhardt, a domestic drug maker which is being restructured after default, blocked the sale.
The buyout will crown Abbott numero uno in the Indian market, ahead of domestic giant Cipla, with a 7% share in a $7-billion market that is growing at 15% a year. While the growth opportunities may be enticing for a company that operates in markets growing at less than 3%, it may be a long time before returns flow in.
“You can’t justify this investment in the next five years,” said Muralidharan Nair, partner at consultants Ernst & Young. “The company must have seen value beyond that.”
After a hundred years of selling drugs, Abbott’s net sales in India was at Rs 784 crore and net profit Rs 77.5 crore for 2009. Cipla, a company set up quarter of a century after Abbott India, had sales of Rs 5,410 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,082 crore.
“There is a scarcity of assets in the Indian market,” Michael J. Warmuth, senior vice president, established products, pharmaceutical products group, Abbott, told ET. “Piramal was the best asset because of its leadership in the Indian market and brand strategy.’’
Abbott that had global pharmaceutical sales of $16 billion last year, is increasing emphasis on emerging markets, including India, Russia, China and Poland.
The Illinois-headquartered Abbott set foot on the Indian soil in 1910 with 15 employees and a distribution warehouse on the Mahatma Gandhi Road in Mumbai. That has grown to 4,000 staff now and the purchase of Piramal business will more than double it.
In 2011, combined sales from Abbott’s existing India unit arm and the newly bought unit will be $700 million, said Warmuth. “We are looking at the growth potential in the next 10 years. It is important for us to have scale in emerging markets. In Piramal we’ve found what we believe is a best fit.”
While it has paid a high valuation, it gets a jump start. The price paid also prohibits it from seeking any further buys in the country.
“We are not interested in any more mega mergers,” said Warmuth. Abbott may push some of its patented drugs here with a larger sales force, said an analyst with an international brokerage who did not want to be identified. Abbott will get a staff of around 5,500 people as part of the deal.
“Patented products will form 35% of the Indian market in three-to-four years, from just 4% now,” said JS Shinde, chairman, All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists.
Just like most global drug makers which use the low-cost India as a base for exports, Abbott may do too.
“India is an increasingly important market for Abbott, and is becoming a base from which our company will expand into other emerging markets,” the company said on its website.
BIOTECHNOLOGY Article-2011
Fabrication and in vitro deployment of a laser-activated shape memory polymer vascular stent
Géraldine M Baer,1,2 Ward Small, IV,2 Thomas S Wilson,2 William J Benett,2 Dennis L Matthews,2,3 Jonathan Hartman,4 and Duncan J Maitland2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA
2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 USA
3Department of Applied Science and School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA
4Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 95825 USA and Department of Radiology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817 USA
Corresponding author.
Géraldine M Baer: gmbaer@ucdavis.edu; Ward Small, IV: small3@llnl.gov; Thomas S Wilson: wilson97@llnl.gov; William J Benett: benett1@llnl.gov; Dennis L Matthews: matthews1@llnl.gov; Jonathan Hartman: jonathan.hartman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu; Duncan J Maitland: maitland1@llnl.gov
Received May 10, 2007; Accepted November 27, 2007.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesAbstractBackground
Vascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel). Most vascular stents are metallic and are deployed either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. A shape memory polymer (SMP) stent may enhance flexibility, compliance, and drug elution compared to its current metallic counterparts. The purpose of this study was to describe the fabrication of a laser-activated SMP stent and demonstrate photothermal expansion of the stent in an in vitro artery model.Methods
A novel SMP stent was fabricated from thermoplastic polyurethane. A solid SMP tube formed by dip coating a stainless steel pin was laser-etched to create the mesh pattern of the finished stent. The stent was crimped over a fiber-optic cylindrical light diffuser coupled to an infrared diode laser. Photothermal actuation of the stent was performed in a water-filled mock artery.Results
At a physiological flow rate, the stent did not fully expand at the maximum laser power (8.6 W) due to convective cooling. However, under zero flow, simulating the technique of endovascular flow occlusion, complete laser actuation was achieved in the mock artery at a laser power of ~8 W.Conclusion
We have shown the design and fabrication of an SMP stent and a means of light delivery for photothermal actuation. Though further studies are required to optimize the device and assess thermal tissue damage, photothermal actuation of the SMP stent was demonstrated. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesBackgroundVascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used to maintain the luminal size of an artery. They are now widely used in conjunction with transluminal angioplasty in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel) to prevent acute vessel closure and late restenosis in a variety of large vessels such as coronary arteries [1], carotid arteries [2], and iliac arteries [3]. Most stents are currently made of stainless steel, shape memory alloys (SMAs), and other metal alloys. Crimped over a catheter, they are navigated to the lesion site where they are expanded either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. Though improvements in design and coating with drug-eluting agents have resulted in smaller, safer, and more biocompatible stents with reduced rates of restenosis [4], several drawbacks associated with the use of metallic stents still exist. First, metallic stents are too stiff to navigate highly tortuous vessels such as those of the neurovasculature; the need for treatment of stroke and intracranial stenosis is well known [5], but successful stenting with the current technology has been shown in a limited number of cases only [6]. Second, compliance mismatch due to the stiffness of metallic stents at the arterial wall may potentially be a contributing factor in restenosis based on trapped proliferating cells observed for a stent with compliance-matched ends [7]. Third, drug elution is currently achieved by coating the metal with a drug-doped polymer [8], which requires a costly additional fabrication step [9].Thermally activated shape memory polymer (SMP) is a unique class of polymeric materials that can maintain a secondary shape and then recover a pre-determined primary shape when sufficiently heated. SMP has been shown to have promising applications in intravascular medical devices for thrombectomy [10,11], aneurysm embolization [12,13], and as vascular stents [14]. Our previous investigation of the thermomechanical properties of shape memory polyurethane revealed high recovery strains, which are needed for large shape changes during stent deployment [15]. In addition, the glassy modulus of SMP is lower than those of SMAs and stainless steel by a factor of at least 10 and 100, respectively, potentially yielding a more flexible and compliant structure depending on the amount of material and the stent design pattern [16]. Ongoing biocompatibility studies have shown that the material has minimal effect on triggering an inflammatory response, activating platelets and neutrophils, and inducing thrombogenesis in vitro [17]. Finally, drug embedding in polymer stents has already been demonstrated [18]. Thus, the large strain recovery, flexibility, conformability, and compliance of SMPs could overcome the problems encountered with current metallic vascular stents.Light absorption has been shown to be an effective heating mechanism for actuating SMPs [10,11,19,20]. In this paper, we present a photothermally activated self-expanding stent made of shape memory polyurethane. The SMP stent is crimped over a light diffuser attached to the end of an optical fiber coupled to an infrared diode laser. The optical fiber serves as both the transport vehicle and the conduit for light energy delivery to the stent. We describe the design and fabrication of the device and demonstrate laser actuation in a water-filled in vitro artery model. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesMethodsShape memory polymer
The SMP used in this study was MM5520 thermoplastic polyurethane; it was obtained from DiAPLEX Company, Ltd. (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) in the form of pellets. The composition is proprietary, but it is known that the material is a segmented polyurethane with a microphase separated morphology consisting of a hard phase and a soft phase [21]. The nominal temperature of the soft phase glass transition (Tg) was 55°C. The shape memory effect comes from the entropic potential for recovery of the primary shape, stored in macromolecular chains of the soft phase in the secondary shape. The primary shape can be formed by heating the material above the hard phase glass transition temperature, deforming the material into the desired shape, and then cooling to fix the shape. Alternatively, the material may be dissolved in a suitable solvent and cast in a mold or coated onto a surface (as was done in this study) and vacuum dried to establish the primary shape. The secondary shape is obtained by heating the material above Tg, deforming the material (in this case crimping), and cooling to fix the shape. Heating the material again to Tg results in recovery of the primary shape. Due to the broad soft phase glass transition of MM5520 [11], shape recovery begins to occur at 40–45°C (10–15°C below the nominal Tg of 55°C). The material exhibits different mechanical properties above and below the Tg. Our previous studies of this specific polymer have shown a glassy modulus of ~800 MPa (shear modulus at Tg-25°C), and a rubbery modulus of ~1.4 MPa (shear modulus at Tg + 25°C) [15]. The glassy modulus of this SMP (~800 MPa) lies in the range of reported values for balloon-expandable polymer stents, which starts at 400 MPa (for applications requiring low mechanical strength, such as neural stenting) and extends up to 7 GPa [22]. Accordingly, the relatively low glassy modulus (and, hence, low expansion force) of the SMP stent may require balloon angioplasty prior to laser expansion.Device fabrication
Fabrication of the stent began by dissolving pellets of MM5520 in tetrahydrofuran (THF) to prepare a solution with a composition of 17.5% by weight of polymer in solvent. A SMP tube was first made by dip coating a 4 mm diameter stainless steel pin in the solution multiple times at a constant rate of withdrawal. The coated pin was then dried for 24 hours at 50°C under vacuum. After cooling, the SMP tube was laser etched to impart a specific pattern based on an imported CAD file using a computer-controlled system. As shown in Fig. 1(a), solid rings are connected by S-shaped struts, enhancing its longitudinal flexibility. The stent was then removed from the pin using hot water, dried, doped with a laser-absorbing platinum dye (Epolight 4121, Epolin, Inc.), and dried again for 24 hours at 50°C under vacuum. The dye was incorporated by coating the stent with a solution of 4440 ppm dye in THF. The stent diameter decreased slightly after removal from the pin due to residual stress in the SMP. The final stent in its expanded state was 4.1 mm outer diameter by 16 mm long with a wall thickness of 250 μm. Figure 1
SMP stent. Close-up of the SMP stent mounted over the SMP foam cylinder (black arrow) and the coaxial SMP diffuser (white arrow) prior to crimping (a) and after crimping (b). The distal end of the stainless steel hypotube containing the optical fiber (more ...)
Figure 1SMP stent. Close-up of the SMP stent mounted over the SMP foam cylinder (black arrow) and the coaxial SMP diffuser (white arrow) prior to crimping (a) and after crimping (b). The distal end of the stainless steel hypotube containing the optical fiber is indicated by the asterisk in (a). An image of the diffuser emission, which decreases with distance from the optical fiber tip, is shown in (c). A cross-sectional diagram of the expanded stent with the diffuser and foam cylinder in place is shown in (d).
The light delivery/transport vehicle assembly consisted of two main components, both of which were fabricated using SMP: (1) a 300 μm diameter by ~16 mm long cylindrical light diffusing SMP rod attached to the end of an optical fiber and (2) a coaxial 5 mm diameter by ~16 mm long SMP foam cylinder surrounding the diffusing rod. This assembly was inserted inside the stent lumen prior to crimping (Fig. 1(a,c)). The diffuser was fabricated by casting an SMP formulation developed in-house [23] over the distal end of a 100 μm core diameter silica optical fiber (FIP100110125, Polymicro Technologies, LLC) using a tubular mold made of Teflon. To enable light diffusion, the surface of the cured SMP cylinder was abraded using a media blaster loaded with sodium bicarbonate powder. The longitudinal emission profile of the diffuser, acquired using a CCD camera with the optical fiber coupled to a red 4.2 mW diode laser, is shown in Fig. 1(d). Approximately 80% of the incident laser light was emitted in the first centimeter of the diffuser. The optical fiber was sheathed with a 711 μm outer diameter stainless steel hypotube to provide a pushable transport vehicle.The foam component was made of in-house formulated SMP material consisting of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), N,N,N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (HPED), and triethanolamine (TEA) [13]. The density of the foam was 0.020 g/cm3 with mostly open cells approximately 200 μm in size (determined by optical microscopy). The calculated volumetric void fraction was 98.4%, which would allow a theoretical expansion of 60 times from the fully condensed state. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements showed a Tg around 40°C. The foam cylinder was cut using a 5 mm biopsy punch and then slightly compressed under warm air to enable it to fit inside the expanded stent. The role of the foam cylinder is to assist photothermal expansion of the device by (1) centering the diffuser in the stent lumen, (2) increasing laser light scattering to improve illumination uniformity, and (3) reducing convective cooling of the stent. Though not necessary in this initial prototype, the foam would be bonded to the diffuser to facilitate withdrawal after stent deployment in a clinical device.With the diffuser/foam assembly positioned inside the stent lumen as shown in Fig. 1(a,c), the final device was mechanically compressed using a crimping machine (Balloon Wrapping Fixture Model W8FH, Interface Associates, Inc.) from 4.1 mm down to 1.8 mm (smaller diameters are possible depending on the amount of material and stent design). The machine consists of eight radially arranged heated blades which form a cylindrical cavity; as the blades move inward, the cavity diameter decreases. The blades were heated to 88°C prior to and during compression, and then cooled to room temperature before the crimped device was removed. The device remained in the crimped shape before experimental actuation. Fig. 1(b) shows the device in its crimped state.Artery model and device actuation
An artery model consisting of a straight mock artery in a chamber was built in-house. The mock artery (4 mm inner diameter, 150 μm wall thickness, 4 cm length) was made of a silicone elastomer (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning) prepared by dip coating pins in a similar manner as the stent. As shown in Fig. Fig.2,2, two stainless steel cylinders hold the mock artery in place inside the chamber; water at a desired temperature can be pumped independently in the outer chamber and into the mock artery. A thermocouple probe allows temperature reading in the outer chamber. A Touhy Borst valve allows flow of water and delivery of the device into the mock artery. Water temperature in the outer chamber and in the mock artery was maintained at 37°C (body temperature). After coupling the optical fiber to an 810 nm diode laser (UM7800/100/20, Unique Mode), the device was delivered into the mock artery and photothermally actuated. Figure 2
Artery model. Schematic of the artery model. WB: water bath, PP: peristaltic pump, TB: Touhy Borst valve, SS: stainless steel cylinder, OC: outer chamber, TC: thermocouple probe, MA: mock artery.
Figure 2Artery model. Schematic of the artery model. WB: water bath, PP: peristaltic pump, TB: Touhy Borst valve, SS: stainless steel cylinder, OC: outer chamber, TC: thermocouple probe, MA: mock artery. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesResultsAfter delivery to the mock artery, the stent did not show signs of expansion in the 37°C water for approximately 3 min prior to actuation. This indicates that the device would likely remain crimped during navigation and positioning under physiological conditions until it is controllably expanded, though further investigation is needed to confirm this hypothesis. Fig. Fig.33 shows the device being actuated under zero flow as the laser power was slowly increased from 0 to 8.6 W in 1 W increments over 6.3 min (a time lapse video is provided in Additional file 1). The laser power could be increased more rapidly or kept constant in an optimized actuation protocol to reduce the actuation time. The end of the stent closer to the tip of the optical fiber rapidly expanded at a power of 1 W, consistent with the stronger proximal emission of the diffuser. The remainder of the stent fully expanded at ~8 W. The temperature inside the outer chamber did not vary during actuation, as indicated by the thermocouple probe. Following actuation, the diffuser was withdrawn and the stent and inner foam were retrieved from the mock artery by disassembling the chamber. The stent, foam, diffuser, and mock artery showed no visible signs of thermal damage. The experiment was repeated two more times with similar results. Figure 3
Stent deployment. Timeline of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased. Laser duration was approximately 6.3 min.
Figure 3Stent deployment. Timeline of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased. Laser duration was approximately 6.3 min.
In two separate attempts, the stent expanded only about 60% during actuation at 8.6 W for several minutes when the flow rate was increased to 180 ml/min, a value in the range of reported flows in the internal carotid artery [24]. This result suggests that the laser heating was overcome by convective cooling before full expansion was achieved. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesDiscussionIn an actual clinical intervention, the inner foam would need to be withdrawn with the diffuser. As mentioned previously, one way to achieve this would be to bond the foam to the diffuser. Because the foam (Tg ~40°C) is compliant at body temperature, it can conform to the smaller diameter of the delivery catheter as it is pulled back for removal from the body. Tapering the proximal end of the foam may facilitate retraction back into the delivery catheter.Due to the different physical properties of water and blood [25-30] (see Table 1), heat transfer between the laser-heated stent and the surrounding fluid is not necessarily identical for the two fluids. The difference was assessed for the two flow cases investigated: (1) zero flow and (2) physiological flow (180 ml/min). In the zero flow case, heat transfer occurs by conduction and natural convection. Because the thermal diffusivity of water is similar to that of blood, heat transfer by conduction is expected to be similar for the two fluids. Heat transfer by natural convection was assessed by estimating the Nusselt number (Nu), which represents the ratio of total heat transfer to conductive heat transfer. In the zero flow case for two concentric cylinders (collapsed stent centered in the mock artery), Nu for natural convection is given by [31] Table 1
Physical properties of water and blood
where is given by [31]
and Do is the diameter of the outer cylinder (mock artery inner diameter = 0.004 m), Di is the diameter of the inner cylinder (collapsed stent diameter = 0.0018 m), L is the gap between the cylinders (0.0011 m), Ra is the Rayleigh number, and Pr = ν/α is the Prandtl number [26]. Ra is given by [31]
where g is gravity (9.81 m/s2), Ti is the temperature of the inner cylinder (stent temperature ~Tg = 55°C) and To is the temperature of the outer cylinder (body temperature = 37°C). Nu was calculated to be 1.8 for water and 1.6 for blood, indicating that heat transfer in the zero flow case is similar for the two fluids.In the case of physiological flow, forced convection is the dominant heat transfer mechanism, though it depends on the flow characteristics. The flow is characterized by the Reynolds number (Re) given by [32]Re = U(Do - Di)/ν
where U is the flow velocity around the collapsed stent in the mock artery at the physiological flow rate of 180 ml/min (0.3 m/s). Re was calculated to be 940 for water and 200 for blood, values that are below the critical Re of ~2000 corresponding to the onset of turbulence in a circular tube [26]. For laminar flow between two concentric cylinders with Di/Do = 0.45, Nu ≈ 6 for both fluids [33]. Based on these estimates, heat transfer in water is similar to that of blood for both the zero and non-zero flow conditions in this study.Due to their different values of absorption coefficient (μa) near the laser wavelength of 810 nm, photothermal actuation of the stent will proceed differently in water (μa = 0.0021 mm-1 [34]) than blood (μa = 0.466 mm-1 [35]). Initially, light emitted from the diffuser will reach the stent without encountering the fluid. However, as expansion continues the fluid can migrate into the pores of the inner foam cylinder. Ignoring the foam, the absorption mean free path (i.e., average distance a photon will travel before being absorbed) for water is 1/μa = 476 mm; therefore, nearly all the emitted light will reach the stent throughout its expansion. For blood, the absorption mean free path is 2.1 mm, which is approximately equal to the radius of the fully expanded stent (note that scattering in blood is highly forward-directed with the average cosine of the scattering angle = 0.98 [36]). The percentage of light transmitted T to the expanding stent of radius r is given by T = 100exp(-μar); T = 39% for r = 2 mm (fully expanded). The probability that a photon will be absorbed by the blood prior to reaching the stent is higher than that for water; however, photons that are absorbed will locally heat the blood, which will, in turn, help heat the stent. For example, in the case of zero flow, the blood temperature rise due to absorption can be estimated by ΔT ≈ Pabst/cρV, where Pabs is the absorbed laser power (~100-39 = 61% of the emitted light, ignoring absorption by the stent), t is the laser duration in seconds, c and ρ are the specific heat and density, respectively, of blood (see Table 1), and V is the volume of blood in the vicinity of the stent (~2.5 × 10-7 m3 for a 4-mm-diameter artery). This estimate assumes the heat load is evenly distributed in the blood volume and does not include heat losses to the blood and arterial wall adjacent to the heated volume. At the maximum laser power in this study, Pabs ≈ 5 W and the blood temperature (ΔT + 37°C) would reach the SMP Tg of 55°C within 4 s. Accordingly, laser power and dye concentration in the stent may require adjustment relative to values suitable for use in water. Though laser actuation of the stent in blood is feasible in principle, experimental verification using blood is a necessary future step in the device development process.Though in vitro biocompatibility studies analyzing immunostimulatory and thrombogenic properties of SMP are encouraging [17], other potential adverse effects of implantation (e.g., effect on renal function) and increased temperature due to thermal actuation are unknown and require additional study. In addition, the biocompatibility of the SMP doped with the laser-absorbing platinum dye has not been tested. If concerns were to arise based on such testing, a known biocompatible dye such as indocyanine green (ICG) could be used in place of the platinum dye. ICG is routinely administered intravenously as a contrast agent in retinal angiography, and has an absorbance band centered near the laser wavelength of 810 nm. ICG has been used to increase the laser absorption of SMP for photothermal actuation in previous work [11].In addition to light absorption, various heating mechanisms may be employed for thermally activated SMP devices including electrical (Joule) heating [20,37,38], inductive heating [39], and heated fluid flush. For the stent application, light absorption provides a means of efficient localized heating of the dye-doped device, and the cylindrical geometry of the device is well-suited to illumination by a cylindrical light diffuser. In addition, the lack of physical connection between the light diffuser and the device enables the stent to expand freely. Inductive heating of a device doped with appropriate magnetic particles would also provide remote, localized heating, though such a device would require development of a clinically safe external source of alternating magnetic field. Localized Joule heating could be applied by embedding resistive heating elements (e.g., wires) into the device (though such elements must not interfere with shape recovery) or employing a conductive SMP composite material [20] and passing a current through the device; in either case, the stent would be physically connected to the power source and would have to be detached from the leads supplying the current following device deployment. Flowing heated saline through the delivery catheter either using a heated reservoir or embedding heating elements in the delivery catheter would expose a larger area of the vessel to elevated temperatures, which may or may not be detrimental.Another option for SMP device deployment is to employ a low-Tg material (≤ 37°C) such that the device spontaneously actuates at body temperature. Such a stent would not require an external heating source, and therefore would not raise the concern of thermal tissue damage. However, the modulus of the SMP at or above Tg (~1–10 MPa) [11] is at least an order of magnitude lower than the modulus values of polymers typically used for stents in previous work [22]. Nevertheless, the fact that the SMP stent would not permanently deform if compressed (e.g., during arterial spasm), unlike some metallic stents, suggests that further study of such a design may be warranted. One group has reported complete shape recovery of prototype SMP stents designed to expand at body temperature, noting that the recovery can be controlled by varying the glass transition temperature, polymer crosslink density, and stent geometry [40].Photothermal actuation introduces the potential to cause thermal damage to tissue and blood in the vicinity of the device. While we did not measure the temperature of the stent, the fact that the stent fully actuated indicated that it at least approached the Tg of the stent (55°C). The temperature around the device depends on the cooling capacity of the blood and tissue, the laser power and duration, light absorption by the blood, tissue, and device, and blood flow. Thermal damage depends on the time-temperature history. For example, according to an Arrhenius damage model for arterial collagen denaturation [41], it would require several hours at a temperature of 55°C to induce irreversible damage, a timescale much longer than that needed for photothermal stent expansion. A similar model for arterial endothelial cell damage [42] indicates that cell damage would occur in less than a second at 55°C. However, standard intravascular catheter insertion and manipulation, as is used in conventional stent placement, is also known to damage the endothelial cell layer [43]. Following acute injury (mechanical or thermal) to the vessel wall and/or endothelial layer, long-term arterial recovery has been shown [44,45]. In vivo survival studies including histology at acute and long-term time points are required to assess the extent and tolerance of potential thermal damage caused by photothermal actuation of the SMP stent.In practice, stents are generally placed under blood flow; however, certain other medical interventional devices, such as the MERCI Retriever for clot extraction in cerebral arteries [46], incorporate a protection mechanism to block blood flow during the intervention. The advantage of delivering the laser-activated SMP stent under a zero flow condition is that identical operating parameters (e.g., laser power and duration) can be used regardless of the flow conditions in the target vessel. In addition, by minimizing convective cooling, it reduces the amount of laser energy needed to achieve expansion.Whether it will be clinically delivered with flow or without flow, this first prototype needs to be optimized for a controlled full actuation without causing detrimental thermal injury to the surrounding artery. Optimization could include systematically adjusting the dye concentration in the stent, possibly incorporating dye into the foam, improving the uniformity of emission along the length of the diffuser by modifying the media blasting parameters, and adjusting the foam density to enhance light scattering. In addition, the Tg of the stent and foam can also be varied by using a different SMP material or by varying the fabrication conditions [14,15]. The Tg should be tailored to be low enough such that the stent can be actuated at the lowest possible laser power, but it should be high enough such that the stent does not self-expand at body temperature (37°C). The current prototype was designed for use in a large vessel such as the internal carotid artery, not in the narrow cerebral vasculature. The stent pattern and dimensions would need to be scaled down to enable the device to be crimped down sufficiently for intravascular catheter delivery.ConclusionWe have shown the design and fabrication of a novel laser-activated stent made of shape memory polymer. In addition, we developed a fiber optic-based means of light delivery for photothermal actuation. Though further studies are required to optimize the device and assess potential thermal tissue damage, preliminary in vitro testing demonstrated the concept of intravascular photothermal deployment of an SMP stent.Competing interestsThe author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.Authors' contributionsGB participated in the design and fabrication of the stent and artery model, design and execution of the laser deployment experiments, and writing of the manuscript. WS participated in the design and execution of the laser deployment experiments and writing of the manuscript. TSW participated in the design and fabrication of the stent. WJB participated in the design and fabrication of the stent and artery model. DLM participated in the design and supervision of the study. JH participated in the design of the stent. DJM participated in the design and supervision of the study, and design of the stent and artery model. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Supplementary MaterialAdditional File 1
Time lapse video of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased (see Fig. Fig.33).Click here for file(1.8M, avi)AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank Jeffrey Loge for helping to construct the artery model and Jennifer Rodriguez for creating the video. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract W-7405-ENG-48. Major support was provided by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Grant R01EB000462. Additional support was provided by a LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development Grant (04-ERD-093) and the National Science Foundation Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST). CBST is managed by the University of California, Davis, under Cooperative Agreement No. PHY 0120999. Other Sections▼
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Géraldine M Baer,1,2 Ward Small, IV,2 Thomas S Wilson,2 William J Benett,2 Dennis L Matthews,2,3 Jonathan Hartman,4 and Duncan J Maitland2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA
2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 USA
3Department of Applied Science and School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA
4Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 95825 USA and Department of Radiology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817 USA
Corresponding author.
Géraldine M Baer: gmbaer@ucdavis.edu; Ward Small, IV: small3@llnl.gov; Thomas S Wilson: wilson97@llnl.gov; William J Benett: benett1@llnl.gov; Dennis L Matthews: matthews1@llnl.gov; Jonathan Hartman: jonathan.hartman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu; Duncan J Maitland: maitland1@llnl.gov
Received May 10, 2007; Accepted November 27, 2007.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesAbstractBackground
Vascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel). Most vascular stents are metallic and are deployed either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. A shape memory polymer (SMP) stent may enhance flexibility, compliance, and drug elution compared to its current metallic counterparts. The purpose of this study was to describe the fabrication of a laser-activated SMP stent and demonstrate photothermal expansion of the stent in an in vitro artery model.Methods
A novel SMP stent was fabricated from thermoplastic polyurethane. A solid SMP tube formed by dip coating a stainless steel pin was laser-etched to create the mesh pattern of the finished stent. The stent was crimped over a fiber-optic cylindrical light diffuser coupled to an infrared diode laser. Photothermal actuation of the stent was performed in a water-filled mock artery.Results
At a physiological flow rate, the stent did not fully expand at the maximum laser power (8.6 W) due to convective cooling. However, under zero flow, simulating the technique of endovascular flow occlusion, complete laser actuation was achieved in the mock artery at a laser power of ~8 W.Conclusion
We have shown the design and fabrication of an SMP stent and a means of light delivery for photothermal actuation. Though further studies are required to optimize the device and assess thermal tissue damage, photothermal actuation of the SMP stent was demonstrated. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesBackgroundVascular stents are small tubular scaffolds used to maintain the luminal size of an artery. They are now widely used in conjunction with transluminal angioplasty in the treatment of arterial stenosis (narrowing of the vessel) to prevent acute vessel closure and late restenosis in a variety of large vessels such as coronary arteries [1], carotid arteries [2], and iliac arteries [3]. Most stents are currently made of stainless steel, shape memory alloys (SMAs), and other metal alloys. Crimped over a catheter, they are navigated to the lesion site where they are expanded either by balloon expansion or by self-expansion. Though improvements in design and coating with drug-eluting agents have resulted in smaller, safer, and more biocompatible stents with reduced rates of restenosis [4], several drawbacks associated with the use of metallic stents still exist. First, metallic stents are too stiff to navigate highly tortuous vessels such as those of the neurovasculature; the need for treatment of stroke and intracranial stenosis is well known [5], but successful stenting with the current technology has been shown in a limited number of cases only [6]. Second, compliance mismatch due to the stiffness of metallic stents at the arterial wall may potentially be a contributing factor in restenosis based on trapped proliferating cells observed for a stent with compliance-matched ends [7]. Third, drug elution is currently achieved by coating the metal with a drug-doped polymer [8], which requires a costly additional fabrication step [9].Thermally activated shape memory polymer (SMP) is a unique class of polymeric materials that can maintain a secondary shape and then recover a pre-determined primary shape when sufficiently heated. SMP has been shown to have promising applications in intravascular medical devices for thrombectomy [10,11], aneurysm embolization [12,13], and as vascular stents [14]. Our previous investigation of the thermomechanical properties of shape memory polyurethane revealed high recovery strains, which are needed for large shape changes during stent deployment [15]. In addition, the glassy modulus of SMP is lower than those of SMAs and stainless steel by a factor of at least 10 and 100, respectively, potentially yielding a more flexible and compliant structure depending on the amount of material and the stent design pattern [16]. Ongoing biocompatibility studies have shown that the material has minimal effect on triggering an inflammatory response, activating platelets and neutrophils, and inducing thrombogenesis in vitro [17]. Finally, drug embedding in polymer stents has already been demonstrated [18]. Thus, the large strain recovery, flexibility, conformability, and compliance of SMPs could overcome the problems encountered with current metallic vascular stents.Light absorption has been shown to be an effective heating mechanism for actuating SMPs [10,11,19,20]. In this paper, we present a photothermally activated self-expanding stent made of shape memory polyurethane. The SMP stent is crimped over a light diffuser attached to the end of an optical fiber coupled to an infrared diode laser. The optical fiber serves as both the transport vehicle and the conduit for light energy delivery to the stent. We describe the design and fabrication of the device and demonstrate laser actuation in a water-filled in vitro artery model. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesMethodsShape memory polymer
The SMP used in this study was MM5520 thermoplastic polyurethane; it was obtained from DiAPLEX Company, Ltd. (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) in the form of pellets. The composition is proprietary, but it is known that the material is a segmented polyurethane with a microphase separated morphology consisting of a hard phase and a soft phase [21]. The nominal temperature of the soft phase glass transition (Tg) was 55°C. The shape memory effect comes from the entropic potential for recovery of the primary shape, stored in macromolecular chains of the soft phase in the secondary shape. The primary shape can be formed by heating the material above the hard phase glass transition temperature, deforming the material into the desired shape, and then cooling to fix the shape. Alternatively, the material may be dissolved in a suitable solvent and cast in a mold or coated onto a surface (as was done in this study) and vacuum dried to establish the primary shape. The secondary shape is obtained by heating the material above Tg, deforming the material (in this case crimping), and cooling to fix the shape. Heating the material again to Tg results in recovery of the primary shape. Due to the broad soft phase glass transition of MM5520 [11], shape recovery begins to occur at 40–45°C (10–15°C below the nominal Tg of 55°C). The material exhibits different mechanical properties above and below the Tg. Our previous studies of this specific polymer have shown a glassy modulus of ~800 MPa (shear modulus at Tg-25°C), and a rubbery modulus of ~1.4 MPa (shear modulus at Tg + 25°C) [15]. The glassy modulus of this SMP (~800 MPa) lies in the range of reported values for balloon-expandable polymer stents, which starts at 400 MPa (for applications requiring low mechanical strength, such as neural stenting) and extends up to 7 GPa [22]. Accordingly, the relatively low glassy modulus (and, hence, low expansion force) of the SMP stent may require balloon angioplasty prior to laser expansion.Device fabrication
Fabrication of the stent began by dissolving pellets of MM5520 in tetrahydrofuran (THF) to prepare a solution with a composition of 17.5% by weight of polymer in solvent. A SMP tube was first made by dip coating a 4 mm diameter stainless steel pin in the solution multiple times at a constant rate of withdrawal. The coated pin was then dried for 24 hours at 50°C under vacuum. After cooling, the SMP tube was laser etched to impart a specific pattern based on an imported CAD file using a computer-controlled system. As shown in Fig. 1(a), solid rings are connected by S-shaped struts, enhancing its longitudinal flexibility. The stent was then removed from the pin using hot water, dried, doped with a laser-absorbing platinum dye (Epolight 4121, Epolin, Inc.), and dried again for 24 hours at 50°C under vacuum. The dye was incorporated by coating the stent with a solution of 4440 ppm dye in THF. The stent diameter decreased slightly after removal from the pin due to residual stress in the SMP. The final stent in its expanded state was 4.1 mm outer diameter by 16 mm long with a wall thickness of 250 μm. Figure 1
SMP stent. Close-up of the SMP stent mounted over the SMP foam cylinder (black arrow) and the coaxial SMP diffuser (white arrow) prior to crimping (a) and after crimping (b). The distal end of the stainless steel hypotube containing the optical fiber (more ...)
Figure 1SMP stent. Close-up of the SMP stent mounted over the SMP foam cylinder (black arrow) and the coaxial SMP diffuser (white arrow) prior to crimping (a) and after crimping (b). The distal end of the stainless steel hypotube containing the optical fiber is indicated by the asterisk in (a). An image of the diffuser emission, which decreases with distance from the optical fiber tip, is shown in (c). A cross-sectional diagram of the expanded stent with the diffuser and foam cylinder in place is shown in (d).
The light delivery/transport vehicle assembly consisted of two main components, both of which were fabricated using SMP: (1) a 300 μm diameter by ~16 mm long cylindrical light diffusing SMP rod attached to the end of an optical fiber and (2) a coaxial 5 mm diameter by ~16 mm long SMP foam cylinder surrounding the diffusing rod. This assembly was inserted inside the stent lumen prior to crimping (Fig. 1(a,c)). The diffuser was fabricated by casting an SMP formulation developed in-house [23] over the distal end of a 100 μm core diameter silica optical fiber (FIP100110125, Polymicro Technologies, LLC) using a tubular mold made of Teflon. To enable light diffusion, the surface of the cured SMP cylinder was abraded using a media blaster loaded with sodium bicarbonate powder. The longitudinal emission profile of the diffuser, acquired using a CCD camera with the optical fiber coupled to a red 4.2 mW diode laser, is shown in Fig. 1(d). Approximately 80% of the incident laser light was emitted in the first centimeter of the diffuser. The optical fiber was sheathed with a 711 μm outer diameter stainless steel hypotube to provide a pushable transport vehicle.The foam component was made of in-house formulated SMP material consisting of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), N,N,N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (HPED), and triethanolamine (TEA) [13]. The density of the foam was 0.020 g/cm3 with mostly open cells approximately 200 μm in size (determined by optical microscopy). The calculated volumetric void fraction was 98.4%, which would allow a theoretical expansion of 60 times from the fully condensed state. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements showed a Tg around 40°C. The foam cylinder was cut using a 5 mm biopsy punch and then slightly compressed under warm air to enable it to fit inside the expanded stent. The role of the foam cylinder is to assist photothermal expansion of the device by (1) centering the diffuser in the stent lumen, (2) increasing laser light scattering to improve illumination uniformity, and (3) reducing convective cooling of the stent. Though not necessary in this initial prototype, the foam would be bonded to the diffuser to facilitate withdrawal after stent deployment in a clinical device.With the diffuser/foam assembly positioned inside the stent lumen as shown in Fig. 1(a,c), the final device was mechanically compressed using a crimping machine (Balloon Wrapping Fixture Model W8FH, Interface Associates, Inc.) from 4.1 mm down to 1.8 mm (smaller diameters are possible depending on the amount of material and stent design). The machine consists of eight radially arranged heated blades which form a cylindrical cavity; as the blades move inward, the cavity diameter decreases. The blades were heated to 88°C prior to and during compression, and then cooled to room temperature before the crimped device was removed. The device remained in the crimped shape before experimental actuation. Fig. 1(b) shows the device in its crimped state.Artery model and device actuation
An artery model consisting of a straight mock artery in a chamber was built in-house. The mock artery (4 mm inner diameter, 150 μm wall thickness, 4 cm length) was made of a silicone elastomer (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning) prepared by dip coating pins in a similar manner as the stent. As shown in Fig. Fig.2,2, two stainless steel cylinders hold the mock artery in place inside the chamber; water at a desired temperature can be pumped independently in the outer chamber and into the mock artery. A thermocouple probe allows temperature reading in the outer chamber. A Touhy Borst valve allows flow of water and delivery of the device into the mock artery. Water temperature in the outer chamber and in the mock artery was maintained at 37°C (body temperature). After coupling the optical fiber to an 810 nm diode laser (UM7800/100/20, Unique Mode), the device was delivered into the mock artery and photothermally actuated. Figure 2
Artery model. Schematic of the artery model. WB: water bath, PP: peristaltic pump, TB: Touhy Borst valve, SS: stainless steel cylinder, OC: outer chamber, TC: thermocouple probe, MA: mock artery.
Figure 2Artery model. Schematic of the artery model. WB: water bath, PP: peristaltic pump, TB: Touhy Borst valve, SS: stainless steel cylinder, OC: outer chamber, TC: thermocouple probe, MA: mock artery. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesResultsAfter delivery to the mock artery, the stent did not show signs of expansion in the 37°C water for approximately 3 min prior to actuation. This indicates that the device would likely remain crimped during navigation and positioning under physiological conditions until it is controllably expanded, though further investigation is needed to confirm this hypothesis. Fig. Fig.33 shows the device being actuated under zero flow as the laser power was slowly increased from 0 to 8.6 W in 1 W increments over 6.3 min (a time lapse video is provided in Additional file 1). The laser power could be increased more rapidly or kept constant in an optimized actuation protocol to reduce the actuation time. The end of the stent closer to the tip of the optical fiber rapidly expanded at a power of 1 W, consistent with the stronger proximal emission of the diffuser. The remainder of the stent fully expanded at ~8 W. The temperature inside the outer chamber did not vary during actuation, as indicated by the thermocouple probe. Following actuation, the diffuser was withdrawn and the stent and inner foam were retrieved from the mock artery by disassembling the chamber. The stent, foam, diffuser, and mock artery showed no visible signs of thermal damage. The experiment was repeated two more times with similar results. Figure 3
Stent deployment. Timeline of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased. Laser duration was approximately 6.3 min.
Figure 3Stent deployment. Timeline of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased. Laser duration was approximately 6.3 min.
In two separate attempts, the stent expanded only about 60% during actuation at 8.6 W for several minutes when the flow rate was increased to 180 ml/min, a value in the range of reported flows in the internal carotid artery [24]. This result suggests that the laser heating was overcome by convective cooling before full expansion was achieved. Other Sections▼
AbstractBackgroundMethodsResultsDiscussionConclusionCompeting interestsAuthors' contributionsSupplementary MaterialReferencesDiscussionIn an actual clinical intervention, the inner foam would need to be withdrawn with the diffuser. As mentioned previously, one way to achieve this would be to bond the foam to the diffuser. Because the foam (Tg ~40°C) is compliant at body temperature, it can conform to the smaller diameter of the delivery catheter as it is pulled back for removal from the body. Tapering the proximal end of the foam may facilitate retraction back into the delivery catheter.Due to the different physical properties of water and blood [25-30] (see Table 1), heat transfer between the laser-heated stent and the surrounding fluid is not necessarily identical for the two fluids. The difference was assessed for the two flow cases investigated: (1) zero flow and (2) physiological flow (180 ml/min). In the zero flow case, heat transfer occurs by conduction and natural convection. Because the thermal diffusivity of water is similar to that of blood, heat transfer by conduction is expected to be similar for the two fluids. Heat transfer by natural convection was assessed by estimating the Nusselt number (Nu), which represents the ratio of total heat transfer to conductive heat transfer. In the zero flow case for two concentric cylinders (collapsed stent centered in the mock artery), Nu for natural convection is given by [31] Table 1
Physical properties of water and blood
where is given by [31]
and Do is the diameter of the outer cylinder (mock artery inner diameter = 0.004 m), Di is the diameter of the inner cylinder (collapsed stent diameter = 0.0018 m), L is the gap between the cylinders (0.0011 m), Ra is the Rayleigh number, and Pr = ν/α is the Prandtl number [26]. Ra is given by [31]
where g is gravity (9.81 m/s2), Ti is the temperature of the inner cylinder (stent temperature ~Tg = 55°C) and To is the temperature of the outer cylinder (body temperature = 37°C). Nu was calculated to be 1.8 for water and 1.6 for blood, indicating that heat transfer in the zero flow case is similar for the two fluids.In the case of physiological flow, forced convection is the dominant heat transfer mechanism, though it depends on the flow characteristics. The flow is characterized by the Reynolds number (Re) given by [32]Re = U(Do - Di)/ν
where U is the flow velocity around the collapsed stent in the mock artery at the physiological flow rate of 180 ml/min (0.3 m/s). Re was calculated to be 940 for water and 200 for blood, values that are below the critical Re of ~2000 corresponding to the onset of turbulence in a circular tube [26]. For laminar flow between two concentric cylinders with Di/Do = 0.45, Nu ≈ 6 for both fluids [33]. Based on these estimates, heat transfer in water is similar to that of blood for both the zero and non-zero flow conditions in this study.Due to their different values of absorption coefficient (μa) near the laser wavelength of 810 nm, photothermal actuation of the stent will proceed differently in water (μa = 0.0021 mm-1 [34]) than blood (μa = 0.466 mm-1 [35]). Initially, light emitted from the diffuser will reach the stent without encountering the fluid. However, as expansion continues the fluid can migrate into the pores of the inner foam cylinder. Ignoring the foam, the absorption mean free path (i.e., average distance a photon will travel before being absorbed) for water is 1/μa = 476 mm; therefore, nearly all the emitted light will reach the stent throughout its expansion. For blood, the absorption mean free path is 2.1 mm, which is approximately equal to the radius of the fully expanded stent (note that scattering in blood is highly forward-directed with the average cosine of the scattering angle = 0.98 [36]). The percentage of light transmitted T to the expanding stent of radius r is given by T = 100exp(-μar); T = 39% for r = 2 mm (fully expanded). The probability that a photon will be absorbed by the blood prior to reaching the stent is higher than that for water; however, photons that are absorbed will locally heat the blood, which will, in turn, help heat the stent. For example, in the case of zero flow, the blood temperature rise due to absorption can be estimated by ΔT ≈ Pabst/cρV, where Pabs is the absorbed laser power (~100-39 = 61% of the emitted light, ignoring absorption by the stent), t is the laser duration in seconds, c and ρ are the specific heat and density, respectively, of blood (see Table 1), and V is the volume of blood in the vicinity of the stent (~2.5 × 10-7 m3 for a 4-mm-diameter artery). This estimate assumes the heat load is evenly distributed in the blood volume and does not include heat losses to the blood and arterial wall adjacent to the heated volume. At the maximum laser power in this study, Pabs ≈ 5 W and the blood temperature (ΔT + 37°C) would reach the SMP Tg of 55°C within 4 s. Accordingly, laser power and dye concentration in the stent may require adjustment relative to values suitable for use in water. Though laser actuation of the stent in blood is feasible in principle, experimental verification using blood is a necessary future step in the device development process.Though in vitro biocompatibility studies analyzing immunostimulatory and thrombogenic properties of SMP are encouraging [17], other potential adverse effects of implantation (e.g., effect on renal function) and increased temperature due to thermal actuation are unknown and require additional study. In addition, the biocompatibility of the SMP doped with the laser-absorbing platinum dye has not been tested. If concerns were to arise based on such testing, a known biocompatible dye such as indocyanine green (ICG) could be used in place of the platinum dye. ICG is routinely administered intravenously as a contrast agent in retinal angiography, and has an absorbance band centered near the laser wavelength of 810 nm. ICG has been used to increase the laser absorption of SMP for photothermal actuation in previous work [11].In addition to light absorption, various heating mechanisms may be employed for thermally activated SMP devices including electrical (Joule) heating [20,37,38], inductive heating [39], and heated fluid flush. For the stent application, light absorption provides a means of efficient localized heating of the dye-doped device, and the cylindrical geometry of the device is well-suited to illumination by a cylindrical light diffuser. In addition, the lack of physical connection between the light diffuser and the device enables the stent to expand freely. Inductive heating of a device doped with appropriate magnetic particles would also provide remote, localized heating, though such a device would require development of a clinically safe external source of alternating magnetic field. Localized Joule heating could be applied by embedding resistive heating elements (e.g., wires) into the device (though such elements must not interfere with shape recovery) or employing a conductive SMP composite material [20] and passing a current through the device; in either case, the stent would be physically connected to the power source and would have to be detached from the leads supplying the current following device deployment. Flowing heated saline through the delivery catheter either using a heated reservoir or embedding heating elements in the delivery catheter would expose a larger area of the vessel to elevated temperatures, which may or may not be detrimental.Another option for SMP device deployment is to employ a low-Tg material (≤ 37°C) such that the device spontaneously actuates at body temperature. Such a stent would not require an external heating source, and therefore would not raise the concern of thermal tissue damage. However, the modulus of the SMP at or above Tg (~1–10 MPa) [11] is at least an order of magnitude lower than the modulus values of polymers typically used for stents in previous work [22]. Nevertheless, the fact that the SMP stent would not permanently deform if compressed (e.g., during arterial spasm), unlike some metallic stents, suggests that further study of such a design may be warranted. One group has reported complete shape recovery of prototype SMP stents designed to expand at body temperature, noting that the recovery can be controlled by varying the glass transition temperature, polymer crosslink density, and stent geometry [40].Photothermal actuation introduces the potential to cause thermal damage to tissue and blood in the vicinity of the device. While we did not measure the temperature of the stent, the fact that the stent fully actuated indicated that it at least approached the Tg of the stent (55°C). The temperature around the device depends on the cooling capacity of the blood and tissue, the laser power and duration, light absorption by the blood, tissue, and device, and blood flow. Thermal damage depends on the time-temperature history. For example, according to an Arrhenius damage model for arterial collagen denaturation [41], it would require several hours at a temperature of 55°C to induce irreversible damage, a timescale much longer than that needed for photothermal stent expansion. A similar model for arterial endothelial cell damage [42] indicates that cell damage would occur in less than a second at 55°C. However, standard intravascular catheter insertion and manipulation, as is used in conventional stent placement, is also known to damage the endothelial cell layer [43]. Following acute injury (mechanical or thermal) to the vessel wall and/or endothelial layer, long-term arterial recovery has been shown [44,45]. In vivo survival studies including histology at acute and long-term time points are required to assess the extent and tolerance of potential thermal damage caused by photothermal actuation of the SMP stent.In practice, stents are generally placed under blood flow; however, certain other medical interventional devices, such as the MERCI Retriever for clot extraction in cerebral arteries [46], incorporate a protection mechanism to block blood flow during the intervention. The advantage of delivering the laser-activated SMP stent under a zero flow condition is that identical operating parameters (e.g., laser power and duration) can be used regardless of the flow conditions in the target vessel. In addition, by minimizing convective cooling, it reduces the amount of laser energy needed to achieve expansion.Whether it will be clinically delivered with flow or without flow, this first prototype needs to be optimized for a controlled full actuation without causing detrimental thermal injury to the surrounding artery. Optimization could include systematically adjusting the dye concentration in the stent, possibly incorporating dye into the foam, improving the uniformity of emission along the length of the diffuser by modifying the media blasting parameters, and adjusting the foam density to enhance light scattering. In addition, the Tg of the stent and foam can also be varied by using a different SMP material or by varying the fabrication conditions [14,15]. The Tg should be tailored to be low enough such that the stent can be actuated at the lowest possible laser power, but it should be high enough such that the stent does not self-expand at body temperature (37°C). The current prototype was designed for use in a large vessel such as the internal carotid artery, not in the narrow cerebral vasculature. The stent pattern and dimensions would need to be scaled down to enable the device to be crimped down sufficiently for intravascular catheter delivery.ConclusionWe have shown the design and fabrication of a novel laser-activated stent made of shape memory polymer. In addition, we developed a fiber optic-based means of light delivery for photothermal actuation. Though further studies are required to optimize the device and assess potential thermal tissue damage, preliminary in vitro testing demonstrated the concept of intravascular photothermal deployment of an SMP stent.Competing interestsThe author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.Authors' contributionsGB participated in the design and fabrication of the stent and artery model, design and execution of the laser deployment experiments, and writing of the manuscript. WS participated in the design and execution of the laser deployment experiments and writing of the manuscript. TSW participated in the design and fabrication of the stent. WJB participated in the design and fabrication of the stent and artery model. DLM participated in the design and supervision of the study. JH participated in the design of the stent. DJM participated in the design and supervision of the study, and design of the stent and artery model. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Supplementary MaterialAdditional File 1
Time lapse video of SMP stent deployment in the mock artery (zero flow) as the laser power was gradually increased (see Fig. Fig.33).Click here for file(1.8M, avi)AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank Jeffrey Loge for helping to construct the artery model and Jennifer Rodriguez for creating the video. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract W-7405-ENG-48. Major support was provided by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Grant R01EB000462. Additional support was provided by a LLNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development Grant (04-ERD-093) and the National Science Foundation Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST). CBST is managed by the University of California, Davis, under Cooperative Agreement No. PHY 0120999. Other Sections▼
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La vejez. Drama y tarea, pero también una oportunidad, por Santiago Kovadloff
The following information is used for educational purposes only. La vejez. Drama y tarea, pero también una oportunidad Los años permiten r...
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The following information is used for educational purposes only. 7 Self-Care Rituals That Will Make You a Happier and Healthier Perso...
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The following information is used for educational purposes only. Transcript: ...
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The following information is used for educational purposes only. ChatGPT, una introducción realista ChatGPT parece haber alcanz...
