Growth through Imitation - this article makes one think!

"Being the first with a new innovation is great for your business - right?"

"Err...well no... not really..."

Research indicates that "fast followers" - that's imitators or copiers to you and me - get the best advantage. Too often there is a first mover disadvantage: the market is not fully developed, the offer is not fully formed, development costs are disproportionately high, risks are higher....the list goes on.

Prof Oded Shenkar, in a book to be published by Harvard Business Press in June 2010, argues that 98.7% of the value of innovations goes to the imitators - this is not surprising as imitators grow the market. (What is surprising is the specific accuracy his findings!)

But a lot of people have a real problem with "imitation". It is a major strategy for growth, but since we were kids we have been told: "don't copy...do it yourself". Our teachers have a lot to answer for on this front. It is a reflection of old meritocratic values where hard work and individual endeavour would get you out of the work house.

We work in a very different environment now. Teams and networking are the heart of how we live. Sharing ideas and concepts which get developed through collaboration is a way of life. Open Source software is one of the most obvious examples; development through imitation and refinement for the good of all.

In business imitation is not only rife it should be seen as a fundamental strategy for growth. Our whole development as a species has been built on imitation: Darwin showed us the way with the Origin of Species. We developed a wheel originally in solid rock or wood. Others imitated and in the imitation refined the concept from the original "rolling log" into the centuries old efficient hub and spokes design.

So businesses should imitate. It is a core strategy and one that we should be proud of using effectively in growing our businesses. In many cultures copying is a core way of life: China is making more than a habit of it, Japan has done so for decades and was the basis of their growth in the second half of the 20th Century. They imitated, but in the imitation they improved and developed.

Article distributed by www.freshbusinessthinking.com and written by Andrew Lester | Managing Partner Carr-Michael Consulting

Maybe this is why many people are switching to Plus-Ribbon!

Some call our ribbons ‘imitations’, others ‘clone’, many ‘counterfeit’… but these complimentary comments aside, one can not excuse the fact that our low cost great quality ribbons for ID card printers offer a superb alternative that is saving organisations money, and at a time when those savings are so critical.

Shared by www.EagleTechnologies.co.uk

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Eagle Technologies Ltd is an international wholesaler and manufacturer of Card ID Printers/Systems, consumables, plastic cards and general badge accessories. Eagle Technologies Ltd is located in the UK, Europe and USA and specialise in providing superior product and support via value add resellers, system integrators and ID Agents. © 2010 Eagle Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Eagle Technologies Ltd reserves the right to make changes at any time without notice. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Eagle Technologies Ltd assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this documentation.

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An Access and Loyalty Card for the Lucien Barrière Casinos

The Market: Leisure and entertainment industry

Applications: Access control; loyalty; customer relationship management

Challenges: Secure access to sites and deploy a tool to build up customer loyalty

Evolis Solution: TATTOO Card Printer

In 2006 the French regulations governing the gaming industry require each visitor to a Casino to compulsorily present an ID card at the entry point. Although a constraint, this is prevalent in several countries worldwide. The Lucien Barrière Group operates several casinos in France and in Europe, and selected this moment to launch its Casinopass card that would serve as an ID for the holder to gain access to their casinos.

« We rolled out this card prior to Nov.1, 2006, and conducted a communication campaign to educate our customers and inform them that they would henceforth have to show their ID card or passport at the entrance of our casinos”, recalls Christophe Chicoix IS Project Manager, Groupe Lucien Barrière. « We decided to take advantage of what first appeared to be a constraint: our loyalty card helps us comply with our regulatory obligation, but it also makes its holder feel different.”

Reward Loyalty

Upon entering a casino, the holder of a Casinopass simply applies the card to a terminal which reads the embedded RFID chip. The holder’s picture is displayed on a monitoring screen to authenticate his identity, to ensure that the holder is over 18 year old, and that he is not featured on an official blacklist of gamblers. Casinopass also offers benefits such as discounts on shows, free drinks at the casino bar, discounts on hotels and restaurants of the Groupe Lucien Barrière, invitations to events, and more. “This card is a communication tool truly focused on the customer“, adds Christophe Chicoix. “We can identify our most loyal customers and design customized loyalty benefits based on the number of visits of an individual”.

Technology

Tattoo, the ideal solution for en demand personalisation

About 40 Evolis Tattoo printers are currently deployed in 35 casinos of the Groupe Lucien Barrière. They deliver Casinopasses, thanks to a simple three-step process. First, a picture of the holder is taken as he hands in his application form and presents his official ID. Next, the hostess feeds the information provided to the system to deliver a personalized card. All cards are pre-printed, and Tattoo only adds selected information such as, first name, surname, the customer ID number and the card’s date of issuance. Finally, the hostess presents the card to a RFID reader. In the system, the customer is now linked to an alphanumeric key that is embedded in the card.

Tattoo turned out to be at the Lucien Barrière casinos, but also at other private and public organisations, the ideal solution to personalise badges on demand, in small or large runs: membership cards, employee or visitor badges, loyalty cards, and more. Besides, the compact size of this printer makes it the right fit for reception areas, while it’s easy operations enable ‘welcome’ staff to ramp up fast.

Quality Printing

In a matter of seconds, the printer personalises blank or pre-printed cards in monochrome or color, and on a single side. It takes just 7 seconds for a card in monochrome and 40 seconds in color. Tattoo 2 prints texts, logos, barcodes and pictures, and can also encode a magnetic stripe. Tattoo2 offers quality printing with a 300 dpi resolution and near-to-edge printing.

« Evolis printers are appraised by users »

With Jean-Marie Coquery

Project Manager, Casinos, Groupe Lucien Barrière

What were your main challenges when launching the Casinopass?

The Casinopass enables multiple applications: access control, management of special offers at the point-of-sale and customer profiling. All these applications need to be enabled country-wide: a card delivered in one specific casino, must be recognised in every other casino. Furthermore, we also wanted a reporting on the rate of visits in order to design and support targeted marketing actions. We eventually designed our own solution to support these project requirements.

What were the key reasons for selecting Evolis Printers?

We benchmarked Evolis against a competitor, and selected Evolis for the greater reliability of their printers. Evolis loaned us two printer models for conducting real-world testing. We finally approved both printers and adopted the Tattoo.

Are you happy with the Evolis solutions?

Completely! Evolis proved to be a pleasant surprise. We were not experts in handling such printers, and so, were looking for a reliable partner in this area. Users truly favour the Tattoo printers for their small footprint and fast operation. And most of all, we have experienced no mechanical failures since we started using them.

If you are interested in deploying this type of card printing and membership solution in the UK, please contact Elise Plot at Eagle Technologies Ltd on 01344 303 700.

Eagle Technologies has enjoyed the Authorised Evolis Value Add Partner status since Evolis rolled out their first printer in year 2000.

www.EagleTechnologies.co.uk

Now over 270 members…. Join The Community for ID Card Professionals, and start benefiting from new contacts, ideas and general industry chat today. >>>

Eagle Technologies Ltd is an international wholesaler and manufacturer of Card ID Printers/Systems, consumables, plastic cards and general badge accessories. Eagle Technologies Ltd is located in the UK, Europe and USA and specialise in providing superior product and support via value add resellers, system integrators and ID Agents. © 2010 Eagle Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Eagle Technologies Ltd reserves the right to make changes at any time without notice. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Eagle Technologies Ltd assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this documentation.

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Eagle Technologies Q.1 2010 Sales Results - Good or Bad?

With special thanks to our loyal customers, their proactive ability to search out and win orders and the hard work and dedication of my team, Eagle is pleased to share its Q1 2010 result.

January started out fairly stable, nothing out of the ordinary, but February and March exceeded our wildest expectations. Our group sales for the quarter increased by 22% when compared to Q1 2009 and our carry over of backlog, plus our healthy pipeline paves the way for an equally successful Q2. Eagle is flying higher than pre-recession results.

I am equally delighted to share that our international sales increased by over 100%, contributed in part by a weaker pound, but more so because Plus-Ribbon sales keep rising as awareness increases globally. Plus-Ribbon is now selling in over 55 countries and interest from the APAC region certainly keeps us excited for our first time exhibit at the Cards Asia show in Singapore later this month.

Eagle also welcomes 24 new resellers and is very pleased to announce that our Evolis sales rose by 32% and Eagle’s overall ID Card Printer sales rose by a healthy 25% (Evolis, Magicard, Fargo & Datacard).

The only brand in our mix to actually decline is Zebra/Javelin and our internal analysis by printer orders/by reseller identifies a change in brand purchase rather than sales migration. Could this possibly be due to reliability factors of certain models and/or the uncertainty now witnessed within the Zebra reseller family by their recent changes in partner status and increasing number of direct partners globally?

It has been suggested that increased competition can either stimulate higher sales when supported by extreme marketing campaigns, or reduce sales as previously loyal brand resellers select alternative / less competing brands to promote in a bid to protect future consumable sales (less competition). I think if there is any accuracy in these considerations, Value Added Resellers will always prefer to differentiate from the crowd when promoting products and services. Only the manufacturer will know for certain if their strategy is working. Share your views and thoughts and add a comment.

As mentioned already, Eagle is very excited to exhibit Plus-Ribbon, Plus-Card and Plus-Clean at Cards Asia in April, and also in May at IfSec 2010 where we normally exhibit every 2 years, I can hardly believe it’s that time again.

Our ePoints for iPads promotion is well underway and appears to mirror Apples own successful new product launch. Already thousands of points banked by many of our customers ready for when Apple release the iPad outside the US…. I think it is only a matter of days now.

From everyone at Eagle, thank you for continuing to secure our future and we look forward to serving your profitable needs through Q2 and beyond.

Best regards

Chris Rayner

Founder

Simple, no formal enrollment and you can have more than one!!! Click here for full details of our global Plus-Ribbon promotion. *terms and conditions apply ************************************************************* Plus-Ribbon is compatible with Datacard, Zebra (formally Eltron), Javelin, Polaroid, DIS EDISecure, Matica, Evolis, Fargo and Magicard printers. Plus-Ribbon is a range of high quality ribbon compatibles suitable for new and old card printers whether using RFID ribbon recognition or not. ************************************************************* Main Tel: Technical Tel: Accounts Tel: Fax: Web: +44 (0) 1344 303 700 +44 (0) 1344 383 650 +44 (0) 1280 847 047 +44 (0) 1344 303 701 www.eagletechnologies.co.uk www.EagleLearningCards.com Now over 265 members…. Join The Community for ID Card Professionals, and start benefiting from new contacts, ideas and general industry chat today. >>>

Eagle Technologies Ltd is an international wholesaler and manufacturer of Card ID Printers/Systems, consumables, plastic cards and general badge accessories.  Eagle Technologies Ltd is located in the UK, Europe and USA and specialise in providing superior product and support via value add resellers, system integrators and ID Agents. Coming soon – Eagle China for the APAC region – See us at Cards Asia (Singapore) Eagle Technologies Ltd is an international wholesaler and manufacturer of Card ID Printers/Systems, consumables, plastic cards and general badge accessories. Eagle Technologies Ltd is located in the UK, Europe and USA © 2010 Eagle Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Eagle Technologies Ltd reserves the right to make changes at any time without notice. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Eagle Technologies Ltd assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this documentation.

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