You own a small business and don’t have a lot of money for market research firms or consultants. What can you do to better understand your competition? Here are a few ideas: • Visit your direct competitor’s stores and talk to the sales staff; it is amazing what people will say. • Websites can be…
Some people will tell you that niche marketing can be like jungle warfare and that you must conduct battle like a “guerrilla soldier.” You may have heard the term “guerrilla marketing” used by others. Admittedly, this is a powerful image but I believe that this paramilitary characterization puts the focus on the wrong parties: you…
The market place may seem large, but it is really made up of many smaller markets with customers who share similar preferences or needs. These smaller markets are called market segments. Your target market is the market segment that you choose to serve. Yet, to truly serve your target market, you need to be able…
There is something special about a fine bottle of wine—for many, a fine wine is worth the hefty price premium. Yet, that price premium is how many wine lovers actually determine a fine wine’s merit— the higher the price the better the wine. Scientists at California Institute of Technology studied premium pricing and its impact…
Innovative products need to be marketed and sold differently than other offerings since they require a special customer who is receptive to innovation. Most customers are skeptical and will wait until innovative products are mass marketed. Here are a few suggestions on how to market innovative products: • Not everyone will understand the need for…
Study after study shows that people who set goals accomplish more, achieve greater success, and accumulate greater wealth than people who don’t. Read on if you agree. Setting your sales goals for 2008 should begin with a review of how you did in 2007. Did you achieve your 2007 sales goal? If so, what went…
If your business is not actively engaged in web-based marketing, it is likely you are going out of business. One of the best examples I can describe is the book business of which I am an active participant. The era of the brick and mortar retail store is quickly being eclipsed by the online or…
The marketing mega trend of the decade is unquestionably the need to be “green”. Call it what you like: clean-tech, low carbon footprint, environmentally conscious, eco-friendly, the impact of global warning, or just common sense. It’s for real and it represents a major marketing opportunity, while some might say it will be a political necessity.…
Chris Anderson’s business bestseller, The Long Tail, is widely quoted and the term “long tail marketing” is now as ubiquitous as sustainable competitive advantage, value proposition, and the other business clichés. With this cliché status, the term gets abused and misused. What Anderson meant is that there is a new economy that provides an economic…
Simply put, a market is a group of buyers that are willing and able to buy your product or solution. A market is made up sub-markets or “market segments”; market segments are groups of potential buyers who have similar wants, needs, experiences, or problems. In fact, a wise man once said, “There is no market;…