Strategy

A collection of 54 posts

Sales Management

Setting Sales Goals for 2008

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

Niche Market Profiles

Market Online or Go Out of Business

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

Strategy

Green: Marketing Mega Trend of the Decade

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

Segmentation

Long Tail Marketing

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

Niche Market Profiles

Know Your Target Market

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

Business Planning

Writing Business Plans That Sell

Business plans have three main purposes: to guide the operation, to secure loans from the bank, and to secure new investments. Regardless of the application or use, the plan must sell the reader on why this business concept works. The most basic use of the plan is for the internal

Strategy

What's Your Sustainable Competitive Advantage?

A common phrase used today in marketing circles is “sustainable competitive advantage” (often abbreviated as SCA). Michael Porter, lauded Professor of Harvard University, coined the term in the eighties and it lives on as an iconic business term. In fact, it has become a cliche, since its usage often is

Strategy

The "4 Ps" Versus the "4 Cs"

The "4 Ps" are the cornerstone of modern "marketing mix": Price, Promotion, Place, and Product. They were first defined by author E. Jerome McCarthy in the 1950s and they are marketing gospel today: product, place, price, and promotion. • Product is the goods, services, or solutions that

New Product Development

New Millennium Marketing Mega Trends

About a year ago I released a blog with this title. I have just updated this trend list. Read on. The following Marketing Mega Trends will rock your marketing world for many years to come: Hispanics accounted for about half the growth in the U.S. population since 2000, according

Niche Market Profiles

Which Niche?

Having thoroughly researched the topic of niche marketing and having written a book on the subject, I can tell you with some authority that there is no algorithm for finding a niche business that is perfect for you. Making that choice is art rather than science. My research did uncover

Branding

Marketing Mantras Make Money

Author's note: This is a reissue of a previous blog due to popular demand. Repeat. Marketing Mantras Make Money. Repeat. Marketing Mantras Make Money. Again. A mantra is a religious prayer or mystical phrase or poem that instills concentration when repeated and is used for meditation and prayer.

Branding

Apple’s Branding: Too Cool for Dad

The promise of value for some brands is like a siren’s call: tantalizing, almost sinful, or too powerful. A few brands receive an almost cult-like following from their customers; yet, it seems that their promise of value is far greater than what they actually deliver. Yet, customers don'

New Product Development

Dumpster Diving for Niche Market Products

Dumpster diving for niche market products is my way describing the process of creating new niche market products. I read once that for every 3000 new product ideas you get one successful product. Obviously, this was a six figure study funded by the federal government for some university research lab,

Strategy

The Long Tail Wags the Dog

Clever title, huh? Whoops, not so clever; I just Googled the title and got  462 exact hits (more on this later). But, let me first admit the truth. I just now got around to reading Chris Anderson’s best seller “The Long Tail”.  It truly is an eloquent work: scholarly,

Marketing Mix

Download Free E-book!

I am normally skeptical of free offers, but this one is legitimate.

Strategy

Marketing Strategy: Change Before You Have To

Even the best marketing strategies need to be revisited, if not revised. Changes in the market environment can dramatically change the marketing mix and your product plans. Marketing strategy should be viewed as a process, which means that the best laid marketing plans will change sooner or later.

Market Research

Innovation in Niche Markets

Innovation is the mainstay of niche marketing, yet your customer may not be able tell you what they will need in the future. And this makes sense if you think about it.

Strategy

What Does Your Best Customer Look Like?

So, what does the "best" customer look like? One way to determine which customer/s are best is by creating what I call the “preferred customer profile”. Create a list of the criteria that are most important to you and your business.

Strategy

Only Dead Fish Swim With the Current

A Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) is a unique offering that is valued by your customer and is not available from the competition. It is not what you think it is or want it to be. It is what your customer believes be true that really counts.

Advertising

Have You Heard About My Disruptive Technology?

With increasing frequency, the technology crowd has liberally branded new products as “disruptive technologies”. I think it fair to say that most of these new offerings are not disruptive or even interesting, for that matter. They are new products, short and simple.

Branding

More on Brand Strategy

Companies have four basic options for an overall brand strategy: multi-product branding, sub-branding, multi-branding, and private branding. Each has its merits, so let’s review them.

Branding

Strategies for Brand Growth

Creating a successful brand in the marketplace is very hard work and costs a lot of money. This is particularly true for consumer products where it takes millions of contacts to sell thousands of products. This is also true for the crowded B2B space where building brand awareness is getting tougher

Branding

The Beta Buzz

Take a quick tour of the new and trendy websites on the internet and you will find the frequent and liberal use of the word “Beta”. In most cases, the word Beta is used almost like a tagline under the company or product name to signify that this offering is new, cool, or different. The purpose is to

Strategy

First, Best, or Different

The entrepreneur who finds a customer segment that has been under served or overlooked can earn extraordinary rewards. Niche marketing requires that you focus on customers who cannot get what they want or need from their existing providers. For various reasons, mainstream firms will often innocently

Strategy

Strategic Marketing 101

Strategic Marketing is all about analyzing business opportunities and attempts to answer the following basic questions for a business: • What might we do? • Who do we do best? • What must we do?