As we're sure you know, jeans are traditionally made from denim, a rugged cotton dyed blue using indigo. Before indigo came around, however, the only source of blue dye in Europe was a flowering plant called woad, or glastum. (How's that for unexpected trivia ;-) The woad industry was wiped out in the late sixteenth century, when traders started importing shiploads of indigo from the Far East.
An Italian fashion brand—Dondup—is now working on the forgotten commodity's comeback. Guado, as it's called in Italian, is being used to dye the company's new 'Essentia' line. Wholeheartedly embracing the still made here trend, Dondup focuses on guado's history, casting it as the original, local shade of blue. Naturally, Essentia apparel is made from organic cotton, and for colours other than blue, Dondup also works with natural dyes that have been used for centuries, like rose madder and blackberry.
What works for once-dormant brands—think the Volkswagen Beetle or Tretorn sneakers, could work for unbranded goods, too, yielding their rediscoverers instant authenticity and stories to share. Time to start digging in the (art) history books ;-)
Denmark's summer Roskilde Festival is one of the largest annual music festivals in Europe, with some 75,000 attending each year. In honour of this year's event—which officially kicks off July 3—jeans company Diesel has created a limited-edition line of jeans specially designed to withstand the rigours of summer festival fun.
Priced at EUR 161, the dark-blue Roskilde Festival Jeans are available for both men and women, and feature the Roskilde logo emblazoned on the hip. A specially treated commercial denim base, meanwhile, is designed to stand up to rain and mud, which were present in copious amounts at the festival last year. The jeans are available only from the official Roskilde shop—alongside jackets, caps and other promotional items the festival sells itself—or in select Diesel concept stores. Reportedly, only 1,000 pairs are up for sale, making planned scarcity part of the appeal.
Summer music festivals are an ideal place for companies to get closer to their customers, who naturally tend to be relaxed and happy at such events. By creating its own, unique festival product, though, Diesel forges a tangible connection that goes far beyond anything advertising or sponsorship could likely achieve. One to emulate!
It's not every day an innovation comes along that fundamentally changes the way consumers use a product, but colorOn and Eye Majic both appear to be achieving that feat with press-on eye shadow kits.
Applying traditional eye shadow well requires considerable skill, time and expertise with brushes, sponges or other applicators. Matching colours can also be tricky, and eye shadow cakes are prone to crumbling and spilling, leaving consumers with the potential for a mess. These new press-on eye shadow kits, on the other hand, allow consumers to instantly apply professionally created eye-shadow designs without applicators or mess. Each single-use kit is applied to the eyelid using a preprepared strip that contains a variety of matched and blended colours. Pressing the strip to the eyelid transfers the colours onto the eyelid in just the right shades, creating a look much like one a professional make-up artist might have created.
ColorOn, from Florida-based World Cosmetics, is available in a variety of colour schemes priced at USD 18 for a set of 5, or USD 30 for 10. Eight colour schemes are available—one even simulates animal prints, with zebra and leopard designs—along with a 10-pack of best-sellers. The products are available through select retailers or directly online. Australian Majic Beauty's Eye Majic, meanwhile, offers 12 colour combinations through select retailers worldwide. A 10-pack through US-based Home Shopping Network, for example, costs USD 19.95.
Distributors are still few and far between for both of these—one to get in on early if you’re in retail or cosmetics.
We've covered products for female DIY-ers before, as well as women-only construction crews. Tomboy Trades, a Canadian start-up, is tackling yet another aspect of the male-dominated construction industry: what to wear.
After leaving a corporate job at IBM, Tomboy Trades' founder Marissa McTasney enrolled in a skilled-trades course for women, with the aim of starting her own construction company. She spotted a gap in the market on her first day of school. When she and her classmates went out to buy work boots, she was surprised to find they only came in tan and black: men’s shoes in female sizes. According to salespeople, McTasney wasn't the only one disappointed in the limited choice of working gear for women. Not one to pass up an entrepreneurial opportunity, she found a manufacturer in China and developed steel-toe boots in pink, green, blue and red. Matching tool belts, safety glasses and hard hats soon followed, as did retail partnerships with Home Depot and Zellers, a Canadian department store.
Tomboy Trades is now looking for retailers outside Canada, and also mentions that franchising plans are in the works. In a wider context, professional female construction workers and amateur handywomen are still an underserved market. Which means interesting opportunities for entrepreneurs who know how to cater to them. More on creating products and services for women in trendwatching.com's Female Fever briefing.
Earlier this year we wrote about Ndeur, a Canadian company that offers high-end customized shoes, and now a new partnership with customization portal Zazzle is bringing similar capabilities to the iconic world of Keds.
Keds Studio, which just launched a few weeks ago, lets consumers design their own custom Keds Champions classic canvas sneakers by picking colours and adding graphics, photos and text. Users of the Zazzle-powered application begin by selecting the style they want—slip-on or lace-up, for women or kids—along with the size. They are then prompted to choose from a wide selection of colours and designs for each of several different sections of the shoe, along with trim details including stitching, binding, lining and gore. They can upload their own artwork, graphics and text for instant drag-and-drop addition to their shoe design. Alternatively, an assortment of premade designs from artists including Sarah Singh and Gen Art are also available; each month a new designer or artist will be featured through a series of limited-edition designs. Keds Studio is available on both the Zazzle and Keds (from Stride Rite) sites. Priced between USD 50 and USD 60, the customized shoes are produced within 24 to 48 hours of ordering and will reach consumers within one to two weeks. Shipping is available internationally.
Of course, it's one thing to let consumers design their own shoes, but the next logical step in the customer-made trend is to help them sell their creations as well. Sure enough, users of Keds Studio can do just that through the Zazzle marketplace. A simple "Post for Sale" button on the application makes it happen, and Zazzle's "Name Your Royalty" system enables consumers to set the price of their shoe designs above the original price and earn the entire mark-up in profit. Now *that's* really letting customers have it their way! (Related: New sneaker brand relies on crowds for design.)
Most street-style fashion blogs serve their readers primarily as sources of inspiration, but a new London-based blog has added an e-commerce twist to let readers click on looks they like and purchase them on the spot.
Stitsh, which launched earlier this year, offers up galleries of photos of real men and women on the London streets wearing a wide variety of looks and styles. In addition to having subjects sign photo releases, Stitsh's photographers also find out about the clothes they are wearing and hunt them down in retail stores, forging e-commerce partnerships wherever possible. Users of the site, which is ultimately much like a blog version of shopping magazine Lucky, can then just click on items they're interested in and be taken to stores where those items—or very similar versions—can be purchased. Photos are arranged by gender, and items are also tagged for easy searchability.
"The way I shop is I look at what people are wearing," Stitsh founder Dom Fendius told Women's Wear Daily. "When the street-style blogs came online, I thought, wouldn't it be great if I could buy the clothing worn in those photos?"
Stitsh is partially funded by ads, but it also works on a commission model, WWD reports. Specifically, each Stitsh reader who clicks through to the site of an online retailer such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, House of Fraser or French Connection and buys something there earns Stitsh a commission of up to 12 percent. Some stores will even pay Stitsh the commission for shoppers who return to buy something as much as 30 days later, according to WWD. Stitsh currently covers just the streets of London, but Manchester, Stockholm and New York are reportedly in the works. One to partner with or emulate in other parts of the world...?
Hard on the heels—so to speak—of our story about sneaker customization at Keds Studio last week comes another spotting in the world of customized footwear: Sneakart, a site that lets users personalize sneakers from any brand via specially designed removable stickers.
Still in beta, UK-based Sneakart offers users the opportunity to customize their sneakers via Sneakskin, a super-thin, flexible, durable and waterproof graphic film that can be applied to white, light-coloured and metallic shoes. Printed with non-toxic ink in the UK, Sneakskin is 100 percent PVC-free and can be peeled off and replaced at will. It's available either in sheets of individual stickers or in 22-by-29-cm sheets of patterns that the user can cut to fit the areas to be covered; either way, one or two sheets is typically enough to customize one pair of shoes, Sneakart says. Sneakart offers a wide variety of patterns and designs ranging in price from about GBP 4.95 to 5.95 per sheet, but users can also create their own artwork and upload it to the site. They can choose either to keep their design private, for their use only, or to make it public and offer it up for the use of others as well. The motivation to go public is considerable: each time a public design is purchased, Sneakart credits the designer's account with 10 percent of the sale price, available either as a credit toward further Sneakart purchases or via direct payment. Sneakskin peels easily off its backing paper for application, and sticks on shoes with regular daily wear for a few months. Sneakart donates 10p from every order it receives to Street Kids International, and it has also offset its 2008 carbon footprint twice over through PURE's renewable energy projects in India, Brazil and China.
There's no doubt customization is a good thing, but rewarding consumers for their customer-made innovations just may knock this one out of the park. Next, how about helping to bring this concept to other types of shoes, handbags or even cellphones and personal gadgets? (Related: New sneaker brand relies on crowds for design.)
More crowdfunding! Just recently, Irish fashion portal Catwalk Genius joined the crowdfunded fashion fray with its new Adopt a Designer program.
Catwalk Genius features fashion and accessories from independent designers. Through Adopt a Designer, supporters of a participating designer can buy shares (or "elements," as it calls them) in their work for EUR 14—plus a EUR 1 processing fee—in the hope of sharing in future profits. Once 5,000 such elements have been sold, the designer is given the resulting EUR 70,000 to create a new collection within 6 months. In the meantime, supporters receive a limited edition piece created exclusively for them by the designer. When the new collection launches, all profits from its sale are split equally among the designer, the supporters and Catwalk Genius. If the collection sells out, a tidy profit goes to the designer's supporters, who can also sign up for Catwalk Genius's affiliate program and earn 10 percent of the profits from sales through ads on their personal web pages. By the Adopt a Designer program's mid-April launch, 50 designers had already signed up.
Crowdfunding has now been spotted taking hold in the worlds of bands, software, education and sports, among many others. Any doubters left out there? Time to start putting the power of the supportive crowds to work for your growing brand!
For dieters working to lose weight, maintaining a decent wardrobe of clothes that fit can be an ongoing—and expensive—challenge on the way to a target size. With just that situation in mind, Transitional Sizes rents out name-brand clothing for temporary use while the pounds come off.
Maryland-based Transitional Sizes, which just recently launched, offers women's and maternity clothing in a range of sizes for monthly rental fees ranging from about USD 3 to USD 25. (Men's clothes are coming soon, the site says.) Customers order items in the sizes they need and keep them for as long as they want; once they're done, they clean them per the instructions provided by Transitional Sizes and send them back in the original box. Customers needn't be members to order from the site, but membership packages ranging from USD 10 to USD 40 per year are designed to give dieters a range of extra perks, including coupons, discounts, email alerts and weight-loss incentives.
Transitional Sizes' inventory is still very limited, and its site feels rough around the edges. Nevertheless, the concept is a good one, and could be enhanced by personal features such as automatically sending a smaller set of clothes when a customer is scheduled to have dropped to the next size, for example. And how about a partnership with Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig? Either way, dieters are just one group among the legions of transumers out there, eager to be free from the bonds of (unnecessary) ownership. Which creates lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs who can support the new leasing lifestyle! (Related: Baby clothes rental service.)
Catering to design-conscious urban cyclists who'd rather not sacrifice style for safety, a group of Danish designers has created a bicycle helmet with interchangeable covers.
Copenhagen-based Yakkay sells a simple shell helmet (dubbed "Smart One") that's tucked away under one of ten different covers. The helmet retails at DKK 599 (EUR 80 / USD 120), and the covers are sold for DKK 299 (EUR 40 / USD 60). While chin straps betray their true nature, the helmets otherwise resemble hats and caps worn for fashion, not protection.
Yakkay states that the number of seriously injured cyclists with head injuries is around 2,500 per year in Denmark (on a total population of under 5.5 million). And that's in a country where motorists are accustomed to cyclists, and where most roads have separate bicycle lanes. As more consumers across the world hop on their bikes to reduce their gas bills, carbon footprints and waistlines, the market for innovative cycling products and services should grow at a healthy pace. One to tap into! Easy way to get started? Ask Yakkay about regional distribution opportunities. (Related: Stylish fire protection kits.)
Update: please don't email Yakkay about international distribution. They wrote to tell us that they have a plan in place for their international launch and are currently receiving too many distributor requests.
1. Yakkay — Stylish helmets for urban cyclists 2. Transitional Sizes — Clothing rental for size-changing dieters 3. Catwalk Genius — Adopt-a-designer program for crowdfunded fashion 4. Sneakart — Customizing sneakers with removable stickers 5. Stitsh — Click to buy: fashion blog is a street version of shopping mags 6. Keds & Zazzle — Design your own Keds & sell them on Zazzle 7. Tomboy Trades — Steel-toes and tool belts for women 8. colorOn & Eye Majic — Press-on eye shadow kits 9. Diesel & Roskilde — Limited-edition festival jeans 10. Dondup — Bringing a dye back from the dead: luxury jeans tinted a long dormant blue
We've featured two businesses that offer custom-blended tea: Blends For Friends in the UK and Design A Tea in the US. Since tea-lovers aren't the only ones to yearn for a hot beverage they can call their very own, we knew it wouldn't be long before one of our Springspotters pointed us to a company offering custom-blended coffee.
From Germany this time, Sonntagmorgen (German for Sunday morning) sells made-to-order coffee blends online. Customers can choose from nine regional varieties and set their own blend ratios. A 250 gram pack of coffee can contain 4/7ths Ethiopian Sidamo and 3/7ths Indian Pearl Mountain, for example. Adjusting is easy: just flick arrows up or down. Once the momentous blend decisions have been made, coffee-meisters specify a grind (or whole beans), and can then move on to add flavouring. Sonntagmorgen offers 13 aromas, ranging from vanilla to chili peppers, and users can select up to three.
Finally, customers pick a name for their personal brand of joe, which is printed on the label along with the varieties and aromas used. Prices for a custom-made blend depend on the types of coffee used, but average around EUR 7 for a 250 gram bag. Until entire pantries can be stocked with personalized food, customization opportunities abound for smart and creative entrepreneurs. (Related: Mixed-to-order muesli.)
Pink Flamingo, which has two locations—one in Canal St. Martin, and a new one in Marais—is already well-known in the city for its original and creative pizza varieties. "The Bjork," for example, features smoked salmon; "The Ghandi" is topped with spinach saag and Baba Ganoush; and "The Almodovar" offers a paella theme. Even more charming, however, is that patrons of the restaurant can order their pizza for delivery to a picnic spot such as the banks of the nearby Seine. Upon ordering, they simply tell the restaurant where they plan to dine and are given a pink helium balloon to take with them. Pink Flamingo's delivery staff—who travel by foot or bicycle—then spot the customer thanks to the eye-catching balloon. Prices for Pink Flamingo's pizzas, whether delivered or eaten onsite, begin at EUR 10.50.
For all those who thought there was nothing new under the sun in the world of pizza delivery—innovation strikes again! One to emulate in picnic-friendly cities around the globe. (Related: Beach barbecue on call.)
We've already written about programs to adopt a vineyard or an olive tree, and now two Maine brothers have found a way to offer consumers the chance to adopt a Maine lobster trap.
For USD 2,995, consumers can own a Maine lobster trap and all the lobsters it catches for an entire year through the Premium Trap program from Catch a Piece of Maine. As "partners," as the company calls them, customers of the program are assigned a dedicated lobsterman who will fish their trap throughout the 32-week season. Everything he catches is tracked with a colour-coded band placed on the lobsters' claws, and all data is recorded online so that the partner can view their trap's activity, manage their catch and schedule shipments from anywhere. As lobsters are caught by the trap, the partner's account grows; as lobsters are requested for shipment, it decreases again. Lobsters can be shipped in batches of four as soon as they are caught, or they can be saved for later (in which case the company will substitute one just caught for the original); either way, details are included on when, where and by whom they were obtained. Catch a Piece of Maine guarantees at least 48 1.5 lb lobsters for each partner—totalling over 70bs.—and also 12 lbs. steamer clams, 12 lbs. mussels, and 48 servings of Maine-made desserts over the course of the year. All shipments are sent via FedEx overnight delivery throughout the continental U.S.; shipping costs are included in the fee. Partners are even invited to come aboard the company's lobster boat in Maine if they can, to meet the lobstermen and experience the harvest first-hand. Corporate gifts and single-meal orders are also available, and Catch a Piece of Maine donates 10 percent of its profits to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, educating 5th and 6th grade students about the Maine lobster industry.
At a time when local fishermen are struggling to make a living, Catch a Piece of Maine's partnership program allows lobstermen to receive a premium for their product while also preserving their sustainable fishing methods, the company says. No less significantly, it also gives consumers an active hand in what has typically been a hands-off business. Finally, it dovetails nicely with the still made here trend, giving consumers a geographical connection and a story to tell about the source of their food.
Honey may be one of a growing number of snobmoddities, as we noted back in 2006, but that doesn't mean it isn't still sometimes a sticky mess. Not so the Honey Drop, a new honey that you can hold in your hand.
Island Abbey Foods, of Prince Edward Island, Canada, has come out with a dried honey drop, equivalent to a teaspoon of the sticky stuff, that you can hold in your hand, drop in your tea or pop in your mouth. Released in January, the drops are made with pure Honibe honey from PEI, with no artificial colouring, flavouring or preservatives. The drops have a shelf life of one year and are available in two flavours: pure honey, or honey and lemon. Pricing is CDN 11.99 for a box of 20, which makes for a very premium alternative to sugar cubes.
Island Abbey Foods, which is a member of 1% for the Planet, is currently looking for retailers, affiliates and resellers for the Honey Drop. Sounds like a sweet proposition!
Geschmackslabor, German for Flavour Lab, is a new restaurant located in a former school in Bremerhaven. The 'lab' part of the name doesn't refer to molecular gastronomy or food served in test tubes. Experimentation at the restaurant is all about letting customers add flavour to their meals.
Dishes are served ready-to-eat, but diners are encouraged to enhance them by adding one or more of twenty custom-made seasoning oils that Geschmackslabor has on offer. The seasonings are all based on very pure olive oil, which is infused with flavours ranging from Arabica coffee and rosemary to papaya and coconut. Geschmackslabor's menu suggests which seasonings go well with which dishes, but the whole point is for customers to experiment and find their own delicious combinations. The restaurant supplies plenty of bread for trying out different oils before adding them to food, allowing customers to sample a full range of spicy, sour, salty, sweet and bitter. The oils are also sold separately at EUR 4.90-5.50 for 100 ml.
Adding olive oil to prepared food may not appeal to every consumer, but Geschmackslabor's DIY approach to 'finishing' a dish definitely adds a new level of experience to eating out. It's an adventurous, taste-focused alternative to the usual ketchups and hot sauces, and should appeal to those daring consumers that our sister-site trendwatching.com calls trysumers. If you're in the restaurant biz, this is one to experiment with!
Good things really do come in small packages, as fans of the winning 100-calorie snack package will agree. Now a new UK company aims to upgrade the small-portion snack with natural and nutritious edibles delivered by mail in just the right sizes.
Graze encourages consumers to do just that by offering a wide variety of natural foods in snack sizes for regular delivery by Royal Mail. Consumers can select from three types of standard snack collections: the grazemini, which combines fresh fruit with dried fruits, nuts or seeds; the grazeclassic, which adds vegetable, savoury and bakery options to that mix; and the grazeluxury, which includes deli and sweet indulgences. Focused nutritional selections are also available, chosen by Graze's team of nutritionists for energy, well-being or workout enhancement. Whichever box style they select, consumers then tell Graze how they feel about the various food options in that mix—whether they like, love, or would like to try them.
Customers then indicate how often they'd like to receive their boxes, on which days of the week, and in what sizes. Following that schedule, Graze will send a rotating selection of snacks designed for variety and good health. All food offered by Graze is hand-picked from the finest producers, the company says, and free of artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives. Boxes are available for delivery within the UK and are designed to fit into a standard-sized letterbox, which means deliveries don't need to be signed for. Pricing begins at GBP 1.99 per grazemini—now 99p through a limited introductory offer.
It's become a snack culture world as consumers have begun to realize (the "supersizing" trend notwithstanding) that bigger isn't always better, and Graze's concept plays into that, adding the convenience of a subscription model and smartly targeting office workers ("delivered to your desk"). One to bring to health- (and portion-) conscious consumers in the rest of the world? (Related: Bakery focuses on bite-size treats.)
1. Graze — Healthy snacks, delivered by mail in serving sizes 2. Geschmackslabor — Taste lab restaurant lets customers add flavour to their meals 3. Honibe — Honey without the mess 4. Catch a Piece of Maine — Adopt a Maine lobster trap 5. Bin Ends — Wine tastings via Twitter 6. Tcho — Next-gen chocolate makers 7. Pink Flamingo Pizza — Balloon-enabled pizza picnic delivery 8. WineSide — Wine by the trial-sized tube 9. Morsels — Bakery focuses on bite-size treats 10. Sonntagmorgen — A customized cup of joe
Networking is one of the most powerful free marketing and publicity tools available to business owners. It is a great opportunity to position yourself as an expert and start creating a buzz for your business. But effective networking requires some key habits you need to start putting into place if you want it to bring you results. Otherwise, you will be spending lots of time and energy.
It's easy to confuse networking with socializing. The difference is networking is done for a business purpose. Socializing is done for fun. And while, I believe networking can be fun it should not be taken as an opportunity to trash yourself and become a party animal. It should also not be the place to hide behind tables and in corners.
Here are 9 tips to help you achieve successful business networking:
1. Go to events and groups where your target market is present.
There is no sense in going to events full of people not interested in your help. Ask yourself before attending any networking event or group "does my target market hang out here?" If the answer is no, skip it. If it's yes, be there consistently. This should be considered before joining any paid organizations and chambers as well. For example, I recently joined my local chamber of commerce. Before I signed up I did my homework and found out that out of 600 members one third of them are in my target market. That's 200 people I have access to and if we just consider 1% of them being my clients that's 20 potential clients. So was it worth joining my chamber? Yes!
2. Set an intention. Decide what you want to achieve at each event.
Before entering any event set an intention for what you want to achieve and who you would like to meet. Being clear on this makes it a lot easier to attract the circumstances you want and have people at the event help you as well. Don't be afraid to know what you want and ask for it. You'd be amazed at what will come to you when you put this into practice.
3. Be authentic.
There's nothing more repelling than an inauthentic person. Hype and arrogance can be detected a mile away. And part of networking is creating relationships and alliances. When you are not being authentic people catch the vibe and will not be interested in knowing more about you or helping you meet other people. Be yourself. This has a lot to do with believing in what you do and loving it. If you don't, chances are you will be perceived as trying to beat people over the head with a sell. That's not working so much these days. So definitely be yourself; be real.
4. Offer Value.
When you are networking it's easy to get really into "your story". But the truth is people really want to know what it is you offer that will help them solve their problems. So identify 3 really valuable things you can offer people that are free and offer it to them. Offer so much value that you think you may be offering too much. People appreciate this and this establishes relationships. This is part of creating ongoing relationships and not just one time sells. You want your clients to be with you forever and it starts with offering value to them before they become your clients.
5. Don't hard sell.
The days of the hard sell are over. People are tired of being sold to in a hyped-up, rushed manner. So avoid this at all costs when you are attending networking events. If you are at an event where you are given the opportunity to promote something, go back to offering value and offer something for free. I recently attended a networking event where I was asked by the organizers to promote my workshop to it's guests. Well, of course I jumped at it but I offered anyone who signed up for my workshop a free 1 hour coaching session with me. Do you think people were interested? Absolutely!
6. Listen.
Again, networking is about making connections with people. And you won't make valuable connections if you're yapping away the whole time about you, you, you. Listening is a very important part of communicating. And just like value, people appreciate being listened to. So make a habit of this and while in conversation with people always ask open ended questions where people are telling you more about them, making them feel your interest. There's an anonymous quote that says: "Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." Powerful truth!
7. Position yourself as the "Go To" person.
Take advantage of networking events to position yourself as a "go to" person in your field. You can do this by offering testimony of your results and offering people client referrals. The key is to be a valuable source for people. Make them feel like they need to have you as a contact. Be it for your services or anything else. They say every person you meet knows an average of 250 people. So you want to keep people coming to you because each person you have as a connection, represents another 250 people you can connect to.
8. Be very clear about your services and what you do.
Your elevator pitch is extremely important. It should be about 11 seconds long, catchy and memorable and tell people how you can help them. If it doesn't fit into that formula, you lose people.
9. Follow thru quickly.
Do you find yourself collecting business cards and throwing them in a drawer or on top of your desk? Then you are throwing business in a drawer. Make a habit of following through within 24 hours of meeting someone. And when you connect acknowledge something personal about them or something about the conversation you had with them the day before. This will make people feel special and more likely to keep connecting with you.
Making a habit out of all of these tips will surely make networking more effective even if you hate networking.
Promotional drink holders are a great way to say thank you! Whether you are thanking your employees at a corporate get-together, thanking your customers with a free gift, or simply offering a reminder of who you are, promotional drink holders are perfect!
Promotional drink holders are another form of business cards; everyone has at least one somewhere in their house. Whether they use it on a regular basis or not, they remember who you are every time they see it.
Whether you are looking into beer coolers, wetsuit beer coolers, neoprene stubby coolers, or even screen-printed coolers, they will keep anyone's drink cool and make great conversational pieces at barbecues. Marketing has never been easier than handing out a few promotional drink coolers.
Several manufacturers offer decently priced services for all types of promotional drink coolers - beer coolers, wetsuit beer coolers, neoprene stubby coolers, screen-printed coolers, and more. Due to the nature of promotional drink coolers, they are customizable to your needs, and are manufactured in bulk, which gives you an excellent marketing tool at a budget savvy price.
There are multiple different options when it comes to the design you print on your new promotional drink holders. If you have one of those logos that is recognized by all, you could go as simple as just printing your logo on screen-printed coolers. You could also go with your standard logo and company name on your new wetsuit coolers.
If; however, this is an approach to get your name out there, you will want to come up with a design that is memorable, specifically for printed beer coolers and neoprene stubby coolers. This design should contain your company name and logo, as well, as this helps to make your company familiar and memorable! Another think to keep in mind, when coming up with a design, is that you will need it to look good on any color. The more flexible your design, the more variety you can offer to those you want to remember you.
The key to designing any marketing material is to make it friendly and memorable. Because this is a budget savvy marketing tool, you can use them to hand out to your employees, customers, and even corporate vendors - everyone that you come in contact with. You must take this into consideration - the wide market that will be exposed to your new beer coolers - when you are creating your print design.
Use promotional drink holders as your new business card and a great way to say thank you to anyone you meet!
Small Business Sales and Marketing Ideas to Keep Repeat Customers and Take Sales From Competitors
Small business sales can be increased with these marketing tips on building trust and credibility through regular contact with your customers. Use these small business marketing ideas to build repeat sales relationships, and take customers away from your competitors. This sales and marketing strategy works for any type of business in any type of market. The actions to achieve success can be started today and be working for you in just a few days.
Imagine the effect on your small business sales if you became a source of regular information to potential and repeat customers. You are the expert on what you sell and the services you provide. Use your knowledge to become the person people go to when they want information about your industry, market, or product. Think what you could recommend to people that were considering making a purchase and wanted more information. Customers want to make informed decisions, and they're frightened of making mistakes. When you help them make informed decisions it's a win - win situation. The customer gets good information and you get the chance of a sale.
Do not underestimate the value of your product, market, and industry, knowledge, or the experience you have gained. It doesn't matter what type of small business sales you are involved in, there will be potential customers looking for advice and information. Once they see you as a provider of that information they will trust you as someone they can buy from. Giving free expert information makes the receiver of that information feel they should reciprocate, and they will at least look at your products and services when looking to make a purchase. Think about it, who would you rather buy from; the person that bombards you with marketing literature, advertisements, and sales calls, or the one that you turn to when you want free expert information? Which one would you trust more? If the information you are providing is also seen as impartial then prospects will have even more trust and confidence in you. Small business sales will follow as prospects come to you for advice, and repeat business and referrals will multiply as trust in you grows and people spread the word.
These small business marketing tips will work for any type of sales and in any market place. Whether you are selling low value goods on a market stall or making large value B2B sales building relationships will grow your sales. In direct sales to the public it is often difficult to build a trusting relationship and bring in sales leads. By offering information on your industry and products you can build this trust and buying from you becomes a much smaller next step. Whatever service you offer; accountant, builder, plumber, car repair, or insurance sales, give away free information and build your reputation. Take a fashion clothing store for example. You could collect contact information from everyone that enters your store and send a regular newsletter by post or email. Your newsletter could have information on how to look great, the latest fashion tips, or how to choose contrasting colors.
Now think about your services or products, and what information could you pass on to people. Try this test; write down 5 tips now that you could give to people on what to look for when buying your products. See how easy it is, and that's without much thinking, research, or preparation. You will be amazed at what you know about your market. You will have information that is valuable to your customers. Often this information is only shared with a customer when they approach you and are considering making a purchase. Let's turn that on its head and use it to attract customers rather than just to sell to them. Use these small business sales tips and you will take business from your competitors because you are offering something they aren't. How would you feel if you saw one of your customers with an information leaflet or email from one of your competitors? Imagine a regular customer quoting you information from a competitor's newsletter.
I'm Stephen Craine and I use these small business marketing ideas to grow my sales training business. Take a look at how you can build credibility, relationships, and grow you small business sales by opening http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/marketing-ideas.html
You can also click around the rest of the sales training website that's specifically aimed at self employed and small business owners by opening the Sales Training home page
Five Priorities For Profitable Customer Relationship Marketing
With most products and services competing in largely parity landscapes, the relationship your business has with it's customers is often your only competitive advantage. The simple truth is, businesses with strong customer relationships are usually leaders. And when the relationships are with heavy category users they are also profit leaders. So, if customer relationship marketing is important to building my business, the question becomes, "How do I do it?"
Before we launch into the "how to," lets put some perspective in place. We're not suggesting your business becomes friends with its customers. If customers feel a degree of affinity toward the business, if there's equity in the relationship, i.e., your customers see value beyond functional benefits, we've succeeded, and all things being equal they will choose your business over the competition.
"OK, that's all well and good, but how do I do it? How do I use customer relationship marketing to build my business?"
Five Customer Relationship Marketing Priorities that Drive Profitable Growth
Focus on Best Customers. Typically a small percentage of your customers contribute the majority of your volume and profit. These are your best customers. They are also typically heavy category users and generate the majority of the category's volume. Understand who they are and what they need. It's not what the majority needs.
It's a commercial relationship. It is easy and often useful to associate the principles of personal relationships with relationship marketing. There is a key flaw in this thinking. There are significant differences between the relationships we have with friends and family, and our commercial relationships. For example, in a commercial relationship an exchange of tangible value is expected. Keep this in mind as you develop your customer relationship marketing strategy.
Relationships don't just happen. You have to work at it. They need to be built over time. Relationship equity is achieved when value is delivered that's beyond the functional benefits of your product or service. This is the heart of branding and is often misunderstood. There are a lot of products with names masquerading as brands because they haven't delivered additional value to constituents; they haven't built relationship equity with heavy category users.
Relationships are dynamic. They go through stages. And each stage has a unique degree of intensity. This is obvious from your experience with personal relationships. Commercial relationships also go through stages. Each requires different emphasis on contact frequency and content. Use the following to describe the stages: Prospecting, Consideration, Purchase, Connection and Loyalty. Note, the purchase happens in the middle, between Prospecting and Connection, not at the end. Connection is the most important stage in terms of ROI and probably the least understood and exploited.
Maintain the relationship. Once the relationship is established maintaining it is vital. It isn't hard but it does require active involvement. Good customers, and they know who they are, expect to be rewarded. And it's rewarded, not bribed. Relationship marketing doesn't preclude sales messages. In fact, because it's a commercial relationship, targeted, relevant sales offers add value and can contribute to building relationship equity, but they have to be targeted and relevant, or it's just noise.
Conclusion
Build your business by focusing on your best customers. Recognize that it's a commercial relationship where value is exchanged for value, and deliver value beyond what's expected. Understand that relationship marketing is a business strategy and takes time. Communicate with your customers in a manner that's appropriate for where they are in the purchase cycle. Reward your best customers and they will reward you.
James Hipkin, understands the practice of marketing as only someone with decades of practical experience can. His multi-disciplined background and broad exposure to major B2C brands in Europe and the US give him a unique perspective that leaders of businesses, big and small, can benefit from. James is available for consulting assignments and is an accomplished speaker. For more of his thoughts on Marketing Strategy, Customer Relationship Marketing and innovation go to Hipkin's Hip Shots - Quick tips for business success.
Marketing a Bankruptcy Practice - Negotiating Better Yellow Pages Ad Rates
Like an annual dance, lawyers each year find themselves in the position of having to renew their Yellow Pages ads. In years gone by, ad reps would come in and let you know the rate and have you sign the renewal contract. But with the upheaval in the print advertising world, lawyers are in a better position to negotiate far better rates than ever before.
Things are so bad that R.H. Donnelley, one of the nation's largest yellow pages publishers, filed for bankruptcy in early 2009. Companies that sell Yellow Pages ads are hungrier than ever.
First, realize that the rate quoted is the "sucker rate." This is what the uninformed marketer pays.
Second, understand that when the rep tells you the deadline for ad submission that's usually a few days or weeks away from the real date.
Finally, remember that Yellow Pages reps are paid by commission. So if they sell fewer ads they get paid less.
Understanding this, don't be afraid to haggle a little bit. Let the rep know you're on the fence, considering non-renewal in favor of other media such as TV, radio or online. This will scare the rep just a bit.
Next, stretch out the negotiations for as long as possible. Get the contract and let it sit on your desk. When the rep calls, let him or her know you're just not sure about it yet. Perhaps if they gave you a better rate it might make it easier to decide.
Then, when they come back with a better rate (never consider a bigger ad or an added Internet listing to be a better rate - we're looking for cash in your pocket) tell them it's just not good enough. Knock off 20% and see if they bite.
If not, sit back and wait until the date they gave you as the deadline. You won't need to call the rep - he or she will be calling you twice a day by that time.
Smell the desperation? Good. Now offer them 50% of the rate they originally quoted. Either they'll go for it or come to you with their "real" rate - the one they charge just to get you in the door.
Want to get the inside scoop on marketing your law practice, no matter what your practice area? Go to http://www.BKPracticePro.com and sign up for my VIP List to get more free information about marketing, managing and growing your practice.
Planning an important corporate event such as corporate party, a sales meeting, the annual year end party, trade show, a retirement party, a promotion party or any hospitality event for valuable clients can be a stressful and hard work.
Not many companies have a person to leave all their duties and spend dedicated time to organise a conference. Nevertheless hosting one, organised with high standards can sometimes be vital for the business.
Many organisations when looking for an exceptionally well managed event without the hassle of organising it in-house turn into one of available on our market, conference professionals. With their sound experience, any company can relax and look forward with excitement, rather than concern, to the event.
Many conference organisers are exceptionally creative and always aim to exceed you expectations. However, hiring any conference organisers, will not guarantee a success. You as a client have to work very closely with a chosen organiser, in order to express your expectations and provide the above with your wish list. The most important key points of your lists should include:
What type of event are you holding? Is it corporate event, outstanding evening for your guests or perhaps a celebration of company's accomplishments?
What is the size of the planned event? How many people will attend and will all of them stay for the entire day/evening?
What is your ideal location? What is your choice of cuisine for beverages?
Will you need to provide any accommodations for your guests?
All of those questions and many more, will be ask by some conference organisers. If not all of them pay any interest into the basic questions, it is usually recommended to look for a different, more experience one.
For more information on Conference Organisers visit TSNN.co.uk, the leading UK exhibition and event services website in the UK. Our Quick Quote service will send out your requirements to numerous UK suppliers so that you can find preferred supplier easily.
A successful business entity will constantly seek ways to get connected with their business community and gain recognition. While there are many routes you can explore with regard to this, promotional gifts are at the forefront of this scenario leading many promotional campaigns. In fact, these types of products have become so common to the extent that it has become something that you would see everyday somewhere just around the corner. Many companies adopt this method because of its extremely successful nature and its ability to go a long way in getting the attention of the community.
If you are new to this scenario and wondering what exactly these products are, these are various gifts given to your clients, with the logo of your brand or a certain message imprinted on them. These can take any form. Most common in today's world include pens, t-shirts, umbrellas, mugs, etc. Apart from these you can also choose any other product so that it would appear custom made according to your target audience. These with your company logo inscribed on them do a great job in creating brand awareness and bringing more sales. Further it would also help in creating brand loyalty. Customers who receive them tend to be loyal to the company as they feel that they're being treated well and cared for. Furthermore these customers would refer their friends and relatives to your company and you would automatically get word of mouth promotion.
They are given not only to the clients but also employees. These act as a great motivator and make the employees feel that they are appreciated thus creating loyalty. If you want to distribute them to your employees, other than choosing a special season such as Christmas, Easter, New Year, etc, you can also hand them out for various achievements such as monthly sales targets, winners of a quiz, anniversary of joining the firm, etc. Buying these would only cost you very little but it would go a long way in creating loyalty within your employee base and create a sense of belonging.
Promotional gifts are considered more effective than any other traditional method of advertising because it can create brand awareness easily and remind the public about the brand over and over again effortlessly. For example, a time-framed advertisement on TV would cost you a lot and for every additional time you request it to be aired, you incur a cost. But in the case of these types of products your brand automatically gets recognized each and every time a receiver uses the gift. Therefore be extra careful when selecting your chosen product; make sure you choose something that can represent your brand well, have a greater life span and most importantly have some sort of connection to the receiver.
Lottie Carrot works in the promotional gifts industry for Argon Promotions, the leading company in terms of innovative business gift ideas. Lottie works closely with businesses to help market their products and services by providing information and help in the selection of suitable promotional gifts for their advertising campaigns.
Business Training Courses to Help You Escape the Planet of Death People sometimes ask me if I believe business training courses can rescue a person's career. Strange though it may sound, it's a question that invariably gets me thinking about the perils of space travel. Let me explain. If you read enough science fiction you will eventually come across the story of a galactic adventurer who crash lands on a seemingly benign planet. It looks like the perfect place to be marooned, a world covered with lush vegetation and enjoying a warm and welcoming climate. But all is not what it seems. Maybe the planet is home to a deadly virus, or its oceans are awash with toxic chemicals. Perhaps it is populated by a race of man-eating turnips or sadistic koala bears.
In the Garden of Eden Whatever form the dangers might take, it's clear something on this alien world is not quite right. Our adventurer thinks he's arrived in the Garden of Eden. But it won't take long for him to realise he's landed on the Planet of Death. In fiction we can enjoy the ups and downs of a sci fi hero as he tries to escape from a hostile environment. In real life, however, being trapped in this way is no laughing matter. Over the years I've talked to many people who, in career terms, feel as if they have been shipwrecked on the Planet of Death. They are tied to a soul destroying job and are unsure how to break free. But all is not lost. For them a good business training course could offer a practical and realistic escape route. Acquiring a new skill, or strengthening an existing one, could be all they need to transform their circumstances.
Choosing the right business training courses When investing in training, it's important to choose courses that will provide you with marketable skills. Ideally, you want to place yourself in up and coming business sectors, where there is a strong demand for well trained people and you detect a clear skill shortage.
Talk to friends and family members in different industries. Take a close look at the employment ads in local and national newspapers. Identify the positions that are much in demand and command high salaries. What skills might you need to apply for these? Are there any business training courses that could provide you with the missing expertise?
Some of these jobs may require years of education and training. But not all. There are many courses lasting one or two days that could open up exciting new career possibilities for you. They could take your current skill set to a higher level or complement an existing expertise.
Improve your employment prospects For instance, you could be a web designer who wants to broaden your value to customers by learning how to write for the web. There are plenty of excellent courses out there that could get you off to a flying start as an online writer.
Or maybe you know everything there is to know about your company's products and services but you're stuck in a boring desk job. A course in selling could be just what you need to save your career and allow you to put your knowledge to more profitable use.
Good business courses not only supply you with the expertise you need, they can give you the confidence to seek fulfilment in new fields. By widening your appeal to prospective employers you increase your chances of career success.
So, if you find yourself trapped in a dead end job with no obvious way out, ask yourself this question. Could a well chosen business training course be the interplanetary rescue ship that lifts you safely from the Planet of Death.
Adoption Process of New Products The growth rate and total sales level of new products rely heavily on two related consumer behavior concepts: the adoption process and the diffusion process.
The adoption process is the mental and behavioral procedure an individual consumer goes through when learning about and purchasing a new product. The process consists of these stages:
1. Knowledge: A person learns of a product's existence and gains some understanding of how it functions.
2. Persuasion: A person forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude about a product.
3. Decision: A person engages in actions that lead to a choice to adopt or reject a product.
4. Implementation: A person uses a product.
5. Confirmation: A person seeks reinforcement and may reverse a decision if exposed to conflicting messages.
The rate (speed) of adoption depends on consumer traits, the product, and the firm's marketing effort. Adoption will be faster if consumers have high discretionary income and are willing to try new offerings; the product presents little physical, social, or financial risk; the product has an advantage over other items already on the market; the product is a modification of an existing idea and not a major innovation; the product is compatible with current consumer life-styles; the attributes of the product can be easily communicated; the importance of the product is low; the product can be tried in small quantities; mass advertising and distribution are used; the product is consumed quickly; or the product is easy to use.
The diffusion process describes the manner in which different members of the target market often accept and purchase a product. It spans the time from product introduction until market saturation:
1. Innovators are the first consumers to buy a new product. They are venturesome, willing to accept risk, socially aggressive, communicative, and cosmopolitan. It is necessary to determine which innovators are opinion leaders?those who influence others to purchase. This group represents 2.5 per cent of the target market.
2. Early adopters are the next consumers to buy a new product. They enjoy the leadership, prestige, and respect that early purchases bring. These consumers tend to be opinion leaders. They adopt new ideas but use discretion. This group represents 13.5 per cent of the market.
3. The early majority is the first part of the mass market to buy a product. They have status in their social class and are outgoing, communicative, and attentive to information cues. This group represents 34 per cent of the target market.
4. The late majority is the second part of the mass market to buy a product. They are less cosmopolitan and responsive to change. The late majority includes people with lower economic and social status, those past middle age, and skeptics. This group represents 34 per cent of the market.
5. Laggards are last to purchase. They are price conscious, suspicious of change, low in income and status, tradition bound, and conservative. Laggards do not adopt a product until it reaches maturity. Some firms ignore them because it can be difficult to market a product to this small group. However, a market segmenter may do well by concentrating on products for laggards. This group represents 16 per cent of the market.
Three Levels of Marketing Performance We need to distinguish three levels of marketing performance, which can be called responsive marketing, anticipative marketing, and need-shaping marketing.
RESPONSIVE MARKETING. Marketing has been defined as the task of "finding and filling needs." This is a commendable form of marketing when there exists a clear need and when some company has identified it and prepared an affordable solution. Recognizing that women want to spend less time cooking and cleaning led to the invention of the modern washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, and microwave oven. Today many smokers who want to stop smoking can find various treatments. Much of today's marketing is responsive marketing.
ANTICIPATIVE MARKETING. It is another feat to recognize an emerging or latent need. As the quality of water deteriorated in many places, Evian, Perrier, and a number of other companies anticipated a growing market for bottled drinking water. As pharmaceutical companies recognized the growing stress in modem urban society, several started research on antistress drugs. Anticipative marketing is more risky than responsive marketing; companies may come into the market too early or too late, or may even be totally wrong about thinking that such a market would develop.
NEED-SHAPING MARKETING. The boldest level of marketing occurs when a company introduces a product or service that nobody asked for and often could not even conceive of. No one in the 1950s asked for a Sony Walkman, a Sony Betamax, or a Sony 31/2-inch disc. Yet Sony, under its brilliant founder and chairman, Akio Morita, introduced those and many other new products that since have become everyday staples. Morita summarized his marketing philosophy in these words: "I don't serve markets. I create them."
Perhaps the difference between responsive marketers and those who anticipate or shape needs is best summarized in the difference between a market-driven company and a market'driving company. Most companies are at best market-driven, which itself is an advance over being product-driven. Market-driven companies focus on researching current customers to identify their problems, gather new ideas, and to test proposed product improvements and marketing mix changes. Their efforts typically result in incremental improvements, not radical innovations.
Source: Phillip Kotler, Kotler on Marketing, Free Press. You can obtain this excellent book here
You can download powerpoint slide on marketing management here.
Creating Great Marketing Plan A marketing plan, like a business plan, is unique to the company it serves. There are few hard and fast rules that guide its creation and implementation. A marketing plan needs to be as flexible as its market allows and as firm as is required to accomplish its goals. Despite all that, there are a few key components critical to the successful development and application of such a plan.
A marketing plan, like a business plan, is unique to the company it serves. There are few hard and fast rules that guide its creation and implementation. A marketing plan needs to be as flexible as its mar¬ket allows and as firm as is required to accomplish its goals. Despite all that, there are a few key components critical to the successful development and application of such a plan:
• A good marketing plan has both strategic and tactical Post Optionselements designed to help identify and accomplish its goals. Despite the fact that marketing often appears to be no more than the implementation of direction from the corner office, the best ones also contain elements of strategy that reflect and enhance those principles identified at the highest level. Too often, marketing efforts are seen only as a media placement plan or advertising schedule. The best ones are much more than that and, quite frankly, need to be if they are going to succeed at more than the most episodic and rudimentary level.
• A good marketing plan is intertwined with the corporate business plan and, in fact, may actually be that plan, or at least include the business plan's goals expressed in terms of tactics. Despite what we said in the previous paragraph, the marketing plan can't exist in and of itself without intrinsic links to the company's overall strategies. They are two sides of the same coin and must be played together in order for either to succeed. Marketers who think they can operate independently of corporate goals think incorrectly and either their goals, or those of the company, will be compromised if they try.
• A good marketing plan is an active, living document designed to accomplish tasks, not a theoretical exercise destined to sit on the shelf. Marketing is a lot like dancing in that, if you don't execute the moves, it does anyone little good that you know all the steps. The best marketing plans are dog-eared documents with pencil edits and handwritten commentary that are falling apart at the seams. That shows they've been used and used well. The worst plans are pristine volumes that sit on shelves and gather dust. There are no grades for neatness when it comes to your marketing plan.
• Good marketers know that all things commercial revolve around marketing. That will sound heretical to anyone who is not a marketer, but when you get right down to it, marketing impacts virtually every aspect of commerce. As much as any other member of a company's executive team, the marketer's influence is felt throughout the enterprise and down the ranks.
Remember the five Ps of marketing? Perhaps it's good to review them once again so you may judge for yourself the depth and breadth of marketing's impact:
• Product: the goods or services that you market and sell. • Price: the value of those goods or services quantified in monetary terms. • Promotion: how you communicate the benefits of those goods and services. • Place: how you expose buyers to products and get products into their hands. • Position: the way the product is perceived in the mind of the buyer.
In each of those instances, the marketer plays the most crucial role in determining value rather than, or at least in cooperation with, other executives who otherwise might be considered appropriate to the task. Take pricing, for instance. Isn't that a function of the chief financial officer? Doesn't the CFO have responsibility for the company's financial stability and profitability?
The CFO certainly does have those responsibilities, but he or she can't determine the price of a product without knowing the price at which the competition is selling its products and what the market will bear for such goods. Identifying the proper margin over the cost production is part of price determination, but it plays a relatively small role in the pricing equation.
Good pricing and its related profitability, instead, are based on the strategic machinations of the other four Ps, as well as market conditions, buyer preferences, current market share and a host of things about which few CFOs have the time or inclination to study. The person in charge of finances and profitability has a role to play in determining price, but that discussion needs to be led by the marketer or someone else well-versed in all the areas that affect those prices and, ultimately, corporate profitability.
• A good marketing plan is both internally and externally focused in its determination of the company's appropriate competitive direction. Knowing market conditions is not enough. The marketing plan also must consider the company's abilities to meet those conditions profitably and on a sustained basis.
Knowing the market will support the sale of two million of the widgets you produce in the next two months does little good if your firm doesn't have the capacity to produce those widgets. Of course, you can always subcontract the work. But if the cost of manufacture, coupled with the necessary markup, does not produce the level of profitability desired or required, then it may be better to walk away from the business entirely. Without the proper internal focus to your marketing plan, that's an expensive lesson you could have learned the hard way.
• Finally, realize the marketing plan also provides the tools to measure the flow of your company's developmental steps and events. In the same way it offers a reflection of your company's business plan, the marketing plan creates a series of benchmarks by which to chart its developmental progress. If all goes well and your marketing succeeds beyond your wildest dreams, then the plan can stand almost as a stairway to that success, with each step identified with a component of that plan. More often than not, the plan will reflect a mix of hits and misses, each of which can be evaluated both by its success and by its role within the plan's strategic mix.
Source : Michael Muckian, Prentice Hall's One-Day MBA in Marketing: A Complete Education for the Busy Professional , Prentice Hall.
All marketing strategy is built on STP : Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. A company discovers different needs and groups in the marketplace, targets those needs and groups that it can satisfy in a superior way, and then positions its offering so that the target market recognizes the company's distinctive offering and image. If a company does a poor job of positioning, the market will be confused as to what to expect. If a company does an excellent job of positioning, then it can work out the rest of its marketing planning and differentiation from its positioning strategy
Positioning is the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market. The end result of positioning is the successful creation of a customer-focused value proposition, a cogent reason why the target market should buy the product. Hertz is thought of as the world's largest auto-rental agency, Coca-Cola as the world's largest soft-drink company, and Porsche as one of the world's best sports cars. These brands own these positions, and it would be hard for a competitor to claim them.
As companies increase the number of claimed benefits for their brand, they risk dis¬belief and a loss of clear positioning. In general, a company must avoid four major errors:
1. Underpositioning: Some companies discover that buyers have only a vague idea of the brand. The brand is seen as just another entry in a crowded marketplace. When Pepsi introduced its clear Crystal Pepsi in 1993, customers were distinctly unimpressed. They didn't see "clarity" as an important benefit in a soft drink.
2. Overpositioning: Buyers may have too narrow an image of the brand. Thus a consumer might think that diamond rings at Tiffany start at $5,000 when in fact Tiffany now offers affordable diamond rings starting at $1,000.
3. Confused positioning: Buyers might have a confused image of the brand resulting from the company's making too many claims or changing the brand's positioning too frequently. This was the case with Stephen Jobs's sleek and powerful NeXT desktop computer, which was positioned first for students, then for engineers, and then for businesspeople, all unsuccessfully.
4. Doubtful positioning: Buyers may find it hard to believe the brand claims in view of the product's features, price, or manufacturer. When GM's Cadillac division introduced the Cimarron, it positioned the car as a luxury competitor with BMW, Mercedes, and Audi. Although the car featured leather seats, a luggage rack, lots of chrome, and a Cadillac logo stamped on the chassis, customers saw it as a dolled-up version of Chevy's Cavalier and Oldsmobile's Firenza. The car was positioned as "more for more": customers saw it as "less for more."
Source of Reference: Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, Prentice Hall. You can obtain this excellent book here
You can download powerpoint slide on marketing management and business strategy and here.
Based on best selling book, Execution, these presentation slides describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core execution processes of people, strategy, and operations।
Building Block One: The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors
Building Block Two: Creating Execution Culture
Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate – Having the Right People in the Right Place
Three Core Processes of Execution : Strategy, People and Operation
This brilliant presentation is based on this best selling book : Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Execution : The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Crown Business Publication. You can obtain this amazing book here. You can also visit Ram Charan's website here.
The marketing battle will be a battle of brands, a competition for brand dominance। Based on the classic book, Managing Brand Equity, these presentation slides display strategies to effectively manage brand equity. There are four elements of brand equity explored in these powerpoint slides : brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand associations.
This great presentation is based on a landmark book: David Aaker, Managing Brand Equity, Free Press. You can obtain this excellent book here. You can visit David Aaker's website here.
In business, creativity can help you launch major innovative products and services। This powerpoint presentation is a great ‘how-to’ material on creative thinking. The slides explore tools and techniques that have proven useful for various creativity problem solving situations.
Creative and Innovative Thinking Skills Presentation Outline:
Understanding Creativity and Innovation
Conceptual Blocks of Creativity: Constancy, Compression and Complacency
Three Components of Creativity : Expertise, Inner Motivation and Creative Thinking Skills
Tools for Defining Problems and Creating Innovative Ideas
Strategies to Develop and Sustain a Creative Work Climate
Some Lessons in the Slides:
Types of Innovation :
Business Model Innovation involves changing the way business is done in terms of capturing value e.g. HP vs. Dell, hub and spoke airlines vs. Southwest
Process Innovation involves the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method.
Product Innovation, involves the introduction of a new good or service that is new or substantially improved. This might include improvements in functional characteristics, technical abilities, ease of use, or any other dimension.
Service Innovation, is similar to product innovation except that the innovation relates to services rather than to products
This excellent presentation is based on this reference:
David Whetten and Kim Cameron, Developing Management Skills, , Prentice Hall. You can obtain this fine book here
