MARKETING Without A USP Can Be Deadly…

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Do you know what your unique selling proposition is? Can you spout it off to someone in less than three sentences? If you don’t know what it is, or can’t succinctly say it, you may need help. ‘Before it’s too late.

Formulating your Unique Selling Proposition is the most important strategic marketing task you will ever do.

What is the U.S.P? It’s defined as the way you do two key things up front. You differentiate yourself from all your competitors; then you do it preemptively.Let’s take each of those concepts in turn. First, you have to be different from the others. People are attracted to and buy products or services from those who are “different” from the crowd. In today’s sea of mediocrity with its me-too, commoditized products, the one that stands head and shoulders among the rest, is the one that wins.

Unfortunately standing out or taller is not quite enough. That kid in the fast food joint with the purple hair and that ugly, turning-green ring in his nose sticks out as being different. That’s where it ends. You have to do this well, positively; preemptively. It’s not enough to be different, Anyone working hard and observing what everyone else is doing, can do that. ‘At least until everyone else now has purple hair and rings in his nose. Then he’s no longer different, just another sheep, like all the rest.

What’s required here is being the first one into this market space; or being the first one with a new way of ‘being or doing’ things. In this case, s/he adopts a way that does not easily allow others to copy-cat her with his stale rendition of what s/he has worked so hard to do. Naturally, this is where patents come in, but that’s another whole discussion. We’re talking about how we offer or do something in a unique way; in a way that essentially “preempts” your competition. The key concepts are: “unique” and “preemptive.”

Remember that old example of Avis up against Hertz. When Avis came out with the slogan: “we’re #2, but we try harder,” they did two key things. First, they stole what we call the “underdog position.” They were the first to do so in the rental car market. Then they also differentiated themselves by claiming superior customer service in that same market segment. Now they owned this valuable “underdog” position in the minds of the consumer.Everyone cheers for the underdog, right? Now Avis was it, up against huge monolithic #1, Hertz. Hey, let’s hear it for the little guy! The second very smart marketing thing they did was differentiate themselves by letting their prospective customers know – in advance – just how much harder they would work for and to keep that customer’s business. In those days, no one was pointing out the ‘Emperor’s new clothes.’ The big guy was weak on service. Avis had done their marketing research. They learned the weaknesses…and the strengths…of their bigger competitors. They knew to stay away from the things the bigger rival could easily do because of size, economies of scale, or available resources. When the lawsuit launched by Hertz against Avis finally came to court, Avis now was #2. Really. When Avis originally launched their campaign, they actually were #5…or worse.If you are going to succeed in your business, you can’t do without an incisive marketing strategy that incorporates the use of the Unique Selling Proposition. The concept was first developed in the late 1940s by Rosser Reeves, then working at Ted Bates Advertising in NYC. It has stood the test of time, and is even more relevant and important to success today, 60 years later. Why? Because now we have many more products, sizes, line extensions, colors, shapes, you name it. We have more companies competing for the same scarce dollars in the customers’ pocketbook. Today, there is room only for those marketers who understand this hyper-competition. ‘Those who are willing to sit down, take a bit of time, study the market and the host of competitors. ‘Those who will produce products, services, or experiences that are different from all the commonplace others. Finally, it will be those who badly want to be the first one in the marketplace to do so in such a unique way. They want to make it very difficult to copy them, without looking exactly like nothing but a cheap copycat version of the “real thing.”It takes time, effort and tons of patience, but it’s worth it in the long run. Those who do it, will be profitable quicker, longer and still be around to tell the tale.

Those who prefer short cuts, will be bemoaning the short, but disappointing path they took. This is definitely the time when you should take the path less traveled.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Business, Market Research, Market segment, Marketing, Rosser Reeves, Unique Selling Proposition, United States

Marketing to Professionals, Solo Entrepreneurs: How to do this yourself, Part 1

If you happen to be or sell to professionals, consultants or service industry providers, you have a different kind of marketing task. You have to convince them that you are able to provide the kinds of services they need. You are selling a service, not a product.Services are harder to market and sell because they are invisible, intangible, and perishable. Unlike physical products, how do you market and sell something that you can’t see, touch, feel, smell, hear or hold in your hands?

Services have to be experienced. How do you experience financial planning? ‘Or insurance coverage? ‘Marketing consulting? You might call this “experiential marketing.”

You can only experience the results of such things. With insurance, you experience the feelings of security and/or protection that come from knowing if anything goes wrong, you and your family will be covered for expenses or loss or equipment, home, income or life.

In the case of financial or investment planning, what you are buying is several intangible things up front: the confidence you have in the individual who is doing the planning; the team of folks who back up that specific individual; the expertise inherent in that person and their company; the company’s track record and reputation in this field; the length of time this company has been successfully doing this; and the known amount of available time and attention that financial consultant will be spending on your affairs. It comes down to experience and expertise, standing shoulder to shoulder…on your behalf.

In order to attract new clients/customers, you have to reach them, inform them and then motivate them to work with you. There are two major parts to doing this: first, marketing, followed by selling. Marketing is the name for all the things you do to create the environment in which the client can buy from you and not from someone else, your competitor. You do this by reaching your prospective clients with relevant, valuable information that they can use immediately.

This information, in the initial stages, must be free of charge. Even if you are a management consultant, you have to be prepared to give away something for free. You can write articles to be placed in prominent on or offline publications. You can give presentations and speeches to groups of potential customers, you can send out a free e-zine that is chock full of good ideas for them to use in their own businesses. The list is endless.

Essentially you must constantly build up your own credibility in the mind of your target group, while at the same time, building a bridge between them and you, so when the time arrives – and it will arrive sooner than later — they “know” to reach out to you for the help they need. You have demonstrated that you have the experience and expertise they need. Or if you don’t have it personally, you are with a firm who can back you up with dozens of others who possess such knowledge and/or experience. Moreover, you must convince that potential client that you are prepared to work very hard to solve his or her problem, provide them with the coverage or security they need, or to show them how to earn the kinds of return on investment they seek. Once you market to them, you have to “sell” them on the idea that you and your firm are the ones who can do this for them.

By now, when that prospective client is reaching out to you (he is initiating the contact with you, you don’t necessarily have to contact him or her), there will be few objections raised as to why you should be the one to perform the necessary services for that client. By now, s/he has a problem or an opportunity that they can’t handle by themselves. They respect you and your “know-how” or expertise, or field of experts standing behind you. They expect that you will be able to help them with that situation. It is up to you now to step in and take charge of the situation.

This is when the “selling” side of things has to take over. In the beginning, you did all the things required (essentially, this is “marketing”) that you needed to reach, inform and motivate the potential customer. Then, when that customer indicates that s/he needs help and wonders if you can help her/him with this…you are ready, willing and able to do so. Now you have to close the deal…this is the selling part. We’ll look more into selling in part 2 of this series.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Business, Customer, Financial services, Knowledge, Management consulting, Marketing, Rate of return

Marketing to Professionals, Solo Entrepreneurs: How to do this Yourself, Part 2

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

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Most people think that sales and marketing is the same thing. ‘Not at all. Each requires a totally different set of tools. Marketing is all the things you have to do – especially when you are marketing services/intangibles – in order to set up the situation where you can easily convince the prospective customer to buy your service(s). Selling takes a different set of skills. You have to “close the sale.”

Many people make great marketers but couldn’t sell an ice cream cone to a four-year-old on a July afternoon. Others are crackerjack sales people, but don’t dare ask them to show any interest in market research, copy-writing, packaging, conducting workshops, writing e-newsletters, or posting to a web site.

How many times have you run into a situation where the number one salesperson has been elevated to the level of “sales manager or director”? Or where the best salesman in the firm has been promoted to the “director of marketing”? And they both fail? This happens frequently. Most often this occurs because one success does not necessarily mean that they will be just as successful in the other discipline; or the boss really doesn’t know the difference between marketing and sales.

There are two different skill sets here. Few are very good at both. Now add to this the fact that marketing and selling “services” – especially professional and practitioner services – is totally different again from selling hockey skates, lipstick, canned tuna, men’s slacks or pick-up trucks. You have a whole different kettle of turtles… (The fish were eaten by the turtles…just wanted to make sure you were still with me on this…).

Just how should a professional goes about marketing and selling his/her own services? Given that the prospective buyer is going to “buy” the consultant/professional/adviser/practitioner first, his/her company second, how does a professional (accountant, lawyer, consultant, financial planner, coach, architect et al) market and sell her services to prospective clients? There are some basic techniques…and some sneaky secrets too.

In part 1 of this series, we discussed the unique difference that marketing and selling a ‘service’ requires. We saw that if you happen to sell to professionals, consultants or service industry providers, you have a different kind of marketing task. You are selling a service, not a product. Services are harder to market and sell because they are invisible, intangible, and perishable. Unlike physical products, how do you market and sell something that you can’t see, touch, feel, smell, hear or hold in your hands? Services have to be experienced. How do you experience financial planning? ‘Insurance coverage? ‘Marketing consulting? I call this “experiential marketing.” Why? ‘Because you can only experience the results of such things.

In order to get yourself ready to market and sell to service industry providers, consultants or professionals, the very first thing you have to do is ask yourself the question: “where am I now?” You will answer this with the information you compile related to your competitive environment, your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, as well as all the information about the market, the segmentation of that same market, and the final definition of your target group.
Essentially, you will set out to answer the questions: what, when, where, who, why and how? Think about it. I know this seems damned basic; but write these words down the side of your paper, then attempt to answer all the questions that pop into your mind related to each of these six words. If you do, you will uncover most everything you need to know about the competitive environment, the demand for services, all the characteristics (strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats of both your competitors and yourself) that describe who, where, how, why and how you must compete to win; the people most interested in what you have to sell, whether they have the desire and the money to pay for them; how to reach, inform and motivate them to buy…from you; how to differentiate yourself from the other competitors.
Much of what you do next, in your planning will be determined by the answer to the question: who? Who will define your choice of target group? The chosen target group will determine which tactics you will use, which media you’ll employ, and how you will convince them to buy from you.

Part 3 of this series will address the importance of the target group and the formulation of the most critical and important aspect in marketing: the Unique Selling Proposition.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Business, COMPANY, Consulting, Customer, Market, Sales, Website

Marketing to Professionals, Solo Entrepreneurs: How to do this Yourself, Part 3

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In part 2 of this series, we introduced the concept of the target group, the answer to the question: “who” will be my buyers, where do they live, how do I reach them, are there enough of them to make it worthwhile, do they have the money to buy and are they willing to buy what I want to sell?

Defining the target group is of great importance. You have to set your sights on a much focused, defined target of opportunity. You might call this market opportunity a special “niche”. This market niche is your best opportunity. It’s a small, but potentially lucrative sliver, usually of a much larger market segment, occupied by a very select group of people who have the money and the inclination to buy what you can offer. You’re no longer marketing to a large or what we call mass market, competing with every Tom, Dick and Sally. You are not trying to be all things to all people. You only want to be all things to this select group of people. Niches are easier to defend, and the big boys don’t often pay much attention, because they are considered too small to warrant the effort and potential payback required by the large corporations. If you play it right, the game is yours.

Once you have identified your target audience, and the niche in which they reside, work or play, then you must figure out the best way to reach, inform and motivate them to take a good look at you and what you offer. The way to do this is with the Unique Selling Proposition (for a more detailed explanation of the U.S.P. and its pivotal role in marketing, see my previous article “Flying Blind without the 2 Secrets of the U.S.P.”) Simply put, the USP is the way you differentiate yourself from your competitors…preemptively. By preemptively, I mean by doing it incisively; by being first into the market, by making it very difficult to be copied by competitors, unless they want to risk being mocked as a me-too or copy-cats.

If you wish to be positioned in the mind of your prospects as a straight-shooter, right-down-the-line, conservative type, then there are obvious things you can do to attract attention to yourself; but at the same time, do things that demonstrate that you are the one for the job. If, as another example, you want to be positioned possibly as a bit of a maverick, or outlaw, not prone to be the same as others, and often taking a path others fear to tread, then there are ways you can dress, act, speak, write, deliver speeches and others, that will give people the idea that you are not like the rest of the consultants, professionals, practitioners or service providers.

The preemptive part is the hardest to pull off. But you must. This is the essence of what most often sets you apart, positively. It is the part that will stick in the mind of the beholding prospective client. Even two decades later, I still get asked: “aren’t you the guy who used to give speeches, doing that “shirt” thing?” They may have forgotten my name, but not my distinctive bit that set me apart from the other speakers and consultants. This helped me be preemptive in the “giving speeches game”. Keep in mind that giving speeches and being thought of as a consummate expert in your field, is the best way to be invited to pitch your services to a prospective client. Once you get your big fat foot in the door, the “selling” is up to you, one-on-one.

Which brings me to the specific tactics you can now employ, depending on the U.S.P. you have adopted. Let’s just discuss a few that might come in handy for you. Naturally, you can write informative, helpful, relevant articles/columns that are not self-serving “puff pieces”. Write for industry journals and for the general media, but write to help the people you hope to work with. If you can’t write, learn quickly, or get someone like me to write these articles for you. Then join industry and local community groups that might be a source of good leads and opportunities.

Start offering to give speeches at the Social, Service, Scientific, Medical, Military, Educational, Entertainment, Religious, Recreational, and Fraternal organizations, sororities, fraternities or associations in your town. Use the word: ‘SMERF’ to remember the classifications of each group.

When you give speeches, look at it as if you are making sales calls on dozens of prospects at the same time. Make it count. Do you homework. Be sure to include some references to your audience and something they will immediately recognize that perhaps only an “insider” might know or care about. That heightens your credibility with them. Make sure they are aware and hear what you say, and most important: that they remember you. Give them a “memory-hook” to remember you by. Say it loud and well. Differentiate yourself and do it preemptively. Immediately after you deliver speeches, you will receive telephone calls or emails to discuss matters privately. This is your chance. Now you have that big fat foot in the door.

Tags: Advertising and Marketing, Business, Market, Market segment, Niche market, Sales, Target audience, Unique Selling Proposition

Why You Can’t Communicate With Your Prospects

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A while back, Internet Marketing Superstar, Rich Schefren of Deerfield Beach, Florida, unexpentantly launched his “manifesto” named the The Attention Age Doctrine.

Rich is warning most business owners, entrepreneurs, and particularly online marketers that there is a much greater threat to their longevity lurking in the wings if you are just ready to see it and think incisively about it.

It’s not, Schefren says, about lousy email deliverability rates; it’s not about the need for search engine optimization or the obvious shift from written sales letters to video. Nor is it about pay-per-click, or the movement to any other form of online advertising; or I would add: the newest fad of buying traffic on the cheap and re-selling it, or using it to sell your own stuff. It’s none of this.

It’s about the market for products or services itself: you and me. It’s about the horrendous amount of “information we are all supposed to try and keep up with in this hyper-charged rat race to the eluding finish line. It’s about just how damned tired and disinterested we have all become, with shorter and shorter attention spans.

We have become a society of multi-tasking do nothings. We think we’re accomplishing a lot; but Schefren points out with specific examples from several research studies, that the more information we try and acquire, the faster we are dumbing ourselves down. “We are now more skilled in generating information than almost anyone is in managing it.”

We are suffering from “information overload.” In a short ten years, it seems we have devolved to a point where we can’t tell the good, relevant information from the crap. Schefren poses six basic reasons for this happening:

(1)         Now there is more relevant information than we can even begin to process;
(2)         We are bombarded by unsolicited information, e.g. spam
(3)         The speed of this new information keeps accelerating;
(4)         Then the real value of this information starts to plummet;
(5)         Therefore, the amount of contradictions increase, with conflicted points of view: e.g. what really is true? Who can I really believe?
(6)         Now, in order to just keep up, our information needs increase exponentially; we are inundated with data.

Drowning under this information deluge, we are severely conflicted because of doubt. Lee Segal said: “A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never quite sure.”

The result is too many bad decisions. The tie in between information and action is severed. Now we don’t even have the time to do what we know. We’re too busy keeping up.

So we really don’t ‘get’ that we are starting to think in sound bites, with very short attention-spans and hence a reduced ability to reason, think, or even enjoy life in a quiet space, where we are free and open to epiphanies…if they come.

Unfortunately in this economy and society, rewards come from what we “do” not what we “know”. We have so many tools and toys that take so much of our valuable time to learn how to use them, we just don’t stop to think about Pareto’s Law: what you know as the 80-20 rule….only 20 percent of the tools accomplish 80 percent of the work; or 80 percent of your problems are usually caused by only 20 percent of your customers, actions, or decisions.

We have been brainwashed in school to learn everything we can…”just in case.” Perhaps we should think of being much more selective with our precious time, and learn only what we need “just in time” and only if we need it. There is no need to horde information; it no longer brings us more power as in the past, when information scarcity ruled the game.

Schefren wants entrepreneurs to stop and realize that they are becoming addicted to being in a state of “online compulsive disorder.” If anyone is going to be more successful in business, s/he is going to have to face this fact of business life…stop constantly doing and start being.

Reduce the number of tools, toys and tasks you are playing with simultaneously. Get organized. Start thinking more and playing less with stuff over which you have no control, which has no relevant significance to your personal business success.

This new ‘awareness’ of attention-deficits also addresses your own market. Your market for selling almost anything on or offline today is comprised of people just like you.

They too have a very short attention span. They think and talk in sound bites. They do not practice deferred gratification. Their motto is “what’s in it for me?” You are going to have to learn how to penetrate the media and noise clutter, make a meaningful impact, and still be able to get the order.

How to do that depends on your market, your product or service, and your dedication to financial success in the months and years just ahead.

Tags: Business, Facebook, Information overload, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing and Advertising, Search engine optimization, Twitter

Be careful whose toes you step on today..you might have to kiss their &^ tomorrow!

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One of the worst things you can do as a marketer is to openly slam the competition. I remember years ago when an upstart burger chain came out with a campaign that openly was negative to McDonalds. That was (and still is) a definite “no-no,” The big guys at first just ignored them; but finally they became irritated. Have you seen that short 30 second animated feature, called Bambi meets Godzilla? You can imagine the rest.

Splat!

Never openly offend a competitor who has more resources than you. This just doesn’t make any sense. This was like a kid coming up and kicking a giant in the shins. It got his attention for sure; but the kid didn’t count on the reaction. Ronald didn’t clown around.

The same goes for slamming an entire category of business. I recently received a press release from a firm that is in the “vacation rental” business. The title of their release was: “The Top Ten Reasons Why Hotels Suck.” Notwithstanding the fact that this kind of slang-vernacular doesn’t sit that well with the primary target group of people who have the most time and money to spend going on vacation, (those 50+); this was a giant error in judgment too. This press release offered ten different reasons why staying in hotels was a very bad thing to do. They took the things that can and do go wrong when staying in a hotel, turned them into a top ten list, à la David Letterman, on late night television, then negatively slammed all these aspects of hotel-keeping.

For instance, when referring to “not getting the room you had ordered”, one of their lines was: “maybe you explicitly asked for a view of the ocean, and instead got a view of the murky pool”. Murky pool? Was the word “murky” necessary? Isn’t this just a bit too much?

They listed things like: “this isn’t the room I ordered”, “waking up to the sound of housekeeping”; “hassles at the reception desk”; “problematic parking”; “noisy neighbors” and “the question of cleanliness” among others.

Notice anything out-of-whack here? Look at that list again. Think about each of the negative things they have emphasized. Can’t and don’t these same things happen in a vacation rental as well? Each of those concerns listed (except perhaps, parking) is a function of human beings and the delivery of service in a service industry. These problems could happen at the very best rental properties too and they do, frequently.

The person who devised and wrote this press release obviously hasn’t been in the service or lodging business. I’m not sure they understand what marketing is…and is NOT.

If I were the client in this case, I would fire this person or firm and seek an immediate replacement…someone who really understands the business and what marketing is and isn’t.

If left to his/her own devices, this so-called marketing person (or perhaps they work in a public relations agency) could become quite dangerous…to you, the client. Left alone, they might quickly bring the ire of a complete industry down on your head! Industries have associations. They exist for a purpose. Imagine if an association really gets ticked off with your shenanigans. Can you pay that price?

Never, ever slam your competition openly like this. Remember that whenever you stand up and point your finger at someone else, (do it now and look at your own hand) you will always have at least three fingers pointing back at you!

This tactic really angers your competitor (this might not be a good idea in itself, remember what happened to the upstart burger chain). Moreover, these kinds of blockhead moves make you look like a self-serving jerk who doesn’t understand his/her own business.

Take the high road. More than ever, the general public is sick and tired of this kind of advertising. It will come back and bite you in the you-know-what. Remember the tune by Jim Croce: “don’t tug on Superman’s cape.” (If you’d like to see and hear what I couldn’t write in this article, click on the live video link to SEE and HEAR more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWP7Se6FSG0).

Play the game fairly. Make sure your business is properly “differentiated” from the others. Then it will stand out in the sea of mediocrity full of copy-cats. Point out the positive differences and show the prospective customer why s/he should try you.

That is marketing.

Tags: Advertising, Business, David Letterman, Facebook, Jim Croce, LinkedIn, Marketing and Advertising, Television

It’s all about the customer. Marketing doesn’t start with you, it starts with them.

It’s All About Them….

Do you really know who your target group is? By this I mean the number one group of potential customers you are trying to reach, inform and motivate to buy what you sell. There might also be a ‘secondary’ or even a ‘tertiary’ target group, but mostly you should be aiming at one primary group of individuals who have the need, interest, access, desire and money to buy what you sell.

Knowing everything you can about this group is one of your most important tasks. Everything in marketing begins with the word: ‘who’. Once you have the answer to this penultimate question, you have to determine whether or not there are enough of them to justify all your efforts to sell to them. Then you can decide what methods you will use to find and make contact with them; how to use those media to reach and motivate them.

So why is it that I find newspapers reducing the size of their paper format, and commensurately reducing the size of the type they use for their headlines, columns and articles in the paper? This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know the answer. Fact: newspapers are under attack by the Internet.

Readership has switched in the last ten years, away from younger people. Younger people are watching their news on television and the Internet. The biggest groups of those who still subscribe and regularly read a daily or weekly newspaper are those over 40, maybe even 50.

What smart number cruncher in the back room decided that if the paper cut back on the size of the editions, by say two inches, they could save huge amounts in paper costs, ink and other expenses? Sammy Albright, the bean counter, was correct.

You can always cut back on expenses by reducing the size of the paper; but what about all the other aspects of what makes the paper attractive to its – wait for it – primary target group?
A friend in Canada informed me last week that the venerable national daily, the prestigious Globe & Mail, published out of Toronto, did exactly that.They chopped the paper in width by between two and three inches it appears, then immediately downsized everything but the masthead. Now even feature articles on the front page seem to be in “mice type” and are extremely difficult to read if you are older (like me) and have any problem with your eyes or glasses (like me again). If you have bifocals or trifocals you can just forget it. “’Time to find a new newspaper!” they say.

My point is simple. Before you make any changes, why not find out how those changes might affect your most important customers?

In this example, I am sure that younger readers will find this new change a positive thing. But how many of them are still reading it? How many are still buying the goods and services from the advertisers that pay the costs to keep the paper going?

In the case of a newspaper, making this kind of change without careful research beforehand, can have two bad results:

You can easily lose many of your very best customers because they can no longer comfortably read the paper;
Without those readers, why be an advertiser paying to reach those very same members of that target group? Ooops!

Your product or service may be different. You may only be shooting yourself in one foot, not both. Regardless, it pays to go back to your original research, your clear definition of who you are trying to reach, educate and motivate to buy from you.

Always investigate before you make any substantive changes. Even small changes can upset your customer base.

It pays to ask them first, conduct some customer focus group discussions, then surveys. In short: talk to your customers to make sure what you are planning will sit well with them too. Changes should not be undertaken just to make it easier for you or your shareholders.

It’s all about the customer. Marketing doesn’t start with you, it starts with them.

Tags: Australia, Canada, customer relationship marketing, customer strategy, Globe & Mail, Newspaper, potential customer, Publishers, target group, Toronto, Victoria, Weekly newspaper

U Marketing U’s Law states that Murphy was an optimist!

I don’t mean to sound paranoid, it’s just that I’m paranoid. I have seen so many great marketing opportunities go south or sideways, I can’t count them. There are so many different ways your best laid marketing plans can go awry.

On Dec 10, 2005, the folks in the tiny Bavarian-themed village of Leavenworth, Washington discovered this in spades. After this communications fiasco, the lead story in the Seattle Times carried the headline: “Leavenworth left out in cold when state cautioned travelers”. Just before the major Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the disputed Governor of Washington, Christine Gregoire, warned all travelers to avoid the Cascade Mountains.

Ostensibly this was due to a rock slide and highway repairs on one of the two major routes over the mountains from metro Seattle to this charming town that relies almost totally on tourism. The governor’s warning scared away potential travelers on both routes. She neglected to mention that the alternative route was open, dry and clear.

The town was devastated by such bad news and media reports. Those who took the alternative route to Leavenworth had an easy drive and no problems, but most didn’t even try. Business were down 40 percent.

One small business operator said: “It killed us. Christmas carries us for the next three to four months. We’re so dependent on the pass, it’s very scary for us.”

Another local business person stated: “We need to do little things, like impeaching the governor for what she said.”

The local chamber of commerce immediately rushed into action and spent $15,000 on a print and radio campaign trying to counter the dire predictions of massive traffic jams due to the governor’s message about the highway.

Their ads said: “Fire! Rockslide! One week traffic backups! Earthquake! Hurricane! Blizzard! Avalanche! The passes are impassable! The sky is falling! There is no Santa Claus! Don’t believe everything you hear. The Bavarian village of Leavenworth is open for business!” This town has just 2,000 residents, but 500 businesses. Each year 1.5 million people visit the tourist town, 100,000 in December alone. This was not good news.

Thankfully the Chamber of Commerce was able to help with messages in some way, but each of those small businesses still had to survive for the rest of the year. Some didn’t make it.

When something like this happens, everything goes sideways. This is why it always helps to have a back up to the back up plan. You need to have a “plan B”. I like to have even a “plan C” too.

You never know when the environment in which you do business can get all mixed up and the wrong messages can be sent. You may not cause it; you likely won’t see it coming. Most often, you are blind-sided.

It can take weeks or months to correct bad impressions or change opinions that are formed on just one exposure to negative announcements. If this Governor had had intelligent aids who knew or at least thought in advance about what effect this strongly worded suggestion might have on those communities on the other side of the mountain range, she would have done things differently.

It can happen to you too. I know it seems like a lot of work. Until it happens…and you are faced without a back up plan of action to stem the tide or have to put your own finger in the dyke.

Take the time now. Do some “what if” brainstorming. Come up with some plans to activate just in case those events occur. You will save time, money and likely lessen any potential damage to your business from such occurrences. It’s worth the effort. What was that old cliché about an ounce of prevention?

Tags: Business, Christine Gregoire, Facebook, Leavenworth Washington, LinkedIn, Seattle, Seattle Times, Twitter, U Marletomg U

What’s it called when you have five parties all benefiting from a marketing promotion?

It isn’t often I run into what we call in the biz, a “self-liquidating promotion”. By this, we mean that the promotion, activity or ‘showing’ actually pays for itself.

I found one recently while surfing the net, the Big Belly. The Big Belly is a unique garbage container that is a solar-powered, automatically-compacting receptacle that looks good, takes up a small footprint, and allows an advertiser to mount appropriate and tasteful ads on all four sides of the container. The site owners have the exclusive rights to sell this invention in all of Florida and the Caribbean and non-exclusively elsewhere.

This is a terrific example of taking a major problem and turning it into a positive. Imagine how often you have to empty then haul away the trash in certain situations like: at restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, and other food or hospitality businesses, not to mention on busy downtown streets or along the beach? If they fill up fast, they have to be emptied sometimes four times a day. The 220 gallons of trash is compacted tightly (using up to 1,200 pounds of force) so it only has to be emptied once a day, instead of four. Naturally this saves labor, fuel, truck and time costs.

The garbage trucks (those which are rumored to get the least amount of miles per gallon on diesel fuel, 2.8 mpg) are now used less, since they are required for less frequent pickups. Consequently there is less carbon monoxide in the air, resulting in a greener environment.

Moreover, since Big Belly uses free solar power, there is no need to hook them up to the electric grid, dig trenches or string overhead wires to the unit. (However, because they are both attractive and popular, I would strongly suggest chaining them down, so they don’t grow legs overnight).

This is all good; but here comes the very best part of this little green wonder: the darn thing can actually pay for itself!

I called, Vince Barauskas, with Merrimac Leasing Corporation in Winchester, MA. He informed me that his firm provides new and used equipment leasing, whereby the buyer of the Big Belly unit has the option of placing advertising on the four sides of the unit. Usually, the income derived from the advertising pays for the monthly lease cost for the unit. After 36 months, you buy the unit for one dollar and it’s yours. So is the ongoing advertising revenue.

Ann Fierimonte has herself a nifty little business here. One thing they have a lot of in Florida and the Caribbean is sunshine. How would you react if I told you this little beauty also sucks up and stores the juice even when it’s covered by four inches of snow in Boston? It’s true. It does just that, so these machines are capable of working anywhere in North America.

Just imagine if a business wanted to generate some positive goodwill and awareness for itself in town. It could buy one or three of these units, donate them to the municipality or township, work together with the city government to charge local businesses to advertise on the units with the funds going to the local business owner who paid for and donated the unit(s) in the first place.

This is a marketing case where everyone wins: the city gets some lovely, cost-saving, green trash receptacles; the advertisers get a great, on-the-spot ad where and when they need it; the public are informed of other local businesses that want their business; the local business owner who donated the unit gets a tax write off (perhaps, I’m not an accountant, but it sounds right); plus one of those four available ad panels to let the local passersby know that they were the local firm who donated this unique “green” contribution to the people of the town.

It’s not often you come across what we call a self-liquidating opportunity like this. Usually it just involves two parties who win. In this case, I count five different ‘parties’ who benefit from this unique marketing joint venture: the town/city, the buyer of the units, the advertisers, the local community; plus the Fierimontes who marketed and sold these environmentally-friendly green bins in the first place.

What’s it called when you have five parties all benefiting from a marketing promotion: a quintuple whammy?

Tags: Advertising, Business, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social network, Twitter, World Wide Web

Before you design your business, KNOW who you are targeting

I was driving by a restaurant location recently and I spied a sign that said: “Family Restaurant & Sports Bar-Grill.” It made me wonder just exactly what this place really was. Was it a family restaurant, appealing to a man and wife with a couple of young kids or teenagers?

Or was it a loud, raucous bar with 17 television screens all blaring different sports at the same time to dozens of mostly young men, all screaming for their favorite team, while consuming copious amounts of cold beer?

Does the sports bar have a children’s menu, with smaller portions and lower prices? Does the family restaurant seating area provide visual access to the multitude of TV sets? Is there any smoking allowed? What about inadvertent bad language, is that allowed?

These questions bombarded my mind while I searched the parking lot for cars to try and get an idea of who might be there on a Sunday night. The lot was about half full, but mostly the cars indicated potential ownership in the 18-35 male category….souped up rods, high-powered street cars, and old clunkers. ‘Not really what you’d expect the average family to be driving if they could afford to eat out. As I got past this establishment I was reminded of the need to target your marketing efforts…right from the very beginning. Before you design your business, KNOW who you are targeting.

In this day of extreme specialization, one must decide just “who” is your desired target and then unswervingly direct everything you do towards that specific target group. I may be wrong, but my common sense tells me that, unless I’m missing something here, families don’t mix with noisy sports bars…even if you do put the word “grill” on the end of the name. So why would someone do this when investing so much money to open up a competitive outlet? Usually it’s two things: greed and ignorance.

I know, strong words, but true. First off, many retailers do not see the benefit of specializing or focusing on just one market niche. They reason that since they are going to be spending all this money on (in the case of this food service outlet) seating, signage, parking lot, kitchen, and decor, they might as well make it count for more than one group of customers. Next, they are afflicted by rank amateurism.

They are ignorant to the laws of marketing, and they combine this not knowing or not wanting to pay for any expert advice, with their greed for more return for their buck. They wind up with a mess that is almost impossible to market and profit by in this hyper-competitive retail environment.

If you want to appeal to more than one target group, you have to pick a way to do this, by correctly choosing the target groups that might work together, either in terms of what you sell, or when and how you sell it.

For instance, if you want to appeal to those two target groups, you might want to call your place a “restaurant” plain and simple; but a restaurant that has a family skewed menu and prices, that (after ten at night until closing),offers TV sets (take the cloth hoods off them at ten) and lots of sports with snacks and bar food ’till closing.

Naturally, this might not work well, because even then, families might not understand that they are welcome, while the sports enthusiasts might miss many of their favorite games due to the time of day they are aired, live. To offset this potential drawback, you could record the most popular games and offer a special service for those sports folks who are not able to come over during the live telecast, but would love to show up at ten to see a videotaped version of the game then.

This would be differentiating yourself and offering a niche service to the sports-oriented group, when the vast majority of the family diners had long since been home getting ready for bed. Chances are, the two different target groups would not mix at the same time.

In reality though, it is best to have a primary target group and direct all your marketing tactics at this group. If you have some extra operating time, space or product/service, then you can adapt by entertaining your ’secondary’ target group (in this case, the sports enthusiasts) only when you have exhausted your efforts on the primary one. Otherwise you will both confuse and appeal to not much of any market. You will stand there, wondering why your parking lot is so empty.

Tags: Bar (establishment), Business, Business and Economy, Marketing, Niche market, restaurant, Retailing, Television

Tennis Clothing

If you already take part in tennis, then I imagine that you already know what tennis players wear, so this article is aimed at those individuals who would like to buy tennis kit for a loved one for a special occasion. After all, it is not as straightforward as it seems to obtain sports wear for the participant of a sport you understand nothing about.

There is a certain picture we are inclined to associate with a tennis player: white Polo top with shorts or skirt and matching shoes. They are trendy and stylish, comfortable and characteristic at the same time. Items of tennis clothes often signify a great deal to people who are not just sports fans. If the person you are shopping for is a tennis aficionado, tennis attire becomes a great gift that can also be quite reasonably priced despite the rumors that it costs a great deal.

In case tennis kit is something unknown to you, Google it over the Internet and you will be surprised to see how much information there is available. Very many forums will obliquely inform you about prices and discounts going on at an assortment of retail shops and online merchants.

They will also provide you with information as to which marques are considered the best, which are considered the least hard-wearing and reliable, which are affordable and which more than usually dear .

What many tennis outfit wearers recommend is that you procure the type of top or shirt that will make you feel most comfortable and that would permit the very wide angled movements that are specific to the practice of this sport. For instance, the shorter the sleeves of your tennis apparel, the freer the movement during the game. Some procure tennis kit also according to the season in which they intend to play. Still others go for the materials that can be worn in both warm and cold seasons.

They strongly believe that the tennis kit ought to keep them both warm and cool at the same time. As far as the t-shirts for men are concerned, you ought to know that most players speak of Polo shirts in very high terms, as the collar offers you some neck protection from the sun’s rays.

Guidelines about tennis clothes like that above are available on very many web sites. If you are not quite sure what to go for when choosing your friend a gift, then you can always inveigle him or her to have a discussion about his or her preferred sport. Using a little guile, you will definitely be able to direct the conversation to a connected topic that interests you, i.e. tennis clothes. Making it all look like informal conversation will not make him or her guess what you have in mind for the special occasion.

If you are a novice tennis player or are interested in the general psychology of tennis, please visit our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners

Tags: apparel, celebrities, clothes, enjoyment, fashion, fitness, Health, hobbies, Other, Outdoors, recreation, Sport, tennis, Uncategorized, wimbledon

The No-Excuses On-line Business Tactics

These days there are no lame excuses and no reasons why just about anyone who aspires to make money on the internet should fall short in their particular business. The net continues to grow so significantly in the long term, that it is now simple for one to acquire limitless profits in your house.

Right now there are lots of assorted ways in which to improve ones earnings. In addition, no longer must you be described as a computer system pro to own an excellent business online.

The only obstruction holding anybody back is usually lack of endurance. In this modern-day world we all have been becoming way too accustomed to immediate gratification. People anticipate and, sometimes acquire information, products and services or acquisitions immediately. We are an impatient modern society and then in terms of the desire to generate an easy buck; the majority of online business marketers anticipate to see early earnings using a small work effort.

That is sorry to say the key reason why a lot of people are unsuccessful relating to starting their online project. Regardless if you are starting out as blog writers, web marketers or in fact any online business, I hate to to report that to be able to begin to see the fruits of your respective job then time, fortitude and work is necessary. You don’t see any short-cuts to being profitable, dismiss every sales pitch that promise you early wealth.

A home based job is a marvellous opportunity for everyone who has got the drive and ambition to succeed. You’re your own personal employer, you may select your own working hours and have 100 % control.

One of several down sides of working alone at the computer during the day is the sheer diversion that the internet can bring. All too often games appear more appealing than finishing work. Cease checking out email accounts during the day, This may soak up huge amounts of time when your attention ought to be on completing pre-existing initiatives.

So how can you ensure that you maintain motivation while awaiting the profits to begin turning up? Everyone will advise you to think huge and dream huge, however in terms of developing your web business, the easiest method to keep your passion is always to establish your objectives small, as you reach each and every target set your earning quantities larger. Give yourself at least ninety days before you start to see any profits out of your hard work.

Maintain a regular record of visitors to the web site, view and be aware where you are gaining traffic from. By using these figures become familiar with which area to focus on. Positive results, however small provides you with the desire to keep pushing onward with your start up business.

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Tags: advice, Business, Marketing, Marketing Tips, online business, online marketing

Gourmet Chocolates

Almost everyone has a liking for chocolate, even if they would rather deny it. But some of us have a craze for it and if you tried gourmet chocolate, this would turn into a devotion. The feel of its texture in your mouth as it melts is very pleasing and its richness takes this enjoyment to a whole new level. Some people even say that they prefer chocolate over everything else.

Although chocolate is delicious, some chocolates are more enjoyable than others. A Snickers bar is full of chocolate but it is also stuffed with peanuts and caramel and the chocolate is not so great anyway. Thankfully, there are gourmet chocolates available to satisfy any chocolate lover’s chocolate desire.

There are enough different cacao inspired delectable snacks out there to please almost everyone. There are kinds of chocolate that some people probably never have thought possible. Chocolates now even come in a chocolate-wine combination to act as a self-indulgent sauce to a dessert.

Examples of the flavours you can get are: chocolate espresso merlot and chocolate raspberry cabernet. Many pure chocolate and wine lovers knew that wine and chocolate went well together, but would not have thought of mixing them in a sauce. However, when they are poured over ice-cream, they are a pure delight to the taste buds.

Chocolates called truffles of all kinds are also available for those with an extra sweet tooth, whether you like dark, milk or white chocolate. There are also boxes of chocolate to suit everybody’s needs. They contain a wide variety of different gourmet chocolates. Some people really like coffee filled chocolates or cherry filled chocolates.

There are selection boxes of chocolates too which offer one or two of all the kinds of gourmet chocolates that that firm has to offer. Some of the combinations you will have heard of, others you will not. A selection box like this is a relatively less expensive way of getting to know a manufacturer’s products.

If you just would like an normal bar of gourmet chocolate, then those are available too from select suppliers. It is best to look online or in Yellow Pages. I have seen dark, milk and white chocolate bars presented, but I prefer the individual bonbons, although a bar is easier to carry in your bag and it is the same high-quality chocolate, but without a filling..

These small, but delectable gourmet chocolates make perfect, romantic gifts for your paramour too. Also, if you know a chocolate lover, then they will seriously be grateful for the complex taste of these gourmet delights. They will know that you have spent your time and money buying them the only gift they really wanted.

Online stores that sell these delicious treats often also have gift certificates available, so if you cannot pick the perfect gourmet chocolates you can definitely let them do it for themselves with your voucher.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Romantic Gifts: Ideas. If you have an interest in romantic gifts, please go over to our website now at Romantic Gifts: Ideas

Tags: family, friendship, gifts, gold, happiness, jewelry, love, marriage, Other, product reviews, romance., society, stress management, Uncategorized, weddings

Small Scale Event Management Still Needs Planning

A perfect venue is one of the keys in a successful event management. There are numerous places you can choose as venues to your events. However, you might need some tips of how to choose the right one for the right venue.

Before you start finding a place, you need to calculate approximately how much space the event is going to need. This is the first and most important consideration when choosing a place. A venue might sound so perfect, but if it does not have the right space, especially if it is too narrow to hold the attendees and equipments, it is not a perfect place for your event.

An event manager needs to know how to calculate the space your event is going to need. The numbers of the attendees, the facilities, and the equipments you must provide will determine about the amount of space your event is going to take. You also need to know if the attendees are going to sit down, stand up, or walk around a lot. An example of an event where it is only attended by few people but takes a lot of space is an art exhibition.

Know who will attend the event, whether they are businessmen, celebrities, or teenagers. They are going to need different facilities and venues. Choose an upscale venue that is respectable and comfortable if people who attend comes from middle to upper class.

Some people can pull off holding a luxurious event in a modest setting, such as an elaborate wedding in an abandoned castle. In this case, the event manager should provide all the amenities that is lacking there. Maybe you should rent portable toilets, provide your own seating, lighting, tables, and other equipments that a successful event needs.

Transportation is another key to choosing a successful venue in your event management business. Consider how people are going to reach the place and how far it is from their home. Unless you are holding a great event that everyone wants to attend, it is not recommended to choose a venue that is hard to reach.

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Tags: advice, Business, Communications, entertainment, Event, Management, Marketing, Marketing Tips, Sales, SEO

So Slender Classic XF, Dietary Supplement for Effective Weight Management, 120 caps

Lose Weight, Fight Fatigue & Boost Energy With SoSlender!

The market is literally flooded with weight loss programs and products. But if you look beyond the hype you might be surprised that they just don (more…)

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