Impulse buys make up a significant part of retail revenue – whether its due to the product placement, the promises it makes or the promotion its part of.
You know the kind – think of a product you bought that you didn’t really need? Impulse buys are usually low value, low risk and disposable items often found in the aisle displays or near the cash registers.
Many businesses view their product or service as the tangible item the customer receives.
So you buy a new car and that’s the product. It’s not as simple as that in marketing terms!
The product is more than what you see
Taking the car as an example the product becomes more complex than you first thought as there are three levels to this product. The Core product, the Actual product and the Augmented product.
Put yourself in a situation where you desperately need help. For example you are stranded on a motorway in bad weather with no mobile phone and only a marker pen and a flip chart to hand!
How would you attract the attention of other motorists and persuade them to stop and help?
You wouldn’t write a joke, a clever play on words or draw a nice graphic – you would probably write as big as you can “HELP ME” on the paper. That would do the job of getting your message across to your “audience”.
Effective listening is not a passive occupation! It requires considerable mental effort, not only to comprehend but also to sift the words for further use. Many people think hearing is enough. It isn’t!
Hearing does not mean listening. Hearing is only the first stage in the listening process.
Hearing does not mean listening - there is a difference!
Here are ten ways that you can start to generate publicity for your company, which not only helps to position you as an expert in your chosen field(s) but also helps to keep you in the limelight ahead of your competitors.
Central to any company’s effective marketing is a message that speaks powerfully and consistently to your existing and potential clients.
Work through these points and you will be well on the way to developing a marketing message for your own business.
There are six strategic steps that are essential for effective negotiation. You are the supplier and you have to have faith in your product or service, but you also need to know where the other party is coming from.
As you go through each step, seek to improve any areas where you know you may be weak.
Anyone who does business development activities needs to be prepared for a prospect asking them this question.
I’m not trying to point out the obvious but seriously if you are asked this question do not launch into a list of your services as if you are reading from a brochure or your website – they asked what you can do for them, not what you do!
Direct mail can be extremely effective but companies waste thousands of pounds sending out inappropriate material to their existing and potential customers. Here are some tips to make sure that you are increasing the value of your own communications.
First and foremost you must have your list in order. Make sure the data is clean and the audience is relevant and you have the correct contact for your product or service.
Healthy competition can be good to keep you on your toes!
Having competitors is a fact of life for most businesses; few can genuinely claim they have none – and if they do they must question why. You have to be aware of the rules of competition in your chosen markets in order to win business when the prospect has a choice of many suppliers.