Choose Your Poison (but make it strong)

One of the biggest sources of confusion small business owners face when deciding on a marketing strategy is navigating through all the outreach opportunities available and choosing the one that is right for them and their particular business. Especially now with the onslaught of social media and the bonanza of opportunities which it brings (twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube, foursquare…to name a few).

In the end, the best marketing strategy is the one you can most fully embrace and utilize. There are a lot opportunity out there, don’t try to be a jack of all trades. Decide on your resources (time, money, etc.) and choose the medium you want to focus on based on those resources and your overall business/marketing objectives and goals.

But whatever you do, if you focus on two overall goals and you far ahead of most of your competitors

1) Be awesome! It is much better to narrow the marketing mediums you utilize and focus on being the best at the strategies you do employ. Don’t have time to do facebook and twitter? Choose one and make you campaign incredible. Successful marketing isn’t an all or nothing thing. In the end, it isn’t the business who has the most campaigns, but the business who has the smartest campaigns that wins the consumer’s business.

2) Be consistent! Make sure all your marketing efforts point your consumer in the same direction and tell them the same story. A good test of this is to step back and take your/your business’s name out of all your different campaigns. Would your consumer still be able to tell they all were representing the same company?

Marketing is about choosing your poison, but making it strong. A weak shot will either have no effect on your target customers or simply make them sick to their stomachs.

[Via http://flyingpigcommunications.com]

Nintendo President shifts the onus of mature games development

What are Nintendo's priorities?

Reggie Fils-Aime, the President at Nintendo of America, has recently given his explanation as to why there seems to be more ‘mature’ games coming from third-party developers on Nintendo platforms.

Let’s face it, whether you like their consoles/games or not, Nintendo has done a lot for the video games industry. Not only is the company one of the early pioneers in the market, it is still standing strong today; developing some of the most innovative products in an industry that is ever-evolving. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda franchises (among many others) recently got awarded the Academy Fellowship at this year’s British Academy Video Games Awards, and rightly so. Not only has he led teams of developers in bringing us some of the most iconic games in history, he’s still involved with some of the most anticipated upcoming titles today.

Being in the industry for almost thirty years; he has undoubtedly seen many changes in how games are developed. However, games aren’t the only things that have changed. Us gamers that grew up in the 80s have also changed. Whilst we still enjoy games that have classic gameplay mechanics that hold everything together, our tastes have changed as much as they have stayed the same. This current generation of consoles has seen Nintendo come under heavy fire for not providing enough for the more ‘hardcore’ gamer and the ‘mature’ demographic .

Speaking to MTV, Fils-Aime states that Nintendo are not experts at creating ‘mature’ games and that their developers “don’t particularly enjoy making that content”.

“They probably could make stellar content, if they chose to. We choose to do something else. So it really is up to the third-party developer to create that great content and bring it to life on the platform.”

First of all, we have to wonder what one means when describing games as ‘mature’ in nature. If that term is used to describe the visuals as photo-realistic, then I suppose Nintendo are guilty of not providing enough titles that look that way. If we mean it in terms of cerebral interaction, I would say the company has done more than its fair share of bringing us titles with original concepts and lateral thinking. If it means games with sex and profanity in it, well, I doubt we’ll ever see characters like Princess Peach or Samus Aran stripping off whilst swearing and cussing like there’s no tomorrow.

Whatever the definition of ‘mature’ is, there seems to be more games catering to that demographic on rival systems like the PS3 and Xbox 360. So with Fils-Aime putting the onus of developing these types of games on the third-part developers, is that a fair course of action? Is that productive?

Even if first-party developers have “chosen” not to focus their efforts on ‘mature’ games, Nintendo still has to make it as easy as possible for third-parties to make decent games and get a good response from critics and gamers. One key factor is marketing. Nintendo has focussed so much on marketing the Wii and DS/DSi as family-friendly consoles, they seem to have completely ignored the so-called ‘mature gamers’. What use is it if third-party developers spend the time and effort to create ‘mature’ games if ‘mature gamers’ aren’t interested in the consoles they are on?

Compelling ‘mature’ titles from third-party developers like MadWorld, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (among others) haven’t sold as well as they perhaps ought to have, mainly because of the lack of marketing. Nintendo has to start making more of an effort when it comes to helping third-parties advertise their games. Not only that, but the way they do so too. Stop using ‘celebrities’ like Ant & Dec to face marketing campaigns. Stop focusing the appeal of the Wii and DS/DSi to the ‘casual’ gamer and let the world know that the consoles are for everyone.

Simply shifting the responsibility to third-parties but doing little to help them does no-one any favours.

[MTV] Reggie: Nintendo Devs Don’t Enjoy Making Mature Games

[Via http://trevchan.wordpress.com]

More than words...It's your Strategy (part 2)

Now that we have discussed the importance and purpose of a well-thought-out strategy, it is time to walk you through how to actually develop a strategy.  We start by working backwards to determine where and what we want to be in the future.  Once you have an end goal to strive for, you can back-fill in the pieces that will be needed to achieve the long term.  Here is our process:

1. Create a vision for your practice.  When you first decide to open your business, you had a plan in mind for the way your company will fit into this world and leave its mark. We have all been there. This type of forward thinking can allow you to paint an image of what you want your practice to be like in the future.  This can include values, image, size, and scope. The vision can include your values and ideals.  These things, pulled straight from your imagination, will need to be reflected in the look and feel of your business.

1. Set the long-term goals for your business and milestones for achieving the vision. How many long-term goals will it take for you to achieve your vision?  Do you plan to become a fortune 500 company with your small business in fifteen to twenty, years or do you want to stay small?  Think about what goals would take multiple years and write them down.  Now create milestones that will show tangible results of moving toward each one of those goals.  Milestones are measurements at points in time that let you know you are getting closer to completing your goals.

1. Set the short-term goals and milestones over the next twelve months, which will lead you toward achieving those long-term goals. Continuing to work backwards, move from the long range planning to the short term.  The short-term goal setting is what you want to achieve in the next twelve months. That will lead to long-term objectives, which, in turn, will lead to the vision of the company.  At this point you may be thinking, ‘I am too small of a business for this to apply.’  Rest assured, nothing could be further from the truth.  Even if you are a one-person show, these steps provide the basis for decision making. It will also help you determine what you want to do with your business, what you want it to become, and what you need to do to make it happen.  In the short term, your goals may be to increase sales 20% by doing more direct sales calling.  Well, now that you set the goal, what are you going to track to make sure you are actually getting there? Set monthly objectives that will make your successes and failures apparent. It is better to know if you are failing or moving in the wrong direction in the first month, then realizing at the end of a twelve-month cycle that you have been failing all along. 

1. Create the detailed steps needed to achieve the short-term goals and clarify the success factors.  This is the how-to portion of to make things happen!  What is the highly detailed process or plan for achieving the short term?  What needs to be done?  How will it get done?  Why is it important to the success?  Where will you need to do these things?  Who will being working will you to help you achieve them? When do you expect it to be complete and what defines complete?

We mentioned a plan above to increase sales 20% by doing more phone calls. Think about this example. Who is going to do this?  What is going to be offered?  How will you do it? Why will the customer be interested (benefits)? Where will your calls be focused and when is the best time to call prospective clients? All of these questions need to be included in your battle plan before you can execute it. If you are just starting a practice , developing these questions and plan may only take an hour, but for someone who has a larger thriving practice, it may take a bit longer. In either case, spend the extra time thinking heavily on each component to make sure that the plan is created right the first time around.

1. Establish a communication system for how, when, and where people will communicate. Communication is the key to putting this all together. Communication is vital to creating any type of business. Think about a football team with all of the different positions on the field and the importance of everyone knowing their role and responsibility for executing one play.  In that one play, there is a systematized communication system, where the players meet in a huddle and communicate the next play to be made.  In the huddle, team members can ask questions if they are not sure of what they need to do.  When the huddle breaks to move to the line to play, they all start to communicate and read the situation.  If players recognize something the other team is planning to do, there is a communication system for that.  The quarterback is also speaking to the team, getting them ready to move down field and hike the ball.  If the team is all on the same page and every individual begins functioning as a single entity, then they will play at a much higher level.  But, if communication is not going well, players can get injured, quarterbacks sacked, turnovers, etc.  So before diving into executing a strategy, determine a system of communication, chain of command, reporting, feedback, and roles and responsibilities.

1. Define the current status of your business. Now that you have put all of these great plans together, you need to link them with the current status of your company.  Take an in-depth look at the current status of your company as it relates to all 8 Arms of the Octopus and determine what resources are needed and what changes need to be made in order to align your current status with short-term goals. Once you have focused in on how to achieve the short term, make sure that the short-term steps are linked to the long-term goals, which will eventually affect your ultimate vision. Now that the strategy has come full circle, you should have a clear indication of direction, timeline, and purpose.

Let’s pull it all together, using the above steps, in an easy to understand example such as taking your family to the beach on a beautiful sunny day.  This example will break down the steps into an east to understand example:

• Strategic Analysis
  • Industry Analysis – What beach has the least amount of pollution and the best waves? Can you swim in the water or is it shark infested?
  • Customer Demographic – What type of people are at the beaches? Is it mostly children, couples, or singles?
  • Area Demographic –In what area is the beach located? Are the people who live in the area friendly to visitors, or is it more of a “locals” beach?
  • Competition Analysis – What do the other beaches offer that may sway my decision to go to that beach? Do the parking prices vary? Are there lifeguards at each beach?
• Development of Strategy
  • Vision- The perfect day for a family day at the beach.
  • Long Term- Planning around school vacations, work schedules, and lunar cycles. (Full moon brings the best weather.)
  • Short Term- Who is going with us? Are the kids bringing friends? Do we need a babysitter to help with watching the kids? When should we go food shopping for the beach or should we buy food at the beach?
  • Process- We are leaving for the South Side Beach on Saturday, June 12th at 9 a.m. The beach is very family orientated and has very little undertow. No shark attacks have ever been recorded at this beach. We are taking our two kids and two friends. We will bring drinks, but purchase food at the snack shop.  We have Google mapped the directions and will take the SUV for the two hour drive.
  • Communication- All adults have been issued the agenda, have confirmed in email that they are coming, and are all reachable by cell phones.
  • Current Status – Two guests have never been to the beach. We are all working very hectic work schedules and need a vacation.



[Via http://tos8.wordpress.com]

Affiliate Programs: A Financial Win-Win

If you sell goods or services, or if you like to talk digitally about goods or services, affiliate programs are something you should know about because they make you money and are free to set up (for the company too, but I’ll get to that).

I love affiliate programs because I feel they are a win-win for everybody. They allow companies to get in front of very targeted leads, they allow bloggers to earn a commission on products they would already promote, and by funding bloggers, they help create the targeted content enjoyed by blog readership. I have read complaints that this promotes false advertising by bloggers who only care about commissions, but I feel that the bloggers who talk about products they don’t really love do not achieve the reader trust that translates to sales.

What is an affiliate program?

An affiliate program, sometimes called a partner program, is when a company offers a piece of tracking code that you can place after any link to their site. This code does not change the customer experience of using the link, but allows the company to track and reward the person who sent them any online sales. The code snippet is often preceded by a question mark, and might look something like this: ?azy3345. So instead of blogging about http://www.amazon.com/coolthing, you’d blog about http://www.amazon.com/coolthing?azy3345. Getting your personalized code involves visiting the target website and finding and setting up your affiliate account with them. It’s pretty easy.

I sell products or services. How do I start an affiliate program?

There are several for-pay affiliate programs such as DirectTrack that cost thousands of dollars, but I am a fan of HasOffers because it’s free for the first 250,000 clicks. The user interface is well designed and customizable.

[Via http://andreahofer.wordpress.com]

Local talent

A brilliant opinion piece in Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper by one of my favourite Middle East commentators, Sultan Al Qassemi (who blogs at Felix Arabia), remarking on how the United Arab Emirates – despite its name – lacks a unified identity, either in corporate branding or in many of the practical aspects of government.

There is, for example, no UAE Ministry of Tourism. Instead, each individual emirate – Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah – handles its own promotion, often without regard to what their near-neighbours are doing.

Al Qassemi draws comparison with the spectacularly successful ‘Incredible India‘ and ‘Malaysia: Truly Asia‘ campaigns, within which individual regions are free to market themselves, but always under the banner of the global tagline.

This raises interesting questions. The US is another federal country without a national tourism promotion strategy. The big names, such as Florida, New York and California, have massive tourism budgets, and therefore dominate the inbound industry – whereas the likes of Nebraska, Idaho and Oklahoma don’t, and so often miss out. Would a US Tourism Office even out the numbers and spread tourism more widely – or is it just that more people find California interesting than Oklahoma? Tough call.

In the UAE, though, it’s pretty clear to me that there is huge benefit to be gained from devising a promotional brand which encompasses the whole country. Sharjah, Fujairah and – as I’ve blogged previously – Ras Al-Khaimah have a huge amount to offer in terms of landscapes, culture and diversity that could significantly boost the rather monolithic concept of tourism currently put forward by Dubai and Abu Dhabi. There’s no logical reason why they should be denied a slice of that pie.

But the most interesting line in Al Qassemi’s piece is this: “Frankly, I have no doubt that if Emiratis were responsible for the UAE’s tourism campaigns we see on television, the name of the country would have appeared.”

Al Qassemi has a track record of saying the unsayable – his piece from 2008 “Welcome back our long-gone neighbours“, to name just one, knocked me (and lots of people I know) sideways – and this fits that bill perfectly. It’s hard to gainsay it.

To English ears, the UAE is the country with perhaps the world’s most unwieldy name, as well as its least memorable acronym: you can imagine teams of expat marketing and PR consultants, brought in to advise Dubai and Abu Dhabi on tourism strategy, tutting and shaking their heads and then saying ‘let’s just forget about the whole UAE thing, eh?’.

Those chickens have come home to roost, with a vengeance. The name Dubai – though not quite a laughing-stock – has lost much of its shine… and, without a national identity to back it up, there is no safety-net. Hence Sheikh Mohammed’s ‘Vision 2021‘ idea to develop a unified identity for the whole country.

Yet to Emiratis, of course, their nationality is a key determinant of identity, along with family, tribe and a host of others – much like the multiple layers of identity in apparently unified Western countries (I’m thinking, in the UK, not just of English/Scottish/Welsh identity, but northern/southern, urban/rural, middle/working class, and so on). It seems those expat consultants conveniently forgot about that.

When it comes to tourism promotion, local knowledge and local perspectives matter. Can you imagine the UK bringing in a team of, say, Korean media specialists to advise on 2012 Olympics promotion? Not a chance: marketing and PR to aid specific markets can help, but the overall strategy would always be home-grown.

So should it be in the Emirates. After a chaotic generation of transition, which has left the country wildly unbalanced in terms of economy, politics, culture and demography, it’s time to do some nation-building. That means easing citizenship laws, building railways and working out what it really means to be Emirati. Interesting years ahead.

[Via http://quitealone.com]

Can Alcatel-Lucent really play in the apps game?

By Rich Karpinski – Alcatel-Lucent’s latest announcement was three API bundles that blended service provider (initially, Sprint) and third-party application programming interfaces (the third party providers included APIgee, Billing Revolution, Motally, SMaato and Zhing). The initial three bundles are targeted broadly at opportunities in social gaming, advertising and virtual goods and include:

- SMS+advertising, with Mblox providing the SMS service (and no telco APIs involved)

- SMS+advertising+location+geo-sensing+virtual currency, with Sprint supplying the location/geo APIs

- The second bundle, plus billing/credit card processing

For developers working with the bundles, they get immediate, pre-integrated access to those broad application capabilities without having to understand the underlying application or network APIs. more> http://bwbx.io/IKgZ

[Via http://theneteconomy.wordpress.com]

We take it one step further than Harvard

In the september 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review there is an article on “What Service Customers Really Want” on page 22 and it is a good article.  It explains the the 10 things customers want from their service company and how they should be measured, and they are:

1. Has Knowledgeable Employees
2. Addresses my needs on the first contact
3. Treats me like a valued customer
4. Demonstrates desire to meet my needs
5. Can quickly access information
6. Is good value for the money
7. Has courteous employees
8. Is a company/brand I can trust
9. Treats me fairly
10. Provides relevant/personalized service

These are the 10 things people most demand from a service company as measurement tools.  Do you see any commonality?  What does every single question have in common?  All ten are facilitated by your Employees!!!!

Are you wondering why you have customer retention issues or revenues are slipping?  Are you looking internally first?  There is a reason the book Good to Great was a best seller because it explained clearly that to have a great company you need to have great employees, as evidenced in the Harvard Business Review too.

To generate repeat business you need employees that you can trust to get your customers excited about coming back and using your service.  Employees, Employees, Employees….they are the only way to make great customer service happen!

[Via http://tos8.wordpress.com]

What's free worth?

Everything’s free on the internet. Free is everywhere you turn, it’s all so easy, sign up to this, sign up to that, register here, login, sign in, don’t worry it just takes a second to sign up, we just need your email, no – + or $ symbols. Choose a password with a minimum of 6 characters, 4 numbers and an explanation of how gravity works, why it gets cooler just before the sun comes up and the square root of 347.6…. quick you’ve only got 5 seconds to complete this form, 5, 4, 3, nah just kidding take as long as you want we need your details to expand the database, which in turn helps us value the company to prospective buyers. Oh yeah that’s right, leave your wallet in your pants champ, this one’s on us.

But it’s not free. Free is your time. Free is arguably more expensive. Who has nothing to do?

Free is asking you to pull away from whatever else might have been otherwise occupying that timeslot and dedicating it to itself.

And because time is the one thing you can’t get more of, free products that exist now and are developed in the future will have to either be unbelievably unique and valuable – which is an initial short term proposition because others will see what you’ve done and attempt replicate it, so relevant and constant innovation will be necessary (think MySpace vs Bebo vs Friendster vs Facebook) – or are very quick and accurate but not worth paying for, (think xe.com and Google).

On the other hand the product can be good and valuable and can be subscription based and you may just end up with a great and even better product, more solid financials and a more qualified database that care enough to buy and use the product.

Because when something is free and grows quickly, it’s also subject to faster competitive loss in the event of getting out-maneuvered, out-innovated or out-played.

Is ‘free’ the answer? Probably not, excellent products will excel, and the rest will fall by the wayside. No free is just a price point, the product is still king.

[Via http://rowanw.wordpress.com]

What The Guru's Didn't Tell You About Google AdWords

Now if you have been marketing online for awhile you have probably heard of Google Adwords. Basically, for those that don’t know, you pay for each time someone clicks on your ad. This has been a proven way to market as it is VERY targeted!

This usually leads to great conversion rates. Well when the gurus tell you to advertise on Google or any other PPC they don’t tell you the whole story.

What they haven’t told you is that your ad can be taken off Google if your CTR (click-thru rate) isn’t high enough. That means a certain percentage of people that see your ad need to click on it. Well you can make sure that you ad doesn’t get taken off.

You have to target your keywords. You can do this by putting brackets [] around keywords that are two words or less and putting quotes ” ” around keyword phrases that are more then 2 words. So if your keyword is golf clubs then it must be put into brackets like this [golf clubs]. If you don’t then your ad could show up for people searching for “great golfers.” Those people will probably not click on your ad which drops your CTR.

Just to let you know, this is FREE information given by Google if you call them up for help. I’ve seen people sell this information for $50 which I think is very unfair since they got if for free.

So just follow these steps to success on Google.

1.) Choose the keywords that you want to target using the tip I gave you. Make sure people are actually searching for your keyword and make sure it isn’t super-competitive.

2.) Write an ad. Look at some of the ads on Google and learn from the ones that made you want to click on their link. What did they do that made you want to click?

3.) Bid on the keyword. You do NOT have to be number one, but you do want to be on the first page. Again if your keyword is too competitive, it is going to cost like around $5 per click which is VERY risky.

4.) If you profit, keep the ad running. If it fails, try to find out what you did wrong. Is the ad copy not good? Is the market too competitive?

5.) Once you start to profit on Google, start advertising on other PPCs. Repeat the process.

If you thought this report was good wait until you see the second. In fact I’m going to give you way more then two reports. Go here: http://products4cheap.com/webform.html and fill it out. I’ll give you a special gift. You just need to take these baby steps then you are on the road to success

About the Author

Brendan McCaffery. Check out my site at: http://products4cheap.com/megaweb/index.html I love internet marketing and I am here to help people that need to know where to start.

[Via http://paulhinesmarketingvault.wordpress.com]

Word of Mouth Marketing – Revista INDUSTRIA Feb 2010

Este es el articulo de la edicion febrero 2010 de la revisa INDUSTRIA de El Salvador, escrito por su servidor.

En economías como las nuestras, donde el presupuesto de marketing es muy limitado, es común no pensar en esa área más allá de hacer un poco publicidad encargando un banner y quizá algunos volantes. Y posiblemente lo que vuelve más fácil esta decisión es que pautar una campaña en algún medio de comunicación masivo podría fácilmente devolvernos una factura de casi 6 cifras en tan solo una semana.

Afortunadamente, las compañías con poco acceso a un presupuesto como ese, o en planes de reducción de costos, han hecho uso de una herramienta de Marketing que no tiene nada de novedosa: “la Recomendación” de sus clientes. Algo que en la profesión se conoce como Word of Mouth.

Por lo tanto, los mercadologos y las empresas solo podemos entender y aprender como motivarlo, facilitarlo, mejorarlo y amplificarlo.

Pero empecemos por lo básico. Hacer Marketing se trata de Comunicación. Comunicación ≠ Monologo.

Pero por alguna razón, en algún momento en décadas pasadas, perdimos esta concepción tan fundamental, y empezamos a emplear monólogos para “comunicar” nuestros productos a nuestros clientes. Y de pronto, era mandatorio una campaña de publicidad para hacer Marketing. Pero recordemos, Publicidad no es lo mismo que Marketing. La Publicidad es una de las herramientas empleadas en Marketing.

¿Entonces que es Word of Mouth Marketing?

Podemos entender Word of Mouth Marketing o Marketing “de Boca en Boca”, como la práctica de fomentar las conversaciones personales en torno a un producto, un programa o una causa; lo que no lo limita exclusivamente al área comercial de la compañía, ni tampoco lo limita únicamente al ambiente empresarial.

Hacer WOMM es entender fielmente que los productos son comprados por personas que ya los utilizan o que fueron influenciados o atraídos por personas cercanas que si usan el producto, o que en algunos casos, tan solo escucharon una recomendación al respecto y pasaron la recomendación en base al conocimiento de los intereses del comprador potencial. Entonces lo que se busca es fomentar esas recomendaciones basándose siempre en que se cuenta con un buen producto, un buen servicio (no porque lo diga la compañía, sino porque los clientes lo dicen) o que tenemos una buena causa.

Entonces el objetivo principal de hacer una campaña de WOM es generar revuelo o “Buzz”. El revuelo, definido por Ben McConnell y Jackie Huba, es la suma total de todas las conversaciones personales (Word of Mouth) y las conversaciones digitales (Word of Mouse).

Los mercadologos aman el revuelo porque puede provocar una fila de personas en la puerta de su empresa o visitas en su sitio web. Y que la mejor forma de promocionar su marca es a través de un ejército de seguidores que constantemente hablen o hagan referencia a ella, en conversaciones online u offline.

Word of Mouth Marketing es Marketing de Consumidor a Consumidor. O mejor dicho, de Negocio a Consumidor a Consumidor. Cuando viene de la boca de un mercadologo, es Marketing. Cuando una persona real lo repite, eso sí es Word of Mouth. Como bien lo describe Andy Sernovitz.

¿Pero quién provoca todo el revuelo?

En cada sociedad, existen personas con un perfil “más interesante” que otras. Individuos que además de su rol profesional, se dan a la tarea de ayudar a otros, y que tienen la capacidad o la posición en la que pueden recoger mucha información de un tema en especial y también transmitirla, no solo en su red inmediata, sino en más de una. Estas personas no obtienen una remuneración por sus acciones, sino que su recompensa es tan intangible, como la satisfacción de servir.

Emanuel Rosen les llama Hubs, tomando el nombre del dispositivo que Informática se utiliza para distribuir datos en una red. Y por supuesto que hay Hubs de diferentes niveles de influencia, pero en este caso, debemos buscar a la mayoría que podamos, siempre y cuando sean los indicados para los objetivos de la estrategia.

Para encontrarles necesitamos empezar a ver al mercado como una sociedad de individuos con diferentes motivaciones; abandonar la segmentación demográfica por una segmentación por intereses; y, dejar la suposición de que estar en TV garantiza la venta del producto.

Hagamos un ejercicio sencillo. ¿Recuerda usted la primera computadora que adquirió para su casa?, ¿Le convenció el comercial que vio en la TV?, ¿Le creyó al vendedor del almacén quien le dijo que era la mejor maquina en el mercado y que por eso costaba US$2,000?, o, ¿A quién le consulto o pidió opinión sobre fabricantes, características, distribuidor, precios, etc.? Si usted no es una persona cercana a esta área, sin duda acudió donde “alguien de confianza”, “alguien que conociera de computadoras”, “alguien que ya hubiera comprado alguna” para conversar un poco sobre el tema.

No es que esta persona le haya convencido de comprar el equipo que adquirió en ese momento, aunque algunas veces sucede así, ni tampoco que haya ignorado la información técnica que leyó en alguna revista, sino mas bien la información que le proporciono, sumado a otras fuentes a las que acudió para aprender al respecto, y a sus propios intereses, hicieron que usted se inclinara hacia una oferta determinada y tomara una decisión.

Podemos aplicar el mismo ejercicio para la compra de su primer auto, su primera casa, y otros bienes o servicios.

El hecho acá es que, por naturaleza, conversamos. Cuando estamos en una reunión, en la cena en familia, en la parada del autobús, en el pasillo de la oficina cuando vamos por un vaso con agua, y desde hace un par de años hemos vuelto sitios como Facebook y YouTube, los más visitados de El Salvador porque nos gusta conversar. Incluso existen sitios como justbought.it que responden justo a la costumbre de comentar lo que acabamos de comprarnos. Y es lo que todo mercadologo debe aprovechar.

—–

La segunda parte, en el siguiente post.

Saludos,

[Via http://communitiesdnablog.com]

ElecTruckCity To Distribute Trucks For Smith Electric Vehicles In France

UK based Smith Electric Vehicles has named ElecTruckCity as the exclusive distributor in France of the Smith Newton and Smith Edison electric vehicles.  The latter is an all electric version of the Ford Transit van.  ElecTruckCity plans on building out a network of 17 distributors across France including most of the major cities.  The market for these vehicles will get a boost from the French government which provides subsidies of 5,000 Euros for van-like vehicles and 20,000 Euros for Newton sized trucks.  – Marc Cesare Learn more:  Fleetdirector.co.uk

[Via http://smallvehicles.wordpress.com]

PT Bank CIMB Niaga, Tbk

PT Bank CIMB Niaga, Tbk – As one of leading bank in Indonesia established since 1955, CIMB Niaga(formerly known as Bank Niaga) is currently the sixth largest bank in Indonesia in terms of assets. We have proven our achievement with the spirit of professionalism and our commitment in Good Corporate Governance. Due to our rapid growth in becoming universal bank, we invite you to be one of our Winning Team. In CIMB Niaga, you’ll find the best career advancement and personal development as we are chosen to be the first Employer of Choice in banking industry.

1. Branch Manager / Relationship Manager  for Corporate Banking Group (Middle-up Officer)

2. Marketing/ Sales Treasury for Treasury Management Group (Junior Officer)

3. Account Officer Funding/ Lending for Commercial Banking (Junior & Middle  Officer)

4. Collection Consumer for Retail Collection & Recovery Group (Junior Officer)

5. Usage Department Head for Card Marketing & Sales Group (Middle Officer)

6. Assistant Sales Officer for Consumer Banking (Staff)

7. Secretary

General requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree with min. GPA 2.5 (no.1,2,3,4,5), Diploma Degree with min. GPA 2.75 (no.6) and Diploma Degree from Academy Secretary with min. GPA 2.75 (no.7)
• Maximum age of 27 (no. 6,7), 35 (no. 2,3,4), & 38 years old (no.1,5)
• Minimum 1 year (no.6,7), 2 years (no. 2,3,4,5), and 4 years (no. 1) proven experience in similar position
• Preferably female (no.1)
• Single (no. 6,7)
• Understand Treasury products, especially derivative products (no.2)
• Has wide customer base and target oriented (no. 1,2,3,6)
• Ready to be place in any branches, especially Sumatera (no.4)
• Has good networks in courthouse/ KPKNL/ local police authority, especially in Medan (no.4)
• Has merchants database (no.5)
• Able to work under pressure

Recruitment & Career Management Division

PT. Bank CIMB Niaga, Tbk

Griya Niaga 1 Bintaro 3rd floor

Jl. Wahid Hasyim Blok B4 no. 3 Bintaro Jaya Sektor VII

Tangerang 15224

Email:recruitment@bniaga.co.id for (no.1,2,3,4,5) and recruit@bniaga.co.id for (no.6,7)

Send your CV with comprehensive achievement, copy of educational certificates & latest photograph to the address above.

Only short listed candidates will be notified

[Via http://indojobcorner.wordpress.com]

10 Steps To Generating Revenue Online For Your Business

Source:  SmallBizTrends.com / By Susan L Reid

How’s the first quarter of 2010 — and the rest of the year — looking for you and your business?

Are you primed and ready to make money this year?

Have you put a plan in place to promote your business and maximize your success?

Here are ten quick, easy-to-implement things you can do that will guarantee your online business will be making you money this year:

Write down your personal affirmation for the month and the year.

The goal here is to help you step back from the hustle and bustle and stay focused on what’s important to you.

Get your story, idea, product, or service announcement out into the marketplace seven different ways, all at once.

Choose from these options to make a powerful impact:

1. Press release
2. Blog post
3. Facebook
4. E-zine blast
5. Email announcement
6. Videocast
7. Downloadable audio snatch
8. Free e-book
9. Podcast
10. Teleseminar

Use free classified ads to continue reading

[Via http://aprilsimsinternetmarketing.wordpress.com]

Understanding Pay Per Click and Subscribers

The reach metric, which is the count of spectators exposed to an advertisement is a critical metric to advertisers to help in planning and measuring the success of online advertising marketing campaigns. In the world of normal advertising, advertisers know that when they buy time on sequential TV shows, they are probably going to reach many of the same folks on both. That is, the advertisers are probably going to experience overlap of reach across shows considering both are on the same network and same general time slot.

In the web world overlap of reach across sites isn’t as straightforward to envision. While many web sites have the same users, to what extent are those users exposed to the same promotional campaign across those sites? Given that most advertisers have a tendency to buy sites in similar genres, many expect to experience significant amounts of overlap. For instance, if an advertiser buys adverts on ESPN.com and FoxSports.com, does the same internet site visitors see the adverts on both sites?

To help marketers know how much overlap there’s across sites in a marketing campaign, Microsoft Advertising Institute set out to answer the question,’To what extent do advertisers today reach the same folk via different web sites in a marketing campaign?’ the answer is significant, because it helps marketers mitigate media bucks wasted by reaching the same users on multiple sites.

As expected, the study shows that as an advertiser has bigger reach, more people see the adverts on more than one site. Shockingly, though, the same person infrequently sees an advertiser’s ads on more than one site-even in large marketing programs. In other words, it is a myth that advertisers reach a major overlap of the same folk among the sites in each marketing program. In truth, advertisers do not experience serious overlap across sites in a stated marketing campaign.

In most cases today, advertisers are purchasing little percentages of any particular site’s inventory and, as a consequence, most advertisers observe very little overlap. Unlike broadcast television advertising or print media, for advertisers to reach bigger numbers of their target audience online cost-effectively, it’s a safe strategy to extend the quantity of sites they publicize on, without fear of excess overlap.

[Via http://markettarget.wordpress.com]

Treating the Same Customer Differently in Different Occasions

As traditional customer segmentation has become blasé, with occasion segmentation the hot trend, it’s a hybrid model of the two – occasional customer segmentation – that companies seeking to “be there” for their customers need to examine.

What?

A recent survey conducted with 120 leading companies on the topic of customer segmentation and its uses highlighted that:

• 97% of companies rely on segmentation in strategy development
• 77% use demographics, 66% use needs and 63% use value as their segmentation dimensions

All these facts demonstrate that, by today’s standards, customer segmentation using traditional dimensions has moved beyond being a tool for competitive advantage and has become a must-have, recognized and already utilized by many. Companies looking to get ahead of the competition need more innovative and effective ways of using their customer data.

Occasion-based segmentation, which is used by only 21% of the same companies surveyed, is a potential step towards this, but is not complete, unless married with the customer-based segmentation models. Occasion segmentation focuses on analyzing occasions, independent of the customers, such as considering Coke for occasions of being thirsty, having dinner or going out, without taking into consideration the differences an affluent and middle-class customer would have during these occasions.

‘Occasional customer segmentation’ merges customer-level and occasion-level segmentation models and provides an understanding of the individual customers’ needs, behavior and value under different occasions of usage and time. Unlike traditional segmentation models, this approach assigns more than one segment to each unique customer, depending on the current circumstances they are under.

But, Why?

First came mass marketing, with companies developing and promoting products to all. Next came one-to-one marketing, with companies developing and promoting the right products for the right customers. Occasional customer segmentation takes it one step further in the same direction and brings in the concept of many-to-one marketing, by developing and promoting more than one value proposition for the same customer, based on its relevance for the ‘current’ needs of the customer.

Companies need to realize that their customers are not only different from each other, but are also different from themselves at different times. People have different needs when they are at work vs. when they are at home or socializing. They act differently during holiday seasons vs. regular days. They even have different expectations momentarily, based on their feelings and mood swings.

A customer, who would be willing to spend a fortune when buying a gift, could be the most tight-fisted person on earth when it comes to shopping for his or her own self. A mobile phone service customer who is spending hours on the phone after work could be the same person keeping it to only short conversations during work-hours.

Without understanding the occasion, and averaging out all of the customer’s activities and transactions into a model that puts one label on that customer needs and behavior, companies can never achieve 100% relevance for their customers. Looking only at the occasion without the customer, on the other hand, neglects the background of the individual customer, destroying consistency. This is why occasional customer segmentation is a must-have for companies looking into maximizing their customer value, merging these two concepts into a powerful tool.

Let’s analyze what this means for a leading producer of sun care products, which offers a range of items with varying levels of sun protection. If the company looked only at the customer-level segments, based on their needs and behavior, it would end up promoting an SPF 4 product to John Doe, who is identified to be in the ‘careless tanner’ customer segment.

If, on the other hand, the company focuses only on one given occasion for which John Doe will be using the protection (i.e. a desert safari where he needs extreme protection), the offer would be an SPF 50 product. In the first case, John would not buy the product since it will not be relevant to his circumstantial needs. In the second case, he would not buy the product either, because it is not a consistent offer for his general attitude towards sun protection. It would require the producer to put the customer and occasion facts together to come up with the right offer for the specific circumstances and the specific customer.

So, How?

We recommend three main steps towards building occasional customer segmentation models:

• Define Occasion Types and Identification Means: There exist three main types of occasions, which can affect the needs and behavior of customers, creating different circumstances. The first step in occasional customer segmentation is to define what occasions are relevant for the specific industry and product offerings, and how they can be identified for each customer:

• Universal Occasions: These are highly identifiable occasions, which are applicable to almost all customers with similar demographics. Holiday seasons, weekends, working hours and special days are such times which can affect customers’ occasional segment. For example, a businessman’s weekend grocery shopping can be much different than his time-squeezed weekday shopping behavior, and thus, need to be analyzed separately when deciding which segment a customer belongs to.

• Regular Personal Occasions: These are personal occasions, which are related to the customer as an individual, yet, keep repeating over time. Some examples would be the birthday of a customer, his or her wedding anniversary, or simply the specific habits of the customer such as driving to work between 8:00 and 9:00 AM. These occasions can be identified through analyzing patterns in the customer’s behavior or gathering more detailed information about each customer. The ability to customize offerings based on these occasions for individual customers provides the most relevance, in as such as they are designed around the customer’s personal life. For example, a customer would be using his credit card with a significantly different pattern before his wife’s birthday, compared to rest of the year, and similar to the above scenario, such occasion-based behaviors need to be analyzed separately.

• Rare Personal Occasions: These are personal occasions, which are generally non-repetitive in nature and usually unforeseeable by companies. Events such as a trip abroad, a car accident, or a night-out on town (which can affect the customer’s behavior and needs suddenly, and are effective usually for a short period of time) are in this category. Although these events are not highly predictable, companies can identify them to a certain extent by analyzing the irregular activities in customer’s behavior over time. Identifying such irregularities and keeping them aside from customer’s regular behavior provides a more accurate overall understanding. More importantly, researching the reasons behind such irregularities can reveal untapped niche areas. If a customer suddenly spends twice the amount his regular behavior suggests, understanding the trigger (e.g. honeymoon, celebration) can facilitate promoting relevance of offerings for such triggers over time.

• Analyze Customers Under Different Occasions: After the occasions are defined and identified for each customer, the second step is to isolate them from each other and analyze customers under each occasion separately. This step resembles a traditional customer segmentation modeling work in terms of technical steps, the main difference being the fact that analyses are done at the customer-occasion level, having more than one set of data for each customer and as many segmentation models as there are occasions. The outcome would be the set of rules, defining which customer is assigned to which occasional segment, during what time of day, day of week, or course of events.

• Continuously Score Customers: Similar to traditional customer segmentation, occasional customer segmentation requires scoring and re-scoring of customers, to understand their current needs and behavior. Yet, since occasional segments are time-dependent, its scoring requires the ability to assign segments to individual customers almost in real-time, especially if the occasions are identified to follow short cycles, such as hours of day.

Occasional segmentation follows a different mind-set than the traditional ‘one-segment-per-customer’ approach, which can make it relatively difficult for traditionalists to develop and implement. However, the benefits are great, as this moves companies closer to their customers than ever, as if they are sitting next to them and observing changing needs and behavior through day and night.

What Next?

Once a company implements occasional customer segmentation, it will provide endless insight, uncovering hidden gems in their customer base. The next obvious step would be digging in, customizing campaigns for different occasions of customers, developing new value propositions for promising occasions, and offering bundles of products that would appeal to the same customer under different occasions. Additionally, companies can benefit from identifying the mismatches between customer behavior under different occasions – such as a customer having high spending during one and low in another – to come up with activities that would stimulate their behavior under certain conditions.

[Via http://forteconsultancy.wordpress.com]

Real Estate Marketing Strategies - The Law of Attraction to create your ideal income in 2008

Did you know that your thoughts and intentions play a role in your success in 2008? Not only that, what determines choose to focus on, what you're going to win?

This article discusses the law of attraction and why is it so important to master this law. Because of his learning to apply the law of attraction is in a position to obtain the optimum yield

For the year 2008.

The 5 steps:

Step 1: Get to what is not clear.

It sounds strange, is not itto focus on what will not? However, what most of us unconsciously all the time.

In my 30 years of empowering people to achieve their goals, I discovered that most people focus on what they do not. For example, if you have a stack of bills, which will concentrate on their piles of bills and their lack of money. What do you get? More than they focus on themselves.

Step 2: Get what you want, clearly.

For all that you do not want to askhimself: "What do I want?" The fact that the signs of consciousness and the subconscious to send more of what you want to achieve. If money is your concern, and is a strong contrast between the money you have and the money you want, put your attention on the money you want.

Step 3: Create a statement.

To begin, after what you want, write to describe a number of what you want. When it comes to money, then you write a wishStatement that describes the ideal situation when money had just happened now. For example: "Now I have an abundance of prosperity. Every month there are nearest to that of exit.'m Happy to buy what I need and I have no money to ……" and so on.

Step 4: Clear your beliefs.

What would stop the manifestation of prosperity that you want? When I ask my clients this question, I usually get responses like: "I do not deserve." "Nobody in my familymakes a lot of money. "If all the money I want something like this, and I'll never know if people like me or want my money." "I do not know 'what we succeed at that level."

Thus, self-limiting beliefs that matter? What prevents you from ideal income? What strategies to sabotage the same thing you use?

Step 5: Let them come to you.

In other words, put all the doubts and just trust that you run into inspired action. Ofaccording to your intuition and keep your attention on what you want, we are becoming magnetic.

A tip: Read your statement each day, according to the desire and feel what it is, it feels like to have. Really allow your car to live in a way that allows you to encode.

See Also : mayan 2012 true Nostradamus Prediction End of The World 2012

[Via http://mayan2012true.wordpress.com]

It's not a party without Stalin

Moscow’s mayor defended controversial plans to decorate the city center with posters of Joseph Stalin during upcoming World War II celebrations, hardly suprising given the schizophrenic place the genocidal Georgian holds in 20th Century Russian history.

The city has unveiled plans to put up the posters and erect information points commemorating Stalin’s role in the war during parades that are planned for the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9.

If realised, the plans would break a major taboo in Russia of promoting a figure who is blamed for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens in the Gulag prison camps and forced collectivization, according to news service Agence France-Presse.

The campaign will go ahead despite criticism from officials, including parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov and human rights campaigners, confirmed Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

“I’m not an admirer of Stalin, but I am an admirer of objective history,” Luzhkov told the city parliament, adding: “We should not erase this or that figure from history,” the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Luzhkov criticised the media reaction to the story, calling it “a bacchanalia,” the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The poster campaign earlier provoked criticism from Gryzlov, a leader of the ruling United Russia party.

“The ambiguous role that Stalin played in the life of our country will not be corrected by posters,” he told the Interfax news agency.

Stalin took over as the leader of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and ruled until his death in 1953. He had millions of Soviet citizens executed, sent millions more to the gulags and had millions of ethnic minorities deported.

Supporters point out that he led the country to victory against the Nazis despite terrible losses.

[Via http://southcarolina1670.wordpress.com]

LinkedIn Answers for Small Business Marketing

I found myself getting pretty interested in participating at LinkedIn Answers.  Yesterday I spent a good hour or so browsing the questions and offering some responses.  It was fun.  It’s always rewarding to share your knowledge, and connecting with people is also a plus.

I wanted to share a response I gave to a question about small business marketing.  You can see it on LinkedIn here.  I’ll also paste it below.  FYI you can find my profile on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/donniebryantcopy.

——————————————-

The solution will vary a bit depending on your industry and market, but there are some methods that are proven effective across the board.

You’ve already gotten some good answers to this question, so let me expand the horizons a bit.

First of all, you may want to clarify (to yourself) what you mean by “effective.” You can spend several million dollars to buy commercial spots during the Final Four tournament. You will get thousands and thousands of “impressions,” but is that the effectiveness you’re looking for?

Consider:

1) Direct mail is still one of the most powerful marketing techniques available. It can be a little costly, but if it’s done properly, the ROI can be amazing.

2) Canvassing is very cheap, but it can take up a lot of time. It can also be very effective as far as being able to sell your company face-to-face with potential prospects. It’s easy to convey passion in that environment.

3) Believe it or not, there are people making a killing advertising their business on Craigslist. It may take some time to figure out the best way to get the response you’re looking for from your posts, but it’s free. There are also tons of free tools online to make this process even more powerful.

4) Related to #3 is targeted classified ads, or even space ads in periodicals. By targeted, I mean, find out what the people you want to talk to are reading, and advertise there.

5) Even better than ads are ARTICLES. If you can get articles in the magazines, trade journals, etc., your target audience reads, you have become an instant expert. Articles are not like ads; readers don’t hesitate to believe what they read in articles!

This is also true online. Getting articles posted online where your readers will “bump into them” or find them with search engines can get you tons of “hot” leads.

6) Businesses are using Blogs to create followings and draw organic search results for their business.

7) Well-written press releases are a secret weapon of many small businesses.

Find a way to get interviewed on the radio or local news. I hear Alex Carroll is good at this.

5-8 are awesome because they get people coming to you, rather than you searching for them. This makes all the difference in the world. It’s a matter of positioning.

9) Pay-Per Click and banner advertising.

10) Good old-fashioned cold calling still works. Pick up the phone book, find businesses that NEED what you offer, and get in touch with them.

You may want to buy a copy of Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, as well. Lots of good foundational information in there.

[Via http://donniebryant.wordpress.com]

Car Advertisements - Do they work?

How frustrating!  Yesterday I was driving through town and noticed the car in front of me had a decal on their back window.  It had something to do with vacations.  It made me start to think…”I need to start planning a family vacation!”

I would have contacted the company that was being advertised on this vehicle but all they had was their company name.  I thought that was odd.  There was no phone number, email address or website listed on the back window to further their marketing efforts. Ugh!

I thought for sure when I pulled next to the car that there would be additional information on the side window.

Guess what?

Same decal advertisement with simply the company name.  I couldn’t stop the car to ask for their contact information so I tried to remember the name.  Came home and was then became distracted and forgot to search the internet for the company contact information.  I remembered today about that car advertisement and tried to search the internet for the company and now I can barely remember their name.

My point with all this?

No matter what business you are in, if you are going to take the time to advertise your business on your car PLEASE include your phone number or web address.   Car signs really can grow your business!

How about you? Do you use your vehicle to advertise? I hope you have your contact information displayed. 

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Jill Shea is a Regional Manager and Business Coach in the direct sales industry.  She has over 20 years of business experience and has been a successful work-at-home mom for ten years.  For more information head on over to About Jill

[Via http://jillshea.wordpress.com]

Tax Liability and Debt Forgiveness when dealing with SS or foreclosure

please watch this video for referrence on the 1099

Since we are in the tax season, I Thought this would be very appropriate for homeowners to know, when dealing with a short sale or a foreclosure lender has a few possible ways to handle the deficiency balance, which is the portion of the mortgage debt not covered by the sale of the home. The lender can attempt to collect the deficiency balance from the seller after the property has closed, lender may require the seller to sign an unsecured promissory note for the deficiency balance as a condition of agreeing to the short sale. If the new note is for less than the balance of the original debt, the difference would be considered canceled, or forgiven, debt. The best one is, the lender may agree to cancel the entire deficiency balance.

The last statement may sound good but please be aware that the IRS considers any canceled mortgage debt as ordinary income. This means that the amount forgiven is taxed at the same rate as ordinary income somewhere between 15 % and 30%. In addition, because the IRS requires the lender to file a 1099-C form stating the amount of the canceled debt, Friendly Uncle Sam will have a record of the exact amount of the debt that was cancelled. A seller will also receive a copy of the 1099-C to use in filing income taxes. The seller’s home state would also consider the cancelled debt as ordinary income.

I am not trying to scare you but there are ways to handle this please visit http://www.shortsalesedu.info/Short_Sale_Q_A.html and scroll tot he question “How will a short sale affect my taxes? And make sure to click on the link for “The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt relief Act of 2007” in there you will find the exceptions to the rule regarding the 1099 C.

[Via http://shortsalesedu.wordpress.com]