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Yes, U.S. consumers are in a pinch. Luckily, the Internet is available just about everywhere in the world. So, why not flip your online sales and e-commerce efforts toward world-wide marketing. With some product refocusing, sales channel development, some creative fulfillment ideas and marketing adjustments, all-new markets for your products can emerge. You never know, you might be, as they say, "big in Japan."
Posted at 08:32 AM in Marketing, Product Outlook | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
The numbers are in. No real shockers. Americans didn't spend as much over this holiday season. According to the Wall Street Journal, luxury goods took the hardest hit at -35% compared to last year. The best news of the lot was online sales, which took a modest dive at -2%, thanks to special promotions, email campaigns and aggressive discounting.
The good news: If you're still shopping, the prices are right. Most retailers will continue with aggressive pricing to clear out inventory. The bad news is that first quarter retail buyers will be especially shy with restocking shelves once the holiday dust has settled.
Posted at 08:30 AM in Good 'ol News, Product Outlook | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Every day, it's something else about the "economic downturn." Another way to think about this is the "trust downturn".
Throughout 2008, Americans have been burned economically across the board. Taxes, gas, jobs, bail outs, investments, etc. Of course, everyone is feeling it, but everyone is also acting on it and there is a change in the collective psyche.
The news: banks and lenders can't be trusted, the people who are supposed to protect your money can't be trusted and feds can't be trusted with spending your money. Generally, consumers have some serious trust issues.
What does that mean for your business? It means, at the bare minimum, a recognition that we are going through a trust recession. The same model of building trust with consumers has changed. It's different now. Even the most trusted household name brands are crumbling, which does an injustice to all brands.
The good news is that our economy is the only game in town for consumers, meaning that some business will come out on top. Dealing with this trust issue successfully may be one of the ways to foster growth.
Posted at 08:51 AM in Good 'ol News, Other People | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Sometimes, a new term can do much more than simply define. "Solo-preneur" focuses on a category of business formation that is as old as any other I can imagine. There's certainly nothing new about businesses that are owned and operated by one. Although it's not new, it can create a focus point for new ways to think about businesses and these micro-business models. These types of businesses may have more freedom to move in changing times and markets and it appears that this is exactly what they're doing.
Posted at 07:29 AM in Marketing | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
There are countless online tools that your company can use for marketing or to become more efficient and effective. However, unless you're willing to delegate some HR resources into a dark cavern without lights, don't even try jumping into a handful of them.
There is no point in being listed on and using countless internet resources when you can't effectively leverage them. Why should your company have a FaceBook profile if someone logs in every other month? What's the point of Twitter if it's not updated often? A blog isn't going to be of any value if you can't provide regular content that a certain group of people will find valuable.
Yes, web 2.0 has brought some very exciting a powerful tools. Most of these tools can be successfully leveraged by businesses. But, take some time to sort them out. Think about which tool(s) might be most valuable and which tool(s) you are actually willing to commit resources to. Then, do the most difficult thing of all: after taking the web 2.0 tool for all it has, measure your success.
Posted at 08:48 AM in Productivity, Technology | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Does your IT staff really need another technical certification? A better plan may be to look toward an MBA or another type of learning options that will allow IT staff to develop better solutions based on practical business considerations.
Essentially, this is bridge building for IT. Chances are, there are countless, very inexpensive and simple IT based solutions that your company can turn into productivity and profits in no time. Often, this can happen even without the use of a new technology or an type of further IT investment. But, how can your IT staff spot these issues and solutions? Directors and executive staff, without technical abilities, are probably not a good source of this type of issue spotting either. If IT staff has a basic understanding of the types of practical business issues that other departments face, a silver bullet solutions may be uncovered.
Posted at 07:27 AM in Productivity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Unless you're planning to make a sensitive announcement, get an agenda out to prospective meeting attendees. Let them know, beyond a general explanation of the purpose of the meeting, what they meeting will entail. With the agenda, include resources and ask attendees to be prepared by reviewing these resources. You may also ask a few key staff, well in advance, to make presentations or reports on various aspect of the issue covered in your meeting. This is a great way to build the confidence of certain staff or staff that may have communication issues.
If you get the context of the issue out of the way before your meting, you'll be able to optimize and reduce the length of your meeting, which everyone will appreciate, reduce the amount of follow up feedback after a meeting and accomplish much more as a result of the meeting. If your staff has the opportunity to digest the issue before the meeting, their contribution to the meeting will be more valuable.
Posted at 07:21 AM in Productivity | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
This post, perhaps, should have been titled "How to Do Something Green...." There aren't many companies that have gone entirely green without the prospect of finances going in the red.
Whether you want to deliver the warm and fuzzies in a PR campaign or you actually do care is not a subject of this post. However, there is a right and wrong way to do something green. Preferably, you can assign someone or even create a task force with specific goals. For example, the company will do something green and we will leverage it for some PR.
Have this group or person discover and focus on a specific objective that will be compelling in a PR sense and that will be measurable. "Within the past year, _____, Inc. has reduced the amount of paper consumption by 30%." Or, "______, Inc. uses 100% non-toxic _____ in it's product X."
Finally, telling others to do something green is not the way to go in most cases. My Starbucks coffee cup this morning says two green things. 1. "This insulating sleeve is made from 60% post-consumer recycled fiber." 2. "Made with 10% post-consumer recycled fiber." The is no, "please recycle." And even more importantly, no "please reuse." Here, even Starbucks may be unwilling to sacrifice an environmentally friendly green effort for a "green back" effort, as refills of drip coffee are 50 cents compared to fresh cups starting at around $1.40. I did notice, however that the white lid has what I think is a symbol for recycling.
Bonus: Lose the "Please don't print this email" blurbs.
Posted at 08:33 AM in Community, Other People, Productivity | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
If you're auto responder says something like this, it's not okay: "Thank you for your inquiry. Your input and questions are exceptionally valuable to us and we will be responding to you with detailed information shortly. Thank you. - Customer Satisfaction Team."
Foremost, do not try to make an auto responder express the value of a customer or inquiry or the importance of a communication. Someone has just taken their personal time to craft a personal message to your organization on an issue they care about or have a personal interest in. Your customers and all the other reasonable people in the world know that an electronic blip in your system that causes an auto response can't express your appreciation or their value.
On the other hand, if you use an auto responder to simply provide notice that something has happened and/or another thing will happen very soon, you may be okay. This simply lets your customer or potential customer know that the communication process is working.
"We have received your inquiry and a Customer Service Representative will contact you within 24 hours. Thank you. - System Auto-Responder."
There are countless examples here, but the bottom line is to not attempt to get personal with auto responders. They can be very valuable tools is used properly, but you don't want to tell your customers or inquirers that they are so important that all they get is an auto-response. The value of their communications can be better expressed with a custom response.
Auto response sidebar: believe it or not, I recently received an auto-response from a live person. A live person in a retail environment told me, "Thank you for coming to ______, is there anything I can help you with." How was this an auto-response? This particular person was not looking at me or even toward me, spoke like a drone and she was clearly more interested in doing something else. The only reason I knew she was talking to me was the fact that I happened to be the only person in the establishment. Poetic justice that the place was empty? You decide. Either way, another great example of how to fail with an auto response.
Posted at 08:03 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Loss leaders are one of the most neglected elements of strategic planning. Even so, some of the most successful product and service models are based on the idea of loss leading.
What is a loss leader? A loss leader is product or service that a company develops that the company will not make any money on or will even lose money on, but as a result of that intentional loss a future gain will occur that will not only cover the loss of the loss leader, but also beat out competitors.
Some examples of loss leaders:
Apple iTunes
iTunes software: an entirely free software that lets you manage all of your music perfectly, whether you buy music from the iTunes store or not
iTunes Store: iTunes is, hands down, dominating the market of music downloads
Explanation: Apple has spent a lot of money to insure that iTunes software is updated regularly, that new valuable features are added and Apple lets anyone download it for free. Apple sells millions of music downloads because iTunes is valuable and everyone has it, because it's free.
Mobile Phones
Mobile phones: get a free mobile phone
Wireless service providers: directly tied to the free phone, service providers charge fees over time
Explanation: consumers save by reducing up front costs, but that initial cost is made up by wireless service providers with fees over time.
Sony Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 was released with a ticket price of $599, much more than other products in the same category. Even so, production costs on the PS3 exceeded $599. Sony took they're loss leader even further with a reduced ticket price of $399, which made it more competitive with the Xbox 360.
Explanation: the console gaming market is fiercely competitive with virtually every gaming console maker using a loss leader in hopes to dominate the lucrative market. Not the most successful loss leader, as much of the production costs for the PS3 are related to using Blue Ray technology, which has not yet shown signs of any serious traction and the Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 by a healthy margin.
Generally, loss leaders are used in one of two situations. Here, a product or service is either new and tied to another product or service that will make up for the leading loss (iTunes opened up a new market) or the product or service is attempting to take a larger (or the largest) bite out of a particular market (PS3, Xbox, Nintendo).
Loss leaders and chess have something in common: if you think ahead, a sacrifice now can result in a substantial gain in the future. Don't be afraid to explore and consider the possibility of your own loss leader.
Posted at 08:28 AM in Product Outlook | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
