Showing posts with label consumers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumers. Show all posts

Friday, October 31, 2014

JOMLO LIFESTYLE

 Oleh: YUSWOHADY (Detik Bloger)

Jomblo Lifestyle

Jomblo di masa lalu adalah sebuah aib memalukan. Namun sekarang, ia menjadi sebuah simbol sosial yang keren, cool, awasome. Saya nggak tahu kenapa bisa demikian. Mungkin ini yang disebut jaman edan. Semua serba kebolak-balik.
Ketika sebuah bangsa makin maju. Ketika masyarakatnya makin makmur. Dan ketika pola kehidupannya kian industrial-urban, maka kecenderungan mereka untuk tidak menikah menjadi kian besar. Di negara tetangga Singapura misalnya, satu dari lima warganegaranya ogah menikah dengan alasan macam-macam: mengejar karir, menghindari beban ekonomi yang berat, nggak mau repot, hingga alasan lifestyle. Seperti Singapura, di negeri ini jumlah jombloers pun kian merangkak naik.
Lifestyle
Bakal maraknya jombloers di Indonesia tak lepas dari revolusi kelas menengah yang memicu mobilitas sosial massif selama sekitar lima tahun terakhir. Saya sering mengatakan masyarakat kelas menengah memiliki tiga ciri. Mereka memiliki daya beli yang makin tinggi, knowledgeable, dan socially-connected. Mobilitas sosial ini menciptakan pergeserangaya hidup rural-agraris-tradisionalis menjadi urban-industrialist-modern.
Data BPS tahun 2010 mengatakan, usia kawin pertama (UKP) masyarakat kita adalah 22,3 tahun untuk wanita dan 25,7 untuk laki-laki. Coba bandingkan dengan UKP orang tua kita dahulu yang rata-rata sudah menikah di bawah usia 20 tahun. Tak bisa dipungkiri, merangkak naiknya UKP ini adalah buah dari pendidikan dan naik knowledgeability mereka.
Yang saya amati, naiknya sikap menunda perkawinan dan menjomblo kini tak hanya dipengaruhi faktor rasional (faktor ekonomi, umur, karir, kesiapan mental) berkat naiknya knowledgeability mereka. Sikap menjomblo ini kini juga mulai dipengaruhi oleh faktor koneksi sosial (social connection), dimana siapa kita di mata kolega, teman, komunitas, dan lingkungan kita menjadi demikian penting.
Masyarakat kelas menengah kita makin socially-connected yang didorong oleh pertumbuhan media sosial dimana eksis, narsis, ekspresi diri, dan pencitraan menjadi sesuatu yang penting dan bermakna. Ketika mereka semakin socially-connected, maka fenomena menjomblo memasuki babakan baru dimana alasan menjomblo tak lagi sebatas rasional-fungsional, tapi mulai memasuki ranah emosional-sosial. Menjomblo adalah sebuah pernyataan dan penanda identitas diri. Bahkan sikap menjomblo menjadi alat ekspresi diri dan pencitraan. Hasilnya, kini menjomblo bermetamorfse menjadi sebuah gaya hidup (lifestyle) yang keren, cool, dan awasome.
Hot Topic
Kalau dulu obrolan mengenai jomblo merupakan aib bagi empunya, maka kini sebaliknya, menjadi topik pembicaraan yang begitu atraktif. Di media sosial kini banyak kita temuai ekspresi kreatif dalam bentuk meme terkait jomblo. Meskipun ceritanya satire, isu jomblo menjadi cerita unik yang hangat diperbincangkan di ranah maya. Bahkan, ada beberapa blog yang secara serius menggarap isu jomblo.
Saking hot-nya, terkadang status jomblo menjadi sasaran empuk di lini masa sebagai objek sindiran dan satire yang justru mengasyikan. Hal atau momen apapun kerap dikait-kaitkan dengan jomblo. Contohnya saat 17 Agustus lalu, para netizen sibuk buat meme di media sosial mengenai lomba 17 Agustusan yang paling cocok untuk jomblo. Saking menariknya, meme ini sempat jadi trending topic di media sosial. Inilah fenomena isu tentang jomblo sangat menarik banyak orang.
Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, kata galau dan galauers yang bisa menggambarkan pergumulan batin seorang jomblo menjadi sebuah magic word yang diminati untuk diperbincangkan. Beberapa situs secara cukup serius mengangkat isu seputar jomblo dan membangun komunitas jombloers. Situs ini mencoba membangun identitas, kepercayaan diri, dan kebanggaan di kalangan anggotanya. Jomblo.com misalnya, menebarkan ungkapan motivatif di front page-nya dengan kata-kata seperti: Jadikan hidupmu lebih positif, terhubung selalu dengan temanmu, dan buat hidupmu lebih berwarna.
Biro Jodoh Laris Manis
Dari sisi industri, saya melihat industri yang menyasar segmen jomblo secara khusus sedang booming di Tanah Air. Contohnya adalah bisnis biro jodoh atau mak comblang (matchmaker) dan konsultasi kepribadian untuk soal cinta. Fenomena banyaknya biro jodoh ini baru terjadi sekitar lima tahun terakhir. Ketika ekonomi sudah mapan, daya beli meningkat, tapi kesempatan dan keahlian menggaet calon pasangan hidup tak memadai, maka kelas menengah pun butuh biro jodoh. Coba kita tengok bagaimana banyaknya kantor biro jodoh profesional di Jakarta dan situs biro jodoh online.
Bisnis biro jodoh ini tumbuh luar biasa, seiring besarnya pula populasi jomblo di negeri ini. Kini mulai banyak orang yang memiliki lisensi matchmaker dari Amerika Serikat atau Eropa. Hitman System misalnya, adalah sebuah perusahaan relationship coach untuk percintaan. Hampir setiap bulan, Hitman System kerap membuat event seminar atau workshop untuk para jomblo. Saking hot-nya industri perjombloan, artis Christian Sugiono yang dikenal memiliki situs www.malesbanget.com pun kini membuka layanan biro jodoh online www.setipe.com.
Saking hot-nya bisnis perjombloan ini, beberapa biro jodoh membuka layanan biro jodoh untuk segmen muslim. Mereka mempertemukan pasangan sesama muslim. Contohnya adalah biro jodoh online www.syifa.com dan www.jodohislam.net. Selama ini, masyarakat muslim yang taat terhadap ajaran agamanya akan cenderung memilih pasangan hidupnya yang sama. Ini adalah niche market, sehingga model platform mencari pasangannya pun berbeda.
Seiring maraknya populasi jombloers di Indonesia, pasar jomblo akan kian moncer. Yuk marketer!!! Action now, or never bergerak sekarang juga, atau Anda nggak akan dapat apa-apa. (ditulis bersama Iryan Herdiansyah, Business Analyst, Inventure).

Thursday, March 1, 2012

5 Reasons Professionals Should Write a Book

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Expert Author T. R. Locke
Business pros understand the power of a book as a marketing tool. Robert Kiyosaki certainly does. His book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad was rejected by dozens of traditional publishers before he decided to publish it himself and build a financial empire on top of it. Would you have ever heard of Robert Kiyosaki if he had not published his book? It's very doubtful. Imagine what your results could be if you too became known as an expert in your field? What would it be like to have more clients seeking your services? How would you feel to be the person the media calls when they need an expert opinion?
Five Reasons Business Professionals Should Write a Book:
A Book Makes You Stand Out From the Crowd Leading to Increased Business - You are a client looking for a great insurance agent, financial planner, mortgage broker, lawyer, doctor, therapist, stock broker, pastor, personal trainer, etc. As you already know the choices are unlimited. How do you chose? How about the one you saw on TV last week discussing their new book? Exactly. Or the one quoted in the article about investments? What if you are the one who "wrote the book on [your specialty here].
Personal Branding - A book can also deliver to your clients your personal philosophy so that your work with your client goes much more smoothly. A book is the sales brochure that is never thrown away. And if it is passed on to others, it can reach more potential clients. What you offer your clients that is unique to your business is highlighted in a book and can give you name brand recognition in your field. The book, Buy - ology by Martin Lindstrom says that psychological studies reveal that consumers' brains bestow near religious significance on brand names. Humans are, in effect, hard - wired to prefer brands. Nothing establishes a professional's brand like a book.
Expert Credentials - The author of a book gains expert status in his or her field. Writing a book instantly establishes the author as a respected professional with the news media, clients, and other professionals. The expert status pays off in many ways - - greater trust, speaking engagements, free publicity and more money to name a few.
Shortcuts Your Process and Speeds Your Business - One personal financial adviser found that getting his clients to agree to buy a particular insurance product he recommends became much easier. "Prior to the book, it was very hard to sell and required a lot of explaining but because I covered the reasons in my book, my new clients now buy with no extra effort on my part." Similarly you will find clients who've read your book already understand what they will get from you and how you work. Writing a book makes working with your clients easier and helps them understand and trust your process.
Writing a Book is Easier Than Ever - Today's professional can publish a book faster, cheaper and better than any time in the past. Forget about trying to get a traditional publishing house to give you a contract because unless you are already nationally known, it is unlikely. Besides, you would have to wait one and a half to two years after the contract to see your book. Instead, consider hiring a professional ghostwriter and self - publishing your book yourself. The ghostwriter will have the experience to make your story compelling, marketable and to help guide you through the publishing process - - avoiding costly mistakes.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Voice of the Customer Dynamics

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Everyone knows what a Customer Satisfaction Survey is and some people know how to use the information it produces. It is a set of questions that your customers are asked to respond to so that you may determine 1) if they are happy (or not) with your products and/or services and 2) how you can keep them as customers. The process is fairly simple. You determine what questions you would like to ask and then find a way to present those questions to your customers. There are various ways to do this including, phone interviews, focus groups, mystery shoppers, paper "ballots" that are mailed or handed out on the spot and online queries. The least expensive of these is the "online query" and in this still difficult economy, the one that most companies are now using. There are just a few rules to follow when you decide to survey your customers. It has been determined that for the best results the survey respondents should be:
1. Independent - people that have no ties to your organization and either are interested in helping you stay in business because they like your company or have a problem with your company and for various reasons would like to make you aware of that problem.
2. Diverse - people of both genders, all age groups, all/any ethnic groups, any religious persuasion, etc.
3. Decentralized - people that are not restricted by location, job function, status, industry, etc.
...and you should have an effective method for aggregating the information.
You can survive (even thrive) in a recession if you can react quickly to changes in customer needs, perceptions, and behaviors regarding your facilities, products, and services. These are the key components driving Customer Loyalty, Growth and Repeat Business and being able to react quickly will give you a huge advantage to stay viable and stand out against the competition. In any economy, it's very important to get ongoing feedback from your customers.
The Voice of Your Customer is important not just to measure his/her satisfaction but to collect and weigh their opinions against your norms. Asking open ended questions that provide an opportunity to critique their interaction with your company will present you with a wealth of knowledge that could lead to an adjustment to your process that actually improves efficiency.
There is a new idiom that is being integrated into this landscape and it can make all the difference in terms of how quickly you can react to changes in your customer's behaviors. The term is Drip Intelligence and it was discussed in "Experiencing the Economic Rollercoaster?" an article by Eric Groves.
It should be noted that the Drip Intelligence methodology is not new. It has been used for several years in Business Process Improvement Programs in processes where there is a collection of activities designed to produce a specific output. It has been used in areas such as Benchmarking, Compliance, and Supply Chain Risk.
The closer you are to your customers, the more likely they are to turn to you when they need the products or services you offer. They need to know you are someone who cares about their needs and they need to know that you value what they think. Most of all they need to see you as someone they have a relationship with and... Drip Intelligence fosters that relationship. The Voice of the Customer program you utilize needs to be able to roll the information gathered from customers into true business intelligence capable of providing on-line real time insight into your organization while instantly and automatically prioritizing areas for improvement. The key is "real time". You must continuously gather the information and instantly aggregate it into reports that are both strategic and actionable. You should be able to monitor your customers continuously and watch how they are reacting to business decisions being made...and then react instantaneously to changes in their needs, perceptions and behaviors. Periodic surveys are not enough. The timeliness of the information gathered is as important as gathering the information. I have been told by people that oversee Voice of the Customer programs that the information they receive is always too late to fix the problem. This tells us that these people recognize the need to continuously analyze the information and make adjustments on the fly. They realize the importance of Drip Intelligence.
The focus of any Voice of the Customer Program is to generate strategic and actionable business intelligence that can be used to better your organization. It must produce diagnostic and predictive outcomes that support strategic impressions for business decisions. In short it must provide data that is really relevant to the executives in the organization; data that they feel is hard to get and is essential to have every week. Or, if your system incorporates Drip Intelligence, - every day!
When investigating the use of various Business Intelligence Programs you should recognized that Customer Loyalty, more than perhaps any other single factor, is what keeps customers coming back.
The "Mystery Shopper" network is a tool that many companies use. The dilemma is; do the reports from mystery shoppers really match what your customers are saying, are they relevant for your business and are they timely? With Drip Intelligence you could, along with gathering intelligence from your customers, also gather intelligence from the Mystery Shopper Network and instantly compare what the Mystery Shoppers are saying with what your customers are saying. This is very powerful! With Drip Intelligence you may continuously keep track of and monitor your Mystery Shopper Network, continuously monitor and keep track of how customers are reacting to the business decisions you are making and be able to adjust your processes as well as the Mystery Shopper's routine "on the fly".
Drip Intelligence should be part of a cost effective web based Voice of the Customer Program that your customers use to tell you, in quantitative and behavioral terms, exactly what is driving their buying behavior, while providing enormous insight into your organization and continuously prioritizing areas for improvement. This application uses a proven methodology to determine the level of customers/patrons' (and/or vendors and employees) contentment with your company and then rolls the information gathered into true business intelligence capable of providing on-line continuous real time insight into your organization and prioritizing areas for improvement. Of course, this type program can identify gaps against specific customer perceptions and the correction of these weaknesses will lead to improved business outcomes. However, there is another distinct advantage in using the proper Voice of the Customer program. It should identify strengths in your organization that can be used as strategic advantage against your competition.
Successful businesses often lose the pulse of their customers and resort to guess work to make changes to facilities, products and services that are key components driving Customer Loyalty, Growth and Repeat Business. The smart companies make decisions based on continuous, organized, reliable and accurate data. That's Drip Intelligence!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Right Message Right Market

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Expert Author Troy White
Two success stories to share with you on advertising effectively.
SUCCESS STORY #1 - Network Marketing Money Machine
I received a phone call 2 years ago from a husband and wife team. They have done exceptionally well in the network marketing industry, and now was to go big on the speaking / information publishing business.
We designed them a campaign that goes like this:
Step 1 - Squeeze page to capture emails from people
All a squeeze page does is capture contact information from people who visit your website. You need to entice them into why they should sign up - snippets of content they get, free bonus books or audio's, etc. When they enter their information - name and email - they are then sent to step 2.
Step 2 - Thank you for sign up and Free CD giveaway
We gave away an audio cd detailed part of their system they use to earn well over a million a year in the industry. The cd is free, shipping and handling is $5. This gives people a very low-cost way to get more familiar with you and your techniques. If they take the free cd offer, they click through to the order page with an option to buy into step 3.
Step 3 -Up-sell to higher end package at 20 -40 times the price of step 2
When people go to the order page for the cd offer, they are offered an option to buy a much higher pried package. In this case we did 2 higher priced options - one at 20 times the cd s&h price, the other at 50 times that price. They can get just the cd... or take them up on the up-sell offers with much more information and product sent to them.
Step 4 - For those who never took the offer for steps 2, 3 or 4 - they get sold into step 2 through the auto respondersthey receive once they sign up on the free newsletter (step 1)
THE RESULTS?
Because the copy was targeted perfectly to their market, and because they had a good number of people read the copy:
1. 1800 people purchased the cd option
2. 20% of those people bought up-sell #1 (at 20 times the price)
3. 5% bought up-sell #2 at 50 times the price
Do the math! That is a serious money-making AUTOMATED machine. For every 1,000 qualified people they send to their site, they know roughly how much money they will make immediately.
In the next 9 MONTHS, that simple marketing system, with the right words, sold well over $1.2 million dollars.
QUESTION FOR YOU:
How can you leverage these ideas and automate the sales process in your business?
SUCCESS STORY #2 - First time author ROCKETS to #1
Another client of mine launched his first book. You may have seen some of the promotions for The Power of You!?
We invested a substantial amount of time and resources putting a massive campaign together for him.
1. Teaser sales letters to get people to the main sales letter
2. $3,000 in bonuses to buy the book on the launch day
3. Long copy sales letter to sell the book and bonuses - the key was that he needed people to buy on a single day so Amazon could do their calculations on if he had a best-selling book (calculated by Amazon every hour based on total books sold from their site)
4. Recruited LARGE numbers of partners to endorse the book to their own client lists. They got to read the book first, then endorse the book to their own clients if they like the book. IMPORTANT NOTE: the partners received NO financial compensation for doing this.
I wrote the copy they sent to their lists, to recruit them as partners, to sell people the book, etc.
5. Arranged everything to happen on August 15th starting at 12:01 am.
THE RESULTS?
#1 on Amazon - on the main book best seller list AND in all 5 registered categories the book qualified for!
PLUS, 3 days later - it was STILL #1
Thousands and thousands of books sold (5,000 sold in first 2 weeks, 55,000 sold over the next 3 months) - each of those books is a lead generator for him (ads on the inside of the books for other products) and a MASSIVE database built from the launch (people had to supply their emails to get the bonus materials)
Now he has #1 International Best Selling Author to his name.
QUESTION FOR YOU:
How can you leverage these ideas and have other people promote you to their lists? How can you use this to launch a new product, service or bundle?
The key here is to NOT say "that isn't my business". The key is to say "HOW can I make that apply to MY business?"
When you do that - and then implement what you wrote - you will see similar results as they have seen.
The power of the written word, combined with massive action...
Simple Things to Change and Test in your Marketing and Copy Over the Next 30 Days (measure your results before and then after you make these changes to see the effect on your bottom line)
* Are you running a headline in all of your marketing? Go to the news racks and pick up some copies of Cosmo and The National Enquirer (seriously). Find ways to modify some of their cover headlines to fit an advertisement, or email, or newsletter subhead line. This is a simple, yet incredibly effective way to create revenue producing headlines.
* Is it targeted specifically at your target customers?
* Are you specific in your claims? None of the "best in the world" type of claims - no one believes them anyhow.
* Does your marketing material answer the question - "would this help our field sales people close the deal, or pre-qualify the prospects?
* Does every piece of your marketing containing some form of measurement device (special website to visit, email subject line to send you, trackable phone number, etc)? Without this, you have no way of knowing which of your marketing dollars are working for you, and which ones aren't.
* Does your marketing and advertising materials explain what it is you want them to do immediately after reading the ad or promotion? (does it ask them to take action by phone, mail, email, web form, or fax?)
* Does it answer all the questions your typical prospects ask your sales people?
* Can you specifically tell me who your ideal client is (age, sex, income, demographics)?
* Is the most common word in all your marketing "You"? If not - get rid of all the "I", "We", "Us" etc - they do not care about you! All they care about is what you can do for them.
* Do you have testimonials in everything that your prospects and customers see?
* Do you follow-up with your prospects and clients at least once a month? Remember that there are totally different messages you want to send to your prospects and to your existing clients.
Try this out in the next month - and let me know your results.
To your success,
Troy White

Monday, February 13, 2012

How B2B Organizations Should Define Target Audiences

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Expert Author Joseph D Mapue
Marketing is a rigorous knowledge area that is discussed in undergraduate classes and practiced as a critical skill in the real world. Tens of thousands of hours are allocated in studying, designing, and executing marketing methods while billions of dollars have already been spent by organizations to conduct marketing campaigns that attempt to make the brands they carry very attractive to their target audience. Even then, there are still marketing professionals who fail to grasp the fundamental tenets of the practice and end up piloting campaigns that fail at delivering their intended outcomes. This is largely because these practitioners unwittingly skip some steps that are critical to the marketing process. In particular, these marketers fail at defining their target audience properly.
In a B2B environment, this failure is easy to commit and can be very costly. Without properly defining your target audience, you can very easily end up marketing your products and services to just about everyone. This may be an effective strategy, but only in scenarios where resources are unlimited. As all corporate professionals know, however, different departments and projects always fiercely compete for limited organizational resources and that makes an ill-defined target audience an extremely poor basis upon which to design and execute a marketing campaign.
For example, manufacturers of computer graphics engines can easily fall into the trap of showcasing the unique benefits of their hardware in terms of enhancing consumer experiences. This is well and good, as everyone is captivated by rich multimedia. However, the product's net effect on consumers is only a secondary factor in the case of this B2B scenario. It is ultimately more important for the graphics engine maker to create and establish clear and unique value for computer manufacturers (and maybe for some major software companies whose products require advanced graphics engines). After all, computer manufacturers are the direct customers of chip makers.
While it may work in some cases, directly marketing to end consumers not only wastes limited resources but also erodes the efficacy of the marketing message. If your marketing message, mantra, or callout is not precisely attuned with the sensibility of your target market, then your audience will have a difficult time appreciating the value you offer.
Marketing 101
To get all these in perspective, let's start by defining what marketing is. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines it as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." This definition is comprehensive and is noteworthy for citing the different players that are constantly engaged by marketing professionals. The first two of these players are customers and clients, which are synonymous with the practice's target audience.
That said, organizations can only attain marketing objectives in the light of how successful they are--especially within a competitive terrain--in anticipating, meeting, and satisfying their target audience. For marketing to be truly effective, therefore, all its processes must consider the needs and aspirations of the target audience.
In a sense, the critical objectives of marketing are 1) to create and establish differentiation; and 2) to build the differentiated value upon the needs of the target audience. Creating and establishing differentiation means making your service or product stand out from other similar offerings available. The more different and effective your product or service is compared to those of your competitors, the better your chances of succeeding in the field. Some gurus even go as far as stating that a company need not even offer the best price or conduct the most expensive campaigns yet still end up winning, simply by having a fundamentally differentiated product that satisfies the needs or wants of the target audience.
The last clause should give a clue on how to attain the intended outcomes. It is important that the target audience can easily distinguish your product from among other brands that deliver similar benefits. But that is not enough. The differentiation or value your product generates should also be one that the target audience actually wants. For example, you can introduce an energy-efficient and affordable three-wheeled prototype to automotive manufacturers but if your target B2B customer does not want or is not yet ready to adopt the unique value you offer, then your product will really have a difficult time succeeding. If on the other hand, you have designed a highly reliable hybrid engine that can easily be bolted on most vehicles, then it is likely that your product will have some early adopters.
Engaging the target audience
The challenge with many B2B organizations is that they never even bother to precisely identify their target audience. As a result, they end up marketing to everyone in the supply chain, including consumers and sources of raw materials. The fact is, the vast majority of players in your own ecosystem don't really care about your product or service. Given the tight reins on your organizational budget, there is no compelling reason to directly engage them even if you wanted to or there is some fringe benefit in doing so. The sound tactical approach is to focus your momentum on the players that matter most to your company.
If you have yet to define your target audience, then that's a real showstopper. There's a way to go around it, even then. Start by describing the existing market your company is currently servicing. You can then identify the traits or describe the nature of the ideal target audience for your product or service. To get this translated in a practical context, you can even opt to conduct a social media campaign that seeks to attract the ideal target audience for your brand. You need to do this eventually, anyway, because sticking it out with a customer demographic that does not subscribe to or purchase your offerings will just spell the end for your business.
To further help you refine the process, construct a clear idea of what you are selling as well as the value it helps create for your customers. How are your offerings packaged? What benefits do customers get when they acquire the product or service? For example, you can say, "I sell different types of zippers." You can then expand by saying, "our zippers are found in clothes, furniture, industrial equipment, luggage, and sports equipment. Some of our zippers are engraved with the trademarks of the manufacturers of consumer products we engage."
Now that makes the process of defining your product and your target audience really interesting, doesn't it? Proceed by listing the main reasons why your customers buy your product. It could be an inherent product trait such as durability or a stylish design. It can also be a selling feature such as white-labeling that allows your customers to imbue the product with their own branding. It can also be because of transactional aspects such as low pricing, volume discounts, or credit extensions that your company offers to its clientele. Note that the reasons your target audience buys your product tell something about the problems your product is trying to solve. Keep these in mind, especially when you are remaking existing products, conceptualizing new ones, or strategizing on how to market either. Whatever the reasons are, list them and weigh their respective importance or contribution to your bottom line.
The B2B approach to audience targeting
Companies that directly engage end-consumers generally use demographics (age, gender, income bracket, educational attainment, location, etc.) to create useful maps or profiles of their target audience. For B2B companies, on the other hand, characteristics such as industry size, industry conditions, number of employees, annual revenue levels, credit experience, and geographic location are very critical components of the customer profile.
It is also advisable to consult industry research studies to glean more insights that can help you market your products or services to your target audience. There are both free and page reports that are available online. You can also acquire social media listening platforms that generate often-used keywords or phrases per industry. This is something you can use to have a top-level view of which needs or issues different players in your industry are discussing more often and which players are likely to adopt your solutions.
To conclude, having a precise idea of your intended audience equips your company for success. This is because a well-defined target market will help you 1) determine whether there is a sufficient number of potential customers (demand) that will help sustain your operations; 2) configure your offerings to better meet the expectations of your clients; 3) customize or streamline promotions and campaigns to deliver optimum returns; 4) improve cost efficiency by focusing resources on customer groups that can give value to your business; and 5) align your brand message--including your taglines and corporate mantra--to meaningfully attract the people or organizations who are the most likely to adopt your product or service. Remember, having a target audience will only limit your market, not your business. On the contrary, delivering your message across to a small number of the right listeners is far better than broadcasting it to a larger but apathetic audience.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Price Perception Is Key in Psychological Pricing Explained

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Expert Author Harrison Li
In case you did not know, utilizing psychology in pricing is a popular stratagem, the key in how these psychological pricing tactics work lies in the concept of perception of value, also known as price perception or value perception.
So, what really is price perception so to speak? It is the humanly perceived images of something that they believe it is because they think it is. These perceptions of something contain a slight (or maybe large) difference compared to its true value.
Suppose I decided to give you $100, you'd think that's a fair amount of cash, but in the meanwhile you heard that I gave another person $20, you'd react thinking the $100 you got was a load of money. In another scenario, if you heard me give another person $500, you'd think that the $100 you received was very little.
What's the takeaway from this? In our minds, how we judge something in terms of its value is determined by the surrounding factors such as being able to compare your own properties with other peoples' properties.
By bringing this concept into the world of marketing, we can utilize this psychological behavior and exploit it in pricing products, potentially creating the price perception effect, which causes orders and sales to increase.
For example: making a product look cheaper can be achieved by the odd pricing strategy, which is by using odd numbers (hence its name) rather than using rounded numbers, e.g. pricing at $19.99 rather than $20.
The mathematical difference in the two values is only by 1 cent, however it's humanly perceived value appears that $19.99 is $10 cheaper than $20 because of its first digit, as we tend to read from left to right. This perception may not occur to every single person but it works to the majority of consumers worldwide. As a result, the strategy helps increase sales.
The odd pricing strategy has a mirrored version of itself that utilizes the same core principle of price perception, called prestige pricing or image pricing. The goal of this strategy is to change the perception of a product to appear expensive than it really is, which is the reversed goal of odd pricing.
Now, you might wonder why would any firm ever want to "make" their products look expensive? Doesn't that decrease sales? Amazingly, prestige pricing is proven to be effective to increase sales, however only if used properly and at the right audience.
Prestige pricing only works on high-end and luxury based products, not only does making it look expensive reinforce its brand reputation, it also expresses the generally accepted meaning of "expensive equals high quality."
Both odd pricing and prestige pricing are merely two pricing examples that focus on the concept of the perception of value, which can be harnessed for a great deal of benefits and advantages, including raising conversions, increasing sales and ultimately, making more money.
Further More About Psychological Pricing:
Note that the content above acts as brief information which its entirety can be read at my psychological pricing learning center. Continue reading about price perception.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Message IS the Message


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Expert Author Richard Berger
So, now, you've got your search campaign going. You've got your geofence and mobile messaging up. You're taking ads out in specific print media and you believe that you've got your advertising covered. Yet, as you take stock of your efforts, you also notice other advertisements and messages. Some are similar to yours, some competing directly against yours, other different types of messages and advertisements vie for the attention of the same people you are trying to attract. You wonder to yourself, "My message just seems to get lost in the din of all."
I once wrote that, "in today's marketplace, it is what one says and how it is said that prevail in consumers' minds; not necessarily what you do, that matters most." While this may essentially be contrary to popular belief, in messaging, it's the kernel of all advanced communication strategies today."
As the world continues to shrink to fit your mobile phone screen and while you innocently search the web, marketing battles rage among advertisers and their business clients. Promotional skirmishes over market share, over mind share - that is, a share of your mind - are constantly being waged.
In one month, the average person is bombarded by 150,000 ads, banners, commercials, billboards, flyers, circulars, direct mail offers, packaging messages and so on. Brand messaging is even integrated into your favorite sports programming - right there in the score-box area and on your kids' cereal boxes. Ads are in the emails you receive and as you view the web on your mobile device.
The battle to occupy a part of your brain is big business. Very big.
Naturally, the external pressures on traditional agencies to be more effective have reached critical-mass. Traditional agencies misunderstand the current marketplace and their clients are demanding better results. So, these agencies recommend that their clients advertise more frequently and in more places. Of course, this drives up the cost of advertising and floods the market with even more messages. Yet, the irony of it all is that the more advertisers advertise; the more consumers ignore them. Round-and-round it goes: Ad agencies step-up their efforts and create more elaborate attempts to persuade consumers and consumers learn to deflect these attempts because they are, quite simply, meaningless to them.
On the flip-side is the reverse-gentrification of the market. Wherein the barrier to entry for the fields of graphic design, web design, advertising, copy writing and the like have been driven to all-time low's. Now, your friend's brother's nephew does that, right? Or, perhaps, your IT person handles your website and online marketing. Maybe your receptionist handles your direct mail, social media and other similar efforts.
Consequently, agencies are downsizing. They're moving to smaller offices and "reinventing" themselves by changing their names to include words like "full-service", "interactive", "new media" and other clever descriptors in an effort to reposition in the shifting landscape. It's an out-of-control situation that is already imploding advertising agencies around the world.
The Death of Traditional Advertising and the Birth of Socially Intelligent Messaging
The concept of advertising as we know it is changing. Even the value of the word "advertising" itself has changed; to the degree that consumers, frankly, "don't buy it."
Then, what does it really take to reach consumers; to connect with them, to engage them and convert them into your customer?
It begins with an ideology based on a fundamental premise of social value. This is something that cannot be ignored by consumers; whether in print, on the web, or on a mobile device.
A two-way, socially intelligent messaging proposition connects a business with consumers in a meaningful way. It provides value, in one form or another, that enlists and compels the consumer toward an action that supports a perceived need in some area of their life. Fun-and-games marketing tactics aside, this premise narrows the field of effective techniques down to a mere handful. At the root of this nexus of effective techniques is the message itself. In fact, the message IS the message.
It's actually quite straightforward. If your message doesn't connect with the basic human emotions or align with the fundamental hierarchy of needs, your message will go unnoticed.
The multitude of ways and means by which consumers look for, consider, and ultimately purchase goods and services from your business are changing right now. Traditional methods are quickly being replaced with more efficient, more engaging and more extensible ways of messaging that connect with consumers and deliver value.
It's not your father's market place anymore.