Business

  • Telling Your Own Story: Part II

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    On Monday, I proposed we analyze a market entry situation.  We have three market segments to consider and must determine who our perfect customer (story teller) would be: Dock Dwellers, City Slickers, or Locals. Considering that fishing is a seasonal activity, we need to focus on customers who will be around year-round: the Dock Dwellers

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  • Telling Your Own Story

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    We have discussed story tellers at length, but most of that discussion applies to established business and not to entering a new market.  The concept, however, applies to both.  To understand this, it is easiest to refer back to our tackle shop example from before. Rather than already owning the tackle shop, assume we want

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  • Comparative Advantage

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    If your market is saturated, it might be difficult to find a competitive advantage over others.  Your products are likely identical, and your prices very much the same.  Production is as optimized as it can be, and there are few to no differences between your and your competitions’ company structure. What you need is a

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  • Staggered Entry

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    Any entry into a new market needs to be taken in steps – the first of which is brand advertising.  You need to build brand awareness and demand for your products long before you make your first sale.  This can be costly, but not nearly as much as a premature product launch. Previously, I talked about

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  • TOWS

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    As you have probably learned by now, marketing is an on-going process of both self- and competitive- analysis.  You need to understand who your company is, who your customers are, and who you are competing with – information that can stay fairly constant over time, or suddenly change overnight without warning.  Analysis must start from

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  • Landscaping

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    The first thing any entrepreneur looking to enter the market must do is survey the landscape.  While standing atop a hill and peering down at the city might sound like a fun activity, this has nothing to do with the landscape I’m talking about. There are three questions you have to answer in detail before

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  • Public Relations

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    PR can be a powerful weapon, but it is also a two-edged sword.  Good PR can build your reputation in the community and better your chances at scoring new customers.  Bad PR can damage your existing customer base and cost you much needed sales throughout the year.  You can’t really predict what kind of PR

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  • Brand Advertising

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    Advertising can be broken up into two categories: product advertising and brand advertising.  Both types of advertising have their uses and inherent strengths and weaknesses.  Brand advertising can pave way for a new product release, and product advertising can enhance existing brand marketing strategies. Brand advertising is a powerful tool in marketing.  Like product advertising,

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  • What’s the Point?

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    When I tell people I am in marketing, they assume I am in either sales or advertising. In fact, most websites that ask you to enter your profession lump advertising, sales, and marketing into the same category. In a world where few understand the differences between these three disciplines, what is the point of trying

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  • Negative Space

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    I read an interesting article in November’s issue of Marketing News.  “Learn to Use Communication’s Negative Space,” by Prophet’s Kevin O’Donnell is a great piece on how to pull your marketing message out of the clutter of every day life. O’Donnell encourages the use of “negative space” in advertising.  His most illustrative example was Charmin

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