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MOBILE MARKETING

4/29/2014

Your Business Can Stay Open 24/7
Be available at customer’s convenience

A clear majority of Canadian residents own a smart phones. This device is a mobile computer that provides users with access to the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The good news is, most users have their smart phones on and with them most of the time.

Businesses that succeed will increasingly be the ones able to harness the power of mobile computing technology.

A business with a mobile friendly website can provide prospective customers with information and sales at any time of the day. Give prospects a reason to visit the website regularly.

The 3 major reasons why you should embrace mobile computing technology are:

1. Your business can remain open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This means you can go on that extended weekend break, enjoy quality time with family and friends and still be available for your customers.

2. You can promote the mobile technology feature as a value added service for your customers. After sales services, special offers, featured promotions can all be communicated to customers and prospects at any time of the day. You no longer need wonder if a contact has switched on the computer and checked the Email for your web link.

3. The moment you have a website you have a business with a global reach. A prospect in another country could contact you for business. Alternatively, someone across the world may actually suggest to a friend in your local community that they visit your business.

Social Media now connects people with common interest worldwide and there is a web based community that is interested in your business offering.

Get connected and reach out.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant
Reboot your business plan for sustained high growth!

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Market AWARENESS

4/22/2014

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Be Unique To Be Competitive
What is your Selling Proposition?

In preparing marketing material, following the formula of the success stories in your industry can seem like an attractive option. But this may not allow you to stand out enough to convert your marketing investments into sales.

The worst thing that can happen to any business is become the marketing agent for the industry with sales going to competitors.

To stand out it is important to write down the unique factors of your business and how you can benefit and satisfy the customer.

Your marketing material should state the unique way your business can satisfy a high priority customer need. To be effective this has to be based on actual success stories in your business.

Here’s a framework to help you work on that sales campaign you are planning:

1. Explain how you created value and a positive experience for a customer.

2. Keep it short. The rule is, “less words gets more information out”.

3. Craft your message for a niche consumer group.

4. Get customer response on authenticity of the message.

5. Ensure continual improvement of material in response to customer feedback.

The above framework requires deep thought and analysis of your business. The deeper your analysis of your business the more effective will be your marketing message.

With marketing material ready, go out to prospects and make that sale.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant

Ask the author for the “One Page Marketing Plan” which helps focus on high growth.

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April 10th, 2014

4/10/2014

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Good Marketing Habits For Higher Sales
Start small, stay focused, then scale up

The success of the smart phone is an example of how a new product, capturing the imagination of the consumer can come to dominate a new niche in the market. Today we increasingly talk about internet accessing devices. Mobile computing is the new normal.

Develop an effective supply chain delivery system that reaches the maximum number of customers at the minimum cost. This can lead you to a global mass market that transcends the limitations of local markets.

This does not reduce the importance of building genuine human relationships with consumers.

Here’s is the challenge. How do we utilize the human experiences of consumers in our local market to reach out to a bigger market over the internet?

The answer lies in understanding traditional marketing principles and learning how to use the electronic media to communicate the human stories of local consumer experience to a wider audience.

The following areas are worth working on when planning the marketing of your product or service:

Practice Continual Learning
Keep reading about developments in the market. Get to understand your market.

Identify Your Niche
Find your niche by analysing who the current providers’ target.

Conduct Trials And Test
Test marketing is critical. The information received can be used to improve on your product, service and/or delivery.

Work On Consumer Awareness
Launch a campaign to help consumers better understand their desires, wants and needs. Serve the consumer with information that educates the consumer.

Build A Relationship With Consumers
Engage in real dialogue with customers. The deeper the relationship the more loyal the customer will be.

Siddha Param
International Business Consultant
Winnipeg, Canada

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April 02nd, 2014

4/2/2014

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The High Growth Enterprise
A consumer centric business

A consumer centric business understands that most markets have room for growth.

Identify different sub-categories within a market segment. this can lead to the creating of more specialized products and services that cater to more specific needs of a larger segment of consumers.

For example multiple sports activities create unique opportunities for shoe manufacturers to design foot wear for individual sporting needs.

The more you are able to commercialize on customizing to the varied needs and taste of consumers the greater will be your market share.

A good business vision is one that is specific enough to inspire practical and profitable action while being broad enough to encourage market growth.

Consider carefully the various market consolidation and expansion options.

Widen your Geographical Market Base

All business is local. However, all markets are global. Global trade and technology has created opportunities for business to serve an existing market segment over a wider geographical area.

Today pizza has become a global meal option. It is no longer confined to pizza lovers in Italy. While North Americans may be forgiven for considering it a local meal, the fact remains that the love affair with pizza is worldwide.

Market expansion in such a case is only limited to a business owner’s desire as to whether to expand into a wider area of coverage. Serving a local or global market is a matter of ambition.
A business that chooses to serve a defined local market can withstand challenges from global competitors through leveraging on their local knowledge of consumer buying psychology.

Widen your Market Segment

We humans enjoy being identified by social group characteristics while at the same time craving for the ability to express our own distinct individuality. This can be translated into a business plan to reach out to as wide a segment of the consumer community.

For instance, a cola company need not just sell cola drinks. It can say it is in the drinks business. This would encourage the natural synergy for expanding into providing a range of drinks from hot beverages to soda pop and water.

If the cola company says it is in the food business, the natural thing to do is to serve food with the drinks. Cola and burger or coffee and muffins have become natural fits through marketing design.
Deepen your Market Penetration

A shoe shop that caters to as wide a segment of the footwear market makes sense. However, the alternative is to adopt a market penetration strategy that means providing existing consumers with an added variety of products and services.

A shoe manufacturer may increase its variety of offerings to include clothing related to the specific shoe segment. Basketball players need more than just shoes designed for the game. They need the clothing, game equipment and all the necessary accessories. There is business beyond shoes.

Redefine your Market for High Growth

The lesson we learn is markets are seldom fully penetrated. The mindset of high growth businesses is, essentially to redefine the market segment to 10% of the market share each time you reach a point of coming close to 50% percent share of the existing defined market segment.

A market segment exists so long as the identified market is sufficient to provide the expected profit.

A High Growth Business Culture

To attain a pattern of continual high growth, a business must develop a mindset for high growth that energizes business activity across the organization. This energy should drive the individuals serving the organization to give their best in all they do.

There should be a culture of open communication that continually provides feedback that is channeled all the way to the top leadership.

The feedback should be analyzed for ideas on how to better serve the existing market segment and how to redefine the market to create a bigger market segment.

Consult To Identify Growth Opportunities.

It is a challenge to both run a business and engage in studying feedback from the market to spot the evolutions in the market.

Being too fast to change can mean not sufficiently exploiting the existing defined market. Too slow to change can mean becoming obsolete or irrelevant in an evolving market.

Nobody would have wanted to have been the last typewriter company in a world dominated by personal computers.
Spotting changes in the market requires an objective analysis of feedback from consumers, the industry, your team members and creators of new technology.
An outside consultant sitting in with your team can more effectively ask seemingly unrelated questions that lead to deeper insights on the next best course of action for continual high growth.
Like a coach in a game, the consultant can help your star players attain that edge needed to continue being profitable.
Siddha Param
International Business Consultant
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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MOBILE MARKETING

Market AWARENESS

April 10th, 2014

April 02nd, 2014

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