In the case of an Apple launch, the consumer wants to gets caught up in something bigger than themselves. This creates urgency around purchase proximity to release. To buy into the Apple brand culture is to follow a doctrine of values of continuous improvement, sexy innovation, to have the newest and the best.

This obviously works in Apples and the distributors favor in terms of fueling even more hype and publicity. The launch event then becomes much greater than the product itself. Whats left after the hype blows over, is a much more mundane and ordinary purchase that is to be avoided by the average Apple fan. The Apple fan wants to be anything but ordinary.

Segmentation is a pretty big word that often puts people off. A simple way to understand market segmentation is to acknowledge the grouping of consumers with similar needs. You can then use these groups to understand differences in purchasing behavior.

A business should try to understand consumer needs, focusing its resources on opportunities that match its capabilities. In that way you are trying to take a product or service that you do well and sell it to the people in society who need it the most.

There are a variety of forces that influence the needs of consumers. You can use one or a variety of these forces to define the differences between the segments of consumers in your market. Look at the Demographics of consumers such as their age, income, marital status, education and occupations. Lifestyle also influences customer needs, the range of activities a consumer is involved in, their values, interests and attitudes will also influence their purchase behavior. Another way to segment your consumers is to group them by their usage behavior, or how often, when and where they use your products or services.

Now the first step to creating meaningful market segmentation is to group your customers with similar needs together. Then from these groups look for demographics, lifestyle forces, and usage behaviors which make them distinct from customers with different needs.

You will then need to review the attractiveness of each segment in terms of profitability and whether it suits the core competencies and competitive advantage that your business offers the market. Don’t overlook your unique brand identity either. Have your chosen market segments fitted into your existing brand proposition? If not which is more valuable to you, it could be that your brand is in need of a makeover and a change in direction.

Now we have one or more target markets which we understand, are complimentary to our business and have profit potential. At this point create your positioning strategy, a value proposition that defines how your business will satisfy the needs of your target markets. This value proposition can then be echoed throughout the range of marketing activities your business is involved in. Now go to it, take your products and services to the world!

There once was a market, a place where buyers could go to purchase from sellers. Each seller has a stall in the market and is selling only one product. Each stall has a unique name or uses the name of the stall owner.

Buyers arrive and select a stall to purchase their products. They make their decision to buy based on two factors, one is the popularity of the stall or its owner, and the other is the functional or aesthetic advantage of a particular product.

Over time some stall owners become very wealthy because they are more popular or have a functional or aesthetic product advantage. They then purchase another stall and display two kinds of different products at each stall. They give the new stall the same name in order to maximize existing popularity. Those with both popularity and an advantage become very successful.

To develop a functional or aesthetic advantage you must first learn from buyers what they yearn for in the products that they seek. In order to become popular you or your products must be seen by as many buyers as possible.

Customer Retention is an essential compenent of business success

If your in business your in the business of building relationships. What makes or breaks a business, is the quality of your customer relationships.

If you want to be in business for any decent length of time, the moment the customer purchases your product or service you make a commitment to satisfy their needs and wants for as long as you are physically able. This means more than a passive response to customer inquiries and request for products or services; this requires an active and ongoing effort to create a relationship that is built on frequent interaction.

Companies that do this effectively are people companies; they love talking to their customers and frequently. Building friendships with your customers can be the best thing for you and them, it makes working together easier and fun. One of the main reasons companies lose customers is because they feel undervalued. That is when a competitor will strike. Your competitors will give your customers all the attention in the world and every reason to start using their product or service instead of yours.

So before it’s too late be sure that you are contacting every one of your past and current customers at least once a month. If you can, use a computer to keep track of your customers contact details so their always up-to-date and easy to access.

It takes a large amount of time and effort to convert a prospect into a new customer. Compare this to the time it takes to sell to an existing customer, who trusts you and the quality of the product or service that you provide.

The lifetime value of a customer should never be forgotten. Next time you are in the process of servicing a request, imagine the value of this person to your business in one year’s time, two years and over ten years.

If you can provide a business experience, that customers will enjoy time after time, then you’re well on your way to building mutually profitable customer relationships that last for a life time.

Okay, so the consumer has instant access to your competitor’s prices, what can you do if you don’t have a cost advantage?

Using the Internet, the consumer has an ability to compare almost instantaneously what you and your competitors offer. While this may seem like a problem, this instant access to information can also be used to your advantage. The consumer also compares product features and makes judgments on quality and potential service delivery among others things.

Because you can see the same information that the consumer sees, you have the power to differentiate your product or service so that it has a unique appeal over your competitors. Now, you may be thinking these are all good ideas but won’t the competition in turn respond by replicating my offering? This is where we get cunning. No they won’t, because you are going to choose something that your competitor cannot replicate.

So let’s get creative for a minute. Imagine that customers are hungry for your product they just don’t realize it yet. You have to prove to them that your product should be the one object of their desire.

One way to do this when competing on an International stage is to tell the New Zealand story. I remember one New Zealand entrepreneur, a Maori bone carving exporter, who modified his product through unique flax packaging. In New Zealand we really are blessed with a story that can be used to develop a unique international advantage when selling online. In presenting his products online he also told a Maori legend about each carving. Delving into the buying process a bit further he discovered that the overseas buyers were ordering his products as gifts. When you buy a gift don’t you want it ready to give? So he made sure that his products were shipped ready to be given as gifts.

A Delivery Advantage

Can you offer an advantage through delivery? You could possibly process orders faster than your competitors and promote a faster delivery time. Alternatively, you could arrange for your suppliers to provide extra care in delivery.

Re-discovering your Unique Selling Proposition

You entered the market with a unique offering and the larger players left you alone, now the big boys are encroaching on your niche, what do you do about it? Before things get out of hand what do you have over the big guns, apart from good looks?

Well you’re more flexible, you do not and probably cannot produce your product in bulk but you do have the ability to modify your production process and produce a more customized offering. Are there ways that you could customize your product for individual consumers? Many large manufacturers cannot make to order; they produce in bulk and gain a price advantage as a result. This is one way that you can ensure your worth to the market and delight customers who are looking for something that is extra special.

In conclusion, don’t panic, the Internet is a large market to compete in but with small modifications to your offers, you can create a compelling reason for consumers to buy your products over competitors.

Imagine if you could add more value to your clients business than any other company. If you can do this you will become an essential extension of your client’s business. Here are five ways to add more value.

1. Respond quickly to requests

Requests come in many forms; they can be emails, phone calls, fax’s, and letters. They can be communications from current clients, potential clients or partners of clients. Treat every contact with respect and respond quickly.

2. Meet Delivery Expectations

Clients have deadlines to, treat their deadlines as your own. If you fail to deliver on time your clients will find another company who can.

3. Ensure you and your people are fun to work with

Your clients should look forward to calling your business! They should really be thrilled to be working with your people. If your receptionist or employees with client contact bore you, then you’re in trouble. Find confident, happy people to work with and your clients will keep coming back for more.

4. Find a way to solve your client’s problems

Your clients come to you to solve problems that they can’t or don’t have the time to solve. If you don’t know how to solve their problems, then find the way, get someone else to do it or let them go.

5. Exceed their Expectations

It is the extra ordinary things you do that will make the difference for your business. Many businesses are stripped to the bare operating necessities where resources barely meet client demand. You must allow premium value adding time and resources, in order to add more value than your competitors.

People don’t buy ordinary they buy the hype. Hype is the icing on the cake, it is the reason customers pay more for products which essentially do the same thing. Your customers are bombarded with hype everyday. The moment they wake up they hear advertising on the radio, in the newspaper at breakfast, on the way to work. So what has happened is that people are becoming especially sensitive and selective about what they pay attention too. Even right now, I bet that you are choosing whether to read the rest of this document or not.

This situation makes it even more important for you and the people that work in your business to be excited about what you do and are going to do for the customer. If you don’t do this you will find that people are going to just switch off every time you go to make a sale or promote your business.

The same goes for your marketing and advertising assets. Just because you’re a home office start-up with a shoestring budget doesn’t mean you have to act like one or present yourself unprofessionally! Marketing is not about deception, it’s about telling it like it is with a little bit of passion and style. Your business deserves that and so do your customers.

A good product is not enough! What you need is a good product with great presentation. That is why it is so important to spend some time to get professional help with your logo, website and advertising. Take the time to review your current state of affairs. A marketing makeover may be just what you need to stimulate your business and customer demand.

Does your business target both men and women? While the marketing process is the same, the creative and tactical execution is fundamentally influenced by an understanding and appreciation for their differences. Each gender encapsulates a unique story and a lifetime, full of significant moments of joy and sorrow. Today these stories are converging, women want more of what men want, great friends, independence, career, and money.

While there are increasing similarities in male and female character, at the heart of it all are deeply rooted archetypal roles, such as father, mother, nurturing and providing traditions that are engrained into the psyche. Good Marketers recognize and celebrate the hopes and dreams of their target markets by fashioning stories around male and female identity.

Marketing has over time reflected changes in traditional roles to the benefit and detriment of both genders. For example, over the last few years the male character is often portrayed as simple and stupid. The female character as it appears in advertising is more diverse, with the ability to get things done and look great doing it.

Men want to be entertained, they want humour, and they want to see products with true functional applications, they want to know how you use it. Men take less satisfaction from the shopping process itself, therefore anything that helps a man find what he is looking for faster and more effectively is got to be the way to go. Women want to see how products are useful to them, how they might look when they are used, and how they contribute in relationships with others.

Sometimes to market to men you have to market to women as the purchaser. Women buy beer at supermarkets, clothing and food for men, etc. Therefore the purchase proposition must include both parties. Irregardless, think about how the product appeals to the end user, and how does the purchase contribute to satisfy the purchasers need to feel rewarded from the end user.

If you are marketing to both genders, develop features that add value and solve problems. Recognise that your product has attributes that satisfy people on a level that pervades gender differences. Concentrate on the aesthetic commonalities that appeal to both males and females. Explore the emotional and physical responses that are common in all of us.

Extracts assembled from an interview with gift.ed magazine

If you are committed to spending consistently with media providers like radio stations and newspapers then you should put thought into adding value and consistency through an ongoing advertising campaign. Marketing communications can be made more effective by coordinated advertisements that buy perceptual space in the mind of your consumer.

You need to be careful not to over complicate your tactical marketing activities. Many small businesses lose sight of the discipline based day to day actions that really get massive results over time, such as regular customer contact. All the sophisticated marketing solutions, fads and theories in the world are useless if you’re not practicing the basics.

Unfortunately, many New Zealand marketing graduates start work with an understanding of how to approach an international Blue Chip marketing program instead of more practical small business or entrepreneurial marketing skills. This is steadily improving and it’s good to see modern business schools promoting practical experience at all levels of business.

In terms of your own education as a business owner or manager it’s important to learn as much as possible about what marketing activities are appropriate for your business. Simply start by asking how are we going to generate initial, ongoing and increasing sales revenue and profitability? What direct and indirect things can we do to promote a favorable business presence in the market and in what ways can we add value to the community and people who we share our resources with. Every time you practice marketing, concentrate on learning as much as possible and you will grow an outstanding market orientated business.

Introduction

Planning your marketing helps you to create consistency and more effective advertising. A marketing orientation effects your whole organization and provides strategies for growing customer value and profitability.

There are several different approaches to marketing in a small business:

Lacking Resources

The small business often does not have the capital or expertise to be proactive about marketing. In this situation, they are often at the mercy and reactive to the visits from sales personnel of individual mediums. On a rainy Friday afternoon Jill a sales rep from the local radio station will drop by and try to sell you some air time promising a very special deal. And if the price is right you just might just get the check book out. Think of your customers as if they were a good friend of yours as if every time you go to talk to them you start where the last conversation left off. The customer needs to be nurtured and a consistent company image and message say’s hey we care about you, where not trying to make a fast buck.

Marketing is not demand dependent

Then there are the small businesses who decide that marketing is only linked to demand and sales. The slow times are an indication that spending some money on advertising might result in an increase in demand. The newspaper advertisement is sent out with the large task of creating immediate sales. How often it doesn’t work, which only seems to reconfirm the small business owner’s distrust of marketing.

You can afford to work smarter when you are busy

Time and work pressures simply limit activities that are seen as non-essential. When this occurs the business manager is fooled into thinking that because they are busy they are successful and the business is performing well. However, when resources are fully allocated to processing functional aspects of a business to the detriment of others, cracks begin to appear. A business with a marketing orientation acts to satisfy the customer at all levels of its operations. In the case of a small business meeting immediate demand can cause changes in service levels and reallocation of resources away from long term performance generating activities like marketing. This hits home hard when demand decreases, usually loyal customers leave for better service, and the organization re-addresses customer generation strategies.

Treasure customer satisfaction

The most common resistance to using marketing activities we hear is that our company has plenty of customers. Now suppose a competitor enters your market. Wouldn’t your company be in a much better position to defend its share of the market if it had a developed a well known and liked brand?

Perhaps over time you grow away from the needs of the market and begin to lose customers as a result. A marketing orientation would mean that you never lose touch with existing and potential customers.

Have you identified the most profitable customers for your business? Could there be different groups of customers that you are not reaching who would be interested in paying more for your service? Are their products and services that you are yet to identify that could compliment or replace some of your existing products and services. Sometimes small improvements have huge effects on the profitability of a business.

My argument is that customer generating activities should be ongoing in times of increased demand and in times of decreased demand. They may be different in their execution; obviously you may want to reconfirm market awareness and brand values instead of generating immediate action from the marketplace if you are busy.

A marketing orientation

A marketing orientation comes from an understanding that you can influence the marketplace in which you operate. It is within your power to decide how your business will perform in the future. It is your responsibility to serve your customers in the best way possible. It is critical that you understand the moves of your competitors and take action to stake your position. It is good practice to understand your business environment and the changes within it. Most of all it is essential that you paint a picture of your business in the future and plot a course for the realization of this outcome.

An organization without any planning is kicked around the marketplace by customers and competitors. It is at the mercy of the environment and walks blindly into negative trends. It stands for nothing, has no values and identity and exists to serve the selfish needs of its owner.

Many business owners do not want to plan because their ideas and activities are then laid out on the table for critical evaluation. They are afraid that someone may find something wrong with them. They are right, someone may find something wrong and ideas and activities may change as a result of planning. However, this a lot better alternative than taking an idea or business beyond the point of no return and finding you can no longer afford to pay your employees or bills.

It is usually in an extreme situation that we take action. Success comes to those who choose a path of action before the situation decides for them. Take action now.