General Business and Finance Blog

The AIDC market has undergone momentous change over the last 18 months. Consolidation, outsourcing, and end-user purchase patterns have reshaped the competitive landscape within the scanner and printer markets. AutoID, GPS, wireless networking and sensing technologies have converged to improve supply chain visibility for end-users and have suppliers scrambling to position themselves for the coming wave. Some of the repositioning is taking the form of acquisitions such as Zebra’s acquisitions of Wherenet, Navis, Proveo and MSS to gain entry into the RTLS space, Honeywell’s acquisitions of Hand Held Products and Metrologic, as well as TEC’s acquisition of Tohoku Ricoh’s AIDC printer business.

Additionally, key printing hardware vendors have made sweeping changes to the distribution paradigm within the last year with major players outsourcing to contract manufacturers in Asia and developing improved regional distribution capabilities. Finally, end-user purchasing decisions and buying cycles are being negatively affected by the mounting economic troubles worldwide. End users demand quicker and larger returns on investment to justify large hardware deployments and at the same time are demanding more functionality at lower price points. Collectively, these issues require hardware and software vendors to adjust to the market in a quicker and more decisive manner. These issues highlight the importance of deep and reliable market intelligence to successfully capitalize on the changes within the market. The 2009 AIDC Global Industry Planning Service provides actionable market intelligence to support successful strategies for navigating the rapidly changing market landscape.

NEW SERVICE FEATURES FOR 2009
The 2009 service features a brand new packaging scheme that provides more organization, focus, and valueadded services than ever before. Each of the technology tracks has a standard architecture and provides data for a specific set of AIDC technologies.
• Reports are replaced by presentation style deliverables combined with spreadsheets to provide both sharper analysis and enormous detail.
• Our Market Intelligence Services (MIS) are now structured in tracks that align with technology markets and information requirements. Each MIS provides a portfolio of value-added service as part of the annual subscription.
• The basic architecture of an MIS Track includes the following:
1. Technical supply-side reports specific to one or a set of related technologies and associated Vendor Profiles.
2. Demand-side research focused on buyer issues that are of critical importance from “core” countries representing each major regional market [Americas, Europe, and Asia].
3. Quarterly Bulletins that address topics such as: New technologies, M&A activity, emerging market news, changes in competitive landscape and “Year in Review” or “The Future of [a market]” evaluations. We encourage client input on topics selection.
4. Analyst Access: Clients derive maximum value from VDC syndicated market research through their relationships with VDC Analysts and VDC provides easy analyst access.
5. Retainer Account to secure access to our teams for future consulting and research needs based on your requirements; provides a mechanism to focus on rapidly defining and responding to needs that emerge throughout the year.
Full-service MIS clients also receive a Customized Executive Summary (CES): This presentation is specific to your company and is focused on the implications of our research, including, opportunities, risks, and options.

RESEARCH SUMMARY
• In-depth analysis of global market opportunity for handheld and stationary bar code scanners, bar code printers, RFID transponders, printer consumables, and direct part marking equipment with detailed market definitions and segmentations including: core technology, application, vertical markets, etc;
• Market penetration scenarios, estimates and forecasts for bar code scanners, printers, RFID transponders, consumables and direct part marking equipment;
• Users’ technical and commercial requirements and preferences, including end-user investment drivers and applications, system integrator/OEM selection criteria, and distribution channel capabilities;
• Analysis of the structure of the bar code scanners, printers, RFID transponders, consumables and direct part marking equipment supplier communities, including leading and emerging supplier market share, position, direction and profiles; and
• Discussion of key issues, forces and trends driving and restraining market growth and development, including opportunities and requirements for suppliers to grow share and profit.

METHODOLOGY
The rigor of VDC’s research methodology yields data we translate into information and knowledge to create insights that lead to innovation and business results for our clients. This market research service includes a number of data collection and analytic methods:

ANALYSIS METHODS
• Market Segmentation and Definition: Definition of market segments, target customers, and competing solutions are critical to building accurate: sizing estimates, forecasts, supplier position and shares, and customer requirements.
• Market Sizing and Forecasts: Models based on supplier shipments, user budget analysis, recent installations, and future purchasing plans. Other key inputs include supplier forecasts of future growth rates, historical data, and economic outlook data.
• Supplier Share and Position: Derived directly from structured, in-depth interviews of leading and emerging suppliers, with specific emphasis placed on current and projected shipments in combination with VDC’s data repository.
• Customer and Channel Requirements and Preferences: Focus on customer and channel partner priorities driving consideration. Topics include a range of product and supplier selection criteria. We will explore current and future preferences for various technologies, feature sets, suppliers and sources of supply.
• Data Verification: Primary and secondary research on target communities and companies is used to validate our results and includes conducting supplemental interviews at target firms, crosschecking with channel partners, estimates from competing firms and checking historical performance.

STRUCTURED APPROACH AND TOOLS
• Segmentation and Models: Detailed analysis of market segments, customer class communities, products and technologies, and channels that comprise market opportunities.
• Technical Solution Value Chain: Definition of the hardware, software, and services that constitute the technical value-chain
• Commercial Value Chain: Analysis of the relationships between suppliers, integrators, channel partners, and enterprise customers that participate in a specific market.
• Data Collection Tools: Include, but are not limited to in-depth telephone interviews, on-site interviews, and Web-based studies of manufacturers, channel participants, and customers.
• Research Databases: Include VDC proprietary sources, research program sponsors, and industry-specific third parties (e.g., trade publications, Web sites, and conferences).

SECONDARY RESEARCH
• Financial Reports: Analysis of inverter supplier financial reports (e.g., 10Ks, 10Qs, annual reports, etc.) from public and private financial databases
• Due Diligence Searches: Gather corporate background information on suppliers and resellers, core offering specifications, target market case studies, technical and commercial partnerships, and examine applicable periodicals
• Associations and Government Policies: Analyze trends based on relevant industry association news, standards bodies, independent consultancies, academic institutions, government agencies, and consortia
• Proprietary Databases: Use of VDC proprietary databases covering the markets related to the market under study

CONTENTS

MARKET COVERAGE
The 2009 service specifies three (3) distinct service tracks that contain analyses for specific products. Each of the tracks covers a specific set of AIDC technologies across common vertical markets, user environments, and geographic regions (see below).

PRODUCT COVERAGE
HANDHELD AND STATIONARY SCANNERS AND SCAN ENGINES TRACK
• Handheld Scanners: Laser scanners, Linear imagers, 2D imagers, Pen/wand scanners
• Stationary Scanners: Industrial laser, Industrial imager, POS, Bar code verifier

BAR CODE PRINTING AND DIRECT PART MARKING TECHNOLOGIES TRACK
• Bar Code Printers: RFID printer/encoder, Thermal transfer, Direct thermal, Portable thermal, Laser, Impact, Inkjet
• Direct Part Marking Systems: etching technologies such as dot peening, electromechanical, laser, ink-jet, stamping, etc. and hardware
• Direct Part Marking Scanners and Readers: handheld, stationary and software

BAR CODE PRINTER CONSUMABLES AND RFID TRANSPONDERS TRACK
• Consumables: Labels, Forms, Tags/tickets, Thermal ribbons, Toner/drums, Printheads
• RFID Transponders and Smart Labels

VERTICAL MARKETS
INDUSTRIAL/MANUFACTURING
TRANSPORTATION/LOGISTICS
GOVERNMENT
RETAIL TRADE
HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
COMMERCIAL SERVICES

USER ENVIRONMENTS
MANUFACTURING SHOP FLOOR
WAREHOUSE/DISTRIBUTION CENTER
IN-STORE
FIELD SERVICES/SALES (INCLUDING IN TRANSIT)
OFFICE
HEALTH CARE SERVICE DELIVERY

GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS COVERAGE
AMERICAS (NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA)
EMEA (EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA)
ASIA-PACIFIC

TRACK ARCHITECTURE
The 2009 service specifies three (3) distinct service tracks that contain a standard architecture and provides data and analyses for the AIDC technologies covered within the track (see below).

SUPPLY-SIDE ANALYSIS
These volumes provide detailed market definitions and segmentations, estimates and forecasts, and competitive share for each technology within the track.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• General Overview
• Product Technologies and Trends
• Vertical Markets
• Geographic Markets
• Selected Recommendations
• Leading Vendors

SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
• Research coverage
• Data collection tools
• Analysis models
• Telephone and Web survey methods

INDUSTRY STRUCTURE
• Stakeholder map
• Technical value chain
• Commercial value chain

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
• Form factor classes
• Vertical markets
• User environment
• Geographic distribution
• Sales and distribution channels
• Customer classes
• Leading vendors

MARKET ESTIMATES AND FORECASTS
• Base year/forecast period:
– 2008 Unit and revenue shipment actuals
– 2009-2013 estimates and forecast
– 2008 and 2010 sub-segmented estimates and projections (as appropriate)
• Market estimates and forecasts [revenues] segmented (where appropriate) by product types, region, vertical markets, user environments, and. distribution channel

SUPPLIER ANALYSIS
• Position
• Share
• Strategy and direction

KEY SUCCESS REQUIREMENTS
• Product types, features, and performance
• Industry and application markets to target
• Channels of distribution
• Promotion
• Requirements to maximize booking growth

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL ANALYSIS
CHANNEL TYPE
• Direct-to-end user
• Direct-to-OEM
• Value-added reseller (VAR)/System integrators (SI)
• Dealer/distributor
• Value-added distributors
DEMOGRAPHICS
BUSINESS MODELS
VENDOR RELATIONS
PERSPECTIVES AND STRATEGIC ISSUES

VENDOR PROFILES
Vendor profiles are snapshots of offerings, markets, and channels for key companies within the merchant computer board industry. The profiles will include:

CORPORATE OVERVIEW PRIMARY OFFERINGS
• Product offerings and shipments
• Application/industry markets served
• Geographic markets served

CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION
• Sales organizations
• Customer classes
CURRENT PARTNERSHIPS
STRATEGIES AND OUTLOOK

MARKET DRIVERS, CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS AND PLANS
These volumes focus on critical customer issues and provide OEM/integrator technical and commercial requirements and preferences.

MARKET DEFINITION AND SEGMENTATION
• Regional market
• Vertical market

DEMOGRAPHICS OF END-USER RESPONDENT TECHNOLOGY USAGE TRENDS
• Traditional technology satisfaction and usage trends
• Installation trends
• Emerging technology receptivity and usage plans
• ROI requirements
• Growth drivers and threats
• Adoption trends
• Technology replacement cycles
• User perceptions
• Certifications and ratings

CURRENT AND PLANNED EQUIPMENT EXPENDITURES
• Purchase decision criteria
• Purchase trends
• By site and organization
• By current and anticipated number of installations
• Spending trends

SUPPLIER EVALUATION
• Supplier selection criteria
• Satisfaction with installed technology

For more information visit: http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/AIDC-Global-Industry-Business-Planning-Market-Intelligence-Complete-Service-All-3-Tracks.html

or

Contact us at:
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Phone: (+9122) 27578668
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What’s the most important word in marketing?

Free?

Why?

Truth?

Honesty?

Integrity?

At first glance, it seems like a simple question. But the more you think about it, the more complex it gets. One could probably argue any number of answers based on his beliefs, values or type of business.

But is there really one word that’s more important than all the others?
One word without which your marketing efforts will be successful?

I recently surveyed dozens of marketing professionals, authors, consultants and small business owners on my blog. The results included a wide range of words; from the emotionally charged to the pragmatic; from the right brain to the left brain and from the customer focused to the company focus. But all of the suggested “most important words in marketing” fell into one of two categories: Traditional Marketing or Modern Marketing.

Traditional Marketing: The Old School

Traditional Marketing used to be all about advertising. It was expensive, short lived, and had little to do with the Internet or word of mouth. Also, it aimed its messages at passive audiences. Leading expert and best selling author Seth Godin calls this “Interruption Marketing,” in which the marketer talks directly to as many consumers as possible.

Now, although this traditional style of marketing has lost some of its prowess to the fierce competition of the web, it’s still a powerful medium through which companies can reach their customers. Let’s see which words the experts chose from this category.

NOTE: before you read the survey results below, take a minute to answer the question for yourself: What do you think is the most important word in marketing? Once you’ve made your decision, read on and see how your answer compares.

NEW

“NEW is probably the strongest word in marketing,” explains Ronnie Horowitz from The TRIZ Journal. “People are attracted to new products like a magnet. Introducing new products on a constant basis is the best way to get attention and invaluable free publicity for your business.”

WHY

Michael “The Success Doctor” Fortin believes the most important word in marketing is WHY. “It is much better to communicate why you are original, special or unique; why you are better, different or superior than competitors – not just the fact that you are. Imply your superiority by specifying as much as possible.”

CUSTOMER

Sivaraman Swaminathan from Customer World says we shouldn’t overlook the obvious word, CUSTOMER. “I think marketing has evolved because the focus is on the customer. The soul of marketing is the customer. Period. In marketing, you will fail even if you have greatest passion for the wrong target audience; you will fail if you don’t know whom you should respect, and you will fail if you don’t know which customer to trust.”

YOU

Similarly, Robert Middleton from Action Plan Marketing said, “The most important word in marketing is YOU. That is, marketing needs to convey very clearly what’s in it for the client or customer.”

FREE

FREE was also touted by several experts as the most important word. Edward “Skip” Masland, owner of Web Solvers says “FREE was, is and will always be the most powerful word in marketing. It attracts eyeballs. It gets results and responses quickly. And marketers may not profit today – or tomorrow – but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something free, they know they will profit sooner or later.”

On the other hand, Bob Serling from Idea Quotient wrote an article claiming that FREE was the most dangerous word in marketing. “I’ve been advising businesses for nearly 20 years that a business model driven by attracting prospects through giving something away for free is almost always a model for failure. And it doesn’t matter whether you use this model online or offline – it will nearly always fail.”

LISTENING

Next, Karen from Dezign Matters explained that the most important word in marketing was something you DON’T say. “I think the word is LISTENING. A little time leaning back and listening quietly can save time, money and leave the client and customer feeling that someone truly heard what they were trying to say.”

BECAUSE

Michael Daehn, author of Marketing Ingenious explained, “I read a case study about cutting in lines at a copy machines. The hypothesis was that the word ‘please’ would get the best response. But the results proved that the word ‘because’ received a much better response given that the word offered a reason to let someone cut in line. Therefore, we as marketers need to give customers a reason to buy.”

RESULTS

Lastly, Michael Cage from Small Business Marketing Systems said the most important word in marketing was RESULTS. “Small businesses are often suckered into fluffy, fancy marketing concepts that sound great but produce absolutely nothing in the real world. If the business owner or marketing department can’t tie what they do to results, likewise, they need to step back and get it right before passing go.”

Modern Marketing: The New School

20 years ago, nobody knew what the words “blog,” “RSS feed,” “personal branding,” “viral marketing” or “google” meant. But now – at the risk of sounding cliché – the rules have changed. Business is different. Customers are smarter. And marketing isn’t the same old run-a-bunch-of-ads-and-hope-people-buy-your-stuff system.

Now, it’s all about creating an emotional connection. It’s about being unforgettable, unbelievable and unique. It’s about providing an experience that’s so fantastic, customers not only remain loyal to you – but they tell all their friends to do the same.

Here’s what the experts said about the most important words in Modern Marketing.

RESPECT

It’s not surprising that Seth Godin – author of seven best selling books about how to make your business remarkable – always emails me back within 30 minutes. I drop him a line every once in a while to pass along an interesting website or, in this case, ask a question. He replied with a brilliant one-word answer: RESPECT. Period.

AUTHENTICITY

John More, owner of Brand Autopsy, maintained the most important word in marketing was AUTHENTICITY. “With the world becoming one gigantic ad, consumers today can sniff out anything that smells the least bit fake and inauthentic. Success will come truer and faster if companies can design products, programs, and services that are authentic in meaning, purpose, and delivery.”

Moore dug deeper on the topic of authenticity and explained that “Authenticity is usually a by-product of a purpose-driven business. And unfortunately, there ain’t enough businesses out there with the purpose of making a positive difference in the world.”

PASSION

Similarly, Tom Asacker from A Clear Eye says it’s all about PASSION. “Passion for one’s business and for one’s calling inspires and attracts people. They want to be to believe, to belong; to become. And that’s the essence of marketing today.”

Tom and John’s posts on the blog discussion generated high amounts of support from other experts. Laura from the Smart Musings blog agreed by saying, “John and Tom are right. Consumers can distinguish between authentic and inauthentic marketing. Authentic messages will strike a chord with them. That may encourage them to buy. And once they become a customer, then they may too become passionate about the product. And that is the ultimate goal of marketing: not just to have passionate employees, but passionate customers.”

TRUST

Another popular word was TRUST. Kevin Berringer from Reflections on Business Blog simply said, “No trust = no belief = nobody listens.”

EXPERIENCE

Then, Chris Ray from Interactively Speaking voted for the word EXPERIENCE, as in The Customer Experience. “I believe this word summarizes respect, authenticity, passion, results, etc.” said Ray. “It ultimately decides whether or not a company succeeds.”

AROMA

Next, Jim Seybert from the Jim Seybert Company offered a most unusual suggestion: AROMA. “Brain scientists tell me that smell is the only sense that goes directly to the limbic lobe in our brains – and triggers nothing short of primal emotions. Marketers should pay attention to the ‘aroma’ of their brand. They need to identify the unavoidable, immediate and emotional reaction customers experience upon coming into contact with their brand.”

OPEN

Another intriguing response came from Nellie Lide of The New Persuasion Blog. Her word was OPEN. “You’ve got to be open. Open to others. Open to customers. Open to employees. Open to new. Open to old. Open to scrutiny. Open to derision. Open to joy. Open to different.”

TRUTH

George Silverman, author of The Secrets to Word of Mouth Marketing says it’s all about TRUTH. “Marketing has become synonymous with hype. The truth, compellingly told, is all you need. Just tell it in an interesting way, usually with a story. This allows you to tell the truth about your product and the truth about yourself.”

No Word

The last respondent of the survey was Sean D’Souza from Psycho Tactics. He decided to take the contrarian’s point of view. “There is no one single word that’s the most important in marketing. Making such a claim would be like saying your heart is the most important part of your body. I think we try to make things too simplistic. In reality, marketing is a series of things that coordinate together to create magic.”

It’s All In The Hunt

In case you haven’t already figured it out, the answer to the question “What’s the most important word in marketing?” is: it all depends.

Typical marketing answer, huh?

But ultimately, it’s not about the answer – it’s about the question. It’s about the creative thought process each businessperson goes through when he considers what the most important word in marketing is…to him.

Personally, I chose the word CONFIDENCE.

In other words, I want to instill confidence in the minds of potential customers that if they step onto my company’s front porch, they will be working with a credible, valuable, trustworthy individual whose unique school of thought will help them produce results.

But that’s just me. That’s how I roll.

Now, it’s up to YOU to reexamine what “marketing” truly means to you and your company. In so doing, you will gain a better understanding about who you are, what you do and whom you do it for.

So, what’s the most important word in marketing…to YOU?

Following the past 2 years of decline, a full market recovery is highly unlikely during 2010. The strongest developments towards recovery will be experienced in markets where controls existed for avoiding excessive lending, speculative buying and instability. Regions that have been hardest hit during the downfall of the real estate market have taken strong steps to avoid continued excessive decline. Control strategies will begin to show their results throughout 2010, with the hardest hit markets beginning to stabilise, while growth patterns emerge in the markets least affected by the downturn.

Investment approaches will evolve from excessive speculative buying into strategies with improved stability and market demand. Long term investments and buy-to-let ventures are expected to be the strongest growth areas, with fewer risks involved and excellent gains potential due to the exceptionally low priced investment options available in both emerging and established markets.

In order to fully understand the position of world real estate markets and the outlook for 2010, it is necessary to understand issues relating to the lead up to the world real estate market downturn. How these issues have affected the market will assist in understanding the coming year’s ideal investment strategies and selections most suitable for optimum returns.

The Mortgage Market

The mortgage market and loan financing has largely contributed to the sharp downturn in many world real estate markets. The lack of control in the sector resulted in excessive lending and often an absence of credit checks. This caused many mortgage holders to default on payments when the economy became strained.

The extent of the effects the mortgage market has contributed to the downturn in the real estate sector can be seen when comparing countries with traditionally strict lending practices against those where financing was readily and easily obtainable. Controlled markets have resisted severe downturns viewing recovery potential during 2010, while lenient markets continue their struggle to maintain stability.

Responding to the need for financing to assist with the turnaround in the real estate sector, central banks have reduced interest rates, expected to remain at record low levels until sometime in mid 2010. While the ability to finance properties has enabled an optimum moment to enter the real estate market, restrictions on lending criteria has become widespread, leaving many potential buyers unable to qualify for mortgage financing.

Supply and Demand

A slowdown of new construction projects in various locations around the world has been designed to assist in bridging the gap of excessive supply against demand. Locations with an excessive supply of housing for sale on the market are expected to take longer to recuperate from the downturn, as less competition is available for bringing up property prices.

While the prices in these areas remain low, investors searching for long term return potential may be able to find some optimum bargain opportunities, yet the long term growth is likely to be considerably less compared with areas where the supply and demand of properties is ideally balanced.

‘Buyers Market’ Benefits

2010 will continue to be an optimum buyer’s market, where those in a position to purchase will continue to receive and negotiate optimum deals. A sharp turnaround from the seller’s market environment of the recent past, equity enabled investors are facing the ideal market conditions to access the best deals expected to be available for many years. If investing for long term benefits, these buyers may also be in positions to once again benefit from a future turnaround into ‘seller’s market’ conditions.

Long Term Investment Returns

Investments based on long term return scenarios will be the most viable for 2010 in both emerging and established markets. As the real estate market in very few regions are expected to show any significant growth patterns during 2010, short term investment options are unlikely to prove successful.

As the real estate sector emerges from its present turmoil over the coming years, long term investments will provide the most significant growth potential. Long term investments also provide the least risk, an important consideration in the current market situation.

Expanding Buy-to-Let Interest

Investor interest to enter the buy-to-let market is expected to significantly increase during 2010 as the situation of the real estate market has provided ideal foundations for successful buy-to-let investments. As resources have become increasingly limited for many wishing to enter the real estate market, long term letting properties are increasing in demand.

Properties ideally situated for short term lettings will also provide investors with sought after yield returns due to the increasing demand for self catering accommodation. The expected growth in the buy-to-let market is predicted to increase competition in the market, therefore optimising properties for letting and correct advertising will further the potential in each local market.

Ideal Investment Locations

Buyers are increasingly looking into particular areas for investment strategies that suit their personal preferences, with fewer looking into markets purely for its investment potential. This has followed the sharp downturn in many of the emerging markets that were previously popular for short term investment strategies.

As benefits abound across all regions in the current market position, considerations relating to the preferential investment strategy will assist in deciding whether the selected location is ideal for investing during 2010. Research is essential for ensuring the correct location for investments, taking into consideration the local demand, supply and letting market saturation.

Looking into the market’s previous peak levels in comparison with the current downturn levels will provide some information relating to the length of time the investment will take to recuperate previous peaks in a stabilised market. Considering the loan availability and arranging a fixed rate loan for the longest time period possible will enable an excellent financing option to combine with the low priced properties. Taking advantage of the excellent financing options currently available will further benefit with optimising the potential gains obtainable due to the current market conditions.

As it is difficult to pin-point one particular location for providing optimum investment scenarios during 2010, observing conditions relating to the stability and growth potential, along with the supply and demand of the chosen regions will assist in selecting a suitable investment location. These conditions should include the overall stability of the real estate sector, the strength of the country’s economy and the government’s encouragement towards both foreign investment and tourism. Locations that have been hardest hit by the economic and real estate downturn are predicted to require the longest recovery periods, creating less potential investment growth over a similar timeframe in comparison to more stable markets.

Article marketing is something that has been around for many decades. Collaborations existed between newspapers and companies, where the company would write article content, which the newspaper would get to publish. In exchange for the article, the newspaper would publish a little bio piece on the company. This exchange has been around for a while, and the internet has only made it easier to match up companies with writers. With the internet came internet marketing, a broad category that encompasses article writing. These two concepts blend together since article marketing needs to be a part of internet marketing, and internet marketing needs article marketing.

Article marketing is a way to get advertising for free. Businesses can advertise through the creation of articles, and internet marketing campaigns benefit by the creation of content, which raises the presence of the company behind the internet marketing campaign. Internet marketing covers many fronts, but most of them are costly, and do not provide the symbiotic benefit that the combination with article marketing provides. Within the world of ecommerce, the union of internet marketing and article marketing provides both parties with the means to get content and links back into the participating companies.

If you want to build a powerful internet marketing business, one of the best ways for you to achieve this is through article marketing. While most forms of internet marketing are not powerful enough on their own to achieve results, article marketing can create astounding results in a small amount of time because the powerful things that it does. Not only does article marketing build powerful and important one-way links from popular sites with high page ranks, but it also gives potential viewers new avenues for reaching your website, and simultaneously establishes you as an authority on the subjects that you are writing about, allowing potential visitors and customers to trust you enough to sign up for your newsletter or buy your products.

If you want to create an effective internet marketing business, using article marketing would be a wise choice. Many companies have been successful implementing only article marketing strategies, showing just how effective these strategies can be. They will allow you to create powerful one way links to your website, which will give search engines a larger reason to continue indexing you, raising your search engine results in the process. They will allow you to turn valuable and informational articles into a means of becoming an authority figure, so that customers will come to trust your word. And they will create numerous new avenues for visitors to pursue to find your website, often from places that they normally would not even be looking. If you want to create an effective internet marketing business, article marketing can make that happen for you.

Article Marketing Key To Successful Internet Marketing

Article Marketing can be the one key you need to finally become successful in Internet Marketing. However, thousands upon thousands of other hungry people like you and I have heard the same thing. Therefore you and I are going to have to master the art of article writing to beat out our competition. Some of the suggestions in this article may well be the key you need to kick start your article marketing.

Let me tell a quick story about how I started using articles to break into the Internet Marketing world. As I was getting ready to retire, I knew there was no way my family would have any kind of financial security with only the income of social security and a small pension from the federal government. So like so many others it was an easy decision for me to try my hand at Internet Marketing.

And like thousands of others I failed miserably. Then one day a good friend of mine, kicked my butt and told me to concentrate on what my strengths were. Strangely enough as the two of us brainstormed my unknown strengths and known strengths, we kept coming back to the art of writing. To make a long story short it turned out I was pretty darn good about turning out short articles.

Now what you may not realize is I just revealed one of the keys to successful article marketing. Have you figured it out yet? Sure you have! I told you a true short story.

Your readers and customers love stories, especially when they are true. You’re going to have to trust me on this; most folks know when you are stretching the truth. If you are writing an article on a particular product, make sure your story is believable.

If you don’t, get ready to not make any sales or very few sales. Furthermore, chances are when the customers you made a few sales too, find out the product doesn’t do what you said it would, they are going to ask for a refund. However, the real damage caused by this is your loss of creditability. In other words these people will never buy from you again.

Now let’s look at another truth about article marketing successfully on the Internet.

One of the most successful article directories on the World Wide Web today is EzineArticles.com. Christopher Knight, the owner and prolific article writer of EzineArticles.com, advocates that when you write articles you should keep the articles short and to the point. His suggestion is to keep your articles between a minimum of 250 words to a maximum of 1000 words. Mr. Knight’s reasoning behind this is today’s readers want their information as fast and quick as they can get it. Frankly, he is absolutely correct.

The two keys discussed are just a couple of the keys you need to do article marketing on the Internet. You should take your time and explore other tips and suggestions about Internet marketing using articles.

http://eCa.sh/wv65

The definition of social marketing (versus social media) is promotion of social programs and ideas such as recycling, highway safety, family planning, energy conservation, and use of libraries. Social marketing typically relies on donated funds and may be engaged in by public, nonprofit, or for-profit institutions. Another definition of social marketing according to Wikipedia is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good.
Social marketing works to help people change their behaviors to become healthier or to improve society or the world in some way. On the continuum of methods to bring about health and social change are the two used most often: education, which uses rational facts to persuade people to change their behaviors, and coercion, which forces people to adopt a behavior under threat of penalty for not doing so. Somewhere in between those two points lies social marketing — the use of commercial marketing methods to persuade people to change their behaviors for reasons that go beyond the rational facts to appeal to their core values. So often, people know exactly what they should be doing and why, and they still disregard what their head tells them. Social marketing adds heart back into the mix and utilizes emotional appeals to resonate with the part of the brain that determines what people actually do, as opposed to what they know they should do.
Lets think about what social marketing is and what social marketing is not. Social Marketing is a process that uses commercial marketing techniques to promote the adoption of positive health or social behaviors. Social marketing is an approach that benefits the people who are adopting the behaviors or society as a whole, rather than the organization doing the marketing. Social marketing may include some of the items in the “not” column above (okay, not the dating service) but those activities in and of themselves are not social marketing. Now the things social marketing is not. Social marketing is not viral marketing. Social marketing is not word of mouth marketing. Social marketing is not dating or match making services. Social marketing is not public service announcements. Social marketing is not focus groups or cause marketing (companies adopting a cause to improve their image and get more sales).
The health and social communications field has been rapidly changing over the past two decades. It has evolved from a one-dimensional reliance on public service announcements to a more sophisticated approach which draws from successful techniques used by commercial marketers, termed “social marketing.” Rather than dictating the way that information is to be conveyed from the top-down, public health professionals are learning to listen to the needs and desires of the target audience themselves, and building the program from there. This focus on the “consumer” involves in-depth research and constant re-evaluation of every aspect of the program. In fact, research and evaluation together form the very cornerstone of the social marketing process. Social marketing was “born” as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to “sell” ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen define social marketing as “differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society.” This technique has been used extensively in international health programs, and is being used with more frequency in the United States at the national, state and local levels for such diverse topics as drug abuse, exercise and human trafficking. Social marketing is helpful to people who want to improve themselves.

In developing their business plans, companies of all sizes face the challenge of determining the size of their markets. To begin, companies must present the size of their “relevant market” in their plans. The relevant market equals the company’s sales if it were to capture 100% of its specific niche of the market. Conversely, stating that you were competing in the trillion U.S. healthcare market, for example, is a telltale sign of a poorly reasoned business plan, as there is no company that could reap trillion in healthcare sales. Defining and communicating a credible relevant market size is far more powerful than presenting generic industry figures.

The challenge that many firms face is their inability to size their relevant markets, particularly if they are competing in new or rapidly evolving markets. On one hand, the fact that the markets are new or evolving is the reason why there may be a large opportunity to establish them and become the market leader. Conversely, investors, shareholders and senior management are often skeptical to invest resources because, since the markets do not yet exist, the markets may be too small, or not really exist at all.

Growthink has encountered the challenge of sizing emerging markets numerous times and has developed a proprietary methodology to solve the problem. To begin, it is critical to understand why traditional market sizing methodologies are ill-equipped to size emerging markets. To illustrate, if a research firm were to use traditional methods to size a mature market such as the coffee market in the United States, it would consider demographic trends (e.g., aging baby boomers), psychographic trends (e.g., increased health consciousness), past sales trends and consumption rates, price movements, competitor brand shares and new product development, and channels/retailers among others. However, conducting such an analysis for emerging markets presents a challenge as several of these factors (e.g., past sales, demographics of the customer when there are no current customers) don’t exist because the markets are presently untapped.

The methodology required to size these new markets requires two approaches. Each approach will yield a different approximation of the potential market size, and often the figures will work together to provide a solid foundation for the market’s potential. Growthink calls the first approach “peeling back the onion.” In this approach, we start with the generic market (e.g., the coffee market) that that company is trying to penetrate, and remove pieces of that market that it will not target. For instance, if the company created an ultra high-speed coffee maker that retailed for 0, it would initially reduce the market size by factors such as retail channels (e.g., mass marketers would not carry the product), demographic factors (lower income customers would not purchase the product), etc. By peeling back the generic market, you eventually will be left with only the relevant portion of it.

The second methodology requires assessing the market from several angles to approximate the potential market share, answering questions including:

- Competitors: who is competing for the customer that you will be serving; what is in their product pipeline; once you release a product/service, how long will it take them to enter the market, who else may enter the market, etc.

- Customers: what are the demographics and psychographics of the customers you will be targeting; what products are they currently using to fulfill a similar need (substitute products); how are they currently purchasing these products; what is their degree of loyalty to current providers, etc.

- Market factors: what other factors exist that will influence the market size – government regulations; market consolidation in related markets, price changes for raw materials, etc.

- Case Studies: what other markets have experience similar transformations and what were the customer adoption rates in those markets, etc.

While these methodologies are often more painstaking than traditional market research techniques, they can be the difference in determining whether your company has the next iPod or the next Edsel.

Introduction

            Focused (or Market Niche) Strategies differ from other generic market strategies in that it concentrates most if not all of its attention on a narrow piece of the total market.  The niche can be defined by geographic uniqueness, by specialized requirements in using the product, or by special product attributes that appeal only to niche members.  The key to this strategy is to remain focused on your target niche and not allow yourself to attempt appealing to everyone.  A company can lower its costs tremendously by limiting its consumer base to a very specific target market.  This strategy is extremely useful to small or medium sized companies that lack the capital to take on multi-national corporations.  The costs of starting a business with a clearly defined and specific target market are far less than those one would have when launching a global product or service.

The Idea in a Nutshell

            To say that one person came up with the market niche strategy would be a stretch.  The truth is this strategy has been utilized since the beginning of civilization, whether it was known by those utilizing it or not.  In ancient times, the largest segment of the population was poor laborers.  This is not the market one sets his sites on when attempting to sell luxurious silk gowns, rare jewels, or the latest invention, trinket, or toy.  The small well-defined segment of nobles was the target niche of ancient times.  One might think that a lot has changed since then, but the truth of the matter is companies such as Godiva Chocolates, Chanel, Gucci, Rolls-Royce, and Haagen-Dazs successfully utilize differentiation-based focused strategies targeted toward particular segments wanting top-of-the-line products and services who are willing to spend more to get the best.  The target market does not have to be wealthy; this is just one example. 

A focused or niche market strategy is one that provides products or services that uniquely appeal to customers in a narrow segment of the market, rather than attempting to appeal to that particular market as a whole.  Community Coffee, of Louisiana, holds a mere 1.1% share of the U.S. coffee market, but it has reported sales in excess of 0 million by appealing to a narrow well-defined market.  In addition, Community Coffee holds a 50% share of the coffee market in the Gulf-Coast region where it is distributed.  The internet is quite possibly the perfect medium for launching a market niche strategy.  Businesses such as Google, E-Bay, and Match.com went from being ambiguous companies to household names in a matter of years. 

The Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Focused (or Market Niche) Strategies

1.            When employing a focused market strategy, keep your consumer-base down to a well-defined and specific segment of the market, avoiding the temptation of trying to appeal to broad interests.

2.            When utilizing a focused market strategy, beware of competitors trying to match your firm’s capabilities in serving the target market.  They will attempt to find effective ways of appealing to your buyers with imitation products or services.

3.            A focused market strategy is best employed when the specific target consumer-base is large enough to be profitable and offers good growth potential.

4.            Your firm stands a greater chance at being profitable if you offer different products and services to a specific group or segment of consumers that have unmet preferences.  These customers will be loyal to your business for catering to their unique needs, and they will think of your company first when others ask them where they got such a specific product or service. 

5.            Ferrari markets its 1,500 automobiles sold in North America every year to a clientele of only 20,000 highly lucrative car admirers.  Only those in the highest tier of this exclusive group were contacted by Ferrari for a chance to put their names on the waiting list for one of the 20 .1 million FXX models.

6.            A quick a decisive strategy should be employed when targeting a narrow segment of any market before consumer preferences tend to drift.

7.            A hyper-focused strategy is best maintained in those industries in which the leaders do not see having a presence in the niche is critical for their own success.  This reduces the risk of smaller businesses having to battle it out against some of the industry’s strongest competitors for a share of the market.

8.            Over-looked or undervalued market segments are prime territories for employing a laser-focused strategy.  Because these consumers are undervalued by other competitors in the industry, the chances of your consumer-base remaining loyal for the long-term are greater.

9.            Use caution when entering markets where segments may become so alluring it is soon flooded with competitors, augmenting conflict and disintegrating segment profits.

10.            A laser-focused strategy can be actualized if there are social and cultural differences within one community that may call for changes to be implemented in a product or service. This invariably produces a niche market.

The Video Lounge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHhfDkLrOpA

Guy Kawasaki discusses the key success factors that differentiate a strong niche marketing strategy from a poor or run-of-the-mill one.  The two main areas he stresses to be strong in are the ability to provide a unique product or service to the customer and for that product or service to provide value to the customer.

My Take

I think focused or (market niche) strategies are extremely valuable today.  This would be the ideal strategy to implement for any fresh college graduates looking to start an entrepreneurship.  In addition, the internet offers an abundance of channels to get a small firm up-and-running without much startup capital.  This lack of startup capital is another reason why utilizing this strategy is favorable when entering a market or industry with large corporations.  Some of the main points I got out of this were to keep your target market down to a specific and narrow market segment,  market segments that are overlooked or undervalued are the prime meat for employing a market niche strategy, and that this strategy is best maintained in those industries in which the leaders do not see having a presence in the niche is critical for their own success.

References

Jaquier, B. (2003). Focus and niche strategies. Retrieved from http://www.ecofine.com/strategy/Focus and Niche stategies.htm

Marketing niche strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.smallbusiness-marketing-plans.com/marketing-niche-strategy.html

Mendoza, M. (n.d.). Focus on your niche. Retrieved from http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol62/niche.htm

Niche strategy advantages. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marketingtitan.com/niche_strategy_advantages

Thompson, A, Strickland, A, & Gamble, J. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: the quest for competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 156-160.

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Contact Info: To contact the author of “Top Ten Management on Focused (or Market Niche) Strategies,” please email Gabriel B. Ordoyne at w0449274@selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                

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There are many companies who employ the services of a marketing consultant to help their business to reach as many potential clients as possible. For somebody who has not got a background in marketing, a marketing consultant can be an invaluable resource. A marketing consultant can provide their expertise to ensure that a business can reach their target market successfully. As they have spent years honing their skills, marketing consultants can really use their expert and effective marketing strategies to help a business which is, perhaps, not achieving its full potential.

Of course, if you are considering using a marketing consultant, you need to make sure that you are getting good value for money and it really is worth looking into the background of your marketing consultant to ensure that they are effective. You need to make sure that your marketing is reaching the right people at the right time with the message that you want to convey. A marketing consultant can really facilitate this happening and, if the right marketing consultant for your needs is found then you will be able to expect a higher return on your investment than you have spent on marketing.

One company which offers the services of a marketing consultant is Opportunity Marketing. They offer a personal service from a dedicated expert marketing consultant who will work with you to provide fresh marketing ideas so that your ultimate marketing strategy will have the maximum impact on your business. Opportunity Marketing has over fifteen years experience in marketing and so you can feel confident that your marketing consultant will be employing the best possible marketing strategies for your business.

Executive Summary

            Word of Mouth Marketing is a book divided into two parts: The Essential Concepts and How to Do It. In the first part of the book, Andy Sernovitz defines word of mouth marketing and tells why it such an important concept and what it kind do for your company. He introduces the big ideas in the first part, and then elaborates on the ideas in the second part.

            The book focuses on four rules of word of mouth marketing and the five T’s of word of mouth marketing. Rule one is to be interesting. Everything that you do as a marketer should be something that people will want to tell their friends about.  Rule two is to make the message easy to be shared, and find the ways that make it easier to spread. Rule number three focuses on customers being the root of all you do. Happy customers will do your advertising for you for free. The final rule is about trust and respect. Everything you should do should be ethical and honest.

            The five T’s of word of mouth marketing make up the majority of the book. The author introduces them in the first chapter, and he elaborates on each of them in each chapter of the entire second part of the book by explaining how to take them in action. The talkers are the enthusiasts who possess the connecters to help relay your message. Chapter five is dedicated on how to identify these talkers, how to create a communication channel to reach them regularly, how to give them topics to talk about, and how to keep them happy and motivated.

Topics are the messages that give your talkers a reason to talk. Chapter six is dedicated to explaining how to easily give your talkers something to talk about, how to find a great topic, and how to take care of your topics to become a buzz worthy company. Tools are ways you can help your message travel. Chapter seven gives three must use marketing tools to help you move your message along. Rule one is to ask people to spread the word, put everything in an email, and put a tell-a-friend link on every page of your website.

The idea of taking part in the conversation is another important factor in word of mouth marketing. Participating results in good customer service, which is what word of mouth marketing is all about. Chapter eight focuses on this and who should join the conversation, how to go about replying and joining in the conversation.

            The final “T” of word of mouth marketing is tracking what people are saying about you. Chapter nine talks about finding out who the talkers are, which topics are working and if they are making a difference, and joining in the conversation.

            With the explanation of the key concepts and real world examples on how to apply them, this book shows how any company can be successful through word of mouth marketing.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know fromWord of Mouth Marketing

1.            Word of mouth marketing is the cheapest, easiest, and most effective form of advertising.

2.            It is important for marketers to join in the conversations people are having about their product or service via blogs and websites. If they don’t join in and keep the good conversation going, it will die out.

3.            Satisfied customers that spread word of mouth are the most important assets you can have. They will do your marketing for free.

4.            Ask yourself, “is this worth talking about” before you decide anything. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing and won’t make money.

5.            Always be prepared for negative word of mouth. Think of this as an opportunity to learn and improve.

6.            Put honesty and ethics before everything. You can’t fake good word of mouth; the truth will always come out in the end.

7.            Every customer matters. Your most loyal and supportive customers may not be big spenders, but still do most of the talking.

8.            Keep your topic to be talked about simple yet unique. This makes it easy to be remembered and therefore easy to be repeated!

9.            It never hurts to ask your loyal customers to write a good review or testimonial on your product or company. When people see these on your websites, it helps the word of mouth to keep circulating.

10.            Someone on your staff should dedicate time every morning to searching the web for mentions of your major products. The quicker you respond, the easier it is for talk to circulate.

Full Summary of Word of Mouth Marketing

Preface and Introduction

             Andy Sernovitz begins this book by explaining how important and simple word of mouth marketing really is. This is such an important strategy that every single company in the world, big or small, needs it to increase sales and get the buzz going about why your company is so great. He makes word of mouth marketing sound simple when he first describes it as “joining in the conversation that people are having every day with other people.” He gives credit to pure creativity on his part and talking to many people for his success factor. Word of mouth is such an easy tool to a successful business that it is sometimes looked over because companies are so focused on advertising.  In this book, Sernovitz gives inexpensive ways to get people talking about your company.

            Sernovitz defines word of mouth marketing again by “Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.”

 People are always asking their friends and anyone around about products before they buy them. It’s so important to have good things floating around about your business to get more people to trust you and what you sell.  The author relates this to his golden rule of business: “Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers, and they will do the rest. Treat people well; they will do your marketing for you, for free. Be interesting, or be invisible.” While getting people talking online is important, that is not all word of mouth marketing is about. Before something makes its way online, it has already been discussed by a good bit of people. Of course, this concept only works if you have good products and services to give to your customers. If you don’t do a good job, you won’t get good talk from people. People talk whether it is good or bad, so it is important to learn the right way to react to negative attention and turn that attitude around.

Chapter 1: What is word of mouth marketing?

            Sernovitz simplifies this concept even more by defining it as everything you can do to get people talking. Of course, the marketing aspect of word of mouth marketing is what makes this so successful. In order to get your word out there, you have to work within the conversations people are having and join in! Working with the right people, sending out a few e-mails, and really understanding what people are saying helps the marketer to get on track with the word of mouth marketing campaign. Great customer service is what good word of mouth boils down to. Customers will reward good treatment with good word of mouth. Organic word of mouth springs naturally from the good parts of the company, and amplified word of mouth is an intentionally spread campaign to get the buzz going about a company.

Sernovitz gives four rules of word of mouth marketing. The first is to be interesting. Before spending money to run an ad really think about whether someone would tell their friend about it. Ads are costly, and need to be worth talking about. The second rule is to make it easy. All it takes is to find a simple message and help people share that message. After that, think of creative ways to easily spread the message. The third rule is to make people happy. This rule is self explanatory, go that extra mile to help customers. The fourth and final rule is to earn trust and respect. If a company doesn’t have the customer’s respect, how are they supposed to get good word of mouth? Ethics should be the center in everything a company does to achieve success.

The success of a word of marketing campaign branches from understanding what aspects of a product or service get people talking. Sernovitz gives three reasons people will talk about you and your company. The first is you and what you are selling. Whether they love you or they hate you, they will make sure that the word gets out. If your product is worth talking about, it WILL be talked about. This involves time and creativity. The second reason people will talk is based on ‘me’ the customer. We want to feel like we have a voice and helping others with their decisions allows us to use that voice. The third reason is ‘us’ and being a part of a group of others with similar interests as us. It makes us feel excited when we are recognized.

The five T’s of word of mouth marketing are the basic elements that make this a success. Talkers are the group of people that care to talk and share your message. Topics are the reason people talk. The best topics are simple and easy to repeat. Tools are what spread the message to a wide audience. Tools such as: handing out menus, free samples, or a special sale that’s worth mentioning are examples that will help move the messages in the right direction. Taking part in the conversation by answering comments on blogs and discussion boards lets the customer feel even more like their voice is being heard. Tracking what people are saying and staying up to date helps marketers stay in touch on what needs to be improved.

The author reiterates the importance of honesty and ethics in marketing with a couple of rules on the subject. Word of mouth is all about open and honest communication with consumers and the community with zero deception involved. Another rule is to never start fake word of mouth because it will not work.

This chapter ends with the author stating again how the word of mouth campaign should come first. It is cheap, effective, and customer friendly. Now it is time for you to make room for this marketing in your budget plan and set clear objectives!

Chapter 2: Deep Stuff: Six big ideas

            The first big idea is about consumers being in control. Since people are already talking about you, every decision made from here on out is done with the consumer in mind. They hold all the power in your marketing decisions. This is why customer reviews on company’s websites have become so popular.  Keep in mind that the opinions a person will almost always trust is from someone that they know who is just like them. Once this opinion is shared, it will travel a long way.

The second big idea is about marketing being about what you do, rather than what you say. If you don’t have a good product, you can’t fix that with good advertising. The author compares good word of mouth to love when he says, “You can’t fake love—or positive word of mouth.”

 The third idea comes from the internet being like a permanent record. Once something is said about a product or service, Google will be able to find it. So, if something is sad about you, handle it well. Participating in conversations comes to play again by telling your story and what went wrong.

The fourth big idea deals with honesty, which is extremely important. Your true colors will always come out eventually, so you should always be honest with the people who are giving you your business.

The fifth idea discusses the costs associated with losing customers through bad word of mouth. You can spend all the money in the world on search engine advertising, but if bad reviews come up, that is a potential sale loss. Your reputation should be factored in with the balance sheets.

The last idea he discusses in this chapter summarizes the ideas to show why this concept makes more money than any other form of marketing or advertising.

Chapter 3:The Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto

            This chapter consists of one page and 12 main ideas that this book summarizes and talks about.

Chapter 4:The 5 T’s in action

            This chapter begins the second part of the book which focuses on proactive and practical ways to get people talking and spreading your good messages. The author lists these 5 T’s again and prepares the readers for the ideas he has in the following chapters. Some will be easy, and some will be more complicated. He suggests starting with the easier ideas first to get the message out before you continue to more difficult ideas. He starts off with an idea of giving out some free food at a restaurant to those waiting for a table. People will remember this and want to tell their friends (if the food was good of course!)

Chapter 5:Talkers

            This chapter goes deep into detail about how to find and recognize the talkers, the different types of talkers, and how to please and contact them. While it might seem important to focus on pleasing the big spenders of a particular store, talkers are people just like us and could be your newest customer. Again, the author reiterates the importance of treating every customer with respect. Now how exactly do you go about finding these talkers? The first obvious talker is the happy customer with enthusiasm and passion about whatever service it is they received.

 Possibly one of the most important types of talkers is the online talkers. As the author previously stated, everyone can see what’s been posted online, so contacting these talkers and keeping them happy is extremely important.

A third type of talker discussed is those wearing logos. This is free publicity for anyone who sees this customer sporting your company’s apparel. Make sure your customers have access to goodies with your logo on it.

 Another important talker is your very own employees. A happy employee can go a long way. A happy customer can be more than that when they are a diehard fan of your company. That will really get them talking. When having a professional endorse and support your product, that’s more free publicity right there.

            When you find these talkers that have strong credibility and passion about your product, create a plan to reach out to them! When you notice an enthusiast at your store, ask if you can put them on a VIP list. When you see a good review by someone online, contact them and offer them some sort of coupon for becoming a part of the VIP list. By designing some sort of blog or newsletters for your talkers, you will be able to reach them all in one setting. Keep them updated on these newsletters and show them their business is important to you. Acknowledging your talkers publicly and with thank you letters for their business is a great way for them to feel appreciated.

Chapter 6: Topics: What will they talk about?

            The goal to have good topics to talk about is to catch the consumer’s attention. Find something unique to your company to run with and get people talking. If it’s special and creative, chances are it will be repeated. The best topics of conversation are surprising and unexpected. This is what differentiates it from its competition. The product features is what word of mouth marketing relies on because the special features are what gets talked about. Make sure whatever feature your product or company capitalizes on is easy to explain to another consumer.

            Once you have found your ‘topic’ the work has only just begun. You need to keep improving it to continue to give people a reason to talk and to keep it relevant. To ensure that your topic is going to be worth talking about, test the waters by mentioning it to a few people to see their reactions and how far it goes. People will see your commitment to the product and that will go a long way.

            The author proceeds to give some of the inexpensive ideas that keep people talking about your product. He suggests that a special sale will always result in someone telling their friends. The trick is to give the sale something special to where it will have to be repeated. The appearance of exclusivity like a “secret” discount is something to keep the word of mouth moving.

            “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra”. Extraordinary customer service is an extremely powerful word of mouth tool. Think about it-you’re going to be more likely to refer somebody to a friend when they do not hesitate to go that extra mile to make you happy.

            When a company partners with a charity, it results in immediate word of mouth topic. It is going to be hard to forget when someone tells you to go to a certain store because the proceeds are going to a great cause. This may give people that do not normally donate to charities a chance to help out just by buying a certain product. This will also raise the credibility and image of any company.

            When a company spends the money to run an advertisement, they need to ensure that the ad is catchy, simple, and easy to be repeated. If you have a truly great and extraordinary product, this goes even farther. Make your entire brand something to be talked about by incorporating word of mouth into it by focusing on what people talk about and capitalizing on it.

Chapter 7: Tools: How can you help the message travel?

            It’s great when you have a product worth talking about, but this chapter focuses on something even more important: helping the message travel. Word of mouth is much more powerful when you help it move along. The author has already discussed how to find out who the talkers are, now it is time to help them help you.  The tools are all about speed and portability of the message at hand. Viral e-mails make are easy to spread along, as well as popular blogs and review sites. Changing the message every so often is also important to get the topic moving.

            The author lists three must-use word of mouth marketing tools: Ask people to spread the word, put everything in an email, and put a tell-a-friend link on every page of your website. It can never hurt to ask a talker nicely to help spread the word. They are already happy with you and your service, so they should be happy to help. Because e-mail is the fastest form of communication and word of mouth, put everything you are doing in an email already designed to be forwardable. The message can be repeated more than once with tactics such as adding extra lines on tell-a-friend forms.  Make it so easy for your talkers to help share your message that they have no excuse not to help you out. Having a “share video” link and the HTML code ready to be pasted on your website are good ways to keep this message going. The classic “two for the price of one” offer capitalizes on relying on that extra customer necessary to bring into the store to take advantage of this deal.  Always be thinking about why a customer would benefit when their friends use your product too.

            Producing tangible items to share with friends is extremely beneficial as well. Giving your customers handouts have two functions: they remind people to talk and they are conversation starters. These are extremely important for companies that sell products online and out of catalogs. Think of the shipping package as an opportunity to spread word of mouth. Stuff the packages with coupons and flyers as well as some sort of special token of your appreciation.  Samples are an obvious word of mouth tool that companies don’t always take full advantage of.  When you know who your talkers are, mail them something. People will always like free stuff. By handing out “swag” with your logo on it, this is giving tons of people the opportunity to see it daily. They are conversation starters.

            The author finds a great deal of importance in blogs. He says that blogs are a tool for extending and accelerating the conversation. Blogs are about linking, sharing, and connecting. Take this opportunity to easily post your conversation starters on blogs. Anytime you have an update you want to share with your talkers, you can post it on your blog. The conversation can take place right here on your blog, and it will help you to build credibility.  When you ask your customers to give you a nice recommendation or testimonial, you can ask for permission to share them on your website or blog. This is a great way to show your great recommendations to get people talking.

Chapter 8: Taking Part: How Can You Join the Conversation?

            The author defines word of mouth as a dialogue. When someone says something about you, you need to answer them. It is part of your job to join in to keep the conversation going. A big idea suggests that word of mouth is as much about customer service as it is about marketing. Participating is what makes for really good word of mouth.

            The author explains how to join the conversation by first finding it. He suggests having someone on your staff searching the web every morning for mention of your major products. Because you can’t always be there when people are having real-world conversations about you, it is important to stay on top of the online conversations. You should reply and respond to product mentions every chance you come across. The more available you seem to your talkers, the more they will feel special and will talk. When someone says something nice about you, thank them! They are more likely to become an active talker when they feel appreciated. It is just as important to respond to negative talk as it is to positive talk. When someone has a problem, the best thing you can do is apologize and find a way to fix it. Fixing problems is the most powerful marketing you can do. The author states that an unhappy customer tells five people, and a formerly unhappy customer who is made happy tells ten people. The solution to negative word of mouth is more word of mouth marketing. Make your responses calm and respond like a regular person instead of a PR person. Follow up with the negative customer and do something wonderful to make up for the trouble.

            Another big point is to find the right people to take part in the conversations. A formal word of mouth team is not necessary, the ones that will do the job the best are those that have a passion for what you do and who enjoys being online. It’s not the PR or marketing people, but those that have true enthusiasm for your company. Credibility is a huge part; your blog needs to be real and plain spoken. For the employees that are going to be participating in these conversations, training and guidance should be given to ensure they know the rules and employ them correctly. Good manners and common sense will always keep you out of trouble. When you take part in the conversation, it is not an opportunity for a sales pitch. Stick to the conversation at hand and respect the communities where the conversations are taking place. It is best to begin your comments with, “I work for _____, and this is my personal opinion.”

Chapter 9: Tracking: What are people saying about you?

            When you track what people are saying about you, this gives you a chance to make it better. Online tracking tools can break down where the talkers are from, which sites they’ve come from, what sites they’ve looked at, and what they searched for to get there. Encouraging feedback and tracking tell-a-friend forms is a good tool to track the conversation. These tell-a-friend forms give you a ratio of number of referrals divided by number of page views. This is your “buzzworthy” index.  Direct mail is a useful tracking tool because the order forms usually have detailed codes that tell you who received each letter or catalog. A very powerful measurement technique is called the Net Promoter Score, which starts with the question, “Would you recommend this product to a friend?” Then it rates the response on a ten-point scale. This is a short chapter because he says these are very advanced techniques, but that they are available. A more simple technique is to ask the question, “How did you hear about us?” Make sure there is a clear choice that indicates word of mouth; you’ll probably discover you are getting a whole lot more word of mouth than you think.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $ %, because:

As I was reading this book and writing my summaries, I kept getting overcome with déjà vu. It did not take me long to figure out why. The author constantly mentioned the same points over and over in slightly different wording. This made the book very redundant to read and summarize because I felt like it made ME sound redundant as I was summarizing the chapters and mentioning the same things multiple times. Don’t get me wrong, he had some very good points that I think could lead any business into the right direction, points that I will no doubt take into consideration in my future endeavors.  I just think this book would be better shortened into an article featured in a business magazine or something of the sort.

With business conditions today, what the author wrote is – or is no longer true – because:

The business conditions today make the topics presented in this book relevant because of how easy and cheap the concept of word of mouth marketing is. With the high advertising costs, businesses that are struggling or looking to save money rely on word of mouth to gain clientele and high profits. With word of mouth marketing, their happy customers will do their advertising for them for free by sharing their good experiences. As long as these business owners and managers work hard to produce a product worth talking about, then they will be talked about. Not only is this concept relevant today, but it has always been relevant and it always will be. People are always going to talk no matter what the business conditions are, it just helps that people’s talking makes it easier on business owners and marketers.

If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1.            I feel like he repeated the same main concepts over and over with different wording. It wasn’t a long book, but I would have made it shorter so I did not repeat myself so much.

2.            I thought that chapter 3 was unnecessary because it was only one page summarizing 12 points in the book. I thought that was once again repeating himself and could have been highlighted in another chapter.

3.            I would have added some pictures. I think these would have helped the main points jump out and he could have used them for some really good examples of good advertisements.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1.            I never understood before why sometimes my managers would go out of their way and money to give unsatisfied customers what they want and more. Now I realize it is because in the long run they will make more money off of that one customer by the satisfied results they will share with their friends.

2.            It made me realize how important each and every customer really is. Losing one customer amounts to much more than that after they tell their friends and the bad reputation keeps traveling.

3.            It made me realize the importance of taking part in online conversations. This really makes customers feel like they have a say so that they will keep talking.

I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1.            I am going to focus more on my good customer service. Often times, I would write off a rude customer, but now I will do what I can to keep them satisfied.

2.            I am going to be more active in the online community. This gives opportunity to see what people are saying about you and how you can gain from what they are saying.

3.            I am going to do everything I can to get my happy customers to recommend my business to other people. I will make it easy by asking them to refer friends and giving them brochures and other items to give out.

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Word of Mouth Marketing,” please email Caroline.Coats@selu.edu.

Biography

David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. Dr. Wyld also maintains compilations of works he has helped his students to turn into editorially-reviewed publications at the following sites:

Management Concepts (http://toptenmanagement.blogspot.com/)

Book Reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and

Travel and International Foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).                 

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Getting started with internet marketing doesn’t have to be an overwhelming experience. In fact, with a little bit of work, you can be well upon your way to marketing a business, product or service in just a few hours. This article will take you through some of the fundamental methods many marketers use the internet.

Method 1: Article Marketing

Article marketing entails writing articles for websites, blogs and article directories related to your websites niche and later distributing them across the net.

There are two primary purposes to article marketing:

Build backlinks

Traffic Generation

The first and arguably best goal of article marketing is to build backlinks. Backlinks are very important to search engines as they help determine the overall value of a website. The more backlinks pointing to a website, the greater value it has to search engine users. With article marketing, you can use your articles to build your own backlinks instead of waiting around for others to link to you.

The second goal of article marketing is to drive traffic to a landing page. The landing page can be any page optimized with content related to the article with the intent to increase sales, convert visitors or just to drive traffic. A well written article that ranks high within search results can have a tremendous effect on boosting traffic to your website.

Method 2: Video Marketing

Video marketing is a relatively new comer to the internet marketing world. The popularity of video has continually seen a rise over the last few years which has translated into great opportunities to market websites, products and services.

Video converts well mainly because it triggers emotional responses much easier than text. Many internet marketers have begun creating promotional videos for websites like Youtube, dropping in a backlink and driving a massive flood of traffic back to the website.

Video creation is very cheap and quick to produce. A small 0 camera or web cam is all that you need to begin producing great videos for your internet marketing campaign.

The two most powerful video marketing topics are:

How-To’s

Reviews

How-to videos help explain a product or service in detail while reviews act as word-of-mouth advertising – it increases conversions.

Method 3: Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click isn’t a new concept and can still be one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to a landing page. One of the biggest contenders to pay per click is Google Adwords.

Google Adwords, which displays within Google search results, is a system where advertisers bid on keywords and create ads related to their niche. These ads, after being displayed, are shown across search results and within the Google network such as Adsense. With enough budget, thousands of visitors can flock to your website in mere hours.

Method 4: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a collection of methods and techniques to craft websites to rank well within search results. In a nutshell, search engine optimization (SEO) are various theories (since search engines keep their algorithms a secret) such as keywords, backlinks, on-page optimization and niche relevancy.

With the correct choice of keywords and backlinking (the two most powerful factors of SEO), websites will continue to rise to the top of search engines and gain the majority of clicks which will eventually lead to conversions.

Method 5: Social Media Marketing

Social Media is the newest method of internet marketing and encompass using websites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and even blogging. By far, social media is the most inexpensive way to market your products and services. Using social networks and media, you will be able to generate buzz around your website, products and services by influencing conversations amongst its members.

Here are three ways you can use social media for internet marketing:

Create an ad campaign, fan page or personal page on Facebook and invite users to become your friends. From there, you can talk directly with your community, insert links and drive up traffic to selected landing pages.

Building a following on Twitter will help create a community in which each new tweet (messages sent on Twitter) which includes your link to be shared amongst other users and leads to clickthroughs and conversions.

Blogging is a great way to share information about any number of subjects where users can later comment and share this information with friends online.

Method 6: Email Marketing

Email marketing, much like direct marketing through traditional methods like postcards and physical mail, is by far one of the most powerful ways to market online. After users have opted into your email list, you can slowly drip on them with your marketing messages.

A good rule of thumb is to give away 10x the amount of great information for every email which promotes your products or services.

One of the main draws of email marketing is the ability to retain a list even if your website has low rankings within search engines. Once a user is on your list you no longer have to pay expensive fees as you would through pay per click marketing.

Method 7: Tracking and Conversions

One overlooked aspect of getting started with internet marketing is tracking, testing and converting visitors.

Tracking is a crucial part of every internet marketing campaign so it’s possible to see hard numbers to later determine whether each marketing campaign is successful. Tracking can be as simple as website visitors or the tiniest detail such as user interaction with a form.

Testing, often done through A/B testing, plays a vital role with internet marketing. With each new campaign launch, it’s important to test every segment from the website to the advertising platform to help determine the return on investment of each part.

Finally, converting visitors is the overall goal of internet marketing. The conversion is based on an infinite amount of factors; through rigorous tracking and testing you will be able to see how visitors interact with your landing page and what compels them to buy so you can later reproduce these results more efficiently.

Final Thoughts, Tips and Tricks

Beginning internet marketing take many years to develop a great understand but the fundamentals can be acquired in a relatively short amount of time.

Through various marketing methods such as articles, blogging, video, email and social media you will continually improve the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaign. As each of these methods evolve and you become more experience, you will be able to drive a massive amount of traffic, convert visitors and build a strong online brand.