Do coupons work?
September 28, 2007
If you’ve had any thoughts on promoting your business, you’ve probably toyed with the idea of offering a COUPON for a discount on your product or services.
Eric Sink has been kind enough to share the results of a recent coupon promotion he ran. He’s done a great job of analyzing the data from his coupon promotion. In the end, he determined that 20 percent of the customers who redeemed the coupon would not have purchased otherwise. Even with that big "win" in the column, he also notes that almost 50% of the coupon redeemers would have purchased the software at full price.
In the end, Eric and his team are viewing the coupon promotion as a success, after all when you gain new customers, it’s easy to qualify that as a win.
In my experience with small business owners, Eric and his team are the exception rather than the rule. I’ve worked with many small business owners who live and die by the coupon campaigns they run. Few do the follow up done by Eric and his team. Probably the biggest lesson to learn from the above coupon promotion is that the real value is in the information obtained by the follow up campaign. If Eric and his team hadn’t followed up on those who redeemed the coupon, they wouldn’t have the information they now have… information about current customers and how they got to be customers in the first place. Now that is priceless.
Finding your niche market
September 25, 2007
I once had a client who was a brilliant consultant with an absolute wealth of information that he was anxious to share with the world.
Over the course of several months, my work with this client involved focusing his attention and energy on a single niche. What began as a message geared towards “business owners, sales executives and human resource managers” was ultimately refined to a message geared solely towards independently owned and operated real estate offices in the Midwest.
When my client began his quest, he thought he had tightened his marketing focus into a narrow niche when in fact he had actually defined THREE separate and very broad niches; business owners, sales executives and human resource managers.
There’s nothing wrong with having three target markets, but it’s important that each market be drilled down, narrowed and developed separately and independently.
A traditional approach to creating a great marketing message is to focus upon solving the customer’s problems. Since business owners have distinctly different problems than sales executives (and vice versa) it’s difficult to focus on BOTH areas well. Indeed, there’s no easier way to generate confusion with your marketing materials (of which your web presence is just a small part) than to try to create an all encompassing "master" marketing message.
If you believe nothing else, believe that a confused mind says “no”.
Think about it. When you were a kid and you asked your mother for something, usually her knee jerk reaction was to say "no". Many of us, when pushed too hard by a car sales person, pull back and regroup. We’d rather walk away and have time to "think about it". Walking away is saying no, just in a more tangible way. Creating confusion is NOT an effective marketing technique.
Your ultimate marketing goal should be to achieve crystal clarity with your marketing message. The easiest way to achieve this is by tightly and narrowly defining your target niche market.
Wal-Mart’s continued abandonment of it’s “brand”
September 20, 2007
Wal-Mart has been actively dismanteling their "brand" for the past 5 years. The latest "blow" to the empire Sam Walton built is the news that Wal-Mart is shelving its "Always Low Prices" slogan. After 19 years, Wal-Mart is abandoning it’s standby "catch phrase" and launching, according to an article in the Washington Post: "
…an advertising campaign that plays up life’s little pleasures over no-frills practicality.
The new slogan: "Save Money ~ Live Better."
Why not? Wal-mart seems to be determined to dismantle every element Sam Walton put into place during his tenure as lead visionary of Wal-Mart.
Actually, abandoning the old catch phrase is probably appropriate. After all the company abandoned their commitment to low prices long ago and it’s not good business to have a catch phrase that causes cost-conscious shoppers to scoff as they examine prices in the aisles.
I can’t help but notice how the "new" slogan seems to be more in line with Target’s catch phrase "Expect More ~ Pay Less".
Despite their Numero Uno status, Wal-Mart lately has been in an INTENSE "me too" competition with Target. Wal-Mart is openly coveting Target’s customers and willing to abandon the scores of Wal-Mart faithful in order to win this small, tightly targeted niche which Target has expertly, excuse the pun, TARGETED!
A lot of industry "insiders" love the new approach. I personally see it as yet another step in the wrong direction.
In the Washington Post article:
Wal-Mart now is trying to persuade its more-affluent customers to see it as a destination for more than toilet paper and laundry detergent.
AH… there’s the rub! Wal-Mart is trying to speak to it’s "more affluent" customers. What they fail to see is the REASON those "more affluent customers" walked into the store in the first place.
Look to the early days of Wal-Mart if you want your small business to grow. Sam Walton knew his customers and what they wanted. Too bad there isn’t anyone left in Bentonville who shares Sam’s original vision.
Defining your target: Is it Boy meets girl or boy meets boy?
September 6, 2007
As someone with a more than passing interest in preaching the gospel of Niche Marketing to small business owners, I frequently run across various articles written extolling the virtues of Niche Marketing as a path to wealth and riches.
Over at Info Mean (link removed because it’s been labeled a "bad" neighborhood)
Achieving sales is probably the biggest challenge a web business owner has. It requires a balanced mix of the right products, competitive pricing, optimal web design, aggressive advertising and attracting the right online visitors.
While all of the above are equally important in achieving abundant sales, none of them will work at all if you don’t target the people that are most likely to buy your products or services. These people are known as your target or niche market.
The problem with the post is, he/she goes on to say: "Focusing in on your niche market will allow you to find only those that are ready, willing and able to buy what you have to offer."
CORRECTION: Focusing on your niche market will allow you to TAILOR your marketing message TO your niche audience. By TAILORING your message to your niche market, you stand a BETTER CHANCE of actually CAPTURING THEIR ATTENTION.
Make no mistake… targeting a niche audience with your marketing message is NOT the secret key to increased sales. TARGETING A NICHE AUDIENCE IS THE KEY TO CREATING COMPELLING COPY THAT BREAKS THROUGH THE CACOPHONY THAT IS MEDIA TODAY.
For example, Out Now is a consulting firm dedicated to helping companies market their products and services to members of a niche audience: Gays and Lesbians. According to Gay Market News, Levi Strauss is attempting to target their message to both gay and straight consumers:
in what is a first for Levi’s, the campaigns will target both gay and straight audiences.
Execution number one sees a model-type male yanking up his pants. As if in sync, the street below is pulled up into his room with equally good looking model type woman in a telephone booth. Guy meets girl and they disappear into the city.
Version two sees the girl replaced by another guy. It’s as simple as that.
Yes, it’s a small detail… but by altering this small detail and then delivering it via tightly targeted media channels, allows Levi Strauss to "break through" and speak to a new target market, a market that is appreciative of such recognition! According to the article at Gay Market News:
A recent Harris Interactive study claims that 69 per cent of all gay and lesbian consumers in the U.S. said they’re more likely to buy directly from marketers that have a non-discrimination policy.
The Levi Strauss campaign illustrates PERFECTLY the real beauty of Niche Marketing!
The message created with the members of the gay/lesbian niche audience in mind is SIGNIFICANTLY different than the message created for the "general" public. Would the "general interest" ad have generated sales amongst the members of the community? Probably not. After all, gay men aren’t INTERESTED in attracting women and that was the ‘hook’ used in the original commercial. However, by altering the message so that it "speaks" to the audience…VIOLA! Niche marketing, the effective kind, in action.
Notice, Levi Strauss isn’t creating a specific JEAN for gay men… they are just delivering their marketing message in a way that will appeal to this audience.
When you define your target audience, you then have a handle on what kind of message to create. When talking to gay men, you obviously do NOT want to present a "boy meets girl" message but rather a "boy meets boy" message.
I’ve yet to see a better example of why it’s so important to target your audience before you create your message.
