by: Geoff Ficke
The hundreds of entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses that approach my marketing consulting firm each year with new product ideas all confront the same, basic hurdles in attempting to achieve commercial success. Issue number one, they perceive, is how to fund the project. Issue number two, how to market their product.
Let’s review the marketing options. Invariably, the bulk of the entities we work with approach marketing with the belief that they need to immediately place their product in big box retailers. This is a laudable long-term goal, but almost always would be the kiss of death for new products and startup companies.
Big box retailers are exceedingly demanding in requiring huge levels of logistical support. The technology required to simply process orders, data entry, shipping, receiving and billing is highly technical and specific to each chain. The software and systems required to communicate with these giants can be prohibitively expensive for new, small vendors. These are just the logistical hurdles. The sell-through and marketing challenges are much more difficult to conquer.
The alternative to running off to Best Buy or Wal-Mart is to utilize “guerilla marketing” strategies to mitigate expense, lower risk and insure that the new product has a fair opportunity to achieve success. In recent years we have begun to use a “backdoor strategy” to push products into big box store distribution without confronting the up-front challenges that are so daunting for new companies.
Here is an example. Recently we had a dentist approach our consulting firm with a very novel stylized toothbrush. He had deduced from his dental practice that people typically did not brush for three minutes, twice daily, as recommended by the American Dental Association. They really did not know how long they brushed, but the gum and tooth problems he was confronting in his patients indicated they were not brushing enough each day. His new toothbrush was cleverly designed to address this deficiency in oral wellness.
The dentist typically wanted us to create a marketing strategy for the toothbrush that would place the units on mass-market store shelves for the launch. We explained the difficulties, risks and expenses involved in such a strategy and why he should consider alternatives. This was when we described the “backdoor” option.
Big box chains have local and regional management structures. Most people believe that all new items are purchased through home office buyers or merchants. For example, Bentonville, AK is the home office for Wal-Mart. Troy, MI is the buying office for K-Mart. JC Penney is bought out of Plano, TX. Walgreen is located in Deerfield, IL. The Kroger Company is located in Cincinnati, OH.
Each of these, and other national chains in every retail category, have local managers that have the authority to bring product into their doors on a local basis. Few people realize this. These local, regional managers can cut purchase orders and by-pass the national buying process that can be so vexing.
We packaged the novel toothbrush, had our graphic designer create a pop-up shelf display with a header card, created sales collateral and presented the item to the regional manager of a national drug store chain. He was responsible for 36 stores in two southeastern states. He loved the item and even commented, “we love to show the home office that they miss on too many neat products”. We left the meeting with a hand written purchase order for 144 pieces of the toothbrush for each store.
To support the launch of the product we wrote copy for a 30-second television spot with a tag for the drug chain. We went to the local cable television studio and they produced the spot for nothing, in lieu of our buying a small cable spot schedule. The dentist, in his smock, was the on air expert detailing the product.
The product was shipped to the 36 individual stores and the regional manager had forwarded a merchandising directive to each store manager. He advised the product was scheduled for delivery, end cap display was to be provided and that there was cable television buy to support the launch. We hired a college student to get to the stores and make sure the merchandise was prominently displayed and rotated.
Every few days we checked in with the regional manager and he provided sales updates. Within a week, he was able to project turnover and re-order needs. As soon as we secured re-orders, we had the regional manager call the home office with his sell-through report. Within two months we were invited into the buying office for a corporate presentation and to plan a national product launch.
We have used this “backdoor approach” a number of times with different products in different retail channels. It works. Local managers love to take successes, their discoveries, to the home office to prove their mettle. Our clients are in a much stronger position to negotiate terms with national retailers when we have already proven sell-through success on local, test market basis. It also enables us to extrapolate chain wide sales projections based on hard numbers, not best guess assumptions. This is a powerful strategy and many more entrepreneurs should take advantage of this approach that mitigates their exposure.
Licensing, bootstrapping, partnering, joint venturing and receivable financing/factoring are other alternative strategies that can be employed to launch new products. The most successful entrepreneurs overturn every stone to find the one route that will get their idea into play. Keeping all options open is essential if you are to realize your goals.
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Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.
After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.
Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, Inc. (www.duquesamarketing.com) has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
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Posted by | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 20-09-2009
Internet Marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. It is an act of achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies. Through the use of internet marketing, an individual can attract more people to his website, increase customers for his business and enhance branding of his company and products.
Below are some important marketing strategies guidelines for you that will help you get started on a plan that has worked for many.
a. Begin with a web promotion plan, effective web design and development strategy.
b. Practice good search optimization techniques to get rank at the top of major search engine.
c. Learn how to use Email Marketing (e-marketing) effectively.
d. With affiliate, reseller and associate programs, direct your marketing niche.
e. Ask or request from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant for an analysis.
f. Create a responsive opt-in email list.
g. Get listed in news stories. Publish articles on a well established article site and or sites to get better rankings and this in turn gets you more traffic.
h. Write and publish online press releases.
i. Assist contests and giveaways via your website.
j. Interact with your visitors.
You’ll surely be on your way to creating a concrete internet marketing strategy by following the above tips. Those guidelines could be of big help for you to establish your presence online and be on the right path to success. If you learn the proper skills in marketing you will be able to apply that to any business.
To learn the exact blueprint I have used to be on the right track to success, you may visit www.growingsuccess.com
(ArticlesBase ID #1247857)
Internet Superstar and Marketing Expert in the Direct Marketing And Home Business Industry. Kenny Gregg Provides Marketing Solutions and Success Coaching To Home Business Owners and Entrepreneurs From All Over The United States Who Want To Be Their Own Boss, Control Their Own Destiny And Earn Unlimited Income. You may visit http://growingsuccess.com to learn the exact blueprint of his success.
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Posted by | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 18-09-2009
An enterprise whether offline or online business, must make sales in order to survive especially in these current competitive markets. In selling, most emphasis is placed on actual sales. In marketing, the needs of the buyer are of paramount and a product needs to satisfy the needs of its customers.
The ideal marketing strategy should be to produce goods in volumes and make sure that quality production is maintained at all times. This in return will ensure that a company make sales and thus generate profits.
The marketing planning element is important as it ensures that the business remains focused in making sure that sales are high. In planning, the business sets objectives and describes how these objectives should be realized. It is by having clearly defined objectives that the employees will perform their duties diligently knowing what is expected of them. It is also important for a marketer to know how to inter-relate various marketing aspects in order to adapt to market change, this then will guarantee product promotion.
Always, a marketer should be innovative enough to come up with perfect promotion plans of achieving his marketing goals. Creativity helps you stay ahead of your competition and in the long run have a significant market share.
Finally, vision without action is a daydream. It is said “destiny is not a matter of chance; it’s not a thing to be waited for but a thing to be achieved.” Therefore, if you what to successfully promote your big or small business, act now and implement effective marketing strategies that have been proven to work.
Posted by | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 17-09-2009
I have been doing online business for a while now and so far I am having a ball. But that was not the case when I first started. My major challenge and I know it is the same with most of internet business entrepreneurs, is driving traffic to your business links or websites. I was aware of the potential of making easy money from my blogs but I still struggled on how to effectively market them.
Initially, I started by signing up and posting my blogs to almost all classified advertisement sites. But after some time I realized that the bounce rates were very high since the traffic I generated was not targeted. The same was the case when I started posting my blogs with exchange traffic websites. The other disadvantage of these modes of advertising is that when you stop posting after a while the traffic also stops.
The main reason why people are told to seek for advice is that they may not face the same challenges I went through. It can be quite frustrating to know you have the potential to make money but you don’t know how to go about it. Finding excellent marketing strategies is the secret to making money online.
There are two marketing strategies that come highly recommended by me since they have proved to work perfectly for my online business. One of these strategies is viral marketing; a good example is traffic digger. Then the other sure way of generating targeted traffic is by writing articles. The advantage of these two modes of marketing is that, to enroll is free of charge.