You want to get your brand name out there and take control of the great product or service that you have to offer. A good way of doing this is to use marketing to create a personal relationship between what you have to offer and what the customer is looking for.According to Rick Roth of Advertising Age, "Chief marketing officers (CMO) who understand the interplay between their key retailers and their brand also fair better. How retailers advertise a shelved product also adds to or detracts from a brand`s value.""The retail trade seems to enjoy more control over the fate of a brand with each passing day. Years ago, clients knew exactly what they wanted from in-store, demanded a certain level of performance and got it. Today, there is one brand major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Target and Safeway care most about...their own. Marketers are squeezed by an empowered consumer, a controlling retail channel, and, on top of it all, a lack of predictability in the impact media truly delivers. No wonder they are increasingly focused on return on investment and are zeroing in on where they can best measure results: at the point of sale," claims Roth.
So how do you create this relationship between you and the customer. Roth believes you must find out how your potential customers move throughout their day to day operations, how do they interact with your competitors and their products or services, or where could it. You must be able to identify the most powerful moments to intervene with your product or service.
Roth stresses, "Retailers hold tremendous leverage in the relationships shoppers have with your brand. CMOs must investigate the relative strengths of each key retailer as well as their individual brand propositions and their category and market challenges. CMOs must also build marketing plans in such a way that considers the needs of their retail brand, and, ultimately, they must create programs that contribute to retailers` and their own businesses."
He stresses that in order to build up your product or service, you should also help build up the retailers business. By doing this, both will be successful and thrive from the lucrative partnership.
An example of such a partnership was when Levi`s created a new brand exclusively for Wal-mart, and as Roth puts it, "the retailer was able to leverage the credibility of the Levi`s name, and Wal-Mart provided Levi`s with an unmatched volume opportunity as a means to jump-start their new brand." Of course a more recent partnership was AT & T and the Apple iPhone.
McKinsey & Company noted that approximately 70% of purchase decisions are made at the shelf-regardless of what the consumer was originally intending to buy.
Roth says he conducted an in store study where the results show that 37% of consumers walked by displays without even looking at them, 32% looked but did not bother to stop, only 4% did stop, but did not buy, and 27% stopped and bought.
"The study pinpoints seven critical moments-from category visibility to checkout-that lead a shopper to purchase. Barriers are at each step and involve everything from planogram and store design to product placement, packaging, signage, pricing and shopper demographics," claims Roth.
Purchasing decisions vary by what you are selling, the region of the world you are based in and of course gender. To better market your product or service you should understand the who, what, when, where, and why questions, to narrow down what kind of consumer it is geared toward.
You must be able to create and build valuable relationships with your buyers. If these relationships created have a strong foundation, such as commitment and understanding, you are sure to see your business grow tremendously.
By: Bruce A. Tucker
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Having a good relationship with them is paramount if you want to keep them coming back and have a successful business. Here are some creative ideas I want you to write down to make that possible. The focus of all these ideas is on giving to these people. Your focus has always got to be on giving first.
Whatever I am involved in, from writing articles, blogs, newsletter, conducting teleseminars or creating products and services, I am always trying to provide you with as much valuable information as I can. Just like your focus should be at all times, mine is to firstly, build a relationship with you.
What would you be able to really do for them is you are on a tight budget?
The first thing, create an on-line newsletter.
Insider Ideas is what my monthly newsletter was called. You can still sign up for free and then you'll have access to a 15 to 20 page newsletter once a month that I try to share with your as much information as I can. Now preparing something like this does take a lot of time, but focusing on giving is what I try to do and I want to make sure my costumers feel like they are getting a lot of value. It is returned back to me when I get testimonials from people expressing how much information they received in those newsletters and how much they look forward to getting them.
Another great idea, which I now converted my newsletter into is a to develop a blog. These basically work as an online journal. I use it as a platform for my newsletter, but blogs are be used in a variety of different ways. What is so great about blogs is that the entries don't have to be as long as my newsletter articles would have been and they allow the opportunity to keep in touch with your costumer base more frequently.
Sites like Wordpress and Blogger allow you to develop blogs for absolutely free. They are super easy to use and you can customize your blogs any way you want, and again they are free!
If you want to see how I have set up my blog and get an idea, you can go to www.myideaguy.com and sign up for free.
It is a great example of developing an on-line blog or an on-line newsletter, and providing lots and lots of value.
Teleseminars are another great technique that you can use to build relationships with your customers. If you do this you really have to focus on the giving aspect - make sure you are always providing ample amounts of valuable information that your customers can use.
You've got to make it interesting and make it fun for people. Nobody wants to be on a call that's boring and dull. One thing I love to use is hosting several contests.
On a few of my teleseminars I've had all sorts of contests to keep people active and interested. From everything like testimonial contests, creative idea contests to contests to name products and services I've created. Whenever your doing teleseminars you have to make sure you keep it fun and interesting while providing content-rich material. Keep the focus: Give as much as you can.
So there you have it. These are a few great (not to mention cost effective) ways to develop a better relationship with your customers and potential customers.
Both Michael Podlesny & Stu Mclaren are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Michael Podlesny has sinced written about articles on various topics from Sim Cards, Advertising Guide and Photography. About the Author:Bruce A. Tucker is the Associate Director of .. Michael Podlesny's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.
Stu Mclaren has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Web Development and Internet Marketing. How would you like all your answered by someone who has worked with some of the biggest marketers online today? On top of written and video. Stu Mclaren's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.