KnowThis Blog Postings

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Published on June 01, 2011

Posted by Paul Christ

New Tools for Sales Training (Inc. Magazine)

In most organizations that field a sales force, the number one responsibility of their salespeople is to sell products to customers.  Whether a company is a retailer or manufacturer, a seller of products or services, a large multinational or local startup, or a for-profit or not-for-profit, virtually all organizations need someone who can sell.

However, as we note in a previous posting, it would be shortsighted to think that convincing customers to make a purchase is all salespeople do.  In fact, many salespeople function more like small business operators as they are assigned a dedicated geographic area and must manage all aspects of these territories as if it were their own business. This leads them to being involved in much more than selling by taking on such roles as office administrator, market researcher, shipping coordinator, meeting planner and much more.

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Published on May 22, 2011

Posted by Paul Christ

Slogans in Advertising (MillwardBrown)

As we discuss in our tutorial Managing the Advertising Campaign, one technique used to position products in the minds of customers, is to develop a distinctive product slogan.  A slogan is a consistent phrase or group of words marketers include within their promotional message.

By repeatedly exposing customers to a slogan, marketers hope to build product awareness and instill key product concepts.  For instance, for many consumers the “Just Do It” slogan is instantly associated with Nike and connotes the impression of being active.

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Published on May 11, 2011

Posted by Paul Christ

Crowded Coupon Industry Competes for Users (MSNBC)

The early Growth Stage of the Product Life Cycle is certainly an interesting place for companies and customers.  For many companies this is an exciting time as climbing sales leads to company expansion.  For early adopting customers it is a time to experiment with different products and communicate their experiences to others.  Thanks to an influx of competitors and customers, the market can change quickly forcing companies to continually adjust their marketing plan.

An example of an industry currently in the early Growth Stage is the burgeoning online coupon market populated by such names as Groupon and LivingSocial.  While coupons as a sales promotion technique are far from being new, what makes this a unique product form is the process by which a promotion becomes active.  While original coupon websites were primarily static sites containing images of printable coupons, the newer coupon sites often require group participation in order to take advantage of a promotion.  Consequently, we can view these as social promotion websites.