Posted by: Paul.Christ
on Jul 22, 2009
Highlighted Marketing Stories:
- Luring Local Traffic to Your Web Site (CNN Money) - Many small businesses still struggle with the realities of how the web can help their business. This story offers a number of very good suggestions for those in this situation.
There are three key elements you'll need to focus on: content, search-engine rankings and design.
What options does the small business owner have for gaining customers from the web if they know little about how to create and maintain a website?
- Borders Aims to Capitalize on Teens With New Shops (Wall Street Journal) - Borders has struggled in recent years for many reasons including what some see as problems with too many stores found in shopping malls where the serious readers may not want to go. But teens do go there and this new strategy is designed to attract that segment of the market.
The Borders Ink shops, which will stock graphic novels, fantasy and young-adult titles together, are expected to be available in 80% to 90% of the 513 superstores Borders operates nationwide by the end of August.
If successful with this strategy, how can Borders leverage this in other ways such as through the Internet?
Dyson challenges Oreck's claim that a vacuum "reduced up to 99.9 percent of bacteria in laboratory testing." Cepacol challenges Chloraseptic's claim that it's "the strongest medicine you can get without a prescription." Dell challenges Apple's claim that the new MacBooks are "the world's greenest family of notebooks."
What ads currently running may one day be a case heard by this group?
Posted by: Paul.Christ
on Jul 20, 2009
Highlighted Marketing Stories:
- Use Twitter to Find Customers (Inc.) - There are many who still question how Twitter and other emerging social networks will ever make money. This story offers insight on how a few companies may see value in these services.
Most business that use Twitter think of it mostly as a promotional tool, a way to announce new products, perhaps gain readers for a blog. But some smarter companies are actually using Twitter to sell products...
How can Twitter make money off of the methods these companies are using?
Among the top 10 social media sites, Twitter.com was again the fastest growing, increasing 1,928 percent year-over-year, from 1 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in June 2009–making Twitter the fourth most visited member communities site in June.
Why is MySpace struggling compared to Facebook and Twitter?
- Perception Isn't Everything to Shoppers (Inc.) - We talk in our pricing tutorial about how price can affect customer perception of quality. This is supported in this story but the story goes a little further to suggest that other factors will also come into play when the customer makes the final buying decision.
In the study, volunteers in a lab proved that higher prices associated with different candies translated into an elevated perception of value. In a second experiment in which prices of entrees on a prix-fixe menu were altered, the researchers found that people pretty much stuck with what they liked.
What other factors could have affecting customers' decisions?
Posted by: Paul.Christ
on Jul 17, 2009
Highlighted Marketing Stories:
- The Profits and Perils of Supplying to Wal-Mart (BusinessWeek) - Gaining distribution in Wal-Mart is viewed by many marketers as being the pinnacle of marketing success. But that is not always the case especially for smaller firms that do not fully understand what they are getting into.
The contract, commonly known as the vendor agreement, outlines the mechanics of how the supplier and retailer will work together. The agreement generally addresses sales and delivery timeframe, arbitration, and termination rights, and liability.
While the initial contract is important, renewing a contract seems even more important. Why?
- The Pros and Cons of Co-Branding (BusinessWeek) - As companies search for new ways to build revenue the idea of sharing brand responsibilities with another company may seem attractive. While this story discusses advantages to co-branding, it also discusses why companies should be cautious when going down that road. The story also has a nice list of companies involved in co-branding.
Co-branding is not just for giant national or international brands. While a small business may have difficulty linking up with Nike or Procter & Gamble, there are an increasing number of off the shelf co-branding opportunities of which many businesses can avail themselves.
So how exactly does one company start a conversation with another company to consider co-branding?