It’s hard for mothers to accept that “everyone” will not like their child. And here is a clip from Seinfeld to explain your mom’s position. Surprisingly, numerous businesses and marketers seem to think like Seinfeld’s mother when it comes to understanding and accepting “market segmentation”. That everyone will or must like your brand. It isContinue reading “Accept that everyone will NOT like your brand”
Category Archives: Branding Strategy
Why consumer marketers always do field visits- and digital marketers should too
If you noticed, all consumer marketers do market field visits-all the time. Let’s say that a CMO or a marketer turned CEO is in town for a board meeting. You’ll find that CMO making the rounds of retailers and distributors. This after getting all those market research and insights syndicated reports. These reports break downContinue reading “Why consumer marketers always do field visits- and digital marketers should too”
Why do marketers fail to deliver on what they promise?
 Since most marketers have positive intent, its a shame when the customer feels shortchanged. The Citibank ad is a great example of polite first date promises where both people don’t seem to want a second date. Disclaimer: This post is not about credit cards but the general question on why marketers fail to deliver onContinue reading “Why do marketers fail to deliver on what they promise?”
3 questions to ask and decide how much to spend on Google AdWords
Our readers ask How much do I spend on Google AdWords? An earlier post provided the strategy answer and this post presents three questions to ask for coming to a better decision. Here are the questions to ask: What were your inquiries before AdWords? Before AdWords you were getting inquiries. These inquiries could be fromContinue reading “3 questions to ask and decide how much to spend on Google AdWords”
Why its safe to put out most of your market research as web content
Businesses large and small seem scared of putting out their market research on their websites. Common concerns we have heard are: Our competitors will know how we think about the market Our market insights are our “secret” – sauce- why share the recipe And the one we like best: Speech is silvery but silence isContinue reading “Why its safe to put out most of your market research as web content”
Marketing vs. Sales- What’s the difference?
The Marketing vs. Sales difference is a crucial one for all businesses to understand. To simplify: Sales is trying to sell what you have. Sales followed from the production era where in the early part of the 20th century, entrepreneurs like Henry Ford famously produced only one color of car (black) and could bring downContinue reading “Marketing vs. Sales- What’s the difference?”
Comparing the first date with the sales funnel stages
This is like saying that every first date from digital dating sites (eg. eHarmony) results in marriage. And the marriage analogy is huge in marketing theory. Our favorite is by Dwyer,Schurr and Oh (1987). They debunk the marketing myth of the”one night stand” in favor of the paradigm of”long term marriage.” Just as a marriage takes place after much due diligence on both sides, so does complex B2B and B2C purchases. Lisa Gevelber of Google explains how one customer searches 900 times, at different websites,before deciding to lease a particular car.Read: The Car-Buying Process: One Consumer’s 900+ Digital Interactions.
Choose between market share or customer satisfaction- not both
If you have satisfied customers – you would feel that word of mouth including social media should help get more market share. “It’s all about happy customers” …..Well that is not true. Based on data for 200 companies between 1994- 2006 for 800,000 customers from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) there are some interestingContinue reading “Choose between market share or customer satisfaction- not both”
“Valentine day roses ” -the link between SEO and Google AdWords Ad position
We are about ten days away from Valentine’s day and here is the results page we saw when we searched for “valentine day roses.” We have Super Bowl Sunday coming up this Sunday, so most folks are pretty focused
Think Web page not website for PageRank AdRank and SEO
Think about it,whatever way you arrive at a website – you really arrive at a particular page of a website(see an earlier post Your website does not rank on search engines -your web pages do). Sure, if it is a brand you deal with often (say Amazon or Expedia) – then you just type theContinue reading “Think Web page not website for PageRank AdRank and SEO”