Don't Make These Mistakes When Entering a New Market

There is a lot of hair in India. That was the blinding insight that started our quest to develop a disruptive business in India's men's grooming market. Our idea was to port the efficient, affordable QB House model that is popular in Singapore and other Asian markets to India (QB House is detailed in the section titled "Remember: Quality is Relative" of The Little Black Book of Innovation). We would launch a series of single-chair kiosks that offered high-quality hair cutting, shaving, and related grooming services at affordable prices. We saw a wide open market, what is sometimes called a white space, blue ocean, or greenfield market.

Disruptive Technology and Disrupted Markets

Disruptive Technology as a term has never sat comfortably for me. The best examples of technology for me are those that seamlessly blend in, and not to confuse or to impede progress. Yet when you look at the state of the world economy perhaps we need to go through the pain of seeing old ways being put to the sword and challenged by new ways of raising and distributing capital.

The internet has allowed for new models and models for lending to be devised and shared more rapidly and broadly then ever before. It would be easy to focus on crowdfunding as an example of disruptive technology, but there are also other less prominent examples of markets being turned upside down.

Kickstarter Stats

Leverage Social Media in the Job Market

Graduation is looming, and you still have zero job prospects.

Regardless of your work history, it is possible to build your resume and begin building your network. Often, we think of our professors or employers as only as potential references. Before social media, just having good references was sufficient. They put in a good word for you when the time came, and you kept them on retainer until you needed them again, maybe keeping in touch once a year to keep the ties relevant.

Five Reasons Why Marketers Fail to Get the Best ROI From Trade Shows

Trade shows have some of the best potential ROI of any marketing tool. To make the most out of their trade-show investments, however, businesses must take the time to plan out their trade-show strategies.

Unfortunately, marketers sometimes fail to get the best ROI from trade shows for the following reasons.

1. Not knowing why they are at a trade show

If your reason for going to a trade show is anything along the lines of “because we always go,” then you need to sit and rethink that reason. What you do for your marketing depends on your objectives. For example, if you want to reach a lot of informed buyers in the industry, then attending the right trade show makes sense. If you want to reach the general public, then you should find other marketing channels that work better. Think about your objectives and then plan how to best meet them.

Entering (vs. creating) new categories—get the timing right

Creating a new category or subcategory using substantial or transformational innovation is difficult, can be diverting, and involves the ultimate risk that it may not work in the marketplace. Many firms explicitly or implicitly avoid innovating new categories or subcategories because of these risks and because they want to focus on existing product markets. Their strategy is to allow small firms to innovate and prove the new category or subcategory has traction. They then enter the category or subcategory by acquisition or by creating a competitive offering.

The ROI of sharing

Don’t you just love it when you learn something accidentally? I sure do, because those brushes with serendipity can have a huge impact on your long-term success.
Let me explain what I mean by sharing a quick story:
Some time ago, I was approached by some colleagues in charge of managing of a different part of HSN’s digital business. They felt that there was a lot of opportunity to leverage SEO – one of the channels that I manage – in order to drive incremental revenue and market penetration. I agreed, and decided to pitch in some of my marketing budget in order to bring in a new vendor that could help capture some of that SEO opportunity for this particular portion of the business.

How To Use the Fishing Analogy to Effectively Market your Business

In Sales and Marketing, you need to be very creative to make sure that you get your message across, be it your sales team or your consumers, getting your message and leaving an impression is always a good thing to have. Depending on your audience, you need to change up your style from time to time just so that you keep them interested. One of the ways to make your points relatable is to use analogies that the audience can easily understand. In this article, you will learn how to use fishing terms and actions that the audience can relate to and equate that to items within your business.

Why Refunds are the Key to Loyal Customers

When a customer asks for a refund or wants to return an item, something has gone very wrong in the selling process. The problem might be an error on your part (you sent the product in the wrong color) or an error on the customer’s part (they ordered it in the wrong color) or something unrelated to either of you (the mail carrier delivered the product to the wrong address so the customer never got it).

How To Never Discount Your Prices Again

I just finished reading Pricing With Confidence by Reed and Holden, where the authors identify a dozen tricks buyers may use to get you to cut your prices. 
How many can you recognise?

Are You Giving Your Customers Enough Reasons To Return?

Good customer service just isn't enough anymore in the marketplace in which we live. Times are changing and business owners are learning that they need to create such an awesome customer loyalty program that they are always at the forefront of their customers' minds on a regular basis.

To compete in today's global marketplace you need to stand out from the crowd - be better than your competitors, be faster than your competitors and, more importantly -

BE MORE MEMORABLE THAN YOUR COMPETITORS!

Your success in business depends upon your ability to change.

How to Advertise With Free Marketing Products To Increase Business Sales

Your business will benefit from the proper use of free marketing products.      
Instructions
1. Prepare your sales team for success.
Having great marketing products will do little good if your team lacks enthusiasm. Let everyone on your team know about the new marketing promotions. Get them fired up and share with them the impact that higher sales will have for everyone involved.  

4 Ways to Outdo Your Competitors

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Do you ever feel like there’s a competitor around every corner? Budding entrepreneurs often hesitate to follow their business dreams because they believe their target market is already so saturated that there simply is no more room to absorb any new entrants.
However, savvy small business owners can make it in a crowded field, even one filled with a couple of 800-pound gorillas. The key to your business’ success doesn’t hinge on finding a completely empty field, but how you define your company and its place in the market.

Here are four easy ways to set yourself apart from the din of voices in your industry. Do you have any tips for making it in a crowded market?

Ειδικές στρατηγικές marketing τουριστικών προορισμών

Οι τουριστικοί προορισμοί θα πρέπει να έχουν ως κινητήριο μοχλό για την ανάπτυξή τους συγκεκριμένες στρατηγικές marketing, οι οποίες και θα καθορίσουν την υλοποίηση των στόχων τους. Στη σύγχρονη τουριστική αγορά η αντίληψη των πωλήσεων του παρελθόντος δεν αρκεί. Οι προς ανάπτυξη τουριστικοί προορισμοί -αλλά και οι ήδη υπάρχοντες- θα πρέπει να καλλιεργήσουν την επικοινωνία με τους παλαιούς πελάτες αλλά και με τους μελλοντικούς ενδιαφερόμενους, και φυσικά όχι μόνο πελάτες αλλά και προμηθευτές και άλλους συνεργαζόμενους φορείς.

How To Reach Emerging Market Consumers With Social Media

Did you know that emerging market consumers are fast becoming a significant population demographic on social media? In fact, social users from Asia and Latin America are outnumbering others, as their growth continues to rise. Today, I’m going to talk about how your business can reach out to these emerging market consumers, to make more money for your business!

Engaging the social consumer

According to recent statistics, seven percent on online retail sales are driven directly from social networking sites in the UK. That figure accounts only for sales generated from a customer clicking through to a brand’s online store from their social media page. Considering that social media marketing is a relatively modern concept in the history of retail advertising strategy, that seven percent is a difficult figure to ignore. Factor in the evidence that in the US Facebook generates more traffic than any other site including Google, social media is a potential marketing gold mine. 

Consumer Marketing - More

Making Brands an Enduring Part of Consumers' Lives

Our global Consumer Marketing practice focuses on strengthening the consumer relevancy of some of the world’s best-known household brands. From the kitchen cabinet to the medicine cabinet, we cover the full range of consumer products—consumer packaged goods, travel and tourism, retail, consumer health and nutrition, fashion, beauty, food, beverage and consumer technology.

The Visual Media Market

There are numerous professional companies in the US who undertake video production for various purpose, various types of industry etc and these companies ensure delivery of best quality videos on time at affordable prices. They make corporate videos of amazing quality. While conveying the corporate message in clear terms, they give equal importance to the entertaining aspects also so as to capture full attention of the audience. Sound knowledge about the brand products, film development skill, latest production techniques, technical efficiency and artistic talent contribute to the production of best quality corporate videos and films.

Το μάρκετινγκ δεν καταλαβαίνει τις γυναίκες: Γυναίκα, αυτή η άγνωστη (;)

Τελικά, «της γυναίκας η καρδιά είναι μια άβυσσος» και για τους Μarketers. Γιατί όμως το κοινό που αποτελεί τη «μεγαλύτερη ευκαιρία για το Μάρκετινγκ σήμερα», νιώθει ότι τα μηνύματα που δέχεται δεν είναι ικανοποιητικά;
Η ενασχόληση του Μάρκετινγκ με το γυναικείο κοινό κρύβει πολλά παράδοξα. Παρόλο που οι γυναίκες σήμερα είναι το κοινό με τη μεγαλύτερη αγοραστική δύναμη, αποτελούν βασικούς decision makers σε όλες τις προϊοντικές κατηγορίες και ταυτόχρονα θεωρούνται οι σημαντικότερες -ποιοτικά- χρήστριες του Ιnternet αλλά και των Social Media, εντούτοις παρατηρείται έλλειμμα επικοινωνίας με τις εταιρείες και τις μάρκες.

Αυξήστε τις πωλήσεις σας βελτιώνοντας την εμπειρία των πελατών σας

Θα αγοράζατε από ένα κατάστημα που έχει ακατάστατη βιτρίνα ή μεγάλες ουρές αναμονής; Τι θα λέγατε αν έπρεπε να ψάξετε ώρες για να βρείτε τα αγαπημένα σας προϊόντα; Η βιτρίνα, η γρήγορη εξυπηρέτηση και πλοήγηση στο κατάστημα είναι ισοδύναμα με το σχεδιασμό, τη χρηστικότητα, και την ταχύτητα στον κόσμο του ηλεκτρονικού εμπορίου.

Αλλάζει συνήθειες το 90% των καταναλωτών

Η κρίση αλλάζει τις αγοραστικές συνήθειες για εννέα στους δέκα καταναλωτές, όπως προκύπτει από έρευνα, με ερωτηματολόγια, που διενήργησε το ΚΕΠΚΑ σε 1.126 άτομα, το διάστημα 1-30 Σεπτεμβρίου 2011.