• Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Authors
  • Contact
  • Polls
  • Small Biz Interviews
 

Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

What Sells a Product: Marketing or Functionality?

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

In both my day job and with KikScore, there is a raging debate…what really drives consumers to buy your product or service?  If you talk with the product team, it’s the features and capabilities of your product.  Customers are stunned by the available features of your product and must have it.  The sheer elegance of this service makes your product a customer priority.

On the other hand, the sales team is convinced it can sell “ice to an Eskimo”…that regardless of the product, through persuasiveness, a salesperson can convince a shopper to become a customer.   Don’t even get me started on the branding team…they literally believe that the choice of font will dictate the annual revenues.  They may be right, but it’s only for really cool fonts.

Who’s right?  This is an important question, as it really dictates how resources are allocated.  For KikScore, we’ve been working hard on product features and new services.  Sounds like a good idea, but that means we are not applying time and money towards marketing and sales/creating new channel relationships. 

There really is no way to find out the right balance.  Successful products magically seem to have great features, slick marketing and a very solid sales team.  Is it a chicken and egg scenario?  Or do all of these need to exist before your product takes off?

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

  • Share/Bookmark
 
 

Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Small Business Marketing 101 Video: "I Hate Saying No to Customers"

Friday, March 19th, 2010

This is an excellent 12 minute video that was put together by the Small Business Administration that covers small business marketing. If you do not know, the SBA has a ton of great resources for startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses that every business should take advantage of and use.  In addition to the SBA,  SCORE is another fabulous resource for small businesses as they are literally “Counselors to America’s Small Business.”  SCORE provides free counseling, mentoring and guidance to small businesses around the country.  SCORE and the SBA often partner up on small business initiatives.  If you have not checked out either of these great resources, KikScore highly recommends both.

The Small Business Marketing 101 video is full of practical tips and features successful entrepreneurs offering techniques for marketing your small business.  The short video also includes an interview with Warren Brown, host of Food Network’s Sugar Rush, and owner of Cake Love bakery in Washington, DC.  We like Warren even more because, like a couple of us at KikScore, he is a recovering lawyer who is an entrepreneur.  He is also the one in the video that says: “I hate saying no to customers.”  Warren has some great guidance on how to overcome saying “No!”

Check out the video and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

  • Share/Bookmark
 
 

Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

This Just In: Marketing to Your Own Social Network Works and it's Cheap!

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
social-network-icons
I was just reading an article in the Denver Post today that talked about how social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook, may have played a part in boosting retail sales this holiday season. In my opinion it is a no-brainer for all retailers, but especially small-to-midsize retailers who tend to be more local and closer to their customers, to use these social networking tools to promote their current sales and to distribute marketing information through.  Who is going to be more interested in coupons or promotional materials for your company’s products than people who have gone out of their way to include themselves in your social network using these online tools?
 
Not only is marketing to these individuals more effective but it is also more cost efficient when done through these channels.  The article in the Denver Post mentions that ad spending in the U.S. was down 14.7% in the first 9 months of 2009, due in part to these retailers spending more time and money on these non-traditional marketing techniques.  I would think that this type of social network marketing would be especially effective for online-only retailers since consumers could easily follow a link in the marketing materials directly to the storefront to purchase the advertised product.  Another astonishing statistic that I saw today showed that online sales increased 15.5% during the period from November 1 to December 24th when compared to the same period last year and online sales now account for 10% of all retail sales during that time.  I know that I personally did about 90% of my holiday shopping online this year and don’t plan on having that number go down anytime soon!
 
Retailers are also finding new creative ways to use social networking and blogs to interact with their customer base. As referenced in the same article above, Best Buy has a new group on Twitter referred to as “Twelpforce” that customer service agents use to tweet various product-related tips and suggestions.  Qwest Communicationshas a Twitter team that scours tweets for issues that customers are having with their phone or internet service and contacts them directly via Twitter or e-mail to resolve them. Also, some online retailers (like Simply Astro and Oregon Seafood ) have chosen to use this very KikScore blog to promote their company online by letting us do a short interview with them so that you can learn more about their products and future initiatives.
 
Finally, in news related to a post I made on this blog a couple weeks ago, Google just announced yesterday that they are holding an “Android-related press conference” on January 5.  Speculation is high that they will announce plans to roll-out their highly anticipated Nexus One phone (otherwise known as the G-Phone) that may have some features not yet seen on a Smartphone and this phone may be sold directly to consumers through their website without a dedicated carrier.  I guess we will find out more next week!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

  • Share/Bookmark
 
Newer Entries »