Friday 30 September 2016

All About Decision Tree Analysis


Decision Tree Analysis is used to evaluate the best option from a number of mutually exclusive options when an organization is faced with an investment decision. The finance team can use this tool while evaluating a number of potential options, such as which product or plant to invest in, or whether or not to invest in a new initiative.
The Decision Tree schematic is tree-shaped diagram which is used to understand a statistical probability or a course of action. Each branch of the decision tree signifies a possibility or occurrence. The structure of the tree depicts how one choice leads to another.
Advantages of Decision Tree Analysis
  • This tool allows the team to clearly lay out and consider all available options, including a “Do Nothing” option, which is often ignored although it may sometimes be the best option.
  • It is relatively easy to visualize the costs, benefits, and probabilities linked to all options to help facilitate focused decision making.
  • Additional options can be added without impacting the evaluation of the other branches throughout the tree.
Disadvantages of Decision Tree Analysis
  • In situations where there are many options to consider and each option has multiple possible outcomes, creating decision trees becomes a complex process and may require the use of software, rendering it a less-than-useful tool for strategic discussions.
  • In some trees, even a small variation in an expected outcome or probability can completely change the results of the analysis. Therefore, obtaining accurate information is critical to the usefulness of this tool.
  • This tool sometimes requires complex preparation, as well as extra time and effort to determine the various possible outcomes for each option, and to explicitly delineate each decision node and possible outcomes and options from those nodes.

Thursday 29 September 2016

Its All in Your Head: A Brief Introduction to Psychological Pricing


Have you ever tried to sell something quickly (desperately) by lowering the price well below market value only to discover no one will bite? If so, your frustration is not unique. You’ve just experienced the quirky, seemingly-counterintuitive nature of the human consumer.
It’s long been known that pricing can make or break your sales, even when the value and quality of the product or service hasn’t changed. To the consumer, it matters not that you’re offering them the deal of a lifetime. They’ve already decided that the price is too low and, therefore, something is amiss. Of course, it’s all in their head, but the effects of pricing have real-world outcomes, such as a loss of sales because the set price doesn’t seem to match the perceived value. This is just one of the reasons why it’s wise to know a few basics of psychological pricing and how it contributes to a product’s perception and, in turn, sales.  
Psychological pricing is one component of a much broader and more complex pricing strategy for a product or service. TheSMstudy® Guide defines a product’s or service’s pricing strategy as “focused on creating a sustainable brand perception and sustainable profitability for the product or brand, while growing and maintaining a healthy market share.”
All aspects of a pricing strategy are important to the success of a product, but psychological pricing can have a very significant influence on how consumers perceive a product’s value. In a recent post titled “Focus on the Why,” we noted the critical function emotional responses play in consumer buying decisions. Why a product was created or why a company does what it does speaks directly to consumers’ emotions and creates a strong call to action as well as brand loyalty.  According to Shelley Frost of Demand Media, psychological pricing works on the same level, by tapping into a customer's emotional responses to promote sales.
“Instead of appealing to the rational side of the consumer, this strategy appeals to their emotional side. The pricing may aim to strike a thrifty note with a bargain or stir up feelings of prestige with a high-end item,” Frost said.
There are many forms of psychological pricing that may be employed by marketing departments (and individuals), including the value perception pricing example noted above. Others you may have encountered include these five provided by Psychology Pricing:
  1. Odd Pricing – Quite simply, it’s the illusion of the difference between .99 and $1. We humans perceive a real value difference between the two even though we understand logically the difference in price is a mere .01.
  2. Prestige Pricing – The opposite of odd pricing, prestige pricing creates the perception of higher quality by pricing a product or service to a rounded number. For example, $1 instead of .99.
  3. Buy One, Get One Free – Same as 50% off, right? But somehow it looks so much more alluring when a product is marked “Buy One, Get One Free.”
  4. Comparative Pricing – Similar to the straw man definition, comparative pricing sets up a false comparison so the consumer finds one offer decidedly more attractive.
  5. Product Bundle Pricing – The gift basket of marketing ploys, product bundle pricing offers a discount on a group of items packaged together. A win-win situation for marketer and customer.
Psychological pricing may have a touch of the “dark arts” about it (it is, after all, a system of psychological manipulation), but it’s been proven effective and is at this point nearly ubiquitous. So the next time you are selling an item and feel the temptation to set the price low in order to turn a quick buck, consider that you might be selling yourself short. A higher price tag, whether fair or not, creates the illusion of greater quality and value and may actually stir up the deep psychological urge to buy compared to the friendly bargain price you thought would create a fast sale. 
For more articles on sales and marketing, visit http://www.smstudy.com
Sources:
“5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read” https://blog.kissmetrics.com/5-psychological-studies/
SMstudy Guide, Digital Marketing, Pg. 53. 
“The Ultimate List Of Psychological Pricing Strategies” http://www.psychologicalpricing.net/ultimate-list/
“What Is Psychological Pricing?” Shelley Frost, Demand Media http://smallbusiness.chron.com/psychological-pricing-11862.html
“Lessons From the Biggest Pricing Strategy Failure of 2012,” Patrick Campbell, Jan. 2, 2013. http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/168572/Lessons-From-the-Biggest-Pricing-Strategy-Failure-of-2012

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Levels of Sales and Marketing Strategy


A company enjoying a good reign must possess an assortment of umbrellas.
Beneath the wide umbrella of Corporate Strategy exists a smaller umbrella known as Corporate Marketing Strategy, which covers Business Unit and Geographic Strategies. Those, in turn, are further divided into particular Product or Brand Strategies for each product or brand.
This figure illustrates the relationship between the various strategies:
The Corporate Marketing Strategy is defined at a corporate level and outlines the overall marketing goals for the company. These general marketing goals drive more specific marketing strategies for each of the company’s business units or geographies. Each business unit or geography defines its own goals, which become relevant inputs for each area’s particular product or brand marketing strategies. Each product or brand marketing strategy defines sales and marketing objectives for each product or brand, which drive specific tactics that align with and often rely on other Marketing Aspects identified in theSMstudy® Guide (Marketing Research, Digital Marketing, Corporate Sales, Branding and Advertising and Retail Marketing).
Here is an example of Levels of Sales and Marketing Strategy:
Land Development Company
  • Corporate LevelA land development company wants to grow to be among the top three land development companies in its state.
  • Business Unit/Geographic LevelThe land development company operates two business units: residential and retail. A goal of the residential business unit is to grow that unit by 12 percent within one year; a goal of the retail business unit is to grow that unit by 10 percent within the same time period.
  • Product/Brand LevelWithin the residential business unit, the company sells three products: condominiums, town homes and singles. The singles Product Marketing Strategy identifies an objective to grow the sale of single units by 15 percent. To achieve this objective, the teams responsible for building strategy within the various Aspects of Marketing establish specific objectives that are designed to support the overall product objectives and to align with one another.
  • Marketing Aspect Level­The company’s greatest strength is the fact that it is an award-winning leader in green sustainable development. Therefore, the branding and advertising team builds specific tactics that incorporate an increase in reach of its messaging around sustainable development. One specific tactic is to leverage billboard and newspaper advertising with the objective of increasing reach of green messaging by 30 percent. The digital marketing team incorporates tactics to support the objective of increasing the green sustainable development messaging, stressing the importance of this trend and positioning the company as a leader in the industry through the use of various social media channels. One specific tactic is to leverage blogs and online public relations with the objective of increasing the company's rankings in online searches related to keywords such as “sustainable development.” The tactics of each Marketing Aspect are aimed at achieving their own specific objectives; however, both support the overall singles Product Strategy objective of achieving a 15 percent growth in sales for this product line.
When seeking sustained success, a company should equip and adhere to a comprehensive Corporate Marketing Strategy. That umbrella has you covered.

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Words are great, but color is better when it comes to social media marketing


Social Media is a multimedia experience. Content is shared in a myriad of forms: video, text, photo, audio clip, gif, etc. All can benefit a company’s brand in the effort to reach viewers. But we now know that color plays a very important part in brand perception. According to recent research, the color palette creates the mood and feeling of a brand that ultimately drives consumer behavior. Color, when used effectively, has the ability to connect with the subconscious (gut feeling) which can be a direct line to a positive customer action.
However, there are some who still argue that the perception of color is too dependent on personal experience to have universal applications such as the psychology researchers at the University of California, Berkeley who learned that, "personal preference is determined by all the entities you've encountered of that color and how much you liked them."
Although this may be true in some cases, the true benefits of color in marketing are apparent when the “perceived appropriateness” of the color being used fits the brand image and feel. 
As author Gregory Ciotti states, “certain colors do broadly align with specific traits (e.g., brown with ruggedness, purple with sophistication, and red with excitement). But … it’s far more important for your brand’s colors to support the personality you want to portray instead of trying to align with stereotypical color associations.”
A company creating or revamping their brand image should consider long and hard the colors they select. Color choices that enhance the feel of the brand will be perceived as successful and more impactful than color choices that are at odds with the desired feeling of the company.
Ciotti continues, “Focusing on the way colors affect the feeling, mood, and image that your brand creates that play a role in persuasion. Be sure to recognize that colors only come into play when they can be used to match a brand’s desired personality (i.e., the use of white to communicate Apple’s love of clean, simple design).”
The study of color theory is vast and much information can be found online, but for a basic introduction, check out this video on branding and color…
When done wisely, color choice will lead to successful brand recognition and even instill a sense of trust. Ideally correct color application will positively affect the company’s brand perception metrics, including brand loyalty, brand recall, “top-of-the-mind recall” or “share of mind” and the ultimate, “share of heart” metric.
According to the SMstudy Guide, the “share of heart” metric indicates the highest level of brand loyalty and recognition. The book states, “A high ‘share of heart’ indicates a very strong connection between the brand and its customers…and that the marketing strategy is effective at communicating and delivering the value needed by its customers.”
Harnessing the power of color (and applying it appropriately) will enhance a company’s social media marketing and has the potential to increase viewer and customer engagement no matter what form of media is being shared.
For more interesting articles on social media marketing, visit - www.smstudy.com/articles
Sources:
“The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding,” Gregory Ciotti, Aug. 6, 2013. http://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/
“Color Preferences Determined by Experience,” Emily Sohn, Oct. 1, 2010 http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/colors-preferences-evolution-style.htm

Monday 26 September 2016

Dont be One of the Three, Start Your Startup with SMstudy


How can you keep from being one of the three?
A stat being tossed around a lot these days is that three out of four startups fail. Such odds even seem favorable when compared to direr (and possibly more realistic) observations that “nine out of ten startups fail.” Neil Patel made that claim on Forbes.com, suggesting that “entrepreneurs may even want to write their failure post-mortem before they launch their business.”[1]
What causes these failures?
A look at more than one hundred essays by the CEOs of failed startups two years ago revealed to Fortune.com “that the number-one reason for failure, cited by 42% of polled startups, is the lack of a market need for their product.”[2] Most inventors and innovators imagine that they are providing something people need—the next best mousetrap. Yet, according to these CEOs, there was a clear misalignment between imagination and market reality.
How can someone avoid that threat?
A look at other items in the poll—pricing/cost issues, poor marketing, ignoring the customer and mistimed product launches—provides a clue. The one thing that all of these threats have in common is that they are sales and marketing issues. They are all things that are discussed in SMstudy’s Marketing Strategy, volume one of A Guide to the SMstudy® Sales and Marketing Body of Knowledge (SMBOK® Guide).[3]
Marketing Strategy has an entire section titled “Analyze Market Opportunity,” which would definitely help avoid the problem of having a product without a market.  Pricing and cost issues can be addressed with knowledge gained from the section on “Determine Pricing and Distribution Strategies.”
The book discusses PESTEL Analysis, which entrepreneurs can use to evaluate macro-environmental factors such as political,economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that affect the successful and timely launch of a product or service.
Writing about “Ten Essential Startup Lessons” for Entrepreneur, John Rampton includes as his number 7, “Become a salesperson. If you want your startup to succeed, then you must sell. You’re going to have to market the company's product to employees, investors and clients.” Then he asks, “But did you ever take a ‘Salesperson 101’ course in college?”[4]
The complete SMBOK® Guide is more than just “Salesperson 101.” It includes books on branding and advertising, digital marketing, corporate sales and market research. For the inventor, innovator and entrepreneur, the six books that make up theGuide give insight and direction for turning their product or service into a business—a business that has customers.
Offering some “Startup Advice” on BothSidesoftheTable.com, Mark Suster says, “When you start your company the very first question you need to ask yourself is which kind of customers do you want to serve.” He discusses going after elephants—what others call “whales”—when one really needs to hunt deer. It’s a great analogy and explains one of the reasons startups often have “suboptimal results.”[5] Defining the market and identifying market segments is covered at length in Marketing Strategy.
A Guide to the SMstudy® Sales and Marketing Body of Knowledge by SMstudy is not a collection of inspiring or amusing anecdotes about sales that hit the stratosphere; they are practical, process-oriented collections of processes and best practices that help companies create and develop sales and marketing plans and departments that succeed.
SMstudy also offers courses online and in mobile apps that put the information entrepreneurs need where they are when they need it.
How can you keep from being one of the three . . . or one of the nine? Start your startup with SMstudy.
[1] Patel, Neil. (1/16/15) “90% of Startups Fail: Here’s What You Need to Know about the 10%.” Forbes.com Retrieved on 2/12/16 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/01/16/90-of-startups-will-fail-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-10/#185237c255e1
[2] Griffith, Erin. (9/25/14) “Why startups fail, according to their founders.” Fortune. Retrieved on 2/12/16 from http://fortune.com/2014/09/25/why-startups-fail-according-to-their-founders/
[4] Rampton, John. (7/25/14) “Ten essential Startup Lessons That You may not have Learned in College.” Entrepreneur. Retrieved on 2/11/16 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235905.
[5] Suster, Mark. “Startup Advice.” BothSidesoftheTable.com. Retrieved on 2/11/16 from http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/on-entrepeneurship/

Friday 23 September 2016

Going all the way with Content


Sales and marketing go hand in hand. The marketing team creates the content, and the sales team follows up with the consumers of the content to create potential leads. Right?
But there might be an easier way.
Marketers are continually improving their skills, so, for the most part, they read and study a lot of content. A company’s sales team will notice when a person has delved into their company’s content and naturally, the sales team cold calls them. However, what if the marketer is simply doing some research or looking to better their own marketing capabilities and are NOT a potential consumer of the product, JUST the content?
This can be relatively annoying for both sales and marketing professionals. How does a sales team recognize who is an actual lead and who is just another professional?
Generate a profile for a targeted lead. “Know that not everyone who downloads your content will be your ideal customer. For those who leave their details you need some way of carefully segmenting this list based on a profile of your dream customer. Get your sales team to approach these people respectfully. Don’t bombard them with product or service offers – you have to earn the right to sell. Prove you have their best interests at heart. Build relationships. Court them with more valuable content until they are ready to buy,” says Sharon Tanton, marketing and business developer at Valuable Content.
Another option is to focus on creating valuable content. Tanton notes, “a company would be far better off producing a well-rounded product and then creating some fantastic content that tells the story of how their product works and what value the product brings to its users. If the product is great, I believe I would hear about it on my social networks. We all love to share good stuff. Great content spreads and takes root on the web, and I’ve found it at the right time – e.g. the time when I was looking for information about a specific product.”
In Tanton’s suggested process, sales teams could target leads that come to them due to their company’s successful content that has already stirred up the consumer’s interest rather than cold calling and hoping for a lead. It is a waste of time and it generally irritates consumers and can even cause a drop in sales.
By creating a Content and Distribution Plan for social media marketing a company can ensure that their content is relevant, timely and well written and that it reaches the target audience using the optimal means as determined by the social media marketing team.
Content creation should ideally start by defining a quantity goal and a publishing schedule with proper deadlines. Once the publishing schedule is finalized, attention should be paid to the quality of each piece of content being distributed.
As stated in a previous article by SMstudy, “In addition to good quality content, an effective social media effort must have a good distribution strategy. In other words, it needs to be shared. And that shouldn’t be a problem if the content is engaging. People naturally share information for many reasons; they could simply like the content or perhaps find it interesting. But whatever the reason, a company must ensure that their content provides their consumers with something that encourages shares or else it will be lost in the sea of content.”
Focusing efforts on creating valuable content will then bridge the gap for the sales team, eventually eliminating the need for cold calls. Sales and marketing goes hand but marketing by necessity goes first, so create content to produce the sales, rather than attempt sales from the produced content.
For more interesting articles visit http://www.SMstudy.com

Thursday 22 September 2016

Should You ask Permission to Market?


Everyone despises commercials. It’s true, don’t even try to deny it! There is not one single person who would rather listen to a commercial than jam out to a new song. But we put up with them. Sort of.
Some people turn the volume down while a commercial is on the radio or take out the trash while they wait for their favorite television show. Yet, this form of conventional mass media marketing actually works. People hear a commercial about Tide laundry detergent, they may tune it out, but when they go to the grocery store, they select Tide because they have heard the name.
As defined by Marketing Strategy, book one in the SMstudy® Guide, conventional mass media marketing is “print advertising (newspaper, magazine, insert, or run of paper), mass mailers, television (network, cable, or syndicated), radio (national, local, satellite, or podcast), and out of home advertising (billboards, street furniture e.g. bus shelters, transit, alternative, e.g. stadiums).”
Conventional mass media marketing is also referred to as interruption marketing, or put more simply, marketing that interrupts.
But we have stepped into a new age, the age of the internet, which has given rise to fragmented new age marketing. “Since the late 1990s, with the increasing popularity of the internet and, more recently, smartphones, many options now exist for advertisers to reach a global audience using digital media marketing methods such as mobile phone apps, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, QR codes, gamification, and proximity marketing (e.g. Foursquare),” states SMstudy.
Fragmented new age marketing is also referred to as permission marketing, or put more simply, where people have to give you permission to market to them.
According to Krista Neher, content marketer for Boot Camp Digital, “Most online marketing is permission marketing, where people have to give you permission to market to them. People choose to follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your email or visit your website. They make the choice to connect with you (and allow you to market to them) because you provide great content. You must be interesting or useful for people to agree to your interruption marketing, or they will just ignore you. Permission marketing is about providing value so that people choose to view your marketing.”
So, should you stop putting marketing dollars towards interruption marketing? No, because as previously stated, it does work. But by putting an emphasis on permission marketing a company can ensure that their time and money is not being wasted. Conventional mass media marketing is not a sure deal, while fragmented new age marketing is.
Neher provides some guidelines to follow so you can successfully incorporate permission marketing into your marketing strategy.
  • Change your mindset: Stop thinking about selling, and start thinking about how you can create value for the people that you want to reach (in a way that links to your business and marketing strategy).
  • Change your message: Your message can’t be so advertising-ish. Your message must be something that people actually want to read (again, while at the same time growing your business).
  • Evaluate all of your channels: What is interesting is that even traditional marketing works better when it meets the difficult bar of both selling your product and being interesting to your customers.
This is an exciting time to be a marketer. The possibilities are endless as long as you follow one simple rule, show them, don’t tell them. But don’t forget conventional mass media marketing in the process. There is still a use for it. Interruptive and permission marketing can run parallel, it’s all about how you position your brand.
As noted by SMstudy, “With all of these options, many marketers find it beneficial to use an integrated approach to marketing by leveraging the strengths of various types of media.” Good luck fellow marketers, it’s a brave new world.
For more interesting articles visit http:://www.SMstudy.com
Sources:
Krista Neher, “Permission Vs. Interruption Marketing,” content writer at Boot Camp digital. http://bootcampdigital.com/permission-vs-interruption-marketing/

Wednesday 21 September 2016

How Some Companies Achieved Virality


In one of the previous posts, we briefly touched upon the topic of what a Growth Hacker is and what the requirements are for a person working as a Growth Hacker. Let’s now look at a few examples of where Growth Hacking has helped companies scale exponentially.
Paypal’s friend referral: As a new payment mechanism primarily fighting with large banks, PayPal’s big challenge initially was to get new customers to adopt their product and get them started on using it. Traditional advertising was too expensive and also there was no assurance that people who they reach out to, would use them. Initially, the PayPal team thought of doing business development deals with big banks but that didn’t work out and they understood that they needed a direct to customer approach that would provide a organic, viral growth.
So they started a referral campaign wherein any customer of theirs would get $10 for each friend they refer that joins up and these new customers, upon joining get a $10 amount too. Although this cost PayPal a $20 customer acquisition cost, they were able to witness a 7 to 10% daily growth and acquired 100 million users in a very short span of time. Not only did they acquire these new users, but because the new users already had $10 in their PayPal account, they would end up using PayPal to use the amount.
AirBnB’s Craiglist Hack: This was around the time when AirBnB had just started up and needed to gain an initial traction. Now since AirBnB is essentially a double-sided marketplace, they needed to ensure that they have sufficient listings to make it attractive to customers while at the same time, they need customers staying at these houses to make it attractive for home owners to list them. In order to gain an initial traction, AirBnB latched onto Craiglist’s popularity and allowed it’s users to post their AirBnB listing to Craiglist. The Growth Hackers at AirBnB were able to figure out a hack through which their property owners were able to post their listings on a platform with 10s of millions of users and immediately they were able to provide the initial customers to these property owners. From here on, the word spread and AirBnB got more listings and more customers. 
Dropbox Referral Program: Dropbox also had a similar growth hack to Paypal where they used a referral campaign to get more users to Dropbox. The scheme was extremely simple and yet extremely attractive for its users. When one person who has Dropbox refers another, they both get a 500MB space, provided the person getting refered signs up to Dropbox. Like PayPal, this scheme offered a real incentive to people referring others and since you would get referred by a friend, it instills more trust in the product than an advertisement ever could. Furthermore, the sender has incentive to get the referree to sign up to avail the extra space. The scheme is also brilliant since you would probably be using Dropbox to share content with these very friends. This total costs Dropbox 1GB of space – far less than a Google AdWords buy. The Dropbox referral scheme has been extremely successful with number of users going up from 100,000 in Sept 2008 to over 4,000,000 by Jan 2010. 
Hotmail: One of the earliest companies to use growth hacks and get exponential growth through virality was Hotmail. Hotmail grew its subscriber base from zero to 12 million users in 18 months, more rapidly than any company in any media in the history of the world. And it did so with an almost zero advertising budget of $50,000. What's more amazing was that Hotmail was able to do this while competitors like Juno spent $20 million on traditional marketing in the same time period with less effect.
The marketing "plan" was pretty simple. Whenever you send someone a message, the words in the signature of each email contained “Get your free email at Hotmail”. The word Hotmail was hyperlinked to re-direct anyone clicking to Hotmail’s home page where Hotmail explained what they were and got users to sign up. Hotmail also became the largest email provider in several countries, like Sweden and India, where it had done no marketing whatsoever.
So as we can observe from the above examples, you do not need to necessarily overspend in marketing to get more customers than your competition. The key is to understand customer needs and develop a good value proposition for them while also ensuring that the product you deliver solves their need best in the market. The companies listed above understood this pretty early and hence were able to become market leaders.

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Adoption Cycle for Technology Products


When a business plans to launch any product/service into the market, it always has a target audience in mind who would be using this product. Now even though the target audience are the ones that will be the source of revenue for the firm while acquiring market share, audiences in general are apprehensive of shifting from their existing products and adopting new products. Typically for FMCG products, businesses conduct free trials to increase customer adoption but when it comes to technology products, customer adoption is a big challenge.
In order to gain early traction into any market, businesses should not only identify their target segment but also people who are more likely to adapt their product faster so as to get the most effective results of their initial marketing campaign. Based on the adoption cycle of products, customers are divided as:
Innovators – Innovators are typically the first individuals to adopt any new innovative product or service launched into the market. Innovators have good financial status, are geeky, and are open to experimentation. They also like to show off any new product they have to their social circles ansd their risk tolerance allows them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail. 
Early Adopters– Typically when the innovators try out a new product/service, they talk about it and their feedback typically impacts the second fastest category of individuals who would adopt the innovation which is Early Adopter. While Innovators are important to test the product initially, it is the Early Adopters that have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories and their feedback typically creates or kills the product/service. Early adopters are more discreet in adoption choices than innovators. They use judicious choice of adoption to help them maintain a central communication position.
Early Majority– Individuals in this category adopt the innovation after a varying degree of time. Their time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters and they normally have a lower risk appetite and would only purchase products that carry some credibility or atleast products launched by credible organizations. They are heavily influenced by the opinions of Innovators and Early Adopters. 
Late Majority– They adopt an innovation after the average individual. The people falling under this category are reluctant to innovations and adopt it only after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are often financially prudent, have little opinion leadership and are not influenced by new technology immediately. The general attraction for Later Majority would be products sold at a lower price than existing products or products that create a network effect wherein Late Majority are influenced by people in their circles using the new product/technology.
Laggards– They are the last to adopt an innovation. Laggards are almost repulsive to change, typically avoid technology and are inherently not outgoing and in contact with only family and close friends.
Understanding these various segments is extremely important for any business to grow and establish themselves in the market. For example, when Tesla launched their cars, the initial cars were extremely expensive and were bought by high net worth individuals who liked the exclusivity the car gave them and also how it projected them as being environmentally conscious. This move helped Tesla because by producing the initial few cars, they were able to get good media coverage while also ensuring that since they were targeting people with dispensable income, they could recover their initial investment by pricing the product high. But now that their is increased acceptance for the product, they are able to come up with lower priced products because they have the market for it and can afford to mass produce them. Had Tesla just gone ahead and mass produced this low price version, it could very well have been stuck with unsold inventory resulting in failure.

Monday 19 September 2016

Is the Dancing Bear Threatening User Interface?


A “Dancing Bear” is very interesting and entertaining to watch, but the more you watch the more you think, what is the point?
Nicholas Griffin, regional director at Allen International equates a dancing bear to the digital experience. Everyone is looking for the digital experience: a computer-automated world that will get you what you want when you want it. But the more you think about it, what is the point?
Everything is right at your fingertips in the digital world, but that is until you open your mobile app and you can’t seem to navigate the app to save your life. Gone are the days where you could pick up a newspaper and skim through the pages until your eyes land on an article that tickles your fancy, welcome to the new age where that darn search button on your favorite news app appears to be hiding from you.
The information that you thought was right at your fingertips is actually not. And you’re not alone. Your customers are having the same experiences. So, what do you, as a company, to fix this problem for your customers?
The answer is quite simple really, look to SMstudy. According to Digital Marketing, book 3 in the SMstudy® Guide, “User interface refers to the quality of design, ease of navigation and responsiveness of an app or mobile site. An app or mobile site might perform all the functions and have all the features that customers want. However, if the graphic quality is low, or navigation is not intuitive, or the app or mobile site is slow to respond, then the perception of the app or mobile site from a user’s perspective is negatively impacted.”
In order to avoid the “Dancing Bear,” companies need to ensure their customers that they can do anything with the touch of a button and that button should be very easy to find. But don’t stop there. The app or mobile site also needs to be engaging. Which sounds difficult, but it’s really not. If you create content with your customers in mind rather than your business, the content will feel tailor made and will attract more customers. Visuals are processed 60,000 thousand times faster than text, so they are also a must.
But how do you know if your company has produced a product that will truly satisfy your customers? As noted in Digital Marketing, A/B testing can be very useful when a company is unsure whether their app or mobile website is, in fact, engaging, easy to navigate and performs all of the features their customers are looking for. The company can divide its’ budget between two or more design layouts and track the response rate.
Lucky for you the “Dancing Bear” is easy to evade if you keep a close eye on it, and for any future questions in regards to your sales and marketing needs visit www.SMstudy.com.

Friday 16 September 2016

Market Analysis


A local company may boast the best surfboards around, but if it is situated in the Texas Panhandle a lack of sales could make waves. Similarly, a retirement home attempting to attract business through the latest technology might soon find itself in its twilight years. Companies that aspire to achieve sustained success in the marketplace must first perform a market analysis.
Market analysis involves examining market data to identify patterns and predict future events. The purpose of performing a market analysis is to understand the attractiveness of a market. David Aaker outlined the following dimensions of a market analysis:
  1. Market Size—This dimension defines the size and potential of the markets under consideration. Market size is calculated on the basis of current sales volume for the market. Another important consideration for measuring market size is its future growth potential, so appropriate assumptions need to be made regarding market growth rates.
    Example of Market Size: The market for sports equipment typically varies from region to region. In areas with longer summers, the demand for tennis and golf equipment is generally higher. In mountainous regions there is a larger demand for skiing and hiking apparel. The population in regions may be similar, but the market size of each region may vary greatly for each specific product line.
  2. Market Trends—Trends show the overall growth or decline of a market, competitor activities and customer behavior over time. Current market trends can also help in predicting future market trends.
    Example of Market Trends: The timing of major sporting events often results in an increased demand for particular products. For example, branded soccer balls and jersey sales increase every four years leading up to and during the World Cup.
  3. Market Growth Rate and Profitability—Market growth rate forecasts use previous data and future trend indications to predict the future growth rate of markets. Product diffusion curves are used to predict inflection points in growth projections. Market profitability is often evaluated using Porter’s Five Forces model.
    Example of Market Growth Rate and Profitability: As international trade and growth in developing countries increase, it is possible to evaluate the potential acceptance rate of hi-tech features on bicycles in markets traditionally dominated by low-cost versions. For example, observing the patterns of user adoption of ceramic disk brakes in France may lead to an understanding of similar patterns in countries such as China.
  4. Industry Cost Structure—Value Chain Analysis can be used alongside industry cost structure to identify value-adding activities and reduce costs by eliminating those activities that do not add value. Focusing on activities that are critical to the company can help develop a competitive advantage and prevent wastage of resources.
    Example of Industry Cost Structure: In the twentieth century, the banking industry typically relied on physical branches for addressing customer needs. However, the cost structure for the industry has changed significantly in recent times, with many customers preferring to do most of their banking transactions online, or through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
  5. Distribution Channels—Analyzing the effectiveness of existing distribution channels and identifying emerging channels help a company understand its ability to reach customers and identify new opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. Companies with existing distribution channels may find it easier to launch similar types of products targeted at similar market segments.
    Example of Distribution Channels: As with most other industries, online sales and distribution have greatly impacted the marketing and sale of sporting goods. Online representation of the value of the product is crucial to ensure the customer is comfortable enough with the product to purchase it without actually being able to touch it. Relationships with shipping companies become equally important as the customer expects quick and reliable delivery.
  6. Key Success Factors—Identifying key success factors helps an organization focus on existing strengths that have contributed to success and seize opportunities that can give it a competitive advantage. Such factors might include accessibility to essential resources, distribution channels, patents, operational efficiencies, technological superiority and so on.
    Example of Key Success Factors: The success of an online swimwear provider may be quantified with a few key factors such as the ability of the customer to receive clothing that fits without the benefit of trying it on, the ability of the company to keep shipping costs low enough to compete with brick-and-mortar stores and the ability to offer a broad range of product choices to maximize the overall appeal of the site.
Companies searching for success must be prepared to execute when presented with the opportunity. The prep work of any marketplace resident should include analyzing market size, market trends, market growth rate, industry cost structure, distribution channels and key success factors.
David Aaker’s outline of the dimensions of a market analysis can be found in Aaker, D.A. (2010), Marketing Research, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Thursday 15 September 2016

What Did You Do When You Were Supposed to be Sleeping?


Sleep Cycle is an app that tracks your sleep cycle. Seems pretty simple, but looks can be deceiving. In November of 2015, just a few short months ago, the app was released to the public and the vote is in. Everyone loves it.
So, here’s what you do. First, download the app. Before you go to sleep set the alarm programmed in the app and the sleep cycle device will activate. Place your phone screen side down on your nightstand, plug in your charger, and, hopefully, have a great night of sleep.
When you wake up in the morning, the app provides you with a line graph that depicts how many hours you were in bed and how your sleep varied throughout the night from awake, sleep, and deep sleep.
I tried out the app for the first time last night and it appears as if I am a champion sleeper, but I moved 1,267 times. I am a champion sleeper that thrashes.

But that’s not all! The trends tab on the app is available to premium members, and it provides you with several different charts that display sleep quality, what time you went to bed, the amount of time in bed, and what time you woke up at for the week. It also gives you a percentage in regards to sleep quality. Did you sleep poorly because you ate dinner too late? Or did you wake up refreshed because you hit the gym the day before? The app will tell you. It also lets you know if your sleep quality was affected by air pressure, weather, or if you are a thrasher like me.
You get all of this information for a large fee of 83 cents a month (This is not a typo).
Sales and marketing professionals can learn a thing or two from Sleep Cycle. We, as people, are fascinated about sleep. We can’t study our own sleep patterns, considering we are sleeping, so it was all too fascinating to find out that I sleep the majority of my night in a deep sleep. I would have never known that. That’s how they get us in. It’s all a marketing ploy. And then for just 83 cents a month I can not only learn how I sleep, but I will learn how I can sleep better. Who doesn’t want to know that?
83 cents a month is nothing for us fortunate enough to be living in a first world country. We see the advantages for the app, sign up, and never unsubscribe because it is only 83 cents, even though we never use the app anymore and it has been long forgotten. And the money is just rolling in for Sleep Cycle.
(Applause for Sleep Cycle)
So what did they do right? First of all, it is a very big gamble to charge such a low monthly fee. But according to Marketing Strategy, book one in the SMstudy® Guide, it was a very calculated move with the help of secondary marketing research. “Secondary marketing research involves the use of content and information that is currently available within the company or in the market through primary research that has already been conducted and is readily obtainable through company reports, trade journals, industry publications, and/or the Internet.”
The very popular Fitbit will track your sleep, but it can cost upwards of 200 dollars. Fitbit sold nearly 11 million devices last year, so the market was there. From looking at information that was right at their fingertips, Sleep Cycle was able to build a sales and marketing plan that was destined to succeed.
I was pulled in by a marketing ploy and I didn’t even see it. That’s how you know a company is doing its job well. I look forward to going to sleep tonight, I have a competitive streak, so I want to beat last night’s amazing performance.
Give it a try, you know you want to.
For more information and resources about sales and marketing visit SMstudy.com.

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Once upon a time it was Mild as May in Marlboro Country


Product positioning helps brands identify the values that a companys products offer to target customers relative to the value offered by competitors. It highlights the most important benefits that differentiate the product from similar products in the market. Product positioning hinges on customers. Time and again, companies must redefine their product positioning to appeal to an entirely different segment of customers. This can be done either for a new line of products or for existing products with slight or no modifications.

For example, Hersheys came up with new products for adults and repositioned itself to include grownups in its target segment. It helped Hersheys to beat its competition and increase market share. Similarly, Harley Davidson decided to include women in its target segment after a study suggested that nearly 10 percent of motorbike riders were female. It started promoting a range of motorcycles with lower seats along with organizing various road shows for women riders. The company also released some instructional videos featuring women. In both cases, the brands retained their main customer base--children for Hersheys and men for Harley Davidson. But in one of the most successful cases of product repositioning, a brand--Marlboro--changed its customer base completely.
In the 1920s, the world-famous cigarette brand targeted female smokers by stressing that the cigarette was "Mild as May." In the 1950s, it tried to reposition its brand to target a larger market--men. That was around the time that studies linking cigarettes to lung cancer were first published. Many smokers perceived filter cigarettes to be safer but were wary of smoking them as only cigarettes for women were filtered. So, Marlboro was reintroduced with the "Tattooed Man" campaign. Ads portrayed healthy, sporty, and outdoorsy men, such as a cowboy, which sent a positive message to prospective customers. It was such a successful transition that the Marlboro Man became not just a representation of a cigarette brand but also of masculinity.

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Do You Have the Guts to Do That Again? Sales, Strategy and SMstudy


Guts are squishy, often irritable, and can be irregular, yet, many sales and marketing professionals base their practices on “gut feelings” and hunches. 
“Marketing departments will continue to become less dependent on quantifying the value they are delivering to the organization based upon squishy, feel-good branding efforts and they will be even more driven to leverage data and analytics across all marketing channels,” says Russ Hearl, VP at DoubleDutch[1] in a collection of seven sales and marketing predictions for 2016.
To do this, marketing departments will need to borrow some tools and techniques used by other managers in their company. One such tool suggested by SMstudy in its book Marketing Strategy is Value Chain Analysis: “Value Chain Analysis is used to analyze the value created by a company’s current activities. It explores where more value can be added, as well as where value is not being added throughout the chain of activities.”
In addition to “quantifying the value [the marketing department] is delivering to the organization,” the data collected in the Value Chain Analysis can be used as benchmarks for evaluating the company’s existing accounts with a BCG Growth-Share matrix[2]. “Among the many things you should do is start by going backwards, not in how you sell, but how you plan and set yourself up for success,” suggests Tibor Shanto in “It’s A New Year – Let’s Go Backwards.”[3] Identifying which accounts are Cash Cows, Stars and Dogs can give great insights in how the company has set itself up for success in the past.
Shanto says that sales professionals need to make plans for the new year based on data. Among the data required, he includes “some core conversion rates: number of proposals that close, number of real prospects required to generate a REAL proposal, and number of people/companies you’ll need to engage to land one REAL prospect.” Based on a well-developed example, Shanto concludes, “The key is to execute a well-planned strategy, rooted in the real numbers to drive real results.”
“One of the most widely used criteria for lead qualification is BANT, which stands for Budget, Authority, Need, and Time frame,” says the SMstudy® Guide for corporate sales. An analysis in each of these areas produces real numbers that can be used to build successful strategies. SMstudy’s soon-to-be-released Corporate Sales book presents and analyzes the processes of lead generation, lead qualification, needs assessment, negotiation and closure—all within the arena of creating sales strategies that work.
Thinking about sales and marketing from a strategic point of view that leverages data and analytics demands a new approach. That approach is being championed by SMstudy and presented in our six-volume SMstudy® Guide because we want today’s sales and marketing professionals to be tomorrow’s success stories.
Find additional posts on sales and marketing at www.smstudy.com/articles
[1] Quoted by Erin Sherbert in “Seven Sales and Marketing Predictions for 2016” (12/7/2015) Salesforce Blog Retrieved on 1/26/2106 from https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/12/sales-marketing-predictions-2016.html?d=701300000021KSN&soc=LinkedIn
[2] The BCG Growth-Share matrix by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is discussed more fully in SMstudy® Guide; Marketing Strategy, book one of A Guide to the SMstudy Sales and marketing Body of Knowledge (SMBOK® Guide), pages 42+ [available at http://www.smstudy.com/SMBOKGuide/Overview-of-SMstudy-Guide]  
[3] Tibor Shanto. (1/7/2016) “It’s a New Year – Let’s Go backwards.” SellBetter. Retrieved on 1/25/2016 from http://www.sellbetter.ca/its-a-new-year-lets-go-backwards/

Friday 2 September 2016

Innovative Internet-Enabled Business Models


In this digital age, businesses that fail to operate online risk going offline for good.
The growing popularity of smartphones, tablets and digital media provides opportunities for a company not only to use fragmented new-age marketing effectively to promote existing products, but also to come up with innovative business models where product demo, customer acquisition and order fulfillment can take place online.
Innovative business models might include the following:
Online Marketplaces—Several e-commerce companies have created global online marketplaces for selling books, consumer goods and other products. In such business models, customer acquisition is usually initiated through the company’s website. The company coordinates with its multiple suppliers to source products; samples, demos and product reviews are provided on the website; customers make their purchases online; and items are shipped directly to customers.
Here is an example of Online Marketplaces:
  • Book publishing and retail businesses, which historically gained much success using traditional business models, have been significantly affected by the advent of online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba and Flipkart.
Online Services—Online services have significantly impacted many traditional product and service industries by transforming existing business models and creating new ways to conduct business.
Here are examples of Online Services:
  • Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and online maps have made physical maps redundant.
  • Online learning tools have gained popularity and, at times, can complement or even replace physical classroom training.
Online Networking—The Internet has made the world a smaller place. People can now access their networks at all times. These changes have significantly impacted the way in which people communicate with each other and, in turn, have created new possibilities for innovative business models.
Here is an example of Online Networking:
  • Social media channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and Google+ have significantly changed the way in which people communicate with each other.
Business Models Using Smartphones and Tablets—Smartphones and tablets are Internet-enabled devices that allow people to have an ongoing connection to the Internet. Since individuals usually carry their smartphones and tablets with them, mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular. Innovative business models based on the use of mobile devices can disrupt several existing business models—more so in industries that rely on other forms of communications and networking. 
Here are examples of Business Models Using Smartphones and Tablets:
  • Social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn provide mobile apps that enable users to easily share photos and updates or chat with friends.
  • Some mobile apps allow users to locate nearby restaurants, read reviews and also post reviews about their experiences.
In terms of business, the popularity of the Internet has fueled the “adapt or die” landscape more than ever. Business models that integrate online marketplaces, online services and online networking, and that allow for compatibility with smartphones and tablets, offer businesses excellent opportunities for sustained success.