Levels of Product or Service Customization
The more a product is modified to enhance its relevance to small business, the higher the product's customization level. Typically, there are four levels of product or service customization. They are listed below from lowest to highest level of customization 1. No customization No changes are made to the existing product or service offering. 2. Value-added service A partner adds a service from another company to add value to the overall offering. 3. Right-sized offering A right-sized offering...
Contact method Lyi
AllBusiness used targeted print publications such as Inc., Business 2.0, and Entrepreneur as the sole national media vehicle. Local markets were targeted based on their composition of small business and online penetration broadcast was used primarily in New York, San Francisco and LA, where the company's marketers estimated they could reach 25 percent of their entire audience. Media used in local markets included TV spots, local business journals, and targeted magazines. Television was the lead...
Creative approach Byk
Playing on the absurdly dedicated to business theme, the print and outdoor components featured images of a bride in her wedding dress sitting at her computer, someone receiving a tattoo of Alan Greenspan and a child wearing a t-shirt bearing the words My daddy went to the Detroit Tax Planning Conference and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. We asked David Jones, director of brand marketing and customer experience, why the marketers felt that Alan Greenspan was appropriate for the target market....
Why Small Business Chat Rooms DontWork
ness marketers. I cannot count the number of times I have been in a meeting with a Fortune 500 marketing team and they suggest building a community of small business owners at their web site to create a loyal customer base. The theory usually goes something like this We'll build a community small business owners will come to our site to solve problems and get answers from their fellow entrepreneurs. We'll benefit from being the host of this little party in terms of stickier, more loyal clients....
Dr Kirton Explains
As managers, Mountain Climbers demand a lot. They expect a lot of themselves and, in turn, a lot of their employees. They need very little structure in their lives and, as a result, employees often see them as chaotic and disorganized. One possible explanation can be found in the work of Dr. Michael Kirton. Back in the 1970s, Dr. Kirton set out to understand why some teams of business people are effective while other teams seem dysfunctional. Kirton's research pointed to a difference in the way...
Conclusion
It's time to get started. You have four big challenges between you and the most important market on earth. Solve each challenge step by step Step 1 Forget about the small business market. It does not really exist. It is composed of a number of sub-markets therefore, your first task is to segment your customer base into buckets. Put your most profitable customers in bucket A, your next most profitable customers in bucket B, and so on. Then analyze your buckets to find a commonality that binds...
Mountain Climbers Are Not Inventors
One of the popular myths about entrepreneurship is that successful business owners are inventors. Many envision entrepreneurs toiling away in relative obscurity, working through the night in hopes of building a better mousetrap. Typically, Mountain Climbers are not inventors with brand-new products rather, they enjoy rapid growth by tweaking existing business models. Most Mountain Climbers we have interviewed acknowledge that they are improving on an already existing product or service. Most...
Assessing Value
So before you commission the qualitative research, you must first categorize your small business customers and prospects into groups defined by something that is actionable i.e., criteria against which one can take action then do the focus groups. This is an important distinction because as soon as you understand your segments, you will need to communicate with your customer base or a third-party prospect base for the purposes of marketing. The only way to do that is through the use of segments...
Why it works Cmz
The tactics were innovative and the creative approach was great. The ads speak well to small business and illustrate some uses of Office.com. Consistency with the branding campaign reinforces the effectiveness of both campaigns. We particularly like the recognition that, while Office.com is marketing small business services, they are truly targeting consumers people who work at small businesses. The use of the Office.com site is really not a company buying decision, but rather a personal one....
The See Touch and Feel Factor
We named the fourth barrier to online purchasing the see, touch, and feel factor, which in particular pertains to high-priced items such as office furniture, computers, and wireless systems. When it comes to big purchases, entrepreneurs often use the Internet as a research tool and then test products in the store. Their need to see whether that new chair will suit a trick back or whether that funky new cell phone model will fit comfortably into an overcoat pocket goes beyond the obvious large...
Mountain Climbers Freedom Fighters and Craftspeople
Your first step in segmenting the small business market is to look at your customer base behaviorally and divide your customers up into buckets based on how profitable they are to you. Then you need to find the distinguishing characteristics of each bucket, the traits that make each bucket unique. That trait often comes down to what they buy from you, but you may also find that your most profitable buckets have other similarities, including demographics like age, gender, and ethnicity, or...