What Should You do About Discount Pricing?

Written on by in price, pricing

I’m noticing an increased emphasis on discounting prices, especially with the emergence of mobile couponing and services like Groupon. Then there was this recent discussion on Eric Brown’s Facebook page. So what should you do about price? My opinion is that you should almost never lower your price. It’s basically a confession that you were

Case Study: Branding an Etsy Store

Written on by in branding, case study

Or at least that’s what we thought we were doing when Barbara Behan agreed to let her Blue Kimono Studio Etsy Store be a case study on The Marketing Spot. But as we got into the branding conversation, Barbara’s perspective changed. As Barbara put it: “…since starting your suggested exercises, it became clear that I

The Local Media PR Formula

Written on by in PR, publicity, traditional media

What’s better for getting local publicity, the new rules of PR on the web, or the traditional local media? For local businesses, it may actually be traditional media. In the video below, I explain the Local Media PR Formula and show how a local business received thousands of dollars in free publicity in a local

The Legal Side of Marketing: Trademarks and Copyrights

Written on by in copyright, podcast, trademark

The Internet show about small business marketing. Podcast Episode #55 – Business law attorney discusses trademarks and copyrights. If there’s one things that throws business owners for a loop, it’s the legal aspect of running a business, and especially the fuzzy legal rules of marketing. But hey, we’re entrepreneurs, not lawyers, right? It’s difficult to

The Best of The Customer Experience

Written on by in Customer Experience

The content of the The Marketing Spot Blog is organized around the four essential spots of small business marketing as illustrated in The Marketing Circle of Life. Here are the 10 best customer experience articles from the archives. I’ve compiled them here in one neat, tidy location. I hope you find them educational in your

Outside-In Branding is Upside Down

Written on by in branding, crowdsourcing

Brands mostly look alike. I wrote last week on how industry standards are a commodity trap, but there is another more-common commodity culprit: the customer. Image courtesy of nickfarr Die Crowdsourcing, Die! Would you let the crowd choose your spouse? Why not? You will spend as much, or more, time with your business as with

Industry Trappings: How not to be different.

Written on by in brand building

If our main goal as a business is to be different, then how come we all end up looking pretty much the same? Because really we spend more time trying to be better, rather than different. True differentiation is not about better service, more features, longer hours. It’s about creating something unexpected that changes the