Bruce Temkin at Forrester Research recently compared price seekers and service seekers based on data from a published a research report called Who Wants Low Prices Or Good Customer Service? He found that: Most consumers say that both low prices and good customer service are important. The second largest segment of consumers say they seek
The Experience Economy – 10 Years Later
Episode #34 of Power to the Small Business podcast. The Internet show about small business marketing. 10 Years ago Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore published the classic book: The Experience Economy, in which they said a business is what it charges for. If your business is competing solely on price, then you’re a commodity. Pine
Breadth vs. Depth – Brand Identity
Breadth: Being broad in scope. Carrying items in many different product categories. Offering several different types of service under one roof. This means that you try to offer everything a customer might want, even if it’s only remotely related to your product or service offering. If you are a remodeling company you might do everything
>Podcast: Local Marketing Strategies and Tactics
> Episode #33 of Power to the Small Business podcast. The Internet show about small business marketing. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, we focus the lens on local marketing. What can local and small businesses do to increase the effectiveness of their marketing and advertising. Bob Lauck is owner of Lauck
Powercast #6 – Focus on the Customer Experience
Powercast is the Friday morning small-business marketing briefing, broadcast by Jay Ehret live on UStream at 9am Central. Much of the focus of marketing is placed on seducing the customer; getting them interested in doing business with you. That’s not bad, but it’s missing something important: what you do with the customer when you get
>Advertising Trends: Video On Demand
> I met with my local cable reps this week about using video on demand (VOD) for local clients. It’s something you might consider using to differentiate yourself in the market. It’s a relatively new advertising platform and largely goes unused by local businesses. Any business can place video on demand content through local cable
When Does a Customer Experience Become A Gimmick?
This question goes to the heart of how you regard your customers. Do you view your customer interactions as transactions or as relationships? If you view customer interactions as transactions you are more likely to employ gimmicks to get your customers to buy something right now. If you view customer interactions as part of the
Personal Branding and The Brand Called You
Episode #32 of Power to the Small Business podcast. The Internet show about small business marketing. Peter Montoya says there are three types of brands. Corporate branding is where you’re branding a corporate entity or a business. Product and service branding is branding the product or service itself. And then there’s personal branding where there
>Powercast #5: What Company Are You?
> Powercast is the Friday morning small-business marketing briefing, broadcast by Jay Ehret live on UStream at 9am Central. This week it was learned that Microsoft plans to open retail stores, some of which will be located next to Apple Stores. Last month, Microsoft rolled out it’s revamped search engine, Bing. That begs the question:
>Online ESP: Reading Your Customers’ Minds with Web Analytics
> Guest post by Jennifer Tanzi Okay, you’ve got your brand figured out. You know you’ve got the best product or service out there, and you think you know how to sell it. You’ve honed your message and fine-tuned every detail of your pitch, and you finally hit “send” to launch that big email marketing