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Who Is Your Real CompetitionSean DSouza If you design kitchens, is another kitchen designer your competition Most likely not. And the sooner you can position and modify your marketing strategy against your real competition, the sooner you will start to see more business come through the door. So Who Really Is Your Competition The answer to that is always--Never the most obvious. So lets take the example of the kitchen designer. Having decided that another kitchen designer isnt his competition, he now has to decide who is his real competition. His Real Competition Could Be A Car Salesman Is this for real How can a car salesman be a kitchen designers competition Lets analyse this more carefully. A kitchen and a car are both fighting for the same thing-- The householders limited budget. If the kitchen designer, were able to convince a couple that a kitchen is more important than a new car which he could easily do if there was a foodie around, he now has a better chance of them dropping the car in favour of the kitchen. The Advantage Of This Method Of Positioning The most obvious advantage is that youre not losing any current customers. All your past advertising is bringing in the customers that are looking for kitchens anyway. What it does do however, is bring in a new lot of customers that would never have thought about kitchens, if you hadnt implanted it in their minds. Effectively, you have both, customers who are looking for kitchens as well as customers who are forfeiting their new cars in favour of new kitchens. How Your Re-Positioning Can Help You Focus We had a client who ran a laundromat. Her current customers were people who did not have washing machines. Obviously, her business went up and down based on the season and on her customers limited budget. We got her to refocus her marketing strategy on a new target-- Customers who had washing machines. These customers had the money, but no time. By deciding that her real competition was time she decided to target people who had limited time instead. As a result, she was now targeting busy people while other laundromats were targeting people with washing. This positioning actually helped the laundromat stand out from the rest of the competition. How The Laundromat Did A Full 180 This re-positioning did a couple of things for them. One, it helped them focus on their target audience. Consequently, they changed their name from just XYZ Laundromat to Bizzie Buggers. It was catchy and bang on target. It also now meant that busy customers with the money, were more likely to stop over and drop their washing. Plus they had the regular customers walking through the door anyway. What You Need To Do Sit down and write who your immediate competition could be. Then write down what your business is really up against. Here are some examples. These arent necessarily your right targets but they help you see things in a different light and help you determine who your real competition could possibly be. Cartoonist= Photographer Computer Salesman= Filing Cabinet Car Dealer= Expensive Restaurant Meals If you would like to learn more about the way the human brain works, and how customers make buying decisions, go to http://www.5000bc.com Theres a vast library of free articles and information on topics as varied as copywriting, small business ideas, public speaking, sales conversion, psychological tactics, branding and other marketing related subjects. Go to http://www.5000bc.com today. Youll be amazed at what you find there.
| RELATED ARTICLES “Super Adjectives” Boost the Power of Your Copy Pretty or elegant Good or scrumptious Nice or delightful There is power in the adjectives you choose. Just like Clark Kent and Superman or Bruce Wayne and Batman, some adjectives are plain, ordinary, everyday words. Others are alter-ego Super Adjectives that leap into your customers’ minds in a single bound. Adjectives are boring, but Super Adjectives impress, inspire, and convince your customers more effectively. Is Windows XP Service Pack 2 SP2 Killing Your Affiliate Sales Have you noticed a drop in affiliate sales since Microsofts Windows XP Service Pack 2 SP2 was released I have and I didnt really know why until my wife, kids, and friends started asking me why their computer wasnt working right. Winning the Traffic Exchange Game Winning the traffic exchange game can be done. I was just starting out online and had no money so I was looking for a free way to drive traffic to my site. That is when I first found traffic exchanges. I found the concept to be great and signed up for everyone I found and started clicking and clicking and clicking. After countless hours, a blistered clicking finger and a lot of frustration I found the secret to the game. Consumer Styles: Research Review According to research done by Elizabeth Sprolesand George Sproles 1990 in the Journal of Consumer Affairs,there is a significant link between peoples learning stylesand their “consumer styles”. Does Your Brochure Pass the Test- Part 1 Your prospects will decided if they want to read your brochure in the first 5 seconds they look at it. What kind of message are you communicating in that five seconds Will you make a favorable impression with your prospect Will you move your prospect closer to the sale A Fast Way to Fill a Coaching Practice So youve gotten the coach training certification, made up your business cards, and started your web site. Youve discovered your niche, and you have been marketing - aggressively even! 10 Awesome Online Promotion Strategies To Attract More Orders Hello, do you have a website and sell something on the internet Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connection - Part 1 of 2 One statistic shows that over 80% of all buying decisions are emotional. That means your copywriting should be, too. This is something I firmly believe in and have preached for most of my copywriting career. However, all too often, I find people skipping the vital step of making an emotional connection with their customers. That can be a tragic, and costly, mistake. Power Words And Phrases I like to use power phrases when writing sales material. These power phrases add punch to a line or a paragraph and I usually use them to start off a sentence. What A Newsletter Can Do For Your Business Newsletters are often thought of as easy, do-it-yourself communications projects.The reality is different…and that can be discouraging. Does Your Brochure Pass the Test- Part 2 In part one of this article we discussed the importance of the look or appearance of your brochure. 5 Steps To Successful Joint Ventures Most Internet Marketing related ezines have carried at least one article on Joint Ventures; probably many. What Is Most Important – Copy Or Pic When, some little time ago now, I first descended upon the advertising scene, we were a good deal more concerned than most people seem to be today about the nature of the business we found ourselves in. We were always holding debates – in the saloon bar of the Coach & Horses in New Bond Street, to be tiresomely precise – about the meaning of advertising, the significance of advertising, and the past, present and future of advertising. And an unconscionably serious lot we no doubt were. Not to mention drunk. What Do Your Ads Say Make a list of everything you think should be included at one time or another, in one of your ad, be it radio, newspaper or Little Jimmies class play program. Online Classifieds with Angles What many may consider the most important part of advertising is writing an effective ad. The information that provided in a classified ad may be the deciding factor if it is successful or a, "bomb". Create a variety of advertisements that utilize various approaches. Be prepared to revise your content on occasion. This ensures that you are demonstrating different aspects of your offering. In addition, you can promote your offering from different angles, to see what will achieve the best results. Explode Your Sales With Free & Exclusive Content Offering free and exclusive content to ezinepublishers and webmasters is one of the best waysyou can increase exposure for your products andservices. There are several effective methods youcan use to employ this marketing tactic andsubsequently boost your sales. Kick-Starting Body Copy Several correspondents to our newsletter, AdBriefing, say that they are having trouble writing body copy for ads. Their problem seems to be the age-old one of how to kick things off – how to make a start. Can I help Of course, I can. How to Effectively Design Your Business Image In many industries, image is one of the last things business owner looks at. If business is not booming, they assume there is something wrong with the sales method, as opposed to the image. "If we just sent out a few thousand more fliers" they say, "we will get some more clients". When in reality, they should be looking at how the message theyre sending to their target market is perceived in the first place. Here are a few pointers to look at: Aint We Wonderful! It may come as a surprise to you to discover that customers don’t buy your products or services because they feel that you have a right to make a profit. In other words, their motive for doing business with you is not to help you buy the latest Jaguar or put your children through college. You think this is a joke Recent research shows that something like 60% of businesspeople place more importance on what they will get from a transaction than on what their customers will benefit. Taking the Mystery out of Marketing Knowing where to start to improve your marketing can be a bit of a mystery. Is it your marketing message, the places you advertise, your web site or what By measuring the results or your marketing efforts and collecting feedback, you can uncover the secrets of what is and isnt working and learn what to refurbish or replace to generate more leads and increase sales. |
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