Personal selling is an effective way to manage customer relationships. Sales personnel act on behalf of the producer/manufacturer. These sales personnel tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling. However sales personnel can be very expensive and should only be used where there is a good return on investment.

Sales promotion on the other hand, tends to be thought of as being all promotions not including advertising, personal selling and public relations. Examples of sales promotion are BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free), couponing, dollars-off promotions, competitions, free accessories, introductory offers and other methods. Each sales promotion should be carefully compared with the next best alternative.

Public relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to start and maintain goodwill between an organization and its public. It is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other promotion methods, successful strategies tend to be long term and plan for all possible outcomes.

Direct mail is another element of promotion mix. It is very highly focused upon targeting consumers based on a database. The mail is sent out to potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored to maximize ROI (Return on Investment) both short and long term. One example is using subscribers to a Cat magazine would definitely be more likely to buy cat health insurance than non-cat owners.

Participating in Trade Fairs and Exhibitions are very good approaches for making new contracts and maintaining old ones. Companies will seldom sell much at these events, but it aims to increase awareness and to encourage trial of their products. Trade fairs and exhibits offer the opportunity for companies to meet with the distributors and end users.

Advertising is a paid for communication. Newspapers, magazines, journals, television, movies, radio and the internet are used to spread the information. The images, words and feelings help to develop attitudes, create awareness, and transmit information in order to gain a positive response from the target market.

Sponsorship is where an organization pays to be associated with a particular individual, event, cause or image. For example, ROLEX sponsoring the US OPEN or PEPSI sponsoring the SUPERBOWL. The target market relates the positive aspects of the sponsored individual/event to the sponsor. WARNING: Negative aspects can also be transferred, so choose wisely.

 Just like a cake mix, the ‘ingredients’ of the promotional mix are then integrated to form a unique but coherent campaign.

Promote Away,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Discover The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy
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I am giving two seminars in December in Charlotte, North Carolina to help local business owners to get more leads and customers. If you are in the area, or can find a way to get there, come on by to help your business.

Come Think Outside The Box, for more information visit: http://www.localcharlotteleads.com

I’ll help you grow your business,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Don’t be BROkE, watch the video that will show you how to create your website.
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Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

“Raining? On the weekend?! C’mon!” That’s what I thought when Typhoon Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) reached Manila. The sky was pitch dark and poured rain as if there was no tomorrow. I was really upset that day because weekends are used for quality family time usually spent outside the home. I wasn’t aware of what was happening beyond the four walls until the heavy rain turned into a drizzle. We looked outside and saw the flood water was about ankle-deep and thought to myself that it didn’t rain that much until my in-laws called for help. The home office, located at the basement was flooded! The water was knee deep and everybody was moving as fast as they could to save things from pieces of furniture to important documents. A line of bucket was formed from the nearest drain to the basement to drain the water faster. When a little sunshine peeped through the heavy clouds, we were realized that the storm was over – or so we thought.

Heavy rains came again but this time it was scary. The rain was pouring hard as if there was a flock of birds flapping their wings. The sound was deafening. The water rose faster, flooding our garage in a couple of minutes. We decided to evacuate the house when the water reached our foyer and seek refuge from my parent’s house located at a much higher place. I emailed everybody I know if they were affected by flooding and got instant messages that some of them are trapped on their rooftops and others trapped in their cars. Never had Manila been hit by such a devastation, people were unprepared for this degree of calamity.

Facebook.com and Twitter.com became the hotline for help and rescue in Manila. People sending out shout outs asking for help or telling people they are okay. These sites also became the channels for asking donations after the storm subsided. According to news reports, 80% of Manila was under (and some areas after two weeks from the storm are still flooded) flood water after the typhoon left. The President declared Manila and neighboring provinces in a state of calamity and rescue efforts were done as soon as the flood waters were still. Private corporations pitched in to help by giving out immediate relief effort such as food and clothing. The Army was deployed for rescue especially to hard hit areas such as Marikina, Cainta and Pasig. People from these areas sought shelter at public schools. Seeing them first hand was really heart breaking and grateful that we weren’t hit that hard. People lost loved ones and properties during this calamity. Babies were crying for food, old people were given immediate medicine due to some of them were soaked in water for hours. Most of them didn’t have time to save any of their property, all they have for now is the clothes on their back.

Because of the Internet, young Filipinos were the frontrunners in the relief efforts. Every Filipino I know has a cell phone and has at least the basic knowledge how the internet works. They gave time to volunteer and pooled money to buy food and other necessities for the affected families. Techie savvy people set up a Google document of a list where to donate money and drop off points for in kind donations. People where blogging about what damage they saw in their area and asking more people to help out. Filipinos leaving overseas also made donations in cash and in kind. This is what makes me proud to be Pinoy everybody helps out everybody in times of crisis. It doesn’t matter in what economic class you are, whenever you need help on something they won’t hesitate and won’t ask anything in return. They would even put a smile on their faces even if they are suffering.

This calamity brought a nation together, helping out one another without any expectation of any pay. Now that rehabilitation of the areas have started, I hope and pray that the spirit of reaching out and helping will continue until most of the affected families have settled.

If you would like to donate money to help in the area, Samaritan’s Purse is helping there:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/Project_Donations/

Thank you,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Introducing the First Point and Click System for Creating Your Own Products That Sell Like Crazy!
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Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

There many factors that a manufacturer has to decide of what strategies it will use in placing its products. Will it use direct or indirect channels? Single or multiple channels? What type of intermediary will it use? How many intermediaries at each level to use? Which companies to use as intermediaries to avoid intrachannel conflict?

Marketing Mix- Place

Aside from the strategies to be used, the manufacturer will also have to consider some factors in choosing a distributor (intermediary). Such as the knowledge of the distributor of the target consumer and segment, the compatibility of the manufacturer and the distributor in terms of policies, strategies and image, the track record of the distributor and training and support the distributor will require.

There are many types of intermediaries such as wholesalers, agents, retailers, the Internet, overseas distributors, direct marketing (from manufacturer to user without an intermediary), and many others.  The wholesalers are the ones who break down ‘bulk’ into smaller packages for resale by a retailer. They buy from producers and resell to retailers. They take ownership to goods and provide storage facilities. The wholesaler will also often take on some of the marketing responsibilities.

On the other hand, the retailer has a much stronger personal relationship with the consumer. The retailer will hold several other brands and products and will often offer credit to the consumer. The retailer will also give the final selling price to the product.

Agents are another distribution channel. An agent will typically secure an order for a producer and will take a commission. They do not tend to take title to the goods. This means that capital is not tied up in goods. Agents can be very expensive to train. They are difficult to keep control of due to the physical distances involved, and can be difficult to motivate.

The Internet has a geographically diverse market. The main benefit of the Internet is that niche products reach a wider audience. Using e-Commerce technology provides easy payment and shopping. In today’s market, there is a paradigm shift in commerce and consumption which benefits distribution via the internet.

Determine the Place Where They Can Buy It,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Discover The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy
Triple-Your-Money-Back Guarantee at: Amazing Marketing

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Although competing on price is as old as mankind, the consumer is often still sensitive for price discounts and special offers. Price has also an irrational side; something that is expensive must be good. Let’s discuss the four main policies or  strategies in putting a price on a product. Another important factor is that you want your customer to choose you based on value, let others race to the bottom in a price war.

PREMIUM PRICING
Use a high price when there is something unique about your product or service. This strategy is used where you have a substantial competitive advantage. Such high prices are charged for luxuries such as traveling in a private jet or taking a vacation at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

PENETRATION PRICING
The price charged for products and services is set artificially low in order to gain market share. Once this is achieved, the price is increased.

ECONOMY PRICING
This is a no frills low price. The cost of the marketing and manufacturing are kept at a minimum. Supermarkets often have economy brands for soaps, canned goods, etc.

PRICE SKIMMING
Charge a high price because you have a substantial competitive advantage. However, the advantage is not sustainable. The high price tends to attract new competitors into the market, and the price inevitably falls due to increased supply.  For example, a company introduced an environmentally sustainable plastic. The company will sell the plastic at a high price, for which other companies will eventually produce the plastic. By the time there are other companies producing the plastic, the original producer will decrease its price and others will eventually follow. This is also known as “stair step.”

Marketing Mix- Price

Determining a price for a product is not limited on those strategies alone. There are still other policies/strategies that can be used to price a product:

PSYCHOLOGICAL PRICING
This strategy is used when the marketer wants the consumer to respond on an emotional, rather than rational basis. For example, when a container of cleaning spray is priced at $2.99 rather than $3.00. The penny “lost” is made up quickly with volume as people see the two dollars and miss that it really is three dollars.

PRODUCT LINE PRICING
Where there is a range of products or services the pricing reflect the benefits of parts of the range. For example a beauty salon, a basic manicure could be $10.00, basic manicure with high-end nail polish $13.00 and basic manicure with hi-end nail polish and 15 minute hand massage $15.00.

OPTIONAL PRODUCT PRICING
Companies will attempt to increase the amount customers spend once they start to buy. Optional extras increase the overall price of the product or service. For example movie houses will charge for optional extras such as guaranteeing a seat of your choice. These “upsells” increase the total profit on the sale drastically as the initial sale already covered your fixed costs.

CAPTIVE PRODUCT PRICING
Where products have complements, companies will charge a premium price where the consumer is captured. For example Gillette will charge a low price for its MACH 3 starter packs and recoup its margin from the sale of the MACH 3 disposable blades (regular and Turbo).

PRODUCT BUNDLE PRICING
Here sellers combine several products in the same package. This also serves to move old stock. For example a supermarket can bundle a shampoo, conditioner and hair serum (old stock).

PROMOTIONAL PRICING
Pricing to promote a product is a very common strategy. For example a three pack of chocolate pudding Jell-O for $2.87, and then you will get a cup of their Cinnamon Roll Jell-O Pudding (new product) for free.

GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING
Geographical pricing is evident where there are variations in price in different parts of the world. For example strawberries when in season can cost $12.00 in California while when you buy the same strawberries in New York it will cost you $15.00. Cost differences can be attributed to affluence level of the customer, overhead costs, shipping, and may other factors.

VALUE PRICING
This strategy is used where external factors such as recession or increased competition force companies to provide “value” products and services to retain sales. A great example for this strategy is the value meals at McDonald’s. (Though the value meal now seems to eat more money out of your wallet than it used to.)

With so many ways to price your product or service, which would you choose? I suggest to differentiate yourself from your competition.

How Much Is It?
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Marketing Mix- Product

CORE PRODUCT is the BENEFIT of the product that makes it valuable to you. For example, when you buy a car, you can travel anywhere at your convenience. Your convenience of traveling anywhere and anytime you want is the BENEFIT of buying a car.

ACTUAL PRODUCT is the tangible physical product. The car that you bought is the ACTUAL PRODUCT. With leather seats, an iPOD dock, sun roof, 17 inch mag wheels, etc.

AUGMENTED PRODUCT is the non-physical part of the product. It usually consists of lots of added value, for which you may or may not pay a premium. Using the same product, the car dealership gives you an offer to finance the car by paying 10% down payment and the rest will be payable in 12 months with 0%. Or if you decide to pay the full price of the car, the dealership will give you a 25% discount on all repairs and services. The financing of the car and the discount on the repairs and the services are the augmented products which the buyer will not have to pay for it but an added value of the car.

Which of these benefits does your target market really care about? Have you asked them? Your important benefit and theirs may not align.

Understand Your Product,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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The Marketing Mix is probably the most famous marketing term. The term became popular after Neil H. Borden published his 1964 article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Borden began using the term in his teaching in the late 1940’s after James Culliton had described a marketing manager as a “mixer of ingredients.”

Marketing Mix Overview

The marketing mix set a set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that work together to achieve company’s objectives. These controllable tools are the four Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. These four Ps are the parameters that the marketing manager can control, subject to the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment.

The goal is to make decisions that center the four Ps on the customers in the target market in order to create perceived value and generate a positive response. Think of it like baking a cake. Flour, eggs, sugar and butter are the ingredients for the cake. Mixing them with the right measurements will produce a not-too-sweet soft moist cake. But if you add more sugar or separate the egg whites and make soft peaks, the cake will turn out different – a sweeter and lighter cake.

Over the coming weeks I will go more in depth of each aspect of the Marketing Mix. I actually took a cake decorating class recently and have been experimenting with different cake icing flavors and what to decorate. Just when you think you have the “right” mix, your can add something different and see how your customer (target market) reacts to it. These split tests can help your marketing mix to better match your intended audience.

Marketing Mix It Up,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Introducing the First Point and Click System for Creating Your Own Products That Sell Like Crazy!
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Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Product Life Cycle- Decline

You may also discontinue the product, liquidating remaining inventory or selling it to another firm that is willing to continue the product. Unit costs may increase with the declining production volumes and eventually no more profit can be made. There is intense price-cutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting.

Every firm in the cosmetics industry has the similar product as yours. It has obtained some loyal customers thats why you have continued to produce the lipstick even though there is increase in production cost. Smoothe, another cosmetic company, is about to introduce an eye shadow-lipstick that changes color with a higher SPF and a moisturizer with Vitamin E.

Lipstick Tombstone- Death of a Product

There are three things you can do: 1) Continue to produce the lipstick for your loyal customers; 2) Add new features to the lipstick to rejuvenate it or 3) Sell the lipstick to another firm that will continue to produce it. What would you do?

Innovate or Die,
Samuel Carrara

p.s. The product doesn’t have to die, just be aware of what is going on and move faster than your competition. Or you may sell off that product line and go into something else just as the decline starts.

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Product Life Cycle- Maturity

At this point, market saturation is reached and prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products. It is important to maintain or increase market share at this stage of the life cycle through brand differentiation and feature diversification (how can you be different in a way that the end use consumer cares). Maybe some features like this picture?

Lipstick with features of a Swiss Army Knife

Now, let’s use the same product from the last blog entry about Product Life Cycle: the lipstick that is both a moisturizer and sunscreen that changes color depending on the wearer’s body temperature. The lipstick is in every woman’s purse and becomes a household name.

All major cosmetic companies are about to start or have started to introduce similar lipsticks. And this has prompted you to further drop the price to keep your customers and attract even more. To keep customers loyal to your brand/product you add new features to the lipstick like being waterproof or bundling the lipstick with matching eye shadow or blush. Is all this enough?

Help Your Product Mature and Not Die,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Product Life Cycle- Growth

Your advertising and distribution channels have paid off! More consumers are aware of your product in the market and competition is on the rise. Other manufacturers will think of a product that will compete with yours and this will result in a price decrease.

Lipstick with Sunscreen

Picture this, say you came up with a lipstick that is both a moisturizer and a sunscreen that changes color when you change body temperature – when you feel hot your lips will turn hot red and if you feel chilly it turns into neutral pink. You gave samples at Target, WalMart and other stores for customers to try. Anita Wantaproduct, editor-in-chief of American Fashion picked your product as the new “IT” thing of the season.

Because of the feature article in American Fashion, people will become aware about the lipstick and everybody (well at least the women) will want to have one or two for each purse. Lancome and Maybelline came out with a similar lipstick but in a different shade. This may prompt you to reduce your price from the original $10 each to $8.95.

What do you think will happen next? Will it continue to rise and be an item in every woman’s purse? Or will it be just another ordinary lipstick?

Grow Your Sales,
Samuel Carrara

p.s. I don’t think they should directly compete with the other products and lower their price, but that can be discussed later.

SC Marketing Education

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Product Life Cycle- Introduction

For product awareness to pick up, the manufacturer should advertise the product using print, video and audio advertising, along with multiple channels of distribution. They can also spread the word by giving out samples of the products (think of sample booths at Costco or Sam’s Club).

Also non-traditional methods of spreading the marketing message like social media (online videos, social bookmarks, community posting and many other ways) are more ways to help create product awareness. This is a crucial stage in the products “life” it can become the next Cherry Coke or will be discontinued like Pepsi Blue. Both shown below with comments:

Pepsi Blue was launched in the mid2002 and discontinued in 2004. Even with the heavy publicity by Britney Spears and the bands SEV and Papa Roach, it failed to be a household mainstay.

Cherry Coke on the other hand, is the first flavored Coke introduced by Pink Floyd to a test audience at the 1982 World’s Fair. Cherry Coke is available in most of Europe, New Zealand and Japan.

Introduce Your Product,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Introducing the First Point and Click System for Creating Your Own Products That Sell Like Crazy!
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In theory, it’s the same for a product. After a period of development, it is introduced or launched into the market (bird drops the seed on the ground); it gains more and more customers as it grows (shoots out leaves and roots); eventually the market stabilizes and the product becomes mature (little seed became a big tree); then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn (death of tree).

Product Life Cycle

To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert four things:

1. That products have a limited life,
2. product sales pass through distinct stages, each facing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,
3. profit rise and fall at different stages of product life cycle, and
4. products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage.

However, you must remember that a product life cycle even under normal conditions, to all practical intents and purposes often do not exist. Dhalla & Yuspeh in 1976 criticizes the product life cycles states that:

…clearly, the PLC (Product Life Cycle) is a dependent variable which is determined by market actions; it is not an independent variable to which companies should adapt their marketing programs. Marketing management itself can alter the shape and duration of a brand’s life cycle.

So, the life cycle may be useful as a description, but not as a PREDICTOR; and usually should be firmly under the control of the marketer. The important point is that in many markets, that product or brand life cycle is significantly longer than the planning cycle of the organizations involved.

For more about the product life cycle visit: http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/product-life-cycle-overview/

The Product Journey,
Samuel Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Discover The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy
Triple-Your-Money-Back Guarantee at: Amazing Marketing

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

This is Web 2.0, having your customers telling you what they will buy. You can win $2,500 for having your shirt design picked. Read the article in print (June 2008) or online while it’s still there at:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html

Then searching around I saw a great video interview with Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff from Threadless. Simple questions, simple answers but insightful. Watch the video at:
http://www.horsepigcow.com/2008/05/06/the-whuffie-factor-threadless-interview

What is the Marketing Lesson here?

1. Ask your customer’s what they want, give it to them.
2. Repeat!

Web 2.Shirt,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Introducing the First Point and Click System for Creating Your Own Products That Sell Like Crazy!
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Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Recent Problems

• American Airlines grounds 100 MD-80 twin jets on Wednesday April 9th, 2008 for immediate maintenance inspections. Each MD-80 can hold 100 passengers and this action cancels 1,094 flights.
• ATA, Aloha and Skybus Airlines closed for business last week. ATA may come back after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to financial problems, but it may take awhile. They have been in business since 1973. Aloha had been in business for 61 years and recently had to lower fares to compete with Mesa Air Group’s inter island passenger flights.

Why

• Rising jet fuel costs- You thought the $50 you spent at the gas pump filling your car was high. Imagine hundreds of gallons of fuel for each flight. Each cent increase of fuel costs is huge to the airline industry.
• Slowing economy- All over people are seeing the slow down and deciding to hold off on some purchases. Instead of taking a long distance trip, they will take a local one and save money. More companies are using teleconferences and webinars to get business done, rather than pay for the flights, hotels, meals and included costs of face to face communication.

Other Issues

• Workers pay- Month after month you see another part of the airline industry “in talks” or on strike to improve their compensation, be it dollars or benefits. The three main groups I see are Airline Pilots, Mechanics and Airline Attendants (the term keeps changing).
• Pension plans- Very closely related to pay, most of these plans are underfunded. How many plans need to be taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Do you know what money is used by PBGC to makeup the difference in funding for pension plans? Taxes!

These are just a few of the issues about Airline woes. Rising ticket prices would solve some of these problems. Although raising prices would decrease the number of people flying, I think in the long run it is needed. On the short term due to the price elasticity of demand for airline tickets will hurt for a little bit. (I can explain price elasticity of demand in another post.)

This is always a big marketing question that is often overlooked-
Am I charging to little for my product or service?
You don’t know unless you do some testing.

More posts to read about this Debacle:
http://timeshareownersblog.sellmytimesharenow.com/2008/04/10/how-airline-closings-effect-timeshare-vacations-and-timeshare-resales/

http://michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/2008/04/i-am-a-dividend.html

http://www.freightdawg.com/2008/04/ata-bankruptcy.html

Check Your Prices,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

• I forgot to pickup the mail
• My dog ate it (I don’t have a dog)
• My scanner isn’t working
• I can no longer upload pictures
• It’s a special day in April, being the 1st

Although I have not received this check yet… I plan to. I am taking action and working on multiple methods of traffic and improving my marketing to reach that point. That check and others will be mine by this time next year, without any April Fools jokes.

I’ll reveal a few of the methods I’ll use to accomplish this:

1. Articles- Many sites want new content and will take your articles to build up their website size. In the last paragraph of your article your have a resource box that talks a little about you and a link to get more information on the topic. The link will point to a lead generation page, an affiliate offer or one of many other methods in the arsenal.
2. Audios- Just take the article and speak the words into a microphone. Add a little editing and maybe some music and you have a podcast.
3. Video- Take the audio and add pictures and upload it to your favorite video site (YouTube, Myspace, Google, etc.).
4. Blogs- Place this information on blogs and tweak it slightly to not run into duplicate content (even though this is a myth or urban legend).
5. There’s more, stay tuned as I unleash those methods in more details.

I’m using the above procedures for building up traffic to one niche I’m working on right now. I’m also realizing that the first time I do this it takes a little longer to do, each subsequent time is quicker because I have templates and procedures in place. More for later…

Have you figured out what the new plugin is yet that I’m testing? Look at this and the previous two posts, it might help you comment below.

Happy April Fools Day,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Do you know who posted the first comment below? I’ll give you more information when I have completed testing.

Stay tuned, because I’ll be giving it out for free soon.

Plugin Testing,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

First it was a doll or two; they sneak it in by giving Disney Barbie dolls of Belle, Cinderella and the like. Next it was a VW bug Barbie car and a dog (Tanner) that “poops.” Well the poop was thrown away, even if she had a trash can for it.

The new animation of Barbie videos is great. But animation isn’t everything, you also need a good story line. My wife, kids and I found a Barbie video that is addictive- Barbie as The Island Princess.

It’s about a girl named Ro that as a child fell off a ship and lived with animal friends on an island in the South Seas. Her friends- Sagi, Tika and Azul helped raise her and travel to civilization with her when a handsome Prince Antonio happens by the Island in search of adventure.

Of course they fall in love, but the Prince is betrothed (what a large word) to another girl. His Father (who looks like the Burger King) says she has to marry a princess. I don’t want to spoil the best parts so you have to see it for yourself.

We also purchased the Island Princess CD and can’t get the songs out of our heads. It’s good clean fun, and catchy tunes for the family. One song about rats working to earn cheese is hilarious. I can’t get the words, “Oh can you taste it” out of my head.

Island Princess Fun,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

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So you say, Sam… You’re late to the party, Yahoo said yes, no or too low… It doesn’t really matter either way. “Resistance is Futile.” (Sorry I harken back to my days of Star Trek and the Borg/Microsoft.)

Does that news really affect you? Probably not. If this doesn’t affect you, then other news probably won’t affect you either. We all have 1,440 minutes in everyday (that’s also 86,400 seconds in the day). Don’t waste them. Focus on the activities that will give you the most future value.

Will Microsoft prevail? Will some other newsgroup buy Yahoo? We shall see.

Don’t waste time,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

http://www.cybercashology.com/practically-free-special-offer

I just got the free DVD he’s offering in the mail. I also bought the upsell because he has great information. I’ll be looking thru the material this week.

Load up on inexpensive information to jumpstart your business.

Educate Yourself,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

The four stages are defined as: (From a business to consumer B2C point of view.) (Added links for further explanation of each stage.)

• Introduction- Here the company tries to educate the consumer about how the product works, why its needed and work on distribution of the product.
• Growth- Now that consumers know more about the product, companies try to build brand loyalty and increase their market share.
• Maturity- Sales begins to slow and competitors appear to have the same or similar product. Companies are trying to defend market share.
• Decline- A product may become obsolete, need to be revamped or just continues to make sales. Some products do not face being obsolete.

The picture shows one way a product life cycle may evolve. Sometimes it may cycle back and forth between maturity and growth due to innovations of ideas. Where is Your product on this curve? Just because it is in the Introduction or Decline stage, doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t be marketing the product.

In future posts I will talk about each stage in more detail.

Know the Life Cycle,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

J. Conrad Levinson writes in his Guerrilla Marketing book that it actually takes nine (9) times for the ad’s message to run before it sinks in.

Let’s look at the progress…

• The first time, the prospect pays no attention to the ad.
• The second time, it’s still virtually “invisible.”
• The third time, there is a flicker of recognition by the prospect.
• The fourth time, the prospect acknowledges the ad by viewing the advertiser as “successful.”
• The fifth time, the prospect reads the ad copy more intently, with more scrutiny.
• The sixth time, the prospect begins to consider purchasing the product.
• The seventh time, the consideration to purchase becomes more serious.
• The eighth time, the prospect plans the time to actually make the purchase.
• The ninth time “is the day you’ve been waiting for…your prospect actually makes a purchase, often with little sales resistance because the time you have taken for the prospect to notice your marketing has earned their trust in you.” Cha-Ching!

So how many times do you normally send your marketing message out?

Levinson goes on to say that “experts recommend advertising three times for credibility and seven to nine times for people to buy from you.” That’s because it’s frequency that eventually aids the message in burrowing its way into the consciousness of the reader.

Sometimes the prospect may only need 3 – 4 times. But to do it right plan on 9 times.

Once Is Not Enough,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

One stick, two sticks, three sticks, red stick, more… Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book doesn’t it? What’s with all the sticks?

If you take one stick like the one below, it breaks rather easily.

Now put two sticks together, its a little harder to break. Add a third and the difficulty is increased. Great we’re playing stick games! What does this have to do with my marketing efforts or building my business?

Are you only driving traffic to your website by PPC? Or articles or links, or etc.? Get yourself a few more sticks to strengthen your business. If you only have one stick like PPC and they raise cost per click, lower quality of the lead or anything else that prices you out of the game, WHAT are you going to do? Don’t rollover and cry in your Cheerios, get more sticks!

This also applies to many other areas…

• Outsourcing- Do you only have one article writer or web designer?
• SEO- Are you only optimized for G oog le?
• Web servers or Accounts- What if one of your providers shut you off or went out of business?
• This list can get quite long… Think about your 1 stick. You need some redundancy.

Get More Sticks,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

How are you driving traffic to your website? By PPC, articles, some other ways… If you stopped any of these methods right now, would you still get traffic?

• PPC- No $ to search engines means traffic stops. This also means that continuing PPC builds G,M,Y businesses more than yours.
• Articles- You put them out there. They drive traffic, but it will decrease over time. Want to know what else you can do with a written article??

 Look at what you’re doing right now… Is it growing your business or just wasting time? If it’s wasting time, STOP IT! If it is building your business, do MORE of it AND write down the process. This process can be used for outsourcers to multiply what you are doing.

(If you are working for someone else and they pay you, do your best for them. BUT, when the whistle blows get working on your business.)

Build Your Business,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Check out what James Brausch says at:
http://www.jamesbrausch.org/why-would-you-want-to-know-the-lifetime-value-of-a-customer/

Know your numbers,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education

Try the page out (on your Bob the Builder cell phone above) and let me know if you want anything added. Just post a comment and we’ll see what we can do…

Going Mobile,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

Copyright by Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education