Marketing Extr@ - Current Issue The Marketing Association Of Australia And New Zealand

Little question in my mind – sales performance could be improved if more sales people understood marketing better.

I have been participating in an online discussion (LinkedIn – eMarketing Group) based on what I think is basically a rather simplistic question “Is Marketing different to Sales?” Simplistic or not (and why is this an eMarketing question??) it has received over 400 responses.

70% - Have a “limited” sales focused responses (very little apparent knowledge of what marketing is or should be)

I appreciate the way Bob explained the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is what you sow to reap the cash in the form of sale.

Marketings job is to sell the sizzle and drive qualified leads into the marketing-sales funnel. It is sales job to close and/or nurture the leads.

Just a small word here that I perceived about "sales" and "marketing" is they are differ as sales is the way to deliver value to the customers or consumers but marketing is the way of communicate the value to the customers or consumers.

The other 30 % showing a much better understanding about what marketing is and how it links to Personal selling in many marketing situations. (I have to include myself in here – I have made a number of contributions about what marketing is, provided definitions and tried to explain how a knowledge of marketing would be beneficial.

I was not alone in trying to do this – most of those who made valiant efforts to give some good input (based on classical theory) however soon gave up. I guess I should have too – except that trying to help people to understand marketing is what I (and MAANZ) do and among the simplistic dross are some good inputs.

The most disappointing part is that after some three or four decades of education, training, a multitude of books, articles etc - most of these folk (and these ones are actually in a marketing role) don’t have any or much idea about the marketing concept – or why putting the customer first (ahead of the “product”) makes good business sense.

The second disappointing thing is that few of the group had spent any time going back more than a few responses – so they didn’t bother to take in what had been said say 10 responses ago. So they tended to repeat things which had already been covered.

Quite a lot of the little apparent knowledge group also had marketing type titles – a fact noted by a few of the more knowledgeable respondents.

· many marketers need to work better to assist salespeople understand what marketing should be.

The whole point of why the marketing concept makes sense is that it makes practical and economic sense. Done properly it makes good sense. Not understood – it makes no sense at all – does it?

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Quotations

A reasonable man adjusts himself to his circumstances. An unreasonable man adjusts his circumstances to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man. (George Bernard Shaw)

The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life. - George Carlin

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

From the Media

PepsiCo’s Gatorade ends Tiger Woods marketing deal

PepsiCo Inc.’s Gatorade brand said it will stop using Tiger Woods in its marketing, ending a more than two-year sponsorship with the golfer.

Gatorade is one of several sponsors to scale back or end campaigns featuring the golfer following reports of Woods’s extramarital affairs.

In December, consulting company Accenture Plc said it was ending its six-year relationship with Woods and AT&T Inc. severed ties with the golfer. Procter & Gamble Co. said it would begin phasing Woods out of Gillette razor advertising.

However, high-end watchmaker Tag Heuer not only sees a continued role for Tiger in its marketing efforts, but it is also boosting its association with Woods – because of the scandal. But the brand's strategy assumes some interesting cultural stereotypes.

In response to the Woods scandal, Tag Heuer has pulled most of its Tiger Woods-related advertising from US markets. In China though, the brand has ramped up its Woods promotions. The reason? Tag Heuer chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin told The Sydney Morning Herald, “In China conversely you have Tag Heuer with Tiger Woods everywhere because [with] the Chinese it rather increases their esteem. In China, by tradition, your success is measured by your number of mistresses.” Babin says the numbers back up his claim, as the brand has made gains in China in the last year.

It's a pity. Traversing cultural barriers and the inherent, nuanced misunderstandings and idiosyncrasies of cross-cultural communication has always posed challenges for brands, so it is important for brands to be careful when assuming anything about an entire culture – particularly one as complex, ancient, and layered as China's. So Babin's comments are a bit dismaying because they appear to be very sweeping and superficial; however, you can't argue with success: the strategy is working as sales are strong. But is this due to Tag Heuer's insightful approach to Chinese men, or is there something else at work here? After all, sales for the brand are also grew in Australia.

Mobile app market to explode in 3 years

The mobile app market was only $1.94 billion in 2009, but smartphone usage will increase tenfold over the next three years, from 100 million users in 2009 to 1 billion by 2013, TechCrunch reports.

Mobile is still a relatively untapped marketing resource, and the market explosion will provide plenty of opportunity to brands and corporations. Only 10 percent of Fortune 200 companies currently target customers will mobile applications, according to research2guidance. Most of those companies use apps to reach existing customers or promote products, with just 9 percent of those companies selling stand alone applications, according to the report.

eBay purchases the wholesale division of World of Good

Shoppers on eBay are big purchasers of antique, retro, vintage items, and also uniquely crafted products. eBay now believes it has found a way to deliver products that offer all of these qualities.

eBay has purchased the wholesale division of World of Good, a venture that connects artisans from developing communities with mainstream retail markets. eBay plans to feature World Of Good’s products on its site, bringing together a classic example of supply meeting demand.

Since its debut in 1995, eBay has been the king of Internet garage sales, allowing users to sell or buy anything from an antique stapler to a grilled cheese sandwich that looks like the Virgin Mary. With the addition of World of Good, eBay is embracing a “do good” big-company grassroots direction.

It is thought that eBay’s decision to bring on World of Good is a strategic move designed to edge mom and pop Internet stores out of business.

Take Etsy.com for instance. The social commerce website, started in 2005, focuses on individually produced art, clothes, and other trinkets thousands of users create and buy every day.

In 2008, eBay users began to grow tired of the brand’s hiked fees, and turned to Etsy to conduct their business. And buyers followed. Etsy now boasts more than $10 million in sales per month, and poses a serious threat to eBay.

The purchase of World of Good is certainly a clever counter to Etsy’s competition, as the organisation has an inherent social, altruistic, and artful appeal. It could be just what eBay needs to knock Etsy and similar sites out of the eGarage ring.

Apple, Google are "most admired" companies

Apple, the consumer electronics pioneer, and Google, the online search giant, are the two "most admired companies" in the world, a new study has found.

Fortune, the business title, partnered with Hay Group, the consultancy, to assess the US firms in the Fortune 1,000, and their foreign rivals in the Fortune Global 500 with revenues of at least $10 billion (£6.6bn; €7.3bn).

This group was cut down to 667 organisations which were seen as leading players across a range of industries, and the resulting list was presented to a panel of 4,170 directors, executives and analysts. Apple received the highest overall score among this audience, and thus took the top spot in the annual poll for the third year in succession. It was credited with having sold 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod Touches, while its recently-launched iPad is also viewed as a potential "game-changing" device in some quarters.

Google rose one place to second, due to its on-going dominance of the search market, as well as the improving financial situation at YouTube, and as the web titan is continuing to build its mobile presence.

Amazon, the online retailer, was not even in the top 50 last year, but claimed fifth position in the latest rankings, buoyed, in particular, by the popularity of the Kindle, its eBook reader.

Tasmanian social media attribution laws mirror SA

Tasmanians have begun to speak out on draconian laws that require online political comment to include the commenter’s name and home or work address.

A consumer group, Digital Tasmania, with the backing of the Australian Privacy Foundation, Electronic Frontiers Australia and Civil Liberties Australia, has sent a letter to Tasmania’s electoral commissioner not to enforce the “unworkable” law.

"The sheer impracticality of enforcing this law on thousands of people in Tasmania and elsewhere commenting on this election is overwhelming... Those who do follow the letter of the law potentially expose themselves to harassment, stalking, physical abuse or identity theft,” said Andrew Connor, a spokesperson for Digital Tasmania. "It is conceivable that such personally identifiable information may, once published, remain available online forever.”

Coca-Cola aims to triple China sales

Coca-Cola is planning to more than double its number of bottling plants in China in the coming decade as part of its aim to triple the size of its sales to the country’s rapidly emerging middle class.

Coca-Cola executives say they expect 60 per cent of the new growth to come from China, India and other emerging markets, with only 15 per cent from developed markets.

China, already Coca-Cola’s third-largest national market by revenues, has an average per capita consumption of 28 Coca-Cola products per year – on a par with poor African countries and well below the 199 Coca-Cola products per capita drunk last year in Brazil.

Coca-Cola is the largest soft drinks brand in China, with almost 15 per cent of the packaged beverage market, although it trails local competitors in tea and juices. Its volume sales in China are about double those of PepsiCo, its global rival.

P&G TO heighten focus on corporate branding

Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, is planning to heighten its emphasis on corporate branding in an effort to drive growth,

The company recently announced its intention to introduce a large number of new products this year, and is also aiming to add one billion consumers to its customer base by 2015.

Soy-Sauce-Flavoured Kit Kats?

With 18 Other Exotic Flavours, Nestle Takes Product Localisation in Country to Culinary Extremes

Western marketers are adept at catering to the tastes of Japanese consumers, with quirky products such as McDonald's Filet-O-Shrimp burgers and a cucumber-flavoured soft drink by Pepsi.

But Nestle has upped the ante for the most creative only-in-Japan product by creating 19 unique flavours for Kit Kat, one of the best-selling chocolate candy bars in the world and the No. 1 brand confectionery brand in Japan.

Besides the regular chocolate variety, which must seem mundane to Japanese by now, Nestle has come up with variations that reflect the local produce and palate of each region. There are some staple flavours like miso, soy sauce and green tea, but the list doesn't end there.

Kit Kat varieties now range from yubari melon and baked corn from Hokkaido Island to green beans and cherries from Tohoku in north-eastern Japan to uzu fruit and red potatoes from Kyushu Island at the southern-most tip of the country. The Kanto region, including Tokyo, contributed the sweet potato, blueberry and kinako (soybean) flavours.

The strategy started three years ago with a handful of flavours but has escalated into a national phenomenon. It's also unique to Japan, so Kit Kat lovers in other countries shouldn't expect to see exotic local flavours. (Kit Kat is owned by Nestle, but is produced in the U.S. under license by The Hershey Company).

Each flavour is only sold in the region for which it was created, a distribution strategy that has turned limited edition Kit Kat packages into coveted souvenirs for domestic travellers.

Even though Japan has perhaps the world's most sophisticated digital-media markets, Nestle took a low-tech route for Kit Kat: the post office.

Nestle was struck by the discovery that the Japanese translation of Kit Kat -- Kitto Katso means "surely win" -- and realised it could be paired with the tradition of sending students good luck wishes before they take tough higher-education entrance exams.

So it partnered with Japan's postal service to create "Kit Kat Mail," a postcard-like product sold only at the post office that could be mailed to students as an edible good-luck charm.

Nestle decorates post offices with a cherry blossom theme that coincides with Japan's annual exam period. It also stocks a sales point in each post office, a move that became possible when Japan's postal service was privatised in 2007.

Digital natives

The notion that kids today are somehow different because they grew up with digital tools may be overblown, reports the Economist (3/6/10). Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong, writing in the British Journal of Education, argues that there could be "as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations." She says such generational generalisations "fail to recognise cognitive differences in young people of different ages, and variations within age groups."

The point is that digital natives "do not really have different kinds of brains that require new approaches to school and work." Michael Wesch, a new-media pioneer and cultural anthropology prof at Kansas State agrees that many of his students "have only a superficial familiarity with ... digital tools."His view is diametrically opposed to professors who suggest moving "classroom discussions to Facebook," for instance, or management gurus who want employers to shift from "command-and-control" cultures to more collaborative environments.

It may also upend the idea that "digital natives will grow up to be more responsible citizens" and use their digital prowess "to campaign on social issues and exercise closer scrutiny over their government." Again, "there may simply be too much economic, geographic, and demographic disparity to make meaningful generalisations ... There is also a feeling of superficiality about much online youth activism." Joining an activist Facebook group is one thing, but a Pew Research Center study "found that internet users aged 18-24 were the least likely of all age groups to email a public official or make an online political donation."

The naughty Volvo

At the Geneva Auto Show this week, Volvo has unveiled an online-only campaign called “The Naughty Volvo” to promote its new S60 sedan coming to the US this year.

Volvo’s online episodes aren’t really that kind of naughty. But for a brand whose DNA has generally been about safety and staidness, even after a radical styling overhaul several years ago, these three web films are naughty indeed.

They’re test-track performance-and-handling demonstrations of the S60, allowing viewers to use a virtual dial to go from a tame-and-traditional test to one where the car is swerving around a goldfish bowl placed on a slalom cone to the third level of “naughtiness,” which shows an S60 driving backward.

Then fans can submit their ideas for as “Level Four” driving experience that Volvo could produce into another web film.

Tommy Hilfiger brand to be sold

The sale of Tommy Hilfiger, a leading premium fashion brand, may occur within weeks, reports the New York Post. The likely buyer? None other than Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), which already owns an impressive stable of fashion brands, including Arrow, Bass, Calvin Klein, Izod, and Van Heusen.

Tommy Hilfiger went from a public to a private company in 2006 when it was purchased by equity firm Apax Partners. Of course, that was before the global economic meltdown pummelled retail brands.

Microsoft and Amazon strike deal

Microsoft and Amazon have signed a strategic cross-licence agreement under which both companies will have access to some of each other’s patent portfolio.

Details of the deal are limited, but Microsoft said that the Amazon Kindle e-reader and use of Linux-based servers are included.

It is understood that Amazon will pay an unspecified amount to Microsoft for access to the tech giant’s intellectual property patents.

"We are pleased to have entered into this patent licence agreement with Amazon.com," said Horacio Gutiérrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft.

"Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to intellectual property issues regardless of whether proprietary or open-source software is involved," he said.

Microsoft launched its intellectual property licensing program at the end of 2003 and has since signed more than 600 licensing deals with companies including Apple, HP, Fuji Xerox, Nikon, LG, Novell, Pioneer and Samsung.

About a year ago Microsoft sued GPS maker TomTom with regards to eight patents, including three related to TomTom’s implementation of the Linux kernel operating system.

Google plans ultrafast broadband network

In a timely move for the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network project, Google has announced its plans to build experimental fibre-optic networks able to deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

In a blog post, Google said its ultrafast networks will allow consumers download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes and facilitate rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the web.

Google expects that the availability of high-speed Internet access will allow developers to create new applications that haven't yet been imagined.

In India, HUL V P&G

The war between FMCG giants Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble intensified with the two seeking legal redress alleging foul play on detergent powder advertisements.

HUL, which has been asked by advertising watchdog ASCI to respond to complaints of "disparaging" the rival product Tide in its Rin ad, got a boost from an order by Madras High Court directing P&G to modify its Tide ad.

Meanwhile, P&G moved Calcutta High Court yesterday against HUL for putting out a "disparaging" advertisement against Tide.

"We are aware of the disparaging advertisement on air against Tide Naturals and have filed a case against the same," a Procter and Gamble spokesperson said.

Until now, it has been rare for Indian companies to compare rival brands by naming and/or attacking them directly in advertisements.

According to the latest January report by Morgan Stanley, Rin has lost as much as 25 basis points in market share while P&G's Tide has gained 60 basis points. HUL has already reduced prices of Rin to arrest the decline.

Tough times in Taiwan for ad growth

While China's ad market grows by double digits, neighbouring Taiwan has hit tough times. Ad spending in Taiwan fell by 7% in 2009 to NT$39.42 billion ($1.23 billion), a result of the global financial crisis as well as fallout from the introduction of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act in January 2009. Taiwan's health authorities banned smoking indoors in public areas, including hotels, restaurants, bars, taxis, internet cafes, airports, bus stops and train stations. The law also bans cigarette ads and promotions.

What to expect in the Year of the Tiger

China is entering the year of the tiger with an air of cautious optimism and energy. According to one popular geomancer, 2010 will be "a dynamic year of sudden opportunities and bold actions," especially compared to last year's global economic crisis.

But prickly challenges lie ahead for marketers, government officials and consumers. Ogilvy & Mather has ten predictions to help marketers understand key issues shaping China's business environment.

Here are five of those predictions in the first of a two-part special report written by two executives at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Scott Kronick, president, North Asia in Beijing and Jamie Moeller, managing director, global public affairs in Washington, D.C.

1. It's social stability, stupid

Roll the calendar forward in China, and our adaptation of the old U.S. campaign phrase, "It's the economy, stupid," clearly applies. More than trade friction, more than the debate on devaluing the RMB, more than the many issues involving other regions and countries, it's a sure bet that China's political elite will focus on maintaining stability and avoiding even the smallest risk of unrest during 2010.

The government is particularly concerned about unemployment. More than six million university students will graduate this year and join the three million grads from last year who have still not found employment. Marketing messages relating to employment and contribution to jobs are as important in China as they are anywhere else in the world.

The growing income disparity between urban and rural residents is another issue to watch. Over the past decade, the average salary of rural residents grew much more slowly than that of urban Chinese. City dwellers now earn more than two-and-a-half times their rural counterparts and some high-level executives have salaries hundreds of times larger than their own staff. Chinese leaders would like to narrow this gap.

What impact will this have on marketers? Don't expect Facebook, YouTube or Twitter to operate freely anytime soon. Any platform that could be a potential risk for a healthy and stable nation will be blocked. Chinese leaders know that these tools can be used to organise political unrest.

Companies should refrain from meddling in China's goals for social harmony. Google's recent troubles here clearly spell out the government's priorities in China. Maintaining access to google.com.cn is not one of them.

2. The domestic agenda will dominate

President Hu and Premier Wen recently outlined their "People First" policy which will focus on improving quality of life for Chinese residents.

The domestic agenda reigns in China. And the top two issues on that agenda are consumption and utilities -- not exactly sexy but extremely practical. A third key issue is healthcare reform.

In 2010, the government will continue investing stimulus funds into areas that will benefit consumers and lead to increased domestic consumption.

Priorities include funding public utilities, primarily transportation. The goal is to encourage Chinese consumers to buy more while improving their quality of life and building out the country's mass transportation infrastructure. The "appliances to the countryside" program will continue in 2010. Since last year, millions of Chinese consumers have bought televisions, computers and washing machines due to a 10% government discount.

The mass rail system will expand. In December, China launched the fastest train link in the world, connecting the southern cities of Wuhan and Guangzhou with a high-speed train that runs close to 200 miles per hour.

"Google's recent troubles here clearly spell out the government's priorities in China. Maintaining access to google.com.cn is not one of them."

China plans to build 19,000 miles of railroad track by 2015, almost half for high-speed trains. In the next three years, 800 bullet trains are expected to be up and running. The government is supporting new subway lines and fifteen cities are building subway systems.

Healthcare reform is closely tied to domestic consumption, as one-third of Chinese residents have no insurance coverage and save money for a potential health crisis. The government is investing RMB 850 billion ($125 billion) over the next two years on programs including a national health insurance system, prescription drugs, improved rural healthcare, and public hospital reform.

Despite a tightening of the market in China, particularly for multinational firms, foreign companies that fit within China's domestic agenda can reap the benefits in 2010, especially in technology, engineering and healthcare fields.

3. Self-reliant economic nationalism will continue

There is a shift taking place in China which has become very clear for those in joint ventures or in deep discussions with Chinese partners -- favouritism towards domestic enterprises over foreign firms.

For those operating here, it is being labelled as "self-reliant economic nationalism." While leaders do not refer to this directive specifically, many multinationals have expressed concern about it, and this has been reinforced from sources within the government leadership.

As a result, most successful multinationals have a mandate to become even more deeply rooted in China, and part of the fabric of everyday society. That involves true, long-term partnerships focusing on joint innovation projects that move China towards its quest for innovation and self reliance. The challenge is protecting sensitive technologies and intellectual property while doing so.

In 2009, Chinese leaders indicated their overwhelming support for the SMEs that employ 80% of the workforce. These small and medium-size enterprises help the government move away from clumsy, dated state-owned enterprises.

A metaphor we hear often related to China's massive stimulus package that speaks of this shift is: "If the stimulus package is a bowl of soup, let the multinationals drink the broth, while the domestic companies eat the meat." It is similar to the "Buy American" campaign in the U.S.. and means multinational companies must work harder to both succeed and show how they are part of China's long term socio-economic solution.

4. "Made in China" will shift to "created in China"

The government is strongly urging a "created in China" approach. Is this a risk to foreign companies operating here?

There are two lines of thought. First, certain sectors of the U.S. economy are concerned that this movement poses a clear risk to foreign firms by excluding them from the market.

A key worry is a new rule on government procurement which requires Chinese government contracts to be carried out by companies that rely on intellectual property developed in China. In 2010, this will impact numerous products, including computers, software and energy equipment.

Second, China is encouraging foreign companies to work with domestic companies more closely to expand globally.

"It's clear China no longer wants foreign corporations to simply inject funds into this market. They want a cohesive strategy that will provide benefit to both sides."

According to the government, there are multiple ways to achieve indigenous innovation. Companies can buy other companies, create new inventions that bring about value and benefits, and collaborate on new ideas. Protection of intellectual property rights is an essential component of this effort.

Which is correct? The answer is somewhere in the middle. Going forward, foreign companies operating in China must make clear that they are willing to work with the government to benefit the domestic economy.

By forming alliances with Chinese companies, investing in rural areas and raising the bar on Chinese technology and development, multinationals can share best practices, help improve the domestic economy and still develop a robust China business plan. It's clear China no longer wants foreign corporations to simply inject funds into this market.

5. A rocky road ahead for U.S.-China relations

In the Year of Tiger, we enter unfamiliar terrain in U.S.-China relations. There's a new dynamic in the relationship, one in which China is increasingly assertive and confident, while the U.S. becomes dependent on China to fuel its economy and assist it on multilateral priorities. While we anticipate these issues to be irritants between the two super powers, we believe a constructive and cooperative relationship will emerge as it is in the best interest of both countries.

"The U.S. government will be supportive of American companies' commercial interests. This won't translate into a broader political campaign on internet freedom in China."

Internet freedom has captured headlines in Beijing and Washington. Google's public threat to leave China and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's subsequent speech stirred emotions in both countries.

While we know the U.S. government will support American companies' commercial interests (including Google), this won't translate into a broader political campaign on internet freedom in China.

Posturing on such issues in Beijing and Washington, largely to appeal to domestic political constituencies, isn't likely to derail the world's most important bilateral relationship. The economic issues are likely to cause the greatest friction, but paradoxically create the strongest bonds.

Given China's much more rapid and robust economic recovery and the immense trade imbalance between the two countries, it is increasingly clear that China will be a target of American policymakers.

For its part, the U.S. continues to need cheap imports from China as increased consumer spending will be the only sustainable way to fuel a long-term economic recovery. In addition, the U.S. hopes for greater access to the world's largest market to sell goods and services.

Retailers trying to ban mobile phones

Some retailers are trying to ban mobile phones in a crackdown on bad-mannered, loud-talking customers.

Fed up with shoppers carrying on conversations while browsing and buying, some store managers have decided to enforce what they see as old-fashioned civilities.

Damien Hinds, who manages a stationery store in Melbourne, has put up three "no mobile phone" signs because he was tired of his staff being treated "like an ATM machine".

"We used to have people pushing the stock and their credit card at us while they kept talking on their phone," he said. "(Staff) are people too, not pieces of machinery."

Russell Zimmerman , of the Australian Retailers Association, said excessive mobile phone use was increasingly frustrating for shopkeepers.

However, he cautioned that retailers needed to strike "a very fine balance" with anti-mobile policies: "They've also got to realise that you don't want to offend the customer. If you offend the customer, they'll never come back."

Become one of the all-too-few brands that matter

In their book “The Brand Bubble,” Young & Rubicam’s John Gerzema and Ed Lebar demonstrate that consumers have decided most brands don’t matter anymore!

As a design firm principal involved in package design for two decades, I can clearly see that in today’s evolving marketplace, the same old marketing approaches aren’t working, and they won’t in future, either.

It’s disquieting when companies seek new or revitalised package design solutions for their products when they aren’t taking a serious look at their overall branding efforts. Packaging, when properly developed, refers back to the brand. But if that brand has lost its relevance or has never established clear differentiation -- if it needs to reconnect with consumers or has become a commodity -- simply refreshing packaging will not lead to desired results.

For brands to be truly resonant, new thinking must permeate the entire company from top to bottom. Today’s successful brands must:

Be disruptive and creative.

OXO has redesigned the most mundane of objects like the measuring cup and vegetable peeler in a whole new way to make it easier for everyone, especially aging and handicapped people, to easily execute household chores, creating strong brand adherents.

Generate excitement.

The master at this, Apple, has built buzz about the imminent launch of its new, long-awaited multimedia tablet device… ambitiously stating the company is going to carve out a new product category—yet again!

Entertain.

Unilever’s Axe brand of grooming products ingeniously aims at a young men’s market by focusing on building a brand that ensures positive experiences between them and young females in a modern version of the Dating Game.

Engage.

Crayola continues to engage even today’s high tech kids. By moving away from its former branding as an art supply company to a provider of childhood creativity, the brand remains vibrant and relevant.

Add convenience to consumers’ lives.

Staples Easy button infers home offices and businesses will easily find the products they need; enjoy expert service, advice and substantive help like computer repair service. Simple, direct, effective branding.

Brands that do not meet the expectations of today’s consumer are being summarily dismissed. Brands must be fluid and dynamic. Since the consumer is rapidly changing, as well as consumer culture, the research suggests that marketers need to stay on top of their brands, constantly adapting in a proactive manner, rather than reacting when their brands start losing relevance.

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen coined the phrase “disruptive technology”. Disrupters think of a better way to offer simpler, better performing or problem-solving products -- and product packaging -- for consumers. They create excitement in the process. Excitement leads to buzz. Buzz leads to customer engagement.

People are attracted to the brands that deliver creativity, excitement, or entertainment value; an invitation to engage or a promise to help simplify their complicated lives. That’s why some brands -- but fewer and fewer these days -- command so much attention in the marketplace. But here’s an important point: brands can’t simply launch one exciting concept and then sit back. They have to continue to create excitement. If that sounds tough—not every company can be like Apple right?—it may not be as hard as it sounds. Creativity and innovation feeds on itself and brands can borrow a page from companies that are far smaller than Apple or Google.

Think of smaller companies that have strong brand adherents. They’ve consistently delivered due to the ongoing energy they create:

• Method cleaning products. Strong point of view: “A Cleaner Clean”. Unconventional, see-through packaging; very unlike the rest of the cleaning category. The inferred message: we have nothing to hide. The Method brand is about: “efficacy, safety, environment, design, and fragrance”. Result: consumers are turning to Method in increasing numbers.

Bottom line: new vision and approaches can add significantly more value to brands over their competitors. The brands I’ve cited could easily have become commodities but they didn’t fall into the ho-hum, business-as-usual brand management trap. They chose to brand with more creativity and energy than the norm. They stuck to their vision, while changing with their customers to remain relevant, continuing to generate positive energy. They’ve been richly rewarded by consumers, as a result.

My advice: if your brand is less than exciting, reposition, re-brand and then repackage. Deliver positive energy and relevance to consumers and they’ll not only become loyal, they’ll engage their communities to become loyal, too. Become one of the all-too-few brands that matter.

China's 2010 Ad Spending to Grow 10% After 13.5% Jump Last Year

Rising demand for limited TV inventory will raise rates and send advertisers to new media, says CTR Market Research

After a nose dive in early 2009, China's ad market rallied during the last three quarters of the year. Total measured advertising expenditure in 2009 jumped by 13.5% over the previous year to $74 billion, and 10% growth is expected this year, according to CTR Market Research. ...

Grill’d promo backfires

A two-for-one promotion offered to Uni Times readers by Grill’d has backfired due to the brand not foreseeing digital distribution of the voucher. The brand issued the following statement on its website:

We've been inundated recently with people trying to redeem a 2 for 1 burger offer that has been doing the rounds via email. The 2 for 1 burger offer originated from the current print edition of the Uni Times Magazine (a magazine for Victorian Uni Students) and we only ever expected for this voucher to be available for readers of the print publication and not available online.

The Uni Times 2 for 1 offer was intended to be limited to the readership of the Uni Times publication - otherwise we wouldn't have been able to offer it at all - All vouchers from the printed publication will be honoured. To get the real voucher just pickup a free copy of Uni Times from any of these locations. We hope all of our customers can appreciate the good faith in which the offer was released and that neither Grill'd or its loyal customers will win in the long run if we allow digital copies or scans to be honoured for printed offers such as this. We know a lot of our loyal Grill'd fans have received electronic versions of the offer and we apologise for this, but we hope you understand that this was never our intention.

We've had to close comments overnight to ensure we can monitor any abusive or offensive posts - we'll be open again in the morning.

“You really should have included a condition that you need to show a student card if you wanted to limit it to Uni students... feel kind of sorry for the marketing person who is responsible for signing this off!!”

“Your customers tried to scam you Grill'd, did they? Well this one will never visit Grill'd again, so don't worry about being scammed. Grill'd pulls a Toyota and destroys their brand loyalty with one stupid move. Good management skills, do you have a 15 year old CEO, or just a greedy moron. Bye.”

“You are a pack of rotten, two faced, lying, manipulating scum bags who over charge for mediocre burgers. Don't worry, the burger fad will die down and Grill'd will be forced to close its doors in the very near future.”

“I am regular at Grill’d. Was very disappointed and humiliated when my friend and I were told at the counter that the voucher will not be honoured. Will never visit such dishonest venture who can't admit their own fault and chooses to blame it on their customers. Sorry Grill’d - wasn't happy.”

Nando's has apparently taken advantage of the situation. The rival brand is offering to honour the vouchers.

TNS merges with the continuous panel service run by the TNS joint venture CTR Market Research in China

TNS, a world leader in market information and insight, announced today that its TNS Worldpanel China continuous research service, operated by TNS China, has merged with the continuous panel service run by the TNS joint venture CTR Market Research. The merger creates the strongest business of its kind in China.

Until now, the CTR Consumer Panel has focused on local clients, while TNS Worldpanel China has concentrated on global clients based overseas but with operations in Mainland China. The services have now merged under the world-renowned TNS Worldpanel brand and will be led by Jason Yu, who has been appointed General Manager, TNS Worldpanel China.

Following the merger, TNS Worldpanel China now continuously measures household consumption across a variety of product categories including cosmetics, food and beverages and the toiletry/household sector. It has built its services on its National Urban Panel, a pre-recruited sample of families covering 20 provinces and four municipality cities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing).

YouTube NFP program’

YouTube has announced the launch of its ‘YouTube Not-for-profit Program’ in Australia.

Under the scheme, eligible nonprofits can apply for a free YouTube Brand Channel. They are also allowed an increased upload capacity, placement on YouTube’s not-for profit channels page and the ability to add call-to-action overlays to their videos. Some nonprofits use the avenue as a means to attract skilled volunteers for video production.

The program has run since 2007 in the US and UK. Nonprofits that join by March 12 will be eligible for the DoGooder NonProfit Video Awards, the winners of which are awarded $2500, are featured on the YouTube homepage and recognised at NTEN, the world’s largest not-for profit technology conference.

"We've very excited to begin working with fantastic not-for profit organisations across Australia. This program will provide Australian nonprofits with a platform to promote their cause to the world's largest video community," said Leticia Lentini, Google’s Australian not-for profit lead.

AOL

Now, fully free from told-media Time Inc. since December, America Online has been taking a number of steps aimed at re-establishing itself on the cutting edge of online media.

One of AOL’s latest moves has been to hire a number of brand-name journalists. But is this move to bulk up its journalistic bona fides really doing much for AOL’s brand? May be too late for AOL to do much to change our minds – or at least our habits?

In the years since AOL began settling into this niche, all sorts of sites have emerged to present original journalism in all its glory and with all its warts

Can AOL join this group? It may take more than some well-known journalists to do it. Information filtering is much more democratic and egalitarian than it used to be, meaning that even marquee-name scribes aren’t the draw they were.

Telco’s must raise standards or face action, says ACCC

The telecommunications industry must raise its standards in its treatment of consumers or risk increased Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) scrutiny and action, the Commission’s chairman, Graeme Samuel, has warned.

He points to problems such as misleading advertising, unfair contracts and deceptive mobile phone competitions that have been allowed to proliferate by service providers, publishers and carriers, who have turned a blind eye while taking a slice of the profits.

“It is no longer acceptable for carriers to wash their hands of responsibility as operators use their networks to entrap phone company customers with unwanted, expensive and difficult to unwind subscription services,” explains Samuel.

Samuel indicates that the ACCC expects carriers to adopt rigorous standards and procedures in plain language means closing off access to their mobile networks for rogue operators.

Consumer protection issues in telecommunications consistently ranked number one as the sectors most complained about to the ACCC Infocentre, with more than 4000 complaints a year, ranging over a number of types of operators, conduct and telecommunications products and services

The provision of telecommunications services is so important to society and the Australian economy, says Samuel, and consumers should be able to trust their providers, receive high quality customer service and be accurately informed about products and services.

Other concerns included advertising practices, consumers not understanding contracts, including inadvertently signing up to a subscription service, and difficulties with unsubscribing and the complaints handling process.

“The ACCC is drawing a line in the sand – we’re saying to the poor performers, and there are many of them, mend your ways,” asserts Samuel.

Amazon. The top-performing brand

According to recently released research, Amazon.com is the top-performing brand in the US based on key branding metrics – trust and recommendations. It is the only other Internet-only US brand in the top 10.

The study, by Millward Brown, entitled, "Beyond Trust: Engaging Consumers in the Post-Recession World," used the new metric "TrustR" to determine top-performing brands. Consumer response to the questions "how trustworthy is this brand?" and "would you recommend this brand?" were indexed, combined, and a TrustR score attributed.

In addition to actual ranking, the research reveals that consumers spend less or no money on brands they don’t trust in a tight economy. "In fact, we found that the number one "TrustR" brand in each of the 22 countries we researched was nearly seven times more likely to be purchased and consumers were 10 times more likely to have formed a strong bond with these brands," said Millward Brown's Eileen Campbell.

Trust, cultivated over time, in the efficiency and reliability of brand performance is the top consumer value. Recommendation is a separate, but equally important factor in consumer-brand relationships, and holds a customer's belief, from recent experience, that brand performance consistently fulfils its promise.

Amazon has top-drawer security measures and reliable shipping methods, which give consumers a positive shopping experience. Nigel Hollis, EVP and chief global analyst for Millward Brown, noted that, "This combination has made Amazon the gold standard of trust and recommendation in the U.S."

Nokia is at the top of the chart in eight other countries. And Toyota won the top spot in Canada and Japan – obviously prior to Toyota's recent recalls. Toyota will certainly serve as an interesting case study in a brand trying to win back the trust of customers. Stay tuned.

More about: Amazon, FedEx, Downey, Huggies, Tide, WebMD, Millward Brown, Nokia, Toyota, Tech, Retail

Nintendo talks hardcore gaming

Nintendo's Q1 Media Summit was all about the games, specifically those coming out for the Wii and DS during the first part of 2010. The event held particular import for the hardcore gaming set, with the publisher attaching release dates to the heavily anticipated Super Mario Galaxy 2 (May 23) and Metroid: Other M (June 27), as well as Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri (April 20).

According to Nintendo exec Dunaway, Capcom's Monster Hunter Tri is a game that will "show that action-oriented games can do well on the Wii platform."

Dunaway didn't seem to be particularly concerned about a recent study that found there has been a 12 percent decline in developers making games for the Wii. Notably, the phenomenon isn't limited to small productions houses, with Ubisoft deemphasizing its heretofore strong Wii and DS support in favour of refocusing resources on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

"There continue to be a number of great games coming out from third parties for the Wii," she said. "In fact, between now and July, there are going to be 50 Wii games launched from third parties; there are going to be 40 games launched for DS...I think that when third parties bring together the right combination of innovative experiences and they continue to put the right level of marketing support behind them, then they can have great success."

With both the Wii and DS seeing year-over-year sales declines during the first nine months of the publisher's current fiscal year, Dunaway also addressed ongoing speculation of a hardware update for its top-selling console. According to Dunaway, gamers shouldn't hold their breath for an announcement of the Wii's successor.

"I don't think it'll be anytime soon," she said. "Because even though our installed base is, at this point, 5 million households larger than the PS2 installed base was at the same point in its life cycle, it still has a lot of room to grow. If you think PS2, there's been about 50 million sold, Wii close to 28 million sold, so that says to me that there's still a big audience out there that we can access with the Wii."

Hummer –Now history?

Assuming that a couple of eleventh-hour bids fail to amount to much, General Motors is finally going to shut down the great Hummer experiment in brand rocket-riding.

Turns out that GM couldn’t even figure out how to sell Hummer to the right bidder.

Of course, GM bought the brand in 1999 at the peak of Hummer mania. Then, the testosterone-fuelled, tank-like original model – a barely domesticated version of the extremely versatile military Humvee – barrelled down American roads, took up two parking spaces at a time, and generally terrified those who weren’t actually riding in it. It retailed for nearly $100,000.

New ACCC pricing requirements for ads

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released information to help business and consumers to understand the ‘Clarity in pricing’ amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974.

The amendments require businesses that choose to advertise a part of the price of a particular product or service, to also provide a single figure that reflects the total price to be paid.

“The new law will not only mean consumers have accurate price information, but also that businesses have a more level playing field on which to compete when it comes to price representations,” says Graeme Samuel, the ACCC’s chairman.

Guidance material has been specifically designed for the motor vehicle and tourism sectors, which according to the ACCC are “frequently use component pricing in advertising”.

This means that a motor vehicle advertisement can no longer show the price of the vehicle ‘plus on-road costs’.

In addition to its industry-specific material, the ACCC has produced a general guide, News for Business – Component Price Advertising, to explain the new provision and its application across all industries.

“Under the current law a business that does the right thing by consumers and shows the total price they can expect to pay, may be disadvantaged if a competitor elects to feature only one part of the total price, along with a disclaimer or advice that other amounts (like statutory charges) will also be imposed. That will not be the case after 25 May

MySpace takes social media offline

MySpace is promoting the launch of MySpace Music Australia by replicating its online offering offline.

The social media company will work out of Melbourne’s Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Replicating the site’s offerings offline, the two-day promotion will feature free live bands, and allow local bands to drop in their demo tape and meet the MySpace Music content team for advice on their profiles. The product showcase will also be broadcast online.

Sydney will get the offline treatment earlier, with MySpace setting up in the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay from 20 October to 22 October.

“MySpace Music delivers Aussies unprecedented access to the music and artists they love, as well as giving artists an unparalleled opportunity to connect with their fans. We’re very excited about bringing this experience and ethos offline and into the heart of Melbourne with the MySpace Music Studio events,” Rebekah Horne, managing director and SVP MySpace International explains.

Palm Cuts Its Forecast

Palm, the maker of hand-held devices, reduced its revenue goals on weak demand for its smartphones, renewing concerns about its ability to compete against rivals like Apple. The news sent Palm’s shares down 16 percent according to Thomson Reuters.

Palm is betting on its new webOS software to help its phones compete more effectively against rivals like the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry from Research In Motion.

Toyota bashing video

Close on the heels of Audi's Toyota-bashing video (although the company denied it was an anti-Toyota ad) than another ad knocking Toyota appeared.

This time, a Danish garage door company, Dansk Port Teknik, has come out with a print ad whose intentions are very clear. The graphic shows a gaping hole in a garage door. The accompanying headline reads 20% OFF ALL GARAGE DOORS*. The asterisk in the copy leads to the smaller subhead, *TOYOTA OWNERS ONLY.

Clearly, injuries or deaths caused by an out-of-control vehicle are not funny, but marketers and their ad agencies are not hesitating to take advantage of Toyota's troubles with unexpected acceleration. In this case, the advertiser is not even a Toyota competitor. Making matters worse for Toyota are the television commercials the company continues to run that highlight "Toyota reliability."

Facebook gets patent for news feed,

A new patent awarded to Facebook this month could have some big implications for the entire social media industry. The world’s largest social network now owns the patent for the news feed.

Patent #7,669,123, first unearthed by All Facebook, credits Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg and seven other current and former Facebookers as inventors and assigns the rights to the patent to Facebook (), Inc.

Depending on what this patent actually covers, Facebook could use it to protect its intellectual property and force other companies with news feeds — e.g. MySpace (), Google (), and Twitter () — to change or take down their technologies.

Useful discussion points from LinkedIn

As you (really should know) The Marketing Association has a new Linked group called MAANZ Smarter Marketing Network (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?homeNewMember=&gid=2650856&trk=)

Come and join us. If you are not already a LinkedIn member you will be lead through the process – 1,000, members in Australia and 6,000,000 worldwide. MAANZ Smarter Marketing is your opportunity to network for contacts and ideas

Here are some recent LinkedIn quotes we thought you might like

My favourite marketing cartoon from Dilbert: pointy haired boss interviewing Dogbert for a job:

Boss: "We need to hire the best marketing expert we can find. Your resume says you've won the Nobel Prize in marketing, and five Olympic gold medals in the Marketing Biathlon. What's a Marketing Biathlon?"

I remain amazed why so many marketers keep using the phrase "Products and Services" without even thinking about it. In all logic and practise - there is no difference and you don't need extra P's! Economists have always said a Product is both goods and services. Its only marketers who have never thought about it who just keep saying it I think.

As every salesperson knows, a Product is a bundle of benefits (intangibles) and features (tangibles). You cannot logically have one without the other AND as every salesperson knows - Buyers buy Benefits (So the intangibles - Services are where the value for the buyer/user is - the tangibles are there to carry the benefits.

So Physical product (the car); service product (the warranty, loan); service environment (the showroom); service delivery (test drive, repair time) - Benefits (depends on particular buyer, but effective transport; prestige; image; economy etc.

Do you agree or not? I have started a discussion on this elsewhere in this group if you want to comment

In my case, there's no "buyer" At my company we don't sell product expect at Christmas.

Presumably you have a source of income to undertake your good works? - so someone (perhaps an arm of government - or donors) accepts your proposition and makes a payment? You also have consumers and users who may need some persuasion to accept what you want to do before they will do something? "Buyer" often needs a wider understanding.

Peter Drucker once commented that marketing was not just selling: marketing was a whole lot more than that. Marketing is something that should encompass the whole business, positioning your business so that everything that is done in the business is done to benefit the customer. I have to agree with him.

Marketing is a continuous, sequential process in which sales is a tactical tool along with other marketing mix tools used to achieve the objectives determined by Marketing through the implementation of the strategies which are decided by Marketing based on the rigorous analysis that is the focus of Marketing activities.

Gosh! 3 plus decades of having marketing generally accepted as the most effective business method/concept - putting the customer at the centre of all business considerations; numerous definitions - American Marketing Association, Marketing Association of ANZ etc - and 99% of respondents to that original question apparently still don't get it??

Marketing’s main role is not just about creating awareness of any brand or product.

Sales is part of the Promotional Mix - which in turn is part of the Marketing Mix.

Sales, like Advertising; Sales Promotion and Pricing, Product Management and Distribution are all vital aspects of marketing. But the most vital part of marketing is knowing who is the right costomer(s) and getting to them.

Sales (personal selling) isn't necessarily a big part of some Marketing Mixes, but sales is often a big part of other Marketing Mixes (depends on the market)

Obviously many of you have been dealing with some very poor examples of "marketers" or marketing departments.

There is an abundance of material explaining what marketing should really be about and why a knowledge of it will certainly benefit those who use it. Check it out and you will benefit. Keep thinking like it was thirty plus years ago and you certainly won't benefit or get the edge in your market.

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Advertisements and Events

The 2010 Marketing Outlook Survey, the largest independent assessment of global senior marketing executives today, is an annual global benchmarking initiative undertaken by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. Given the economic challenges and market pressures worldwide, this year's review of '09 performance and '10 challenges and intentions is far deeper and wider than before. The results of this study will be extremely valuable to all participants seeking peer-level input and consensus on critical issues and priorities in the year ahead

16 & 17 March 2010, join the Australian and New Zealand digital marketing community for two days of unique education and networking opportunities at ad:tech.

The Internet Show is Australia’s only internet business event, offering free educational seminars and exhibition on digital advertising and marketing, web 2.0 and social networking, e-commerce and payments, content management and streaming, hosting and infrastructure.

Optimising contact centre operations and customer experience to maximise your competitive advantage with improved service levels.

2 day conference will witness key industry players sharing their views and experiences on building a state of the art contact centre.

Two day conference plus one day non-profit workshops. Focus: the convergence of social technologies, social media and social business.

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If you are a Professional Member (or above – Executive etc), you are now able to use the following special MAANZ Professional Member Logo to enhance your professional standing on business cards, Letters, websites etc – along with your post nominals (MMA; AFAMA etc).

This does not constitute an endorsement by MAANZ about what you do – just that you are smart enough and good enough to belong to the professional association.

Obviously non members (including non financial members may not use the logo. Such incorrect use will result in stiff action being taken about the transgressor

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MAANZ Local and World Wide Network for Marketers

As you will have seen from the section just before this, MAANZ has started a brand new networking group for marketers – MAANZ Smarter Marketing. A great opportunity to network and Learn

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How do you get your next marketing event listed (free or endorsed)

The Event section on the MAANZ site (www.marketing.org.au) is the most visited event site in Australia (although we do include overseas events and that part is growing too).

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Articles

Use creativity to develop better social media

Blogs and Twitter have almost eliminated any barrier to publishing. You have an idea and in a few minutes your thoughts can be online. Think about it – with every person thinking about more than 50,000 thoughts a day, producing online content can be simple.

Maybe. But simply churning out meaningless content does not guarantee that others will read what you write. Make this mistake and people will read what you write and write you off.

Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way. Remember that it costs time (and indirectly – money) for your audience to read what you write. And, they expect a good return for that investment.

You will know whether you are succeeding in influencing your audience in a positive way because the audience will tell you. No, maybe not directly but by the way they respond to your content.

So, here are the nine S’s - ways your audience will respond to your online content:

If your content does not provide a reasonable ROII (return-on-investment for an interaction) for the reader or is self-serving or simply useless, the reader will mark it as spam. Posting something that may be assessed, as “spam” is the fastest way to losing credibility.

The reader makes an assessment that he or she won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet but if you consistently create content that is worth “skipping,” the reader might write you off.

The reader thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest.

The reader is touched by the article and stops to think about the article, it’s relevance and what it means to him or her personally and professionally.

The content is so good that the reader might want to re-visit this multiple times.

The article is transformational. The reader is so deeply affected (in a positive way) by the article that it shifts some of their values and beliefs. In other words, this piece of writing will transform the reader and make him or her grow.

The content is not only useful to the reader but also to one or more people in the reader’s network. The reader simply emails the article or a link to it to people that he or she cares.

The reader finds the article fascinating enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via a blog, twitter or the social networks that he or she belongs.

This is the ultimate expression of engagement and a vote of confidence that you will continue to provide great content. When the reader wants to continue listening to your thoughts, he or she will subscribe.

Unless you are writing something for your private consumption, your audience should be the centre of the focus and not you. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them. Think about:

You know the audience and you know the purpose of the article. Now the next step is to unleash your creativity and create something that will generate the kind of response that you are looking for.

* What would be unique (content, point-of-view etc.) in this article that will make the audience do what I want them to do?

You already know the nine ways that people respond to your online content. When people act the way they do, they are providing you valuable feedback. Keeping your emotions aside, learn from the feedback and incorporate this learning into your next article.

Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.

12 Reasons why salespeople fail

Here are twelve reasons that people (fail to build a successful career in Sales.

1: Base your self-worth estimate only on what you think other people think of you. Good performers have a solid sense of self worth and believe in their ability to ultimately succeed

2: Assume that past failure defines the future: Everyone fails sometimes. Don’t remain disheartened – learn and do better from the experience

3. Believe only in destiny, and fate: Luck (both sorts) happens – your job is to make the most of the situation – not let the situation rule you

4: Not developing the right attitude: The right attitude consists three qualities: 1) Empathy, so that you can understand customer needs. 2) Confidence, so that you can bring customers to the point of buying, and 3) Resilience, so that you can use rejection and setbacks to move you forward.

5: Not listening and understanding what is important. Don’t be too busy “trying to sell” that you miss the nuances of what you is happening and you are being told. The most important element of a successful sales call is the value that you can bring to the customer, rather than whatever might eventually be sold.

6: Rather being a rocket scientist/a golfer/a builder/etc - doing something (perhaps anything) else. If you constantly would rather be somewhere else – you will not succeed. Go somewhere else. Don’t delay the inevitable

7: Not learning from mistakes. Many folk try to avoid looking at their failures and prefer to think only of their successes Until you understand how, why and where your sales process is failing, it’s impossible to succeed.

8: Cannot follow simple instructions. Sales skills like all skills are learned. Some folk remain resistant to learning new ideas and new techniques. And it’s not just those who would rather be somewhere else. Those that have had some success tend to figure they know it all already!

9: Lacking in honesty and real professionalism. Sales is all about relationships and relationships are all about trust. Professionals put their clients first and follow an ethical (honest) path

10: Don’t or won’t try hard enough to do the work. This is true of every activity in the world. Sales pros who don’t makes their numbers either can’t or won’t do what it takes to make sale. They simply lack the drive

11: Don’t know what to do. Perhaps most folk don’t try to be good salespeople because they have strange ideas about what is needed to be a salesperson. Referring back to 9: - they think they need to be dishonest and sneaky. Since most people don’t want this, they are at a serious disadvantage.

The evolution to Marketing 3.0:

The evolution of marketing has been much discussed & documented. The shifts from interruption to integration, from transaction to interaction, from “push” to “pull” — all the elements that symbolised the move from “Marketing 1.0” to “Marketing 2.0” — have seen brands adapt and evolve, some more successfully than others.

Philip Kotler & Hermawan Kartajaya in their paper titled “Marketing 3.0: Values Driven Marketing” refer to Marketing 3.0 as the “human centric era” as compared to Marketing 2.0 which was the “customer centric era” and marketing 1.0 which was the “product centric” era.

This shift from “customer” to “human” requires a shift in mindset, where we stop looking at people purely as consumers (i.e. a source of revenue) and start looking at them as humans, who are active, expressive and anxious.

It also requires an acceptance of the shift in power from the marketer to the marketed and consequently a willing (though cautious) delegation of power by the brand.

However, at the foundation, one thing has remained constant. For any brand to be successful, it needs to truly understand people.

Peer to peer communication ensures that ideas & messages spread exponentially from one to a billion. And in the new world of addressable media, there’s a sea of data and information streaming at us which we need to harness & leverage to understand people better.

This superior understanding is what Mindshare (ww.mindshareworld.com) aims to leverage, to create “Ideas you Love to Share” around the brands they manage.

To arrive at this, it is critical to understand that people share stuff that strikes a chord somewhere within — that evoke strong emotions joy, laughter, anger, sorrow. In essence, stuff that is rooted in popular culture.

The advantage marketers have today is that the world around them is like an extended research focus group. People are sharing their feelings, opinions, likes and dislikes in a variety of social networks — predominantly in the online world, but even in the brick& mortar world. The challenge is to actively listen and distil a unique “Cultural Dynamic” that has significant resonance.

The other critical component to creating an idea you love to share is defining a clear position for the brand. A brand “behaviour” that is in synch with the times, that resonates with the desires and anxieties of humans. Mindshare calls this a “Brand Dynamic”.

The last step along the journey to Marketing 3.0 (but by no means the least important) is to ensure real-time analysis of all information & feedback, converting it into actionable information and correcting course accordingly. Mindshare’s investment in analytics expertise has ensured its blue-chip clients have such actionable information at their fingertips.

Responsiveness driven by meaningful information is what will make the difference between one-off successes and sustained leadership. R Gowthaman, leader, Mindshare South Asia states “Brand advocacy combined with real-time campaign management will be the foundation of successful brands in the future. Mindshare is committed to this and has the tools to partner brands along this journey.”

The Brand mantra

What is a brand mantra, you ask? Put simply, it’s a 3-5 word statement that described your brand, its unique characteristics and points of difference. If it sounds like no small task to accomplish in just 5 words, then you’re right. However, let me ask you the following question - if you, as the owner of the product, cannot explain in five words what your product is all about and what separates it from the competition, how can you expect your customers to know the difference?

To clarify a little bit what I mean, let’s look at some of the more successful out there. For example, Nike’s is as follows:

It’s simply, concise and direct to the point. It doesn’t wander into the realm of complicated mission statements that need a dictionary to interpret, and it is not ridden with corporate buzzwords that sound lovely but, when taken together, don’t mean a thing.

And yet, when you drill down to it, this is what Nike is all about - authentic athletic footwear. Or let’s take another example - Disney’s brand mantra of “Fun Family Entertainment.” This is what Disney stands for, this is what its products are all about, and this is how the brand is positioned. You don’t need a 10-page sales copy to explain it - it’s essence can be distilled into three words which perfectly capture the essence of the offering.

iPad Ad fails to impress

Google surprised everyone by running a TV spot on the Super Bowl, one that was pretty well-received. Apple, a current rival of Google on many fronts, pulled off a similar sneak attack during Sunday night's Academy Awards show with its first ad for the iPad. Since the goal was to create demand for a totally new device, Apple stuck close to its playbook. It didn't introduce any new characters or celebrity announcers. Instead, it was a glossy demo of all the neat stuff that the iPad does. Which is maybe why the spot, by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, has gotten a ho-hum response in the blogosphere. "What's remarkable about the ad is there is nothing remarkable about it at all," Chris Matyszczyk writes in CNet's "Technically Incorrect" blog. "It's very neat, but very standard communication from Apple." Matyszczyk points out that Apple posted similar—perhaps even the same—footage of the iPad on its Web site during the introduction. (Google, incidentally, had also run its Super Bowl ad on the Web months before.) YouTube commentators also seem unimpressed. One points out that the ad was pretty much the same, save for the soundtrack music, as a 2007 ad for the iPod Touch. (Note: a TBWA\C\D rep could not confirm if this version was an official ad or a similar one from Nick Haley.) Does it matter that Apple's ad was sort of bleh? Probably not. Whatever the ad's merits, the device looked pretty cool. Rather than thinking "Apple is slipping," most people watching the ad likely instead thought, "I want to get me one of those."

Apple – How to make consumers want an iPad?

Apple is faced with a new marketing challenge with the iPad. It's trying to define a new category, and it's not yet clear whether the company has homed in on the message to consumers. If Apple fails to execute the iPad's introduction properly, said University of Washington marketing professor Marcus Cunha Jr., "it may be challenging to make it mainstream."

The first iPads will be available for sale in U.S. Apple Stores: April 3rd. We now know what kinds of iPads you'll be able to buy at that time: the WiFi models only. And we now know when you'll be able to pre-order your iPad via online delivery or Apple Store pickup: March 12. The 3G iPad models and availability in other countries are scheduled for late April.

What we don't know: How will Apple sell that ability to connect in an intimate/intuitive/fun way? Will the commercials successfully reflect that innovation? Unlike the Mac, iPod and iPhone, Apple is creating a new device category in the minds of consumers. So will we see the usual Chiat/Day elegance with disembodied hands demonstrating the iPad's functions against a white background with an alternative music/new-agey soundtrack? Can Apple rely on the same legendary marketing prowess that boosted its position in the personal computer, digital media player and smartphone categories?

Perhaps consumers will see a slightly softer campaign than previous Apple products -- let the iPad take advantage of high foot-traffic in Apple Stores for the next six to eight months, with the real target being the Christmas selling season.

Perhaps position it as a fabulous eBook system, and you can get away with slipping in a not-bad computing system.

Perhaps position the iPad as an electronic media delivery device. Instead of subscribing to magazines, people would receive content from magazines, newspapers and even TV on their iPads

Digital Branding

Digital media is changing the branding game. The former conversation about brand promise, equity, and image has been replaced by a new discourse about building platforms, proving utility, and interaction/ entertainment buzz.

The first Internet banner ad appeared in 1994; in 2000 advertising first appeared on Google.com, and a few years later the first Tide commercials showed up on YouTube. Today, people are “friending” the BK king on Facebook – marking a steep trajectory as the arena for brand building has shifted from print and TV to the multidimensional, 24/7 real-time media of digital.

Historically, brands reflect the media milieu: logos are predominant in print, jingles in radio, taglines and image in TV spots. But the advent of digital tools has brought a mash-up of data, messaging, and functionalities – and all bets are off. Strategic decisions about branding are no longer defined by technology… or past performance. Digital branding deals with behaviour.

The very nature of the Internet cultivates a behavioural metric: how many friends do you have, where do you shop, where have you travelled. Add to this Twitter or Blippy and another layer of inter-connectedness manifests.

Consumers plus products plus technology results in a new kind of online brand experience. The digital playbook requires a balance between gain and the cost of a consumer’s interaction. Brands must deliver something more than just a promise, such as a service, a reward, or an interaction. Image, message, and brand trust are simply analogue echoes from another era.

Value and competitors

In the modern marketplace customers are faced with a wide choice of products that potentially offer it is important that an organisation understands the influence that competitors have on customers.

Value is comparison-based. That is, value is perceived in terms of competitive offerings.

For a competitive advantage to eventuate, an organisation must be perceived to provide better value than its competitors. This requires a good understanding of the competitors' strengths and weaknesses, their capabilities and, most importantly, the customer's value perception of their offerings.

Pricing objectives

* Profit oriented Objectives - prices are set to maximise profits (maximise long-run profit or maximise short-run profit

* Sales Oriented objectives - prices are set to maximise sales volume (increase sales volume quantity; increase dollar sales; increase market share

* Survival - low prices, even under cost are set to create needed cash flow in the short term to ensure the survival of the firm

* Status quo objectives - prices are set to match and not exceed competitors' prices

* Obtain a target rate of return - on investment (ROI) or rate of return on sales

* stabilise the market or stabilise market price - this objective aims to stabilise price in the marketplace and too compete on non-price considerations. The manager attempts to maintain the same margin regardless of changes in cost.

* Discourage new entrants into the market - encourage the exit of marginal firms from the industry

* Obtain and maintain the loyalty and enthusiasm of distributors and sales personnel

* Social, or ideological objectives - be seen as honest and fair by customers and potential customers

Finding comfort by seeking criticism

No one enjoys being criticised! Yet, if you want to succeed, you've got to overcome all your natural instincts and actively seek out feedback, good and bad.

If you want to advance, you need to develop a positive, flexible, and creative attitude toward feedback. Here are some practical ways to toughen your hide and change your perception.

1. Diffuse attacks.

To give yourself breathing room, turn "attacks" of criticism into information exchanges. The natural human reaction is to become defensive and offer a list of reasons why the comment is untrue. This quickly locks both sides into fixed adversarial positions from which it is hard to retreat. Break the cycle. As hard as it may be, respond to any negative criticism by immediately agreeing it may be correct. Then ask for more specific details, enlisting the accuser as your ally in improving the situation. You'll get lots of useful feedback, both negative and positive.

2. Discard your highest and lowest ratings.

Ignore the ten percent who think you walk on water and the ten percent who think you are no good at all. Then listen to the middle eighty percent."

3. Consider the source.

Do your critics have the right background and experience to judge your work accurately? Are they in a position to give you valuable input? You can't change to satisfy everyone.

4. Separate intent from content.

Any negative comments about our actions, appearance, or attitudes automatically seem very personal. Yet, amazingly, the commenter may have had the best intentions. Recognise that different people have different personality styles and communication skills. They may sincerely mean to help, but deliver negative comments in a way that is hard to process and accept. On the other hand, an ill-wisher often provides valuable insights. Decide that it is never productive to take any comments personally.

5. Seek out criticism.

Some jobs offer regular job performance evaluations where employees get feedback. If you don't have such a program, ask for personal feedback anyway, from both your manager and those you manage. Sit down on a regular basis with staff and ask them, "What things am I doing well? What would like me to do more? What should I do less of or stop doing?"

Don't be defensive. Keep your clients happy by being as eager to please them as your competitors are. In any selling situation, you're still selling after the sale. It won't be long before a rival asks them, "What do you want that your current supplier isn't providing?" Get the jump by asking the same question. Seek out the criticism before your competitor does!

Try asking open-ended questions that can't be answered with a "yes" or "no." For example, "How could we help you with that?" or "What improvements would you like to see?" Then summarise what they have said: "It sounds like we could do a better job if..."

6. Feedback your feedback.

Paraphrasing what you've just been told helps to eliminate misunderstandings, honouring and acknowledging the criticism, and compelling you to really listen. "Nothing," demonstrates better to a client, boss or spouse that you have heard them than paraphrasing their statements." It also helps you to filter out and focus on the useful information.

7. Protect yourself.

We're not always in shape to cope with negative comments. It's appropriate to give people feedback on the best time and way to offer you feedback.

8. Don't expect everyone to love you.

Praise and approval are wonderful. We all thrive on them. But we all need a dose of reality now and then. Just because people notice imperfections and point them out doesn't make them your enemies. If you've armed yourself with a positive attitude toward criticism, they are going to be your best friends.

Personal branding success

Branding is an effective, powerful, and sustainable way to market. It’s about influencing others, by creating a brand identity that associates certain perceptions and feelings with that identity. Branding isn’t just for companies e. There is a new trend called Personal Branding.

Successful Personal Branding entails managing the perceptions effectively and controlling and influencing how others perceive you and think of you. Having a strong Personal Brand seems to be a very important asset in today’s online, virtual, and individual age. It is becoming increasingly essential and is the key to personal success. It is the positioning strategy behind the world's most successful people, like Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Richard Branson and Bill Gates. It’s therefore important to be your own brand.

Everyone has a Personal Brand but most people are not aware of this and do not manage this strategically, consistently, and effectively. You should take control of your brand and the message it sends and affect how others perceive you. This will help you to actively grow and distinguish yourself as an exceptional professional. Most traditional Personal Branding concepts focus mainly on personal marketing, image building, selling, packaging, outward appearances, promoting yourself, and becoming famous, which can turn into an ego trip and let you be perceived as egocentric and selfish. They define Personal Branding from a personal marketing (selling) point of view. Personal Branding is more than just marketing and promoting yourself.

Your Personal Brand should be authentic. Authentic Personal Branding is a journey towards a happier and more successful life. Your Personal Brand should therefore emerge from your search for your identity and meaning in life, and it is about getting very clear on what you want, fixing it in your mind, giving it all your positive energy, doing what you love and develop yourself continuously. Your Personal Brand should always reflect your true character, and should be built on your values, strengths, uniqueness, and genius. If you are branded in this organic, authentic and holistic way your Personal Brand will be strong, clear, complete, and valuable to others. You will also create a life that is fulfilling and you will automatically attract the people and opportunities that are a perfect fit for you. If you are not branded in this unique way, if you don’t deliver according to your brand promise, and if you focus mainly on selling and promoting yourself, you will be perceived egocentric, selfish and a unique jerk, and branding will be cosmetic and a dirty business.

no vision + no self-knowledge + no self-learning + no thinking + no mindset change + no integrity + no happiness + no passion + no sharing + no trust + no love = no authentic Personal Branding

Love is an important element in this Personal Branding equation. It is about loving yourself (self-love), loving others, and loving what you do. You should love yourself in at least equal measure to others or things. This can be found in most religions: “to love others as you love yourself”. Remember what Abraham Maslow said: “We can only respect others when we respect ourselves. We can only give, when we give to ourselves. We can only love, when we love ourselves”. Without knowing who you are (self-knowledge), it’s very difficult to love yourself and others. You need to make a positive emotional connection with yourself and find yourself interesting first, otherwise others you will not make a positive emotional connection with you and will not find you interesting. With an authentic Personal Brand, your strongest characteristics, attributes, and values can separate you from the crowd. Without this, you look just like everyone else.

An effective brand is in harmony with your dreams, life purpose, values, passions, competencies, uniqueness, genius, specialisations, characteristics, and things that you love doing. This approach places more emphasis on understanding yourself and the needs of others, meeting those needs while staying true to your values, improving yourself continuously, and realising growth in life based on this Personal Branding journey. This should be based on your vision, rather than inventing a brand that you would like to be perceived as and to sell this to others.

Building an authentic Personal Brand is an evolutionary and organic process and a journey towards a successful life.

This organic model consists of the following four phases, which are the building blocks of a strong authentic Personal Brand:

1. Define and formulate your Personal Ambition:

This phase involves defining and formulating your Personal Ambition in an exciting and persuasive manner and making it visible. Your Personal Ambition is the soul, starting point, core intention and the guiding principles of your Personal Brand. It’s the fuel for your brand and encompasses your personal vision, mission, and key roles, related to four perspectives that should be in balance: internal, external, knowledge & learning, and financial perspectives.

This will create balance in your brand and in your life. It is about identifying yourself and figuring out what your dreams are, who you are, what you stand for, what makes you unique and special, why you are different than anyone, what your values are, and identifying your genius, incorporating an introduced breathing and silence exercise. You are almost twice as likely to accomplish your brand if you write this down. Formulation is critical to building a strong brand. So take the time to think about your life and to write down your Personal Ambition statement. Your Personal Ambition makes your Personal Brand Personal and links this to your values.

2. Define and formulate your Personal Brand:

This phase involves defining and formulating an authentic, distinctive, relevant, consistent, concise, meaningful, exciting, inspiring, compelling, enduring, crystal clear, ambitious, persuasive and memorable Personal Brand promise, and use it as the focal point of your behaviour and actions. Take the time to write down your Personal Brand statement, which is in harmony with your Personal Ambition, and create a related compelling brand story to promote the brand called You. First of all, perform a personal SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and evaluate yourself after using the breathing and silence exercise. The result of this analysis is the definition of your personal life style. This relates to your personal ambition and brand objectives. Your brand objectives entail what you want your Personal Brand to accomplish. These should also be related to the four mentioned perspectives: internal, external, knowledge & learning, and financial (see Figure 2). You also need to determine your specialisation, concentrating on a single core talent. Define your main specific services, your key characteristics your single leading and most powerful attribute. Finally, determine what your audience (domain) is and what their greatest needs are. Your Personal Brand Statement entails the total of your Personal Ambition, brand objectives, specialty, service dominant attribute, and domain. It also includes your Unique Value Proposition.

The next step in this second stage is to define your Personal Brand Story (Elevator Pitch), which is the essence of what you want to say about your Personal Brand in order to produce a positive emotional reaction. Finally you should design your Personal Logo, which is a single graphical symbol that represents your Personal Brand.

3. Formulate your Personal Balanced Scorecard (PBSC):

Personal Ambition and Personal Brand have no value unless you take action to make them a reality. Therefore the emphasis in this stage is developing an integrated and well balanced action plan based on your Personal Ambition and Personal Brand to reach your life and brand objectives and to eliminate any negative elements. It’s about translating your Personal Ambition and Personal Brand into your PBSC (action). Remember: vision without action is hallucination and a Personal Brand without continuous improvement of yourself based on your PBSC is merely cosmetic and will not lead to the sustainable development of your potential and marketing success. Your PBSC entails your personal critical success factors that are related to your Personal Ambition and Brand and the corresponding objectives, performance measures, targets and improvement actions (see Figure 2). It is divided into the four perspectives: internal, external, knowledge & learning, and financial perspectives. Your PBSC translates your Personal Ambition and Personal Brand into manageable and measurable personal objectives, milestones and improvement actions in a holistic and balanced way. Your PBSC is needed to improve and manage yourself continuously based on your Personal Ambition and Brand. It’s an effective tool that you can use to manage and master yourself and your brand. You can use it to develop improvement actions to achieve your objectives, keep track of your progress, record key brand information, explore your life and brand, define new career paths, build network of contacts, quantify and report your key accomplishments, etc. Your Personal Ambition and Personal Brand are related to your heart (emotions) and the right half of your brain.

Your PBSC, however, is related to the left half of your brain. With the left half of your brain having mainly an analytical, logical and quantitative function. The right half of your brain has an intuitive, emotional, spiritual, and holistic function. One of the results of applying this holistic and authentic Personal Branding model along with the related introduced tools is the balance of the left and right side of your brain and the balance of your heart and head.

4. Implement and cultivate your Personal Ambition, Personal Brand, and Personal Balanced Scorecard:

Personal Ambition, Personal Brand, and the PBSC have no value unless you implement them to make it a reality. Therefore the next step is to implement, maintain, and cultivate your ambition, brand and PBSC effectively. You have to articulate your Personal Brand with love and passion, be committed to change, and improve your perceived value in the marketplace and yourself continuously. In addition, try to build credibility and become an expert in your field. Get the word out through a variety of media channels, do work you love which is consistent with your Personal Brand and values, gain experience in areas of your brand in which you are weak, promote yourself, market your brand frequently and consistently, make conscious choices about the people you associate with, build a strong network, deliver on your brand promise, and in short live according to your brand promise. To guide you in this process I have introduced in my new book a unique learning cycle called the Plan-Deploy-Act-Challenge cycle (PDAC cycle), which should be followed continuously. This is necessary to let your brand awareness grow gradually.

To live in accordance with your Personal Ambition, Personal Brand and related PBSC through its implementation using the PDAC cycle results in a journey towards self-awareness, joy, self-esteem, and happiness. Self-esteem is about how you perceive yourself and Personal Branding is about how others perceive you. Once you implement and launch your Personal Brand, remember to continue maintaining it. You need to refine your Personal Brand promise as you go along, figuring out which parts work and which don't, and make adjustments as necessary.

You should continually refine your brand promise in the light of new insights, challenges, and experiences. There will always be competing brands ready to fill any gap you leave behind. The more you strengthen, maintain, protecting, and cultivate your brand, the more successful you’ll be. It needs constant updating to reflect the new challenges you take, the lessons you have learned, and the growth of yourself and your brand. Repeat the PDAC cycle over and over again. If you are well branded according this authentic approach you will attract the people and opportunities that are a perfect fit for you and realise your brand and life objectives. The effective combination of all these four tools and phases makes a strong, solid, and trusted authentic Personal Brand. This new model shows you how all Personal Branding elements fit together in a coherent and holistic whole, taking the following into account:

* Personal Ambition is the soul, starting point, core intention and the guiding principles of the Personal Brand

* Personal Brand and Personal Ambition without Personal Balanced Scorecard is hallucination

* Personal Brand, Personal Ambition, and Personal Balanced Scorecard without implementing these according to the Plan-Deploy-Act-Challenge cycle is a dirty business

* Personal Brand, Personal Ambition, Personal Balanced Scorecard, and implementation according to the Plan-Deploy-Act-Challenge cycle is the Personal Brand Manifesto

The Personal Branding model consists of four wheels, which are interrelated and need to turn in the right direction in order to get the large Personal Branding wheel moving an evolving in the right direction successfully. The model gives us insight into both the way authentic Personal Branding can be developed effectively and the coherence between its different aspects. After the last phase is complete, the cycle is again followed in order to fine tune the Personal Ambition, Personal Brand, and PBSC with its surroundings on a continuous basis. By doing this you will constantly improve your brand and performance, and thus continuously satisfy yourself and others. Through this approach your customers, friends, colleagues, family and others will be satisfied continuously, and you will be able to make yourself and others happy on an ongoing basis. In the following chapters, each of the phases in the authentic Personal Branding model will be discussed in depth.

This holistic Personal Branding framework will help you to create a brand that builds a trusted image of yourself and will help you enrich your relationships with others, master yourself, unlock your potential, and develop self-esteem. By aligning your Personal Brand with yourself you will create a stable basis for your trustworthiness, credibility, and personal charisma. Who you really are, what you care about, and were your passions lie should come out in your brand, and you should act and behave accordingly (you should be yourself) to build trust. Trust will be built faster when others believe you are real and when they witness you being true to your beliefs and aligned with who you really are. You will build trust when your values connect to your attitudes and actions and when you will be true to yourself. The result of this brand building process is a Personal Brand identity that is not a not fake, not cosmetic, not an ego trip, not selfish, not focused on just promoting yourself, and not a dirty business.

This new approach has been proven in practice to produce sustainable results, not only for individuals but also for companies. In my new book I also introduce an authentic Company Branding model, which is similar to the authentic Personal Branding model, and which provides a new blueprint for formulating, implementing, and cultivating a sustainable, powerful, and authentic Company Brand. By aligning and synchronizing employee’s authentic Personal Brand with their Company Brand you can realise the ‘best fit’ between employee and company. It’s about aligning themselves with their company, which has an impact on the organisational bonding of employees. This system offers an effective tool to energise them and to give them the proud feeling that they count, that they are appreciated as human beings and that they make a useful and valuable contribution to the company. Employees are stimulated in this way to commit and focus on those activities which create value for clients. This approach will create a highly engaged and happy workforce and will build a strong foundation of peace and stability upon which creativity and growth can flourish, and life within the company will become a more harmonious experience. This alignment process is an opportunity to create warmth, pleasure, passion, and heartfelt commitment, self-direction within the company, and motivation, which is often missed. Identification with the Company Ambition and Brand is the most important motive for employees to dedicate themselves actively to the company objectives and to maximise their potential. Doing work you love, related to your Personal and Company Brand that is interesting, exciting and provides learning opportunities has become a key performance driver. This book will guide you on this journey.

In my new book each of the phases in the authentic Personal Branding model have been discussed in depth and illustrated with many examples and cases.

Dr. Hubert Rampersad is president of TPS International LLC (Florida, USA). This article is based on his new book “Effective Personal and Company Brand Management; A New Blueprint for Powerful and Authentic Personal and Company Branding” (Information Age Publishing Inc., 2008, USA).

Making the most of social media marketing

Here are some links to look at if you want to know more about Social Media Marketing

Tips & Guides

http://www.masternewmedia.org/independent_publishing/blogging-how-to-blog/guide-to-publishing-first-blog-20071104.htm.htm

http://www.joshrussell.com/2008/10/07/my-list-of-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-twitter/

http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/free-resources/download-free-l-twitter-background/

Google Social Search Launches, Gives Results From Your Trusted “Social Circle”

http://searchengineland.com/google-social-search-launchesgives-results-from-your-trusted-social-circle-28507

The Social Web

Wordpress Plugins & Themes

All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpressplugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

FeedBurner http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2007/05/feedburner_adopts_twoyearold_r.php

Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpressplugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

WordPress Automatic Upgrade http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-12-release.html

Mobilising Influence Groups

Many NFP organisations have as a significant part of their charter, the character of a public issue. Typically, this needs social change campaigns and requires the assistance of mediating institutions, such as governmental agencies, churches, consumer organisations, trade associations, and educational institutions, to reach their goals. These mediating institutions are variously called "gatekeepers...... opinion moulders...... pressure groups," and "influence centres."

Three types of influence groups have to be identified in implementing a social change campaign: allies, opponents, and neutrals.

Allies are groups that are supportive of a particular campaign. The peace movement, for example, counts among its allies peace activists, churches, political figures, and human rights organisations. The environmental protection movement has allies in conservation groups, ecologists, naturalists, and concerned legislators.

Opponents are groups whose interests would be hurt by a particular social change campaign. Among opponents of environmental protection are manufacturing and mining companies whose operations often result in pollution and the destruction of land. The women's movement is opposed by men's social clubs, some church groups, and so on.

Neutral groups are groups whose interests are not directly affected by a particular campaign. This does not mean that these groups will necessarily stay on the sidelines. NFP marketers can solicit their social support using rational, emotional, or moral appeals and by showing indirect benefits that would accrue to a neutral group or to the larger society. Thus, an environmental group might solicit the support of the Australian Medical Association in funding an anti-pollution campaign even though physicians will not directly benefit.

NFP marketers must identify and manage the groups and institutions that wield influence in their particular issue-area, raising support among allies and neutral groups and disarming the opponents. Two useful approaches are the market-motivation approach and the power-politics approach.

The Market Motivation Approach

In the market-motivation approach, a NFP marketer will mobilise an influence group by viewing it as an intermediate group of clients or target adopters that has needs it wishes to satisfy.

Analysing the Motivation of Influence Groups

Planning must begin with an analysis of the specific motivations of allies and opponents. Neutrals can be turned into either allies or opponents.

Allies. Potential and current allies may be favourably predisposed to a social change campaign for a variety of reasons. Consider specifically the motivations of givers to fund-raising campaigns. Kotler and Andreasen categorised these motivations of allies into the following categories:'

1. The Need for Self-Esteem. Giving may be motivated by the need to feel good and leads to an enhanced self-image.

2. The Need for Recognition. The motivation is increased social status or prestige that accrues from the act of giving.

3. Concern for Humanity. The motivation stems from concern for others for religious reasons or a sense of moral obligation.

4. The Need to Empathise. The motivation is an orientation to others and a wish to help less fortunate people.

6. The Habit of Giving. The motivation is a desire not to be embarrassed for the failure to give or the habit of giving.

7. Nuisance Giving. The motivation is to stop being annoyed by a requesting party.

8. The Fear of a Threat. The motivation is protection from a threat or perceived problem.

9. Succumbing to Pressure. The motivation is a sense of being required to or being pressured to do so.

To the extent that each of these motivations is independent of one another, the NFP marketer theoretically can target nine potential segments of allies. In reality, however, these nine motivations usually combine to produce giving behaviour, and hence the segments tend to be fewer in number. Influence groups tend to act out of mixed motives.

Opponents.

Opponents can arise for at least two reasons: self-interest and a fear of what the change will bring.

Self-interest. Opponents can arise because they perceive a potential loss if the campaign succeeds.

The Fear of Change. When a social change campaign entails new skills, new behaviours, or new ways of viewing and doing things, some opponents naturally will arise. The very changes that a social campaign promotes can be perceived as threatening the old ways of doing things.

The motivation of an influence group provides the basis for formulating the NFP marketing strategy to gain its support. Consider the AIDS problem. A major issue that an AIDS program faces is the right to privacy versus the right to life. The former consists of the right of patients who test positive for AIDS antibodies to determine who should know about the test results. Protection of this right to privacy shields AIDS patients from public humiliation and discrimination that would arise if the results are not strictly protected.

However, citizens have the right to protect themselves from a potentially lethal virus. One group of citizens, in particular, who have a real concern about AIDS patients are the surgeons who operate on AIDS patients. Physicians have a right to know about a potentially life-threatening risk to them.

Another influence group involved in this privacy issue are legislators who enact laws to protect human rights. On the one hand, an AIDS campaign to protect the privacy of AIDS patients will appeal to legislators to empathise with the plight of AIDS victims. On the other hand, an AIDS campaign that seeks to protect right to life over the right to privacy will appeal to legislators to consider the protection of those who are at risk of being exposed to the virus. NFP marketers will frame appeals to influence groups that are most likely to raise support for their objectives in ways that meet the needs of these influential groups.

Another key influence group in AIDS campaigns are entertainers. The actress Elizabeth Taylor, for example, has participated actively in fund-raising campaigns for AIDS research as a result of the death of an AIDS victim/friend and fellow actor, Rock Hudson. Famous soccer players, including retired soccer great Pele, have held exhibition soccer games, billed as "Kick AIDS '88," to raise funds to fight AIDS. Appeals to civic responsibility and to humanity have been used to mobilise support from these celebrities.

What about mobilisation strategies that are based on an influence group's need to be responsive? Consider the task of an AIDS campaign in mobilising support from employers. The campaign can approach employers with an appeal to provide their employees with AIDS-prevention information:

AIDS is the type of issue which can disrupt the conduct of business, interfere with employee and customer relations, and result in legal actions and extensive medical care expenditures.

With intelligent planning, an organisation has the ability to make an important contribution to alleviating and overcoming a public health calamity for their employees and the public as a whole.'

Tactics for Mobilising Influence Groups

Tactics, or techniques for putting a strategy into action, will require NFP marketers to answer the following questions:

4. How can an influence group's support be facilitated so the group acts without delay?

Answers to these questions must take account of an influence group's decision-making process.' For example, the rational decision-making style of one group will call for a particular set of campaign tactics, and the bureaucratic or political decision making style of another group will dictate a different set of tactics. A rational style means that an influence group is oriented to gathering extensive information before making a decision. The group is likely to define its needs, scrutinise the campaign's objectives, identify alternatives, and finally make a choice of strong, weak, or no support.

The decision-making style of a bureaucratic organisation will involve consistency with past decisions and respect for precedents and rules. A bureaucratically oriented influence group is likely to make decisions on the basis of routines spelled out in organisational manuals.

Knowledge of these routines and rules will help NFP marketers win the support of such groups. Politically oriented groups, such as interest groups, must be handled differently. For them decision making usually follows negotiation and bargaining. Such groups typically use and withhold information selectively to gain a strategic advantage.

Power Politics Approach

Winning support of influence groups for a NFP marketing campaign often is a matter not of market motivation but of power. The art of politics, rather than the art of applied social psychology, determines whether a campaign will earn an influence group's support.

Sources of Power

Managing political power for the purpose of winning support for a campaign is the ability to get another person or group to do what that person or group would not otherwise do. NFP marketers may exercise power over influence groups through any one or any combination of five bases of power.'

• Rewards. A NFP marketer may exert power over an influence group by being in a position to furnish rewards to it. Such rewards may take the form of a payment or gift or the extension of recognition and visibility.

• Coercion. A NFP marketer's power may derive from an influence group's perception that a campaign possesses the leverage to punish (inflict social or financial harm) the group if it fails to be responsive. For example, a social change campaign may be in a position to expose information about an influence group that would undermine its operation and its base of support.

• Expertise or Information. A NFP marketer’s power may be based on an influence group's perception that a campaign can offer needed technical assistance or special information and expertise that the group or a governmental agency sorely needs.

• Legitimacy. An influence group may give its support because it perceives a campaign has a moral legitimacy that is widely recognised or has goals that are strongly favoured by the public.

• Prestige. An influence group's support may arise from its desire to be identified with a NFP marketer’s organisation and objectives and a campaign's successes.

Strategies of Power

Power strategies refer to the "how" of effectively influencing an influence group through the use of rewards, coercion, expertise, information, legitimacy, or prestige. Two types of strategies are the facilitation strategy and the identification strategy.

The facilitation strategy seeks to minimise the costs or discomfort of change that an influence group may experience. A social change campaign may gain the support and acceptance of an influence group by conducting itself with a minimum of public visibility, obtrusiveness, and fanfare. Or it may provide a solid public rationale for an influence group's support that the group will feel comfortable in having for its supportive actions.

The theory behind the identification strategy is that when an influence group perceives its interests to be aligned with the objectives of a social change campaign, it will be receptive to a NFP marketer’s efforts. To achieve identification, a NFP marketer has to understand how power is distributed in the networks and institutions of which a targeted influence group is part, sometimes referred to as the "power structure."

Types of Power Structures

In a pyramidal power structure, an "elite" influence group wields decisive power and promotes its agenda through a layer of "deputy" groups that, in turn, wield influence over lower-level groups. When faced with this power structure, a NFP marketer must focus on winning the support of the elite group, for without its approval or tolerance, the other influence groups will not act.

In a factional power structure, two or more influential factions are competing for dominant power in the community. In these circumstances, NFP marketers must determine to which faction the targeted influence group belongs and then ally itself with that faction. Such an alliance, however, is likely to result in the loss of goodwill of the other factions.

In a coalitional power structure, influence groups typically form temporary coalitions. Thus, NFP marketers are challenged to determine the changing characteristics of coalitions and the vagaries of power shifts and to identify from which influence groups it is most critical to win support at a given time.

Power Tactics

How can the strategies of facilitation and identification be implemented? NFP marketing campaigns have employed a variety of power tactics to win the support of influence groups.

Influencing the evaluation process. When an influence group has to determine whether to lend support to a social change campaign, it will decide after evaluating its alternatives. NFP marketers can try to influence this decision. One is to persuade a target influence group that the NFP marketer's organisation represents a better opportunity to extend its power base. Another way is for the NFP marketer to solicit support by influencing the criteria that a target influence group uses to make its decisions about support. This approach is less obtrusive and makes it easier for an influence group to rationalise its decision to its members and the larger public.

Pfeffer stated that "the nice thing about agendas is that few people regard them as elements of political strategy."" For this reason, the determination of an agenda is an unobtrusive tactic for effecting responses from influence groups.

Setting an agenda in a way that wins favour from an influence group can be productive. The literature on agenda setting presents considerable evidence that agendas can be manipulated effectively. A campaign might first focus attention on non-controversial items on the agenda and then build up to more controversial ones. Or a campaign can start out by seeking support for a weak item. When a weak item is presented first, an influence group may be predisposed to present a tough front to this easy prey. Having demonstrated that it is no pushover, an influence group can then be more flexible on subsequent items. Thus a NFP marketer can present a dummy agenda item first before trying to win support of an entire campaign.

Coalition and Alliance Building.

Coalition and alliance building is a consensus-building approach. It operates on the basis of offering rewards. In using this approach, NFP marketers can begin with the premise that the interests of their campaign can be made to converge in significant respects with those of an influence group. Building consensus and coalition can take several forms. One is to organise numerous constituency groups who can be mobilised to pressure a target influence group to offer its support.

The Co-optation Tactic.

The co-optation tactic involves trying to convert an opposition individual or group into a supporter of a social change campaign.

One tactic is to place a supporter in a key position within the opposition group. Another tactic is to invite a member of the opposition group to participate in the NFP marketing campaign. These tactics are designed to win the support of an influence group by generating identification and ultimately commitment from its co-opted representatives. A third tactic involves knowing when committees are formed and then recommending key individuals to membership in them. Committees are often formed to build a consensus. They do so by providing a place for the resolution of multiple and conflicting interests through representation, negotiation, and resolution.

The success of a social change campaign often depends on the support it receives from influential public figures and institutions, both private and public. This support is particularly necessary when a campaign involves social objectives that are controversial and do not have a solid base of public support. In such cases, an effectively run campaign will seek to generate support among favourably disposed groups, convert indifferent groups to a supportive role, and defuse the opposition of hostile groups.

Mobilising support involves identifying the needs of influence groups and offering them benefits in exchange for their support. Once they have gained the support of influence groups, NFP marketers then face the critical task of developing a social marketing plan that systematically and comprehensively integrates all the elements and phases of the social change campaign.

Steps to digital marketing success

For years, the traditional marketing strategies of paid advertising, Yellow Pages listing enhancements, direct mail, and consistent communication with previous clients proved successful for real estate professionals. However, digital technology has forever changed the marketing landscape, along with the way consumers receive and respond to marketing messages. Real estate professionals must integrate digital strategies into their marketing plans in order to effectively increase market share.

Web site: According to www.realestatemarketingblog.org, more than 85% of real estate transactions begin online. This makes it critical that independent real estate agents and agencies have attractive, informational, and user-friendly web sites. Sites that draw repeat visitors and drive sales are content-rich, frequently updated, and have useful digital applications, like mortgage calculators. Additionally, they include site links to other companies and organisations that can offer assistance to users, such as local banks, title companies, and home inspectors.

SEO: Strong SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, makes business web sites stand apart from their competition. 68% of web searchers only click on the first page of search results and many don't even scroll to the bottom of the page ("How to Improve Your SEO Clicks and Conversions," July 2, 2009, www.marketingexperiments.com). Also, searchers are 64% more likely to click on natural, or organic, search results rather than paid sponsorship links (www.realestatemarketingblog.org). SEO assists sites in achieving the top five to seven natural rankings in search engine results pages. Sites with targeted keywords used strategically throughout content, and a URL address with a relevant keyword included, are more likely to attain top natural rankings. Site popularity and rankings also increase when sites are linked to from other industry-related sites.

E-marketing plan: An e-marketing plan helps drive web site traffic and strengthen SEO. It typically focuses on the creation and execution of a regular eNewsletter to clients and prospects. E-newsletters are budget-friendly tools that can position agents and agencies as industry experts in their local markets through timely and engaging content. They include links to various sections of the business' site to increase traffic, and eNewsletter sign-up options on both the eNewsletter ("forward to a friend") and site ("register for our e-newsletter") help build prospect lists. E-newsletters are a proven digital solution to quickly and effectively boost market visibility.

When well-developed, these three digital strategies work seamlessly to capture the attention of potential customers, expand business and market share, and build client loyalty. However, implementing and utilising these techniques - on top of the demands of a hectic real estate work load - can present a challenge. For those real estate professionals that don't have the time or expertise to kick-start a digital marketing plan, a marketing consultant or firm can prove useful in designing the most appropriate digital blueprint for your growing business.

Linda Fanaras is the president and founder of Millennium Integrated Marketing, Boston,.

Research design and implementation

A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solve marketing research problems. Although a broad approach to the problem has already been developed, the research design specifies the details - the nuts and bolts - of implementing that approach. A research design lays the foundation for conducting the project. A good research design will ensure that the marketing research project is conducted effectively and efficiently. Typically, a research design involves the following components, or tasks:

• Construct and pre-test a questionnaire (interviewing form) or an appropriate form for data collection

Design: Classification

Research designs may be broadly classified as exploratory or conclusive. The primary objective of exploratory research is to provide insights into, and an understanding of, the problem confronting the researcher. Exploratory research is used in cases when you must define the problem more precisely, identify relevant courses of action, or gain additional insights before an approach can be developed. The information needed is only loosely defined at this stage, and the research process that is adopted is flexible and unstructured. For example, it may consist of personal interviews with industry experts. The sample, selected to generate maximum insights, is small and non representative. The primary data are qualitative in nature and are analysed accordingly. Given these characteristics of the research process, the findings of exploratory research should be regarded as tentative or as input to further research. Typically, such research is followed by further exploratory or conclusive research.

Sometimes, exploratory research, particularly qualitative research, is all the research that is conducted. These cases, caution should be exercised in utilising the findings obtained.

The insights gained from exploratory research might be verified by conclusive research, as the objective of conclusive research is to test specific hypotheses examine specific relationships. This requires that the information needed is clear

Differences Between Exploratory and Conclusive Research

Exploratory Conclusive

Objective: To provide insights and under- To test specific hypotheses and

standing. examine relationships.

Characteristics: Information needed is defined only Information needed is clearly de

loosely. fined.

Research process flexible and un- Research process is formal and

structured. structured.

Sample is small and nonrepresenta- Sample is large and representative

tive.

Analysis of primary data is qualita- Data analysis is quantitative.

tive.

Findings/Results: Tentative. Conclusive.

Outcome: Generally followed by further ex- Findings used as input into deci

ploratory or conclusive research. sion making.

specified. Conclusive research is typically more formal and structured than exploratory research. It is based on large, representative samples, and the data obtained are subjected to quantitative analysis. The findings from this research are considered to be conclusive in nature in that they are used as input into managerial decision making. (However, it should be noted that from the perspective of the philosophy of science, nothing can be proven and nothing is conclusive.) Conclusive research designs may be either descriptive or causal, and descriptive research designs may be either cross-sectional or longitudinal. Each of these classifications is discussed further, beginning with exploratory research.

Exploratory Research

As its name implies, the objective of exploratory research is to explore or search through a problem or situation to provide insights and understanding. Exploratory research could be used for any of the following purposes:

In general, exploratory research is meaningful in any situation where the researcher does not have enough understanding to proceed with the research project. Exploratory research is characterised by flexibility and versatility with respect to the methods because formal research protocols and procedures are not employed. It rarely involves structured questionnaires, large samples, and probability sampling plans. Rather, researchers are alert to new ideas and insights as they proceed. Once a new idea or insight is discovered, they may redirect their exploration in that direction. That new direction is pursued until its possibilities are exhausted or another direction is found. For this reason, the focus of the investigation may shift constantly as new insights are discovered. Thus the creativity and ingenuity of the researcher plays a major role in exploratory research. Yet, the abilities of the researcher are not the sole determinants of good exploratory research. Exploratory research can greatly benefit from use of the following methods:

A Comparison of Basic Research Designs

Exploratory Descriptive Causal

Objective: Discovery of ideas and Describe market char- Determine cause and

insights acteristics or func- effect relationships

tions

Characteristics: Flexible Marked by the prior Manipulation of one

Versatile formulation of spe- or more independ-

Often the front end of cific hypotheses ent variables

total research design Preplanned and struc- Control of other me

tured design diating variables

Methods: Expert surveys Secondary data Experiments

Pilot surveys Surveys

Case studies Panels

Secondary data Observational and

Qualitative research other data

Descriptive Research

As the name implies, the major objective of descriptive research is to describe something -usually market characteristics or functions. Descriptive research is conducted for the following reasons:

1. To describe the characteristics of relevant groups, such as consumers, salespeople, organisations, or market areas.

2. To estimate the percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain behaviour.

Descriptive research, in contrast to exploratory research, is marked by a clear statement of the problem, specific hypotheses, and detailed information needs. The survey conducted in the department store patronage project, which involved personal interviews, is an example of descriptive research. Other examples of descriptive studies are:

• Market studies, which describe the size of the market, buying power of the consumers, availability of distributors, and consumer profiles.

• Market share studies, which determine the proportion of total sales received by a company and its competitors.

• Sales analysis studies, which describe sales by geographic region, product line, type and size of the account.

• Image studies, which determine consumer perceptions of the firm and its products.

• Distribution studies, which determine traffic flow patterns and the number and location of distributors.

• Pricing studies, which describe the range and frequency of price changes and probable consumer response to proposed price changes.

• Advertising studies, which describe media consumption habits and audience profiles for specific television programs and magazines.

These examples demonstrate the range and diversity of descriptive research studies. A vast majority of marketing research studies involve descriptive research, which incorporates the following major methods:

Descriptive research using these methods can be further classified into cross-sectional and longitudinal research.

Cross-Sectional Designs

The cross sectional study is the most frequently used descriptive design in marketing research. Cross-sectional designs involve the collection of information from any given sample of population elements only once. They may be either single cross-sectional or multiple cross-sectional. In single cross-sectional designs only one sample of respondents is drawn from the target population, and information is obtained from this sample only once. These designs are also called sample survey research designs. In multiple cross sectional designs, there are two or more samples of respondents, and information from each sample is obtained only once. Often, information from different samples is obtained at different times. The following examples illustrate single and multiple cross-sectional designs.

Longitudinal Designs

In longitudinal designs, a fixed sample (or samples) of population elements is measured repeatedly. A longitudinal design differs from a cross-sectional design in that the sample or samples remain the same over time. In other words, the same people are studied over time. In contrast to the typical cross sectional design, which gives a snapshot of the variables of interest at a single point in time, a longitudinal study provides a series of pictures which give an in-depth view of the situation and the changes that take place over time.

A panel consists of a sample of respondents, generally households that have agreed to provide information at specified intervals over an extended period. Panels are maintained by syndicated firms, and panel members are compensated for their participation with gifts, coupons, information, or cash.

A disadvantage of panels is response bias. New panel members are often biased in their initial responses. They tend to increase the behaviour being measured, such as food purchasing. This bias decreases as the respondent overcomes the novelty of being on the panel, so it can be reduced by initially excluding the data of new members." Seasoned panel members may also give biased responses because they believe they are experts or want to look good or give the "right" answer. Bias also results from boredom, fatigue, and incomplete diary entries.

Causal Research

Causal research is used to obtain evidence of cause and-effect (causal) relationships. Marketing managers continually make decisions based on assumed causal relationships. These assumptions may not be justifiable, and the validity of the causal relationships should be examined via formal research. For example, the common assumption that a decrease in price will lead to increased sales and market share does not hold in certain competitive environments. Causal research is appropriate for the following purposes:

1. To understand which variables are the cause (independent variables) and which variables are the effect (dependent variables) of a phenomenon.

2. To determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be predicted.

Like descriptive research, causal research requires a planned and structured design. While descriptive research can determine the degree of association between variables, it is not appropriate for examining causal relationships. Such an examination requires a causal design, in which the causal or independent variables are manipulated in a relatively controlled environment. A relatively controlled environment is one in which the other variables that may affect the dependent variable are controlled or checked as much as possible. The effect of this manipulation on one or more dependent variables is then measured to infer causality. The main method of causal research is experimentation.

Relationships Among Exploratory, Descriptive, and Causal Research

We have described exploratory, descriptive, and causal research as major classifications of research designs, but the distinctions among these classifications are not absolute. A given marketing research project may involve more than one type of research design and thus serve several purposes. Which combination of research designs to employ depends on the nature of the problem. We offer the following general guidelines for choosing research designs:

• When little is known about the problem situation, it is desirable to begin with exploratory research. Exploratory research is appropriate when the problem needs to be defined more precisely, alternative courses of action identified, research questions or hypotheses developed, and key variables isolated and classified as dependent or independent.

• Exploratory research is the initial step in the overall research design framework. It should, in most instances, be followed by descriptive or causal research

• It is not necessary to begin every research design with exploratory research. It depends upon the precision with which the problem has been defined and the researcher's degree of certainty about the approach to the problem. A research design could well begin with descriptive or causal research. To illustrate, a consumer satisfaction survey which is conducted annually need not begin with or include an exploratory phase.

• Although exploratory research is generally the initial step, it need not be. Exploratory research may follow descriptive or causal research. For example, descriptive or causal research results in findings that are hard for managers to interpret. Exploratory research may provide more insights to help understand these findings.

Potential Sources of Error

Several potential sources of error can affect a research design. A good research design attempts to control the various sources of error. While these errors are discussed in great detail in subsequent chapters, it is pertinent at this stage to give brief descriptions.

The total error is the variation between the true mean value in the population of the variable of interest and the observed mean value obtained in the marketing research project.

Random Sampling Error

Random sampling error occurs because the particular sample selected is an imperfect representation of the population of interest. Random sampling error is the variation between the true mean value for the population and the true mean value for the original sample.

Non sampling Error

Non sampling errors can be attributed to sources other than sampling, and they may be random or non random. They result from a variety of reasons, including errors in problem definition, approach, scales, questionnaire design, interviewing methods, and data preparation and analysis.

Non response error

Non response error arises when some of the respondents included in the sample do not respond. The primary causes of non response are refusals and not at-homes. Non response will cause the net or resulting sample to be different in size or composition from the original sample. Non response error is defined as the variation between the true mean value of the variable in the original sample and the true mean value in the net sample.

Response Error

Response error arises when respondents give inaccurate answers or their answers are misrecorded or misanalysed. Response error is defined as the variation between the true mean value of the variable in the net sample and the observed mean value obtained in the marketing research project. Response errors can be made by researchers, interviewers, or respondents.

Errors made by the researcher include surrogate information, measurement, population definition, sampling frame, and data analysis errors.

Surrogate information error may be defined as the variation between the information needed for the marketing research problem and the information sought by the researcher. For example, instead of obtaining information on consumer choice of a new brand (needed for the marketing research problem), the researcher obtains information on consumer preferences since the choice process cannot be easily observed.

Measurement error may be defined as the variation between the information sought and information generated by the measurement process employed by the researcher. While seeking to measure consumer preferences, the researcher employs a scale which measures perceptions rather than preferences.

Population definition error may be defined as the variation between the actual population relevant to the problem at hand and the population as defined by the researcher. The problem of appropriately defining the population may be far from trivial, as illustrated by the case of affluent households.

Sampling frame error may be defined as the variation between the population defined by the researcher and the population as implied by the sampling frame (list) used. For example the telephone directory used to generate a list of telephone numbers does not accurately represent the population of potential consumers due to unlisted, disconnected, and new numbers in service.

Data analysis error encompasses errors that occur while raw data from questionnaires are transformed into research findings. For example, an inappropriate statistical procedure is used resulting in incorrect interpretation and findings.

Response errors made by the interviewer include questioning, recording and cheating errors.

Questioning error denotes errors made in asking questions of the respondents and in not probing when more information is needed. For example, while asking questions an interviewer does not use the exact wording given in the questionnaire.

Recording error arises due to errors in hearing, interpreting, and recording the answers given by the respondents. For example, a respondent indicates a neutral response (undecided) but the interviewer misinterprets that to mean a positive response (would buy the new brand).

Cheating error arises when the interviewer fabricates answers to a part or whole of the interview. For example, an interviewer does not ask the sensitive questions related to respondent's debt but later fills in the answers based on personal assessment.

Response errors made by the respondent are comprised of inability and unwillingness errors.

Inability error results from the respondent's inability to provide accurate answers. Respondents may provide inaccurate answers because of unfamiliarity, fatigue, boredom, faulty recall, question format, question content, and other factors. For example, a respondent cannot recall the brand of yogurt purchased four weeks ago.

Unwillingness error arises from the respondent's unwillingness to provide accurate information. Respondents may intentionally misreport their answers because of a desire to provide socially acceptable answers, avoid embarrassment, or please the interviewer. For example, a respondent intentionally misreports reading Time magazine in order to impress the interviewer.

These sources of error are discussed in more detail in the subsequent chapters; what is important here is that there are many sources of error. In formulating a research design, the researcher should attempt to minimise the total error, not just a particular source. This admonition is warranted by the general tendency among students and unsophisticated researchers to control sampling error with large samples. Increasing the sample size does decrease sampling error, but it may also increase non sampling error by increasing interview errors.

Non sampling error is likely to be more problematic than sampling error. Sampling error can be calculated, whereas many forms of non sampling error defy estimation. Moreover, non sampling error has been found to be the major contributor to total error, whereas random sampling error is relatively small in magnitude. The point is that total error is important. A particular type of error is important only in that it contributes to total error.

Sometimes, researchers deliberately increase a particular type of error to decrease the total error by reducing other errors. For example, suppose a mail survey is being conducted to determine consumer preferences for purchasing fashion clothing from department stores. A large sample size has been selected to reduce sampling error. A response rate of 30% may be expected. Given the limited budget for the project, the selection of a large sample size does not allow for follow-up mailings. However, past experience indicates that the response rate could be increased to 45% with one follow-up and to 55% with two follow-up mailings. Given the subject of the survey, non-respondents are likely to differ from respondents in terms of salient variables. Hence, it may be desirable to reduce the sample size to make money available for follow-up mailings. While decreasing the sample size will increase random sampling error, the two follow-up mailings will more than off-set this loss by decreasing non response error.

While it is useful to assess sampling errors, of critical concern are the non sampling errors. In the real world, the difficult, often messy process of assessing nonsampling errors is all too easily overlooked. However, at least the following dozen non sampling errors should be closely examined in any marketing research project.

1. Nonprobability sampling. If nonprobability sampling is employed, the degree to which the sample of convenience actually used reflects or fails to reflect the universe (or market) of interest should be examined.

2. Non response. Even a low non response rate of 15 or 20% creates doubts as to how the survey results would have changed if all nonrespondents had, in fact, participated.

3. Response by a nontargeted individual. This can arise in mail surveys when the questionnaire is answered by or influenced by a person other than the addressee, such as a family member.

4. Interrespondent bias. This bias arises from interaction between respondents. For example, during one-on-one interviewing in a public area, a subsequent respondent may overhear questions and answers from the interview with a prior respondent.

5. Yea-saying. This is the desire to please the interviewer by answering according to how the respondent senses the interviewer would like to have the questions answered.

6. Respondent fatigue. Respondent fatigue or unrest may arise early or late in the interview, but more likely toward the end.

7 . Questionnaire bias. The questionnaire can be biased in terms of sequence or phrasing. Professional researchers are usually competent enough to avoid the more obvious types of questionnaire bias. However, when operating management starts hanging "whistles and bells" on the professional's questionnaire draft, much bias can creep in.

8. "Iffy" questions. Any question that asks for more than a respondent's actual (past) behaviour or current opinions tends to be "iffy."

9. Unfamiliar questions. These are questions outside the respondent's qualified range of personal knowledge or interests.

10. Interviewer bias. This error can be insidious, especially in surveys where interviewing is not centrally controlled.

11. Interviewer cheating. The extent of cheating can vary from reporting many totally fictitious interviews to more limited forms, such as skipping a few questions or including non qualified respondents.

12. Incompetent interviewing. Sloppy interviewing techniques can take many forms, such as misrecording answers, failure to probe, or rephrasing questions.

Budgeting and Scheduling the Project

Once a research design, appropriately controlling the total error, has been specified, the budgeting and scheduling decisions should be made. Budgeting and scheduling help to ensure that the marketing research project is completed within the available resources-financial, time, manpower, and other. By specifying the time parameters within which each task should be completed and the costs of each task, the research project can be effectively managed. A useful approach for managing a project is the critical path method (CPM), which involves dividing the research project into component activities, determining the sequence of these activities, and estimating the time required for each activity. These activities and time estimates are diagrammed in the form of a network flow chart. The critical path, the series of activities whose delay will hold up the project, can then be identified.

An advanced version of CPM is the program evaluation and review technique (PERT), which is a probability based scheduling approach that recognises and measures the uncertainty of the project completion times. An even more advanced scheduling technique is the graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT), in which both the completion probabilities and the activity costs can be built into a network representation.

Marketing Research Proposal

Once the research design has been formulated and budgeting and scheduling of the project accomplished, a written research proposal should be prepared. The marketing research proposal contains the essence of the project and serves as a contract between the researcher and management.

The research proposal covers all phases of the marketing research process. It describes the research problem, the approach, the research design, and how the data will be collected, analysed, and reported. It gives a cost estimate and a time schedule for completing the project. While the format of a research proposal may vary considerably, most proposals contain the following elements.

Executive Summary. The proposal should begin with a summary of the major points from each of the other sections, presenting an overview of the entire proposal.

Background. The background to the problem, including the environmental context, should be discussed.

Problem Definition/Objectives of the Research. Normally, a statement of the problem, including the specific components, should be presented. If this statement has not been developed (as in the case of problem identification research), the objectives of the marketing research project should be clearly specified.

Approach to the Problem. At a minimum, a review of the relevant academic and trade literature should be presented, along with some kind of an analytical model. If research questions, hypotheses, and factors influencing the research design have been identified, then these should be included in the proposal.

Research Design. The research design adopted, whether exploratory, descriptive, or causal, should be specified. Information should be provided on the following components: (1) kind of information to be obtained, (2) method of administering the questionnaire (mail, telephone, or personal interviews), (3) scaling techniques, (4) nature of the questionnaire (type of questions asked, length, average interviewing time), and (5) sampling plan and sample size.

Field Work/Data Collection. The proposal should discuss how the data will be collected and who will collect it. If the field work is to be subcontracted to another supplier, this should be stated. Control mechanisms to ensure the quality of data collected should be described.

Data Analysis. The kind of data analysis which will be conducted (simple cross. tabulations, univariate analysis, multivariate analysis) and how the results will be interpreted should be described.

Reporting. The proposal should specify whether intermediate reports will be presented and at what stages, what will be the form of the final report, and whether a formal presentation of the results will be made.

Cost and Time. The cost of the project and a time schedule, broken down by phases, should be presented. A CPM or PERT chart might be included. In large projects, a payment schedule is also worked out in advance.

Appendices. Any statistical or other information which is of interest to only a few people should be contained in appendices.

Better Selling - Securing valuable feedback

If you are to communicate effectively with your prospects, you must receive messages as well as send them. As you start to explain the advantages Of your products, customers' reactions, questions, gestures, and other nonverbal messages, indicate how interested they are in the sales presentation. Your ability to make effective use of the ongoing interpersonal interaction is largely dependent on your adaptability. Adaptability, in this context, is defined as the ability to make accurate inferences about a potential customer during face to-face interaction and to modify your behaviour in response to these inferences. In addition to being able to enhance your own adaptability, there are three distinct advantages to getting feedback:

More accurate communication

Continuous feedback lets you know what progress you are making and which points in your presentation need amplification or amendment. As a result, communication is more accurate because you realise when you are getting your message across to the receiver.

An opportunity to talk

When you seek feedback, the prospect has an opportunity to talk. The important psychological principle here is that the more prospects participate in a discussion, the more likely they are to agree with the discussion. Another advantage is that active participation tends to be ego gratifying. As a result, if you ask the right questions, you may get customers to sell the product to themselves.

A third advantage to getting feedback is that by allowing prospects to talk, you find out which needs to stress and how to stress them. If you listen carefully and watch prospects' nonverbal behaviours, these signals will often tell you what they are looking for or which benefits are important.

We have seen how to develop your presentation around customer needs. Sending the proper message, however, depends on the specific needs of the buyer. It is important that you get feedback from your prospects in order to determine which benefits to stress and to determine their reaction to what you are saying. You can get feedback from your customers and prospects by asking questions, listening, and observing the prospect's nonverbal behaviour,

Asking questions

When you ask questions to get feedback, you want prospects to open up and give you information about their needs or about their reaction to your offering. To be effective in getting prospects to share information with you, you must be sincere and empathic, and you must build rapport with them.

The way you ask questions is also important. Your tone and manner should be friendly and sincere, so that prospects are encouraged to express themselves. Your actions should encourage confidence and understanding. The tone of your voice is very important. If your tone suggests indifference, lack of confidence, distrust, sarcasm, or a know-it-all attitude, your questions will not be effective. On the other hand, a friendly, sincere tone, a pleasant expression, or a sparkle in your eyes can help ensure a good reception to your question.'

Guidelines for Feedback Questions

There are several guidelines for designing questions in such a way that you encourage prospects to give feedback.

Questions that can be answered by a yes or no do not give you enough information. For instance, if you ask, "Have you heard about our product?" and prospects respond "yes," you have not learned what they have heard or whether it is positive or negative. A much better question would be, "What have you heard about our product?" Notice that this question cannot be answered by a "yes" or "no.," Another disadvantage of asking questions that are answerable by a "yes" or a "no" is that you also have to ask many more questions, and this may annoy the prospect.

Leading questions put words into the prospect's mind, do not encourage honest feedback, and may be perceived as high pressure. A leading question such as "You like our product, don't you?" has several potential negative outcomes. If the prospect disagrees with you and says so, you have an argument, which is not desirable. On the other hand, if the prospect disagrees with you and does not say so, you have a hidden objection, which must be detected in some way later and which is also not desirable. Finally, even if the prospect agrees with you, leading questions may be seen as high pressure and may discourage trust and feedback. A better question to get at the prospect's evaluation of your product would be, "What do you think of our product?"

Long, involved questions tend to be difficult to answer and may cause prospects to lose interest. Questions such as the following are much better.

These short questions are easy to interpret, and they encourage prospects to open up and give you information.

Combining too many factors in a question can be confusing and may keep you from obtaining important information. Asking a question like "Do you like our product design, colour, energy efficiency, and deliveries?" may confuse the prospect. Should they respond "Yes, no, yes, yes"?

Prospects may fail to answer one of the parts of the question, especially if there is a problem. Their objections to a product may be hidden in this way. If you really want information about these four dimensions, ask four separate questions.

When you are dealing with new prospects and you want information, you must start out with broad questions that are applicable to all prospects. For instance, you might say, "Tell me about your business" or "What kind of machinery do you have at present?" Asking these broad questions gives you important information about prospects and helps you avoid asking embarrassing questions or questions they cannot answer. Then, as you get to know prospects better, you can be more specific. Your questions should also lead from one to another or be conversational. For instance, you might say, "That sounds interesting; how does that machinery affect your quality control?" This natural sequencing of questions will make prospects feel comfortable and more likely to open up to you and give you information.

Types of Questions

Probes are used to pursue some aspect of a previous statement. For instance, if a prospect says, "I am unhappy with my present supplier," you might say, "Why are you unhappy?" or simply "Why?" Your objective with a probe is to get more information. Probes may be open encouraging discussion; or closed, encouraging a yes or no answer.

Another way to get more information about a prospect's statement is to use a mirror question, sometimes called a reflective question. In this type of question you repeat part of the prospect's statement and let your voice trail off at the end. For instance, if the prospect said, "What we really looking for is quality," you might respond "quality?" or "You are looking for quality?" The mirror question encourages the prospect to give more information by expanding on the previous statements.

One way to get information is to use "W"-word questions-questions that begin with who, what, when, where, why, and how you ask a person, "Have you heard about our product?" the normal response will be a yes or no. However, if you ask a question such as "What have YOU heard about our product?" you will get a more complete response with more information.

Besides getting feedback, questions may also help to verify information, to qualify prospects, to determine their most important needs, to clarify statements, or to close.

Verifying questions are used to check the accuracy of information you have about a customer or prospect. For instance, if you have heard that a prospect is planning on introducing a new product, you might ask, "I understand you are planning on introducing a new product, is that correct?"

Open and Closed Probes

Open probes are used to encourage customers or prospects to talk about their experiences and to uncover the customer's or prospect's attitudes. Here are some examples of open probes.

Closed probes are used to direct attention to a problem that you can solve; they are also used to clarify doubt and to check whether your understanding is accurate. Here are some examples.

Even though this question is generally phrased so that it is answerable by a yes or a no, it gives you valuable information because you do not have to assume you are correct.

Qualifying questions are used to determine whether you have a potential buyer. For instance, if you were selling copying machines, you might ask, "What type of copying equipment do you presently use?" or "How many copies do you need per month?" These questions are designed to determine whether prospects need the product you are selling.

Need development questions are used to determine which benefits to stress to a prospect. In the copier example, you might ask "What do you look for in a copier?" or "What types of copies do you need?"

Clarification questions are used to make sure you understand what the prospect is saying. You might say, for example, "Let me see whether I understand what you are saying. Is eliminating down time in this machine your most important concern?" These questions show that you are concerned about the prospect and may tend to overcome any misunderstanding you may have about what the prospect is saying.

Closing questions are used to ask for an order or for a decision. These questions might be worded as follows: "May I have a purchase order number?" or "When would you like delivery?" In order to get a sale, you must either directly or indirectly ask for the business; these are closing questions. Without closing questions you will not make a sale.'

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Professional Certificate and Diploma Courses

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