Comments on: The secret of successful marketing: Think more like your mum http://anthillonline.com/the-secret-of-successful-marketing-think-more-like-your-mum/ Business, news, innovation, entrepreneurship... The Magazine for Australian FAST growth companies Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:47:56 +1100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: The Doc (aka - Louise Schultze) http://anthillonline.com/the-secret-of-successful-marketing-think-more-like-your-mum/#comment-13928 The Doc (aka - Louise Schultze) Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:13:54 +0000 http://anthillonline.com/?p=16218#comment-13928 Hi Joe, Sorry this Doc has needed to see a Doc too. Quite ill and away from the public. But nothing Vics on the nose and good sleep for 2 weeks won't cure. You are right. Building relationships with other businesses that have similar clientele, and offer something aligned with your product or service is a very efficient way of attracting clientele through your door. My point in this article is, all forms of advertising work, only if they are placed in front of the person who wants what you have. I could stand in front of you in your living room and beg you to purchase a membership to Melbourne Victory. But if soccer is not your thing my pleas will fall on deaf ears. And blanket advertising is a hit or miss. They bank on hitting enough to make it financially viable. And those that can handle the misses aren't SME's. You are right in assuming that high tech market research has usually been available exclusively to big Ad agencies. And it still is the case. This doesn't mean however, it's not possible for the SME. My next article and future ones, have a lot more on how to do this, giving real examples, so tune in for them. But since you stayed back on my couch, I will give you a directive to start with. Roll playing! Imagine the type of people that would use your product or service. Visualise them in your head. So if you have a kids shoe store, you will probably visualise a mum with her toddler in a pram walk in your store. Straight away, just from this visualisation, you know the sex, and age bracket of the purchaser. From there you can have highly probable estimations. Like, probably has a partner, probably knows other mums, probably lives not too far away. Engaging in strategic questioning when they come in is imperitive. Now with more and more people using the internet to purchase goods and services, it is extremely important we ask them what products and services they like, so you only send them notices of what they want. This kind of data is gold. So once you know a little about your demographic, start behaving like them. And I understand for an SME's in the business world, this concept can seem daunting. But it does start with Visualisation and good educated estimations. There is a phone help line in Australia, you can call that allows you to speak to a fully qualified consultant in Advertising & Marketing, and they help you build personalised marketing strategies for free, based on this concept of understanding your business model and it's potential clientele. It's 1300 424 326. It's a free help line, so it's definately worth trying out. I am talking more on these points on my next artcile, so I'm sorry this is not as detailed as I would normally reply to such an important question. Look forward to you being on my couch next time Joe. :) Hi Joe,
Sorry this Doc has needed to see a Doc too. Quite ill and away from the public. But nothing Vics on the nose and good sleep for 2 weeks won’t cure.
You are right. Building relationships with other businesses that have similar clientele, and offer something aligned with your product or service is a very efficient way of attracting clientele through your door.
My point in this article is, all forms of advertising work, only if they are placed in front of the person who wants what you have. I could stand in front of you in your living room and beg you to purchase a membership to Melbourne Victory. But if soccer is not your thing my pleas will fall on deaf ears. And blanket advertising is a hit or miss. They bank on hitting enough to make it financially viable. And those that can handle the misses aren’t SME’s.
You are right in assuming that high tech market research has usually been available exclusively to big Ad agencies. And it still is the case. This doesn’t mean however, it’s not possible for the SME.
My next article and future ones, have a lot more on how to do this, giving real examples, so tune in for them. But since you stayed back on my couch, I will give you a directive to start with. Roll playing! Imagine the type of people that would use your product or service. Visualise them in your head. So if you have a kids shoe store, you will probably visualise a mum with her toddler in a pram walk in your store. Straight away, just from this visualisation, you know the sex, and age bracket of the purchaser. From there you can have highly probable estimations. Like, probably has a partner, probably knows other mums, probably lives not too far away. Engaging in strategic questioning when they come in is imperitive. Now with more and more people using the internet to purchase goods and services, it is extremely important we ask them what products and services they like, so you only send them notices of what they want. This kind of data is gold. So once you know a little about your demographic, start behaving like them. And I understand for an SME’s in the business world, this concept can seem daunting. But it does start with Visualisation and good educated estimations. There is a phone help line in Australia, you can call that allows you to speak to a fully qualified consultant in Advertising & Marketing, and they help you build personalised marketing strategies for free, based on this concept of understanding your business model and it’s potential clientele. It’s 1300 424 326. It’s a free help line, so it’s definately worth trying out.
I am talking more on these points on my next artcile, so I’m sorry this is not as detailed as I would normally reply to such an important question.
Look forward to you being on my couch next time Joe. :)

]]> By: Joe http://anthillonline.com/the-secret-of-successful-marketing-think-more-like-your-mum/#comment-13376 Joe Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:16:35 +0000 http://anthillonline.com/?p=16218#comment-13376 I have worked on market basket and consumer shopping patterns for large retailers in which the same three steps are applied to increase in-store and same store sales. As SMEs may not have the breath and scope of products/services required by their clientele then they should also look to creating alliances with fellow SMEs in which their product/service can be partnered or cross-sold. As the costs to collect this information (step 1 in article) may be prohibitively high, what means do you suggest to SMEs to collect this information? I have worked on market basket and consumer shopping patterns for large retailers in which the same three steps are applied to increase in-store and same store sales.

As SMEs may not have the breath and scope of products/services required by their clientele then they should also look to creating alliances with fellow SMEs in which their product/service can be partnered or cross-sold. As the costs to collect this information (step 1 in article) may be prohibitively high, what means do you suggest to SMEs to collect this information?

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