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July 2007

- News
- Tip: Ideas Book
- Technique: Case study   

 


News

July promises to be a busy month with our sponsorship of the Young Living Business Mums Expo. The Expo is taking place in Canberra during Children's Week in October. For those of you targeting mums and kids, there are some great promotion opportunities involved with the Expo. For only $33 you can include samples and promotional material in the show bags. For more information about marketing opportunities related to the Expo visit http://expo.themarketingcoach.com.au/site-content/sponsorship-packages.html

 

This month also sees the trial run of MumSpeak, a range of market research techniques designed to provide clients with not only access to affordable market research, but real marketing solutions. If your target market comprises mums, families or kids then MumSpeak can answer questions like: why am I getting hits to my site, but no one is buying? I've had lots of publicity, but why no sales? How much should I charge for my product? Where does my target market prefer to buy my product? What does my target market like and dislike about my products?

 

We're conducting a test run of the MumSpeak Focus Groups during July and August and we're offering a 40% discount to subscribers who would like to make use of MumSpeak and help us to refine our offering. Instead of the usual $495, for only $297 you will receive:

 

  • A 30-minute marketing coaching session to determine your information needs
  • Assistance with determining the key topics for discussion in the focus group that will satisfy your information needs
  • A facilitated focus group conducted with 4-6 mums and/or their children
  • A report highlighting the outcomes of the discussion
  • A 20-minute marketing coaching session to discuss the results of the focus group and how the findings can be implemented in your business

 

For July and August only you can use MumSpeak to provide valuable input to your decision-making for only $297. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to find out more.

  

 

Tools tips and techniques:

 

newsletter_tips.gifTip:  Keep an idea journal

Idea journals are a must have for anyone considering embarking on any kind of media campaign. They help you to capture story ideas, angles and even a thought-provoking phrase. A simple notebook small enough to carry around with you will serve the purpose. It can also help you to come up with ideas for your blog and your newsletter.

 

 

newsletter_techniques.gif

Technique: Using a focus group to build your ad campaign - PETIT, a MumSpeak case study

Co-owners of PETIT, Chriss Kourakis and Georgia Emerzidis, are two Australian mums that import a beautiful range of bath and body products for children originated from France. Chriss and Georgia have researched the market before starting their business and although they have received a lot of publicity for their products, they are looking at different avenues of marketing to target the mothers. Chriss and Georgia decided to give the MumSpeak Focus Group a try.

A group of 5 mums were recruited and the topics for discussion agreed upon. Chriss and Georgia wanted to get a good idea of how mums shop for children's bath and body products. They wanted to know:

  • Who made the purchasing decision when it came to children's products?
  • Who influenced this decision?
  • Where did the mums prefer to shop - online, specialty stores or in the supermarket?
  • What did mums understand by the term "natural ingredients"?
  • What influenced the mums to buy one product over another?
  • What advertising features would be more attractive to mums?

The results of the focus group not only provided Chriss and Georgia with a better idea of how and where to distribute their products, but it provided them with some ideas for product innovations.

The MumSpeak mums also examined both PETIT's and its competitors advertising and publicity to determine which elements had the most appeal. The results were surprising. PETIT had all the right ingredients to make a popular and successful product, but their advertisements weren't making an emotional connection with the mums. The biggest yet simplest change PETIT had to make was to add children to their advertisements.

"It's so obvious, but yet it hadn't occurred to us", said Chriss. "All the feedback we had previously received had been from people who had already tried and loved the product. Yet, we were trying to reach people via our advertising who didn't have the products in front of them. Who couldn't smell their gentle fragrance or admire the luxurious texture of the conditioners. Of course we would have to appeal to them in a different way!"

PETIT looks like it will be going from strength to strength, so for your own little piece of heaven visit www.petit.com.au.

 

  
  
newsletter_tools.gifTool:  Choosing which media to use

Publicity, advertising, direct mail - they all have strengths and weaknesses. This table can help you to choose the best one for your marketing project. For more information read Norman Hart's book: "Business to Business Marketing Communications" printed by Kogan Page Limited in 1998.

 

 

 Medium
Strengths  
Weaknesses 
Comments 
 Editorial publicity  This has a high degree of credibility and it's free. You can reach a large audience. No control over the timing, your positioning or accuracy of the story. It cannot be repeated. A useful tool if you are trying to educate the market or inform about an event. 
 Advertorials  You can reach a wide audience and can control timing, size, colour and text. It can also be repeated a number of times. It's seen as less credible than publicity and is expensive.  To get the most out of the money spent on creating an advertorial, you should also use them in direct mail and offer them as editorial features. 
 Exhibitions  Great for face-to-face contact and meeting lots of people in a short space of time. Because the buyer approaches you, it's also good for those who don't like cold-calling. There can be a lot of distractions. You have to be very disciplined about following up leads as soon as possible after the show. May get a lot of leads that don't turn into sales. It can be very expensive. It can be a good way to start building your brand. Get in front of a lot of people in a short space of time.
 Direct mail  There's plenty of room for creativity. Competitors can't monitor your marketing activities. Can directly target people. Can monitor the results very quickly. It can be seen to be low budget and databases need to be accurate or you can lend up upsetting people.    Direct mail can allow you to test market various strategies at relatively low cost. You can test the success of your ad copy, incentives offered and image used.
 Promotional gifts  This can help keep your name in front of your customer. If used indiscriminately it can be expensive.   Especially if the decision-making process is a long one, a well chosen gift can keep you in front of the customer. 
 Case studies  Great way to showcase the way your products and services can be used. Useful for showing hesitant potential customers how your business solved a similar problem for someone else. Case studies need to be well written to be credible. Often they are written as a sales document instead of a genuine description of problem solving.   Case studies can be used in numerous ways e.g. by sales staff as examples, in feature articles, in newsletters and direct mailings. They can also form the basis of presentations, seminars and advertorials. 
 Customer training  For complex products or services this is a way to ensure customers use and understand your products properly. This results in happier customers and less ongoing support. This is only practical for products or services that have low volume sales and need demonstration.  This can be a benefit that differentiates your business from competitors. 
 Customer user panels This is useful when you want feedback from customers who use your products. It can also stimulate ideas for product innovations. Like any group event, you need good facilitators to ensure no one person dominates the panel and it doesn't just become a product-bashing forum.   It's a cheap way of conducting customer research and it helps to create the perception that your business really cares what customers think.
 Directories  This only really works for less complex products and services where customers have a good understanding of the category.  You are bunched in to a small space with all your competitors. It encourages price shopping. By all means use free directories, but consider others very carefully before making a commitment. 
 Newsletters  This can be a very cost-effective way of building relationships with customers. They can also be a useful tool in customer research. The content has to be relevant to the subscribers and the database needs to be maintained to ensure all addresses are current.  Can be a great tool for building confidence in your business.
 Leaflets, brochures, flyers  Good for conveying technical information or explaining complex products. For flyers, a call to action is essential. If they are too technical, no one will read them.    For technical or complex products and services they are essential.
 Presentations & conferences  Good for communicating with small groups of people and presenting case studies. Useful tool to answer any questions about your product or service that the audience might have.  Can be expensive and must be well-organised or your businesses image will suffer.  Ideal for communicating with smaller groups.
 Sponsorship  This can help to boost your brand image by associating with a special event. The sponsorship arrangement needs to be well managed to ensure you are also able to communicate information about your product. 

 It becomes increasingly useful the more established your business is.

 

 
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