Small Business, Marketing and Dealing with Tough Economic Times
A man lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio or computer. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers, he didn’t watch television. He didn’t know much about the outside world, but he sold good hot dogs.
He put up a sign on the highway telling how good they were. he had a web site built. He stood by the side of the road and cried “Buy a hot dog, folks!” And people bought and bought and bought.
He increased his meat and roll orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his growing trade. He got his son home from university to help him. He hired a hotdog chef.
But then something happened.
His son said “Dad, haven’t you been listening to the radio? Haven’t you been reading the newspapers? Haven’t you been watching the television? There’s a credit crisis. If money stays tight, we are bound to have bad business!
There may be a big recession coming on! You’d better prepare for poor trade!”
Whereupon the father thought “Well, my son has gone to university. He reads the papers and listens to the radio and television, and he ought to know”.
So the father cut down his meat and roll orders. He took down his advertising signs and turned off his web site. And he no longer bothered to stand on the side of the highway crying “Buy a hot dog, folks!”
And his hot dog sales plummeted almost overnight.’
“You’re right son,” the father said, “We’re certainly headed for a recession!”
The moral of the story is…
History has proven companies that maintain or increase their advertising investments in periods of economic downturn increase their sales and share of market, both during and after the downturn.
Here are the facts:
• Maintaining or increasing advertising budget levels during economic downturns may be necessary in terms of protecting market position vis-a-vis forward looking competitors.
• If a company fails to maintain its “Share of Mind” during an economic downturn, current and future sales are jeopardized. Maintaining “Share of Mind” costs much less than rebuilding it later on.
• If during an economic downturn you maintain a strong advertising presence while your competitor cuts his budget, you will automatically increase your “Share of Mind.”
• Advertising through both boom and down times sustains the necessary brand recognition.
Economic downturns reward the aggressive advertiser and penalize the timid one. Maintaining a company’s advertising during an economic downturn will give the image of corporate stability within a chaotic business environment, and give the advertiser the chance to dominate the advertising media.
During an economic downturn, a strong advertising/marketing effort enables a firm to solidify its customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors, and position itself for future growth during the recovery.
When times are good, you should advertise; when times are bad, you MUST advertise.
Advertising in an economic downturn should be regarded not as a drain on profits, but as a contributor to profits and insurance for the future.
Advertising now includes have a fast and efficient web site that can be found on the internet. For web design Brisbane, visit johnhacking.com. John is a web designer located in Brisbane. If you are looking for a business for sale, visit business2sell.com.au
Looking for a business for sale ?
If you are looking for a business for sale, visit business2sell.com.au
This web site is for buyers, sellers and business brokers. Categories include food, retail, automotive, transport and every other imaginable category. There’s businesses for sale there at all levels of investment.
With the uncertain economic climate it make sense to investigate owning your own business.
Although running your own business can be very hard work, your future is very much in your hands. With the risks involved often go the rewards.
According to the ABS, in 2006 there were over 1.12 million small business in Australia employing a total of over 2.5 million people.
Small business is an attractive option for those who want to leave the corporate grind and build an asset that they can pass on to generations.
Business2Sell.com.au is 100% free website for business brokers. Brokers can join the service and add unlimited businesses.
If you are and owner selling your business, a 3 month listing is just $45. Note that at the moment business2sell.com.au are running a special offer. If you get a listing with business2sell for three months, they will run your listing for unlimited time or until it is sold.
As a buyer, you can search by location, business type and keyword. You can also search by price range.
So if you are looking to buy a business, sell a business or if you are a business broker, visit business2sell.com.au today.
STB2S070209
Establishing a Unique Selling Proposition
Your brand image is primarily an emotional construct. Emotion is probably always more powerful in swaying people than reason, but people like to be able to rationalise their choices. This is where awareness of another advertising theory - the USP - can be helpful to you.
The USP, or unique selling proposition, formula was developed by Rosser Reeves, an ex-copywriter who became head of the Ted Bates agency in New York. He wrote an excellent book, largely dealing with this theory but also covering other aspects of advertising, called Reality in Advertising.
To establish your USP, you compare your product or service with your competitors. Then you determine one feature you have which no one else can offer. This is your unique selling proposition. It is this which you must promote single mindedly.
A 1987 issue of Marketing Week, the British trade paper, gave a wonderful example of how little the average marketing executive understands the phrases he deploys with such gay inconsequence. The subject was ‘Store credit cards’. A bank executive said: The whole point of a Marks & Spencer, Boots, Dixons or even Fortnum & Mason card is to bring people into the store - and to provide a bit of a LISP’ (my italics).
How a credit card can be a unique selling proposition when the same facility is offered by any number of retailers is difficult to comprehend. It reminds one of people who refer to things as being ‘rather’ unique, or ‘fairly’ unique. Here are some typical USPs:
‘Cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth.’
Colgate toothpaste. ‘The too good to hurry mint.’ Murraymints. ‘There’s more for your life at Sears.’ Sears Roebuck. ‘It ain’t fancy but it’s good.’ Horn & Hardarts. ‘The mint with the hole.’ Polo Mints. ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.’ Perdue Chicken
And, finally, another gentleman in the chicken business: ‘It’s finger lickin’ good.’ Colonel Sanders
One of the problems with the USP is that you sometimes have to rely upon some pretty trivial points of difference to arrive at your proposition - as you can see from the list above. And although, for simple products a good USP may often supply a successful selling idea, I think it is difficult to arrive at one for complex services such as American Express or The Consumers Association.
However, comparing yourself against your competition to discover what USP may exist is a great aid to clear thinking. For example, I was able to improve results for Odhams’ Kathie Webber Cookery Club by writing a headline which was simply a personal way of expressing a USP: `My cookery cards mean you control your weight without giving up luscious food you love to eat.’ This did well in the UK, and even in France, home of gastronomy. Moreover, subsequent approaches to selling this product revolved around this original thought. ====
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The Challenge of Large Unit Decorating
How can you create a sense of intimacy, hominess, coziness in a large space? If you recruit an interior decorator, how can you be sure that for every inch of your unit that the personality coming across is yours and not that of the decorator or the builder?
And with all that space to fill, should you acquire furnishings quickly so that you can’t hear your own voice echoing in the emptiness, or should you be patient and gradually decorate as you find the right furnishings and accessories? Are we just grasping at straws trying to target what’s not great about a large apartment? Probably a little bit.
The fact is that large, roomy home units provide one of the most desirable and comfortable living situations. You are free to keep your space as spare as you like or to accumulate at leisure. Do you have room for that adorable little Victorian bench you saw at the antique show? Of course you do. There’s always room. Studio apartment and other small apartment dwellers envy you as they know they can only desire such treasures from afar they’re sometimes lucky just to fit a couch and a bed in their apartments.
And that’s not the only upside of larger apartments. Consider the freedom a large apartment gives. What do you do with all that space? If you have a family, you might just have enough room for everyone to have their own “space,” which could mean bedroom, but depending on how large the apartment is, it could mean a whole lot more.
For example, do you find yourself taking work home from the office at night or on weekends? If so, where do you work? In a large apartment, you might be able to set aside an entire room of your own or even a corner or nook that you can transform into an office for yourself.
What about hobbyists? Every household has its share of these. Why not divide out a special place for that hobby to be performed. Perhaps you have several small children and all the requisite toys that go along with them. A playroom or play area designated by a colorful rug and a toy box is also a strong possibility in a large apartment.
Another thing you’ll enjoy in a large apartment is the freedom to break out of the confines of traditional decorating. You can trick the eye with clever furniture placement. Float a sofa with a table set behind it, or place the sofa diagonally across the corner. In a small apartment, you’d be asking for trouble with either of these solutions because they can eat up so much space. However, in a big unit, you have the freedom to try out unusual furniture placements. Take some risks and see what happens.
Of course, large apartments do have their downsides. One of these lies in creating a sense of cohesiveness in the big space. Whether the apartment is older or brand new, a sense of unity in the decoration is always desirable in an apartment large or small. In a house, there’s usually room to depart from the mood of the general design on different floors not to mention attics and basements, but an apartment is usually taken in all at once, no matter how large it is. One way of creating cohesiveness is to stanradise things like floor coverings or blinds.
The smartest design professionals and apartment owners recommend that you consider the whole space when designing any one room or section in the apartment. If you’re just moving in, you might live in your apartment for a while to get a sense of the space before you call in the decorators.
If you’re redecorating the apartment you’ve been living in for years, start looking at the space as objectively as you can, analysing what really works designwise and what has never worked. While the rooms of your apartment need not appear as though finished in one fell swoop with one repetitive style, the goal should be to aim for a coherent background decor and compatible colour scheme.
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Buying Blinds on the Internet is a Breeze with Just Roller Blinds
If you are looking for roller blinds, holland blinds, or custom made blinds, visit www.justrollerblinds.com.au
Just Roller Blinds have a very useful and friendly web site that allows you to choose your fabric and style of blinds from a large range of options.
By buying online from Just Roller blinds you can save money and get the perfect blinds for your house, unit or apartment.
Don’t be concerned about measurements either. The Just Roller Blinds web site has a step-by-step guide to help you get it right.
There are four styles of blind to choose from: budget, standard, executive and sunscreen. And if your not sure about the colours, you can always order fabric swatches.
One of their recent customers said: Thank you for the fast delivery and I’m happy with the quality of the product and also cheap price. When I quote other manufacturers it was almost double the price I paid for this.I’m so glad that I made the right choice. I’m sure your business will grow fast everyday coz there’s no reason people to go for other shops for good blind product. If someone looking for good blinds I’d definitely recommend ‘Justrollerblinds’
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19 Deadly Web Site Design and Marketing Mistakes
Foggy or undefined business goals - your web site needs a purpose. For example, the purpose of my web site is: “to support word-of-mouth, yellow pages, print and classified advertising of our web design services to small businesses and sole traders in the CBD and southern suburbs of Brisbane. I will know if it is successful if it generates an average of at least five enquiries or three sales per month.”
A Bad Business Model - a great web site will not save a bad business model. If you cannot state in one sentence what you have to offer, or why you are different to your competitors, then you have major marketing problems. Remember, your web pages are competing with 21 billion other web pages on the Internet. Without a good business model and marketing and PR support, your business will have difficulty in succeeding.
Becoming an internet dreamer. You would be stunned the number of people who think having a web site is having a business. They are pretty easy to spot. They’ve read The Secret, talk about Paying it Forward, and look forward to the day where they make lots of money while crusing on their yacht. I’ve got no problem with The Secret or Paying it Forward, what I do have a problem with the belief that making money online is easy. It isn’t unless you are extremely lucky. A web site is not a business.
Focusing on style rather than substance - it’s easy to waste a lot of money on fancy Flash pages, Java script, music, graphics and other techniques that add little to your sites value and make it slower to download and harder to navigate. When in doubt - don’t do it. Your web site should be designed so that even people with older versions of browsers and slow old modems can still get the information they need quickly. And don’t be tempted to have videos or sound that automatically start playing when a web page is opened. It is very annoying and people will leave your site in droves without reading what you have to offer.
Trying to be all things to all people - getting found on the Internet means a focused approach to marketing. Pick one product or service offering and build a web site around that one offering. By appealing to different markets with unconnected products means that your search engine rankings will suffer. Pick a profitable niche and focus on that niche.
Using a generic domain name - the more unique and memorable your domain name, the better. Domains like pets.com or computer.com describe the product category, not the brand. google.com, dell.com , yahoo.com are easy to say, easy to remember and excellent brand names for the web. Do what they do, choose your online name carefully.
Not having a domain name at all - the use of a web address like ispname/~fashionshop looks unprofessional and “small-time”. Invest the $40 or so it costs to have your own domain name.
Not thinking like a customer - your web site should anticipate your prospects’ questions and be designed with them in mind. What do they want to know? What’s the best way to tell them? What proof can I offer? Consumers don’t necessarily want to make the best buying decision, they are usually happy just avoiding a bad one.
Not listing prices - the second question all prospects ask after “have they got what I’m looking for” is “how much is it?”. If you can give straight pricing, do so. Prospects are looking for value, not necessarily the lowest price. Value = offer/price. If you have a strong offer and your prices are reasonable you will represent value to your prospects. If you don’t state your prices then the value can’t be calculated. If you charge by the hour, state your rates for the type of work you do and a typical project cost.
Bad spelling, punctuation or grammar - there’s no excuse for typos, bad spelling or bad grammar. Always get your web site proof read by an independent party. If you do find an error, fix it promptly.
Not allowing for growth or updates - your web site design should allow for growth in content and easy changing of content. New product lines, additional locations, extra consumer information should all be catered for without the need for a major site redesign. This website uses what’s called a content management system. To add a new page takes less than 1 minute.
Investing too much in electronic order taking systems - if you expect to receive less than 10 orders per day from your web site, it’s probably far easier to use a simple order form and manual credit card processing using your EFTPOS machine than building real-time electronic payment processing systems. For low to medium volumes, another option is the range of merchant tools from PayPal. It takes about 5 minutes to insert a Buy Now button on your web page that allows customers to pay immediately by credit card. Paypal is the world leader in online payments for a good reason … it works.
Investing too little in online marketing - in most cases it pays to invest in online marketing. Unlike traditional media, with online marketing you can choose your daily budget and the cost-per-click of your marketing campaign. With good reason, Goggle Adwords is the leader in pay-per-click advertising. Learn about Adwords or hire a consultant who does. For as little as $5 -$10 per day you can get yourself a source of steady, qualified leads.
Not considering search engines - The primary way people will find you online is via search engines like google, altavista and sensis. By adding key words to the header of your web pages, using paragraph headings, linking to related sites and other techniques, you can improve your ranking in the search results dramatically.
Not responding quickly to inquiries that come from your web site- the Internet works very quickly. It takes less than a second to send an e-mail from Australia to Europe. Internet users are impatient. They want immediate results. If you take a few days to answer and e-mail there’s a good chance you’ve already lost the sale to someone who understands this and acts quickly. Check your e-mail twice a day and once a day on weekends if possible.
Unreadable pages - your pages should be clean, simple and readable. Red writing on a black background may look rather funky, but it is hard to read and will lose visitors quickly. Similarly with fonts. Only use fonts that you would usually see in a mainstream newspaper or magazine.
Unprintable pages - if you use lots of graphics and coloured text on coloured backgrounds it my be difficult for prospective customers to print out your pages. Black on white/cream works well. It’s easy to read as well as cheap and fast to print. You would be amazed the number of prospective buyers who print out web pages for future reference.
Using cheesy stock photos and graphics - photos can really ad impact to a web page, but don’t be tempted to use the same stock photos that everyone else does. You know what I mean, “man with briefcase running” or “business meeting” or “close-up of pen on table” or even “business handshake closing a deal”. These are the sort of cheesy images a 12 year old would put in a school project. If possible, use original photos of you and your business. If that isn’t possible, there are some excellent stock photo sites around where you can buy quality images for less than $2 a pop. The photo on this page is one such example. Cost? $1.65 Australian.
Bad site navigation - it should take a maximum of three clicks for your reader to find the information they are looking for. 40 seconds is the average time a person will spend scanning your web site to see if you have want they want. Deliver.
John Hacking is a Brisbane web designer. For web design Brisbane, contact John today.
Icon Energy (ICN) Board to be Ousted in Shareholder Revolt
Icon Energy Ltd, a Queensland based small cap gas exploration company, is under threat of having its board replaced at an Extraordinary General Meeting called by major shareholders to be held on 23 February 2009.
The Icon Energy Action Group today announced via its website www.iconenergyactiongroup.org details of its plan to throw out the current board and replace it with a new team.
Ron Baldwin, spokesperson for the Action Group said, “There are a whole raft of things that the shareholders want to see eliminated from the way the company has operated.
Firstly, they want a Board that is not dominated by its two Executive Directors Secondly, they want a reduction in Executive salaries to industry standards Thirdly, they want accountability by the Executive to the Board and then by the Board to the shareholders”.
Ron Baldwin said that the shareholders wanted a system of Corporate Governance that guaranteed that the disasters of 2008 would not be repeated.
These disasters included the three wells drilled in 2007 in ATP626P being either drilled in the wrong spot or otherwise largely unusable, ordering the wrong dewatering pump from USA and attempting to obtain finance by way of a questionable convertible note.
An award winning Singapore journalist described these convertible notes as “toxic” and likely to cause the company’s share price to go into a “death spiral”. Ron Baldwin said that he provided a copy of the journalist’s report to Ray James, in early December 2008, prior to the EGM, but Ray James neglected to share this information with Icon Energy’s Chairman, Stephen Barry who only became aware of the report during the course of the EGM.
Despite this damaging report, the Board continued to recommend that shareholders approve the issue of ‘toxic’ convertible notes. Fortunately shareholders at the EGM rejected the Board’s recommendations.
In addition, Ron Baldwin said that the shareholders wanted to make sure that there could never be a repeat of a three person Board, dominated by two Executive Directors, which approved salaries, bonuses and free shares to its Executive Directors that could only be described as being “grossly excessive” for a company of the size and type of Icon Energy.
“To have a Managing Director of a small gas explorer, with no cash flow, paid $560,000.00 per year is just not acceptable to shareholders”, Ron Baldwin said.
Ron Baldwin also said that as the EGM of 23rd December 2008 approached, when the Executive Directors saw the overwhelming negative vote being lodged by Proxy against their bonus shares and bonus share scheme, they withdrew the seven resolutions relating to the bonuses and the scheme but they did not withdraw the bonuses – they just paid them in cash out of shareholders funds.
The Shareholders of Icon Energy Limited will now have an opportunity to express their wishes about the current Board at the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 23rd February 2009.
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For further information contact Ron Baldwin 07 3848 9699 or visit the website www.iconenergyactiongroup.org
High Manganese and Geosmin Levels Blamed for Brisbane’s Awful Water Taste and Smell
It seems the cause of the Brisbane water smell and taste problem is high manganese and geosmin levels. Here’s an extract from a press release from the Queensland Water Commission:
“Test results that we received today indicated that these measures are working and there has been a reduction in manganese and geosmin levels, and the community should start to experience improvements to the taste and odour of their tap water by the end of the week.”
The full press release can be seen here.
Why Does Brisbane Water Now Taste and Smell So Foul?
The anti-flouride brigade are correct, Brisbane’s water does now taste and smell awful. I only noticed today. It sort of smells like wet gravel and tastes like it has rocks in it. The colour is OK, but the smell and taste are disgusting.
I hope the south-east corner’s water quality becomes a huge election issue. I really don’t care too much about the flouride, but the new smell and taste of Brisbane water is enough to swing my vote. Anna, it’s time for another backflip.
Do a Kevin, turn off the flouride and commission a 20 year long working committee.
Here’s some comments from the Courier Mail.
Researching Your Company’s Service Positioning
Once you have decided on possible positionings for your product or service, it’s wise to research them and see which of them your target market finds credible and appealing.
For instance, one of our clients sells a wide range of kitchens and home hardware to the public through shops. We wanted to find out what the right positioning for them could be - and then reflect it in their marketing.
Accordingly, a number of lines were written, each reflecting a different position. I am going to give you these lines with a brief indication as to how customers reacted to them. This should prove thought-provoking if you ever feel tempted to brag or misrepresent what you offer.
- ‘The best DIY store in town’ - consumers appreciated that the stores were not DIY outlets, so this was seen as inaccurate.
- ‘The ideal home improvement store’ - consumers thought this dealt only in superlatives, which were glib and self-congratulatory.
- ‘The store for top quality home improvements at value for money prices’ - consumers thought this was not distinctive; it was overused phraseology; nor did it appear credible - people expect to pay a premium price for quality.
- ‘The home improvement store where service really is personal service’ - the idea of service was good news, but not enough; products had to be good, too. In any case, this claim was seen as something other stores like Marks & Spencer could make.
- ‘Find out what “the trade” has always known’ - people had mixed feelings about the trade. Some thought of it in association with craftsmanship; others thought of cheap workmanship and cowboy operators.
- ‘The store traditionally used by the trade’ - here the same negatives aroused by the previous trade line came up, though in a better sense because of the use of the word ‘traditionally’. One problem, however, is that the line implies such products need proper experience to install.
- ‘Made to last by us. Sold direct to you’ - this conveyed that the company was personally involved in the making of the products, as opposed to being an importer.
Moreover, the line was seen as patriotic, because it clearly meant these were British goods. It also conveyed craftsmanship, durability and the good value you get by buying direct. Readers also appreciated that the line was to the point, not gimmicky. This line came out on top.
Successful companies tend to have a clear positioning from which they rarely if ever deviate - and then only with great care. I make no apology for reintroducing American Express. It was positioned single-mindedly for many years as ‘the world’s most prestigious financial instrument for business travel or entertainment’. This positioning came out in everything American Express did. For instance, the letter sent out to entice new members which began: ‘Quite frankly the American Express card is not for everyone …’. This reflected the positioning so well that for many years in most countries of the world it was the most cost-effective direct mail used.
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