Marketing is misunderstood and much maligned. The industry is dogged by pejorative associations with concepts such as ‘spin’, ‘hype’, ‘gimmick’ and ‘ploy’, and it is not uncommon for fellow board members to refer to the marketing director as ‘the chief flower arranger’.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that when times get tough, marketing gets it in the neck from governments too. Marketing is seen as an agent of consumerism, and is, therefore, an obvious scapegoat for major societal problems such as obesity, binge drinking, global warming and debt. It is much easier for governments to publicly ‘punish’ marketers with legislation that restricts their licence to operate, than it is for those governments to tackle some of the issues themselves. Marketing and democracy provide similar benefits, as I and my fellow author Katherine Jocz outline in Greater Good – How good marketing makes for better democracy (Harvard Business School Press, February 2008). For example, marketers give consumers information and choice, they seek to engage them to earn their loyalty, they try to bring quality and innovation to the masses. Marketing also provides ‘social glue’ via successful exchanges, and improves living standards and consumer wellbeing. Similarly, democracies depend on informed citizens participating in the political process and making choices among political alternatives.

They also promote the welfare of all citizens, which leads to improved prosperity. But marketing is better than democracies at providing these benefits. For example, while consumers in the commercial world ‘vote’ every day at the cash tills, citizens have to subsume their individual preference to a collective will, and consume the policies of the party that has been elected. Marketing is also quicker than democracy to spot and embrace new trends, while strong brands can forge the kind of long-term loyal relationships with their consumers that politics, with its mass market approach and lack of any real competition, can only dream of.

Marketing is also being used as a force for social good – witness the rising popularity of Fairtrade goods and the commitment to tackling climate change by brands such as Marks & Spencer. Indeed, you could argue that the practice we get as consumers every day in the commercial marketplace makes us better, smarter citizens – which may be why our politicians are frequently such a disappointment to us. The difference in the way politicians and brands ‘advertise’ themselves is further evidence of marketing’s more highly evolved status.

Brand advertisements knocking the competition are frowned upon in the commercial world – marketers know that a tit-for-tat war of words turns consumers off the category as a whole – but they are par for the course in politics. The penalties of this approach were obvious in the US Democratic race, where Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama took every opportunity to undermine each other’s credibility. Their subsequent efforts to present a united front against Republican John McCain in the Presidential campaign were met with understandable cynicism.

It is time governments, NGOs and the general public sat up and recognised the positive social and economic impacts marketing has on society as a whole. It contributes significantly to economic development, for example. In the US alone 17 million people hold marketing, sales and customer-service jobs. Marketing also supports the pillars of democratic society. It funds our diverse media, including the internet, giving citizens access to information about political figures, policies and programmes. And marketing knowhow helps public policy makers change citizens’ behaviours by, for example, encouraging seat-belt use, good nutrition and responsible drinking. So instead of treating them merely as taxpayers, donors and voters, politicians should treat citizens as well as marketers treat their customers. They could improve the democratic process as a result.

Previously published in the Business Review, Impact Executives

Interim Management

Source by Clive Sexton

Most of what I am going to talk about here is geared towards the new coffee shop. However, it can be utilized and directed towards an established shop. When I wrote my business plan, I made sure I had marketing covered from many angles because most traditional forms of marketing do not work in the specialty coffee business. When opening your coffee shop, you should know what types of advertising and marketing are actually worth your money.

Outside of your regulars, coffee is an impulse buy because the customer saw your sign. Aside from your regulars, most folks do not set out to ‘go to the coffee shop’ like they would to a restaurant (unless you ask them to so more on this later). You need a steady stream of customers outside of your normal morning commute business.

The morning commuters are your bread and butter, the rest helps fill in the revenue holes. These are your impulse buyers. They are going to come to you mainly via your sign outside, so instead of sending out 10,000 post cards to your neighborhood residents, spend that money on a premium location, visible sign and branding your image. You’ll be glad you did:

As far as your signage, get one that is AS BIG AS POSSIBLE. That is, as allowable by your city ordinance and landlord, without being tacky! The bigger the sign is, the more visible it is.

By branding your image, you are identifying your existence within your community. Be sure you have a unique logo. If you cannot design it, get one custom made by a professional! I have seen a lot of cheap looking logos that do not help the image.

Another step in branding your image is to secure your shop’s name on the world wide web by registering the domain name. Try to get all the domain tags: .com, .net, .org, etc. This is for email, and your website. You will be glad you did because it gives you a more professional image. Remember, the more common your business name is, the more difficult getting it registered online is going to be because the name may be taken.

As for your website, get one! If you can do this on your own, more power to you here too. I know just enough to be dangerous but you can get a nice website, even with online sales capabilities done economically. Check around locally, I bet there are a few web gurus in your area.

Here is where you have the chance to have every customer take your name with them when they leave allowing others to see it. Whether you have sleeves custom printed or you use stickers and put one on each cup or protective sleeve, they are all part of your branding. Be sure the design is clear and defines your shop well. The same goes for stamps. You can have a rubber stamp made to stamp your whole bean coffee bags with. Note that the brown Kraft paper bags are what you’d need for this. If you use the foil bags, your stickers will work well for this too.

Press releases are an inexpensive way to tell the world what you are doing. A carefully crafted press release sent to the right person at the right news outlet can be the best form of advertising for you. Just be sure that whomever is on the press release as the contact person is actually available to be contacted.

Another great form of marketing is your use of tee shirts, caps and other wearable’s. These are walking billboards for you courtesy of the folks that buy them. You can give them away if you want, it’s all good advertising. Yes, they are expensive but I consider this great advertising and an expense under that category. Better, yes if you can make up the cost on them. But put this cost into your advertising budget. See if you can get them locally, if not there are several reputable companies on the internet. You will pay about $15.00 each in the end, but again the investment is very well worth it.

Where would we be without business cards? Think about it: how many people have you run into that do not have a business card for whatever it is they do for a living? Not many that I can remember. This is your time to tell everyone you meet that you are in the coffee business. Everyone you meet should get one of these and a few to spare. Do not be shy about handing them out!

Menus are a great example of simple marketing. These are the take out type so try to keep it simple. Under four pages, printed on an 8.5″x11″ sheet of BRIGHT colored paper and folded in half is best. You can leave them at area businesses if they allow it. You can also put them on your counter by the checkout and anywhere else your customers will see and take them. You can have them copied at any copy place, or see if you can have a local copy shop do them. They should cost about .10-.15 cents each. All you need is a place to make them on a copy machine. Menus printed on a printing press will be more expensive in most cases.

Support materials are also a good way to advertise your products. You can usually get POS materials FREE from any supplier you are using. This goes for tent cards to put on your counter to full color posters to hang in your windows. Check with your distributor. If they do not keep these kinds of materials on hand, a call to the manufacturer can usually get them in your hands relatively quickly.

Vinyl lettering on your vehicle is another form of advertising, and another type of moving billboard. There are several places online that will allow you to use a particular vehicle template to design your lettering. Again, check around locally for better service and pricing. I had vehicle lettering made for my SUV: rear window and both rear side windows or under $100.00. Your vehicle will essentially become a moving billboard.

Vinyl lettering can be gotten for your store windows too, which will be similar to your vehicle lettering. Check with the same source.

Word of mouth is an excellent source of marketing. Customers can be your biggest and best marketing source for you. It can also backfire on you if you tick someone off or if a customer ends up having a bad experience at your shop, for whatever reason.

Make every effort that all customers are satisfied before they walk out of your door. You may never have the chance to do it again and everyone that that dissatisfied customer meets may be told of the unfortunate incident at your store. They may not come to your store if there was ever that chance they would.

Talk to the world online via your blog. This has got to be the best invention since a website and the internet itself started. Where else can you talk about nearly anything and let the world read it? You may just develop a following not only locally, but around the world.

Have event nights. This is great for weekends and ‘dead’ times. Earlier, I spoke about customers coming to your shop if you asked them to. This is where you have that chance. Events that will bring in business are almost plentiful. A few examples are trivia night, open mikes, singer-songwriter and other music performances, book signings and poetry. It can also be just about anything else you can think of that is of interest to others. A word of caution about playing DVD’s and TV/cable shows: Most of these are copyright protected and although you may not think you are breaking any laws, it can be construed as such. It’s a royalty issue because you are making money on your beverages, in your establishment showing a DVD bought for ‘personal’ use. Just be careful here. Some satellite services allow this with a paid subscription, however.

It’s been my experience that this coupon mailers are usually a waste of money in the specialty coffee industry. There are way too many coupons in most of these mailers and most recipients throw them out. I know I do.

Internet advertising is good if you can limit to advertising locally using your zip code. You can reach a captive audience on the internet. It’s relatively inexpensive because you choose what to spend on each ad and only pay per click. This is also good if you choose to sell whole beans online, however if you do not roast in-house this may be cost and inventory prohibitive.

Be careful when using coupons in any form. Coupons tend to cheapen the specialty coffee industry so I do not recommend using them. Bogo’s (buy one get one) are ok for some advertising, like opening a new coffee shop but, you will get your bargain seekers that wait for those coupons in order to patronize you. You could create more monsters!

You will also, occasionally get regulars that bring in the coupons. Even though they are as deserving of the coupon as anyone else is, your aim is to get NEW customers so the ‘coupon’ doesn’t always work. The only way I recommend a coupon is for a first time customer. You can usually get mailing addresses of new residents from your chamber of commerce and do a select, targeted mailing to the new residents only.

So there are some easy, mostly economic ways to effectively advertise and market your coffee shop. Remember, your customer service and quality will always have to be top notch but you can skimp on some advertising dollars by being crafty and conservative.

Source by Tony DiCorpo

As a member of a small or solo law firm you are certainly faced with many challenges daily. If your firm is not growing as you had envisioned, it may be largely due to the fact that you are not utilizing effective law firm marketing strategies to get more. By not using proven legal marketing techniques, many attorneys remain stuck in the same old rut; doing the same old thing and getting the same miserable results.

If you have been looking for clients, using the same old advertising techniques and are getting nowhere, it is definitely time to make a change in your legal marketing strategy.

One of the primary reasons that a company or person hires an attorney is to alleviate some type of “pain”. They may use words like “challenges”, “problems”, or “obstacles”, but all of the words amount to the same thing; they are experiencing discomfort; they are experiencing pain. Their “pain” is whatever they are asking your assistance with. Successful marketing for lawyers relies upon your ability to identify their pain and effectively communicate how you will help them resolve it.

Many people sense they need some type of help but can’t immediately identify what it is they need. That is when you are called upon to investigate to find the root cause; to use many of the tools you have in your “legal marketing toolkit”. Some reasons prospects can’t identify specific points of pain include:

Due to stressful conditions, they may not be thinking clearly and may be making bad decisions (like hiring the wrong attorney).

They aren’t acquainted with the right terms; they may ask for “mediation” when they actually want a divorce lawyer.

They may use “things” or “people” to conceal the true pain source (Often, they will point to the wrong person or to the company as the source of their pain).

You can use this knowledge to increase your law firm marketing effectiveness by following these 7 guidelines to uncovering your prospects “point of pain”:

1. You must know how your prospects define and describe their “pain”.

2. You must talk about the problem using their language. (Using language they don’t understand will lead to the failure of your legal marketing efforts)

3. Ask a lot of questions about their pain; they will feel listened to and that you truly care about their problems.

4. Do not waste precious time describing the process you will employ to resolve their pain; focus on helping them visualize your solution and the results.

5. You must give the client a sense of hope; let them know that things will get better and you know how to make that happen.

6. Project confidence in your ability to help them. Share a case study or an example of a success story.

7. You must listen to them and make them feel understood before they will listen to you.

Law firm marketing starts with successfully identifying the prospect’s “point of pain”, listening to them carefully and showing that you truly care.

Source by Stephen Fairley

Professionals in the health and allied industries, including doctors, nurses, psychologists, counsellors, social workers, etc, often work from their own self-employed businesses. In Australia, a considerable section of the industry is self-employed, whilst many other professional counsellors who have not yet become their own bosses, aspire to do so.

In this article, we discuss one the most critical aspects of starting and perpetuating a business: marketing. You will learn how counsellors can gain exposure and build a positive image for their business, whilst developing a good client base – despite their theoretical orientation or experience with self-employment. We hope many of our readers will find this particularly useful to achieve their own business (and personal) New Year resolutions!

Marketing and Counselling

We begin with a basic question: what constitutes marketing? Many counsellors and small to medium business owners believe marketing is simply advertising. This is a HUGE error. Marketing is so much more than just your advertising. Advertising is simply one method, medium or process by which to communicate your product or service to prospective clients.

Marketing however encapsulates:

Strategy; mindset; planning; capital; branding; products and services; product packaging; positioning; pricing; business location; communication; market drivers; business models; innovation; distribution channels; policies and procedures; guarantees; relationship building; sales processes; goals and objectives; business philosophy; and more.

Marketing encapsulates everything that influences the CHOICES of your prospects and clients. And the choices of your prospects and clients relate to:

– their perception of your business, products and image;

– whether they purchase or not;

– whether they continue using or re-use your service;

– whether they refer your service;

– whether they pay;

– how much they are willing to pay;

– whether or not they endorse;

– and much more.

As you can see, there is a lot more to effective marketing than just running an ad. How effectively a company undertakes marketing is the primary determinant of its level of success. Marketing is WITHOUT DOUBT the most leveragable process in your business. It is also the most overlooked, and hence the reason for the majority of business failures. Being a qualified counsellor with great experience and a well-established practice won’t help unless people know about it!

Networking for Exposure

In the counselling industry, one of the most powerful ways to build your business image is networking. Counselling clients can be derived from varied sources, particularly community networks – it is very important that counsellors recognise that factor in order to get the appropriate exposure which their businesses require.

Following are some suggestions that can be helpful:

Talk to your family Doctor and let him or her know what you are planning (or about your recently established business) as you may have to make referrals to him/her. Many counsellors get referrals from Doctors and this is usually the result of establishing a meaningful trust relationship.

Likewise, discuss your plans with your family Pharmacist as he/she may also be able to help building your professional profile.

Talk to your local Naturopath/ Homoeopath/ Physiotherapist/ etc. and suggest an exchange of business cards. Explain that you would like to have someone specific to make referrals to and maybe he/she may care to reciprocate.

Contact Support Groups and Agencies in your area explaining the service that you offer. Maybe you can offer to help them out from time to time, even on a voluntary basis. Voluntary work is an excellent way to gain experience and create links with both the community and other professional in health care industries. You can offer your voluntary work in places such as hospitals, aged care facilities, community centres, etc.

One of the best ways to promote your business is by word of mouth, and one of the most effective ways to ensure that this happens is to run group activities such as Grief and Loss discussion groups.

Building Your Profile

As a counsellor, recognition of your knowledge, experience, qualifications and competence are very important. How can you effectively build a positive profile within your prospects and current clients? That is a pertinent question in a counsellor’s career.

As we’ve cited previously, marketing activities such as networking and volunteering play a major role in building the counsellor’s profile. Primarily, it is a way for the counsellor to validate his/her skills and qualifications throughout working directly with clients and other professionals. Secondarily, maintaining a meaningful trust relationship with other professionals and volunteering will help creating the image of a ‘contributor of the community’, which is a premise for building trust and rapport with prospective clients (a very important aspect of any counselling relationship).

Another effective strategy to build a professional profile is to educate others. Creating and distributing informational flyers, writing a newsletter or eZine, conducting workshops and attending discussion groups are all good examples of such activities. Through this process, counsellors position themselves as specialists in their area – thus, attracting prospective clients. The cited activities are also useful for professional development and efficient in keeping the counsellor up-to-date with industry developments, counselling theory and practice.

Improving Marketing through Delivery

A very common way service professionals achieve a differential position in the market is the interesting – and potentially risky – art of over-delivering (and under-promising). But what exactly is over-delivering? Over-delivering is providing a level of service over and above that expected or anticipated for the service provided.

Over-delivery is providing a level of service beyond what you’ve promised your client in your marketing message. An example of service over-delivery would be to provide your client with a surprise complimentary gift after the first session. The gift may be in the form of a tele-coaching session, a seminar, a book, or perhaps a voucher to the movies or a massage session.

Many astute counsellors actually provide services of other business professionals in order to provide their over-delivery. For example, in the case of a free massage above, you may be able to do a deal with a health spa that is willing to provide a complimentary session to your clients in the anticipation that your client will continue to use their service in the future. This type of arrangement is a powerful win to all parties – You are able to provide your client with an added benefit, the health spa gets a potential long term client for low cost, and your client gets a free massage.

The intention of service over-delivery is to build goodwill with your clients. It’s intended that this goodwill will translate into business benefits for you. Those benefits may be longer client contracts, increased referral and stronger product endorsement.

Generally your perceived gain from over-delivering your service would be greater than your cost to provide the additional benefit to your client. (In the above example your cost is actually zero). Clearly it’s very important that you take into consideration the cost of over-delivery in your financial planning. When engaging in this process, you must be aware of the cost/benefit relationship that will arise from it, ensuring that for every cost involved, there is a mutual benefit.

However, every investment requires a systematic approach in order to be successful – and over-delivering is not different. You’ll need to establish goals in order to measure the outcomes of your efforts, and also to avoid having financial problems due to an ill planned promotion. You can include the following points in your over-delivery strategy:

Establish primary objectives

List each advantage of over-delivering in a priority order. Referrals, networking and partnership possibilities are all reasons for this type of promotion. Your primary objectives will also be parallel to your current position in the market: whether you have just started your business, included a new service, found a new niche, etc.

Find a target market

The main objective of over-delivering is to provide more satisfaction to customers. For this reason, look for groups that can offer a great deal of options for your business, such as networking possibilities. Once you’ve established the right target, you’ll be able to refine your promotion and possibly calculate the most likely outcomes of each interaction.

Choose your gift

Now that you’ve decided what your target market is, you need to decide on what you are going to offer. You may provide extra services of your own, or negotiate with a local service provider to exchange vouchers for referrals. There are many options to choose from, but the most important thing is to ensure that whatever the gift is, it will have some value to the client.

Create protocols

You are going to face a constant trade-off between the amount of extra time you are going to spend with ‘give-aways’ and how much you can actually spend. Creating protocols will help you to balance this equation and ensure you’ll neither go too far on over-delivering, nor too low. It will also give you enough flexibility to deal with various opportunities that may arise throughout the process.

It is important for the counsellor to realize that marketing is an ongoing process – and to ensure that the service delivered is of the highest possible quality. With the appropriate training, the passion to help people and the dedication to get a business practice on its way – your career is likely to become a success!

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Source by Pedro Gondim

If there has ever been a medical specialty that is in need of competent marketing consultation, a cohesive and long-term strategy, and effective practice growing tools, it is dermatology. The fact is, dermatology marketing takes a wealth of experience to achieve proper results.

We have seen so many good dermatologists go down the same road to ruins… it is called “Playing the Commodity Game” and it is a good way to harm your business, your reputation, and your referrals.

How often do we see coupons offering a special lower price on common services, such as Botox? It seems every dermatologist and Medi-Spa is in a race to see who can lower their prices faster!

But here are some basic principals that should guide you, should you want to play this game;

* Price shoppers are not loyal. They will go to your competitor when their prices are better than yours.
* You need to give your patients and potential patients a reason to choose you, other than price. Are you the best in your area? Do you have some special training or expertise? Do you have a new piece of equipment that is the latest and greatest? Even if your competitors may have the same qualifications and services, if they are not promoting them, then the field is open for you to claim those “points of distinction.”

There are many ways to determine how best to position your practice so that patients have a clear and compelling reason to choose you. However, use caution if you use price as your main method to attract patients… it is a recipe for long-term failure.

If you would like more information on our marketing strategies and proven methods of success for dermatologists, plastic surgeons, medi-spas, or any medical and healthcare specialty, please feel free to contact us. It never costs a cent to talk to us, and the advice is priceless.

Please visit our website at: www.healthcaremarketingpartners.com

Source by Healthcare Marketing