THIS WEEKS AH-HA!

By Bart S. Foreman, president and co-managing partner, Group 3 Marketing

Hopefully, you are rooting the sleep inducing tryptophans out of your 2005 marketing plan. The holiday selling season is officially in full swing. And the big question is whether you are really ready to maximize your sales. With the growth of the Internet, the influx of new competitors from overseas and God knows where else, and the spreading dominance of Wal-Mart into more phases of everyone's business, retailers are struggling to find new ways to reach and retain customers. Brand marketers and service providers also face the same challenges. But it's easier said than done. With the proliferation of ways in which consumers get information, reaching desired customers is becoming more difficult. Alex DeMeo recently noted at a conference "We're going from mass marketing to 'me' marketing. Mass marketing used to be about reaching one market of millions. Now it's millions of markets of one." This is what we have been saying in every Monday Morning AH-ha! This is The Sixth Star. In the past it was enough to throw money at the problem. Times were that 80% of households read newspapers and the major magazines. Advertising assured the retailer or marketer of reaching their target within that mass. No more. The Marketing Implications Fragmentation! Millions of Markets. Segmentation. Regardless of the size of your business, regardless of your customer base, these are the marketing issues your marketing plan must carefully address in 2005. That's MUST. Not maybe, should, probably or any other wimpy adjective. The beginning point for most marketers is to capture more customers. More customers logically adds up to more sales. Right? Probably, but at what cost and at what impact on your bottom line? Maybe we've been doing our marketing planning backwards. Maybe we should begin by FIRST putting our customers first. Maybe we should build our marketing plan in a way that rewards on-going patronage. If rewarding customers is too scary, maybe just create a strategy that at least allows you to stay connected with customers, delivering timely and relevant information. If all this is still to scary, think of the alternative &Mac246; because the wolves are just waiting for the opportunity to lure your customers away with new exciting strategies. If you've been doing the same things, you're getting the same results. If that's good enough, keep doing it. But if your industry is changing, if your competition is changing, and if your business is changing, perhaps it's time to refocus your initiatives. Please remember that it's not just one thing that alters your business. It's the result of many factors CUMULATIVELY building on each other. 5-Star Customer Service, on-going communications, thank you rewards, something special for selected clients &Mac246; the list goes on but the impact can be dramatic. And now, go forth until next week when we will discuss "The World of They."

Bart Foreman President Group 3 Marketing bforeman@group3marketing.com

[Return to Articles / Monday Morning Ah-Ha! ]