Marketing strategy tagged posts

November 29, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

There’s a universal truth that most business people know: companies and enterprises succeed by getting, stealing, keeping and growing customers and clients.

Customers and clients are the only reason we build railroads, manufacture convenience foods, send satellites into space and manufacture fire retardant furniture.

But there’s a marketing trap.

Most managers are seduced into thinking that what worked yesterday will continue to satisfy customers and clients tomorrow. The trouble is, it probably won’t and it takes courage to lift the scales from our eyes to see how we should change the way we market to them.

Where trouble tends to emerge in carefully crafted brand and m...

October 24, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

A common misconception often made by small business owners is that marketing is for larger, more established businesses.

I had a chat about this with John Ponsford who spent four days last week completely rewiring all the lights in our house.

I asked John how he gets referrals and he explained that all of his work is through recommendation and word of mouth. He’s nervous about spending money on marketing and unsure what results he could achieve if he went down this route. He doesn’t advertise in the Yellow Pages but doesn’t know what he should do or where he should start.

I commended him for the way he and his father quietly got on with the job; how pleasant they were i...