Is alcohol a stimulant or is it a depressant?
If you visit almost any bar and grill on a Friday night after work, you would swear that alcohol was a stimulant. The noise and laughter are strong evidence of alcohol’s stimulating effects. Yet at 4:00 in the morning, when you see a few happy-hour customers sleeping it off in the streets, you would swear that alcohol is a depressant.
Chemically, alcohol is a strong depressant. But in the short term, by depressing a person’s inhibitions, alcohol acts like a stimulant.
Many marketing moves exhibit the same phenomenon. The long-term effects are often the exact opposite of the short term-effects.
Does a sale increase a company’s business or decrease it? Obviously, in the short term, a sale increases business. But there is more and more evidence to show that sales decrease business in the long term by educating customers not to buy at “regular” prices.
Aside from the fact that you can buy something for less, what does a sale say to a prospect? It says that your regular prices are too high. After the sale is over, customer’s tend to avoid a store with a “sale” reputation.
To maintain volume, retail outlets find they have to run almost continuous sales. It is not unusual to walk down a retail block and find a dozen stores in a row with “Sale” signs in their windows.
Have the automobile rebate programs increased sales? The rise of auto rebates has coincided with a decline in auto sales. U.S. vehicle sales have declined for five straight years in a row.
There is no evidence that couponing increases sales in the long run. Many companies find they need a quarterly does of couponing to keep sales on an even keel. Once they stop couponing, sales drop off.
In other words, you keep those coupons rolling out not increase sales but to keep sales from falling off if you stop. Couponing is a drug. You continue to do it because the withdrawal symptoms are just to painful.
Any sort of couponing, discounts, or sales tends to educate consumers to buy only when they can get a deal. What if a company never started couponing in the first place? In the retail field the big winners are the companies that practice “everyday low prices”; companies like Wal-mart and K Mart and the rapidly growing warehouse outlets.
Yet almost everywhere you look you see yo-yo pricing. The airlines and supermarkets are two examples. Recently, however Proctor & Gamble made a bold move to establish uniform pricing which could become the start of a trend.
In everyday life there are many examples of short-term gains and long-term losses, crime being an example. If you a rob a bank for $100,000 and wind up spending 10 years in jail; you either made $100,000 for a day’s work or $10,000 a year for 10 years of labor. It all depends on your point of view.
Inflation, or the recent government stimulus (cash for clunkers comes to mind), can give an economy a short-term jolt but in the long run, inflation leads to recession or a Great Deflation as is being experienced in the U.S. at this time (circa 2010).
In the short term, overeating satisfies the psyche but in the long run it causes obesity and depression.
In many other areas of life (spending money, taking drugs, having sex) the long-term effects of your actions are often the opposite of the short-term effects. Why then is it so hard to comprehend that marketing effects take place over an extended period of time?
Take line extension. In the short term, line extension invariably increases sales. The beer industry clearly illustrates this effect.
Look what happened to Coors. The introduction of Coors Light caused the collapse of Coors regular; which today sells one fourth of the volume it used to sell.
In the short term, both brands can co-exist and do well. But in the long term, line extension was bound to undermine one or the other of the two brands. Once the decline starts, it is almost impossible to stop.
Unless you know what to look for, it is hard to see the effects of line extension, especially for managers focused on their next quarterly report. (If a bullet took five years to reach a target, very few criminals would be convicted of homicide.
In other areas of marketing, the short-term / long-term line extension effects occur much more rapidly. Let’s look at what happened to Donald Trump. At first, The Donald was successful. He then branched out and put his name on anything for which the banks would lend him money; hotels, casinos, condominiums, an airline, and a shopping center. Many asked, what is a Trump? What does Trump mean?
Fortune magazine called Trump an investor with a keen eye for cash flow and asset values, a smart marketer, a cunning wheeler-dealer. The Donald has been on the cover of many magazines.
At various points in time, Trump has declared bankruptcy. What made The Donald successful in the short term is exactly what cause him to fail in the long term – line extension.
It looks easy, but marketing is not a game for amateurs.
It takes a while but many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs recognize marketing effects take place over an extended period of time and as a result, they use various methods and tools to build relationships with their leads and customers. They build websites that create trust. They collect name and email addresses using an Optin form on a Landing Page. They use email systems with both auto-responders and broadcast capabilities in order to send messages to their leads and customers. These email messages frequently send information, provide knowledge, and occasionally promote an offering. Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn that leads and customers do not like to be sold to however they will browse and shop. Over an extended period of time, skilled Internet Marketers are able to use hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to get leads and customers to take the action they want. This is how they learn to add value and be successful in the world that includes the Law of Perspective.
Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of Perspective as marketing effects take place over an extended period of time and requires not only perspective but also persistence.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
Finally, a great book to read is "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Ries & Trout. It is the source of some of the material provided in this article.
In closing, be sure to meet me at my website, WhoIsMikeFarrell, learn some tips about being No 1 on Google at aspenIbiz My Go-To-Market Partners, my affiliate website, and learn how to be savvy with your money like the insiders at aspenIbiz The Conspiracy For Your Money Blog.
Showing posts with label Product Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Product Marketing. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
The Law of the Opposite - Your Internet Marketing Strategy is Determined by the Leader ... explained by Mike Farrell aspenIbiz
There are laws of nature so why shouldn’t there be laws of marketing? You can build a great-looking airplane but it is not going to get off the ground unless it adheres to the laws of physics, especially the law of gravity.
So it follows that you can build a brilliant marketing program only to have one of the laws of marketing knock you flat if you don’t know what they are.
One of the laws is the Law of the Opposite.
In strength there is weakness. Wherever the leader is strong, there is an opportunity for a would-be No 2 to turn the tables.
Much like a wrestler uses his opponent’s strength against him, a company should leverage the leader’s strength into a weakness.
If you want to establish a firm foothold on the second rung of the ladder, study the company above you. Where is it strong? And how do you turn that strength into a weakness?
You must discover the essence of the leader and then present the prospect with the opposite. In other words, don’t try to be better, try to be different. It is often the upstart versus the old reliable.
Coca Cola is a 100 year old product. Only seven people in the history of the world have known the Coke formula which is kept in a locked safe in Atlanta. Coca Cola is the old, established product. However, using the Law of the Opposite, Pepsi Cola reversed the essence of Coca Cola to become the choice of a new generation, the Pepsi Generation.
In other words, by positioning yourself against the leader, you take business away from all the other alternatives to No 1. If old people drink Coke and young people drink Pepsi, there is nobody left to drink other brands in the cola beverage category.
Sometimes you need to be brutal.
Scope, the good tasting mouthwash, hung the medicine breath label on its Listerine competition. But don’t simply knock the competition. The Law of the Opposite is a two-edge sword. It requires honing in on a weakness that your prospect will quickly acknowledge.
One whiff of Listerine and you know that your mouth would smell like a hospital. Then quickly twist the sword. Scope is the good-tasting mouthwash that kills germs.
Marketing is often a battle for legitimacy. The first brand that captures a concept is often able to portray its competitors as illegitimate pretenders. A good No 2 can not afford to be timid!
As an Internet Marketing professional, you need to understand the Law of the Opposite. If you are not the leader in a product category but want to be a strong second, you need to position yourself opposite the leader because every market becomes a two horse race (as described in No 8, the Law of Duality).
Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs are using techniques and tools like mind-mapping, keyword research, Attraction Marketing Formula, Magnetic Sponsoring, and MindMeister to conduct the market research and plan a successful marketing campaign. They then use the power of MyStory marketing, brand You Inc, and hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to deal realistically with the position of their brand and the strategy they want to pursue in the world that includes the Law of the Opposite.
The goals is to not emphasize why their offering is better, feature and function-wise, over a competitor’s but to develop a message that is recognized, accepted, and agreed to so that it will seduce and persuade a customer that what is offered to the target market is real and will work for them.
Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of the Opposite and if you are not the leader then you must do the opposite of the leader to appeal to the group that does not want to buy from the leader.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
So it follows that you can build a brilliant marketing program only to have one of the laws of marketing knock you flat if you don’t know what they are.
One of the laws is the Law of the Opposite.
In strength there is weakness. Wherever the leader is strong, there is an opportunity for a would-be No 2 to turn the tables.
Much like a wrestler uses his opponent’s strength against him, a company should leverage the leader’s strength into a weakness.
If you want to establish a firm foothold on the second rung of the ladder, study the company above you. Where is it strong? And how do you turn that strength into a weakness?
You must discover the essence of the leader and then present the prospect with the opposite. In other words, don’t try to be better, try to be different. It is often the upstart versus the old reliable.
Coca Cola is a 100 year old product. Only seven people in the history of the world have known the Coke formula which is kept in a locked safe in Atlanta. Coca Cola is the old, established product. However, using the Law of the Opposite, Pepsi Cola reversed the essence of Coca Cola to become the choice of a new generation, the Pepsi Generation.
In other words, by positioning yourself against the leader, you take business away from all the other alternatives to No 1. If old people drink Coke and young people drink Pepsi, there is nobody left to drink other brands in the cola beverage category.
Sometimes you need to be brutal.
Scope, the good tasting mouthwash, hung the medicine breath label on its Listerine competition. But don’t simply knock the competition. The Law of the Opposite is a two-edge sword. It requires honing in on a weakness that your prospect will quickly acknowledge.
One whiff of Listerine and you know that your mouth would smell like a hospital. Then quickly twist the sword. Scope is the good-tasting mouthwash that kills germs.
Marketing is often a battle for legitimacy. The first brand that captures a concept is often able to portray its competitors as illegitimate pretenders. A good No 2 can not afford to be timid!
As an Internet Marketing professional, you need to understand the Law of the Opposite. If you are not the leader in a product category but want to be a strong second, you need to position yourself opposite the leader because every market becomes a two horse race (as described in No 8, the Law of Duality).
Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs are using techniques and tools like mind-mapping, keyword research, Attraction Marketing Formula, Magnetic Sponsoring, and MindMeister to conduct the market research and plan a successful marketing campaign. They then use the power of MyStory marketing, brand You Inc, and hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to deal realistically with the position of their brand and the strategy they want to pursue in the world that includes the Law of the Opposite.
The goals is to not emphasize why their offering is better, feature and function-wise, over a competitor’s but to develop a message that is recognized, accepted, and agreed to so that it will seduce and persuade a customer that what is offered to the target market is real and will work for them.
Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of the Opposite and if you are not the leader then you must do the opposite of the leader to appeal to the group that does not want to buy from the leader.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Law of Duality - Every Market Becomes a Two Horse Race, explained by Mike Farrell with aspenIbiz
Early in the lifecycle of a product category, a product ladder with many rungs is formed. Gradually, the ladder becomes a two-rung affair.
In batteries, it’s Eveready and Duracell. In rent cars, it is Hertz and Avis. In hamburgers it is McDonald’s and Burger King. In toothpaste, it’s Crest and Colgate.
The Law of Duality suggests that over the product category’s lifecycle, the lower rungs on the ladder will lose market share and disappear; the top rung will lose market share, and the No 2 rung on the product ladder will gain market share ensuring the market is a two-horse race.
Are the results preordained? Of course not. There are other laws of marketing that can also affect the results.
Furthermore, your marketing programs can strongly influence your sales, provided they are in tune with the laws of marketing. For example, instead of going out and attacking two strong leaders, what you can do is carve out a profitable niche (like Crest prevents cavities as described in No 5, The Law of Focus).
Knowing that marketing is a two-horse race in the long run can help you plan strategy in the short run.
It often happens that there is no clear-cut No 2. What happens next depends on how skillful the contenders are.
What is especially tragic from the economy’s perspective are the resources wasted in many high value product categories, however this is the cost of capitalism.
Look at the history of the automobile industry in the USA. In 1904, 195 different cars were assembled by 60 companies. Over the next 10 years, 531 companies were formed and 346 perished. By 1923, only 108 car makers remained. This number dropped to 44 by 1927. Today, Ford is on the top rung of the product ladder with General Motors and Chrysler fighting for the second rung on the ladder.
Successful marketers concentrate on the top two rungs. Jack Welch, during his reign as chairman of General Electric, said “Only businesses that are No 1 or No 2 in their markets could win in the increasingly competitive global arena. Those that could not be No 1 or 2, were fixed, closed, or sold.”
This kind of thinking has build companies like Procter & Gamble into powerhouses where it is either No 1 or No 2 in more than 80% of its product categories.
Early in a product lifecycle, the No 3 or No 4 rung on the product ladder looks attractive. Sales are increasing. New and relatively unsophisticated customers are coming into the market. These customers don’t always know which brands are the leaders so they pick ones that look interesting or attractive … hence the interest by many Internet Marketing professionals in MyStory marketing and brand You Inc. Quite often, these brands turn out to be the No 3 or No 4 rung on the product ladder.
As time goes on however these customers get educated. They want the leading brand based on the naïve assumption that the leading brand must be better.
The customer believes that marketing is a battle of products. It is this kind of thinking that keeps two brands on the top. Customers think the top two brands “must be the best because they are the brand leaders.”
As an Internet Marketing professional, you need to understand the Law of Duality. In order to compete, use brand You Inc and MyStory marketing methods and techniques to create your own product category or define a niche where you can be the leader and hold the top rung of the product category ladder (as described in No 7, the Law of the Ladder).
Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs are using techniques and tools like mind-mapping, keyword research, Attraction Marketing Formula, Magnetic Sponsoring, and MindMeister to conduct the market research and plan a successful marketing campaign. They then use the power of MyStory marketing, brand You Inc, and hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to deal realistically with the position of their brand in the world that includes the Law of Duality. The goals is to not emphasize why their offering is better, feature and function-wise, over a competitor’s but to develop a message that is recognized, accepted, and agreed to so that it will seduce and persuade a customer that what is offered is real and will work for them.
Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of Duality to ensure your brand and product is one of the top two brands of the product ladder as the market becomes a two horse race.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
In batteries, it’s Eveready and Duracell. In rent cars, it is Hertz and Avis. In hamburgers it is McDonald’s and Burger King. In toothpaste, it’s Crest and Colgate.
The Law of Duality suggests that over the product category’s lifecycle, the lower rungs on the ladder will lose market share and disappear; the top rung will lose market share, and the No 2 rung on the product ladder will gain market share ensuring the market is a two-horse race.
Are the results preordained? Of course not. There are other laws of marketing that can also affect the results.
Furthermore, your marketing programs can strongly influence your sales, provided they are in tune with the laws of marketing. For example, instead of going out and attacking two strong leaders, what you can do is carve out a profitable niche (like Crest prevents cavities as described in No 5, The Law of Focus).
Knowing that marketing is a two-horse race in the long run can help you plan strategy in the short run.
It often happens that there is no clear-cut No 2. What happens next depends on how skillful the contenders are.
What is especially tragic from the economy’s perspective are the resources wasted in many high value product categories, however this is the cost of capitalism.
Look at the history of the automobile industry in the USA. In 1904, 195 different cars were assembled by 60 companies. Over the next 10 years, 531 companies were formed and 346 perished. By 1923, only 108 car makers remained. This number dropped to 44 by 1927. Today, Ford is on the top rung of the product ladder with General Motors and Chrysler fighting for the second rung on the ladder.
Successful marketers concentrate on the top two rungs. Jack Welch, during his reign as chairman of General Electric, said “Only businesses that are No 1 or No 2 in their markets could win in the increasingly competitive global arena. Those that could not be No 1 or 2, were fixed, closed, or sold.”
This kind of thinking has build companies like Procter & Gamble into powerhouses where it is either No 1 or No 2 in more than 80% of its product categories.
Early in a product lifecycle, the No 3 or No 4 rung on the product ladder looks attractive. Sales are increasing. New and relatively unsophisticated customers are coming into the market. These customers don’t always know which brands are the leaders so they pick ones that look interesting or attractive … hence the interest by many Internet Marketing professionals in MyStory marketing and brand You Inc. Quite often, these brands turn out to be the No 3 or No 4 rung on the product ladder.
As time goes on however these customers get educated. They want the leading brand based on the naïve assumption that the leading brand must be better.
The customer believes that marketing is a battle of products. It is this kind of thinking that keeps two brands on the top. Customers think the top two brands “must be the best because they are the brand leaders.”
As an Internet Marketing professional, you need to understand the Law of Duality. In order to compete, use brand You Inc and MyStory marketing methods and techniques to create your own product category or define a niche where you can be the leader and hold the top rung of the product category ladder (as described in No 7, the Law of the Ladder).
Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs are using techniques and tools like mind-mapping, keyword research, Attraction Marketing Formula, Magnetic Sponsoring, and MindMeister to conduct the market research and plan a successful marketing campaign. They then use the power of MyStory marketing, brand You Inc, and hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to deal realistically with the position of their brand in the world that includes the Law of Duality. The goals is to not emphasize why their offering is better, feature and function-wise, over a competitor’s but to develop a message that is recognized, accepted, and agreed to so that it will seduce and persuade a customer that what is offered is real and will work for them.
Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of Duality to ensure your brand and product is one of the top two brands of the product ladder as the market becomes a two horse race.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
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