Wednesday 7 July 2010

Only Shoppers' Voice can save your Brands!

Preferences for private label products have remained consistent across the globe in the past year.

Over 60% of Americans have more regularly opted for own-label goods in the last 12 months, with Japanese customers on 49% and Europeans on 45%.

As consumers everywhere have discovered that switching offers substantial cost benefits,Shoppers' Voice predicts store brands will prevail at the expense of premium alternatives – for the short term at least.

Contact: paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Monday 14 June 2010

This Marketing Crisis is an Opportunity to Call...

...Advertising to Account!

 


This Marketing Crisis is an Opportunity to Call Advertising to Account


By Paul Ashby


           


 


Are we at all surprised that
the current advertising crisis has come this far? Let's be honest: the warning voices have been around for a long time, the fact that these warnings were consistently ignored has now brought about the near collapse of the system.


 


We live in a schizophrenic world and we will be held accountable for our sins. The reasons why the writing on the wall was ignored has to do with the denying of inconvenient truths and also because nobody

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Friday 11 June 2010

Reinventing your marketing!

 


O.K. So where do we go from here?


 


 


 


One-way, top-down communication does not work as well as in former days. Today, companies must create conversations with customers and deliver useful content at the moment their prospects, clients or constituents need it. Many firms will need to reinvent their marketing in 2010.


Marketers can’t push products on people. They have to think like journalists and create a dialogue with their audience to earn a prospect’s trust. Free or low-cost applications such as blogs and podcasts, in addition to social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, have changed the old rules.


 


In addition, free social networking applications can be used for managing your company’s reputation, conducting market research, monitoring your competitors’ efforts and collaborating with your colleagues.


 


Twitter can also serve as a platform for your company’s customer service.


 


Ideal clients can now be reached with targeted messages that cost a fraction of the old expensive advertising campaigns. In addition, social media marketing and PR efforts often allow instant feedback and measurable results, so businesses can immediately see which marketing strategies are working for them and which ones are not.


 


Online marketing these days is not about flashy websites. More than ever, companies need to provide useful information to help customers make their purchasing decisions. Websites cannot be stale – content needs to be fresh and reactions of the visitors should be measured and analysed, so that the content can be continuously improved.


 


Since when was running with the herd good for a company's performance? It's all about being unique.


We're number two - we try harder. So went the old slogan from car hire firm Avis. Memorable marketing, but is it any way to run a business? Avis has been trying harder for as long as I can remember (and that's a long time now), but it's still only number two.


 


The problem with companies like Avis - across a diverse range of markets - is that they just aren't different enough. The days when it was possible to thrive simply by doing the same thing as the competition, only a little bit better, are long gone. Distinctiveness is now the name of the game.


 


So, if you want to escape a lifetime of trying
ever harder for only average rewards, you'll have to come

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CLOSING THE SALE WITH THE "NEW NORMAL" CONSUMER

As the effects of the recession grind on into a third year and behaviour changes that were born of economic expediency - the return of middle-class values and purposeful thrift - have translated into concious choices, hardening into a marketing dynamic.

Only Shoppers' Voice can reach these "New Normal" shoppers whilst imprinting a new sensibilty towards value!

Contact: paul.ashby@yahoo.com


SOMEDAY ALL ADVERTISING WILL BE LIKE THIS!

Without a doubt....

...the biggest challenge to National Brands is Private Label Store Brands.
Now-a-days consumers see less difference between the quality of Store Brands and well-regarded Name Brands.
Thus there is less incentive to pay the Premium thast Name Brands carry!

Now you can changed that perception with Shoppers' Voice!

Contact: paul.ashby@yahoo.com


SOME DAY ALL ADVERTISING WILL BE LIKE THIS!

Wednesday 2 June 2010

SHOPPERS' VOICE

Given the vastly altered economic landscape together with consumers' desire for value in their product choices, value is at the epicentre of the new culture of thrift. Through Shoppers' Voice your Brands will be judged as being relevant and worthy if they pass the test of fitting in with this new sensibility!

Contact: paul.ashby@yahoo.com

SOMEDAY ALL ADVERTISING WILL BE LKE THIS!

Monday 31 May 2010

What on earth are they teaching to-day at Business Schools?

What on earth are they teaching these days at Business Schools?


 



Because it certainly does not include honesty. It can be said with certainty that the current global financial crisis was created by the utter dishonesty of the banks.


The reputations of the largest corporations in the world are being questioned more and more as a tsunami of evidence emerges as to the utter indifference of Top-down-Management to their customers needs and expectations.


And the weasel words used by Marketing and Advertising agencies to justify spending (and thus wasting) more and more ineffectual advertising on new and old media are examples of creatively brilliant lying!


Traditional TV advertising is under further threat as the take-up of personal video recorders (PVRS) soars, and still they recommend advertising on TV, where no research evidence has ever emerged as to its efficiency and accountability.


Just how dishonest is the Advertising Industry?


For thirty years at least there has been a well researched, well documented communications technique that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that interactive communication, properly executed, is far more cost effective than traditional advertising. However given the method of remuneration enjoyed by the Advertising Agencies/Media

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SHOPPERS' VOICE ON-LINE

Yahoo Research states:

"A Large majority of web-users (79|%) demand something of value for heeding ads whether that 'something' is pure entertainment, a relevant message or access to something new."

SHOPPERS'S VOICE ON-LINE IS:
A. Rewarding
B. Entertainment.
C. Relevant.
D. Engaging.

SHOPPERS' VOICE - SOMEDAY ALL ADVERTISING WILL BE LIKE THIS!

Contact: paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Friday 28 May 2010

Who’s running your organization?

 


Who’s running your organization?


 


Your customers, that’s who!


 


Or should be!


 


 


So don’t you think that you ought to start a regular dialogue with him or


 


her, as the case may be?


 


 


The word empowerment is a very overused word. However in the near future the primary strategic marketing communications battle will be to see who goes furthest in empowering their customers.


 


To empower your customers you will have to:




  1. Provide them with far more information than you currently do.




  2. Allow them to make decisions about you and your company together with your resources.




  3. Give them plenty of choice.




  4. Give them the perception of control!




  5. Allow them to feel that they are running your organisation!




Because anything that tightens your relationships with an existing customer increases the revenue you get from your customer.


And the only form of communication that can do all the above so that you do tighten your grip on your customer is…. Interactive communication!


 


Because interactive communication allows you to have an ongoing debate with your customers and your prospects, make regular interactive conversations available where they can debate not only about your products and services but the very soul of your company. Because that will be much more powerful than just putting your advertisement on television (or wherever) or I’m going to sell my goods in Tesco (or wherever).


 


Then, when you get asked, “Who’s running your business?” you can honestly reply, “My customers through genuine interactive programmes!” and earn major brownie points!


 


Because the problems with the current system are manifest. The challenges faced by marketing and advertising stem largely from the institutional dimensions of

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SHOPPERS' VOICE WILL GIVE YOU

accountability