Marketing

nurturing e-mail is to use an effective formula that offers simple, helpful advice to a customer. I’ve been using this formula for years and customers love it. 1. Talk about a problem. 2. Explain a plan to solve the problem. 3. Describe how life can look for the reader once the problem is solved. I also recommend including a postscript, or the P.S.

We can examine competition from both an industry and a market point of view.7 An industry is a group of firms offering a product or class of products that are close substitutes for one another. ... Using the market approach, we define competitors as companies that satisfy the same customer need. For example, a customer who buys a word-processing

Firms should broaden their competitive frame to invoke more advantageous comparisons. Consider these examples: In the United Kingdom, the Automobile Association positioned itself as the fourth “emergency service”—along with police, fire, and ambulance—to convey greater credibility and urgency. The International Federation of Poker is attempting to

When you’re the cheapest, you’re not promising change. You’re promising the same, but cheaper. The race to the bottom is tempting, because nothing is easier to sell than cheaper. It requires no new calculations or deep thinking on the part of your customer. It’s not cultural or emotional. It’s simply cheaper.

Everything you publish should serve a purpose. As you work on a piece, ask yourself: How does it support your goals? How does it align with your mission? Does it teach people something new?

Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.

Positioning is the act of designing a company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target market.

Specifically, deciding on a positioning requires: (1) choosing a frame of reference by identifying the target market and relevant competition, (2) identifying the optimal points-of-parity and pointsof- difference brand associations given that frame of reference, and (3) creating a brand mantra summarizing the positioning and essence of the brand.