The Manager's View

Developing an Effective Ad Campaign                                                               Copyright GWR Research 2012 MOVING AN AUDIENCE TO ACT Since advertising is the primary method for businesses to inform and influence individuals to consider and purchase their products, the question is often asked, “How many exposures are needed to cause an individual to act?” Unfortunately there is no formula available to answer this question but there are considerations that can help. Roger Wimmer, Ph.D. authored an article, “The Five Stages of Communication/Persuasion”. In his article Dr. Wimmer points out that all people must pass through five stages to make a decision about anything or...

developing new media solutions +Kristina Ackerman and +Deena Higgs Nenad authored an article in the March 2011 edition of Editor and Publisher that described what 10 newspapers that “got it right” were doing to improve their franchise. These were excellent examples of what newspapers can do to connect with their communities and improve the sustainability of the business. The Seattle Times partnered with established bloggers and provided consumers with a blog vetting process and a means of building a web based news interaction with the community. The Detroit and Seattle newspapers and others that have made significant progress are finding ways to create a symbiosis between the established and new medias. In truth every media in the marketplace, old and new, is working hard to assure its success by providing new products and new approaches. A major challenge is finding a way to focus these efforts to improve the success of each effort and the overall success o...

Creating A New Business Idea How do you identify market needs? How do people come up with ideas that people don’t know they need until they see them? The simple truth is the need is there and the job the new product will perform is one that needs to be done and may be getting done but not very efficiently. So is there an exercise that can identify jobs that need to be done more efficiently or begin being done? Here is a process that works. Go through this example and see if it helps you develop a new product or business. Let’s pick an ordinary person that is going on a business trip . Here is a list of things that will need to be done: Prepare for meetings Make reservations for hotels, cars, restaurants, air travel, etc Travel to and from destination Pack clothing etc. for trip Now break down any one of these categories to activities. Let’s pick Pack Clothing for trip: Get suitcase Lay out clothes for each day/activity Layout toiletries a...

TO CLARIFY YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY, START CLASSIFYING YOUR CUSTOMERS From Texas CEO Magazine, December 2012 By Gary Randazzo Every business, at some point, will review its marketing strategy. The cause for a strategy review can come from a difficult business environment, a windfall in profits, a change in technology or a change in customer preferences. When a marketing strategy review is in order it can be challenging to decide where to start.   Classifying Customers Classifying customers, based on the amount of their spending, can be a good place to begin. Spending used as a metric can help the analyst understand which customers provide the biggest impact:  1)      Key customers representing the largest percentage of sales and profit 2)      Customers with the potential to provide greater sales (under-potential) 3)      Customers that do little or no business with the organization but use products ...

             THE IMPORTANCE OF PRODUCT PRICING                                     By Gary Randazzo The impact of pricing strategies can be critical for the success of new product launches, a company’s image and ultimately a company’s short and long-term success. REACTING TO THE COMPETITION I have worked in several industries and found that pricing is often overlooked as a key marketing tool. In many instances pricing is driven by the sales department and is a reaction to the competition. This reaction assumes the competition knows the market better and has a superior marketing strategy. When reacting to the competition it is important to understand that you are being drawn into a game whereby you play by the competitor’s rules. You are playing th...

   O rganizational Strategy for Disruptive Innovations By Gary Randazzo A few years back I was invited by Harvard’s Clay Christensen to be on a panel at a conference hosted by he and George Gilder. The panel would be discussing disruptive innovations that were impacting the newspaper industry.   At the time the Internet was having an impact but it wasn’t clear yet what the impact would be. The conference was a 3-day program and the attendees were investors and business people looking for the next big investment opportunity. For my part, I told the crowd that I felt like newspapers were likely to survive the Internet and that the new technologies were more of a sustaining technology than a disruptive innovation. It has taken several years to really try to understand what the Internet has done to the newspaper industry and to try to make sense of how newspapers reacted to the challenge Basically the disruptive innovation theories say that dis...

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS As markets and customer preferences change companies adapt to insure success. Adaptations usually are made to capitalize on markets and expertise a firm has developed over its life . Some adaptations are limited to updating packaging or marketing approaches or finding new uses for established products. There are occasions where new products are needed in order to meet new customer needs or address a disruptive market innovation. When addressing changing market needs and market disruptions it is necessary to find good ideas and then have a process to evaluate and narrow the field to the ideas most likely to succeed. Generating new product ideas The first step in generating good ideas that will further develop the markets and expertise that defines the firm is to clearly articulate the job customers are hiring the firm to perform. Here it is important not to be too restrictive in the focus of the definition. It is probab...