Benefits of Collaboration Marketing 101
Copyright (c) 2008 Christian Fea
The Internet has revolutionized the ease with which companies do business, and how they stay connected to other businesses and their clients. Customers are more connected than ever before, which empowers them in a way that didn’t previously exist before the invention of the Internet, creating a shift in the traditional balance of power.
There are many new marketing strategies and techniques that have been adapted to Internet businesses, or have been created as a result of the Internet. Collaboration marketing is one of the most important of these Internet marketing techniques. The traditional type of collaboration marketing refers to collaborating with other similar businesses to widen the net of the marketing capacity for your company by sharing the burden of marketing with other marketers.
Marketing is still about creating value for the customer and capturing value from your businesses marketing activities. However: the Internet is a great vehicle for new ways of marketing your businessyou can raise awareness for your products and services that simply wasn’t possible twenty years ago. The age of Internet marketing is more customer driven than marketing has ever been before.
What is Customer Driven Marketing?
Customer driven marketing is the process by which smart business owners allow the customer to weigh in and drive a portion of your marketing strategy. This still falls under the realm of collaboration marketing, but it is known as customer driven marketing.
The essence of marketing remains the sameit is the process of creating value through exchanges, but the nature of these exchanges has changed dramatically. This shift requires businesses to think differently about how they interact with customers. It has been described as a shift from information asymmetry to information democracycustomers have more power and can use this power to shape industry.
Part of this shift towards customer driven marketing is the transfer from transactional exchanges to relational exchanges. Instead of maximizing profit from each transaction, relationship marketing (of which customer driven collaboration marketing is a sub-set) focuses on maximizing profits over several years to a lifetime of a customer’s commitment to your business.
Traditional types of marketing techniques operate under the assumption that businesses create and maintain client relationships and that customers play a passive role. Now, customers play a more active role in the managing of business relationships, and thus value in marketing is no longer something that is created by companies and delivered to customers but rather, customers have become co-creators of marketing value by beginning to participate directly in the marketing process and shaping how companies approach their marketing agendas.
Customer driven collaboration marketing requires you to think about collaborating with customers and making customers an integral part of your company’s marketing activities by building relationships with clients and customers where their opinions and feedback are gathered and reviewed to devise a an effective plan for marketing your business.
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Results-Driven Marketing
What is your reaction to advertising? Well, do not tell me that it annoys or irritates you. I know that. The same goes for me. I’d like to know how you act after reading some advertising piece. For example, sometimes it makes me just rush to the nearest store and buy the advertised item. Sometimes the name of the product may linger in my mind for a long time despite my resistance and desire to stop thinking about it. Awful. There are also cases when on the contrary I cannot remember the name of the advertised product. Weird. Occasionally I do like advertising, when it conveys something useful and helpful to me. As you see it has different or even quite opposite effects. Why? Because the effect of the advertising depends on the type of the advertising text. There are four of them. Persuading texts emphasize the advantages of the product. Urging texts aim at making the customer memorize the name of the product so they repeat it for many times. Informational texts provide us with the information about the product, they are clear and short. Reminding texts are very brief.
Though the four types have their own peculiarities, all of them comprise five essential components: title, subtitle, the main text, caption and comments and slogan. The title should capture the attention of the audience. It is the pivot of advertising and the most powerful appeal to the potential buyer. If the title fails to attract the readers’ attention, they won’t read on your message and won’t become your clients. The subtitle connects the body of the advertising with the headline. It is another opportunity to make the reader buy from you. So, do not miss it.
Usually the headlines sound like promises or bargains. In the body you should explain how you are going to fulfill them. Body is the essence of the advertising message. Emotional words and phrases are especially effective in creating the image of the product. They appeal to people and convince them to buy. Make explanations to your audience in simple sentences using clear words.
There is no necessity to stuff your text with specific terms no one except you knows. If people do not understand something about your product, they won’t buy it. You should strive at providing more information with fewer words. All the additional information about the sales is presented in the caption. Comments usually describe some particular feature of the product or dwell on the included pictures, photos. You can find a great variety of literature sources devoted to successful advertising, so I will not attempt to reveal advertising secrets in a small article. It is impossible. Personally I will always associate good advertising with making people buy without urging: “Buy me”.
Developing Medical Devices In A Consumer-Driven Market
I recently read an article on the captioned theme. It mentioned how devices like a needs to be safe and effective, and each or has to have the look and feel like electronic equipment.
The article mentions how the US Medical Devices Design market is becoming increasingly consumer driven, and medical devices are becoming more easily accessible and used by the general population.
Safety and Design issues therefore become paramount as many medical device manufacturers start targeting the end user directly, as opposed to targeting medical professionals. This will have a far reaching impact – whether it is or a .
Following is the excerpt of the article which I found the most fascinating:
The following headlines and popular medical blogs reflects this growing trend:
“An Open Letter to Steve Jobs,” Diabetes Mine.1 Blog discusses the need for devices such as insulin pumps to look more like iPods.
“Wireless Health Monitoring Comes to Life,” medGadget.2
“Medtronic Automates Pain Relief with Palm PDA,” Business Week.3
“Borrowing from Apple Playbook, Medical Device Makers Focus on Design, Consumer Appeal,” TheDeal.com.4
Consumer wants and needs are dictating that personal medical devices look and feel like everyday electronics. For years, device developers have offered insulin pumps that look like pagers, monitoring devices that feel like personal digital assistants, and medical electronics on wearable platforms, but consumers are asking for more. Patients want to minimize the stigma of their reliance on medical technology, and they want their medical devices to have the same kind of design appeal as iPods. This push for convergence of the medical and consumer market spaces brings a complex set of challenges to device designers. These challenges include widely divergent product life cycles, varying scenarios of use, and safety and efficacy concerns.
Formorinformation,pleasevisitthearticle : http://www.devicelink.com/mddi/archive/09/02/002.html
www.globalchange.com Emotion is more important than technology, gadgets, gizmos or inventions. Emotion is what will drive the future because it dictates how people feel and how they live. That’s why market research is unreliable when it comes to future predictions – because people don’t know how they will feel in future in response – say – to a terror attack or some new techno advance they never anticipated. Conference speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, author Futurewise – keynote lecture for MTN on consumers, fashions, lifestyles, customer behavior, choices, demographics.Motivation at work. Leadership. Leadership purpose, aims, strategy and objectives. Profits and profitability. Motivation to succeed and secrets of business success. Productivity and efficiency key. Workplace morale. Team dynamics and leadership styles. Business mission and vision. Business values and office culture. Motivation at work. People don’t get passionate about shareholder value or profits or excel spreadsheets. They get passionate about challenge, great teams, vision, important goals, having fun, about family and friends, about the community and world they live in. Connect with passion and you will motivate teams to change organisation, business and world. Work-life balance, family, children. Consumer trends and workplace motivation, leadership styles and productivity. Brand loyalty and corporate image.
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Leave a commentBusiness Cards Still Important in Today’s Computer-Driven Market
Tom is a successful architect. He manages his own firm and handles most of the big projects in his area. His recently client, Deborah, is the Chairman of a huge shopping mall seeking an architect to design her new branch in Tom’s area. Their first meeting went well, but as they were about to close their dinner meeting, Deborah asked for Tom’s business card.
Because Tom is a modern man who believes in the power of technology, he offered his virtual business card. Unfortunately, Deborah doesn’t share the same belief as Tom. She still trusts the conventional and old-school method of exchanging contact information. Tom had every chance to impress his potential client, but with just a simple lapse he might lose his biggest customer so far.
Tom’s problem could easily be resolved if only Tom still maintains his traditional business cards next to his virtual card. Let’s admit it. Business cards are not so outdated as what other people have claimed. Many entrepreneurs (even rich and successful business owners) still use them to inform people about their business and their products or services. When used effectively and its use maximized, these simple paper cards can very effectively be a good contender of digital business cards.
The good news is traditional business cards are no longer are expensive as it was before. Gone are the days when you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars just to create an acceptable business card. These days, when you say affordable and effective advertising, it means the business cards. Thanks to websites that offer them for cheap prices. Some even provide free business card templates that you can download and tweak a bit to your desired design.
Aside from Deborah, there are many business owners out there that still prefer to have business cards placed on their table tops. Every time they attend business gatherings and events, the cards they gather are displayed on their desks. This is why it is critical for your cards to deliver information in the most attractive and attention-grabbing manner. What products or services do you offer? How do people contact you? If you run a flower shop business, you might want to include images of stunning and colorful flowers in your card.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with the design. As long as the design reflects your image effectively, incorporate any graphics, texts, or images that you want. Also, use custom business cards if you want to personalize the look and feel of your cards. You can tweak the elements of your cards, but make sure not to overdo it. Keep in mind that you cards have to still be organized, concise, clear, and legible.
And whoever you meet on the street, don’t hesitate to give your cards. Just don’t impose your cards on people. Get to know the person first, and if he seems interested in your product offerings, then go ahead hand your card over. Remember that word of mouth may be an effective marketing practice to widen your customer base, but business cards will jump start a more comprehensive market reach.
In today’s world of iPhones, Facebook, chats, and social media, it is comforting to know that there are old-fashioned marketing practices that have stood the test of time and technology. With good design, persistence, and drive, your business cards will surely draw customers and profits to you. There’s no doubt about it.
If you are new to Customer State Marketing then start with this video. The Whatsnexx Customer Life cycle video highlights the ease of developing a state marketing approach to managing events and actions that occur during a customer’s life cycle with your company/product. For more information please visit http:\www.whatsnexx.com.
Posted in Customer-driven Marketing | business, Cards, ComputerDriven, Important, market, Still, todays | Leave a commentHow to Achieve Customer Driven Collaboration Marketing
The emergence of collaboration marketing is due to the astronomical rise and success of Internet businesses and the marketing techniques that have grown from the expansion of the World Wide Web. Many Internet marketing techniques mimic traditional print marketing techniques and follow the design set forth by these established techniques, but the innovation of the Internet domain demands that these traditional techniques be modified and expanded.
One of the biggest shifts in Internet marketing is from a platform that is more customer driven and focused. Internet era customers are more empowered and connected, which subtly shifts the balance of power towards the customer and effects how businesses must approach and relate to their clients.
Collaboration marketing is a type of marketing that has become the product of the Internet era business. Customer driven collaboration marketing understands and embraces the new role that customers have in driving marketing techniques, and seeks to work with customers and clients to maximize their input. This recognition of power the customer holds means that they become co-creators in the marketing process, and there is a reciprocal relationship between businesses and customers.
The shift towards customer driven marketing is subtle, yet powerful. The Internet has created a shift in marketing practices, where the focus is more on relational exchanges than transactional exchanges. Historically, marketing has been the business of getting customers to buy your product, convincing consumers that they need your product or that your product is superior to other similar products in the marketplace.
As the Internet has developed and marketing techniques become more savvy, in turn so has the customer. With ease they search for what they need, and have it delivered directly to them. The customer is no longer limited to what can be found in their neighborhood or area. This empowers the customer to be choosier with items they seek to purchase.
Marketing has typically existed on a platform in which you try to find customers for the product or services your company sells. This is straightforward and seems to make sense. But customer driven marketing is about finding products to suit your customers, rather than finding customers for your products, which is a subtle but vastly important shift in thinking.
This is not to suggest that you abandon your existing marketing techniques, particularly if they are successful for your business. However: customer driven marketing is a shift in thinking that allows customers to be more involved in the products they are able to purchase from you. Perhaps you offer a customer a chosen menu of services rather than a standard package that is the same for each customer. The ways in which customer driven collaboration marketing is manifested will differ for each business, but it starts with a shift in your company’s thinking. A shift to thinking about customers and markets in terms of inside out, rather than outside in.
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