The Challenge of Segmentation

Segmentation is a difficult thing to wrangle sometimes. When internet-based sales starting picking up steam ten years ago, people weren’t sure how to respond, though the thought process really shouldn’t have been much different than for catalog sales. The main difference is that the catalog was now online and accessible to anyone who [...]

Baggage Options

Well, we knew the time was coming when airlines would start charging us for darn near everything. Now they’re going to charge us for the first bag we check. Forget the fact that most travelers will attempt to cram everything into a carry-on bag too big to fit in any overhead compartment. [...]

Categorically Speaking

Marketers love to speak in terms of categories related to their particular brand—premium, super-premium, ultra-premium, giga-premium, you get the picture. From the consumer’s viewpoint, however, brands get considered a bit differently.

Think about the various things you buy (where there is some choice involved). What you actually purchase is based on how it fits [...]

The Choices We Make

I know that I am exactly where I am because of certain choices I have made. Some of those I can trace back nearly 20 years. Certainly others’ choices have factored into it. But how I chose to respond, behave and act put me on one path or another.

The same is true [...]

Mixed Messages

Jenny Craig’s change in marketing message has been good. Instead of focusing on people reaching some sort of ideal weight or size, they have taken a page from SlimFast, encouraging customers to reach a goal that is appropriate for them. They use messages like “a size healthier” to get the point across. [...]

How Do You Handle Pricing?

I was talking to the contractor redoing two of our bathrooms yesterday, and he was sharing some stories about clients who weren’t paying him for the work he did. In some cases, they didn’t want to pay the extra costs incurred because of changes they themselves made. In other cases, they simply didn’t [...]

Establishing Priority Markets and Putting Them to Work

Yesterday, I discussed how you should prioritize your markets or segments with 12 different levels, each with some combination of volume, profit and potential. You could easily consider these as A, B, C and D targets such that:

A includes high profit and high potential accounts or customers
Bs are low profit but high potential markets
C [...]

What Determines a Brand’s Value Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about the first 6 of 18 components that contribute to a brand’s value. We continue today with the next six.
The pricing strategy. You can establish your price based on your desired profitability or compared with key competitors. The right pricing strategy is essential as it signals to the customer [...]

Dead Inventory

I was trading e-mails last week with a friend of mine in the foodservice industry, and he mentioned an issue his company was having with some dead inventory—product in house that they couldn’t sell. The next day, I had someone else question me about the same subject.
First, it helps to understand why you ended [...]

Break Free

Some of the most common quick-run-to-the-grocery items—milk, eggs, bread—generally find themselves in the farthest reaches of the store, accessible only through a labyrinthine journey through the maze of aisles.
Of course it’s done purposefully. The stores want to you purchase more than you intended. And their research, for which they pay dearly, supports the [...]