Marketing Trends for Entrepreneurs
Marketing trends for entrepreneurs
Marketing trends for entrepreneurs
This month I will look at three main marketing trends that entrepreneurs should consider. These are:
The impact of the economic crisis
The effect of social media
The changing software development model
The first of these is the effect of the economic crisis on consumer attitudes. Whist once the designer label reigned supreme, consumer attitudes have changed significantly. However, price alone has ceased to be a defining factor in judging quality. Customers are now far more concerned with value for money as well as attributes such as reliability and quality.
Simply having a well known label does not guarantee that you will also be seen as having a premium brand. Customers these days are much more likely to turn to the smaller producer where they often perceive that quality is higher. This is clearly good news for the entrepreneur and this news is enhanced by the fact that people are often prepared to pay a premium for a smaller brand that they feel they can trust.
Another impact of the economic crisis has been the switch by people from paid to free services delivered through the internet. Throughout the recession 14% of people have stopped buying a National newspaper and now read on line, 11% have stopped buying magazines and now read online, 10% have downgraded to a cheaper satellite or cable package and 2% have changed from watching programmes on TV to watching them on computer.
All of these trends need to be considered by entrepreneurs as they develop their business.
The second trend in marketing is the use of social networking for reaching customers. The most well known form of this media is Facebook. However, there are risks as well as benefits of using this channel for reaching customers.
The clear benefit is one of cheapness. It is easy to establish a group and to get to that group with one single input effectively at no charge. However, the message needs to be meaningful and appropriate to the customer or it can have a negative effect. Companies such as Kodak use this medium to great effect. Not only do they use it to communicate to customers and prospective customers, they also use it to get feedback from them. Many improvements in Kodak products start as suggestions through Facebook. But to achieve this effectiveness Kodak employs one person just to manage the Facebook site and to respond and action incoming comments.
Another thing to recognise is that there is an age issue when using social networking as a marketing tool. Young people are very comfortable with the medium and are very happy to broadcast the smallest details of their life to the world. However the older group from 45 65 is far less willing to indulge.
This older group can still be utilised as travel companies have discovered. This group is much happier with a process that mirrors passing on information to a neighbour or friend. This group is much more likely to be prepared to write the equivalent of a letter or review of a holiday or some excursion. So travel companies are actively involving this group in that sort of activity.
A further move in the technology field is that of behavioural profiling so as to present relevant advertisements to them online on other sites they are visiting. This activity has to be approached with caution. While it seems a clever idea to put a holiday advertisement on a book site for someone who has been researching holidays, this often creates a negative effect. Customers seem to feel it is a bit too much like Big Brother'. Many customers feel that they are being stalked and this is having a negative effect.
As with all ideas associated with technology, the entrepreneur needs to evaluate not only whether it is clever, but does the customer want it or need it.
Finally, there has been an interesting change in the business model for software development with the introduction of the iphone. In the past software developers required a significant investment in order to develop their major software and such an investment was difficult to get. However, with the advent of the iphone it has now become very easy to develop a simple but impressive application for the iphone and to put it on itunes at one euro. If the software is good it can sell 100,000 copies in a very short time, creating the investment necessary for the larger software development.
Whilst this gives some indication of what is happening in the marketing arena, remember that the key is always to remember that successful selling comes from satisfying a customer need. Such a need can only be determined by asking them
Marketing Trends for Entrepreneurs
By: Roger Cowdrey
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