Business Tip: The Law of Positioning

The customer's perception of you and your company is his reality and determines his buying behavior with you. The way your customer thinks about you, talks about you, and describes you to others determines everything he does or does not do in relation to you and what you sell.

Customer Perception

Every product or service must be perceived positively by the customer before the customer can make any kind of buying decision. The most successful products and services are those that the customer perceives are from the most desirable and trustworthy suppliers of these products or services.

Proper Positioning

With proper positioning, your product or service will be seen by the customers as the product or choice, against which others are compared. Some examples of excellent positioning are Coca-Cola, Kleenex, and Xerox. In each case, these products are the standard. When you refer to a drink, you say, "I feel like a Coke." If you have a runny nose, you ask someone to "get a Kleenex" for you. If you need a copy of a document, you ask someone to "make a Xerox of this." This dominant positioning gives these products an edge in the market, which translates into more and easier sales at higher prices with better profit margins.

Appearance

Every visual element of dress, product, packaging, printing, and promotion creates a perception of some kind. Nothing is neutral. Everything that you do or neglect to do, everything that the customer sees or fails to see, hears or does not hear, contributes to the customer's perception of you and your company. Everything counts.

Position Yourself at the Top

Top salespeople position themselves as the preferred suppliers of their products and services. Everything you do adds to the customer's perception of you as the ideal person to do business with when it comes to buying your particular product or service. The customer will often pay more for a similar product or service for no other reason than that it is you who is selling it and backing it up. Your position in the customer's mind can be so strong that no other competitor can get between you and the customer and replace you. The most successful companies and the more successful salespeople are those who have developed such strong positioning in their marketplaces that they are considered to be the standard against which competitors are compared.

Action Exercise

Determine the words that your customers use to describe you to others. How do they think about you, your products, your services, and your company overall? Do you know? Find out your exact positioning in your marketplace, and then decide what you could do to take maximum advantage of it.

If you would like any advice on your current marketing activities please contact TA Fastrack on 07 3040 3588

15 Marketing Strategy Alternatives Every Tourism Business Should Know

Do you know the direction that your travel or tourism company is going in? I don't mean downhill or nowhere. I mean do you know the final destination, where it is that you want to get to in one year, five years or ten years. If it's all in your head and not written down then you may end up struggling with the effective marketing of your small tourism and hospitality business.

Consider this. Let's say you have just arrived in a foreign country for vacation. You've rented a car and along with the car come either a road map or a navigation system. Getting from point A to point B will be relatively easy for you because you have the directions, where to turn, when to stop, when to go, and if you get lost you can get back on track with relative ease. Now, what would you do without the map or the GPS? You'd be pretty lost wouldn't you?

That is why you need a marketing strategy. If point B is your destination, that is, your marketing objectives, then your strategy should outline the methods you will use in order to reach those objectives.

However, a marketing strategy can cover many different functional issues so, determining the best marketing strategy for your small tourism and hospitality business could require your consideration of some alternatives. Here are fifteen marketing strategy options you can consider.

1. Local, Regional or National Marketing Strategies
2. Seasonality Strategies
3. Product Strategies
4. Target Market Strategies
5. Competitive Strategies
6. Branding Strategies
7. Pricing Strategies
8. Packaging Strategies
9. Promotion or Event Strategies
10. Public Relations Strategies
11. Social Media Marketing Strategies
12. Advertising Strategies
13. Sales Strategies
14. Merchandising Strategies
15. Web and E-commerce Strategies

Having a combination of these strategies is really what you are aiming for. If you can organize your companies marketing objectives under a selection of these strategies then you have a much better chance of staying focused and ensuring you arrive at your destination on track and on time.

If you would like assistance with business coaching to move your travel or tourism business to the next level, or if you would like more information about our marketing services, including website marketing design, email marketing, social media marketing, public relations and more, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3588.

What Donald Trump Can Teach You About Direct Marketing

I never thought of Donald Trump as a direct marketer. In fact, from what little I had seen, he seemed largely ignorant of the principles of DM.

For instance, on the first season of "The Apprentice," the two teams had to come up with an ad campaign for a company that made corporate jets. The planes (complete with flight crew) would be available to clients who wanted to fly in private jets but did not have the budget to buy their own.
In particular, Trump praised one team's campaign, which featured slick color photos of various parts of the jet shot at angles that made them look like phallic symbols.

"Idiot!" I complained to my partner, who was watching the show with me. "The ads should have offered a Membership Card entitling the recipient to take his first 30 minutes of any flight FREE!"

(That's how we direct marketers think. Offer, offer, offer.)

But an episode in the second season of "The Apprentice" was much more encouraging in its demonstration of direct-response principles.

This time, the two teams had the task of putting together and running, for one evening only, a bridal shop in NYC. The contest was simple. Whichever team had the highest gross sales for the evening would be the winner.

Team A printed huge stacks of pink fliers inviting people to their bridal sale. They distributed these fliers by handing them out at Penn Station as morning commuters got off the trains.

Trump correctly questioned the wisdom of Team A's marketing strategy. He asked, "How many people are thinking about getting married when they're on their way to work in the morning?"

Team B took a more targeted approach. They rented an e-list of thousands of women who were planning to get married and e-mailed them an invitation to their sale.

I think you can guess the result.

Team A had only a handful of customers in their shop, sold only two dresses, and grossed around $1,000. Team B had customers lining up on the sidewalk to get into the store, as if it were an exclusive Manhattan nightclub. They sold 26 dresses for gross revenues of more than $12,000, outselling Team "B" more than 12 to 1.

The project manager of Team A was fired by Trump that night.

The lesson for direct marketers is clear: The list is all-important.

In this case, Team B knew that everyone on their list was planning to get married. Team A, by comparison, handed out their invitations to anyone and everyone who happened to be at Penn Station that morning.

How many of those people had any interest in getting married? Was it one out of a hundred? Or maybe one out of a thousand?

The "list" used by Team A had maybe 90% to 99% "wasted circulation." In other words, most of their ads went to the wrong people: those not interested in buying their product. The list used by Team B had maybe 1% or as little as 0% wasted circulation. Because virtually everyone on that list had indicated a planned wedding.

And the result? B outpulled A by approximately 12 to 1 . . . a differential that is not uncommon in actual direct-marketing tests.

Using the best mailing list vs. the worst mailing list can increase your response rate by 1,000% or more. That makes testing different mailing lists perhaps the best marketing investment you can make this year.

If you would like more information about our direct marketing service please click here or speak to one of the Marketing Consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3590.

10 Facebook Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

Small business owners mistakenly think they need a lot of time, money and resources to get online and start using social media like Facebook. But it doesn't require a full-time social media coordinator, or much of a budget, if any to started.

The adage “keep it simple” goes a long way with Facebook. Below are ten ways for small businesses to maximize their presence on Facebook with minimum resources. 

Manage expectations
Set realistic goals for your approach to social media and you won’t be disappointed. Don’t expect to get thousands of fans within your first month of getting on Facebook. Think more along the lines of a two or three digit number. Then, when you hit something larger than you originally anticipated, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and that will give you momentum. 

Make time 
Cultivating a Facebook presence doesn’t have to be a full-time job, and it doesn't need to eat up all your free time. Try to set aside an hour a day to work on your business’s page, post updates and communicate directly with customers and fans. 

Learn as much as you can 
Take notes based on your experiences with Facebook’s pages and other business services — at the very least, write down notes about things you don’t understand so you can research them up later. You’ll find just about anything you need to know within Facebook's s official help centre. There are also other great help articles/resources on Google Search. 

Start with a small budget 
It is possible to promote your business on Facebook without spending anything via word-of-mouth and referrals. At some point you might decide to buy advertising on Facebook, but resist the temptation to overspend. If you do decide to spend on Facebook Ads, you’re better off starting out doing small test ads to see what kind of performance you get for your money, and then ramp it up when you figure out which demographics and keywords you want to target.

Create a page, not a profile
Don’t open a second account on Facebook to make a profile for your business. Not only does that go against Facebook’s rules but it also moves you one degree of separation away from the people who are already on your friend list. These folks are the first people you want to invite to become fans of your business’s page.

Post cool status updates 
Make your profile work for your page by posting witty status updates that encourage your friends to engage with your Facebook business page. Apply that same sense of wit to the goal of one post per day to your page’s wall. If you can phrase it as a question, so much the better, because that will encourage responses from your community.

Have one-on-one conversations
Send a thank you and personalised message right after someone clicks “like” on your page. Make a point of responding to messages and wall posts within 24 hours. Pay careful attention to what fans tell you on your page and try to respond to their needs. 

Don’t spam 
People have gotten pretty tired of mass messaging and excessive numbers of posts filling up news feeds — don’t contribute to this noise and fans will appreciate it. When you have something to say to your followers, put it on your wall, not in their inboxes. 

Create coupons and promotions 
Discounts for first-time customers really work toward generating repeat business. But don’t limit the promotions to the first time someone engages with your company, lest they lose interest. Periodically put special offers or promotions that they can only access as a Facebook fan in order to keep people coming back. By creating a special code for your fans, you can also track the number of bookings that come through from Facebook.

Encourage check-ins 
Get your fans to check-in when they arrive at your business. You can even give a small gift when customers check-in, for example, a voucher for their next visit, bottle of wine etc. When customers check-in, their friends and family will see the status update on their wall, which will help increase your business' exposure.


If you would like more information about facebook marketing, or if you require a facebook welcome page design for your new page, speak to one of the Marketing Consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3590.