It’s a bit of a no brainer really, but in tough times businesses that specialise in providing their customer with low cost products tend to do better than others. I had this thought when I was reading an article about Zenni Optical. It’s a company that sells eyeglasses starting at $6.95. Add $4.95 for shipping to the US and you have the cheapest pair of prescription glasses you can get anywhere. So, how does Zenni Optical manage to keep their…
It’s funny how sometimes something sticks in your head as an action or placeholder for something you want to do. Well, a few months ago I had heard my friend Sherrilynne talk about a set of stages that organisations go through in their jounrey to adopting Social Media. I ended up digging around and found her source, a most excellent post by Brian Solis called The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business. In a nutshell, the 10 stages…
Great post on Seth Godin‘s blog entitled “Firsts and Never” talks about firsts and great and exciting, never being harder to accept and how revolutions change everything. There are a couple of great thoughts in there, particularly how the Internet is changing the way we transact with companies, the way we talk to each other and the way we perceive value. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the business of selling ballet shoes or the cheapest car insurance on the…
There’s a lot that has been written on the web about the benefits of using Social Media to engage more closely with customers. There are many benefits to doing this, but it also presents a number of challenges in how to direct the conversation and how to avoid negative perceptions like lack of control or message dilution. It’s interesting to start seeing people address these issues to and here are a couple of articles that might help in this regard….
Have you considered using Twitter for your business? If it’s something you’re thinking about, you should check out Chris Brogan‘s post entitled 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business. It’s a distillation of his thoughts and ideas and provides a summary on what to expect and anticipate if you decide to go down this route. Here are some of the more poignant ideas: Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows…
Excellent article on WSJ about marketing in a Web 2.0 World. It’s a distillation of conversations the researchers had with a number of key people involved in leveraging the new social tools available on the Web. Here’s what they recommend: Don’t just talk at consumers – Work with them through the marketing process – The new paradigm is all about engagement. The audience isn’t passive any more, involve them in your process, from idea generation all the way to product feedback. Give…