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The usefulness of personas in defining and designing interactive products has become more widely accepted in the last few years. But a lack of published information has, unfortunately, left room for a lot of misconceptions about how personas are created, and about what information actually comprises a persona.

Just what ARE personas? And why should you care?

Editor’s Note: the article provides a link to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Kim Goodwin | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Market Research, Marketing / Sales

When to charge for a product or service can be more important than how much to charge, says Harvard Business School professor John Gourville. If you want to build long-term loyalty with customers, you better understand the difference.

Content: Article | Authors: John Gourville, Manda Mahoney | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Customer Related, Pricing

Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two – and only two – functions: Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Innovation, Marketing / Sales

Your email marketing messages are competing with every other message appearing in a customer’s inbox. Here’s a simple test to apply to your finished message to see if it will get the attention it needs and deserves. The precise formula is this: SMCCIP (Some Mail Can Cause Instant Pleasure)
S = Simple
M = Meaningful
C = Compelling
C = Curiosity
I = … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Lance Arthur | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Harvard Business School professor Jerry Zaltman makes pictures that reveal our deepest feelings about your favorite brands. Can he scan your brain and unlock the images that lie within?

Content: Article | Author: Daniel Pink | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Treat a product or service like a human or computer virus, contends online promotion specialist Seth Godin, and it just might become one. In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin describes ways to set any viable commercial concept loose among those who are most likely to catch it–and then stand aside as these recipients become infected and pass it on to others who might do the same. … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Seth Godin | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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Internet marketing has been a shot in the demographic darkness. Effective e-tailing must target not just users, but usage – a methodology called “occasionalization.”

Content: Article | Authors: Gerry Bollman, Horacio D. Rozanski, Martin Lipman | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

Consider a magazine’s positioning – it needs to lie somewhere between global and local, between hard news and soft news, and in the right place to deal with the competition. Professor Hellmut Schütte and Jocelyn Probert examine Asiaweek’s positioning, its history and how it struggled to strike a balance in its Asian market.

Content: Case Study | Authors: Hellmut Schütte, Jocelyn Probert | Source: INSEAD | Subjects: International, Marketing / Sales | Industry: Publishing | Company: Asiaweek

BASF is a multi-national producer of petro-chemicals that has enjoyed a comfortable, well-padded history of success in the packaging industry. The company’s product Styropor®, one of the few branded chemicals on the market, is a commodity – somewhat like Lycra®. The authors explain BASF’s problem in this case study: since Styropor®, by nature, costs more than similar products produced locally in China, it needs to … [ Read more ]

Content: Case Study | Authors: Hellmut Schütte, Jocelyn Probert | Source: INSEAD | Subjects: International, Marketing / Sales | Industry: Petro / Chemical | Company: BASF

You know how target marketing works: by identifying and understanding existing customers, you can predict where prospective customers might be. Now take a look at the other side of target marketing — yourself. “You Are Where You Live” from leading market research firm Claritas is a nifty application that will identify your demographic and behavioral lifestyle type based upon your zip code entry. Claritas matches … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Claritas | Subject: Demographics

In trying to assess consumer attitudes towards pricing, marketing professor Lisa Bolton and two other researchers conducted experiments designed to measure whether shoppers feel they get a fair shake from the businesses they regularly patronize. The answer, it turns out, is no. Consumers in fact routinely assume that companies gouge them and reap large profits. The results of this research are summarized in a new … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Pricing

There is no easier way to visualize the convoluted relationships between the search engines and instantly understand how it all works. Simply spending a few moments with the chart (which is faithfully updated whenever there’s a relationship switch) helps the most inexperienced newbie grasp how the search engines feed each other. And, for more experienced SEOers, it’s a great “cheat sheet” when a client is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Bruce Clay LLC | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Reference / Search

Let’s face it. Today’s consumers are skeptical.

Can you blame them? With all the marketing hype and sales pitches people receive each day, we are all a bit jaded. But to make the sale we must overcome our prospect’s natural skepticism and create a relationship of trust. One of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal is a good old-fashioned customer testimonial or two. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: David Frey | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Short article takes a look at Siemens’ plan to use “Zyklon” as a product name in the U.S. as well as a couple of other examples of “culturally insensitive” marketing gaffes.

Content: Article | Author: Mark Lewis | Source: Forbes | Subjects: International, Marketing / Sales

“Our” stories are more effective (authentic) than “their” or even “my” stories.

Content: Quotation | Source: CGE&Y Center for Business Innovation (CBI) | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Persuasion

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