White Papers on Marketing

Being Customer Centered

Over the past few years the buzz keeps growing about "customer experience." As with most buzz terms, there's a high level of misunderstanding about what that term really means ... and even more important ... what it means to business. This article helps you understand what customer experience is and how it relates to brand experience. It also introduces two principles for being customer-centered and provides you good reason to adopt them.

Building A Customer Oriented Business

Can the top three executives in your company (and one should be in marketing) answer the following question: "What are your target customers buying from you that they cannot get elsewhere?" Caveat: the answer cannot be anything patented or copyrighted; and it usually isn't technology-based anyway. Knowing "What" your "Who" (target customers) are buying and "How" they want to buy it is the key to deciphering the correct answer. Read on.

Marketing 21: The Era of Influence

Marketing's over-arching responsibility to help the company grow the top-line has not changed. However, how you do that continues to evolve. While new tools and communications methods appear regularly, there is a more fundamental shift marketers need to understand. It is now less about getting to the decision-maker, and more about how to influence the influencers of the decision-maker. This paper looks at how to do that.

Marketing in a Down Economy

When your industry, or the entire economy, turns down, what actions should you take to make the most of the situation? Since there isn't much you can do to change the economy, what are the most appropriate things to do in this situation? We've identified 11 key tactics that are especially important in a downturn, and they are useful any time, so even if you read this paper outside of an impending downturn, the tactics are relevant.

Marketing's Job #1 is to Increase Sales

Many people believe that Marketing is really about lead generation or promotion or brand building. All of those things may be true, but they are activities. The real goal of Marketing is to increase sales, and there is one key result Marketing must produce to make that happen. This paper discusses that.

Marketing Mix Modeling

Marketing Mix Modeling has been around for some time. It is a staple in the business-to-consumer marketing arsenal (at least in larger companies). However, the techniques have not been applied by the business-to-business marketer for several reasons. All of which are no longer relevant. This paper introduces the concept of Marketing Mix Modeling and, while touching on business-to-consumer applications, focuses on how it can be applied to business-to-business markets, by large and mid-size companies alike.

Marketing Stimulus Package

If you want to stimulate your top-line you need to make the best investments possible in those activities designed to drive the top line. Even in a tough economy, people and companies are still buying. You need to get your unfair share. And you need to do it as effectively and efficiently as possible. This paper looks at how to select between the many options you have to invest in marketing activities to drive your business. We also provide you a simple tool to help you in the decision process.

Maximize Your Trade Show Investment

This paper discusses a heretofore neglected factor of any trade show that ultimately determines its level of success. Too often trade shows become a routine event where the logistics of getting everything to the show on time over-shadows the real reason for being there. The objective of this paper is to offer a process to leverage this key factor. This will increase your trade show productivity and quality and will provide your company with a competitive advantage.

There's More To Segmentation Than Digits

Niche marketing, or market segmentation, is a technique often recommended by marketing practitioners as a method for success. Find an under-served niche and fill it. Find a segment that no one else serves and you can achieve success. What exactly is a niche or a segment? How do you know if you have one? Is there a "right" way or a "wrong" way to segment markets? Is it different if you are business-to-business versus business-to-consumer? These issues are addressed in this paper.

Think Like Your Customers

In order to "think like a customer," imagine that you are the customer describing to someone your business objectives (or personal needs) and the resources you will need to achieve them. Now, back in your supplier role, isn't that the kind of information you really need for your future? Thinking and listening are prerequisites for understanding what your customer expects from you.

The 10 Biggest Tradeshow Mistakes Nearly Every Business is Making

Influence more buying decisions. Collect more highly qualified leads. Launch new products successfully. Position each trade show as a serious sales and marketing event. These are all good reasons for enhancing your trade show efforts. To make each trade show a success, you prepare, schedule, and coordinate everything within your span of control. And when the show opens, you then learn about trade show marketing mistakes.

Using Influence Mapping to Optimize Marketing ROI

The two hottest topics in marketing today are "Social Marketing" and "Marketing ROI." In this paper, you will see how understanding the true nature of Social Marketing points to a methodology — Influence Mapping — that provides marketing managers with a means to optimize their Marketing ROI.