Weiss Report Blog

In an age of mass differentiation and low cost chic, there has never being a worse time to be stuck in the middle. Consumers are abandoning mid-range products in their droves, often opting for cheaper alternatives and saving up to buy the occasional luxury. At one end of the scale thrifty customers are cutting costs by buying supermarket own brand goods, whilst at the other end easy access to credit makes it possible to trade up to a BMW rather than settle for a Ford Mondeo.

The Low Cost Revolution

Throughout numerous consumer sectors, there are companies specialising in low cost goods and services. Everything from food to flights and cars to clothes can be bought at very low prices. As cost-focussed companies get bigger, they continue to find ways to reduce overheads in their operations and squeeze suppliers for better deals. Consumers are also changing their attitudes to low cost goods. Film stars and fashion models are setting the trend of low-cost chic, happy to wear value clothes alongside their premium brands.

However the low-cost sector is largely driven by economics. Increases in living expenses, debt and taxation are stretching the purse strings of the middle classes and forcing them to abandon their loyalty to mid-range products in favour of low-cost bargains.

Luxury For All

In an increasingly globalised society, consumer aspirations for luxury goods and services have become much more demanding. The ’spend now, save later’ celebrity fuelled culture encourages us to treat ourselves to products that signify individuality, success and status. By becoming more affordable and easier to access, exclusive brands are cashing in on increased consumer demand, buoyed by changing lifestyles and easy credit.

How Should Mid-Range Brands Respond?

Businesses selling mid-range products and services should not be blamed for feeling the pressure — with low cost and luxury brands squeezing from both ends. In certain markets, this pressure will be less extreme, whilst in others it could mean being forced out of business. One option to counter the threat is to decide to trade up and become a premium brand or trade down to become low cost. How effective this strategy is will depend on the market and the company’s ability to change its business model and alter customer perceptions.

Another option is to launch completely new brands into the premium and low-cost sectors, a strategy frequently employed in the automotive and airline industries over recent years. Alternatively it may be more cost-effective to take-over competitors already operating in these sectors.

Whilst the writing is not on the wall for mid-range brands just yet, the outlook is becoming increasingly competitive and businesses will need to be much more innovative in finding ways to differentiate themselves.

Find the right business strategy to grow your company — BizHubz.com — Advice for Managing and Growing Your Business

A lot of companies nowadays are coming up with various customer loyalty programs to ensure bigger profits for their companies. This may seem to be quite a worn idea already for a customer loyalty program but people, no matter how wealthy they are, actually enjoy getting freebies every now and then.

1. The Concept

Let’s try to further discuss the concept behind this customer loyalty program. With a rewards-based customer loyalty program, the customer will have fun spending more on your company due to your company’s promise that the bigger points the a loyal customer receives from their purchases the greater the rewards that they will soon get from the company. From having free expensive designer items to even an all-expenses paid grand vacation trip courtesy of the company.

It really doesn’t matter - the point is, it is a small amount to pay considering the years of loyal purchases that these customers have brought in to your company. Of course, this all sounds good on paper, but a truly excellent loyalty program doesn’t just pamper customers, it entices them to continue patronizing your business, or even tell their friends about it, offering your business some invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

2. Rebate Programs

A less fancy customer loyalty programs is the rebate program. This is wherein the customer will be able to get a percentage back from the amount of their purchases as coupons that they can use to pay for more stuff from your company. It really is a simpler customer loyalty program as compared to the rewards system. Not only will it be easier on your company’s pocketbooks, it will also give your business some added profits because through the rebate customer loyalty program your customers will, in the end, end up spending more on your company because the coupons cannot be exchanged for real currency or used anywhere else. In actuality, there is no real incentive for customers to use the program.

3. Loyal = Profitable?

A lot of people still view being able to provide your loyal customers with great service does not automatically ensure a company that their customers will stay. This is why there is a great need for an effective (but still profit-oriented) customer loyalty program. While great customer service can result in a customer making a purchase more than once, a well-designed customer loyalty program will ensure they wouldn’t even ever dream of going to your competitors, and in fact, would even recommend friends to use your services.

4. The What If’s

The biggest concern that most CEO’s have is thus: a strong customer loyalty program can keep customers that are already loyal loyal, but what about the next generation of shoppers? And even worse, an ill-planned loyalty program, built with little or no data about your existing loyal customers, will be doomed to fail. Find ways to collect this incredibly important data months in advance of launching your program. Invest heavily in a statistics specialist, and ensure he has the latest statistics software such as SPSS. Remember, even if you have an abundance of data, it will be completely useless to you if you can’t make sense of it. Worse still is having data that wasn’t collected scientifically to be an accurate representation of the population being sampled.

For more great customer loyalty related articles and resources check out http://www.weknowloyalty.com

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde

The truth. So alluring. So promising. If we only knew the truth, everything else would just fall into place. Sadly, the “truth” of a relationship, situation or event is always hard to come by.

The fact is that no matter what the relationship, situation or event, what you see is never what you get –WYSINWYG for short. No matter how new your software, fast your computer, good your analysis or frequent your focus groups, you will always operate on partial information. You’ll never fully know the “truth.” But there is real power in WYSINWYG. It reminds us that there is always something more going on. There’s always something just out of site that will transform the routine into the wonderful. WYSINWYG requires that you never lose touch with your capacity for surprise and remain vigilant for opportunity. Leaders, who confidently declare that they have “seen it all,” have lost more than their capacity for surprise. They have actually lost the ability to anticipate change and prepare for it. You’ll never completely know the truth, so remember WYSINWYG and take a second look.

George Ebert is the President of Trinity River Seminars and Consulting, a firm specializing in the custom design and delivery of team building, personal growth and ethicaldevelopment programs. Mr. Ebert is a highly sought after speaker, educator and consultant with over thirty years experience in both the public and private sectors. He has presented widely throughout the Unites States. He is the author of the management cult classic, Climbing From the Fifth Station: A guide to building teams that work!

If you thought interruptions were a nuisance in the corporate world, ha ha! Wait ’til you start running your own small business. With the fate of your company riding on your shoulders, wasted time is by far your biggest enemy. Learn how to nip those productivity-busters in the bud while making a beeline for your goals.

1. Use voicemail to your advantage.

If you’re in the throes of mapping out your business strategy and the phone rings, do you pick it up? If so, break the habit right now. Voicemail exists for your convenience. If you don’t answer the phone, the person will leave a message. Call them back when you’re in a better frame of mind for productive conversation.

2. Assure your colleagues that you WILL get back to them.

If you get many hangups calls, your voicemail probably isn’t doing the job it’s supposed to. In your outgoing message, state your name and company name in a bright and professional tone, and instruct the caller to Leave a Detailed Message. Do the same with your email autoresponse, and reassure your prospects that you will respond to their inquiry in a timely fashion.

3. Designate phone time.

Give your colleagues and prospects windows of time in which they can reach you. Set aside specific time slots for your phone calls. Clarify via email what the nature of the call will be, and then envision in your mind how the talk will go and the points you plan to bring up.

4. Keep client call time to a minimum.

You will encounter many people in this lifetime who LOVE to talk. Yes, they may be great people with great advice. But if the call is dragging on endlessly, or what’s being discussed has no relevance to the work you’re doing together, you must get them to shut up. Of course, be tactful as possible… make your key points and wrap it up. In extreme cases, a white lie may be necessary: “Sorry, I have another call scheduled. Let’s resume this discussion on email.”

5. Limit your use of Instant Messenger.

While Instant Messaging programs can be handy for a back-and-forth discussion, they can also do a great job of breaking your concentration and your stride. If you’ve set your mind to a task, shut off Instant Messenger. The idea is to be in control of your time, instead of letting others control it for you.

6. Designate email check and response time.

Type, type, type. “You’ve got mail.” Type, type type. “You’ve got mail.” Yes, email can eat away at your precious minutes hours, days weeks… if you let it. The solution: don’t let it! Email is like TV commercials; it interrupts your regularly scheduled program. Set aside specific hours of the day in which you send and reply to email. Keep your email program off for the rest of the time.

7. Claim your territory.

If you work in an office with other people, you probably know that guy - the Interrupter. Sure, he may be bringing up some great points (or he may not), but he’s another one who’s stealing your time. Ways to discourage him: Shut your door. Remove empty chairs from your office, so folks won’t be tempted to take a seat and start gabbing. Maintain “closed” body language, i.e. if interrupted, do not turn your body from the task in focus. Or you can simply say, “I have a deadline. Let’s plan to talk at around 4.”

Keeping interruptions and distractions to a minimum is every business owner’s greatest challenge. The best way to take control of your time is to align yourself with your mission and stay focused!

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a copywriting consultant and ghostwriter with 10 years of experience writing corporate print materials and web content. Trust her with your next e-book, article series or web project, and make a lasting impression on your audience of information-hungry prospects. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for more information.