WHAT'S NEW?

Dear Askers & Answerers,

Have you noticed how many new questions we've had in the forum lately? I had to stop and count today, just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. We had 222 new questions posted in the first 10 days of November! We used to average 12-15 a day, and now it's 22. No idea if it's a spike or a trend. But the more, the merrier!

Another fun measurement of our growth relates to our brand-new Resource Library. We launched it last Thursday with just 14 resources in it. Now we're at 53. To see the complete list, go to Search Resources, leave the category setting on "All" and hit the "Search" button.

I'd like to see us grow our Library to 250 entries by the end of the year. If just one out of every 50 subscribers to this newsletter added one more resource, we'd reach that goal easily. So please do the community a favor - and take 5 minutes to enter a blurb about your favorite marketing book, software application, website, newsletter, blog, networking organization or white paper.

First, scan the list of existing resources. Make sure yours is not already there. (If it is, add a comment.) Then publish your listing in our Library. Even better, post a few!

Soon, we'll add links to your profile pages to show the community which resources you published in the Library. Also, in January we will award 100 Question Points for each resource you publish by December 31 (max of 1000 Question Points) - with a Grand Prize of 1000 Expert Points to the member who contributes the most.

Thanks for your participation!

Happy exchanging,

Val Frazee
Moderator, Know-How Exchange
MarketingProfs.com

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Here are KHE's 10 oldest questions. They're likely to close soon. Have an idea to offer? Better do it now!

1. Best Practices Marketing a Brand
2. Failures in Co-branding
3. How do you create a brand platform?
4. How should one prepare a marketing plan?
5. Developing and Positioning a New Brand
6. Information About Secondary Data
7. Marketing Strategy for a New Line of Toothbrushes
8. PR/Marketing for Chiropractors
9. How can I perform international sales?
10. Mobile Marketing

RESOURCE REFERRAL: FEEDBACK MADE SIMPLE

thinkmor came across today's resource. He writes:

"PlanetFeedback is an online forum where consumers can comment, complain or suggest how brands they use can be improved in some way. It's really business intelligence and it is also geared towards businesses to be able to track and make sense of all online content regarding their brands. I find it interesting to see comments on competitor products/services that can possibly support and enhance business intelligence studies."

Resource: PlanetFeedback.com

I'm always looking for resources to share with our readers. If you know of one, send me a blurb. I'll send you 250 Question Points.

LESSONS LEARNED: FROM NICHE TO GENERAL MARKET

Two weeks ago, one of MarketingProfs' long-time members posed a question about branding for a real estate firm. adman4 wanted advice about transitioning the business from a niche focus to a broader market - in the face of resistance from the top salespeople who currently bring in 90% of the revenue. Here are just a few of the insights shared by the group. (Be sure to click over to read the full discussion, if you're interested in knowing more.)

• D4Demand: This is a perfect example of how to KILL a company. Whoever bought you with a look toward expanding your brand away from the niche is trying to turn a sportscar into a station wagon. Niche brands are niche brands. That's why they succeed - they dominate a niche. There is no competition. They command the expertise. ... If you flush the brand equity, your owner just flushed away all the money he invested!!!
• W.M.M.A.: You dump the merged concept immediately. I am bad at math, but if 90% of the people bringing in all the money want the old niche to stay. DO IT. Create another firm to move the general brand. Brand 2, a subsidiary of Brand 1. "Doing things the old fashioned way....only newer."
• thinkmor™: When new owners take over a company there is almost a relfex action to make change without understanding the company's history. How do you get buy-in from the new owners? Consider a simple questionnaire to all agents asking whether: 1) The new brand should overtake the old one, including a comments section; 2) How many agents will continue to do business with the new brand? ... Next segment all your agents and break them down in terms of profitability. Map these segments over the agents responses.
• Deremiah, *CPE: Split the company or kill the business. The problem is trying to keep them together - which will not work. Let the 10% leave to start a niche business, and claim stakes to 100% of the new market they are part of. The businesses are counterproductive inside the same company.
• adman4: I would like to clarify a few things: The niche we have focused on is dwindling. The new owner's goal is to grow the company, and the only way to do so is to escape the niche that will ultimately be the death of us. Growth comes from A) moving away from this niche and B) hiring new agents that will work more of the city. ... It is not feasible for us to maintain two separate brands. This would require duplicates of all marketing materials, and the budget will simply not support such an approach. ... Note that we are currently positioning the old brand as a sub-brand of the new, umbrella brand. However, the umbrella brand currently has little awareness, so our older, conservative agents are reluctant to support it. I believe we will need to pick a "lesser of evils" solution. But the question is: which evil?
• thinkmor™: Your Umbrella brand should have been your Original brand with the most equity and acceptance from your current customers, with the new brand introduced as the sub-brand. If you had involved your current customers in the branding process it may have been easier to migrate them to the sub-brand. Your options are either 1) to re-invent your Original brand by re-positioning and adding to your established propositions or 2) to kill it off and accept the new brand and face the difficult challenges head on. Going either way, you need to involve and engage with your customers to reassure them your levels of service and quality delivery will be the same.
• Colleen Sharen: I feel your pain. My family runs a real estate firm (third generation now) and I've seen many of the challenges you are facing. I wonder if the answer isn't helping your "older, conservative" agents understand the implications of staying with the old branding, and the issues with the customer confusion that the current "merged branding" is causing. These agents probably know that that niche is starting to die, but they aren't comfortable with where the new brand is heading. In the end, if they don't make the change, they will see their incomes decline. And money talks in real estate. It won't be easy, and will likely take a lot of hand holding from the new ownership. Some of them will leave, and move into competition with you. That's life. If the niche is declining, and there is limited competition in the new markets, then you really have no choice. But get on with it. The merged brand is likely doing damage to both positionings.
• fuelblue: What about the concept of being in competition with yourself? Would it be possible to keep the old brand alive as long as the market is still viable, and start the new brand as a separate entity? If the market really does switch from one to the other, your company will have retained most of its own clients. If the market does not sway as you predict, the new brand can go under, and its short life will not hurt the reputation of the established brand. Whatever you do, I agree that merging the two brands is a bad idea.
• Maverick: Please first and foremost come out of the groove of choosing between bad and evil. I think you are at a strong opportunity juncture. ... 90% of the business is a big amount, but in a dwindling business? I guess not. 1) If you have bought the idea that a new brand is needed for the general market: Cash-in on the brand equity of the old brand and sell it to the agents who are too resistent and go ahead with developing a new brand for the new segment. The revenue from selling the old brand will take care of your advertising budget too. 2) If you are confident the old agents have a valid point and that moving from the niche could seriously damage your revenues: Then I feel you can take the path as mentioned by the other respected experts.

The Question: Growing a Brand From Niche To General Market

TIPS & TRICKS: LOGIN TO PARTICIPATE

Many newcomers to our forum like to browse the discussions, to learn from the messages being exchanged. Since browsing does not require membership, it's easy to do this in a not-logged-in state. Some folks view KHE without logging in so often, that they forget the advantages of logging in. These include:

• Asking questions


• Posting responses to questions


• Viewing the Resource Library


• Updating your bio on your profile page


• Changing your email alerts for new questions


• Buying more Question Points


• Upgrading your question to Urgent status


• Linking to your open questions from the Participate box


• Viewing the newsletter archives


• Accessing the link for Moderator Help


• And reading the 100s of articles in the MP archives

I encourage you to login when you come to the forum. Or, select the "Remember Me" feature so you don't have to bother.

The way you'll know if you're logged in is you'll see the personalized greeting in the upper right corner of the KHE mainpage. If, instead, you see the flashing blue graphic that says: "Login to Participate!" that's a subtle hint that you're not logged in. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

Have a question? Ask the experts.

Post a brief synopsis below, and invite other members to offer their feedback.

My Question Title

COMMUNITY LEADERS

As of this week, these are our superstars! The Most Inquisitive are those who have asked the most questions. (Where there's a tie, we broke it based on number of points they offered for their questions.) The Most Expert are those with the highest number of Cumulative Points (given to them by question authors for offering helpful answers).

NOTE: These are our top members as of midday November 11, 2004

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET STEVEB

Steve Byrne, or SteveB, has been with us since February, posting a handful of questions and more than 500 answers along the way. In fact, he has a "Just for Fun" question running now about America as a brand that has generated a global discussion. Read on to learn more about this Top 25 expert.

Where are you based?
I live in Newport Beach, California, USA.

What do you do in real-life?
Director of Business Development for Schraff Group. My primary responsibility is getting new work in the door. I'm also involved in developing our clients' core positioning and branding strategies.

Tell us about your company.
Schraff Group in an integrated marketing communications firm serving b2b technology and medical clients. The firm is known for its knowledge of both technology and marketing technology, meaning applications of technology to solve marketing communications problems. For example, we are currently exploring RSS/XML technology for practical marketing communications programs.

How did you find KHE?
I was receiving the MP newsletter and one day clicked on the forum to see what it was all about. I think I asked a question the next day and made the rookie mistake of closing it too soon.

What kinds of KHE questions do you enjoy most?
I have a greater interest in questions about strategy ... they make me think. I also enjoy questions with many possible points-of-view. I learn something from nearly every question.

Have you had a mentor? What has he/she taught you?
Richard Siedlecki was my marketing mentor. Richard's mentor was Bob Stone, co-founder of Stone & Adler (acquired by Y&R). Early on, Richard handed me two books: "Successful Direct Marketing Methods" by Bob Stone and "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind" by Ries & Trout. Although I had taken marketing classes in college, these books really introduced me to what marketing is all about. Richard showed me how to market while "in the trenches" of real world client work, and these experiences are the foundation for everything I've learned about marketing since.

Describe one of your non-marketing hobbies or interests.
The ocean. I started riding waves as a kid and I'm still out there. Evening "go outs" wash the city off my back.

What is the value KHE provides to you personally?
Broadening my thinking, exposing me to new ideas - and all the while being fun. I enjoy getting to know my fellow KHErs through the questions and feel privileged to be amongst these many fine marketing minds.

Do you have a favorite quote you want to share?
"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else." ~ Yogi Berra

COMMUNITY STATS

Active Unique Participants (to date): 3,238
Closed Questions (to date): 3,621
Currently Open Questions: 150
Total Responses (to date): 27,369
Subscribers to this newsletter: 11,239

YOUR ACCOUNT SUMMARY

These numbers come directly from YOUR profile. Question Points tells you how many points you have available for asking questions in the forum. Expert Points indicates your standing in the community based on answers you have posted. Visit this FAQ, if you want to know more.

Question Points: %%PointsBalance%%
Expert Points: %%PointsCum%%

Click here to buy more Question Points

SUCCESS STORY

This week's Success Story comes to us from crash, co-owner of a comedy club/restaurant/bar and a new KHEr. He writes:

"After posting my question to KHE, I was surprised how quickly the members responded. I did not agree with each and every response, but did appreciate their time in voicing their opinions. The responses also helped me to see viewpoints other than my own. I certainly will keep KHE in mind for future questions I may have, and hopefully I will be able to help others as the members were able to help me."

The Question: Bad Restaurant Color Choices?

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you, thinkmor, SteveB and crash for providing content for this newsletter. And thanks to all the following community members who have emailed or posted suggestions, technical reports or questions in the last week. Your feedback and energy drives this community's development. We couldn't do it without you!

jose04, Peter (henna gaijin), Michele, Sweetasman01, milind, pjosephson, jillc, carolk1, aks, K, orobledo, jeffsue2, topenzine, Don Kiser, ASVP/ChrisB, Vevolution, Jim Deveau/Catalyst, JBtron, mbarber, Jett, tjh, Pepper Blue, Tate, orobledo, carolk1, mocando, Dr. Ejila A. Oyibi, milena, beaneni, Deepak, atul, jong, SRyan ;] and Deremiah, *CPE

Finally, thanks to my MP colleagues for making my job easy: Aaron, Sharon, Megan, Ann, Roy and Allen.

LAST LAUGH

This space is dedicated to something amusing I find posted in our forum. Did you all see the recent thread about portable toilets?

The author had a sincere question, and the discussion generated quite a few ideas worthy of consideration. But you just can't help laughing as you read them. It's not often you get to visualize port-a-potties posed in a Stonehenge configuration, or "spot the loo" radio contests. michelletrex, in particular, was on a roll with this one. In her immortal words: "See what happens around this forum ... you mention the word toilet and you attract us like flies!"

The Discussion: PR Plan For a Unique Product - Portable Toilets

Forum Feedback: The Know-How Exchange is still young. So we're constantly refining how things work. We have a gigantic list of action items, and your feedback helps us prioritize it. So please feel free to reply to this email with any suggestions. Thanks, in advance, for your time!

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