THIS ISSUE INCLUDES: •  What's New? •  Going, Going … Gone! •  Resource Referral •  Lessons Learned •  Tips & Tricks •  Community Leaders •  Member Spotlight •  Community Stats •  Your Account Summary •  Success Story •  Special Thanks •  Last Laugh

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WHAT'S NEW?

Dear Askers & Answerers,

August is supposed to be a slow month, isn't it? Funny, it doesn't seem like it this year. Things are hopping here at MarketingProfs! We had a virtual seminar last week, and there's another one today. In fact, today's features KHE's own Hugh Macfarlane. If you're a Premium Plus subscriber and you missed it, be sure to check out the recording in the Premium Library once its archived.

Closer to home, I've been thinking about ways to accelerate the question-closing process here in KHE. Have you noticed that often questions lose their momentum after the first week? This doesn't apply to all questions, certainly. But the vast majority don't benefit from the extra week or two we leave them open. And the more open questions there are, the less visibility each one has. (We usually have 150-200 open questions at a time.)

Currently, an email goes out on Day 7 reminding the Asker to close the question. We send a second email a week after that. Then we manually close the questions that are still open by the third week. One of the things our advisory group suggested was closing questions automatically - and we may move to that eventually. For now, I'm considering an interim step. Tell me what you think.

We may switch to sending the first reminder email on Day 4 and the second on Day 8. Then we would close on Day 10 (as described in our Community Guidelines) if the author hasn't already closed. Of course, if conversations are still active on Day 10, we could skip past them and leave them open a little longer.

Our advisory group has also made some exciting suggestions for a redesign of the KHE mainpage. I'll share more info on that soon.

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. what is the effective ways for target oriented industrial marketing in china?
2. How to position a convergence product
3. How do I evaluate a company's website strategy?
4. "Optimization of sales and communication strategy for FM-Systeme in France"
5. IT tools selling techniques
6. Marketing of a premium product in a price sensitive market.
7. what do you yhink about free-gift in discount store?
8. Fair Trade Marketing - Finding our market
9. Web beaconing vs Log file analysis
10. maintenance strategies

RESOURCE REFERRAL: LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER

DavidatHaley invites you to try his company's Web calculator for estimating the lifetime value of a customer. It's a handy little tool for reminding us to think long-term.

Calculator: http://www.haleymarketing.com/Concepts/mguide4.htm

Do you have a resource to recommend? Send me a blurb and a link, and I'll send you 250 Question Points as a thank-you.

LESSONS LEARNED: PREMIUM & PRICE-SENSITIVE?

Last month khanvwj posed an interesting strategy question: How can a premium quality international airlines cost-effectively increase sales in a price-sensitive market in which travel agents are incentivized to recommend competitors?

• kwinters:I hear some incongruency in your answer. "Our management believes in providing benefit to the customer and not the agent" and "People already know that our product is superior but it is the agents who are to be stimulated to sell us." ... It sounds like your management doesn't want to reward the agents - but you want to stimulate them to sell? ... It looks to me like if you don't have enough budget to reach the consumer directly, the agent is the only way to do it. ... What about free flights, vacation packages, outings for the agents/and family?


• Jim Deveau/Catalyst:If you want to be represented by your agents - you have to incent them. Suggestions include: Lowest Cost - Sweepstakes. For every flight they book, they get a sweepstakes ticket. The more flights they book, the more chances to win. ... Next Idea: Sliding incentives. Travel agents get a higher commission which scales up based on bookings per month/quarter. ... Next idea: Co-op advertising contest. The agent with the highest bookings gets $XXX of co-op advertising in your market (meaning, "Fly XXX Carrier - book your tickets with XXX travel agent"). This can work well.


• eugene :I had the privilege of working closely with one of our partners (an airline) which has done pretty well for itself. One of the challenges they faced was support from agents. ... What you can and might want to consider is going direct to your passengers via internet booking. There are many success stories (most are from no-frills airlines though) from RyanAir and Easyjet in Europe to Airasia in Malaysia. ... This can be supplemented by appointing dedicated agents. ... Lastly, why not consider ticketless check-ins, replaced by a set of reference numbers?


• khanvwj:Our management does not want to give MONETARY incentives to the agents and enter into the $$ war that is already going on between the airlines in the market. We want to stimulate the agents by gaining their interest and creating some kind of special association between us and the agents. I need some tactics that involve no or very little expenditure. For example, something to do with email marketing. Eugene has a very valid point but our problem is that the airline is offline from our station. So we are forced to depend upon the agents for most of our sales.


• Dano :Maybe you play the prestige card with the agents rather than $ to incentivise them. Meaning you tell them, "Our airline is the best, it is a priviledge to work with us and we'll let you, if you bring us X amount of business." Also, send out a press release saying that you are limiting the amount of agents who can sell seats (if you can) and those agents get their top commission if they sell quotas. You have to have quota-based commissions, so they don't pass on savings to the passengers.


• mbarber :So can you ensure that your product offerings to consumers are so well regarded that they DEMAND an agent use you? Can you make your offerings so highly sought after that the customer will come to you direct? Can you management buy out an existing chain of agents so that you can start directing traffic? Is the reason there is a challenge is because the tranfer process is clumsy? Can you do a deal with quality hotels in the area to use them as a base station for pick ups and drop off?


• jaccog : Make the personnel in your agents-office love you. Drop by and make kind remarks. Leave a cake when they ordered in the previous week. ... Drop some selling points and client-situations (how to recognize what your customer is looking for, etc.) to make their sale easy. Give your best clients a direct line to the best people in your customer service dept, so whenever there's an issue they know it will be sorted out in a jiffy. Hassle-free service is still worth a lot these days.


• Mushfique :Premium price always relegates you to niche markets. This also has its advantages. Some ideas: Develop a consumer database by listing the corporate executives who have to fly a lot. Find out which travel agents they use and tap them to sell your carrier. Also develop a potential consumer database and contact these prospects via email and tell them about services/product selling points. ... You CAN also share this new database with some top travel agents who are currently selling your carrier. This may be a win-win for both you and travel agents.

The Question:

Marketing of a Premium Product in a Price-sensitive Market

TIPS & TRICKS: HOW TO DISPLAY YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

This is an easy one. I just wanted to address it because I've been receiving some emails on the subject. Were you aware that it's your choice whether or not to display your email address on your profile page?

KHE members can view your profile page by clicking on your Community Name at the top of your posts (questions or answers). This takes them to a public version of your profile (which does not include a few of the extra things you can see on your page in the private version).

Members who want to encourage communication outside the forum can choose to display their email address by clicking the checkbox labeled "Show Email Address" on their profile page and then saving the change by clicking the "Save and Continue" button.

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 August 12, 2004

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET B

Brian Holmen, otherwise known as b, has been a KHE participant since our first week of operation back in January. He is also a long-time MarketingProfs member, not to mention an early adopter of our new Premium subscription program (so, clearly, he's genius-smart!). Read on to learn about Brian's life outside of MP.

Where are you based?
Northville, Michigan – U.S.A.

What do you do in real-life?
Director of Marketing & Operations at Eview 360. I’m also wrapping up my MBA at Wayne State University.

Tell us about your company.
Eview 360 is a full-service solution agency specializing in branding, design and technology. We help clients implement brands across their internal and external touch points, including online, offline and environment. Some of our offerings include graphic design, 3D visualization, interactive experiences and enabling Web applications. We serve clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Explain your Community Name.
I spent a couple years as a MARCOM writer for a mid-sized B2B. Our department’s editor taught me the value of brevity.

What kinds of KHE questions do you enjoy most?
I enjoy questions about branding and strategy. It’s always interesting to consider how brands large and small are positioned within the marketplace and how they go about changing that position.

What is the value KHE provides to you personally?
KHE keeps me dialed into what challenges marketers and customers are facing in other industries. I consider it to be almost a virtual mentor. It’s a great way to learn and test your point of view. Along with search engines, I would say forums like KHE are among the best examples of what the Internet can do for people.

Have you made any offline connections?
Not yet. I hope to soon, however.

COMMUNITY STATS

Active Unique Participants (to date): 2,335
Closed Questions (to date): 2,413
Currently Open Questions: 179
Total Responses (to date): 18,167
Subscribers to this newsletter: 8,515

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 KHE Success Story comes to us from Aime Hirtes of Nexstitch.com.

"This summer I started an online business selling crochet patterns. After much consideration, I couldn’t choose a tag line. I ran a search for “tag lines” on the Web, and found MarketingProfs. It proved to be a jewel in the Nile. I posted a long piece describing the product, the target market, and my current tag line ideas, despite being worried that my question might not be taken seriously. Fifteen minutes after posting, the responses poured in, each one more thought-provoking than the next. I went from getting advice on a tag line to being instructed on how to approach the overall venture, with consideration to other areas of marketing that I hadn’t thought of yet. I want to thank MarketingProfs, and the advice of Cal, who helped me greatly. Your forward-thinking approach to this business venture has re-directed my thinking. The Know How Exchange is truly a supportive learning community of talented professionals. I have already recommended it to a friend of mine. I know he’ll be pleased."

Aime's Question: Help With Tag Line

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you, b, DavidatHaley and amie 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!

Pepper Blue, Jett, SRyan, ASVP/ChrisB, SteveB, Peter (helpUhire), Groovey, Vevolution, Arshad, V Gaurishankar, mmprint, fiatuno, jcrane, ohallost, printpass, bugmenot, Tricia Syed, Richard B, Deremiah, *CPE

LAST LAUGH

I like to end with a smile. So this space is dedicated to something amusing I find posted in our forum.

Did you see Jett's question: "Why Are Some People So Concerned About Points?" I usually like to stick to real-world marketing threads in this newsletter, but some of the answers posted in this conversation illustrate our forum's sense of humor so well. I had to call it out. Follow the link to see Inbox_Interactive's off-topic response, Deremiah, *CPE's song lyrics and aosterday's haiku. Need I say more?

Funny Question:

Why Are Some People So Concerned About Points?

Forum Feedback: The Know-How Exchange is awfully young. So we're still 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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