WHAT'S NEW?
Dear Askers & Answerers,
I'm writing to you from my new home in San Jose, California. I'm excited about representing MarketingProfs in the Bay Area. But, boy oh boy, is moving tough! I still have about 40 boxes to unpack, and my Internet connection is not working yet - but at least I'm moved in! For a while there, I wasn't sure this day would come. So I'm happy to celebrate the milestone by taking a break from the relo to compose this newsletter. I have a big announcement in response to the popular question: "What can I do with my Question Points, when I've asked all my questions?" Good news! We are rolling out a collection of exchange opportunities. To start with, you will be able to upgrade your MarketingProfs membership by trading in points: You may also trade 15,000 Question Points for a banner ad in this newsletter. Or you can trade 10,000 Question Points to attend one of MP's virtual seminars. Soon, we'll publish a page in KHE promoting this program. But you don't have to wait for that. As soon as you have enough points, you can write me with your upgrade request. Keep in mind, when you trade in points, it will not impact your rank in the community. We will not charge you Expert Points, just Question Points. We are also working on the new Urgent Questions functionality, as well as researching the possibility of selling MP merchandise. Watch for updates on these projects in the near future. I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
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!
- Wizard(?) of ads and December ad spending
- Cheapest way get qualified prospects for ent. s/w
- How to build points program for customer club
- How is STRATEGY different from MARKETING?
- Metrics for adding employees to centralized Mktng
- Cascading information in large office
- How do I structure syndication of ezine content?
- Developing a qualified prospect list
- Difference between target market & audience?
- Strategic marketing in a depressed economy
RESOURCE REFERRAL: CUSTOMER CARE CUBE
Pat Divilly of MarketWare International has been kind enough to share with us a white paper about customer satisfaction. Use the link below to register and download this resource. A description from Pat follows. Customer Care Cube (TM) - A Customer Satisfaction and Retention Methodology
Most companies recognise that customers and employees are their most valuable assets. The retention and development of these assets should be high on the priority list for every company. Employee performance review and appraisal systems are a recognition of the need and desire to retain and improve the performance of employees. Yet, when it comes to that other most valuable of assets - customers - most companies priority is to acquire new customers, rather than to retain and develop existing customers. This, in spite of the fact that existing customers are more profitable and that it typically costs 5 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. The Customer Care Cube (C3) is a practical customer-focused methodology. It identifies the key service components that are important to individual customers and, by raising the performance standards for these service elements, significantly improves the level of customer satisfaction and retention. The objective of C3 is to significantly improve profitability through substantial improvement in customer retention and development. It is based on having key customers evaluate the performance of the organisation on an annual basis and mirrors the employee performance and appraisal system in operation in most organisations. Resource: http://www.marketware.biz/white_papers.htm 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.
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LESSONS LEARNED: MARKET SIZE
Two weeks ago, korlean posed this question: "I am currently writing our business plan and need a solution for finding the potential market size for our customer acquisition and financial services solutions." Here are some insights from the conversation that followed. - ASVP/ChrisB: This sounds like two questions in one. ... Second part - the potential size of the market for an upscale magazine. Isn't it mainly going to be of interest to inhabitants of LI? Plus those fortunates with weekenders in the Hamptons, etc.? You need to access statistics on the number of households with an income in your target range within the zip codes you plan to serve. Federal Bureau of Statistics again. You might also look at the circulation of comparable magazines to see what they are achieving as you will be catering to the same market. Just a thought, but so many companies seem to be targeting high net worth people - you may find a massively broader market lower down the marketing pyramid, with a conseqently larger prospective base of potential advertisers.
- Mushfique: For e-Check processing solutions: First determine the geographic area you want to serve. Then ask the local Chamber of Commerce for the entire population of businesses that fall in your category and make a list of them. Find out the existing customers you have from this list. Find out the customers who are using your competitors service vs. no service at all. That's the max incremental potential customer for you. Find out the average purchase frequency of your type of service per customer. Multiply that frequency by the number of non-customers. This will give you potential new business. Find out the frequency of purchases from other companies by customers. This is your potential business to capture from other companies.
- thinkmor: Try accessing past annual reports from your competitors as a quick start. You can access some using http://www.reportgallery.com - it gives you 2,200 annual reports. Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys are available at many university libraries. Also, the American Tally Statistics & Rankings for 3,165 U.S. cities gives you demographic, sociological and economic stats. Not every city is included. Available at many libraries. Hoovers is excellent for basic directory and financial info on more than 13,500 companies for free but specific info you will need to subscribe for.
- jstiles: I would add that the Census.gov site has a lot of free data by various geographies that would help you develop a general size perspective of your target. You could also contact a data company like Claritas to run an off-the-shelf custom report at relatively small cost. D&B and InfoUSA also provide such report services and may also be able to pull a targeted mail list for you.
- Peter (henna gaijin): You really need to work these as separate businesses, with separate plans. One challenge people often have after they determine the market size is determining what share they feel they can get. Often this shows up in people being way too optimistic ("everyone could use our product"). The numbers I have pretty consistently heard is that you should shoot for betwen 3 and 30% of the potential market. If you feel you can get more, you will likely be disappojnted. If you feel less, you probably have defined your market too broadly, so should redefine it as more of a niche until you are in that range.
- jose04: Calculating market size is an estimate. You need to ensure that the [methodology] is documented. You could collect facts like the time frame for the forecast, the geographic markets covered, whether the market size is based on production or consumption, sources of data (secondary, competitor interviews, etc.), units of measurement, break-downs for each product category, break-downs for retailers vs. B2B. Collecting such facts will get you confidence in the estimates made. As the market size calculation is a fundamental measurement based on which all other company activities (sales and marketing expenses, R&D expenses) are measured, the emphasis on the truth factor is a must.
The Complete Discussion: Determining Market Size
TIPS & TRICKS: HOW TO IMPROVE RESPONSE
Once in a while I receive email from Askers who wonder why their questions didn't generate the solutions they were hoping for. When I view their questions, 95% of the time I see the same problem. The Asker didn't actively participate in the discussion during the first 24 hours. Many of our experts post comments and a couple follow-up questions to help them understand the Asker's situation. When those questions go unanswered for a few days, the experts shift their attention to newer questions. So my best advice to those of you posting questions in KHE is to stay on top of your question. If you know you will be unavailable to participate for a few days, I encourage you to wait on posting your question until a day when you can login a few times to post responses, if necessary.
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).
Most Inquisitive
- Jett
- Val (Moderator)
- kwinters
- Jay P A R K H E
- Den E V
- mac504
- Noel
- whitefeud
- Richard B
- AprilGuy
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Most Expert
- Jett
- mbarber
- Jim Deveau/Catalyst
- Pepper Blue
- gerardodada
- Michele
- aosterday
- JBtron
- SteveB
- Peter (henna gaijin)
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NOTE: These are our top members as of midday September 9, 2004
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET RICHARD B
This week's featured member is Richard Banfield. Richard B is a self-described serial entrepreneur, originally from South Africa. True to form, Richard is an idea person. Read on to learn more about him. Where are you based?
Boston, MA, USA. What do you do in real-life?
Business Development Director for a great online print company, UDesignWePrint. Tell us about your company.
We make printing for businesses super convenient. Weve built an infrastructure and network of vendors to manage complex print communications tasks and make them as simple as ordering a book online. I love my work. What is your favorite marketing book?
The Purple Cow. The ideas and the execution of the ideas made me reconsider many of the old ideas I had about marketing. How long have you been in marketing?
About 10 years. I got started when I was studying biology and I needed some money to help pay for school. I started a graphic design company on the side and was quickly inundated with requests for marketing ideas. After I finished my degree I decided to start at the bottom as a sales rep to learn the ropes. Within two years I had my own international emarketing company, Acceleration Media (which is still around). After a string of technology start-ups I decided to work with Jenn Russo, President of UDesignWePrint, to build something really great. Did you study marketing in college?
I studied Molecular Physiology in the Botany department. I learnt everything from experience, asking thousands of stupid questions and developing a voracious reading habit (I read a book a week). Do you have a mentor?
I have many but the best lessons I learnt from a successful investor called Jonathan Beare. He taught me that the success of a business or project is 90% about the people involved and 10% about the idea itself. What is your next career objective?
Once UDesignWePrint has achieved its operational and financial goals I would like to go back to my home, South Africa, and invest in the amazing entrepreneurs that South Africa is producing. Describe a non-marketing hobby or interest.
Scuba diving. What is the value KHE provides to you personally?
Instant access to ideas, answers and discussion. Were a small company so its good to get outside help as often as possible. Have you made any offline connections from KHE?
Yes, contact with old friends and some new customers. Is there anything else you would like to say?
Thank you, its good to know the KHE is out there 24/7.
COMMUNITY STATS
Active Unique Participants (to date): 2,581
Closed Questions (to date): 2,849
Currently Open Questions: 73
Total Responses (to date): 20,938
Subscribers to this newsletter: 9,304
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 Tom Landis of Aarrow Mortgage Group in Harrisburg, PA. "I am thankful I found MarketingProfs in my Google search! Within minutes I received many highly professional opinions concerning my marketing dilemma. The breadth of knowledge I found was more than I expected. I'll be back often!" The Question: Designing a Logo, Need Color Input
SPECIAL THANKS
Thank you, pat.divilly, Richard B and tlandis 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! Jett, SRyan, ASVP/ChrisB, Peter (henna gaijin), Vevolution, Nicolas, JBtron, Jim Deveau/Catalyst, mbarber, tjh, abhinav, Richard B, cookie, maggie, fkurilla, deepa_joe, chumley, tanu_friend, chandola_cv, cknarayanan, maverick, shahud, Sweetasman01, mamur, jhdraper, jcmedinave, julie0592, D4Demand, fadam, 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. This message from mbarber about Noah as the first brand manager is the one I remember best from this week. The rest of the thread is pretty fun too. The Discussion: Who Was the First Brand Manager In the World?
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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