Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Do Marketing Of Office Supplies?

Posted by eagleyes707 on 2/25/2015 at 6:39 AM ET 125 Points
Hi! I am launching a new business of office supplies (online). My aim is to start with mundane office essentials like cleaning products, kitchen food, copy paper, etc. (products which are required more frequently) instead of selling comprehensive range of all office equipment and furniture. I will also offer office cleaning services to clients.


What is the best marketing strategy to change behavior of customer who are already buying from big well known brands online? Particularly when you are new in the market and brand is not known to customers.

Can you please advise me strategy to enter market? At the moment my plan is to distribute flyers, distribute free gifts such as notepads, etc with business name and do email marketing.

Thanks,
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 2/25/2015 at 7:18 AM Member
    Which geographical area are you proposing to serve and how will you guarantee delivery and fulfillment?
  • Posted by eagleyes707 on 2/25/2015 at 7:29 AM Author
    Hi Gary! Thanks for timely reply!

    Initially I will provide supplies in one city only with warehouse close to CBD. My target is to acquire 50 to 100 customers in two months who will buy products and I will stock goods accordingly. Inventory will be increased as customer base increase.

    Product will be delivered next business day or on same day if ordered before 11:00am. Delivery will be done by courier. Regional area orders (which I assume will be equal to nil initially) will attract higher delivery charges and time
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/25/2015 at 8:17 AM Member
    Why should someone buy from you? What do you offer that others don't/can't? Simply by being cheaper is likely not to be an effective long-term business strategy for you.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 2/25/2015 at 12:12 PM Member
    Expanding on Jay's response - first you need to determine who people are currently buying from (Amazon, office supply stores) and then you need to offer them some reason to decide to buy from you (assuming you are selling products available elsewhere, it usually comes down to price or service/delivery). Once you determine this, you can set the strategy of ho to reach them.

    Your mention of providing cleaning service caught my eye. Perhaps the office supplies could be provided as part of that. Every time you go in to clean, you also restock their supplies. That would be different and could be a reason for companies to switch.
  • Posted by eagleyes707 on 2/25/2015 at 6:11 PM Author
    Hi Peter / Jay,

    My strategy is not to compete by being cheaper. Products will be priced marginally higher or lower compared to competitors depending on what price we can secure from suppliers.

    Below are the things I want to offer which will differentiate me from competitor.

    - Monthly interest free credit accounts (offered by competitors but not promoted)
    - One account to manage all expenses of different offices. Customer can log in and see order history of all offices. Manage and track their expenses, Consolidated invoices, etc.
    - Sales representative or Account manager (say outlet manager in marketing terms) will visit large clients monthly and small clients quarterly to understand their requirements and promote my brand
    - Include more product range of office foods - coffee beans, capsules, breakfast cereals, etc
    - offer exclusive range of products at later stage
    - Easy to navigate website will frequent essentials (I am from Australia, usually people order stationery from giant office supplies and buy cleaning, food, etc from super markets online whose website are really tedious with hundreds of categories)
    - Monthly draw with vouchers

    I contacted one marketing and strategy company and briefly described my concept and they suggested gathering market intel which will be way out of my budget. I would rather distribute free samples of the same amount and spend on marketing but not sure what is the effective strategy for marketing.

    @ Peter. I am planning to offer cleaning supplies at later stage to only large customers.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 2/26/2015 at 12:40 PM Accepted
    I would do the market research yourself - using your time rather than paying the marketing firm you talked to. Best to do it yourself, as you can learn a lot. Get out and talk to as many people as you can find who are involved with buying the supplies you want to sell. Rather than going right into your model, make sure you fully understand how they do things and try to find out how it is not working as well as they would like. This may open areas which you can meet their needs (so tell you the direction to go).
  • Posted by eagleyes707 on 3/1/2015 at 7:44 PM Author
    Thanks Peter!

    I agree about doing market research myself instead of paying big money to someone else. After market research I will modify services as per customer needs.

    But can someone advise me on what will be the effective way to reach my target market? Most of the buyers will be office admins, receptionists or operations manager who order online. How to reach them?

    At the moment I am planning flyer distributions, email marketing, social media and free products (notepad, etc) with my brand name.

    Please help! Thanks.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/1/2015 at 9:56 PM Accepted
    Start by doing informational interviews of people in your region who are your likely customers. Find out what they need online that they can't easily find. Who do they currently purchase from? Why would they want to switch to another provider? How do they find other providers? Do this for 10 different companies, and you'll likely find out the best way to market to them, find them, etc. And if this isn't something that you're comfortable doing yourself (it's not as easy you might think, especially since you won't be selling anything to them), hire a professional to do the informational interviews for you.
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