This one or that.
Success always means making choices… which customer, which market, which price point, which channel, and so on. The key is to actually make the choice after the appropriate analysis, and commit to it, whilst remaining sufficiently alert and agile to recognise early...
Information itself is no longer power.
In the past, those who held the information held the power, no longer is it so clear cut. Now, we have so many options opened up to us that the sharing of information is the new power, as information attracts activity, as light attracts a moth. This is a huge change...
Them or us?
Many people who run businesses obsess about the competition to the extent that it impacts on their own strategic development. They watch what competitiors do, aggressively match them, and set out to beat them at their own game. Often the better answer is to be...
5 steps to improving performance.
As a boy my dad used to say "everybody makes mistakes, only a fool makes the same one twice" There are now many learned tomes written and sold that offer similar advice, boiled down, "learn from your mistakes". You do not need a book, it is 5 easy steps: Gather all...
what is a demand chain
Most are familiar with the notion of supply chains, and describe them as assembling product, of some type, and moving it through a series of points where it often receives further investment in packaging and processing, to a customer of consumer. Similarly, the...
berry jam and the long tail
The explosion of media options in the last 5-10 years is giving small businesses options they did not have in the age of mass media, mass marketing. The recession will drive a continuing growth in alternative media at the expense of the traditional media, the growth...
Silver lining
In a downturn, the volume of low priced stuff increases, & as consumers reward themselves, some stuff a the "top end" also does well. Beware if you are in the middle, and not the lowest cost producer, both your volumes will suffer, and margins will be squeezed...
Marketing Audit
The following is a letter published in the Journal of thre Australian Institute of Company Directors in their December 08 Annual report. http://www.companydirectors.com.au. Very few businesses make a serious attempt at an audit of the returns from marketing...
No longer masses
You can no longer market to the anonymous masses, they're no longer anonymous and they're certainly no longer masses, but an agglomeration of individuals. You can only market to people who are willing participants, so the marketing task is to identify that group of...
learn from sport
Being good at any sport takes practice, and significant effort to improve the way things are done to get better, and we constantly and consistently measure the outcome of the effort, review the impact of changes, and vary the training regime as a result of the...