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Marketing without money

Do you want to create an entirely new market? Or do you want to dominate an existing market but don’t have the marketing budget to compete with the big players?  Do you want to inspire customers so that they can build your brand for your? You can do all of the above and more.
            There is no one formula to achieve marketing success, but there are strategies that work better than others.  Even if you have little or no start-up funding, even if you are facing strongly entrenched competitors, you nevertheless have the opportunity to steal the market using innovation and creativity.
            The single most important focus in your business should be the creation of outstanding value for your customers.  You will always have the opportunity to create further value for a customer; people are never satisfied with the value they currently have and are always looking for something better.  The good news is that there are countless ways to create new and exceeding levels of value for your customers.  But to be a successful creator of value, you must focus your business effort.
            You will never be able to please every segment of the market.  Business that try to be all things to all people are inevitably undermined by more focused competitors.  You can create outstanding value for your customers by using these four steps to focus your product or service offering:

Decide on your specific cause. One of the biggest mistakes by entrepreneurs is entering a market value where there are already many similar competitors and then imitating their competitor’s strategies, policies and procedures.  Avoid this by choosing a group of potential customers to whom you think you could provide outstanding value. Ask yourself if you would be able to supply a product or service package offering better value than any of the existing competitors. If you don’t feel passionate (almost fanatic) about improving that product or service, then you are not connected to the cause and should not enter that market.
            Ensure profitable delivery.  There are unlimited number of ways you can provide outstanding value.  You could lower prices, provide better quality, shorter delivery time etc.  Before you take your offering to the market, you must work out how you can extract a premium from the extra value you have created for your customers.
            Consolidate a sustainable position.  Once you have decided where you will create outstanding value, your business must be able to protect or monopolize the value you deliver.  To do this, develop an efficient system or formula for value creation and delivery .  build your company’s reputation so that it becomes ‘famous’ for its value delivery in your focused area of expertise.  Your value bundle should be improved over time through the addition of other values.  The aim for your business is to create a value monopoly.
            Decide between customized and standardized. Will you be rigidly standardized (like products or services are delivered at exactly the same level of quality and design for every customer?) Or will you have a highly customized business design where each product or service is delivered according to each customer’s needs and expectation? You may be somewhere in between.  But whatever level of customization you calculate to be most profitable for your business, make sure it is consistent across that product category.  That will be the level of customization your business will be famous for as long as you stick to it.
            The more you can anticipate a customer’s need or the value of a product to a customer, the more profitable your business will be.  The problem is that most people can’tt tell you what they want or need until it is available on the market.  However, there are four types of values where you can uncover brilliant opportunities: convenience value – products that make our lives easier;
Quality of life value – products that provides us with a better family, social and work life;
Distraction value – products that entertain or help us escape from our everyday lives and;
Self-importance value – products that make us feel better about ourselves and generate admiration from others.
            Ask yourself how you can create outstanding value in any of the above.  This will help you anticipate what people are going to want before they know themselves.
            Charles Revson, founder of Revlon Cosmetics once said, “in the factory we make cosmetics, but in the drugstore we sell hope”.  He recognized the difference between selling his product and selling his cause.  This insight meant that he focused all his resources on creating that hope – from his product packaging and movie star endorsements to his retail environment emphasizing beauty and glamour.
            You can apply this principles to your own business by understanding the causes that are most important to your customers.  Understand customer’s priorities and values and you will instantly command their attention.
            At all times, you should be focused on talking about your cause, not your product.  Your customers want to talk to others about things they can get passionate about.  When you start talking with empathy and knowledge about the cause, not the product, you can establish yourself and your company as an “authority” on the subject.  Once your audience is ‘sold’ to your cause, you can be certain your solution will be too.
            When you find a winning formula for creating outstanding value, your biggest challenge is then building a system to replicate it to the larger market.  Consultants, lawyers, and accountant have all struggled to achieve this because their reliance on the knowledge of their professions.  You can overcome this challenge by building a replicable factory by narrowing your focus, simplifying the delivery process and recruiting like-mind people to manage the system.
            At the end of the day, the success of your business relies on your ability to create or manufacture value.  In our current business environment, we are surrounded by down-sizing, acquisitions and consolidation.  Many companies are concentrating on cutting cost; of course, this housekeeping and quality management is important.  But it should be the basis from which you start work, not your sole focus.
            Get your cause right.  Make creativity the soul of your business and develop winning concepts, then, energetically follow through.  You will create new markets and stamp your authority on them using the media and your customers instead of your money.

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