I was thrilled recently after a discussion session with a think tank group that comprises of customers (Generation X, Y with a little of baby boomer), service providers, some other informed opinion leaders in the area of branding, marketing etc. Prior to this, I have stumbled on an article ‘Future of Retail’ on the net and was fascinated by the trend at which customer service as well as business relationship with clients are being conducted in other clime.

While we keep the argument that it is not possible and we may not get there soon because of the peculiarities of our environment I believe we must start learning how it is down so that as soon as the environment becomes conducive, we are already armed to go.

In above caucus/group discussion, we were basically chatting about today’s customer with regards to how to relate with them. While many brand owners are still sleeping, the group envisaged that most product producers and service providers are still thinking that customers have not changed. The Customer service word equation is gradually changing at a rate that if care is not taken, most will be left behind. The use of customer service with regards to customer is now synonymous with Content, consistency and community. The age of telephone based customer service is gradually being phased out.

Customer service is basically shifting online with the aid of new media tools. Where the goal post is shifting to  will be the focus of our discussion today. Brand owners must begin to develop their capacity to effectively feature in this realm in order to remain relevant.

 Content: Content creation skill, development and marketing are essential skills that brands must develop to spread their messages as well as to gain eyeballs that will turn browser into buyers and advocates.

Consistency: whatever your brand is doing to excite, ignite passion of your potential and actual clients needs constant fuelling and lubrication

Community: Community is now as vital. Just like the blood that pushes nutrient into the body, brand community must be built with the right skill. Are you incorporating these tools into your customer service idea.

Recently, a professional colleague of mine attended a conference that is centred on business development, agency and account management etc. I seemed to like the take outs of the conference so I requested for the materials which he gladly sent to me. After taken time to digest the contents and I am currently putting strategy in place to experiment some of the issues discussed, I thought it wise to share some of the major points discussed with our community. As we know knowledge is no longer power but sharing is. This has been the reason for this community.

Part of the conclusion drawn by the experts and speakers at the conference with regards to new business development as well as growing established agency includes:

Learn to cheat: what! That was what my religious mind said when I saw this. Cheat my foot! Whatis wrong with business integrity? But at second thought, I decided to have an opened mind to the idea. As we all know, most parent taught their kids to be honest and steadfast. Never steal or cheat to get up is a common sermon one hears as a child. But here the experts are teaching ‘learn to cheat’. Experts at this conference submitted that every innovation or creativity is a product of someone thinking about how to improve on the status quos. Every innovative, creative mind often looks at what is and see what could be. So in a way that is ‘cheating’ on the person who originally moved the idea to what it is presently. To excel in creativity, one must learn to look around and see what others have done, repackage the idea for a new market. Remember Bill Gates did not invent the computer. Coca cola idea is not what it used to be when it started. Someone repackaged it to what we now have.

Focus on a pitch which you are passionate about: Many people believe that being jack of all trade will help them to get out of financial mess. The more you dilute your brand by pitching for every request for proposal the more you create trouble for the brand in the minds of the target audience. One of the disadvantages of going for every pitch is that you waste time and damage your brand equity in the next bids. To know which pitch to go for, find out the level of in -house capacity. Also consider your  in- house enthusiasm about the pitch. Where there is no enthusiasm, the morale to go extra mile will die a natural death.

Learn to ask questions and define ways to solve them: Before you attempt to open new business or attract new customers, sit down to ask questions. Note that foolish questions will attract foolish answers. So learn to ask productive questions that will lead to great idea and new business generation.

Research and understand what your prospect’s market will die for: sequel to the above, go ahead and do a lot of market research. Get feedback. Find out which problem your market want to solve first and that which they have capacity to pay for. Help your client to understand the solution you are offering and how that will be to their advantage if they follow through.

That will serve for today. Stay tune.

This will be the last part of the two previous posts. Google and other search engines have turned many into product, service researchers while at the confine of their rooms or offices. Today’s customers are no longer satisfied with information provided by brand advertisers or traditional media. They really want to see things as it. They want to drag hard bargain for their valued incomes. They also need personal conviction which shows that what they are buying is the best. It has been proven that at least two million potentials log on to the net everyday. Most of these potentials may be looking for things that either concerns your personal brand, product or services you are offering, institutional or corporate brand you represent. As a brand, you or your corporate brand has a chance of making these teaming ‘searchers’ to take a look at your side. That is if you have a web presence or Google resume. To get a chance of being seen, ensure your key words help in Search Engine optimizations. This will help your visibility in the first page of Google search. Many searchers do not have the patience of going beyond the third page of the search result.

Let us assume that your brand is lucky to be found, ability to create first impression with your web presence become the second most vital point. First impression begins with design aesthetic, quality of homepage content.

Your web presence first impression can help. As we know attention is a great deal on the net. Researchers have no time to waste on a non appealing site and at the click of the mouse they may be gone forever. That may be a lifetime opportunity too.

To get a chance with any first timer to your site/blog/content channel, be sure that the homepage is filled with useful content. If it is corporate website, let it incorporate integrated platforms that offer valuable information. Such information must aim to establish relationship instead of selling. For personal sites, it will be good to make your helpful contents the homepage, It may not be wise to make ‘how good I am info’ your homepage,

For other social networking sites like facebook, twitter, Xing, plaxo etc, make sure the content section popularly referred as ‘what is on your mind, what are you doing’ be loaded with helpful guide, insight that will help your target audience instead of ‘I am eating cheese’ stuff. That may be good occasionally but it should not be habitual practice. The reason is that such details may not lead to higher engagement and conversion rate. To enhance conversion rate, be willing to spread your highly usable content to several platforms online. This makes it easier to be found in different channels.

Let me conclude this piece by restating the process of identifying online potentials and how they can be converted to customers, loyalists or followers. Most start their online journeys as searchers or browsers; they are turned into believers in your brand through relevance of your brand. If you open a conversation, give free content that will help them, then you are on your way up. This will eventually make them to make decisions to buy from you, follow you. From here the journey to winning them as brand loyalists, advocates begin.

When it comes to professional jargons, each industry has a ton. Branding has its own which often confuses non-initiates. Jargons are peculiar to people who share common views either as professionals or tribes. Niche is an offshoot word from French which means ‘position, slot, and place’. In French it can be translated as nest, shell. It speaks volumes about ownership, privacy, personal space that one has a control over. Niche marketing is an effort to connect with and sell to a particular group of consumers. There are lots of ways to define a niche market, with some examples revolving around geographic location, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or profession.  Wikipedia defines niche market as ‘A market with subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing on; therefore a niche market defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intending to impact.

Today you either have a niche or itch. There is no middle point. Gary Hoover also states that “In the information business all the money is in the niches”. Niche marketing requires that a marketer identifies, targets a position that he is readily equipped to serve. Niche marketing is common to all industries. Almost every business started as a loophole observed by a marketer with a willingness to meet the need. Fast food thrives on the need of people who may not have time o cook at home because of other pressures. Laundry business began as someone perceived that not everyone will be satisfied with their watching ability. Not that alone, there may be no time to do that. So they look out for outsourced firm that can help. David Anderson and co defines niche marketing as a small moderate size business targeted to defined group. It thrives on narrowing the product or services, with a focused aim at one small group within a market. Niche marketing may still be an attempt to market or offering services to a particular audience with a common need that is not already served ‘adequately’. Till date, the world market is still large to carve out a niche. Innovations, changes are constantly attended with undiscovered needs. It will take individuals with eyes to identify a niche that requires attention. Academic world teaches us a great lesson in this regard. The more you advanced in degree acquisition, the more you have to narrow your research.  For a beginner, to start out in niche marketing

1. Have an ‘expertise, eye for something’ and be involved in an industry, identify a niche you are passionate about.

2. Attend conferences, listen, and observe the environment

3. Identify a specific group that is suffering or has a need

4. Create a solution market around your targets’ need which you are also passionate about.

5. Think about innovation, improvement on the present status quos and seek out to those who are yawning for that innovation and improvement.

Can someone add more? Please use the comment section.

It’s a great new year. It is a year that promises great dividends for those who know how to harness opportunities inside it. Despite the economic crunch. Knowing what to do will pay. Individual brand must know how to build emotional attachment to its own brand. The foundation of every emotional connection has been traceable to psychology-persuasion in this instance. No brand can actually survive without emotional interaction with the target audience. But the recurrent issue is that many brand strategists do not place emphasis on this foundation. This has accounted for many brands’ failure.

In a recent research by Ulli Appelbaum, he established that ‘reaching, engaging and bonding with customers is becoming increasingly challenging for marketers…consumers have become savvy, critical with higher expectation…evolution and increasing complexity of today’s media environment represent new challenges’. So to be successful in the journey of persuasion, Ulli identified the following steps.

1. Rewards: This is a common motivator for human being. Brand owners must emphasis the reward or what we all call benefits. The advantage of the rewards must be hammered so well that it is clear to all.

2.Threats: No one enjoys a threat to life, so when a brand owner identifies the threat to human existence that the brand can help prevent, emotional connection can begin from here. Antiseptic soap makers have stressed this to their own advantage.

3. Expertise: the brand must demonstrate its expertise and use it to the maximum benefits of the target audience. What is in it for me-WIIFM still holds water.

4. Liking: Be a likeable brand and you will have followings. People sometimes bend rules for those they like and this includes brands too.

5. Scarcity: We all believed that something that is scarce is valuable. That is general perception. Limit your level of exposure, availability. Know when to withdraw your service and your brand from the market.

6. Social proof: One of the reasons why people get connected to a brand is social proof. This has to do with what others have to say about a brand, offerings. Long queue in front of a shop always convince people that it must be a great one while others do not have one customer. Think of how to start building emotional connection with your brand today.

Getting new business is becoming a great issue in this recession time. Many hurdles are now on the way. Many have depended on referrals and old clients without tilling new grounds. Yes, new business development can be daunting, challenging but with adequate knowledge, planning, persistence, determination; some can still build new opportunities because this season also throw up new opportunities as much as the reality of the harsh, biting environment. That is if one knows how.

The following will help individuals, corporate organizations to win new businesses in this season.

1. Timely intervention: Ability to show up with right product/service per time is really important. This is possible if you are really close to your customer and you are involved in ongoing research of your niche market. Active listening to your environment will help in no small way in ‘guaranteeing’ that you will always have an answer to your niche market. Listen to the yearnings of your target audience and come up with a creative idea to solve these demands will help you in no small measure. Developing new business requires you take new initiatives and being ready to take opportunities when its available.

2. Show it: Before you can get new business, you must be able to proof that you can handle it. Be convincing, forceful in your approach. Being forceful does not mean you are brutal. Branding world is a game of war. You are always in the war room. Give the target the reason to believe you. Let the audience note you understand their problems and the solution is in your kitty. Let your message shatter any resistance.

3. Seamless communications: This is where many miss the opportunity for a new deal. Their messages are not consistence with the promise of value. Their brand environment gives room for doubt. If you say you are rich and will not need customers’ money to live, let it be visible in what your associates, employees wear to meet client. Opportunities still fall on people’s lap, if the laps are well-positioned. You will get yours. Its weekend, use the time and holiday to think through your strategy.