Your Questions About Direct Marketing Strategies

Jere answers:

Short term and long term non-retirement savings should always be separate from retirement savings.

In general, only retirement savings should be in any combination that includes stocks or corporate bonds. The “generic” combo for retirement is 60% stock mutual funds/40% Bond mutual funds and/or direct holdings of Treasury securities, esp TIPS bonds (or I savings bonds). Once you are within 10 years of retirement, you should reduce your stock allotment and add a cash allotment: 10% or five years worth of expenses, which ever is greater. Once in retirement, 40% Stocks, 40% Bonds, 20% Cash is usually a good mix for the first 10-15 years.

All short term savings and any long term savings that will be used within the next ten years should be in cash investments: Money market accounts, CD’s, Treasury Bills, Notes & Savings bonds.

Jere answers:

It sounds like you are working on a business school case.

I would position Maserati as different, more elite than the competition. I would make it a scarce resource, with initially a long waiting list to get one. At the same time pricing is going to be comparable (within 10%) of the direct competitors.

You may want to create a specific image (possibly European) and focus on specific demographics, and create a promotional strategy that uses multiple media to introduce the concept. You may want to place the product in some select movies and maybe do what BMW did a few years ago, hiring well known directors to create a short starring the car. In this case you may want to use European directors or people (like Scorzese) who are viewed as Europeans.

A less expensive strategy might be to give a car to selected celebrities and makes sure there is PR coverage on them. Also YouTube may be an interesting promotional challenge.

I hope this is helpful and gives you some ideas.

Jere answers:

How about a business coaching company?

It’s an awesome business with HIGH Profits.

The best marketing strategies are Networking, Google AdWords, Referrals, Direct mail, Free Seminars, Chamber of Commerce Business After hours events, Strategic Alliances, and Host beneficiaries

Jere answers:

For a marketing plan to be successful, the mix of Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement must reflect the wants and desires of the consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to buy something they don’t want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process.

Most companies today have a customer orientation (also called customer focus). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on customer needs. Generally there are two ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach and the product innovation approach.

In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no point spending R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.

The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that will allow for a high amount of sales for that product and related products. Marketers believe that by finding or creating the next big thing they will spark a cultural revolution that results in this sales increase.

In a product innovation approach, the company pursues product innovation, then tries to develop a market for the product. Product innovation drives the process and marketing research is conducted primarily to ensure that a profitable market segment(s) exists for the innovation. The rationale is that customers may not know what options will be available to them in the future so we should not expect them to tell us what they will buy in the future. It is claimed that if Thomas Edison depended on marketing research he would have produced larger candles rather than inventing light bulbs. Many firms, such as research and development focused companies, successfully focus on product innovation. Many purists doubt whether this is really a form of marketing orientation at all, because of the ex post status of consumer research. Some even question whether it is marketing.

Diffusion of innovations research explores how and why people adopt new products, services and ideas.

A relatively new form of marketing uses the Internet and is called internet marketing or more generally e-marketing, affiliate marketing or online marketing. It typically tries to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing.

Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) of products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.

Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers’ future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.

Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy.

Therefore good marketing must be able to create a “proposition” or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services.

Its specialist areas include:

advertising and branding
communications
database marketing
direct marketing
event organization
global marketing
international marketing
internet marketing
industrial marketing
market research
public relations
retailing
search engine marketing
marketing strategy
marketing plan
strategic management

Jere answers:

Are you looking to do direct sales online or offline?

There are different strategies for both.

For offline, try joining some playgroups in your area and networking with other moms. Direct sales is a popular option for stay home moms, so Im sure you will find many other in the industry who can offer local tips.

There are also tons of offline advertising methods. And online groups, creation of a website, etc.