Oil prices set record highs this week and many analysts see this trend continuing, with gas prices breaking $4 a gallon and higher — and permanently staying there. This type of impact on the cost of energy could mean a permanent change in spending patterns for your customers and consumers. All but the most wealthy will be cutting back in other areas as transportation costs continue to increase.

The kneejerk reaction for customers is to look for cheaper pricees on products and services. As marketers, our first reaction may be to try and give that to them directly by lowering prices. This, however, may not be the best long-term approach. If a competitor undercuts you, your customer are likely to follow the lowest price. Or, expect the same low price repeatedly from you. If your company loses money on that price, you’ve backed yourself into a no-win corner: participate in an unprofitable price war or lose the customer.

What do you do instead to please customers, keep their business, and still make a profit? My local grocery store has a unique solution: they are giving away money. No, they aren’t handing out dollars at the door, but it’s close. When customers buy up to $1,200 in store gift cards, they get an added 10% bonus in additional gift cards. Everybody wins. Customers HAVE to buy groceries, so these gift cards are the next best thing to free money. The store is assured their customers will not go elsewhere next time to shop. Plus, the store gets a bit of a boost in cash flow because customers are essentially pre-paying for groceries.

The next time you sit down to think about ways to keep customers in an inflationary economy, consider ways to increase value without playing the “lowest price” game. BTW, for a refresher on different pricing strategies, take a look at these articles on pricing strategies:

Making Sure the Price is Right
7 Pricing Strategies that Improve Profit
Small Business Pricing Strategies

http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/NewsletArch/newsletter05_22_08.htm

Hello Folks -

While the US economy is not officially in a recession, most customers are becoming more cost-conscious as prices in key areas increase. Their needs are changing, but as a marketer how do you know what, exactly, has changed? My “Marketing Strategy for a Tough Economy” explains a method for projecting and integrating change into the marketing mix. Matthew Parente takes it a step further, addressing how to continually create new value ― no matter what the economy ― in “Turning a Down Economy into Opportunity.”

Other keys to thriving in a weak economy involve: (a) keeping the customers happy (so they’ll not only become repeat customers but will also spread the word about your products and services), (b) effectively getting in front of customers on their terms, and (c) interacting with customers through research.

“Everything You Need To Know About Word of Mouth Marketing” from Andy Sernovitz, “Social Media Content Creation Process” from Geoff Livingston, and “Qualitative Market Research - Attract Quality Respondents With The Four W’s” by Mark Goodin address these, respectively.

Enjoy!
Bobette Kyle

by Bobette Kyle
http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/marketing_management/market_research.htm

If you need a refresher on the difference between qualitative and quantitative research — or primary versus secondary — take a look at this article from a few years back. There are more ways for small businesses to get customer input today (so the examples are no longer comprehensive), but the basic definitions still apply.

by Geoff Livingston
http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/mplan/social-media-content.htm

Many folks ask how to go about creating social media for their company. As a service to the industry, Geoff has made available an open source version of a draft social media content development process. (You can find the final version in his book “Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs.”) This process is general enough to guide development of specific initiatives. It does not recommend blogging or video, per say. Rather the process allows content creation to move towards the market’s needs, and within the company’s resources. There are 14 steps in all.