bwagy

Having grown up in Queenstown, New Zealand I was exposed quite a bit to the tourism industry and how it works.

The cornerstone of it locally is the information centres.  There are a handful of them all vying for your attention.  As if they can get you in the door they can take 10% commission of all your bookings.

They are tremendous due to the competition they have realised the only way to compete is superior customer service, ensuring people will maximise their spending with you.

I’d like to see online information centres, you can browse in, talk (or chat) to a live help, then they redirect you to a service that will solve your problem.  If you end up doing business they take a commission.

This wouldn’t work mass market but certainly within certain high value niches.

Just a thought, there are millions struggling with one problem or another out there.

(Google is kind of doing this with search + adwords but there is room for the personal approach).

As much as 85% of all consumer purchases are made by females (via TomPeters.com) and I am guessing that the rest is guys buying stuff for the ladies! (joking).

Seriously though as a retailer you should be helping guys buy for girls.

Run a flower shop? Guide guys as to what they should buy.  Same with wine / chocolates.  In fact why isn’t there a store that solves guys problems – you could call it ‘I’m Sorry’ or ‘I Love You’.

Just give guys a guide – what do you want to say with your gift.  Get the girls to help feed the input.

At the very least it says they cared enough to try.  Just a thought, help guys buy for girls.

If you have target market X surely you should talk directly to them?

In all likelihood – yes.

However there is ALWAYS room to target the second tier.

Who influences this market? Who else do they interact with? Whose opinion do they pay attention to?

The best example of this is the most effective campaign in getting women in for cancer screening. Conversations were held with hairdressers whom were to then relay they conversations with their clients. By targeting this second tier they were able to reach their target audience in an effective manner.

The key here is to miss the same boat that your competition are taking ON PURPOSE!

Great engagement model when you do not have the capability to do so directly.

I have to admit that I know a form of these are on the way.  Intelligent Shopping Carts which help you identify what you want to buy, notify you of specials etc.

However these are engineered for companies benefit moreso than the consumers.

What I would like is to walk into a store (thinking Supermarket here) – it knows my favourite brands, it knows that I always buy bananas or that if I wander down the meat section I never buy Pork but buy Steak, potentially even it can monitor my shopping habits and recommend new products based on others.  Kind of like Last.fm but for food.

So how could you implement this? Intelligent glasses that glow on the products you like.  Too geeky methinks.

Shopping Cart is a winner – simply login, swipe each product as you add it.  Hey you could even tally my purchases as I go.  Now that would be neat.

Again like Last.fm needs to be built around the customer – not the supermarket (whom just want to push more products into your trolley).  If you help me enhance the experience I will shop more often.  Simple as that.

Interesting question.

But why was I thinking this?

Driving around – I thought it was neat how all roads are virtually flat and smoothen out the bumps.

Then I was like, ok same with car parks.  But what about car parking buildings?

Quick calculations (using the old 1, 2, square root 3) we can find if we elevate a 4m car park 30 degreees, we can accommodate a flat surface area saving of 15%.

That is, if you elevated every car park in a building, you would have 15% more room for extra car parks.

So why haven’t they done it?

• Most likely the fundamental assumptions haven’t been questioned
• Comfort / Usability
• The norm

From a cost perspective

• Increase car density within a car park (thus higher ROI for the same surface area)
• Setup price discrimination, flat car park 50c/hour

Clearly there are some issues that need to be investigated…such as safety, consumer reaction, cost of setting up.

Flipping the fundamental assumption that parks need to be flat – yields a whole new insight.

Crazy huh? This exact approach is what is going to differentiate your firms service offering, flipping solutions on their head to deliver something no one else can.  What better way to obsess about your customers?

No matter how much drugs Customs find, dealers are still looking for new ways to hide it.

And why are they doing it? The allure of the wealth.

I see this as the equivalent of a price war in a downward spiral.  As adept as customs officials are they aren’t nearly as motivated as the drug dealers who keep one step ahead of them.

What do I propose to end this? Crowdsourcing.

Open up the problem to the public, give them the constraints Customs operate under and what the avenues are.  Get the public to help you figure 101 ways to import drugs in almost anything that is coming into the country.

Then Customs can get ahead of the game.  Sure the public will reveal new ways that haven’t been utilised yet but (in theory) those methods would have been exploited at some point in time.

So stop chasing your tails and take control of the game.

Look, honestly, if your product isn’t shit hot – all the marketing in the world ain’t going to save it.

Sure you will get a bit of a boost when you get nationwide coverage on tv, or a mention in the paper, but honestly is it going to be the answer to building a sustainable business? No.

Focus on the product, bring it up to speed, grow & evolve it from customer feedback.  As if it isn’t hot we can stick any marketing tactic to it and you won’t get the return.  

Whereas if you have a shit hot product – it makes it a million times easier to market – as it markets itself.

Take some time, refocus on what you offer, if not today when?