Do Business Well

The reality of good promotional activities is that they take time. You can’t just leap out of bed and decide to have an 80-per-cent off sale when you get to work. Planning four to six months inadvance is about right.

This way you can do a little each day and have your Mother’s Day promotion, for instance, run smoothly, with time to spare to fix up the bits you may forget, such as the window notices, ordering envelopes or mailing your best customers for a preview day.

If you do a little each day it does not break up your normal working day too much and adds another interest to your life. Why not use the Saatchi & Saatchi three-month cycle for promotional activities? You could plan to have four similar promotions for your client and prospect base each year. Your planning processes would become quite repetitive and therefore much easier to do. Continue Reading »

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The horizontal axis of our matrix represents the degree to which customers are willing to seek advice or help.

The self-reliant people, in the left quadrants, like to mow their own grass, but those on the right prefer to hire a maintenance service and free up their time for other tasks. In a restaurant, some prefer to help themselves at the buffet or use the take-out service, while others don’t mind waiting to be served at the table.

There’s more at work here than time pressure alone: Customers clearly occupy a range of attitudes, from do-it-myself independence to a heavy reliance on others. A supplier who confuses one type (”I’m just browsing; I’ll call you when I need help”) with the other (”Could you show me what’s available and help me make up my mind?”) does so at her peril.

In the process of purchasing, a customer’s decision to rely solely on himself or to leverage others depends mainly on how complex he perceives the decision will be. Continue Reading »

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