Overlinked

About Me

I am heavy into marketing, and even more heavily into technology. You also might see some blog posts about modern art spring up here and there - so don't freak out.

I also blog at The Direct Marketing Voice, and throw around ideas as a Market Intelligence Analyst at QuantumDigital.

My Other Sites
metaweblog
Tags
Archive
2011 (10)
2010 (14)
2009 (114)
2008 (1)
Filed under

b2c

See all posts on posterous with this tag »
 

I Got .99 Problems, But Pricing Ain’t One. «  Modeled Behavior

So, to the results. The summary points are:

  1. Prices ending in .99 no longer have any advantage in consumer value perception, and do not lead to higher sales.
  2. The optimal penny value varies by country. In the United States, it is .01.
via modeledbehavior.com

This is from the Inon.com pricing behavior study and shows an interesting result in our over-use of the "$0.99" price point. Consumers have been saturated with the ninety nine cent idea, and are reaching out for price points that make sense - and have almost the same value, but seem more cognitively approachable.

Does this mean that a bit of reason has set in? More likely just plain old cynicism - most now distrust loud marketing hype... but it sets an interesting stage for retailers now to find their newest price point. Maybe retailers will now benefit from making an extra 2 cents on each and every barcode they scan through the check out lane.

Filed under  //  b2c   optimization   retail   strategy  
Posted
 

Humor as an icebreaker

Marketing teams all around think about social media and sales as a series of tools.  But this banner by kinko's reminds us that sales is just an opportunity. It's an opportunity to impress a customer and reveal that companies are made up of more than just a brand.  They are made of people - and sometimes - people with a sense of humor.

 
When it comes down to it, who would you rather buy from?  A "negotiator" or a friend who knows how to crack a few jokes?

Photo

Img_0005

Filed under  //  b2c   emotion   marketing  
Posted
 

6 different ways to attract customers

Credit where due, I was browsing http://www.notorious-rob.com/ and came across this graphic that Rob found in @issue: the online journal of business & design (why had I not found this magazine before!).  Turns out they're citing it from a book that's coming out by Marty Neumeier, who has delivered some very interesting presentations before. 

 
Anyhow, this graphic seeks to compare the different disciplines of "wooing a customer". Hilarious:
 

Outlook

 

Besides this, I did happen upon a great video that encompasses many of the strategic marketing shifts, a' la Marty Neumeier:

 

Filed under  //  advertising   b2c   emotion   marketing  
Posted
 

Post-recession Consumerism

John Gerzema is the co-author of the book, The Brand Bubble and gave a great talk on TED, where he outlines a barrage of great points, not exclusive to the fact that 80% of the US population was born after WWII, so in effect this recession is our "Great depression", and the ethics of the connected life are affecting our identities as consumers.  One of his slides focuses on a shift of consumers to de-leverage themselves (just as banks and companies are de-leveraging), so they are finding ways to do that paying by debit vs. credit (as a recent VISA study had found). "Declasse consumption" essentially is the new strategy meaning a more thoughtful approach to what is purchased, focusing on high quality or high value goods as opposed to quantity / popularity of goods/services.
 

Outlook

 

What does this mean for the average brand or business?  Focus on marketing yourselves to provide value to your customers.  Frito Lay is used as an example by John Gerzema in that they found that most of their customers had more money at the beginning of the month as opposed to the end of the month (paycheck cycles), so they staggared their products offering larger bags of chips at the beginning of the month on store endcaps to match their customers' budgets.  Interesting way of thinking about product placement strategy.

Filed under  //  b2c   behavior   consumers  
Posted