The global financial crisis means the economy will flow down. While things look bad there are opportunities out there, just not where you maybe looking. If you sell things that people really don’t need, then this may not be for you.
- While hair dressers might be doing it tough, sellers of hair treatments and dye are doing very well as more people do their hair at home to save money
- While weekend getaway hotels might be doing it tough, flower deliveries are up as people choose cheaper options to treat their loved ones
- While air travel is down, regional hotels are getting the business as people stay closer to home
- People are moving away from media advertising to search marketing due to the ROI and from paid toward more SEO based approaches. Social marketing is big, why do you think?
In every industry there is a flow down economy. Are you tapping into yours?
How is your GFC?
I meet a number of business owners, corporate managers and CEO’s and the first question usually how is business? In other words, we seem to be doing OK, are you guys doing OK? With all the bad news around, we are not sure if things are good or bad. On average I would sum up responses and the feeling toward the economy as such:
- So far we seem to be tracking OK, given the bad economic news
- We are not rushing out to hire and have not replaced certain people
- Revenues are in a range of 10% up to 10% down on prior year
Keep in mind these companies are generally still profitable and thus engaging my services or about to. I accept sometimes people are frugal with the truth. So if you are reading this and doing it tough I accept there are real issues out there in certain industries. If you look at the Classifind job index, that also tells part of the story.
Consider your business model?
1. Marketing & sales
- Have you reconsidered who your customer is, your customer profile?
- Have you considered whether your customer needs have changed? They may still be buying but for different reasons.
- Have you considered new customer markets on a needs basis, and how to reach these people?
- Are you still paying to market to the wrong target customers?
- Where is the current spend and are you tapping into it?
2. Customer service
- Where is your customer service dollar being spent, still on the upper end? Are you servicing customers who are no longer buying? Read more…
Competition minister Craig Emerson it appears has decided that competition is not such a great thing and out an end to the new Choice Grocery website, which was due to go live next week. Read the full article on News and The Australian, or maybe there is more to it and we the citizens are not considered sophisticated enough to understand why anything that will help manage duopolies and potentially keep prices down should be a good thing.
This was a well funded website, with good resources involved. The first effort is reported to have cost around $6m before being canned and the Choice Grocery, to date reported at $7m of the $13m. With 1 week to go before the site goes live, why would you cancel such project? The only possible reasons maybe:
- The supermarket lobbyists are a lot more convincing than we might think
- The supermarkets can bring a lot more pressure to Government that we might think
- Some powerful people out there really do not want any sort of spot light brought onto grocery prices
- The site was really really bad, $7m how bad can it be?
According to Livenews, they just come out and say it. Pressure from the big supermarkets is believed to have caused the Government to abandon their election promises and admit the site is not feasible. Seven million dollars later…
Choice was not told direct and Mr Emerson communicated the news after meeting with Grocery retailers. Hang on a second. if this is correct, he decided this was not feasible with the very people it is meant to manage and potentially cause to reduce their prices and profits. So the players decided the aims of the site which is being developed by an independent part, being the trusted consumer brand Choice, were not feasible. There just has to be something wrong with that picture, I cannot put my finger on it right now though.
Read more…
Times are going to get tough, I think. Im probably not qualified to understand exactly how asset based leveraged derivatives have impacted on the debt market and the resulting impact on liquidity in the lending market, but, I think its safe to assume people will put the brakes on spending a little.
Just today, Harvey Norman said today they would cut advertising spend by 20% and McDonalds has consolidated their accounts which puts $15m of projects in question. (Source: Media Monitors)
3 things you need to do for the slowdown:
1. Paid Search:
If you are running your campaign based on a cost per customer acquisition or cost per conversion, why wouldnt you continue. Customers looking for your product or service, you pay for the lead and make a margin on that customer. Simple mathematics.
Where this falls down : If less people are buying, your cost per conversion will increase, potentially forcing you to reduce spend or the volume of conversions.
What you should do : Ensure your campaigns are focussed, move away from branding tactics and focus only on conversion keywords. Manage and monitor accounts closely, set clear monthly budgets.
Read more…
How is your GFC?