Marketing Analysis Starts With A Question
What is "marketing"? To us marketing is the processes involved in getting your goods and/or services into the hands of those who need or want your goods and/or services. From analysis, to design, to technical solutions, to promotion, to further analysis, to fine tuning, to it never ends...
1 Squared's square one is a marketing analysis. Everything flows from here—period. This is the place where too many drop the ball. And if you're going turn the ball over, square one is the worse place to do it. You pollute the lake and all the down stream rivers and tributaries are going to be tainted. Makes sense doesn't it?
Now there is no great secret to our analysis—we ask a lot of questions. Things like but not exclusive to the following:
- What is the dynamic of your products and/or services?
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What's the demographic of that audience?
- What differentiates that product or your business?
- What is the goal of your website site?
- To initiate a direct online purchase?
- To establish a direct contact?
- To educate?
- To serve existing clientele?
- All or some of the above?
- What are the regional implications?
- Who is the competition?
- How are the successful ones doing it?
Ok you're a dealer of both used and new fine high end boutique acoustic guitars. The mean price of your instrument is $5,000... i.e., it's for the discerning few. Middle aged men of means represent 90% of your audience. These guys are mostly hobbyist and the ritual (talking, researching, playing, reminiscing) is a big part of the sales equation…buying a $5,000 guitar can and should be more than just the purchase... it should be fun. What differentiates your business is you. Your expertise, understanding, patience, intuitiveness and gregarious nature enhance the ritual experience for your customers. But your differentiator is a useless attribute unless you can initiate direct contact by phone, e-mail, fax or contact form. No one buys a $5,000 acoustic guitar cold from an e-commerce program—hence the goal of the site for the most part is to get prospective customers to initiate contact. Ideally you would like to see them drive to the shop but the exclusive and sometimes rare nature of the product means you have a viable worldwide audience. The successful competition have graphically appealing representative (classy) sites with exceptional professional photography and deep content buckets of information on each available instrument…the editorial is written in a warm, witty, almost conversational tone...
Where to from here? Check out Web Design.