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Marketing Strategy for a Tough Economy

The business of marketing — meeting needs profitably — means recognizing and responding to customer priorities while controlling your own expenses. More so than ever, it is about giving people what they want when and how they want it. Today’s empowered consumers want to be in charge — asked, not told. Give them what they want and you’ll be rewarded.

Nice concept, right? One problem: in a changing economy, your customers’ priorities and needs change as well. They are juggling budgets or otherwise re-planning to compensate for the tight economy and their needs are changing at each unexpected economic curveball. How can you understand what they will need when they themselves aren’t sure? One approach is to first get “ahead of the curve” by predicting the changes in your customers’ priorities, then go forward based on customer input.

Predicting Changes in Customer Priorities

Admittedly, predictions can be wildly inaccurate, but companies that come out on top are those who proactively understanding evolving customer needs. So, how does one approach predicting change? By logically thinking through the ramifications of — in this case — a weakening economy.

As budgets get squeezed, individuals and businesses will cut back on luxuries. But basic needs must be met. Plus, some will substitute smaller-scale, less expensive luxuries. What does this mean? Some products and services will actually thrive and grow in a tight economy. Understanding what opportunities this presents to you involves knowing your customers and their needs; logically working through their dilemma of reduce spending and lower budgets; and accurately hypothesizing which substitutes will attract more dollars. At the end of that process you will have a list of potential marketing responses to the weak economy.

An Example of Customer Change

Say you specialize in health & beauty items and your best customers are spas. The spas’ best customers — your consumers — are middle class women with enough disposable income to spend on regular manicures, pedicures, skin treatments, and the like. Your logic may flow like this:

What happens when people must put more money each week toward gas or higher food prices and disposable income drops? Spending drops, most significantly on luxuries. This means fewer trips to the spa. The spas will see a decrease in services, which means fewer orders for me (uh oh). But, my consumers will still be caring for their nails and skin in some way. Maybelline from Walgreens is a viable option, but human nature being what it is, this will probably not be a desirable early option. What substitutes will those consumers turn to for nail and skin care?

At this point you’ve uncovered an opportunity stemming from higher gas or food prices: the need to feel pampered at a lower cost. You can brainstorm ways to fill that need — work with the spas to provide a reduced service, come out with a line of spa-quality retail packs customers can purchase at the spas, etc. — but getting the consumers and customers involved is the only way to really know what will work.

Customer Research and Development

The traditional way to get customers and consumers involved is through qualitative and quantitative research. Customers today, however, like to be in more direct control of the product or service they receive. This is spurring a new approach to development and research. Most notably, entrepreneur Ben Kaufman has fully embraced this approach with the recently launched Kluster, a collaborative platform that brings consumers together for the entire product development process, to the point that customers actually develop the products. (I am in no way connected to the project, by the way.) The company tag line, “Stop telling people what’s new and start asking them what’s next,” encompasses what today’s consumer is all about.

If you continually take this approach — understanding consumers’ changing needs and getting them involved in the process of adequately fulfilling those needs — then you will never be at a loss for growth opportunities.

Bobette Kyle draws upon nearly 20 years of Marketing/Executive experience, online marketing experience, and a marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing. She has been publishing the marketing plan and Website promotion site WebsiteMarketingPlan.com since 2001. You can find more of her marketing and business strategy articles at: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/techniques

Marketing Strategy for a Tough Economy / Author: Bobette Kyle

Bobette Kyle draws upon 15+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, online marketing experience, and marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing. Bobette is proprietor at Web Marketing Place LLC and runs WebSiteMarketingPlan.com — http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com — where you’ll find free marketing planning articles and resources. She is also author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book “How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business.”
http://www.websitemarketingplan.com

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Nissan Car Dealer - How to Choose the Right One For Me?

In buying a car whether new or used, one of the most important keys to enjoying your experience is the kind of car dealer you are doing business with. Nissan car dealers can be found in every state in the United States and all over the world. The car dealers can either help you choose a car that will be to your taste or something that you will enjoy using for the best rate you can get. You see, whether you like it or not, the car dealer will either make you think you got the best car for the amount of money you have, or he will make you feel so bad about buying the car. Anyhow, how do you locate Nissan car dealers in your vicinity?

Thankfully, the internet is a wonderful tool and can help you locate any car dealer you want with lightning speed. All you have to do is type in the necessary keywords like “Nissan car makers”, “Nissan car dealers”. If that is not specific enough, include the state where you want to buy the car in the set of keywords. For instance, you can type in “Nissan Car dealers in Novato, California”. This will make your searches a lot more specific and tailored to the required needs that you have. With this, you can easily locate any Nissan car dealer in the nearest vicinity. As soon as you locate the website, most of them have heir contact numbers and email addresses on the website. My recommendation is take your time to interact with them. There is no need to rush into buying a car. An effective car dealer will have a toll free number. If you find you are being billed, then you want to try out other options. In fact, some of them have skype now. So, with a headset that comes fitted with a mouth piece, you can easily call them and have them talk to you about their options.

Please note that if you have absolutely no idea about the car and its intricacies, take some time to do a quick research. Go to car message boards and ask questions. More often than not, you will find that there are lots of people willing to help you out of your problems and challenges. These guys will offer you high quality advice and just spending a few hours on the forum reading other people’s posts and just generally participating in the discussions will definitely increase your knowledge of the kids of car dealers you should deal with.

The bottom line is watch out for salesy car dealers. Good car dealers are supposed to help you make a great buying decision. If all they sound like they want to do is take your money, run like hell and forget dealing with them.

When you want to buy the best used cars in San Diego and auto parts in San Diego or you need fastauto financing in San Diego, visit us at PacificNissan.com!

Nissan Car Dealer - How to Choose the Right One For Me? / Author: Jay Sanders

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Breaking the OPEC Chains

Worldwide demand for petroleum is increasing. Crude oil prices have topped $135 per barrel. Oil prices have been on a steady climb for a long time. Dwindling OPEC oil reserves and a weak dollar are driving petroleum prices to new heights.

The US government has made no serious efforts to develop effective countermeasures. Instead, energy conservation, ethanol production from corn, and a failing “Cap and Trade” permit system are hyped by politicians.

Exploding grain prices have exposed the ethanol hoax and made poor people across the world scramble for food. Coal and oil sands are used to produce petroleum substitutes and increase greenhouse gas emissions. The “Cap and Trade” concept was tried in Europe. The concept is deeply flawed. It does not provide lasting relief. It merely delays the day of reckoning for a few years.

Electricity and liquid transportation fuels are the lifeblood of our economies. Economic growth is impossible without plentiful, affordable, and secure energy supplies. Economies will collapse when supplies of petroleum begin to shrink, when global warming keeps causing damages, and when energy prices continue skyrocketing. Will our grandkids witness such disasters?

We are facing a problem that is too large to be solved by industrial entities. The financial risks of introducing new technologies are too large. Government agencies and industry cooperatives must find technical solutions to our problems, must install a few of any new energy producing installations, and must make the advanced technologies economically competitive.

Are there any solutions that can be developed before petroleum is depleted and before global warming exceeds the 3 to 4 degree Celsius global warming threshold?

The world community must solve these two threatening disasters very quickly. Petroleum reserves will last only a few more decades considering the accelerating, worldwide demand. Greenhouse gases from coal and petroleum combustion will continue to accumulate in our air at ever faster rates and will accelerate global warming and ice melting. Any of these disasters may strike within less than five decades.

Increased use of nuclear power can generate large amounts of electricity and can replace the use of coal. Increased use of solar power, hydropower, wind power, marine power, and geothermal heat can provide additional electricity.

Surprisingly, only one single concept seems to have the potential to produce sufficient amounts of liquid transportation fuels. This concept is the conversion of biomass into liquid petroleum substitutes.

The concept of biomass conversion has just suffered a major public relations debacle. The ill conceived process of converting corn by fermentation into ethanol has led to a temporary tripling of US corn prices. This huge increase caused the destabilization of worldwide food prices. This effect was entirely predictable. Nevertheless, this concept was considered worthy to receive large governmental subsidies.

Biomass conversion into fuel is our one and only option. We must learn how to convert sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and fertilizer into biomass. Food crops are not suited for conversion. Food crops have been selected, domesticated, and bred to provide tasty and nutritious foods. Energy crops must be selected based on entirely different properties. Energy crops must have very high energy content, must provide very high crop yields, and must grow very fast. This means that we must find and further breed plants with very high energy yields; i.e. plants with the highest values of energy per acre per year.

When designing biomass plantations, we must address several specifications. We need plenty of sunshine and we must protect against the misappropriation and abuse of fertile lands and of forests. By locating biomass plantations on arid lands and by combining biomass growing and biomass conversion into a single facility, we can avoid abuse of agricultural lands.

Biomass production must be designed to be highly automated and mechanized to lower costs. Additionally, biomass is best converted into petroleum substitutes within hours. Such quick conversion requires on-site processing. Harvested biomass cannot be stored for long times. Liquefied petroleum substitutes can be stored in tanks and can be transported by pipeline.

Obviously, such radical plantation concept, which ideally uses hydroponic techniques and is not dependent on soil quality, will need development. New biomass types must be identified. The performance of high energy yield plants must be optimized. The engineering of hydroponic plantations located on arid lands or in deserts must be completed, pilot plants must be built and tested, and fast conversion processes for converting carbohydrates into hydrocarbons must be found and developed to maturity.

One question remains; does our Earth have large enough areas of arid land which are ideally located closely to coasts and seawater?

In 2004 the world consumed roughly 30 billion barrels of petroleum. This figure translates into an energy consumption of 173 exajoules per year. We know the energy yields of a few food plants. We can extrapolate those energy yields and arrive at a probable energy yield of newly bred plants of 10,000 gigajoules per hectare per year. When we divide energy consumption by energy yield we arrive at a figure of 17.3 million hectare or 42.6 million acres. This area is equal in size to the state of Florida. This small area can support biomass growth to supply the entire world with transportation fuels! Very large areas are readily available to support the growth of biomass. The Earth has many arid areas and huge deserts.

US government must lead the world in this endeavor and must establish an agency with a single mission: Develop the technologies to produce plentiful, affordable, and secure liquid transportation fuels for the next few centuries.

Dr. Hemsath recently published the book: CLIMATE CHANGE-GOLD RUSH OR DISASTER? For 50 years he has worked as scientist, process engineer, Director of R&D, Corporate Vice President of R&D, Company President, CEO, and Inventor. He holds more than 60 US Patents. He is working on a new book: “THE 100 % SOLUTION FOR ENDING GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE”. See his website: Stopping Global Warming and Climate Change” at http://www.thermalexpert.com

Breaking the OPEC Chains / Author: drklaus

Occupation: Energy expert and Author
Dr. Hemsath recently published the book CLIMATE CHANGE – GOLD RUSH OR DISASTER? For 50 years he has worked as scientist, process engineer, Director of R&D, Corporate Vice President of R&D, Company President, Chief Executive Officer, and Inventor. He holds more than 60 US Patents.
http://thermalexpert.com

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Exactly What Are Reverse Annuity Mortgages?

Mortgages come in many varieties and can be quite confusing. Reverse annuity mortgages have a confusing name but can be very helpful for seniors. A reverse annuity mortgage is one form of reverse mortgages in general. Reverse mortgages were created for seniors and you must be at least 62 years of age at time of application.

A reverse mortgage is a variation of a home equity loan. Normal home equity loans require payments made monthly towards the balance of the loan taken out. If the payments are not made, then the home is subject to foreclosure. For this reason, it can be very dangerous for seniors to take out normal home equity loans. Fixed incomes might not keep up with increasing home equity interest rates.

With a reverse mortgage there are no payments due on the loan balance until one of three things happen. The first is if the house is sold. If sold, the reverse mortgage balance must be paid off first with the home sale proceeds. The second event would be if the borrower no longer occupied the home. An example would be going into a retirement home. The final instance is the death of the borrower.

There are two different ways that money can be received from a reverse mortgage. The first is a lump sum. This means the entire amount of the loan is given to the borrower at closing. The other type is a reverse mortgage with an annuity. This means that instead of a lump sum the borrower receives a stream of payments every month until one of the above 3 events happen.

The amount that can be borrowed is related to various criteria. More money can be taken out the older the borrower is. Also, the more the appraisal is for the property translates to more able to be borrowed using a reverse mortgage. There are other variables that relate to the locality in which you live. Resources are available which can help you figure out the amount you can secure with a reverse mortgage.

One excellent source of information is actually mandatory. It is required that all borrowers with reverse mortgages attend a free education class approved by HUD. This is ensure seniors to not get taken advantage of by bad lenders. These classes are an excellent source of information and are a good benefit to seniors. An educated borrower can often save money.

The decision on whether to take a lump sum or an annuity relates to several factors. Your age and your income needs are primary criteria. Oftentimes, the advice of a certified financial professional becomes very useful when making this decision. Each person’s situation is unique and there is no one size fits all answer. Your situation must be analyzed individually.

Reverse annuity mortgages can provide seniors with a monthly check without fear of losing their home. They often are a better choice than a typical home equity loan. As with any major financial endeavor, information is essential. Make sure you understand all the terms before signing on the bottom line.

If you would like more on reverse annuity mortgages, check out http://www.MortgageLoans-101.com where you’ll find this and much more, from FHA mortgage loans to interest only home loans.

Exactly What Are Reverse Annuity Mortgages? / Author: ahefner33

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How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work For Seniors?

Many seniors wonder how does a reverse mortgage work. As its name implies, a reverse mortgage is opposite of a typical one. In a regular mortgage, the borrower secures a loan and makes monthly payments toward it. In a reverse mortgage the lender gives either a lump sum or a stream of monthly payments to someone who already owns a home.

Reverse mortgages have several requirements and stipulations. The first and most important being that one must be at least 62 years of age to qualify. These loans are specifically meant for seniors. The goal of a reverse mortgage is to allow a senior to cash out equity in their home without subjecting them to a risk of future foreclosure or having a loan payment to make.

Most home equity loans require monthly payments. When you take out a second mortgage, that loan requires payment. However, a reverse mortgage requires no payment so long as the borrower continues to occupy the home. Payment of the reverse mortgage is only triggered by one of three occurrences. This first of these is if the borrower dies.

The second is if the home sells. The third trigger for repayment is if the borrower no longer occupies the home for other reasons. One common reason is transition to long term care. Other than these reasons there is no payment required towards the balance of the reverse mortgage. This means that there is no possibility of default hence foreclosure.

Reverse mortgages require that any existing first or second mortgages against the property be repaid. This often occurs at closing with the first portion of the reverse mortgage being used for this purpose. The remaining amount available is then disbursed to the borrower. This can be done in one of two ways. The borrower on a reverse mortgage can elect to take this amount in a lump sum.

Alternatively, the borrower can elect to take the proceeds in monthly payments. These payments arrive every month and are very much like an annuity. The amount available with a reverse mortgage is driven by several factors. The first factor is the age of the borrower. The older the borrower means the more that can be accessed via a reverse mortgage.

Another important factor in determining the amount available is the appraised value of the home. The higher the value then obviously the more that can be borrowed against it. If you elect monthly payments, then the total amount received is higher than that in a lump sum payment. Other local factors influence the amount which can be borrowed and vary by county.

There are many good free resources online to explain how does a reverse mortgage work. These loans can be excellent for seniors. However, it is important they avoid unscrupulous lenders. HUD requires a free educational session for seniors prior to signing for one of these loans. This education is important and should be heeded.

Most haven’t even heard of them and often lead to thinking “how does a reverse mortgage work“? To find out more, check out http://www.MortgageLoans-101.com where you’ll find this and other mortgage loan information you might never heard of.

How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work For Seniors? / Author: ahefner33

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