Are you trying to find the perfect location to rent for your new business? Or maybe you are trying to target a marketing campaign toward the largest demographic in your area? PPLD has recently acquired a new subscription database called BusinessDecision by CIVICTechnologies to assist you in finding out these facts and more.
Accessible via the Electronic Reference section of the PPLD web site, BusinessDecision provides demographic data from ESRI based on a location that you designate. You may designate a specific address, zip code, or hand draw on a map an area that about which you would like to receive extensive demographic information. Based off of GIS information, as well as Census data and others, BusinessDecision is able to provide detailed data and reports, including the Tapestry Area Profile, which identifies and profiles the top segments of the population for any given area. To learn about the BusinessDecision Tapestry Area Profile, check out the data manual to see what type of information BusinessDecision may be able to provide you about your potential customers.
To read the Colorado Springs Business Journal writeup about BusinessDecision, click here. For more information about BusinessDecision, or any other library business resources, contact the PPLD reference desk at 389-8968.
by Dave Lakhani, Recorded Books, 2007.
Dave Lakhani covers how to gain more effective use of your day by teaching a concept he calls “Fearsome Focus.” Fearsome focus allows you to focus on one specific task at a time for a period of one hour. You can not allow any interruptions during this time period. Lakhani found during his research that many of us spend six to eight hours a day fighting crises or fielding interruptions in our day. If we learn to plan for time to address crises that come up (the average time spent is two hours a day) and learn to stop or slow down the interruptions that try to control our day we can accomplish much more than we do today. By planning an hour a week (or more) and focusing on making the best use of that hour we can slowly make our to-do list go away and find ourselves with many tasks successfully accomplished.
Lakhani addresses how to focus, think creatively, set the stage and identify and destroy the blocks to getting tasks done. We can use this fearsome focus hour to accomplish the wanted task and by changing the way we choose to address our time constraints we can learn to focus on specific tasks and learn how to accomplish more in our day.
Topics covered include management, time management, customer experience, sales and marketing, making connections, mentoring and giving something back. Examples of successful use of the fearsome focus hour are included by Lakhani.
by Barry Liebert and Jon Spector, Wharton School Publishing, 2008.
This book looks at the power of social networking and using it to power your business. The authors look at a method coined as “crowdsourcing.” Crowdsourcing is defined by Jeff Howe of Wired magazine as “The tapping of the latent talent of the online crowd.” It is a process that is being utilized by more and more businesses. This book looks at the companies that have successfully employed this process to develop a network of people who helped them re-define products and services and expand their businesses. It also includes examples that were tried, but did not end up being viable as businesses or products.
Some of the examples include Proctor and Gamble, Amazon and Intuit. Using groups consisting of customers, employees and others with an interest in your products many companies used the power of crowdsourcing to come up with innovative and new products or services. Some examples of ideas that were tried and failed and the reasons behind the failures are also included. If you have ever thought of using the power of crowds to help you develop new ideas or take your business to the next step this book is for you.
The authors thought that they could get the masses to write the book as well and although thousands contributed someone still had to edit the final product. Sections on how you can apply what is being discussed as well as input of quotes and statements from contributors are included where appropriate. If you are looking to “drive innovation, reach new markets, revitalize current markets, resurrect customer loyalty or improve profitability” you need to read this book.
by Joe Vitale, Recorded Books, 2007. Book on CD
During every waking moment we are in a trance of some kind. Whether we are thinking about how to accomplish a project, what’s for lunch or where to purchase that needed item, we are all in a trance while we consider the options available to us. A trance is the mind set that we are exhibiting at a specific point in time. It defines where our attention is focused and what outcomes we think we need.
Buying Trances teaches sales professionals (and the rest of us as well) how to discover the current trance of their customers and how to break into it or match it so you can then get your message in front of them. The best way to approach a person you need to talk to is to acknowledge and/or mirror the trance they are currently in and then to show how our product or idea can benefit them. The trick is to focus on what your product can do for them and not using techniques that focus on us and our needs. The customer doesn’t care whether you make your goals or not, but they are very interested in whether this product is the best fit for their specific needs.
Using a mix of marketing and hypnotic methods we can get people into a buying trance where they eagerly want to purchase the product or service that will address their needs. Using these techniques we can have more follow through from our customers and increase our sales. It becomes a win-win situation for all concerned.
by Jose Cancela, Rayo, 2007.
Jose Cancela is one of the most well respected business experts in the Spanish-speaking world and in this book he addresses the best ways to approach the Hispanic market to grow your business. The Hispanic market now encompasses nearly $1 trillion and covers 43 million Latino consumers. If you choose to advertise strictly in English you will probably hit of a few of these consumers, but if you choose to talk to them in Spanish you will open a whole new market for yourself. Many non-Spanish speakers think that they need to speak the various dialects of Spanish spoken by the many different countries that are represented in the Latino market, but Cancela has discovered that you can use “Walter Cronkite Spanish”. This is a common language between many different Spanish speakers.
To appeal to the Hispanic market you want to focus on family, education and Religion. These three components are very important to the Hispanic market.
There are seven fundamentals that you need to be aware of to be successful in this market:
1. We all use the same dictionary
2. We’re everywhere
3. We love the U.S.A.
4. We vote
5. We have strong family ties
6. We want to be courted in the language we make love in
7. We have real buying power.
Understanding this market will allow you to make the right decisions when you try to develop a marketing campaign aimed at the Hispanic market.
Cancela shares many studies and statistics with us to show the wide varied market that is just waiting to be tapped by the savvy businessperson. Ignoring this every growing market could cause you to be less successful than you have the potential to be.
We are hit by marketing in some form or another all day long. Mark Joyner shares with us how to make sure our product or service is the one to purchase. He feels we have 3 seconds to get across why people should use our product or service. Because we have such a short time to grab the interest of the purchaser we must have a well-defined offer that they can’t refuse or forget.
He covers what makes an irresistible offer and what doesn’t. Some of the best examples come from Dominos “30 minutes or less or it’s free” and Fed Ex “When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.” He helps us to distinquish between the irresistible offer and the offer intensifiers. The offer intensifier is transitory and the irresistible offer is what defines us.
He walks us through the four questions we need to answer to come up with our own offer. They are what it is the irresistible offer, what is not the irresistible offer, elements of the offer and the great formula. Many examples for what it is and what it is not are given along with an analysis of why this example is or is not an irrestible offer. He then helps us to define what we need to convey about our product or service to make it irresistible.
If you want to make an impression and sell more of your product you need to read and implement the guidelines given here.
Marketing is one of the major reasons for the success or failure of a company or industry. Michael Silverstein and John Butman look at consumers from all over the globe and give detailed case studies of consumers from Japan, to Germany and the United States. They include singles and families from every economic background. They analyze why people spend their budgets in specific ways by doing in-depth interviews with typical buyers of various products or product types.
Many consumers, whether poor, middle class or wealthy, trade both up and down in specific categories. The trick is to identify where they are willing to spend more and why. The companies that are losing market or just surviving are all competing for the middle class consumers.
What Michael and John have discovered is that consumers will buy bargains where they can find them in all categories, but will trade up in categories that really matter to them. They purchase from the discount stores and volume buyers for items that are necessities, but that don’t have real meaning for them such as paper goods Treasure Hunt uses examples of companies that have succeeded in both the buy down (bargain markets) and the trade up markets. Some compete at both ends, but most specialize in one or the other. The middle market is shrinking in dollars spent and if your business is currently operating there you need to decide which market you will pursue and how you will appeal to the consumer. Money must be invested for most companies to be able to achieve the new recognition as a provider of the bargain market or the upscale market. Examples of companies profiled include Aldi, BMW, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and many others.
Treasure Hunt is a fascinating read into the world of the consumer and why we all want bargains when we can find them, but also want to purchase items that really address our wants and needs and are willing to pay higher prices if the return on investment is clear.
