Can a company survive on inbound marketing? It would obviously depend on the company's business model and the market they are competing in. However, it is safe to say that inbound marketing has taken over as the preferred means of relaying advertisements.
As compared to TV, radio, and print advertising. Blogs, forums, pod casts, and social media are considerably less expensive. As consumer's in a fast pace environment, we are saturated with media advertising and we only give 3-5 seconds of interpretation to a traditional advertisement before discarding it. Inbound marketing has the advantage of receiving potential clients searching for the best product and price from the start. It is up to the quality of the web site and the product/service to engage the costumer into action. The successes of Amazon and eBay tie into this, products do not generally sit around on a store shelf, costomers are actively engaging the seller for the product without any significant advertising. Active costomers are likely to buy a particular product, the issues is how does a company sell their product/service by these resources to their preferred target audience?
The cost of the product or service will determine how much effort must be taken to engage a costomer. Costomers will compair competing/ similar products more rigorously. Providing adequate resources whether it be video, studies, discussion forums, or trials can do this well.
I'm not saying outbound marketing is not without its place, just saying I can't afford a 5 million dollar Super Bowl ad!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Why Big Companies Can't Innovate Big Time!!!
Sorry for my absence from these blog updates, I've been swamped at work and in my Numerical Methods class.
Firstly, when anyone in the United States thinks of Gerber products, the image of that blue and white baby face label immediately comes to mind.
So Gerber has some very real challenges branching out with a new product when they are so strongly branded across the cultural landscape. The idea was sound and the market opportunity is there, however the administrative and bureaucracy which tends to define the architecture of a large company will alter a good idea until it is perverted into an impotent liability.
What a large company can do to avoid these issues is to search for a potential solution by seeking a small start up that has a lot of the initial work done on that product segment and offer a partnership where the larger company can bring the venture capital, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing to develop a potentially successful off-shoot.
Firstly, when anyone in the United States thinks of Gerber products, the image of that blue and white baby face label immediately comes to mind.So Gerber has some very real challenges branching out with a new product when they are so strongly branded across the cultural landscape. The idea was sound and the market opportunity is there, however the administrative and bureaucracy which tends to define the architecture of a large company will alter a good idea until it is perverted into an impotent liability.
What a large company can do to avoid these issues is to search for a potential solution by seeking a small start up that has a lot of the initial work done on that product segment and offer a partnership where the larger company can bring the venture capital, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing to develop a potentially successful off-shoot.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Photovoltaic Thermal System- Pain/Gain
The demand for electricity grows as well as the pressure to keep electricity prices competitive. However, the energy infrastructure is tapped out in several parts of the United States, namely California. Additionally, recent regulations fro the EPA regarding allowable emission by fossil fuel power stations are prohibitive of investment in more power plants as well as zoning for new projects. Additionally, power losses are substantial for as distances increase from the source. Our contention is local sources of energy are the most efficient means of addressing future energy requirements, particularly for commercial and residential applications.
The proposed innovation is an evolutionary step that addresses the main problem conventional photovoltaic technology; heat. A problem inhibiting the efficiency of solar panel sun-energy conversion rate is overheating. Systems have been introduced to the industry which attempt to lower the surface temperature of panels by spraying water on their surfaces, which cools the panels by convection heat transfer with turbulent air flow. We will market a Photovoltaic panel the has an integrated heat exchanger whereby the waste heat from the panel is used to supplement the home heating applications while keeping the panel cool for more efficient operation. Similar systems being used today saw efficiency increases from 17%-22% to as much as 30%.
The average residential monthly use is approximately 920 KWh in the United States, though it varies by state and month. By assuming a modest average of 3.0 of solar energy production for each collector, and an approximate solar collector surface area of 2.5 mit can be figured that two solar thermal collectors would be enough to provide approximately half of the average United States family’s energy needs per month. This corresponds to an approximate monthly savings of $65.80 (a U.S. average of 10.4 cents per kWh), but since most energy providers enforce a price per KWh increase for any usage over 1,000 kWh, these savings can be even more prominent. If, for example, a family paid $4,000 ‘out of pocket’ for installation of this particular solar thermal system, it would pay for itself after five years. In most cases, these Solar Thermal Energy systems have life spans of around 20-25 years, making the investment worthwhile.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Toyota 3A report
Any work environment has the potential to yield process issues and bottle necks that will compound and reduce productivity. To address process issues, Toyota has developed the 3A report, a simple and elegant storyboard that depicts the following seven actions in sequential order: process environment, current issues, desired outcomes, analysis, actions, plan, and benchmarks for determining success.
My interpretation of the 3A report is that they are tailored to addressing process issues in a simple sale pitch fashion. The fashion at which that information is conveyed will be unique to the target audience. A 3A report attempting to resolve an engineering or technical issue to an engineer or manager will less simplistic by assuming a particular experience level and thus convey a greater details in the problem description and solutions. An Assembly or laborer would require simplistic details and information to be effective, hopefully the problem that is expected to be resolved by them is equally simplistic.
Regardless of the target audience, a quick presentation is ideal because time is a premium at work and if that attention of the reader is not attained within the first 5 seconds, likely they would discard the message and nothing would be accomplished. 3A reports implement story board illustrations and process frustrations, these key features draw a reader to key points and flow sequentially to that conclusions where the readers responsibilities will stem from. The critical thinking and contemplation is relatively minimal since the writer has already fed the analysis through the story.
Lastly, the desired action and analysis MUST be accurate and correct in addressing the particular problem. Otherwise, fault finding and reduced credibility in 3A report will hinder effectiveness future reports produced.
My interpretation of the 3A report is that they are tailored to addressing process issues in a simple sale pitch fashion. The fashion at which that information is conveyed will be unique to the target audience. A 3A report attempting to resolve an engineering or technical issue to an engineer or manager will less simplistic by assuming a particular experience level and thus convey a greater details in the problem description and solutions. An Assembly or laborer would require simplistic details and information to be effective, hopefully the problem that is expected to be resolved by them is equally simplistic.
Regardless of the target audience, a quick presentation is ideal because time is a premium at work and if that attention of the reader is not attained within the first 5 seconds, likely they would discard the message and nothing would be accomplished. 3A reports implement story board illustrations and process frustrations, these key features draw a reader to key points and flow sequentially to that conclusions where the readers responsibilities will stem from. The critical thinking and contemplation is relatively minimal since the writer has already fed the analysis through the story.
Lastly, the desired action and analysis MUST be accurate and correct in addressing the particular problem. Otherwise, fault finding and reduced credibility in 3A report will hinder effectiveness future reports produced.
Friday, September 14, 2012
7 Sources of Innovation
Innovations are sprouted from several sources of inspiration and the process by-which they evolve from a faint thought to an implemented action is quite diverse. Peter Drucker attempts to characterize the sources of innovation: The Unexpected, Incongruities, Process Needs, Industry and market structure, Demographics, Changes in Perception, New knowledge. I find that many innovators throughout history have a unique insight to a respective area of specialization and they are able to identify opportunities and develop them with significant vigor. I will cease the opportunity to broadcast what comes to my mind for each of Drucker's 7 sources of innovation.
Unexppected: Margarine was originally an experimental form of axil grease,
yuck!
Incongruities: Subways, fast food does not always need to come from a deep frier.
Process needs:
Where there is a store shelf at a Walmart or an Apple store for that matter; best believe there is a factory worker at Foxconn working a 90 hr work week committed to filling it.
Industry and market structure: The coffee market that was once dominated by Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks: McDonald's with the real-estate decided to created the McCafe to steal market share from the former coffee giants along with adding WiFi in every store. Unlike Starbucks, there is no outlets at McDonlds for costumer to use, I guess parking your computer for awhile will hinder McD's throughput.
Demographics:
Fazollies: the best Italian food chain that ever existed is huge hit in the United States and exists in most major cites and unlimited bread sticks. However, you will not find one in the North East, maybe they don't want to upset the mob?
http://fazolis.com/
Change in perception: Toyota's are awesome reliable cars with great fuel economy. However, kids don't want to drive their mom's beater Camry when they are picking up a girl he met at the skate park. Toyota, creates the Scion, re-branding at it's finest, and sales surge.
New knowledge:
"good artist create great artist steal..."
-Lianado Davinci, - Steve Jobs "Pirates of Silicon Valley"
(humor intended)
Unexppected: Margarine was originally an experimental form of axil grease,
yuck!
Incongruities: Subways, fast food does not always need to come from a deep frier.
Process needs:
Where there is a store shelf at a Walmart or an Apple store for that matter; best believe there is a factory worker at Foxconn working a 90 hr work week committed to filling it.
Industry and market structure: The coffee market that was once dominated by Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks: McDonald's with the real-estate decided to created the McCafe to steal market share from the former coffee giants along with adding WiFi in every store. Unlike Starbucks, there is no outlets at McDonlds for costumer to use, I guess parking your computer for awhile will hinder McD's throughput.
Demographics:
Fazollies: the best Italian food chain that ever existed is huge hit in the United States and exists in most major cites and unlimited bread sticks. However, you will not find one in the North East, maybe they don't want to upset the mob?
http://fazolis.com/
Change in perception: Toyota's are awesome reliable cars with great fuel economy. However, kids don't want to drive their mom's beater Camry when they are picking up a girl he met at the skate park. Toyota, creates the Scion, re-branding at it's finest, and sales surge.
New knowledge:
"good artist create great artist steal..."
-Lianado Davinci, - Steve Jobs "Pirates of Silicon Valley"
(humor intended)
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Google SWOT,
Google is highly dependent on its search based advertising. Many searched items are queried at an accuracy of 50% and failed to reach full advertising potential, You-tube for example. Google has also failed to make a presence in social networking.
Strengths
Google has established a brand name for itself and is considered to be the number one search engine on the web. Simple search engine allows any one of any level of computer proficincy to access information, in over 80 languages. A sophisticated page rank- technology elevates relevant web-pages in the search by content and volume. The financial: Google has a multi-billion dollars in cash on hand and a 185 billion dollar market cap (2009). Google benefits from having a highly recognizable brand and and relatively low operating cost for a company of it's size. Google has also expanded its service in many diverse applications: email, shopping, mobile products.Weaknesses
Google is highly dependent on its search based advertising. Many searched items are queried at an accuracy of 50% and failed to reach full advertising potential, You-tube for example. Google has also failed to make a presence in social networking.
Opportunities
Has many opportunities with the emerging market by assimilating new content into its content. Still has great potential for localized marketing for geographic locations. Better integration with Smart-phone and mobile device markets.Threats.
Complex and large information network is hard to adjust and adapt to changing demands and technology. Highly dependent on network of pages and users. Adapting to regulations at various nations and ensuring inter-interoperability of services is a daunting. User privacy of googles services is threatened at times by hackers and governments.Monday, August 27, 2012
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