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October 8, 2009

How Microbrewers are taking on the Larger Breweries

Recently Brick Brewing of Waterloo, Ont., one of Canada's larger independent micro brewers, announced it had been sued by Anheuser-Busch and Labatt Brewing over Brick's new Red Baron Lime product.

Do you know why they were sued ?   They were sued for "Copycat marketing" according to Labatt's Vice-president of public affairs, Charlie Angelakos. Apparently their packaging and marketing for the Lime beer was too similar to Bud Light Lime. It's the second such suit Labatt has filed against Brick this year.

According to Brick's president and CEO, George Croft, he insists that Labatt's claims are without merit, that the suit is "a standard tactic used by large breweries worldwide to eradicate all competition" and that in the face of such powerful competition, "craft brewers are in the fight of their lives".

So what are the Microbrewers core strategy?

Even though the lawsuits like the one from Anheuser-Busch and Labatt are costly and distracting, they also play right into the core strategy of positioning themselves as plucky underdogs fighting multinationals for the right to offer beeer to consumers that is either better, cheaper or just plain different from mass market brews.

Is this working?

Ontario's craft brewery sales have grown 30% per year in provincially owned LCBO liguor stores over the past five years, and revenue via the mailn retail channel, the Beer Store, has increased too.

What are the other strategies Microbrewers employ?

Craft brewers are expanding their market share by riding the organic food and "buy local" trends. Provincial and federal subsidies help cushion the microbrewer's bottom lines as well.

 

 

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Filed under  //   Davids   marketing  
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October 2, 2009

What Men's retailers and Startups can learn from Strip Clubs

Susan Mohammad from Canadian Business recently pointed out something. Retailers are not paying enough attention to Men. A lot of men share an aversion to malls, but retail experts say the way men shop is changing. Yes, they don't care much for the shopping process itself, but they care more and more about looking good. The market for men's outerwear alone is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2013. an increase of $400 million in a decade.

The main problem, according to Bertrand Pellegrin, a retail consultant, is that most men's stores are just modified versions of a space that was really designed for women, rather than a space that men truly feel comfortable in. With the disappearance of classic "male" environments like gentlemen's clubs and the home den, Pellegrin says guys need a place where they truly feel masculine. So he turned to three classic environments - the sports bar, the electronic store and, a bit bizarrely, the strip club- for inspiration.

Here are his lessons for retail businesses which can also apply to Startups :

Sports Bar - "Hanging out" - Men like hanging out, so create environments for them to hang out in your store or on your website. A group chat environment or a group twitter environment like Hashwork.

Electronics Store - "Interactivity" - Men like interactivity with the product itself. Make it very easy for them to try the product out quickly. You see guys exploring a new product, trying to explain it his girlfriend or his coworkers quite often. So let them explore because that is a very masculine thing to do. The key is to also put in the right hooks to other social media so that the explanation gets across.

Strip Clubs - "Remind them of their masculinity" -  Strip clubs remind men that they are masculine. Men struggle with wondering whether people see them as masculine enough in both personal and business relationships. "Guys really respond to a person who acts like their buddy" according to Bertrand. He adds "A hot but approachable female doesn't hurt either". 

So what can Startups learn from this - 
  1. Don't let them know about all the benefits of a product, let them infer the easy ones out themselves. That is a masculine thing to do. 
  2. Give them a "badge of proficiency" if they know how to use your product really well and has engaged in forums for your product. 
  3. Let a hot voice demo out your product. Let them sit back and enjoy some cool features in your demo.

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Filed under  //   marketing  
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October 1, 2009

Networked at SOHO Toronto

SOHO canada is a dynamic conference for small, medium sized businesses and Entrepreuners in Toronto, Canada. The high quality presenters at this event had quality tips for the audience. 

Some of the most notable speakers at the event were -  Rick Spence, Erin Bury (Sprouter) , Shane Lawrence , Roger Pierce (BizLaunch) and Vanessa Wynn-Williams (Yahoo).

Some of the most notable entrepreuners at the event were Donna Marie Antoniadis and Rusul Verjee.

 

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Filed under  //   marketing   networking  
Posted by Anup Surendran 

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September 25, 2009

Why FREE works
via xkcd.com

FREE has immediate marketing leverage

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September 21, 2009

How to get new customers - AUTOMATICally

Here is the AUTOMATIC way to get new customers.

Attention - Grabbing your prospects attention is the hardest. They are already so distracted. There are many ways to do it - Shout out!, Give something for free, Help them when they need your help, Give something unique, Give away tips, ideas or a test drive.

Utility Factor - The prospect has to find your product / service to be useful. If you can prove that your product is more useful at the same price point your competitors offer than your competitors you already have won most of the battle.

Trust - You want your prospects to trust you, so make sure they see and read great comments from your satisfied clients. Place testimonials  throughout your marketing so your prospects can’t miss them.

Observe - Observe what they do, where they shop, what they don't like, what they will pay for, what they will not pay for, what they hate.

Motivation to act - Give your prospects a compelling reason to read or hear your message, to contact you, and to buy from you today. If it's possible to put off a decision, most people will. Include something in your marketing that will motivate your prospects to act right away, whether it's an offer too good to refuse, or a time limit on an offer or both.

Amuse - Life is too short to be serious. Enjoy doing business and let your existing customers enjoy doing business with you. Do something funny. Your customers will convert your prospects for you.

Time - Your prospects time is important. Your time is important. Don't waste a prospects time by selling something they don't need. Understand their needs intimately before you pitch.

Interest - Before your prospects get distracted by another site, or another task, grab their interest by making them curious about how much better off they'll be with your product or service by addressing their concerns with your solutions.

Commitment - Help your prospects make a commitment by using everything above to try using your product or your service and then hook them on your outstanding customer service.

Let us know how if you have used the AUTOMATIC way before to get new customers.

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Filed under  //   business   competition   customers   marketing  
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September 19, 2009

2- How do you make your new brand popular ?

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Filed under  //   branding   marketing   Photos  
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September 19, 2009

How do you make your new brand popular?


Try associating it with something which people like - Vodka!

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Filed under  //   branding   marketing   Photos  
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September 19, 2009

KISS - Keep it Super Simple

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Filed under  //   business   marketing   ui  
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September 19, 2009

Updated : Top Posts | ReviewScale

Check out this website I found at reviewscale.com

New marketing content

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Filed under  //   marketing  
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September 16, 2009

How to email pitch your blog

I am not a salesman and I am a little wary of salespeople. However good salespeople do one thing really well, they sell!

When ReviewScale launched, I got a lot of email pitches from SEO consultants, the roguecfo and from development shops in India and Vietnam.

I got in touch with some of them - the SEO guys and figured out what they were offering and I actually worked with one of them for 6 months.

However, all things said, it is time to use an email pitch to promote http://Paper.io. 


First of all let us see what the anatomy of an email pitch looks like.

The main sections of an email pitch are 
  1. {Catchy subject line}
  2. {Addressing the recipient}
  3. {Introducing yourself and connecting immediately}
  4. {What it is you are offering - Main Vision and Sub Visions}
  5. {What is in their for your recipient}
  6. {Your Credibility indicators}
  7. {Brief story line and differentiators from your competitors}
  8. {Call to action for your recipient}
  9. {Any other supporting links}
So let us go ahead and make one now for the Paper.io site.

Let us target a guy called Chris Brogan - a social media guru. You know what, I am going to cheat here a bit. I and Chris have some exchanged emails before.

Email Subject : How to compete ?  Our way of competing - Paper.io

Email Body:

Hi Chris, 
        Its been a while since we connected, last time we chatted was on linkedin through ReviewScale. With the high probability that you don't remember me, let me reintroduce myself -  I am Anup Surendran (Founder of ReviewScale and Paper.io). Chris, your recent blog article (How to compete? ) struck a chord in me.

Chris, even though I have blogged before, I have never blogged personally and I just started chronicling my daily updates on http://www.AnupSurendran.com with the headline "How David(s) takes on Goliath - How a completely new site takes on Craigslist and Kijiji - in 12 months! "

Yes, I am creating an aggregator. Yes, there are tons out there. However, the main vision for this site is to " Make Aggregators less boring" . The other smaller differentiators are going to be "Giving every Source importance" , "Where Readers Vote for the best Source" and "Limited Sources".

My experience with ReviewScale has taught me quite a few things - especially the things with marketing which you think will work but never turns out that way!. My experience working with startups and consulting to Fortune 50 companies have also taught what works for big companies donot work for startups.

Chris, For me and the future Paper.io team to make this vision come true, as part of the marketing strategy, there will be a social media strategy in place. Both of us know, this is very important to get wide acceptance and get the word out there. Chris, I was thinking that you might be interested to follow my blog to see the lessons I learnt about which of your tactics (e.g. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-subtle-art-of-linkbaiting/) worked for Paper.io and which failed.  And please find time to drop me a line on what your thoughts are and what suggestions you have.

regards,
your contact on linkedin.
Anup Surendran

http://www.Paper.io
http://www.ReviewScale.com

What do you folks think ? Do you think I can improve this pitch ? Do you think I should maybe shorten it? - after all it is a pitch :)

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Filed under  //   marketing   pitch  
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