Business Lounge
Education based Marketing Teaches Us a Lot
W
hen new drugs are released on to the market, television and magazine ads normally form a huge part of the marketing campaign to introduce the new product to the world. Generic drugs do not have this luxury and aren’t allowed to advertise using traditional avenues so over the years the marketers of these drugs have come up with particularly savvy ways of reaching their customers. Walk into any doctor’s office and you will undoubtedly see a chart offering insight into some illness or bodily function. The last thing on the chart will read something like this, “Provided in the interest of public health by xxxx” or some other suitable set of words. So what is the marketing lesson to be learned here? Well, generic drug companies have constraints when it comes to marketing so they focus all of their efforts into marketing by education. Whether it is by the charts above or the teams of medical representatives they employ to speak to doctors and pharmacists, these companies make an effort to tell people about their drugs in a manner that speaks to their benefit. Now, the branded drug companies like Pfizer and Roche also use this strategy but it is better highlighted in the case of the generics as they use the only method available to them to great effect.
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Visualizing each potential customer as a consultation where you educate them on ways to improve their current situation is an excellent way to ensure that your customers are being educated rather than sold.
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been educated. on value. So as the marketer, you must first define the problem. Find out what useful information could cause your customers to view your product differently from the competition. Secondly, involve your customers in the process by soliciting their input and participation and then lastly deliver on your promises. An important part of delivering on your promises is letting your customers know that you have in fact considered their needs and then sought to fulfill those needs. After all, playing without keeping score is really just practice; let your customers know that you intended to help them. Public education is quite possibly one of the most inexpensive methods of marketing available to companies, and in the case of startups that won’t have the most exorbitant of budgets, this is invaluable. So go ahead… educate, market…sell.
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Owners of small businesses and marketing managers in larger ones can take a lot from the example above. Marketing is the process of creating awareness about a particular product while education teaches people about something that benefits them then creates potential customers. Hence educated customers are more loyal than customers garnered with a clever advertising campaign in the long term an education campaign is more desirable. A big part of sales is building rapport and “selling” a customer something is a good way to break that rapport. Visualizing each potential customer as a consultation where you educate them on ways to improve their current situation is an excellent way to ensure that your customers are being educated rather than sold. The bottom line is that if you are not the most cost effective product in the market then you run the risk of your target market being blinded by the lowest price because they haven’t yourmoney ezine
insights
Tallying the cost
Of Human Error
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If England had won the tournament it would have been the darkest day in history for the betting industry. However, it certainly isn’t the best result as they have gone out too early.
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y now even the most jaded of sports agnostics has gotten wind of an example of glaring officiating error during a game between England and Germany at the FIFA World Cup of football underway in South Africa. The missed call which saw England midfielder, Frank Lampard’s “goal” being disallowed even though enough cameras caught it to provide conclusive evidence that it should have been given. Germany went on to humiliate their rivals and football’s governing body is left to defend itself from angry fans demanding to know why in this age of technology, is human error deemed to be a necessary part of the game. The purists of the game may be trying to hold on to some long passed sense of chance and nostalgia but the huge dollar value that is placed on the results of these games should make this argument invalid. Controversial calls in sports make for great bar counter arguments but the people that invest millions in and around sporting events might not feel so sporting about the lost potential revenue. In England, pre-tournament spirits were much higher than previous outings due to the team’s unprecedented qualifying run. A pre-tournament study by the British Centre for Retail Research found that retail sails in England would rise by £987 million if the team made it to the knockout rounds (which they did…barely) and a whopping £2.1 billion if the team made it to the finals. Pity the supplier of English FA themed garden gnomes.
These academics studied the effect of the results of 290 England matches between 1984 and 2009 had on the returns from the FTSE 100. The studies show that the largest gains and falls were after games played in tournaments such as the World Cup or the European Championship. When facts are stated in that manner, the novelty of human error induced semantics that FIFA seems so desperate to hold on to seems a bit nonsensical. But as usual there is a silver lining to be had from the Uruguayan linesman’s error in judgment. The pre-tournament estimated cost to companies due to World Cup absenteeism predicted by the Center of Economics and Business Research was £0.9 billion; a tidy sum to take some solace in I suppose.
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In fact the only group of people in England that is happy about that piece of officiating error is the bookmakers and even they aren’t that happy. A spokesperson from British bookmakers Ladbrokes said after the match, “If England had won the tournament it would have been the darkest day in history for the betting industry. However, it certainly isn’t the best result as they have gone out too early. We would have preferred England to have lost in the final as they would have kept people betting.” Even the markets are subject to the doldrums when the outcomes of matches aren’t favourable according to studies conducted by three Universities in the United Kingdom. yourmoney ezine
special
Breakthrough Communications! PanCaribbean “Pay It Forward” Says Perkins
News Release For Immediate Release Wednesday June 23, 2010 Pay it Forward says Perkins Kingston Jamaica: Donovan Perkins, President and CEO of Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited (PCFS), has called on the corporate community to Pay it Forward, which he described as a “charitable pyramid scheme”. Mr. Perkins, who was speaking at the Salvation Army Fundraising Gala on June 21, stressed the importance of individual and corporate responsibility as a route to our country’s development. “There are so many young people who could use your help and advice. You can identify one young person who has shown some promise or who just needs help...and personally guide and support them,” he told the audience at the Jamaica Pegasus. “Our country is filled with so many children who are talented who just need some encouragement... and a little help. Find one in a primary school or high school and make that commitment....with your help, that child can develop into a productive citizen of Jamaica,” he said, pointing out that there are additional benefits for corporate Jamaica. “Corporations that have a keen awareness of their social responsibility are likely to have better relationships with their customers, with the leaders in their community and with its employees - and all are important to the well-being of the company, and its longevity,” he added. Mr. Perkins also handed over a donation of $500,000 to the Salvation Army to assist the Haiti Relief Initiative. The funds, he says, were contributed by Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited and PanCaribbean team members who felt compelled to play their part in assisting the group. PCFS, a member of the Sagicor Group, is one of the island’s leading financial institutions with an admirable reputation of solid corporate governance. Through the most recently formed Sagicor PanCaribbean Foundation, the Group has increased its aim of improving the lives of Jamaican children in the areas of health, education and sports. Over 60,000 Jamaicans receive assistance from the Salvation Army each year through a range of programmes that include providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, and shelter to the homeless.
Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited The PanCaribbean Building 60 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5 Tel: 876.929.5583 Jamaica 1.800.947.7886 Canada; 1.800550.7886 U.S.A Fax: 876.926.4385 Website: www.gopancaribbean.com
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