Hobart’s best and most popular breakfast team, Kim and Dave, are moving from Sea FM to Heart 107.3.

We’re confident the move will strike a chord with listeners and our clients. Kim and Dave’s great presentation and humour will certainly appeal to Heart 107.3’s audience, as well as attract new listeners, and that means better results for our clients. We are constantly striving to be proactive and stay ahead of the market and we believe we have achieved this, providing great entertainment for our large and loyal listener base, as well as effective advertising and promotional solutions for our clients.

We also want to know what you think, so use this blog to give us your feedback. We look forward to your comments.

Market conditions and customer needs are changing . . . your Marketing Plan must change too

Creating a successful marketing strategy, finding opportunities to sell products and services, and connecting more effectively to current and prospective customers is a demanding job.

If you wonder if there are ways to make your marketing efforts more efficient, ask yourself these questions:
• Do you have a complete view of your customers and have you identified the best prospects based on this view?
• Is your customer information dispersed among e-mail messages, documents and databases?
• Do you need sophisticated marketing materials?
• Do your sales representatives have a process for following up on sales leads?

Reviewing your plan regularly helps you determine whether it is producing the results you need and whether you are producing the right products and services for your customers.

If you wonder whether your business is producing the right products and services for your customers, see if you answer "yes" to any of the following questions:
• Have your customers become more demanding than they used to be?
• Is it increasingly challenging for your business to attract and retain customers?
• Does your sales force sometimes react sluggishly when opportunities arise?
• Do your salespeople have trouble projecting a consistent, professional image?
• Is your customer data out of date and dispersed in multiple locations across the company?

Having a well-defined sales process can help your sales force identify and qualify leads, find more opportunities for repeat business, negotiate and close more sales, and establish a follow-up process after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction.

A formal sales process also helps you understand each customer's business obstacles, match their needs to your products and services, and deliver proof that your products can meet those needs. With a strong sales process, you can more accurately assess the revenue potential for a given customer. For example, you can view consolidated information for all customers in your sales pipeline, consistently position the unique value that your company delivers versus the competition and create stronger relationships with customers and business partners.

Marketing Plans ensure products and services are developed to meet and satisfy your customers’ needs. It was once the case that a Marketing Plan would cover a three to five year period, but in today’s environment it is something we need to review and adjust monthly as our customers’ needs change. Consider the key elements of a marketing plan; analysis of your current market, your business objectives, key strategies, steps to achieving your objectives, proposed budget and timing. How often do you review your plan?

Advertising in a Slowing Economy

He who stops advertising to try to save money…

could just as easily stop his clock to try to save time.

To advertise or not to advertise… that is the question.

Recently it’s become almost impossible to turn on the TV or read the newspaper without hearing a steady barrage of negative press about the current economy…and with the media in Australia being as powerful as it is, what is broadcast directly influences the way a large percentage of the population thinks and acts.

So whenever the talking heads say, "Times are getting tough," usually the first thing to get cut is a company’s marketing budget. Traditionally, companies have responded to a slowing economy by cutting back, bunkering down and trying to “tough it out,” but tightening the belt a few notches is really not a good solution to the situation.

In fact, if your competitor should happen to adopt such a tactic, he would actually be a making a very good choice – for you!

That’s because when your competition pulls back on their marketing efforts it weakens their position and in doing so offers you a perfect opportunity to strengthen yours. While other companies are cutting back on their advertising expenses, the result is a much less cluttered landscape…which means your message can become clearer since you’re not lost in a sea of advertising.

Of course, I realise that all of this is much easier to say than it is to actually do and, it should also come as no surprise that, as a marketer, I think advertising plays a key role in driving a company’s success during bad times as well as good…assuming, of course, that the product and service being offered is attractive and the means of promotion is sound.

Through all of this, the big payoff really comes when tougher economic times rebound into good. When people have more money to spend, your business will have a higher position and a better mind share than those businesses which chose not to advertise.

Higher mind share leads to higher market share when people begin using your service again with greater frequency.

It's important to remember that during a slower economy consumers don’t stop buying…they just become more selective and look for value in their purchases.

They are going to buy from someone…so why not make sure they buy from YOU?

Here’s the key…in both good times and bad, marketing is everything. If it weren't, your business would only subsist on word of mouth and chance…and who can depend on that? You can’t control word of mouth and in the end, only the Casinos win the game of chance!