In today’s ever-changing society, social media impacts everything it touches. From everyday tasks to communicating to friends and those in different countries, social media opens the door for new and improved ways of thinking, communicating, and doing. But how does social media affect research?
With everything in life, utilizing social media the right way will help benefit a business with marketing, branding, and other important aspects that shape a business. There are six easy “tips” for implementing social media in a business, ultimately improving results.
Tip One: Track trends
You may be asking yourself what a trend is. According to Webster, a trend is a general direction of change, a way of behaving, proceeding, etc. that is developing and becoming more common. A trend can also be depicted as a trend line – showing the general direction that a group of points seem to be heading – either upwards, downwards, or staying the same over time. But how does one track changes? It’s easy. Social media – Twitter or Facebook – makes it simple by offering many ways to analyze trends. These sites allow one to search posts, both new and old, and popular ideas, giving insight to the emerging trends of customers and prospects. By doing this, it allows one to see what people are looking for and what they need.
Tip Two: Learn the language of your audience
Learning the language of your audience is extremely important because it helps a business grow. The language you may think is appropriate may not always be what your customers are thinking or view as being important. Social media gives an outlet to businesses because it is a free tool where one can analyze comments and data about certain products, services, or brands offered by a business. By utilizing these results, a business can change their direction and focus on the areas where they see the greatest impact to costumers.
Tip Three: Social media = quick research
Market research, traditionally speaking, involves the implementation of surveys or study groups, but today with social media, the implementation is easier because it is so fast. Because of its fast-paced nature, the results may be there, but beware: are they always correct?
Tip Four: Broaden the scope of your market research
According to a Nielson report, 80 percent of people use the Internet to utilize social media. With such a large percentage, it gives a business a larger audience to conduct market research.
Tip Five: Discover unnoticed trends
Research is driven by questions, and asking the right ones, the right way, will give great results to those burning questions businesses want to know. With social media, information is gained through interaction and observation, which is easy since it is all just a “click” away. It gives a person the choice to be either an observer or a participant in the discussions found on social media, but it can also help a business discover new and innovative ways of thinking and doing.
Tip Six: Cost-effective
Social media is cost-effective. It is a great tool for research, as well as advertising because it reaches millions of people. Though it does take time to use social media, if it is used right, it can greatly benefit a business.
Now that the journey through the six “tips” of social media is complete, it is up to you to see if it fits for you. Social media is present in everything we do; it surrounds us. But is that always a good thing? Do we want everything at a “click” of a button? Social media is very accessible to those who know how to operate the different sites and how to use it to benefit their business. As you saw throughout this article, social media helps you track and discover trends, broaden the scope of your market, and is cost-effective. These are all enticing, but how does it influence research?
It makes it easier to find results and to analyze trends to who don’t know where to begin. Social media is always changing to adapt to society, and so must a company. It helps a business know the markets surrounding them and how they can create a niche to adapt to them. How do you exactly do this?
Market opportunity assessments and market perception surveys allow a business to see how they are doing in their given markets, and if they should look into a new and/or different niche. If you don’t know where to begin, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).Today, sit back and allow us to do all the work, and help you figure out the perfect picture for your company. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More.
Showing posts with label niching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label niching. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
How do you give yourself an advantage in the marketplace?
Market differentiation. Have you ever wondered how to create that? There are five commonly recognized sources of market advantage. It is not necessary to use all of them in order to distinguish your company in its markets. Any one is enough. However, by achieving differentiation in one source and superiority in another, you further ensure your business's continued success.
No one source is, in and of itself, better than another. Let's explore each of the five sources and their relationship to your company.
Low Price
A company can gain and sustain market advantage in its markets by focusing on and achieving a low price strategy. In order to do this, however, there conditions must be present:
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by clearly differentiating its products and services from those provided by its competitors. There are several ways in which a company can differentiate its products:
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by differentiating, from its competition, the way it sells its products and the support services it provides. Some specific examples of service differentiation include:
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by focusing on a very narrow market and becoming recognized as the provider within that market. This focus can take place on a "macro" basis or on a "micro" basis. When a company decides to pursue a niche market on a macro basis, it focuses its organizational resources on:
Relationships Leading to "Partnering"
There is a general rule in business that says, "All things being equal, people would rather buy from a friend." There comes a point, though, when that is no longer true--when other performance factors (e.g. quality, service, price) are not adequate to justify continuing to give business to the friend.
With this rule in mind, you can gain and sustain market advantage by building superior relationships with your customers (and prospects). These relationships can exist on two different levels. At the first level, you have worked hard to identify and meet the needs of your customers. This trust and familiarity has enabled your customers to view you as a "friend," a friend with whom they have a great relationship.
At the second level, you have been able to leverage your relationship into a true partnership--not in a legal sense, but rather one in which the customers view you as being essential to their lives. When a partnership level has been achieved, you are capable of not only meeting your customers' needs, but anticipating them to a point where you are able to create mutually beneficial business opportunities. When this level of partnering occurs, your competitors are at a significant disadvantage because they experience a "barrier to entry" that is all but impenetrable.
Tweed-Weber's research makes it easy to get the information you need to give yourself a clear advantage in the marketplace. You can call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and on Twitter (@TweedWeber). Whether your research project is large or small, you can be assured that Tweed-Weber has the resources, skills, and experience to provide the information and results you need.
No one source is, in and of itself, better than another. Let's explore each of the five sources and their relationship to your company.
Low Price
A company can gain and sustain market advantage in its markets by focusing on and achieving a low price strategy. In order to do this, however, there conditions must be present:
- The company must be a low cost provider. The reason is simple: any company that tries to be low price without being low cost for any extended period will eventually become unprofitable and run out of cash.
- The company must always be low price. This is essential because the market must come to rely on the low price the organization charges for its services. If the organization is only low price with particular programs, when it needs to generate sales, or when it is trying to capture market share, the marketplace will be confused and will not respond.
- The company must position itself in the market as the low price provider. It must consistently and repeatedly tell the market through its promotional mix that its prices are the lowest it will ever find.
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by clearly differentiating its products and services from those provided by its competitors. There are several ways in which a company can differentiate its products:
- Innovation/Unique Characteristic: by providing products and services that are highly innovative or possess characteristics unique to a market.
- High Perceived Quality: by providing products and services with high perceived quality.
- Availability/Response Time: by having its products and services readily available to its customers, thereby demonstrating a significantly shorter response time than its competitors.
- Promotion: by promoting its products and services in a way that the market perceives them as being noticeably different than other comparable products.
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by differentiating, from its competition, the way it sells its products and the support services it provides. Some specific examples of service differentiation include:
- being highly and consistently responsive to customers and their wants and needs.
- delivering products with an unexpectedly high degree of reliability.
- treating the customer with respect...all of the time.
A company can gain and sustain market advantage by focusing on a very narrow market and becoming recognized as the provider within that market. This focus can take place on a "macro" basis or on a "micro" basis. When a company decides to pursue a niche market on a macro basis, it focuses its organizational resources on:
- a specific geographical area
- a particular customer type
- a highly defined line of products or services
Relationships Leading to "Partnering"
There is a general rule in business that says, "All things being equal, people would rather buy from a friend." There comes a point, though, when that is no longer true--when other performance factors (e.g. quality, service, price) are not adequate to justify continuing to give business to the friend.
With this rule in mind, you can gain and sustain market advantage by building superior relationships with your customers (and prospects). These relationships can exist on two different levels. At the first level, you have worked hard to identify and meet the needs of your customers. This trust and familiarity has enabled your customers to view you as a "friend," a friend with whom they have a great relationship.
At the second level, you have been able to leverage your relationship into a true partnership--not in a legal sense, but rather one in which the customers view you as being essential to their lives. When a partnership level has been achieved, you are capable of not only meeting your customers' needs, but anticipating them to a point where you are able to create mutually beneficial business opportunities. When this level of partnering occurs, your competitors are at a significant disadvantage because they experience a "barrier to entry" that is all but impenetrable.
Tweed-Weber's research makes it easy to get the information you need to give yourself a clear advantage in the marketplace. You can call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and on Twitter (@TweedWeber). Whether your research project is large or small, you can be assured that Tweed-Weber has the resources, skills, and experience to provide the information and results you need.
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