First Step Marketing

An important slot has been created to meet the demands of an increased workload. You have two subordinates who are contenders for the position. How do you choose the right one? It’s a tricky situation. A wrong move could create tension or even animosity between candidates. You must be discreet and tactful in approaching the choice.

Most important in making the decision is objectivity. It’s quite natural to have personal preferences based on capability. The difficult part is putting your feelings aside so you can pick the right person for the job based on the candidates’ specific qualifications. Read the rest of this entry »

The workplace is becoming more racially diverse, thanks to affirmative action and increased educational opportunities for minorities. Unfortunately, racial tensions often manifest themselves. These can disrupt working relationships, slow down productivity, dampen motivation, alienate clients and customers, and even invite legal action.

When racism erupts, managers tend to make some common mistakes, like:

• Setting ultimatums. “Some managers simply say, ‘You two will work together or else,’ ” says Maurine Cooper, staff director for the District of Columbia government mayor, Washington, DC. “This approach only makes matters worse.” Forcing a relationship does not change people’s feelings, which are at the root of the problem. As long as they continue to harbor the hatred or mistrust or whatever it is they feel, the problem will tend to persist. Read the rest of this entry »

“You then buy a list of demographically correct people living in that area.

“Is that enough ‘how to do it’ for now?” I asked Sarah with mock impatience. “Will that keep you busy for a while?

“Because if it is, I’d like to go back to the ‘what to do’ for a minute. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.”

“This marketing thing isn’t nearly as complicated as I might have made it seem,” I continued. “But it’s important that you take it seriously. Because it most often is regarded by small business owners as merely ‘good common sense.’ And I have seen more often than not that the only definition of ‘good common sense’ is ‘my opinion.’ That most small business owners, suffering as they do from what I’ve come to call ‘willful disinformation,’ simply decide what they want to do without any information at all, without any interest in what’s true, and then simply do it. Stationery designed by the local quick-printer with a logo thrown in. Colors picked by their wives. Signs designed by the local sign guy whose experience is in painting signs, not in determining what colors and shapes are psychographically correct. Read the rest of this entry »

Because until you do, until you begin to take it seriously, until you give it the earnest attention it demands, your Prototype will continue to be the only thing it could hope to be under the circumstances—a crap shoot!

At GERBER Business Development Corporation, we have created tools for our small business clients to begin the often arduous task of making demographic and psychographic determinations, and how to position their Prototype in the mind of their consumer. The impact has been astonishing.

Small businesses that acted like small businesses when we met them began to operate with intelligence.

Their customers came vividly alive to them, often for the very first time.

Inquiry, the active solicitation of specific information, and controlled experimentation replaced the guessing, blind hope, and feverish busy work that preceded them. Read the rest of this entry »