Can You Afford to Have Your Product Fail When Coming Into The U.S.?

Posted on January 3, 2012 by

Your products tell a story and that story will help your product sell. Success of any product relies on planning, creating goals and developing a unique selling proposition. We often see clients from many parts of the world that do not have these questions answered. I am often engaged from clients in Brazil, South Africa, China, Argentina, Mexico and France who have great ambition, resources and ideas but lack the strategy. I am often impressed as a marketing expert by the ideas and the products that they want to bring into the U.S. Marketplace but as a U.S. consumer, I do not understand what they are trying to sell. Their products are not talking to me.

Many products fail due to lack of planning from the manufacturer and limited buy-in from the market. Estimates have product failures at between 75% to 90%, while nearly 80% of all grocery, drug and mass-market items fail within one year of introduction. These ugly stats hold true with U.S. based products and products coming in from other countries into the U.S. market. This post discusses this concept and strategy a bit and hopefully helps an international marketer to understand a bit better. After all, “When in Rome – Do as the Romans Do”. When selling into the U.S. market, do as the U.S. marketers do.

Promotion Services International helps your management team with your sales, marketing and product development to increase your odds of success. Our business connections to several industries and world markets allowing us to help clients on a wide variety of projects. We created a series of programs to help most companies go global.

Globalization should be a strategy! Globalization must be a strategic imperative for corporations of any size. The Internet allows the global economy to be fused together and creates a marketplace that never sleeps. Consumers globally are searching your products. A consumer will always research a new product entering into the U.S. market. Most new consumers will get their opinion from some one who has used the new product before. U.S. consumers liked to know that they will buy a reliable product and that the new product meets their needs. Treat the U.S. consumer like a U.S. consumer. They will buy your product once but they will not buy your product twice if they are fooled. Deliver what you promise and make it count.

Globalization also means that your competitor will enter your local market and take away your domestic market share. Are you doing the same? Don’t wait until your market changes to enter into the U.S. market. The time is always now regardless of the economic situations. Selling globally will help create unrecognized business for your company – new revenue! Globalization allows you to enter the realm of working with large international buyers for your products and opening the U.S. market validates your product even further. Small Biz Pilot will help you create a strategy for global trade and focus on building market share in external markets that you currently do not provide products to. Small Biz Pilot can be your U.S. market expert.

Promotion Services International will help you capture that new international customer, increase your volume, lower your cost and remain as competitive as you can! We have learned from past clients that they would like to explore the possibilities of entering into a new market or launch a new product but lack a solid marketing strategy plan to be successful. Your products tell a story and this story will help your products sell into the U.S.. Success of any product relies on planning, creating goals and developing a unique selling proposition. Promotion Services International designed a detailed tailored Market Easy™ plan to help our client’s accomplish their sales goals. Promotion Services International believes that a well thought out marketing plan is the first tool you will need to be successful.

Our plan includes a structure for the management team to evaluate the company, the industry, the products, as well as the real opportunity. During this discovery period your management team, key stakeholders, vendors and customers must participate to help the marketer understand the global opportunity better. At the end of this discovery period your company will need to complete a set of action deliverables that your management team can use to plan your next steps.

Here are some key questions to keep in mind as you go through this process. How many do you have answered?

1. Do you understand the U.S. market, the U.S. customer, and the product potential in the U.S. Market?
2. Do you understand the USP and product characteristics that differentiate your product from those that succeed and from those that were failures?
3. Are your resources properly allocated?
4. Does your sales team know how to sell your product in the U.S.?
5. Are your sales targets realistic?
6. Have you set realistic expectations for channel distribution and price?
7. Are you getting enough feedback on your product from U.S. consumers, buyers and experts?
8. Is your management team fully engaged to enter the U.S. market?
9. Do you review and update your plan to get into the U.S. market?
10. Do you have a quarterly review and annual goals from revenue in the new market?

Promotion Services International will be with you all the way during this market due diligence process and if you decide to continue to work with us to launch your product into the U.S. market we will be there from the beginning. If you have a great product than give it a great strategy.

Visit us at www.Promotion Services International.com and www.KenNinomiya.com to learn more.

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Marketing in a Recession

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

Marketing in a Recession
We know where we are within the economy. We know where we have been. We may also know where we are going.

Our economic times dictate how our companies prosper but it does not dictate how we can manage our business. Business can be down for your company at the moment but it could also be down for your competition?! How do you want to differentiate yourself from your competition in bad times and in good? You can be better then them.

Differentiation is the key to marketing. Make sure that you have clear differentiating points from your competition at all times – even during bad times. Your business must have a your unique selling proposition. Be different then everyone else and let the world know how you are different. This is how your customer will come to know you and also why they will value your product over the competition. Being different is how your customer will remember your product or service not your competitors. Are your customers thinking about you now?

Have you thought about how your customers think about you during these tough times? Do they think about you in good times and in bad? Do you want them to think about you in good times and in bad? You should always want your customers thinking about you. If they remember you in bad times, they will certrainly remember you in good times.

Most companies cutting cost now to maintain profitability and out of necessity, but are they cutting at the right places. As a marketer, I often disagree when I hear about companies that cut their marketing budget but I realize that this is a favorite place to cut for most organizations and also the easiset. Most marketing campaigns are difficult to link directly to revenue generation but it is also hard to prove that your marketing campaigns don’t help you keep what you have now. Does your marketing campaign kep you connected in bad times? Think about it.

Managers often cut their marketing budgets in an effort to cut costs but are they also cutting down their future revenue? In tough economic times like these today, marketers should realize the value of being top of mind with their consumers. If its tough out there for conusmers, marketers need to stay in the game with their consumers. Remind them that you are there for them and thank them for there business in these tough times.

Very few of us have disposable dollars as consumers but when we do get them we need a place to spend them. If your not marketing to your customers now while times are bad how will they remember you when times are good? If I have money to spend, I will spend it with the marketers that have been there for me – in good times and bad.

Most of your competition has trimmed down their marketing budgets so why not try to pick up some market share with some carefully placed marketing. This a good time to go where your competition used to be. If they dropped a key market ad campaign to save a few dollars, why not take it away? Have they walked away from a key market? Take a look around and see what opportunities are out there. There are many deals out there from print to radio ads for all types of ad campaigns.

My idea of recession marketing is taking share of mind away from your competition. The fight for market share starts with mind share. The more your products and services are in your customers mind the more you will have the opportunity to convert that mind share to market share.

Eventually, the mind share you gain now, will convert to market share when things start to pick up again. Promotion Services International provides our current clients smart, inexpensive ways to create a recession marketing plan and pick up mind share. Promotion Services International evaluates where your marketing dollars make the most sense. Its not just the spend of the marketing dollars but also the return on your investment.
Promotion Services International also provide new customers with a customized recession marketing plan starting under $499.

Recession Marketing Plans

Marketers need to expand in a recession not contract. Keep your product and service in front of your consumers. Expand your market when your competition retracts. Promotion Services International will help you gain additional exposure and keep that hard earned market share.

Our new Recession Marketing Plan ™ evaluates your strengths and weaknesses. ekn will help you identify your key target opportunities for market expansion within and outside your current distribution channels. This detailed Recession Marketing Plan ™ plan is done with the goal of creating new revenue while keeping revenue on a restricted budget.

Here’s what you get to fight off the recession with our Recession Marketing Plan™:
Company Evaluation Report: This report will define your company’s core competencies and key differentiators. We will perform a SWOT analysis on the external and internal environments that your management team can use to help position your company in the marketplace.
Market Evaluation Report: This report will place your products into the market place and compare them to any identify competition. This report will also identify market targets for growth and expansion.

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Strategy Is King!

Posted on August 10, 2011 by

I have helped many companies over the years to create a STRATEGIC vision while planning to match revenue and marketing goals. The aspiring entrepreneur or fast growing small company often overlooks this process. It is understandable, that strategy is an after thought when any new business or high growth business is creating revenue faster than they can mange it but this is exactly why it is vital to any firm, large or small to have a strategic plan.

The running joke in the strategic management business, is that a company was doing great until a real business was built around them. This is not a joke but often a tragedy. Business can quickly grow and if the management team does not have the proper strategy outlined with specific goals and targets in mind, the business can falter just as fast. This is the topic of this blog – how do I create the right strategy for my business?

Promotion Services International is a unique strategic management company, focused on building revenues and opportunities through sales, product and market development . We create customized programs to assist our partners in the development of their sales and marketing efforts while helping to execute their go-to-market strategy. I have been able to help many firms understand their own core competencies and help them to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses allowing the management team to formulate both a short term and long term strategy.

Strategy is a key ingredient to any competitive event but in business it is a necessity. I have developed a series of thought provoking exercises and tasks for management teams that help to uncover strategic objectives. I am sharing some of these top line questions with you below in this post. Take a minute to review them and write down your honest answers. Perhaps, you may want to give them to other members in your management team and have them write down their honest answers. It is always interesting to see if your team and you have the same understanding of your business. The easy answer is that the results should closely mirror each other throughout the management team. The difficult answer is when they don’t.

Please let me know your thoughts . I hope these top line questions help to begin your strategic thought process. Happy Strategy!

Strategy Exam: How many do you have answered?
Do you understand the market, the customer, the product potential?
Do you understand the USP and product characteristics that differentiate your product from those that succeed and from those that were failures?
Are your resources properly allocated?
Does your sales team know how to sell your product?
Are your sales targets realistic?
Have you set realistic expectations for channel distribution and price?
Are you getting enough feedback on your product?
Is your management team fully engaged?
Do you review and update your plan?
Do you have a quarterly review and annual goal?

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Defining Your Target Market

Posted on May 24, 2011 by

PSI Solutions ResultsPromotion Services International can help your management team understand your company market position and your product strategy. We will help you develop your product with your management team as they recognize the steps of developing a new product strategy. With a understanding of who you are as a company, the second step demands that you understand where your current products are now.

For this exercise, I like to create a grid that identifies all of the products by each individual item. If you have many items across different product families you may only want to use those products that you feel are candidates in the comparison and that will help you define this new product launch strategy. Consider products that share the same marketing channels, the same consumer or same selling space. Will your new product launch affect current product sales? Do you want a consumer dollar swap as a new product launch result? Plot out your products, your competitors and your new product scheduled to be launched.

Take a look at your existing products and compare your new product against them does it fit in? If you sell white tennis shoes to men over 65 can you sell 4” high heel pumps to women under 25? If your new product doesn’t fit in you may need an additional set of resources to launch the new product. Using this comparison you should be able to identify gaps in the market place and in your product portfolio.

Define your new product target market and potential markets based on where the gaps may be located. Eliminate any markets that seem a far reach so that you can focus on the sure ones. Promotion Services International will help you with all of this. Contact us for a FREE CONSULTATION.

After you have identify some gaps in the current market and you have convinced yourself that your new product will have a shot you, you will need to answer what I call the Go Questions. The set of GO Questions are the basic fundamental questions you will need to have answered as you begin the product launch.

Now you have gather enough data to understand where you are as a company and where you products currently sit in your existing market. You have also plotted your new product against your competitors and your current product portfolio to identify gaps in the market. You should have also thoroughly answered the GO Questions with well though out answers. All of this information will be used to help you formulate your product launch plan. You should follow these basic steps to launch the product.

1 – Create your goals. Make them realistic and attainable for the first two years. When developing these goals ask yourself these questions:

a) How do these new products fit into your existing product portfolio?

b) How do these new products fit into your company?

c) What will our consumers think about these new products?

d) How will our channels react about our new products?

When creating your goal statement you should be very specific with exact deadlines and numbers to meet. A realistic achievable goal will help you set the pace for the launch.

2 – Identifying your target areas. Where will your new products be focused? Who will be your customers? How will you get the product to them? What do you need to do to reach them?

3- Allocate your resources and prioritize your spending. Create a budget that captures all of the potential areas of resources needed to compete your goal. Remember that resources also include people, places and things not just dollars.

4- Develop a plan for implementation that includes all of the information you have gathered so far. This is where you have to be as specific as possible to capture the details of the plan. You may want to use a project worksheet to help you keep track of all deliverables and assign specific team members task with clear objectives and deadlines.

Launching a new product is a wonderful experience that the entire company can be involved in. A successful product launch can help to re-position your company in the market place and take market share away from your competitors. A poor product launch could drain the company of valuable resources and allow the competitors to bite into your current market share due to a lack of focus and market rejection.

Your products tells a story and that story will help your product sell. Success of any product relies on proper planning, goal creation and the development of a unique selling proposition. Many products fail due to lack of planning from the manufacturer and limited buy-in from the market. Estimates have product failures at between 75% to 90% due to lack of planning, weak sales execution and poor product development. ekn links can help you with your product launch.

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Top 10 Email Marketing Must Do’s for 2011

Posted on May 3, 2011 by

Among many different tools and options for email marketing should come a question when starting a campaign. What are the most important things that I need to worry about?

Most small businesses and entrepreneurs need to grow their business and using an effective email marketing campaign is the key to building a program with little cost and maximum exposure. Take the time to cultivate and build your email list name-by-name, relationship-by-relationship to turn that prospect into a customer. There are many Do’s and Don’ts of email marketing but below is a list of the Top Ten Email Marketing Must Do’s for 2011.

10. Test, Fix and Send. Test your emails to yourself in many formats on many devices. Make sure that it can be read and that it makes sense. Ask yourself – Will I open this email if I got it? If not then get to work to fix it. When fixing your email make sure that you look at the formatting and attention lines. Most emails should be short and to the point. It is also a good idea that you create two different types of email so that you can test results of both. Use these results to manage your campaign in future events. Send it out once you have tested the two types of emails and fixed all sections that needed to be changed.

9. Most emails are opened after reviewing the SUBJECT line. Make your subject line count because this is your first and only impression to get the email opened. Use your brand and your company name when possible. Tie in key words that you use within your product and website. Use an attention statement or a call to action that will get someone to respond. Keep your email subject line short and simple. Remember that most emails are now read on a handheld so the line has to be quick, easy, to the point and mean something.

8. Email formats are particularly important in today’s’ multi-device world. Give your subscribers the ability to choose how they want to see the email they will subscribe to. Most email programs will allow you to build a form with that function.

7. Privacy is vital. Make sure that you have a clear no-share company email list policy and have that policy easy to find on your site, landing page, contact form and opt-in form. It has also become standard practice to include an abridged to the point Privacy Statement on your email capture list and pages. You should also include this Privacy Statement on your opt-in confirmation email to help your future subscribers feel at ease.

6. Ask for relevant information that is easy to give. You’ll get more serious subscribers when they don’t have to give you tons of personal and in most case useless information to you. Keep your landing page and list building form down to the basics. The less you ask for the more you will get.

5. Your main email list goal should be quality contacts. One quality contact on your list is more valuable than twenty non-responders. Make a goal to grow your list monthly be creating some type of list growth program through a special or targeted content. Be specific in your quality content and keep your subscribers wanting more.

4. Marketing is an analytical science so makes sure that someone is measuring your results with your email-marketing program. Review when emails are opened, deleted, forwarded and acted upon. Learn more about your list members so that you can market to them better.

3. CAN-SPAM laws require that you honor any unsubscribe requests within a ten-day window. Don’t get red flagged by the ISP’s and be flagged as a spammer. Use your email program manager to help you manage your list and correctly send out emails that make sense. Good content normally means fewer complaints.

2. Manage your list and ask your current subscribers every 12 months or so how you can help them better and confirm that they want to be on your list. Keep providing valuable content for them and build your list by offering something of value. In marketing terms we call this “scrubbing” the list. Keep your list clean with good names that want to be part of your company.

1. You must ask to be part of someone’s life – this includes your closest friends. Sending unsolicited email will never result in building your brand nut will instead result in hurting your brand. Most email marketing programs now provide a double opt0in method to make sure that your subscriber really wants to be part of it. Use direct methods to capture your names and refrain from any pre-marked opt-in measures. The consumer knows they now have the power so don’t try to trick them.

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Our Commitment

Posted on May 3, 2011 by

PSI Solutions ResultsOur commitment to our clients is to provide them professional services supported by top quality budget conscious marketing, sales and strategy plans for their business.

Promotion Services International (PSI) provides a complete set of business solutions to help your business succeed in the growing international market. From helping to open an office in the U.S. to finding profitable distributors, we can help.

Let the PSI team apply our experience and skills in foreign markets to support and service your company. We tailor our services to meet our partner’s needs. If your company already exports to international markets or if you are already established in the United States, our team of professionals can assist in your company’s sales growth and cost reduction.

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PSI Squad – Business To and From Brazil

Posted on April 18, 2011 by

Promotion Services InternationalOur commitment to our clients is to provide them professional services supported by top quality budget conscious marketing, sales and strategy plans for their business.
Promotion Services International (PSI) provides a complete set of business solutions to help your business succeed in the growing international market. From helping to open an office in the U.S. to finding profitable distributors, we can help.

Let the PSI team apply our experience and skills in foreign markets to support and service your company. We tailor our services to meet our partner’s needs. If your company already exports to international markets or if you are already established in the United States, our team of professionals can assist in your company’s sales growth and cost reduction.

Com uma proposta clara de traçar e atingir as metas do cliente, a Promotion Services International (PSI) é uma empresa especializada em realizar ações para internacionalizar empresas brasileiras que queiram inserir-se de maneira correta e adequada no imenso mercado americano.

Contando com profissionais experientes e conhecedores da realidade da negociação do peculiar mercado americano, o ponto forte da PSI é criar e executar um plano de negócio adequado para sua empresa, desde a abertura, pesquisa de marketing até distribuição e monitoramento de vendas de seus produtos.

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Welcome to PSI! Business Experts for Brazil

Posted on April 18, 2011 by

Promotion Services InternationalCom uma proposta clara de traçar e atingir as metas do cliente, a Promotion Services International (PSI) é uma empresa especializada em realizar ações para internacionalizar empresas brasileiras que queiram inserir-se de maneira correta e adequada no imenso mercado americano.

Contando com profissionais experientes e conhecedores da realidade da negociação do peculiar mercado americano, o ponto forte da PSI é criar e executar um plano de negócio adequado para sua empresa, desde a abertura, pesquisa de marketing até distribuição e monitoramento de vendas de seus produtos.

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