Notes on Loyalty Marketing

1. Sweepstakes to burnt credits
2. Do not ignore the non monetary interests (charity, green movement, school)
3. Attention grabbing campaign - a car a day
4. Maximize delights- Unique and impossible to find rewards
5. Keyholders
6. Program Partners

Four loyalty Currency

1. Points-led
2. Discount-led
3. Information-led (value information more than other things)-i.e magazine, newsletter
4. Privilege-led

10 tips for Starting UP

10 tips for starting up:

1. Don't wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors
3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you
4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback
5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you
6. Be the first to recognize a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the same issue in public, learn about and correct it
7. Don't spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open
8. Don't obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case
9. Don't plan big marketing effort. It's much more important and powerful that your community loves the product
10. Don't' focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal

--quoted from Le Meur's 10 tips for starting up

Five poor quality marketing messages

1. Untimely message where the customer is qualified for the message but when the message arrives after the customer has already made a decision
2. Irrelevant message where the customer may be, at some stage, qualified for the message but where the message bears no relevance to the needs of the customer now or in the near future
3. Repeat message where the customer is invited to submit information that has already been submitted in response to an earlier message or transaction
4. Unqualified message where the customer is not qualified for the message, will never be qualified and would be found to be ineligible if he or she did respond
5. Discordant message where the customer is qualified for the message and where the message is relevant to the customer at the time it is transmitted, but where the customer frequently receives messages from the same business that are untimely, irrelevant, repeats or unqualified

Segmentation categories

A few segmentation categories:

• Behaviour segmentation- which groups customers according to attitude, usage, or response to a product or promotion
• Benefits segmentation- which groups customers according to the different kinds of benefit they seek from the product
• Buyer-readiness segmentation- which groups customers according to the different stages that consumers normally pass through during the purchase process. These usually comprise awareness, knowledge, preferences and conviction
• Demographic segmentation- which groups customers according to demographic variables such as age, gender, family size, income. occupation, education, language, religion, race and nationality
• Ethnic segmentation- which groups customers according to the needs and strengths of ethnic communities or on the basis that they share a common, recognized heritage
• Geographic segmentation- which groups customers according to geographic factors such as country, region, climate and population density
• Interaction segmentation- which groups customers according to their preferences regarding channels, payment methods, promotions and communications
• Lifecycle segmentation- which groups customers according to their changing needs at different stages of their lives
• Loyalty segmentation- which groups customers according to different degrees of loyalty to supplier or brand
• Occasion segmentation - which groups customer according to their consumption of a product or service in certain situations in response to particular events, or at particular seasonal or cyclical times
• Profitability segmentation- which groups customers according to the degree of customer value to the enterprise (usually measures in terms of profitability)
• Psychographic segmenation- which groups customers according to different degrees of lifestyle, social behavior and personality characteristics
• Usage segmentation- which groups customers according to different degrees of their level and type of usage of product or service

The Value of Historical Data

A very fundamental question that needs to be posed about the enormous invesments being made in decision-support systems concerns the practical value of historical data. Do management believe that recent behaviour of customers, markets, products, risks and channels are necessary to inform decision making in the near future. The empirical evidence suggests that, overwhelmingly, they do believe this to be true as most organizations are committed to maintaining histories of customer behaviour for periods approaching five years, albeit with variations from industry to industry. We may assert a simple rule of thumb. The extent of historical data that is captured and maintained for analysis is directly proportionate to the accepted lifecycle of the product in its current form.

How to make money from real estate

1. Get educated first--Investors buy property to create wealth, unlike home buyers who do it for their own occupation. Hence it is important to understand the basic of property selection, financing strategies, tax implications and asset protection
2. Buy a positive cashflow property--You should pay nothing more than 50 percent above the local median price of the same type of property in a particular area. That means if the median price of a house in a suburb is RM200,000, you should not pay more than RM300,000. Furthermore, the rent should be higher than your interest repayment. While capital gains can be earned over years of appreciation, recurring income is an important ingredient in making up a property's internal rate of return. However, it is becoming more difficult to find positive cashflow properties with consistently high capital growth over the long term.
   
3. Understand the ripple effect--A real estate boom almost always starts with prime locations. When these places become too expensive for people to afford, they will then move to neighbouring locations where prices are lower. And when these places become more expensive, they will head to the next adjoining area, and so on..hence the ripple effect.
4. Access, access, access--the quicker and easier it takes to commute from a uburb to the city and its fringes, the greater will be the value of that suburb. Accessibility in the form of trains, uses and especially motoways can therefore enhance property values.
5. Identify hot-spots-- These are places that never fail to perform and grow steadily overtime. Usually occupying prime location eitehr within or at the outskirts of a major conurbation, these hot-spots generally have an affluent populations and feature trendy cafe, high-class restaurant, upscale retail outlets, exclusive schools and medical centres. Of course they will also have excellent access.
6. Recognize strong population growth-- The more people want to live in an area, the greater the demand will be for rental properties theres. This makes it easier for owners to secure tenants and attract higher rents.
7. Acknowledge lifestyle factors-- People have always had a fascination with water, be it by the sea, a lake, river or canal. Parks and nearby golf courses are also attractive lifestyle features.
8. Appreciate revitalise areas --Potential for suburb to change, which could be triggered by a government initiative
   
9. Landed properties versus stratified units -- In most cases, landed properties have the edge over stratified units, with the exception of incredibly unique projects such as townvillas and offices that have an outstanding concecpt or location. Aside from allowing an owner to be assured of control over an entire pot of land that a building sits on, hence putting him or her in the position to reap full benefit when the land appreciates in value, landed property also allows the owners to rebuild or refurbish whenever there is a desire to do so, without having to seek the consent of the owners.
10. Use Other People's Money (OPM)--If bank wants to lend u money to make a purchase, take it.
    

Buzz marketing

Buzz Marketing: The way to get others to talk abt your product. Consider the case below:

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Perhaps you have heard of the next 'big thing' sweeping the internet... pixel ads. The phenomena was started by a 21 year old college student named Alex Tew, who lives in the small town of Wiltshire, England. Alex came up with this now, well published and quite brilliant idea, of selling pixel 'real estate' on his website (milliondollarhomepage.com)... as a creative way to fund his tuition to the University of England.His 'Million Dollar Home Page' is comprised of a series of pixels, which are available in 100-pixel 'blocks' (each measuring 10x10 pixels). The page is divided into 10,000 of these 100-pixel blocks, which equates to a total of 1,000,000 pixels.

Alex's goal was to sell all the pixels on the page for a dollar per pixel. One million dollars in total.

Did it work? You bet it did!

As of early Jan. 06, Alex was in the process of auctioning off the last 1000 pixels on eBay. According to his blog... the bidding for that last parcel of internet history had climbed to more than $35,000! And his site is now logging more than 225,000 unique visitors per day. Not too shabby!

But like all great ideas, the copycats have already come out in force... all hoping to capture even a small fraction of this truly 'million dollar' idea. Currently it is estimated that there are more than 700 'Million Dollar Home Page' clones... all seeking to duplicate Alex's success.

But is another 'Million Dollar Homepage' homerun likely? Probably not.

Alex Tew's website became popular because he pioneered a truly one-of-a-kind concept, got people initially interested in visiting (and then advertising), which created a viral swarm of buzz... that set off a torrent of self-generating publicity.

His success was a result of two primary factors:

Uniqueness - Although nothing more than another type of banner ad, tiny pixel ads were different enough to capture people's attention and imagination.

Massive PR - Alex Tew has done a masterful job of promoting his site. The 'Million Dollar Homepage' has had press coverage in more than 25 different countries, including many major media outlets in the United States, such as... CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, G4 TV's 'Attack of the Show' and the Fox News Channel's 'Your World with Neil Cavuto'. Not to mention... countless forum posts, website links and blog entries worldwide. Throw in radio interviews, newspaper clips, magazine stories, newsletter endorsements and TV spots... and you've got an all out marketing blitz.

But is the 'Million Dollar Homepage' a flash in the pan idea, destined to flame out quickly...or will others be able to take this concept and run with it? The answer remains to be seen.

sms to machine

Ever wonder if by just sending an SMS can turn on or off an appliances? or a car? or anything?

we found something very interesting on the net: www.autobleep.com

quote:
The AutoBleep ABN range of remote SMS controllers provide an inexpensive and easily implemented solution for monitoring and controlling remote devices through the use of an ordinary cellular telephone.
By simply sending a short SMS message from your mobile telephone, you can easily turn devices on or off. In addition, devices can be monitored through the ABN's inputs which will immediately notify you and/or other mobile phone users of events through user-preset SMS messages. The ABN series may be used in a wide range of applications such as security, home automation, industrial control & monitoring, agriculture, vehicle management and many more.