DIVADIGEST: JANUARY '05, ISSUE 14

Fishin’ For Cod in the Columbia

Have your efforts to ‘land the big one’ ended with disappointing results? If so, you may be fishing in the wrong place, with the wrong bait.

Casting an effective marketing message requires a clear understanding of your target market. The more statistics you have about your target, the more precisely you can cast your line. Approaching your marketing via market segments is an excellent way to hone in on a niche market.


Overview of Market Segments
Demographic Segment - Measurable statistics such as age, income, occupation, etc.

Psychographic Segment - Lifestyle preferences such as music lovers, city or urban dwellers, etc.

Use-based Segment - Frequency of usage such as recreational drinking, traveling, etc.

Benefit Segment- Desire to obtain the same product benefits such as luxury, thriftiness, comfort from food, etc.

Geographic Segment - Location such as home address, business address, etc.


Below are examples of how you can use market segments to define targets that are relatively broad, or extremely precise:

Women between the ages of 20 and 40 (demographic segment)

Women music lovers between the ages of 20 and 40 (demographic and psychographic segments)

Women music lovers between the ages of 20 and 40 living in the Portland metro area (demographic, psychographic, and geographic segments)

Women music lovers between the ages of 20 and 40 living in the Portland metro area who attend at least one concert a year (demographic, psychographic, geographic, and benefit segments)


Once you clearly understand your target market you can cast with confidence. However if you want to catch your limit you can’t stop there. Youre next step will be to create the market strategy and tools to best lure ‘em in. You can either try to navigate the marketing waters yourself, or you can hire professionals, such as the team at DivaDesignWorld.

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Reinventing the Business Card

At pennies a piece business cards can be your most cost effective marketing tools. The key to effective business card marketing involves innovative design and delivery.


DESIGN: If you’re like many people your business cards are uninteresting 3.5”x2” cards ‘designed’ by your local printer. And, if you’re like many people this little piece of mediocracy is the first thing that you give to every prospect.

 

For a relatively small investment you can elevate your business cards from mediocre to magnificent. Professional designers, like those at DivaDesignWorld, can help you breathe new life into the look, feel and message of your business card. Things that your designer can help you assess include:

 

Message - Does your business card clearly communicate who you are and what you can do for a prospect? Is the information clean and uncluttered?

Image - Do your business cards present the correct image? Cheesy clip-art screams amateur. Primitive, cluttered layout implies a lack of sophistication/credibility. Thermography is just plain ugly!

Creativity - Who says that a business card has to be a 3.5”x2” rectangle printed on white card stock? A thoughtful designer may suggest alternative mediums, dimensions, and printing methods that meet both your budget and desire for originality. Gratuitous alteration of shape or materials is just as bad as uninspired design. It’s best to leave such decision to a trained graphic designer.

 

DELIVERY: Once you’ve transformed your business cards from mediocre to magnificent you should devise a delivery strategy. A few ideas for better business card delivery include:

 

Helpful Handouts - The next opportunity you have to share useful information or a referral, jot it down on the back of your business card. The recipient will be thankful for the information, and reminded of your generosity each time they refer to your business card.

Back Door Promotion - Imagine you are going to a networking event where many prospective buyers of your rare red widgets will be present. Before the event neatly write on the back of several business cards, “Portland’s Only Red Widget Distributor”. Distribute these mini promotions to all event attendees.

24 Hour Access - Many recipients of your business cards will want to learn more about your business. Make it easy for them by including an address to your web site. Notice I said ‘web site’ NOT ‘web page’. A single web page is worth very little. A multipage web site filled with important information about what you can do for the prospect is extremely valuable.

It’s Never Enough - Prospects often misplace or discard your business card. Help them out by offering your business card at each meeting, and in every mailing (without being obnoxious of course!). At pennies a piece you can afford to be generous with these little marketing powerhouses.


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Famoues Failures

At the age of 14 I took a class called, “life skills”. In that class I had some of my most memorable experiences, including caring for my beautiful egg baby, a pretend marriage to my pimply classmate, and a wonderfully memorable lecture on famous failures. On that day I took away a lesson that has stayed with me for life. That lesson was that no matter what one does, one can never fail as long as one keeps on trying.

 

To succeed in business, and life, we must continually take risks. Putting oneself on the line day after day can be extremely draining. The next time you face a disappointing situation, please remember these famous failures:

 

Before becoming America's favorite housewife, Lucille Ball was known in many Hollywood circles as a failed actress and "B-Movie queen"

 

· Abraham Lincoln had 12 major failures before he was elected president of the United States.

 

· Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.

 

· Beethoven's music teacher once said of him "as a composer he is hopeless."

 

· When Thomas Edison was a boy his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He tried more than 2,000 experiments before he created the first successful light bulb.

 

· F.W. Woolworth got a job in a dry good store when he was 21, but his employer would not let him wait on customers because he "didn't have enough sense."

 

· Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. · A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had no good ideas.

 

· Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.

 

· Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. He was persuaded to come back and placed in a learning disabled class. He lasted a month and dropped out of school forever.

 

· Einstein's parents thought he was mentally retarded. His grades in school were so poor that a teacher asked him to quit, saying, 'Einstein, you will never amount to anything.'"

 

· Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company went bankrupt.

 

· Viewing Fred Astaire’s 1928 screen test, a producer noted: “Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little.”

 

· In 1947, one year into her contract, Marilyn Monroe was dropped by 20th Century-Fox because Darryl Zanuck thought she was unattractive.

 

· Barbra Streisand made her stage debut at nineteen in a show that closed after one performance.

 

· John Grisham’s first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and a dozen publishing houses.

 

Quotes About Failure:

"Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure."

"Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up."

"Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up."

"Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act."

"I do not believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process."

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

"Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure."


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DivaDesignWorld Salutes Women in Business

Thirty years ago a woman’s place in the business world was limited to low paying support roles. Today one third of all businesses are owned and operated by women. We salute women in business, and the pioneers who helped open doors for today’s female entrepreneurs.

 

Nearly 8 million businesses in the United States (one of every 3 firms) are now owned and are operated by women, and this number is growing at a phenomenal rate. In fact, estimates are such that women-owned firms in the U.S. now provide jobs for 18.5 million people and generate sales of nearly $2.38 trillion annually.

 

According to recent studies conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, this trend is only expected to increase. Below are several findings from these studies.

 

· Between 1987 and 1996, the number of women-owned firms has grown 78 percent.

 

· Employment by women-owned firms has increased by more than 100 percent from 1987-1992, compared to an increase of 38 percent in employment by all firms. For women-owned companies with 100 or more workers, employment has increased by 158 percent - more than double the rate for all U.S. firms of similar size. Women entrepreneurs are taking their firms into the global marketplace at the same rate as all U.S. business owners.

 

· The top growth industries for women-owned businesses between 1987 and 1996 were construction, wholesale trade, transportation, agribusiness and manufacturing.

 

· Women-owned businesses stand the test of time. Nearly all women-owned firms in business in 1991 were still in business 3 years later, compared to 2/3 of all U.S. firms.

 

· The largest share of women-owned businesses continues to be in the service sector. More than half (52 percent) of women-owned firms are in services; 19 percent are in retail trade and 10 percent are in finance, insurance and real estate.

 

· Employment growth in women-owned businesses exceeds the national average in nearly every region of the country and in nearly every major industry.

 

For an indepth review of business women throughout history, plesae visit the Enterprising Women Exhibit


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Guest Article: Why is My Computer So Slow?

by Jesse Black of Yellow Crayon LLC

 

The fastest growing percentage of my computer services business is spyware and adware removal. New clients call with one of two complaints: "My computer is so slow I can't get any work done" or "I can't get on the internet any more". The problem is almost certainly adware and spyware.

 

Adware and spyware are invasive or malicious programs that install themselves on your computer to serve their evil masters on the internet. Often they are packaged with free software that is downloaded from the internet, such as file sharing software, games, and browser add-ins. Once these programs are lodged in your system, they can do anything their creators want. Least harmful (but most annoying), they may monitor your web browsing in order to give you targeted pop-up ads. Much more harmful (but less obvious), they may redirect all your web traffic through foreign servers on the internet and scan your data for personal information, credit card numbers, etc.

 

Adware and spyware are difficult to remove. Two of the best tools are available on the web for free: They are Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) and Spybot-Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/). Each of these programs removes 80 to 90 percent of the spyware on your system. Used together they'll get rid of about 95% of the spyware. The remaining 5% must be removed by hand or with other software tools. A word of caution: beware of programs with similar names -- some programs that appear to be spyware removers actually install their own spyware!

 

Your best defense is a combination of vigilance and skepticism. Just as you wouldn't invite strangers into your house, don't invite strange software onto your computer. Youngster and teens are especially susceptible to seemingly cool or "cutesy" programs, so agree on a computer use policy with them.

 

I wish you happy, safe, and productive computing!

 

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