The thing is, a number of my clients refused to accept the status quo -they weren’t willing to sit back and watch their businesses be destroyed.  They wanted new strategies.  New marketing and sales approaches.  A new way of connecting with their clients and customers.

And they were very satisfied with the resulting jump in sales and profit margins.

So what’s our “secret sauce” that’s sending sales into the stratosphere?  Actually it’s not that much of a secret.  It’s all about understanding the latest trends, paying attention to what your customers are saying and doing – and figuring out how to give them what they want right now.

For example…

Opportunity Is Knocking… But Is Anyone Home?

If you’re in the home entertainment. video game or DVD markets or even in the restaurant business – current consumer trends show that more families are “staying in” this summer, eating at home and watching movies from the comfort of their own homes.

This actually creates a fabulous opportunity for you… If you’re willing to figure out how you can serve those customers. This is a perfect opportunity to create joint ventures and build your customer list.  Here’s an example:

For one of my clients (who owns a dvd rental store in a mid-sized city), I created three partnerships with other local business owners.  We started with the largest electronics store.  The owner was able to secure a special deal of DVD players from his supplier at a special rate.  We created a special discount rate card for customers buying the new system – where they would get one free DVD rental a month, if they purchased during the special sale.  (We also created two different upsells to offer to customers who participated.  One offered a 2 for 1 DVD package, with special bonus DVD rentals planned throughout the year.  The second was for 5 DVD rentals for a longer period of time, and the upsell included PS2 or PS3 game rentals as well. But the real goal was to get a new list of customers who came into the store – and that we could market to in the future.)

The second partnership was with a local pizza restaurant.  I can’t go into details on this one, but I can tell you that my client received a 39% jump in total sales compared with the previous year and increased his customer list 124%.

Or what about this trend?

Healthy Clients… Healthy Habits… Healthy Profits

One of the newest trends that retail giant Walmart is jumping on are in-store health clinics – where they’ve created partnerships with local hospitals. They expect to have 400 such clinics in place by 2010.

This popular trend is being fueled by two engines – affordability and accessibility.  A typical visit is projected to cost the consumer only around $55.00.

So you may not be a Walmart… but if you’re in the alternative health and fitness market, or massage, or even spa treatments… What other entrepreneurs or businesses could you team up with – to create one-stop shopping that provides an incredible customer experience and gives your health and fitness clients what they want?

The Signs of the Times – Green is Good

Another very popular and growing trend is the move towards green – reducing our carbon footprint, natural healthy products and services that cater towards consumers who are concerned about our effect on the environment.

Many sectors of the travel market have been hit this year – and hit hard.  And yet, there are still companies that are doing very well, in spite of the economy.

What can you learn from them?

If you can’t grow bigger, go smaller.  Look for niches and sub-niches in your market or industry that have product or service gaps.

Share ideas for going green and reducing waste, energy and resources with your customers and clients.  Offer ways they can get involved.

Find ways of creating experiences that offer something unique, above the ordinary. Create a message that resonates within your market.  Communicate your company’s values with your clients.   Speak up, take a stand and get involved in your local community. Give something back.

Trying to compete in the old ways just doesn’t cut it in today’s market.  Instead, provide new services and experiences that create and build loyalty and build the buzz about who you are and what you stand for.  Take advantage of the opportunities provided by the economic downturn to build your business, your customers’ loyalty and your profit margin.

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Market research can also provide critical information about the buying habits, needs, preferences, and opinions of current and prospective customers.

While there are many ways to perform market research, here are my favorite five basic methods: surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, observation and field trials. The type of data you need and how much money you’re willing to spend will determine which techniques are best for your business.

1. Surveys. Using concise, straightforward questionnaires, you can analyze a sample group that represents your target market. The larger the sample, the more reliable the results.

• In-person surveys are one-on-one interviews typically conducted in high-traffic locations such as shopping malls. They allow you to present people with samples of products, packaging, or advertising and gather immediate feedback. In-person surveys can generate response rates of more than 90 percent, but they are costly. With the time and labor involved, the tab for an in-person survey can run as high as $100 per interview.

• Telephone surveys are less expensive than in-person surveys, but costlier than mail. However, due to consumer resistance to relentless telemarketing, getting people to participate in phone surveys has grown increasingly difficult. Telephone surveys generally yield response rates of 50 percent to 60 percent.

• Mail surveys are a relatively inexpensive way to reach a broad audience. They’re much cheaper than in-person and phone surveys, but they only generate response rates of 3 percent to 15 percent. Despite the low return, mail surveys are still a cost-effective choice for small businesses.

• Online surveys usually generate unpredictable response rates and unreliable data because you have no control over the pool of respondents. Nevertheless, an online survey is a simple, inexpensive way to collect anecdotal evidence and gather customer opinions and preferences.

2. Focus groups. In focus groups, a moderator uses a scripted series of questions or topics to lead a discussion among a group of people. These sessions take place at neutral locations, usually at facilities with videotaping equipment and an observation room with one-way mirrors. A focus group usually lasts for one to two hours, and it takes at least three groups to get balanced results.

3. Personal interviews. Like focus groups, personal interviews include unstructured, open-ended questions. They usually last for about an hour and are typically recorded. Focus groups and personal interviews provide more subjective data than surveys do. The results are not statistically reliable, which means they usually don’t represent a large segment of the population. Nevertheless, focus groups and interviews yield valuable insights into customer attitudes and are excellent ways to uncover issues related to new products or service development.

4. Observation. Individual responses to surveys and focus groups are sometimes at odds with people’s actual behavior. When you observe consumers in action by videotaping them in stores, at work or at home, you can observe how they buy or use a product. This gives you a more accurate picture of customers’ usage habits and shopping patterns.

5. Field trials (beta testing). Placing a new product in selected stores to test customer response under real-life selling conditions can help you make product modifications, adjust prices, or improve packaging. Small business owners should try to establish rapport with local storeowners and Web sites that can help them test their products.

If you’re interested in doing some market research, I can help you set it up.  Just email me.

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