Great Prizes Up For Grabs On The Net
Dec/090
Corporations have been using promotions to attract consumers ever since the onslaught of consumerism in the 20th century, and a substantial number of these promotions often are misleading as to what consumers will actually receive, resorting to sneaky fine print and terms & conditions. Nevertheless, lucky draws can offer expensive objects of desire such as iPods, game consoles and other free stuff, not to mention vacations and even cash offers. The majority of people will enter around one or two sweepstakes a year, and because only a minute percentage will actually win, consumers dismiss them as nothing more than expensive gimmicks. Nevertheless, to those who endure, there are many prizes available (as evidenced by those who enter practically EVERY competition and have rooms stocked with prizes, shown on many current affair shows).
A competition or a contest (in the business-consumer context) generally involves some sort of action on the behalf of the consumer, such as sending in their ideas, publishing a piece of writing or uploading a video of themselves to the Net. An example of this would be the frequent promotions on shows shown early weekend mornings, in which children are encouraged to send in their responses to questions or prompts, the finest ones being rewarded with prizes like toys and computer games. Skill therefore comes into it, as the adjudicators pick which entry that they feel is the most competent. The disadvantage lies in the fact that it requires an effort by the consumer in order to win something, and as a result many of these competitions are shunned by customers who cannot be bothered thinking of a witty phrase that describes a company “in 25 words or less” or take a video of themselves doing their “craziest Michael Jackson impersonation”. However the fact that less people enter them as opposed to mass promotions increases an entrant’s chance of winning; there is also the added benefit of the winner being recognised for their entry rather than being the “lucky” winner of a prize. Winners of short story and poetry competitions portray this very often.
The increasing trend, however, is to utilise sweepstakes (not the lottery or horse-racing form). These mass promotions offer the chance of winning a prize for virtually no effort at all, and consequently appeal to many; they do not require anything other than for customers to enter their particulars for a “chance to win”. An example is the set of competitions on sites like www.freestuff4free.com, which often involve nothing more than filling in entry forms. However, many require that entrants subscribe to newsletters and emails as a condition of entry, such as promotions on CNET.com and Coca-cola.com. More and more promotions today are following the sweepstakes style of mass promotion, whereby the simplicity of the process permits for a mass reach into a particular audience, i.e. teenagers or middle-aged men. Given that there are so many competitions offering any type of prize, there has certainly never been a better time for web surfers to win cash, items, freebies or even holidays for little more than 5 minutes of their time. With the advent of the Internet and websites organising these competitions into ordered lists, there are so many opportunities to win. To maximise their chances of winning, one should enter as many competitions as they can, because the chances will logically increase with the number of competitions entered. Furthermore, a customer should enter an equal number of sweepstakes and conventional competitions, as this provides a wide breadth of possible prizes. So rather than going out and just buying that new iPhone outright, have a look on your drink bottle label, the brochure that came in the mail or competition websites; chances are that you will find a competition that suits you and the more you enter, the more you increase your chances of winning something substantial.
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Something For Nothing-Laziness
Nov/090
Human beings, by nature, are lazy, greedy, ambitious, selfish, impatient, vain, and ignorant. These traits are neither good nor bad by themselves; it is only the way in which we manifest these natural traits that make them positive or negative. These natural traits are the fundamental reasons for why people do what they do.
Watch this video on “Laziness”
[See post to watch Flash video]
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The Greatest Miracle
In reality, the free market is the greatest miracle of social cooperation ever conceived of in human society. Because no one can force anyone else to act contrary to their best interests, everyone must voluntarily cooperate with others if they want to satisfy their own personal needs the fastest and easiest way possible.
In the free market, the best rise to the top. Those who are the most skillful at bringing together and producing products and services that people want and are willing to pay for tend to emerge from the competition and become even more successful satisfying customers in more ways. Since every person who controls money or resources wants to earn the highest and best return on those resources, they naturally gravitate towards those people with a proven ability to put those resources to work in the very best way possible. Everyone benefits.
Specialization Becomes Possible
As products and services become more complex, specialization of labor develops. Instead of having to produce everything he needs by himself, people naturally gravitate toward doing those things for which they have a natural facility, which they can do better, and for which they can earn higher pay and greater rewards.
Competition among individuals and businesses to serve even more customers by giving them more of the things they want faster, better and cheaper, drives innovation.
Competition for the seven common desires forces people to become even more creative in producing even more and better products and services for the market. With no intervention, control or involvement by government or any other organized body, the actions of free people in free markets assures the very best and most efficient allocation of capital, resources and labor in the satisfying of customer wants and needs.
The Entrepreneur Takes the Risk
If the entrepreneur guesses wrong and produces a product or service that he cannot sell at a price that yields a sufficient profit to cover the costs of producing it, the losses fall on the shoulders of the entrepreneur and his investors. If the entrepreneur guesses rightly, and brings a product or service to market that customers want in such quantity that he can make a sufficient profit, with which he can invest and produce even more products and services, everyone benefits.
The opportunity to profit in a free market channels the E-Factor into continually seeking better and faster ways to serve customers. This is why profits are the costs of the future. Where there are profits, there is employment, opportunities and hope for the future. Where there are no profits, jobs disappear, companies shut down, and resources move into the hands of people who can use them better.
The Wealth of Nations became a best seller in the American Colonies in the next few years. The ideas of the free market became the bedrock economic principles upon which the American Republic was founded. They still dominate today, even though they are constantly under attack by people and politicians who either do not understand the miracle of voluntary cooperation in open markets, or deliberately choose to ignore it in the pursuit of power and money.
Dislike of Freedom and Free Markets
Since people are naturally expedient, in that they are lazy, greedy, selfish, ambitious, vain, ignorant and impatient, there are always a substantial number who do not like the idea of being rewarded on the basis of their ability to serve their fellow man in a way that he wants to be served. They detest the idea of the free market. They want rewards without working, rewards that are detached from any merit, or any need to satisfy other people. Being human, they want something for nothing.
It is the duty and responsibility of politicians and policy makers at all levels to disallow any route to financial success except by serving other people in some way. No one should be allowed to benefit except by being voluntarily compensated by those people because they value that service. Allowing people to profit without contributing to the well-being of others is the great dilemma of our day, which I’ll talk about later.
The Excavation, 2009
Oct/090
© Self-portrait by Gabriela Herman, a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Herman was one of the winners in the recent WIN-Initiative 10 Best 10 competition.
Analyzing Your Competition
Oct/090
“Concentrate your strengths against your competitor’s relative weakness.”
—Bruce Henderson
There is a military adage that says, “No strategy ever survives first contact with the enemy.” No business strategy ever survives first contact with the marketplace, as well. It must always be adjusted to deal with the realities of the moment.
You have probably heard it said, “Business is war.” What this means is that there is vigorous and never ending competition to conquer the market, win the customer and achieve the sale. Just as you are eager to succeed by selling your product or service and earn a profit, so is your competitor. He wants your business and, if possible, all of it. To achieve this, your competitor will do or offer almost anything to take your customers away from you.
Know Your Enemy
Here then is a question for you: Who is your competition? Exactly? Your choice of competitor determines almost everything you do in your market, just as the choice of an adversary determines everything a general does in the process of conducting military operations.
Your competitor determines what you offer and where you offer it. Your competitor determines your prices and how you charge. Your competitor determines your levels of profitability and how consistently you earn them. Your competitor determines your rate of growth and your very survival. Everything you do must be done with a view toward your existing or potential competitor, and his or her likely responses to your actions.
Determine Their Buying Motives
Once you have determined why it is that people buy from you, you must then ask and answer, “Why do people buy from my competitors?” What value or benefits are your potential customers convinced that they receive when buying from your competitor rather than from you?
What are your competitor’s key strengths? What are his areas of specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration? What does your competitor have that you don’t have? What does he offer that you don’t offer? What is he doing more of or better than you? What is his unique selling proposition?
Marketing Myopia
Many people dismiss or ignore their major competitors. They criticize or belittle them when their names come up. Often they think and say that customers who prefer competitive offerings are simply ignorant or misled. As a result of this self-inflicted myopia, they fail to observe and learn how to outdo their competitors in tough markets.
One of the most effective business strategies you can implement is to always admire your successful competitors. Never dismiss them out of hand. Study them. Learn from them. Respect what they are doing well, and look for ways to improve upon their best features.
Offset Their Advantages
As you study your competitors, look for ways to offset or neutralize the advantages their customers perceive them to have. What are your competitor’s weaknesses? How can you exploit these weaknesses? What do you do better than they do? In what ways are your products or services superior to their offerings? In what areas do you have a distinct advantage over your competitors? What can you do to offset your competitor’s strengths and maximize your advantages? How can you better position yourself against your competitors in a tough market?
The more time you take to study and understand why and how your competitors are successful in selling to your customers, the more likely it is that you will find an opportunity to take away their market share. As Sun Tzu says in The Art of War, “If you know both yourself and your enemy, you will prevail in a hundred battles.”
You Must Be Clear
The greater clarity you develop, and the more accurate you are, with regard to your competitors and why your potential customers buy from them, the better able you will be to counter them and compete effectively. Rigorous competitive analysis can be a vital key to business success. In its absence, you will always be at a disadvantage.
Analyze Your Competition:
- Who is your competition for what you sell, with the exact customers you are trying to attract?
- What would happen if you changed your offerings in such a way that you targeted a different group of customers, one that would be easier to sell to?
- Why do your potential customers buy from your competitors? What advantages do they perceive?
- What is your competitor’s unique selling proposition? What special feature or benefit does his product or service have that yours does not?
- In what ways are you superior to your competitors? What can you offer that they cannot? How can you emphasize this advantage in your sales and marketing efforts?
- Where is your competitor vulnerable? How could you exploit this to your advantage?
- How could you alter your marketing strategy in such a way that you could achieve dominance in a particular area, with a specific customer or market segment?
Are you Satisfied?
Jun/090
In September of 1960, J.F. Kennedy engaged Richard Nixon in the first presidential candidates’ debate. Kennedy’s opening statement in that debate has now become the famous “I am not satisfied” speech. What Kennedy’s team rightly strategized was that in any competitive environment, political or businesses, sustainable success starts with focusing on your own house. You will not win the race by focusing on the competition. There are a number of reasons for this…
