Picture Perfect Product Management

Just imagine if you were a product manager who was in charge of film for cameras. Your world used to be great: everyone needed film and so you could improve your product, roll it out, and customers would snap it up (sorry for the pun). However, then along came digital cameras and almost overnight the market for your product vanished. Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of this. However, Fujifilm is still going strong. What did their product managers do that nobody else did?

Fujifilm's Big Problem

The year 2000 was a great year to be in the business of supplying analog film to the world's photographers. This was the year that worldwide demand for photographic film hit its peak. I mean we all needed the stuff: we'd been taught that when we went on vacation or had special family events we needed to take a lot of photographs. We'd go to the store and buy our film from one of two main companies: Kodak or Fujifilm.

Well fast forward to today and as you can well imagine, the world has pretty much flipped upside down when it comes to photography film. The cameras that we used to use now sit up on a shelf somewhere in the house. We've all either switched to using the digital camera that is built into our cell phone or we've gone out and bought a new stand-alone digital camera.

What this means is that we no longer have a need for analog film. Poof - the market for this product that had been in demand for over 100 years went away almost overnight. At Kodak, they didn't know what to do and that's why they've fielded for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This never looks good on your product manager resume.

This all leads to one critical question. What's a film company product manager to do?

How Fujifilm's Product Managers Reacted

Over at Fujifilm, they handled things a bit differently than Kodak did. Clearly the Fujifilm product managers knew about the product development definition -start with understanding what's coming your way. One of the most important things that Fujifilm's product managers did right was to take the long view. Yes, they saw that the digital revolution was going to cause the need for analog film to go away, but they decided that switching to digital photography was not enough.

Instead, what they did was to take a step back and ask themselves the question "what does Fujifilm do well?" The answer to this question turned out to be that Fujifilm was a very good chemical company.

The product managers then took that information and went looking for other industries that Fuifilm could create products for. What they discovered might surprise you.

The Fujifilm product managers discovered that the company's chemical expertise was needed in the development of films used in the creation of LCD panels for computers, TVs, and cell phones. It also turns out that the world of cosmetics had a need for Fujifilm's ability to prevent photos from fading over time. Finally, the world of healthcare could use Fujifilm's expertise to develop ways for the human body to do a better job of absorbing chemicals.

The result of switching the products that they make and what markets they serve has allowed Fujifilm to not only survive, but to also thrive. Fujifilm used to make 20% of their money from analog film. These days it's down to just 1%. Now that's a nice development.

What All Of This Means For You

It is entirely possible that at some point in time during our product management career we will encounter a situation where the market for our product dries up and goes away. Although this may have not have been on our product manager job description, we do need to know how to deal with it. As product managers we need to make some tough decisions when this happens.

Over at Fujifilm the arrival of digital cameras meant that their primary market, the photographic film market, was going to go away. Instead of just focusing on trying to come up with a digital version of what they were already making, the Fuji product managers took a close look at what the company did well. What they discovered is that Fuji could use its product knowledge to branch into other industries including LCD displays, medicine, and cosmetics.

When the market for your product starts to go away, remember what Fujifilm did. Take the time to study what your company does well and see if there are any skills or technologies that can be applied to different markets. Finding other ways to create popular products will allow you to capture many happy memories.

This news article is brought to you by SMALL HOUSE PLANS - where latest news are our top priority.

Keeping Your Business's Expansion Steady

Building a successful business is a challenging ordeal all the way through - some people might tell you that it's difficult to get started, others will assure you that the real challenge starts once you've really hit it big, but the truth is that the whole procedure is riddled with challenges all the way through. It's important to know how to handle those problems in a responsible and thoughtful way, as this will ensure that you'll be able to keep up with the growth of your operations.

The most common problem people seem to encounter is coping with the sudden surge in their progress. At some point, sooner or later your business is going to bloom dramatically - it might be just random luck that you've struck it big with a specific product, but you never know if that expansion is going to happen over a prolonged period of time, or literally overnight. This makes it important to be prepared for when that moment happens, and know exactly what you need to do to avoid going under because you're unable to handle all the extra challenges that have suddenly come up.

Remember that keeping yourself well connected is very important - even if you're not using those connections at the moment, you never know when you might need a certain service later on. If a supplier offers you good rates but they only work with larger shipments than the ones you're ordering regularly, don't just throw away their business card - keep it for moments like this one exactly. Because when you suddenly need to fill in an extra supply channel that also happens to be quite wide, you can't just go around looking for the first company to come under your sights and hire them - you'll need to make an informed decision, ideally knowing in advance who you'll work with.

Don't go crazy on expanding your workforce - this is another common issue faced by people who're trying to handle with the expansion of their businesses. It might seem right now that you suddenly need tons of extra people to handle all the additional workload, but think straight for a second - is this perhaps some temporary state? Maybe the recent hit you made on the market is going to die down in a week or two, leaving you with people who suddenly don't have any purpose in your company? Only hire as many extra helping hands as you truly need, and ideally try to take on some extra work yourself to help out everyone around you.

The main point here is - don't go over your head. You might get inspired to try out all sorts of creative things once you've gotten a taste of success, but keep your head straight and keep thinking realistically. Save your income and invest it properly, and keep the expansion of your company steady and smooth. Sooner or later you'll stabilize and you'll start handling the new situation just as easily as you coped with the previous state of your company!

This article is sponsored by medical case study.

Know the Most Popular Printing Methods

With advancement in technology, a number of printing services have developed and a whole set of printing methods has emerged. Each method is suited for a different commercial purpose and it is therefore important to know the various methods in order to understand which type is best suited for a particular project.

Following is a brief discussion on the popular printing methods used in the commercial market today:

Digital printing:

This method of printing is new and is extremely effective as it rules out the use of plates and films and can be used instead, digital technology where the file to be printed is transmitted to the press from the computer. Digital printing is effective because of its working speed and this makes it a convenient choice in most offices where projects have time constraints and deadlines to be met.

Electrostatic Printing:

Here, the printing process is similar to that in the photocopying process where colour is made to stick to the drum and is then transmitted to the paper by fusion with heat. This method of printing is effective too as the process is quick and it also works out cheaper for short print runs.

Offset Lithography:

This method of printing is by far most popular. The process involved here is the offsetting of ink from a metal plate to rubber cylinders and then its transmission to paper. Offset Lithography works out to be economical for projects where a large number of prints are needed.

Letterpress:

This is oldest method of printing, developed by Gutenberg and is still quite popular in the present day's market. Here, the image and non-image area are on different levels, the printed area being raised from the base surface (as in the rubber stamp).

Engraving:

This method of printing is popularly used in the printing of expensive or fine stationery as in the case of company letterheads. It is used for sharp images and print texture is such that the image appears to be indented.

Thermography:

Thermography produces prints with raised images formed by the adherence of a special dust or powder to wet ink. As the name suggests, heat is used to fuse the two together to obtain a raised printed surface.

Screen Printing:

This is a popular method used for professional printing on goods that are not flat, like mugs, clothing, etc. It is also used in the printing of large-scale signage and billboards.

Advertising Your Auto Repair Shop to Increase Car Counts? Here's Why Your Ads Don't Work!

I hear it all the time. Service shop owners recounting the money they spend on running ads or doing 'val-paks' or flyers and then just sit and wonder if their ad even got seen. They wonder about that because the typical response is NOTHING. That's right. If you run ads and don't get a response, you're not alone. Here's what you need to look at.

You must stand out. Do the test yourself. Open the yellow page directory and look at your ad as compared to everyone else in your category. Look the same? I know they do. In fact, if you changed names and numbers, I bet you couldn't even tell the difference. So how would you expect your customer to 'pick' you?

It's not about features; Your ads have to provide benefits; Without even looking at it, I am going to use my 'psychic' powers and tell you what your current ad says. I know that it includes statements very similar (if not identical) to; Family Owned for 25 years; 12 Service Bays; Established since 1977; We service Imports and Domestics; Friendly Service; and maybe even a real 'rip-your-eye-balls-out-fancy-statement' like "Excellence in Service". Was I right? I am pretty sure I am. So now, can you tell me what 'benefits' those statements are to me as a customer? What solution are you providing to my problem? Basically, NONE.

Your ads suffer from what I call advertising incest. You created an ad (and maybe even with the help of the yellow page salesman who is really only interested in selling you the ad space) that followed the same outline as everyone else's ad. But what you weren't thinking about is all those other service shops did the exact same thing when they started. Everyone is advertising the exact same 'features' (not benefits) and now your ad is doing the same.

You must include a strong call to action and a REASON: The reason, of course has to be a benefit to me, the customer or prospect. The call to action has to be clear. There's no room to 'pussy foot' around here. It's got to be strong and to the point. Call me now! E-Mail Me Now! Text 'YourName' to 54321 NOW for coupon. The better your offer, the better your response. Remember, it's a lot like fishing; good bait = lots of fish; bad bait = You Starve.

Eliminate these problems from your current advertising and you will start to see your response increase and your car counts go up.

In short, your adverting MUST include:

• Benefits to me as a customer; it's not about YOU
• Provide a solution to a real problem
• Create a Call to Action and make several different ways for prospects to contact you; that can be phone, fax, e-mail, texting, website address, 24 help line; 24 hour message line; QR codes; Make it easy to contact you.
• Provide non-threatening ways for prospects to contact you and get more information. People only purchase from those they know, trust and like. Let them get to know you.
• Quit trying to sell from your ad; How many of those fancy 10% discount coupons have you ever received back? Yeah, I figured. Your ad isn't about getting your customer to buy when YOU want them to. They never will.
• Most important; make your ad a way to collect leads; not sell. Get customer information so that you can continue to market to them. They will purchase when they're ready, not necessarily when YOU want them to.

Following these strategies will make your auto repair shop more effective while you develop your list of prospects or leads. That way, you can continue to market to them so they purchase when they're ready, not necessarily when YOU want them to.

This news article is brought to you by PET-FRIENDLY-RENTALS - where latest news are our top priority.

Video Marketing - 5 Tips for Creating Inexpensive Marketing Videos

Every day, more than four billion people watch videos on YouTube - and they're not all looking for puppies and kittens playing together, either. Increasingly people are turning to videos for business-related information, however many companies still shy away from video because they believe it's cost-prohibitive.

The good news is inexpensive video equipment such as Flip cameras and iPhones makes shooting video easy and affordable. Plus, with a little extra memory and a software program, even today's run-of-the-mill computer can become a powerful and intuitive video-editing machine. This presents an opportunity for businesses who venture into video to gain a captive and largely untapped audience. Here are five tips for companies interested in breaking into video content marketing:

1. Start Simple. If you're not ready to put someone in front of a camera, you can still create videos. Many online video editing sites create professional-looking video slideshows quickly using just photos, text and music.

2. Think Fast. Videos don't have to be lengthy. A series of short, one- or two-minute quick tips often works just as well (or better) than a ten-minute video.

3. Reuse and Recycle. When you market with video, there's no need to start from square one. Do you have an old blog post or article with information that is still important and relevant? Great! Aim a camera on a tripod at a neutral background and stick an employee with a decent on-camera presence (you don't need to be Diane Sawyer) in front of it. Hit "record" and have the speaker deliver the information in an easy, conversational way. Voila, your first video.

4. Look for Opportunities. If someone at your company is speaking at a meeting or conference, why not take advantage of that opportunity? Record the presentation, then edit it down to the most useful information (inserting a simple dissolve or wipe transition between clips makes it easy). With the resulting video, you've created two marketing opportunities for the price of one!

5. Have Fun. If you're producing in-house video inexpensively, it's a good idea not to take yourself too seriously. Just keep it casual and conversational, the same way you would a business talk - if you make a mistake in your delivery, just keep on rolling.

This news article is brought to you by YOUR MIND - where latest news are our top priority.

Marketing Is a Lot Different Today In the Information Age

Most new entrepreneurs think they know a whole lot about marketing, but really they don't. Oh sure, they might be able to garner lots of friends on Facebook, social networks, or use trickery tactics like SEO strategies to beat out more legitimate companies online, but how much of that can they really convert to sales, aka; hits don't equal revenue conundrum. Okay so, let's talk because I come from the old school.

You see, when I started my company there was no internet, no fax machines, and portable phones were only for the top executives in corporations or the military, so, you had to do it all in the real world, where it really counts. Now then, recently I read an interesting book, it was written back in 2000, but it foretold much of what we see today, namely that "everything" had changed "forever" and it would never be the same again when it came to marketing.

I'd like to recommend this book to you because I think it is of value to all the old timers, and all the new kids that think they know everything, but don't seem to be making much money from their marketing efforts. The name of the book is;

"The End of Marketing As We Know It," by Sergio Zyman, Harper Business Press, NY, 2000, 272 pages, ISBN: 978-08873-09830-0.

This author also has real world experience, he was the head of marketing for a major soft drink company, until he started his own marketing firm. He saw the changes with the future of "new marketing" in the information age. He reminds the reader that "popularity online" and hits, or click-throughs is not "making money" because it's the conversion ratios that matter, that's the scoreboard. The clicks or hits are just sparks, so it remains the marketer's job to use those sparks to start a fire.

He admits the value in brand building online; that is getting people to want to buy what you are selling. Still, he points to the science of marketing, the metrics, the math, and the reality of achieving sales goals, not merely attaining traffic. He suggests that marketers online "fish where the fish are" and to target your potential clients online, that clicks are worthless, unless they lead to sales. Perhaps he was ahead of his time. He basically describes the rational for Big Data marketing mining, and how that changes the game completely.

You see, sometimes it pays to understand the cross-over of trends and how to unite the virtual world with the real one, that is if you want to make money and not just get lots of hits and play a popularity game online. Indeed, perhaps the philosophy here, and his arguments are of value even to the know-it-all so-called online marketing gurus. Please consider all this and think on it. I hope I didn't offend you, but if I did, realize you aren't my market, and I don't want or need your hits or clicks, see that point?

Pub Marketing Using SMS

Pub marketing has become much more important in recent years due to the economic situation that we find ourselves in. Because of this, the pub trade has been heavily affected by the fact that people have less money to spend on luxury items and that they are going out to socialise on fewer occasions.

So, how do we get the message across to our customers to make them more aware of the fact that you are still there? You could use traditional marketing methods such as advertising in your local newspaper, handing out flyers in the street, or having posters in your establishment.

Let's quickly go through each of these:

Newspaper Advertising: This method has been proven to work to a small degree, however the simple fact of the matter is that most of us now when we're reading print media have become 'immune' to adverts and so tend to skip over them. Newspaper advertising is also slow moving, ie, you place the advert in the publication today, and it may not be printed for another 5 days. This is not the medium you need if you have a promotion or event you want people to know about tomorrow.

Street Flyers: You could spend a few hundred pounds to get a few thousand flyers printed off with drink promotions that you normally have running in order to hand them out in the street to passing people on a Friday night. The problem with this method is that roughly ninety to ninety-five per cent of people out walking in the street already know where they are going and will just discard the flyer and ignore it. So for the environmentally publican, knowing that they have essentially littered their local area with hundreds or thousand flyers does not always sit easy on the mind. Also, with the remaining five to ten percent of people who do not know where they are aiming for on a night out, you are only likely to capture a small amount of those to walk through your doors. So you have to decide, is it worth paying out to have these printed for a small handful of extra customers?

In-house Posters: These are great for when you already have the people inside your pub, but how will it get them into there in the first place?

An alternative marketing method for pubs is mobile marketing using SMS. This is an old technology used in a new way to get your message out to people and is very cost effective compared to other methods. The reason for this is that under UK law it is illegal to send out unsolicited text messages to people who have not opted in to receive them from you, so those that get them want to hear what offers, promotions and events you're running.

SMS marketing is also hugely responsive. If you suddenly book a band to play that evening, or you are having a particularly quiet night you can type up your message and have it in the palm of hundreds of people in seconds. There is no waiting for a newspaper to be published, no discarding of flyers you've had printed, it literally is instant marketing.

SMS messages also have a ninety-six per cent read rate, which dwarfs the average fifty-five per cent for street flyers, and the approximate ten percent of newspaper advertising.

So what's the advice? We don't suggest that you drop the other forms of advertising mentioned above in favour of SMS messages, however we do strongly suggest that you use mobile marketing in conjunction with other methods. How ever you decide to go about it, as we mentioned Pub Marketing is more important now than ever.

This news article is brought to you by LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP - where latest news are our top priority.