Way back in 1984, an American Advertising Executive, Jay Conrad Levinson, published a book called Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business. Levinson, who as Senior Vice President of J Walter Thompson was responsible for many major campaigns including the Marlborough Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Tony the Tiger, and the Jolly [...]
These days everywhere you look on the internet people are talking about “Niche Marketing” and how by identifying a niche you can make lots of money. However, what is seldom discussed is what exactly a niche market is. Now, as it happens a niche market can be defined is several different ways but for our [...]
Networking refers to the practice of interacting with associates, fellow entrepreneurs, colleagues and other people to build a network of far-reaching contacts. Today, networking has become an integral element of conducting business as it helps to reach wider audiences and perhaps maximize client base in the process. A very famous entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki once stated [...]
People like me are prone to bang on about the need for a Business Plan, a Marketing Plan, a Finance Plan and so on. Mind you for me a good business plan should contain all those elements but each does have a stand-alone life of its own and each needs regular updating. It isn’t enough [...]
Marketing for small business is different than marketing for national or international brands, which enjoy instant name recognition. By contrast, small business marketing relies heavily on word of mouth and on building and maintaining personal relationships. This article isn’t about finding new customers, it is about hanging on to the ones you have and building [...]
No one likes getting complaints from customers but the fact is that if you handle a complaint well you can make the complainer into an asset – someone who will praise your business. OK, we all know that there are some people you can never please no matter what you do and there are some [...]
This Blog is dedicated to offering help and advice to people who run or want to run a business of any kind. In addition to the information contained in the posts we also offer a number of free business guides, usually around 12 pages long, on a wide range of subjects. You can access these via [...]
Customers are the lifeblood of any business and without them no company can survive. So how do you go about getting (and keeping) customers? Finding customers is the key to running a successful business and all highly successful businesses are good at marketing. This doesn’t mean that you need to spend thousands on an expensive [...]
Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for nearly fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle. In recent years, Barbie has faced increasing competition from the Bratz range of dolls. The doll was the brain child [...]
The online auction Web site was founded in San Jose, California, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar on 3rd September 1995. Originally the site was called AuctionWeb and was registered to Omidyar’s consulting business, Echo Bay Technology Group. In 1997 Benchmark Capital offered $5 million in funding to develop the online auction idea and [...]
Seeing an opportunity to work for himself 19-year-old, James E. (“Jim”) Casey, borrowed $100 from a friend and established the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington. According to accounts given by Jim there were quite a few messenger services already in the Seattle area, some of which he had worked for in the past and [...]
During development it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago and It was a significant progression from the company’s previous Windows products. Windows 95 was intended to integrate Microsoft’s formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products and includes an enhanced version of DOS, often referred to as MS-DOS 7.0. It featured [...]
The first mail-order catalogue was published by Chicago based Montgomery Ward & Co. and though the first edition was only a single sheet of paper it began what became a massive global industry. Ward started the company in 1872 with $2,400 capital and the aim of buying large quantities of merchandise wholesale and then selling [...]
For those who were not acquainted with the wonders of the Web browser, or at least with its mighty financial potential, August 10, 1995, was an eye-opening day. That’s because Netscape Communications Corporation, developer of Navigator, then the most popular software for surfing the World Wide Web, went public with what became the largest Initial [...]
He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. Since 1923 MGM had used a lion as its trademark. The first was actually called Slats and he was not even America, having been born in Dublin zoo. In 1928 Slats was replaced by the almost identical Jackie and it was Jackie whose [...]
In 1935, if you wanted to read a good book, you needed either a lot of money or a library card. Cheap paperbacks were available, but their production (and content) were at best poor. The story goes that Allen Lane, then a director of the publishing house The Bodley Head, was waiting for a train [...]
The Marquee Club in London was the venue and I happened to be there at the time though I can’t remember why. Someone probably dragged me along and I remember thinging “these guys could make it big”. Indeed the Rolling Stones are now one of the world’s Business Super Brands – as well as being [...]
In the face of a declining market share and losing out heavily to Pepsi Cola the senior management of Coca Cola commissioned a major market research exercise. The results indicated that consumers wanted a sweeter flavour either sugar-based or using artificial sweetener. But the research didn’t suggest that a new recipe should totally replace the [...]
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City with Asian and European editions. It has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million and over 1 million paying online subscribers. Its main rival as a daily financial newspaper is the London-based [...]
On 7th July 2000 Amazon.com announced that they had pre-sold over 400,000 copies of “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire,” making it the biggest selling book in e-tailing history. At exactly 12:01 a.m. on July 8, J.K. Rowling’s fourth installment of her Harry Potter series was released in the UK and in the United [...]
