John Iduh Blog

Consumers have special interests on products that highlight the DNA or HEART of the materials used in making them. Consider these products: Cranberry Juice Orange Juice Apple Juice Pineapple Juice Mango Juice Wheat Flour They all create  spaces and objects of choice decisions. However, you too can create.................. (fill the space).

Introducing magazine or Newspaper directed at a single market Niche has the potential to drive customer loyalty. Consider the emergence of these subcategories with respects: Celebrity Magazine Car Magazine Fashion Magazine Tech Magazine Real Estate Magazine Complete Sport Inside Chelsea Historical Flashback Newspaper You to can create .............................Magazine or ................Newspaper, and earn customer loyalty!

Creating products that people can use very instant, mostly at the time of hunger, earns customer loyalty, as well as suggesting opportunities for new business to emerge. Consider the emergence of: Indomie Instant Noodles Instant Tea Instant Mango-Drink Instant-Milk These are few examples. But consumers are crazy relating with them. However, you too, can create INSTANT....................................., (fill the space), and win markets!

Trend in the go-back-to-nature is making consumers pay attention to products created from the natural sources; and as well, suggests opportunities for creating New Businesses. Consider the emergence of: Ginseng Tea 100 % Fruit Juice Herbal Energy Drink Ginseng Multivitamin Capsules etc. These products have respects among consumers and also suggests new subcategories to emerge.

Consumers welcome products that kill or destroy things harmful to human living. Consider the innovation of: Insect Killer Rat Killer Cockroach Killer Germs Killer Pimples Killer etc. These categories have potentials and readily driving  customers in their various respects. However, you to can create ...................................Killer, fill the space!

Seasoning is a Kitchen Metaphor. It dominates minds when the thought for cooking arises. Consider the emergence of the following subcategories of Seasoning: Tomatoes Seasoning Stew Seasoning Chicken Seasoning Pepper-Soup Seasoning etc. They all define what people are buying. However, you to can create.............Seasoning, (fill the space) and earn consumer loyalty and relationship.

Consumers are getting crazy about "SLIM" metaphor. Consider the emergence of:: Slim-fitted suits Slim-fitted Shoes Slim-fitted Chinos Slim-fitted Jeans Slim-Tea Ultra-Slim TV etc. They all define what people are buying in their various categories and subcategories. And you too can create Slim..................; fill the space!

The "U ltra" vocabulary has won consumers in several categories and subcategories.  Consider the emergence of : Ultra-slim Ultra-white Ultra-book etc. Introduce Ultra ........................., Fill the space!

Introd ucing " Chips" Metaphor with Supporting vocabulary into a space can suggest opportunity for new product or business to emerge. Chip diction is customer-compelling. Consider the following: Plantain Chips Potatoes Chips Computer Chips ........... Chips . Please fill the space!

Leveraging the "Booster" Metaphor with supporting vocabularies can open opportunities for a new market to emerge. Booster metaphor has help firms create market subcategories as well as earning customer loyalty. Consider the emergence of the following boosters which have created objects of choice decision: Immune Booster Energy Booster Power Booster etc. You too can create ...............Booster and win Customer Loyalties and relationships!

At the media space: from the Television, Bill boards to Social media, Ideas are competing for consumers‘ attentions. This opens opportunities for category innovation, framing relevance/choice discussion to targeting at a well defined demographics, where competitors‘ arguments were not on the rader screen. Winning will be determined by being alone or ONLY in a category, rather than competing.

  As the global economy going long tail, Industrial outputs are getting smaller and simpler. The future of business will be selling the less of more.  Consider the innovation of:   Sachet waters.   Sachet bleaches.   Sachet detergents. Mobile computers. Ultra-slim TV etc Brands that create subcategories of what people are buying has to potential to drive markets and customer loyalty.

We are besieged by the growing trends in instant-gratification. W ith daily discounts becoming a part of everyday life, more consumers want quick, instant rewards and are becoming less patient with ongoing, long-term loyalty programs. As such, more brands are creating campaigns that offer immediate rewards and prizes. What’s more, these instant rewards are often given through user interaction, which allows the brand to merge both engagement and incentives to further amplify positive brand association and top-of-mind awareness   making brands go-to authorities while suggesting opportunities for new  categories and subcategories to emerge.  Consider the emergence of these subcategories: Instant message Quick MBA Instant tea Instant food Instant milk 6 days MBA program One year degree program etc You too can create INSTANT........................, Please fill the space!

Consider these: Egg Rolls. Cigarettee Rolls. Chicken Rolls. Sausage Rolls etc. You can Create .............. . Rolls by Filling the space!  

One of the hardest thing to get with consumers today is message authenticity. Consumers are getting smarter and they are pressed for time. They are increasingly intolerant of messages that are over complicated or over-clever, that cannot even tell them what brand or a product was. Companies need to stay true and refresh“ their messages keeping up to the rapid changes in the environment.

Connecting with the youth market is getting hard to achieve. Youth are so volatile, mufti-faceted, so it‘s important that brands are credible for them. Firms should build, and continuously extend the trust between their brands and the youth. They should provide the youth market with full brand experience that reflect their values, needs and desires.  You can create:......................... for the Youth! please fill the space!

Asahi reshaped the Japanese Beer industry by introducing an innovative brewing process that reduced body and bitterness while increasing alcoholic content. Its new product, Asahi Super-Dry, had a very different taste than of other Japaneses Larger, and generated a new category, Dry Beer . As a result, Kirin, for decades, the leading brand with a dominant  share  of consumer wallets, suddenly was not relevant, for many consumers were attracted to the new Dry Beer category .  Asahi market share - 80% when Super Dry was launched in 1986 - rose continually until it share leadership in 1988. This article is a part of what I have learnt from David Aaker's Brand Relevance: Making Competitor irrelevance

Markets evolution is the function of the forces of fragmentation brought by competition, and consolidation brought by  innovation. Let's take a look at the evolution of the paper towel industry. Originally,homemakers use cotton and linen dishcloths and towels in their kitchens. A paper company looking for new markets, developed paper towels. This development crystallized a latent market, and other manufacturers entered. The number of brands grew and created market-fragmentation. Industry over-capacity often lead manufacturers to seek new features, expanding the boundary of competition.  One manufacturer hearing that consumers complain that paper towels were not absorbent, in response, introduced Absorbent Towel, and increase its market shares. This market consolidation didn't last because competitors came out with their own versions of absorbent  towels. The market fragmented again,. then another manufacturer introduced a Super-Strength Towel; it was soon copi...

Think Siebel ! S iebel CRM Systems, Inc.  was a  software  company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of  customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The company was founded by  Thomas Siebel  and  Patricia House  in 1993. At first known mainly for its  sales force automation  products, the company expanded into the broader CRM market.  In  the late 1990s, Siebel created internet-based Customer-relationship Management Software by pulling together a host of applications, including customer loyalty program, customer-acquisition, Call Center, Customer Service, Customer Contact, and Sales Force Automation. In doing so, b y the late 1990s, Siebel Systems was the dominant CRM vendor, peaking at 45% market share in 2002;  rendered irrelevant, for some customers, the more specialized application programs of competitors. 

Consider the Energy Bar Industry. The Energy market which was pioneered by PowerBar, ultimately fragmented into a variety of subcategories, including  those directed at specific segments - such as Luna Bar for women - and some possessing specific attributes  - such as Protein-Associated Balance and the Calorie-Control Bar  Pria. Each represents a subcategory for which the original PowerBar was not relevant.

Alexis Ohanian's Motivational Start-Up Keynote . Pushing the audience to accept the idea of risk-taking when it comes to start-ups, Alexis Ohanian tells us it's okay to fail in his motivational start-up keynote. 

From Mythical Eyelash Jewelry to Bright Butterfly Eyelashes Adding mascara to your eyelashes can be a great way to accentuate your features,......  the exotic eyelash looks are definitely stretching the imagination when it comes to cosmetics and make-up. !

More people are divorcing or separating, choosing to marry later, or marry without the intention of having many children. Each group has distinct set of needs and buying habits. People in the single, separated, widowed or divorced (SSWD) groups need smaller apartments; inexpensive and smaller appliances; furniture and furnishings; and small size foods and detergent packages. If you create products targeted at the people who live alone and value convenience, you will be market-successful.

DiGiorno is a frozen pizza whose crust rises when the pizza is heated. Instead of putting it in a frozen pizza category or positioning it that way, the marketers framed it as a  delivered pizza . One of its advertisement shows party guests asking which pizza delivery service the host used. Then the host says:  it’s not delivery; it’s Digiorno’s!  This framing helps highlight Digiorno’s fresh quality and taste. Through this clever positioning, Digiorno’s sales went from essentially nothing in 1995 to $514 million dollars in 2005 ( as reported by Tybout & Sternthal: Brand Positioning in Kellogg on Marketing, 2001) ; making Digiorno the pizza leader by far.

Some businesses or  firms  represent “givers” And if so, under what circumstances is that style of operating likely to result in superior short-term or long-term performance? A “giver” is concerned with what others need and is both willing and able to spend time and efforts helping others, achieve their dreams, their aims, their priorities or aspirations. A “taker” is self-focused with an unrelenting goal of advancing his or her own career agenda. A “matcher” takes a more balanced approach, helping others when the net result will be reciprocated in a balanced way and result in fairness. A host of studies have shown that being a “giver” can result in inferior personal performance, especially if the “giver” has little self-interest and if the measurement is not extended over time. However, the “giver” style tends to win, sometimes big, over time when the effects of creating trust, forming relationships, creating networks and moving into areas in which collaborati...

Since I began, in the year 2010, my ongoing  research:  studying industry dynamics, market spaces   and changes in and around product  categories,  I have been convinced that  Kinetizing M arketing   has the potential to help businesses become market-successful.  This is because, my observation of the business landscape has clear evidence that:  "a  firm could develop great marketing supported by large budgets but will not make a dent or even move a needle unless it creates customer-compelling values that form new categories or subcategories, unless a new competitive arena in which the competitors were not effective emerged; and unless it  kinetizes  by   creating new market space that opens a defining gap from competition.  Then success could be dramatic in terms of sales, profits, and market position".                            ...

T he most serious threat facing most businesses in the dynamic business landscape is the loss of relevance because the business space they are serving is declining in people's attention. The markets are no longer buying what they perceived to be making. New industry or competitive arena have  emerged as direct or indirect competitors' innovations create "must haves." This dynamic can happen even if a business is still strong; customers are loyal; and the offering it provides has never been deteriorated. Relevance dominates. If a group of customers wants a battery powered car it does not matter how much they love your hybrid brand; It will not be relevant. A newspaper can have the best new coverage supported by brilliant editorial staff, but if readers are diverted to cable news or blogs, relevance will decline.  The ultimate solution is to innovate new relevance that will define a new business space or gain parity with timely competitors that have gain mark...

Many people most times confused marketing with the art of selling products. But don't be surprised that selling is not the most important aspect of marketing. Selling is just a tip of an ice-berg, of what one can assume marketing to be. Marketing makes selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know understand your markets, be it potential customers or prospects, so well through careful homework that the products or services you offer fit them and sell themselves. Then organizations will feel less hassled, making products or services available, and be swamp with orders.

What is Marketing? Be it Advertising, Branding, research, internet or running a supermarket along a busy street of a heavy town, good! You are marketing when you identify human needs and strive to reach out to meeting such needs at profit. The profit may not come in terms of money as you think. It comes in brand equity, image a recognition or impact you make within the society you operate.  Consider eBay which found that people were unable to locate some of the items they desired most. with that reason in mind, eBay created online auction clearinghouse.  In similar wise, IKEA recognized that people wanted good furniture at a substantially lower price. Hence, IKEA created knocked down furniture. Both firms were marketing savvy, turning private social needs into profitable business opportunities.

T here are several Keys to Attracting and Keeping Customers in Crucial market conditions. However, based on the knowledge I have acquired from industries, I have the following suggestions for entrepreneurs: Culture: Create a culture of having customers and prospects at the top of your organizational chart so that your beliefs, values, and behaviours emphasize on superior customer value and continual quest for new source of value; and then refine cross-functional teams to be more customer focused.  Market Sensing:  Continuous Sensing or studying emerging market trends and opportunities; reading and understanding customers and prospects so well that their choices, aspirations, needs , priorities and frame of reference are better understood. Market Relating: Cordial Market Relating is necessary for creating and maintaining better relationship with customers such that a bond is formed between your firm and them, and competition is not considered during ...

“ When I am asked for guidance on marketing problem, I usually respond that I know a method that is guaranteed to work: find an organization that has successfully addressed a similar problem and adopt what they did. Don’t limit the search to those organizations that look like yours; look across industries’’  .... Professor David Aaker, Brand consultant/Vice Chairman at Prophet. As Trond Riiber  has noted [an interview with CEO of Electrolux, Mckinsey quarterly, December, 2006, page 72] , in 2002, Electrolux was facing a rapidly polarizing appliance market. At one end, low-cost Asian companies such as Haier, LG and Samsung were applying downward price pressure. At the other end, premium competitors such as Bosch, Sub-zero and Viking were continued to grow at the expense of the middle-of-the-road brands. Electrolux new CEO Hans Straberg who took over the reins decided to rethink Electrolux customers’ wants and needs. Rather than accepting the stratification between l...