Page 60 - Duct Tape Marketing

44 Part I: Getting Started in Marketing

Figure 3-2: How can we sell more How can we initiate
Questions to Existing Products to sales of Existing Products
Existing Customers
ask as you to New Customers
assess your What New Products
would build business with What New Products
sales can we offer to attract
growth Existing Customers
options. New Customers

Enhancing the appeal of existing products

At least annually, small businesses need to assess whether their products
still appeal to customers or whether it’s time to adjust features, services,
pricing, and product packaging — or make other changes to sustain or
reignite buyer interest. Here are some of your options:

ߜ Same product, new use: Start by looking for ways you can re-present
your offerings.

One of the best historic examples of re-presenting a product comes from
Arm & Hammer baking soda. When people reduced the amount of
baking they did, the amount of baking soda they needed tumbled into
the basement. So, rather than stand by and watch sales slide, Arm &
Hammer responded by reintroducing baking soda — this time not as a
recipe ingredient but rather as a refrigerator deodorizer.

ߜ Same product, new promotional offer: Examine ways to update how you
offer your product to customers, including new customer-responsive
pricing, new packages combining top-selling products with others your
customers may not have tried, or other ways to help your customers see
your offerings with a new appeal.

Be sure your new offerings are true improvements that address cus-
tomer wants and needs. Before you offer a new “deal,” be sure that you
can say yes to the following question: Does this provide customers with
a better, higher-value way to buy your products?

A Web designer may increase sales of consulting services by bundling
quarterly site traffic reporting and analysis with site design, thereby
delivering consulting services to customers who otherwise would have
purchased only design expertise.

A landscape/nursery business may offer half-price terra cotta pots with all
perennial purchases over $50 — thereby giving customers an incentive to
buy higher volumes of flowers and increasing interest in the nursery’s line
of pottery.