Posted by: tim in travel, tim, reflection, business on
Sep , 2009
In the last three weeks I've covered the ground from West to East accross Europe - on the hunt for depressed economic conditions. They seem to be more rare than the sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. From London to Paris to Budapest - Picadilly to the Champs Elysees - and East to Andrássy Avenue in Budapest - the crowds fill shop floors and businss workers I've spoken with say "...business is good..."
What struck me was the numbers of people traveling and buying. The other thing that was apparent is whether you're used to walking down (or shopping - not my favorite pass time - but I do like to walk in and see the business models) New York's 5th Avenue or Robson Street in Vancouver, the main stay stores are all broadly distributed accross these European Cities.
I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today. It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!
The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.
In the last few posts I've been talking about "Smarter Marketing" - which is why we call "Smart Marketing" in The Connected Market Space iQ3. I talk about it here on my Video.
Do you still pay $3.00, $5.00, $10.00 per minute for international phone calls? Ever hear of Skype?
Of course if you were a business person who was paying $5.00/ minute for a phone call (if you still use the phone at all with email, SMS and your Blackberry in hand) you'd be working for the Government and have an unlimited budget. Oh wait, Governments are cutting back and getting smarter too...
The latest and greatest online buzz marketing tool seems to be Twitter. It's all the rage. Business guys like me are wondering though, will it stick? Obviously, no one really know - so a better question is this: Does it matter to your business?
In today's economy - especially in sectors like Real Estate, Mortgage Banking, or Health Care - transition, uncertainty and economic challenges facing the future of said sectors make business models look more like a Rorschach Test than a Harvard MBA based case study.
What do real estate "marketers" who were in high school or university a just over a decade ago, who became "marketing experts" in real estate and old-school sales guys have in common? The first group, the "marketers", learned their trade in the hottest market ever in the history of real estate. The second group, the sales guys, hasn't had to change a thing for more than a decade, or two (or three or four or even five!). The Internet and information were held close to the vest through the MLS.
Where were today's marketers in the mid-eighties? Many of them were in high school. So - a wise person might ponder - what is their experience in a tough market?
I'm walking in Montreal - looking at the buildings around me - all of which are at once historic and modern. The City is vibrant and alive with activity - no signs of a recession here.
There are bikes sponsored by the city that anyone with a credit card can use for 30 min for free. This is a place that has started to connect to a new model from and ancient history. A place where history has been preserved and upgraded to a modern stability - where the cross-communication between French culture and language to those of English is just a way of life - the natural way of connecting in a multi-cultural structure.
In 1997 (Wow! Thirteen years ago - time flies when you're thinking), while I was a full time Professor at the University of Victoria - I wrote and published a small paper called Technomics: How Access to Information Will Change Global Business. That was before the term "search engines" was part of common, everyday discourse (and before Google was even a company).
Here we are, way after the turn of the millennium, 2009, and what was my dream in 1997 - The Connected Market Space - has become a reality with our flagship site, Realestock.com.
Over the last four days, I've talked about the dangers of developers and sales people "knowing too much" and thus not doing the jobs they should be doing. Yesterday, I spoke about what can happen when a Print Media Expert is hired to do an Online Media Expert's job. Today, I'm going to switch gears a bit, though, and wrap up this week with one of the biggest mistakes I see developers making today.
Mistake #5 - Waiting for the Market to "Come Back". The market is ripe for buyers right now. The main mistake developers make is they are waiting for the "market to come back" while at this very moment discerning buyers are looking hard at where they will buy.
Yesterday I discussed the mistake developers often make in presuming that they themselves are Media Experts. In that same vein, I will show you today how hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert is a not only an outdated but also wasteful mistake many developers often make.
Mistake #4 - Hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert. Print media is not a dinosaur - it's an albatross. The problem with print media marketing agencies is a two-headed one: First and foremost, they are excessively expensive, with no real proven ROI. At 15% - 30% , why would any well founded print media marketing company mess with the web? The fact of the matter is that they don't really use online marketing beyond instances when they are forced to. Second, on the rare occasion that they do decide to utilize online marketing strategies, their vacuous knowledge of this very different technique forces them to lean heavily on their print media background, thus costing their developer clients tens of thousands of wasted dollars.
