Take your product direct to market and tell people about it


Marketing is about creating lucrative exchanges. Even the word derives from the kind of street market that represents the ultimate in buyer-seller interaction. Street markets are dying out in most industrialized countries due to the economies of scale that exist for big firms (regardless of whether retailers or manufacturers).

Taking a product direct to marketplace has numerous advantages, though. It means that the supplier and also the buyer can get together with out any intermediaries, which indicates that it's easier to get a clear idea of what clients want and need. It indicates that middleman profit margins are taken out of the equation (although wholesalers and retailers usually earn their profit margins by increasing efficiency). It means that the seller has more control more than the entire procedure, in conjunction with the buyer. Doing the whole thing online has obvious advantages.

eBay has been around since 1995, and was originally founded as an auction website for consumer-to-consumer deals. At the time, it was more like an online jumble sale or auction than a true street market - but since then things have moved on.

Many businesses now sell goods on eBay. The site permits companies to set up "booths" from which they can sell goods, at a fixed cost rather than via an auction. Having a booth can be very cost-effective, particularly considering the quantity of potential clients you may reach.

eBay customers are likely to be price-sensitive bargain hunters. You might need to keep your prices down. eBay has strict rules - you need to be certain you understand them and agree with them. This idea works best for well-known brands. Remember that potential customers cannot effortlessly inspect the products. Be prepared for individuals to return products they're not pleased with, as they would in any other mail-order scenario.

Sometimes the product's distinctive selling proposition could be tedious. Whatever the real advantages, it's occasionally just not exciting enough for consumers to get worked up about. Injecting some excitement is often a matter of being inventive concerning the advertising message - and turning a drawback into an advantage.

Grolsch is a Dutch beer aimed at mature males who consume premium brands. The beer itself tastes fairly much like any other Dutch lager beer, and during the 1990s it became marginalized by the more aggressively marketed Stella Artois, Budweiser, and Kronenbourg 1664 brands. The company's advertising agency, The Leith Agency, was tasked with repositioning the brand in order to double sales by 2002, and replace Kronenbourg 1664 as the quantity two premium brand by 2010.

The distinctive feature of Grolsch is that it is brewed more slowly than other beers. This provides it a fuller flavor, but telling consumers that it's brewed longer for a fuller flavor is a message that came across as dull and not extremely relevant. The agency identified the consumers' prevailing view of the Netherlands: that it's a laid-back, easygoing location. This perception of the Netherlands and the Dutch is what the agency hung the campaign on.

The new campaign featured a Dutch hero showing that things are better when they're not rushed. The first advert showed bank robbers attacking a bank that was only partly built. The Dutch hero shouts "Schtop!" and also the endline "We only let you drink it when it is ready" was flashed up on the screen.

The finish result was that Grolsch exceeded the planned sales target of doubling sales by a margin of 75,000 barrels (a 58.4 percent increase overall). By combining country-of-origin effects using the product's USP, The Leith Agency produced an award-winning, and business-winning, campaign.

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