The McItalian Renaissance

Posted on : 13-02-2010 | By : admin | In : business

Luca Zaia, Italy’s Minister of Agriculture who has unhesitatingly endorsed McDonald’s, says that on Wednesday alone, the chain sold 100,000 McItaly burgers. “In Italy, we consider this a great success,” said the minister who is supposed to be supporting the interests of Italy’s citizens.

But that does sound like a pretty good sales figure, and Italian farmers do benefit. The Times of London notes that the McItaly—made from locally sourced ingredients and meant to appeal to Italian tastes—is but one of a whole slew of McDonald’s efforts to appeal to local tastes around the world. There is the Maharaja Mac (lamb or chicken burger) in India, the McLobster in Canada, and a shrimp burger–the Ebi Filit-O–in Japan.

McDonald’s is five years into this effort and there “are now signs that other multinationals are trying to boost their fortunes globally by emulating McDonald’s in stressing and accentuating their localism,” reports the Times‘ Ian King. Starbucks (SBUX), Yum Brands, the U.K.’s Tesco grocery chain, and others are trying various approaches to appeal to local consumers.

In the U.K., King says, McDonald’s has shown that “localism can be both genuine and a success.” McDonald’s is going gangbusters all over Europe and especially in Britain, with same-store sales making double-digit leaps. “What makes this story all the more remarkable is that, five years ago, the McDonald’s business in Britain was melting more rapidly than the cheese in one of its burgers.”

That continued until “McDonald’s global bosses in Illinois realized that imposing uniform standards from the U.S. was hitting European sales.” So local bosses were put in place—a Frenchman in France, an Englishman in England.

“Localism” has come to be thought of not just as a business strategy, but also as “a possible counter-balance to globalization,” especially in the food business,” King writes. McDonald’s is working with that in mind, employing “genuine and not simply cosmetic changes.”







Tags: business, consumers

(0) Comments | Read Full Article

Online Success

Posted on : 14-09-2009 | By : admin | In : Internet, business


I came across a poster of a well known webmaster recently wherein it states that he is on-track to reach seven figures in revenues this year. That means a million dollar in revenues from a website that is not even a year old. According to the poster the revenues that he receives are mostly from a combination of contextual advertising, affiliate programs and banner advertising. He is receiving online success without even selling anything.

Regardless if this poster is true or not the web has changed a lot in the recent years and online success became possible. The internet’s growth is probably the most dramatic phenomenon to happen in years and because of this it opened doors for entrepreneurs who are looking for online success. By creating websites, many have realized their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. Online success is what every entrepreneur dreams of because the rewards are very attractive.

The internet has brought online success to some however; there are many more people who cannot seem to make the internet work for them hence failure for online success. They sign-up with various programs, buy every possible business opportunities they can find all of which promises online success. All they earn is a couple of hundred a month, if at all.

So what does it take to achieve online success? Here are some tips for you guys to achieve online success we all want:

1. Value your customers. Despite the fact that the internet is the “new economy” this rule still applies: the most successful businesses are those able to create value for their customers. Meaning online success is still dependent on your customers. The reason why you put up a website is because you want to fulfill your customers needs be it information, product or service. Online success is possible if your give your customers what they are looking for.

The value you give your customers is important to your online success. The more your site is able to make your consumers lives easier or help them save money, the more your company will be valuable to them. It means not just creating an online brochure but guiding visitors, how using your website can actually assist them.

One major hindrance to online success is by creating a website that is primarily designed to pull off the fast money. Instead of creating a site where users could actually get value, they construct useless spam pages in the hope of tricking users and search engines alike. I assure you that you are so far off online success if you do this.

2. Focus on consumer service. One challenge that you might face on your road to online success is how to keep customer service alive and well in a medium where personal interaction is inherently limited.

One way of assuring online success is by keeping your website functional but at the same time personal. The design and content of your website should be based upon your prospects; you need to have a deep understanding of what your customers are, what they expect and why they need your product.

3. Go beyond what you have promised. We all know that customers love it when they get more value for their money. One way of assuring online success is to go beyond what you have promised, basically exceed customer expectations. There is a lot of hype on the internet, particularly among small online businesses (ever seen one of those websites with ridiculously lengthy sales letters that are full of promises?) These sites may yes attract customers the thing is many customers are left unsatisfied. However, if you under-promise to customers but over-deliver customers will be pleasantly surprised and love your site all the more for it!

4. Design the website for your consumers. Although a well-written, well-designed site which includes great content can make a positive impression on your prospects, the design should focus mainly around getting the visitor to take the action you want them to make.

Online success is gained if you focus more on what your customers want, and in designing your website these people are your best source of information. Seek the feedback of your customers and verify if your site works for them. If they think it’s not that great, what are the things that should be changed in order for them to be satisfied with your website? Listen carefully to their suggestions, and adjust your site accordingly. See what works, and what stuff does not.

5. Team up with the right people. In as much as you want to, you cannot provide everything your customers want and need. You want your site to be the destination of all web users when it comes to your topic, however achieving online success might be tough if your resources are limited. You won’t be able to achieve what you want if you have limited manpower, technical capabilities, etc. Because of this you may want to team up with complementary websites to boost your content, provide more resources, and offer more tools for your prospects. Teaming up with the right groups or people can help increase the exposure of your website; build its reputation in your industry, and hence gain online success for you.

6. Center your efforts on creating a brand. The most accomplished businesses have established strong brands for their merchandise, some of these companies are Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Disney, McDonald’s, Mercedes, and others. On the internet we have Google, eBay and Amazon who have also built strong businesses based in part on great branding. These big businesses understand that an essential part of success is building strong brands – yet many small or home-based online business owners feel that creating a good brand is way out of their reach. Effective online branding does not require big budgets, just an understanding of what brand attributes you are trying to build which will eventually lead to online success. By making every transaction brand-relevant and providing your customers with brand-based value, you will increase the depth and stickiness of your customer relationships and assure online success for your business.

Tags: blogs, budget, business, Business Opportunities, consumers, Customer Service, disney, ebay, Google, information, Internet, microsoft, money, New Economy, Search Engines, Spam, tools, US

(0) Comments | Read Full Article

Now Pre-paid credit cards for teens

Posted on : 12-09-2009 | By : admin | In : Business Opportunities

 

Pre-paid credit cards for teens

Imagine the opportunity here. A market which spends an incredible amount of time online, with (in most cases) nothing but disposable cash which is already topped up on a card and ready to be spent online – on whatever they choose.

The card is available to 13 – 18’s, costs only $5.95 to setup and can be topped up to a maximum of $1000 spend limit.

In a way, we could look at it as prepping the next generation of consumers, acclimatizing them to the process of shopping online.The card comes with a catch (albeit a very minor one), the holder of the card needs to have an active MySpace account.

Concert tickets, clothes, iPods, pre-paid pone credit, music – all the things that teens would typically have to ask Mum and Dad to buy for them, they will now have the flexibility to buy themselves online.

It’s great that ANZ have identified this opportunity, but perhaps it would be wise to extend the offer to Facebook account holders – not just MySpace.

With two thirds of all teens using some form of social networking site, the sky’s the limit.

When you think about this new generation of shoppers, and the existing online market – do you really have a reason not to take your business online?

Technorati Tags:

Tags: business, consumers, credit cards, Google, hd, Network, Networking, Space, US

(0) Comments | Read Full Article

Forever Optimistic

Posted on : 07-09-2009 | By : admin | In : Business Opportunities, Global

Tags: blogs, business, consumers, Google, Marketing, small business, US

(0) Comments | Read Full Article

Increase Average Sales

Posted on : 31-08-2009 | By : admin | In : Internet, business


When you go to your local McDonald’s and order a burger the clerk will automatically ask you if you want to have fries as well. Every customer who answers “Yes” adds $1 or more to that particular sale. If just a fraction of McDonald’s 54 million daily customers say “Yes,” that means millions on extra dollars. This strategy is an effective way of increasing average sale.

The same strategy used in increasing average sale should be observed by start-ups. These businesses have not yet built a large customer base so they need to increase average sales as much as possible from each person who buys from them. It is like the old story: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

During the first few months of operation your focus is not the market share but increasing average sales. Boost the dollar value of your average sale, and you boost your cash flow and bottom line. Here are some tips to help you increase average sales.

1. Crunch the figures. To start increasing average sales you have to understand the dollar value of your average sale. Say for example you have 30 customers and your total sales reach $1,500 on a normal day, then your average sale is $50. After you figure out your average sale in a day you can set a higher target from then on and plot your strategy as to how you can reach your goal.

Depending on the nature of your business it would be helpful if you can calculate your average sale per hour, day of the week, location, marketing campaign and other variables. The answers that you get will most likely lead you to your plan of action. Say for example you average sales on a Monday is pretty low compared to other days then you can plan special Monday promos.

2. Change the product or service mix. Adding or subtracting to what you sell can help you increase average sales. Take the case of a bakery that had an average sale of just $5. The problem was they offered virtually no higher-priced items. When they added specialty cakes and other premium goods, that figure jumped to $14.

You can achieve the same effect if you get rid of lower-priced products. Say for example you sell three different types of jeans drop the $35 jeans and the customer is forced to get either the $45 or $55 jeans instead.

3. Give bundle offerings. A good way of to increase average sales is by encouraging your customers to spend more. How? You can provide consumers with a packaged deal on various products or services. Take McDonalds for example, they do have what we call Extra Value Meals that include burger, fries and a drink.

4. Raise prices. Being the cheapest in the market is not the right technique to increase average sales. If you are just starting your business, price your products or services on the high side and then figure out how to offer more value. Being the cheapest in the market is not necessarily going to pay the bills, and you will be left high and dry when a competitor beats your price.

If you use these strategies I have cited you would be able to increase average sale by maximizing every transaction you get. You help keep the cash flowing while you are getting your business off the ground. And once business has taken flight, these same strategies can develop your flight plan for generating peak profits. Master the art of supersizing your sales early and it will pay off many times over.


Tags: blogs, business, consumers, Google, Internet, Marketing, US

(0) Comments | Read Full Article

Previous