• How about the story of one of this industry’s largest and best known brands completely overhauling their GLOBAL marketing strategy based on a sales promotion by ONE U.S. retailer? You remember that one, don’t you? If you don’t remember it, you may want to revisit it…it shocked me!
IN A NUTSHELL: Sharp executives saw a holiday advertisement from Circuit City in which their upscale Aquos LCD TV was priced below a competitive product from Samsung. Sharp execs were shocked by this event and subsequently changed their entire global marketing strategy as a result. How?
Read the April 21, 2008 ALERT
Read the story: Sharp Shift in Sharp’s Strategy…and find out…it is fascinating
• If I called you up and told you I had a great business idea and needed you to pony up some bucks to partner with me…you would obviously want to know what my great idea was. Suppose I said to you…we’re going to sell pizzas! You’d probably think I had lost it…after all, there’s a million pizza parlors all over the United States.
But what if I told you my gimmick…we’re going to sell pizzas over the Internet. What then? Well, you would probably think that I was absolutely certifiable. But one company did just that. And they are selling ONE BILLION DOLLARS worth of pizzas on the Internet. How?
See the May 2008 BEACON
Go directly to the story: Are Your Products & Services as Tasty as…a Pizza?
• What if I told you one of the industry’s major a/v specialty players is shifting the bulk of their resources into a non-a/v category? What if I told you that one of their divisions, a popular motorcycle company that bears their name, is no longer owned by them? Well, if you had read the story on Yamaha, you would learn all of this.
But more importantly, you would learn how their management came to these difficult decisions and what the history was that brought them to where they are now.
See the May ALERT
Go directly to the article: Yamaha Makes Dramatic Shift – Company to Focus on “Musical Operations” Business
Learn how big companies make big decisions that will change their futures…That’s what marketing strategy is all about!
• Do you manufacture flat panel TVs? Do you distribute flat panel TVs? Do you sell or install flat panel TVs? If so, then hopefully you’ve noticed the ALERT and the BEACON has had several articles designed to keep you informed about trends in this important category.
Mainly, the ALERT was the first U.S. based newsletter to point out the trend to smaller screen sizes. There have been several ALERT stories but you should definitely read the May ALERT story,
See the May ALERT
Go directly to the story: How Big Do You Want It? For Today’s LCD TV Consumer Not Too Big Please
In most cases, BEACON and ALERT lead stories are read by normally 50-60% or more of all subscribers. The stories mentioned here, were generally read by less than 20% of subscribers.
But give them another look. You may discover something interesting you missed. Let me know your thoughts. You can always reach me at tedg@stratecongroup.com.