Blue Oasis, Online Marketing Greenery

I met Ken yesterday after having late lunch in Starbucks. We wanted to discuss about the project he’s about to hand over to me. I noticed he has bought a new laptop, DELL XPS M1530.

So i asked, ” What do you think about the laptop? Is it ok? ” He complained that when he bought a Dell laptop which costs him about RM 4,000 ++ is not doing well, the bottom part of the laptop is not flat but bulgy. He called up the customer service team and they sent a service man to help him solve the problem. The technical guy unscrewed the laptop but Ken hated when the stuff he newly bought is torn apart. So the guy immediately understand his need and bring back the laptop promising he’ll return him a new one.

Dell sent Ken a new laptop. Not only that, they’ve upgraded the laptop with more powerful processor, additional 1gb RAM, and a Blueray DVD-Rom with no extra cost. Ken was overwhelmed. He is so excited that he earned all the stuffs which will easily cost him RM 1,000++ if he had bought them through Dell in the first place. Then he was carried away excited about his extraordinary experience and new laptop and the performance of it and how he earned those stuffs for free and …..There you go, a happy customer. He was really mad about Dell sending him a faulty new laptop a few days ago. Now Dell has got themselve a good marketing person. If i were to ask him what laptop i should buy if i were to get a new one, the answer is obvious.

Dell doesn’t have to pay him salary to sell their laptops, they don’t have to give him incentive for the sales he made and i’m sure, Ken will do a good job promoting Dell’s laptop. At least, better than the average sales person that Dell has in their retail outlets.

My gf was telling me a story about her work place. Her boss bought over a 2 storey chinese restaurant in addlestone and trying to run a take away chinese food business on their own. The place is in a mess, so since they’re having limited budget, they settled in after a little bit of touch up. They’re very careful with their spending and of course, my gf’s pay wasn’t that much.

A few months later, sales wasn’t picking up as expected but they’ve manage to earn some money. Their food taste good and it’s inexpesnive, so they do have some regular customers. To improve the business, they actually planned for a new menu to attract customers, but they took their sweet time. The progress is so slow that they show no intention of completing it. Boss complaint everyday that sales are really bad. With that small earnings after a few months hard work, it came to great surprise that the boss decided to renovate the rooms where they sleep instead of re-investing it into the business. Wallpapers, paintings, carpets.. it took them a month or two to actually finish everything.. and still the business is as good as dead. It’s not picking up any faster. Boss still complaint everyday that sales are really bad.

One day, they’ve finally figured out that marketing is something they should do to increase the earning so they speed up the menu making and printed a mere 1000 copies of flyers as they think it’s a waste of resources ( money - because flyers printing is expensive, paper - because most of the flyers will be thrown away ). They went for a 3-days-flyers distirbuting activity around the neighbourhood and waited at the restaurant for miracle. Days passed by and new customers showed up, but the boss is not happy becuase they think that the marketing campaign is a waste of time and is very tiring. Complaints went on and on everyday and the boss was also planning to shut down the business because it’s very difficult.

Their food is cheap and taste wonderful. So what actually seems to be the problem?

Would it be better if the boss have decided not to waste so much time and money on things that can’t actually contribute to the sales in the first place? Would it be better if they understand that by distributing flyers is the only way that they can improve their sales? Would it be great if the boss can calculate the difference between printing cost and renovation cost? Would it be better if they market their product each and everyday non-stop for 3 months straight in different region and nearby neighbourhood? Would it be different if they complain less and have more faith on their own business?

It would, wouldn’t it?

Build a business the conventional way. Invest RM 100,000 to buy equipments, rent a shop, renovate, hire staffs, setup Wifi, buy furniture, install CCTV, and the list goes on and on… When it’s done, the business is finally up and running. So here comes the headache. You need sales and you don’t have any. Now you have to do something to attract customers. So you invest another RM 10,000 for marketing campaign to do promotion, print flyers and promotional coupons and all that… and yet the sales is still not building up to your expectation… the investment ratio is 10 : 1.

Maybe you should try, building business the sales-driven way. Why not you just, clear a room in your house, setup internet, fax machine, phone line, and there you go. Your business is ready to rock! Having less headaches, you manage to put in more effort and time in brainstorming and tweaking your business ideas. The stress is less, you can afford more out of the box ideas to communicate with your clients, take time understanding what they want and deliver it at your best. The best part is, you have less bills to pay every month, breakeven period is shorter, and the most important thing is that you spent so much time on your client that they’re happy of you and things that you’ve got to offer.

So when we’re talking about online business, to have traffic first ( and then convert them into sales ), or to have a full blown eCommerce website first? In my personal experience, most clients just don’t understand that online business is not anything near to conventional way of building a business. Why invest on a full blown eCommerce website which doesn’t promise anything when you can have a blog that can test the market resond and tweak your business direction which can cut your cost while maximize your profit at the same time? What’s better than making your clients happy and turn them into a neutral loud speaker that spread the good about your products every where they go?

One of Seth Godin’s article, Flipping the Funnel, explains that most people tend to feed resources into a funnel ( A funnel is a pipe with a wide, often conical mouth and a narrow stem. It is used to channel liquid or fine-grained substances into containers with a small opening. Without a funnel, much spillage would occur. - wikipedia ) and settle for little results.

Why settle for little results when we can actually flip it upside down and start feeding less resources while expect bigger result?

To sell or not to sell, that’s the real question.

Lately, some of my friends had been asking me the same question. How to start up an online business? This is a question where you may encounter 42 million answers if you searched in google. I came across a good article for starting an internet business. Here we go.

Starting and operating an Internet business is surprisingly similar to operating any other business. Good business practices, like building the confidence of customers through truthful advertising, providing products and services at a fair price, and developing long-term business relationships, are as applicable to Internet businesses as they are to any other businesses.

Having said that, there are some important differences related to Internet businesses.

Check out this website for the 10-steps tutorial!

Mr Tan opens a store and hopes to do some business. He sells stationaries.
Customer A drop by and wanted to reload phone credit, but Mr Tan has nothing that customer A wanted, so customer A left.
After a while, Mr Tan thinks that selling stationaries alone is not enough, he starts to sell hand phone, credit reload and other mobile thingy as well.
Customer B drop by and wanted to buy some drinks, but Mr Tan has nothing that customer B wanted, so customer B left as well.
After a while, Mr Tan thinks that it’s a good idea to sell some snacks, candies, and drinks too.
When days passed by, the business isn’t getting any better and Mr Tan had to end his business.

In real world, we visited IKEA is because we hope to buy some interior stuffs with good design;
we stayed at Hilton hotel because we wanted prestigious accomodation;
we travelled to Bali because of their exotic culture.
Customers know them well for what they’re offering it’s because that’s what they do best.

So, what do you sell? is that what you do best?

“Cavemen draw things on the wall to express themselves. Archeologist spend years just to understand why, when and what they’re trying to potrey through paintings. Put their hats on, fit into their shoes. That’s the only way to do it.” - originally adapted from pin, 2 Jan 2007, 2.37am.

When the world is moving towards a borderless community, information is just a click away. We still develop website in English only, and we still hope that everybody will adapt to it and eventually understand and buy our products. It’s time we get a little insight of where the future lays.

4.4 billion throughout the world in 2006.
China: 1.32 billion (about 20% of world population)
India: 1.12 billion (about 17%)
Indonesia: 225 million (about 3.5%)

Other asia ( Made up to about 17% )
- Japan: 128 million (about 2.0%)
- Vietnam: 87 million (about 1.3%)
- Philippines: 86 million (about 1.3%)
- and other countries.

From the DSW-Datareport 2006, adapted from wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

Wouldn’t it be better if we speak their language?
Wouldn’t it be better if we understand their culture?

To gain the things we want, we must first understand the target. We don’t feed the trees with acorns and we don’t feed squirrels with manure. And above all, stone may cook good soup but carrot make it tastes alot better!