Your consumers may know more about your competitors than you do!
If you're a business owner, it's time to get informed. While your consumers may simply be buying your competitor's products, this doesn't necessarily mean they have any better knowledge about the company than you do. In fact, it can be quite the opposite.
Read on for 17 eye-opening facts about your competitors that could help you keep up with them and outmaneuver them in the market!
#1 - Do customers share their shopping experiences with other people?
- The answer is yes! Local businesses tend to maintain a high level of online activity through reviews and social media activity by comparing prices and shipping rates on sites like Yelp and Citysearch.
#2 - Do consumers care about the quality of the products you sell?
- According to a study by Market Force Information, almost 30% of online shoppers are actively searching for companies that sell high quality products. If you don't have what they want when they want it, competitors will beat you to it and steal your customers!
#3 - Do consumers share their knowledge of what they like with others?
- The average American shares his or her opinion on customer service at least twice a day via email, telephone and social media sites. If people have a bad first experience with you, they're likely to advise others against doing business with you.
#4 - Do your customers do business with other local businesses?
- Thirty-nine percent of consumers start their shopping trip by looking up their area's local businesses and visiting their local shopping mall or town center.
#5 - Do consumers trust online reviews?
- Businesses that have the highest customer satisfaction scores earn an average of 8% higher profits than those who don't. If your customers are unhappy and leave negative feedback, it could be costing you thousands of dollars in lost revenue every year.
#6 - Do consumers trust their friends?
- According to a Nielsen study, eighty percent of consumers are influenced by their friends and family when deciding whether to buy a certain product or service.
#7 - Do competitors' prices affect your sales?
- If marketers introduce lower prices with fewer coupons, stores benefit more in the long run than if they extended their sales period by reducing their costs.
#8 - Do consumers go directly to your competitors?
- More than half of local shoppers have gone directly from one store to another after realizing it's cheaper to buy at one store than the other. And nearly 70% of people only shop online during the Christmas holiday season. Consumers are making shopping decisions based on value more than ever before.
#9 - Do consumers know what they want?
- Half of online shoppers spend an hour or more researching products before making a purchase.
#10 - Do consumers trust the brands they've heard of?- If a consumer is familiar with your competitors, but not you, you're unlikely to win their business. While people are less likely to try something new when they have options, familiarity matters more than anything else when it comes to sales success.
#11 - Do consumers know where to find the brands they want?- More than 50% of consumers buy products directly from social media sites. Thirty-four percent said they used a coupon with a product category they hadn't heard of before.
#12 - Do customers prefer to be contacted as soon as possible?- Homeowners are more likely to respond to an offer on their phone than anywhere else. Fifty-four percent have responded directly to a competitor's e-mail message because it arrived before the inbox for their own company's e-mail account.
#13 - Do customers prefer to buy products from experts?- More than half of consumers look for an expert opinion before making a purchase.
#14 - Do customers complain about sales you offer?- Offering a sale can reduce customer satisfaction if the bargain price isn't offered across the board. Consider the value of long-term loyalty to your business over short-term gains.
#15 - Do people trust advertisements they see on television?- According to a Nielsen study, 84% of online shoppers use online resources before making a purchase. TV ads work best when they're directly related to what the consumer is looking for.
#16 - Do customers decide what to buy in advance?- Ninety-seven percent of consumers take an average of only 3.7 minutes to finalize their purchases.
#17 - Do brands that innovate win over loyal customers?- The brand alone is not nearly as important as a sense of obligation and ownership toward the brand.
So there you have it – 17 facts about your competitors that could help you outmaneuver them in the market.
About the Author:
Jonathan Cole has more than 25 years of experience in media, marketing and sales. He's a contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur and The Huffington Post. He is the author of "Inside Sales: How to Develop Your Sales Skills" as well as "The Secrets of Closing the Deal: An Insider's Guide." Jonathan graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Journalism from Syracuse University and holds certifications in Project Management and Business Leadership from Keller Graduate School of Management. For more information, visit www.JCColeRadio.com .
Two federal judges from different districts have now ruled that breast pumps produced by Medela, Inc., are not subject to the same U.S. tariff as infant formula produced by Mead Johnson & Co. The World Trade Organization has upheld the government's decision that breast pumps are a "medical device," which requires a higher rate of importation than infant formula.
In recent years, Medela has been aggressively marketing its breast pump products throughout the U.S. market, in efforts to take advantage of the existing market and profitability – which its competitors Mead Johnson, Procter & Gamble's Pampers brand and Wyeth ( owned by Pfizer) had already created prior to Medela's entry.
Medela's breast pumps are often marketed as an alternative to disposable breast pads or nursing pads with disposable liners, as well as a substitute for human milk in newborns. Medela's breast pumps have been sold in retail stores, on television and through its website.
In recent years Medela has also increased the advertising of its breast pumps. In 2010, for example, its advertising budget for breast pumps was $23 million – a threefold increase from 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Origins of Breast Pumps: An Innovation that Boosted Sales of Infant Formula
Medela's breast pumps were inspired by a pump created by American physicians Garrett and Kent weeks after World War II for hospital patients who were unable to nurse – including those who lost their ability to nurse as a result of surgery or other medical conditions.
Conclusion
While Medela's breast-pump products have been in existence for more than five decades, their growth in sales is probably due to the fact that they have been aggressively marketed over the past few years – with Medela turning them into a mass-market product.
What do you think? Do you use breast pumps? Have you noticed more advertising for breast pumps and related products recently?
Protect Yourself from Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud: Don't Carry Much Cash Around
By Paul Chaney
Many large retailers offer chip-and-PIN credit card readers now. That means that when you use your credit card at their checkout counter, it will require a four digit pin number to complete the transaction.