welcome

If you are logged on this blog, you are probably looking for some new ideas. You might be a marketer yourself, you might be an entrepreneur or small business person, or you might just want to be able to drop in a few good ideas at the next meeting. This blog will help with any of those aims.


Marketing is a process associated with promoting goods or services, above everything else; marketing is about creating profitable exchanges. The exchanges should be profitable for both parties- fair trade always makes both parties better off, otherwise why would people trade at all? What we are aiming to do is offer products (which include services, of course) that don’t come back, to customers who do come back. One of the basic concepts of marketing is customer centrality – in any question involving marketing, we also start with looking at what the customer needs. This does not; of course mean that we are some kind of altruistic, charity organization: we don’t GIVE customers; we SELL the customer what he or she needs. If a woman needs chocolate, or a man needs beer, we are there to ensure they do not have to wait long. Most of the ideas I will be sharing will offer you ways of improving the exchange process, by encouraging more of it or by making the exchange profitable.

Good marketing is about being creative. Successful companies are the ones that develop their own Unique Selling Proposition (the USP) that marks them out as different from their competitors. Be it a small business or large manufacturing company you and your product must STAND out for something and something must STAND you out among the rest.

Businesses are springing up everywhere a particular brand is selling - Pure Water, Bottled water, noodles, eateries, hotels& recreations, telecommunications, toiletries& cosmetics, departmental stores & super markets etc. for the market to prefer your brand amongst the crowd you need to do something different.

The first thing you need to identify or create is what makes you or your product outstanding, the USP might be almost anything – an improved level of service can make all the difference to a firm selling a product such as cement, which is essentially the same whoever sells it. At the same time, a retailer with an exclusive range of physical product can create a strong competitive advantage over another retailer who is equally attentive to customers and has just as nice a store.

I will offer you a set of ‘’snapshots’’ of ideas for marketing. Some of these ideas are from direct experience of dealing with various companies - Some big, some small, some are service companies; some are physical-product companies. In some cases, you will be able to lift ideas completely and adopt it for your business; in other cases you might be able to adapt the idea. In other cases the idea might illustrate how a creative approach can help you, and perhaps it will spark off a few ideas of your own. Many of the ideas will not apply to your industry or individual circumstances. For small to medium-size firms, a specialization is the way forward – but specialize in customers, not products. Customers give you money, products cost you money: stay focused on customer needs!

Ultimately, without customers there is no business. It is a lot easier getting staff, stock and premises too, than getting customers – everybody else is out there to get the customers’ hard-earned money off them. I hope you will get some ideas for getting more customers, keeping them and selling more to them. Welcome to the practical world of marketing where each visit to my blog will give you great marketing ideas on how to better market your business.

welcome!

Cyrils Nkwocha