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Marketing Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid

Marketing is perhaps the backbone of any business. As a business, marketing should be practiced with meticulous precision to ensure return on investment while giving the business an opportunity to flourish in the market. Businesses, however, do often make critical mistakes that should otherwise be avoided at all cost.

Failing to meet audience needs

As much as businesses target driving sales of their products and services to the audience, sometimes they do lack the crucial connection with the audience. Such a disconnection comes in situations where the business fails to obtain feedback from the audience on crucial parameters such as product and service reviews. When creating marketing campaigns, failure to connect with the audience may lead to further problems where the marketing initiatives lack the emotional connection with the market.

Failure to diversify marketing approaches

Diversification of the marketing approaches that businesses use is not an option. To be successful across multiple fronts, businesses need to use different approaches. Most businesses, however, make critical marketing mistakes by using a single marketing campaign, thereby limiting the kind of target audience that they can reach out to.

Failure to meet customer expectations

Businesses branding themselves and their products in the market sometimes fail to live up to the expectations that the market may have. This is normally as a result of poor product research and development, leading to substandard products which cannot serve customers satisfactorily. Failed customer expectations are a major cause of the ruining of the relationship between customers and businesses.

Ignoring competition

Competition in the business sector is an inevitable factor and force that businesses need to always consider. Most businesses, however, do ignore the competition, thereby lacking the crucial ability to generate a competitive advantage. Businesses that are keen on factoring in competition in their marketing initiatives get an opportunity to achieve product development and thus leading to better market penetration of their products.

Focusing on short-term metrics only

Sometimes, businesses may perform exemplarily well in the short term. Such businesses which rely on short-term successes miss on crucial links and insights that would have been gained if they considered the long-term marketing performance metrics. Short-term metrics, in this regard, may be deceiving by showing an intermittent positive performance which may lack replicability in the long-term.

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What to Know Before Traveling to Iran

Although worrisome headlines from the Middle East may make Americans fear otherwise, Iran is actually a safe and wonderful place to visit. The people there are some of the friendliest in the world and they’re often intrigued by foreigners and eager to interact. When planning a trip to the country, it’s easy to find advice on how to dress and understand Iranian currency. While these tips are important, there are also some far more subtle cultural quirks you should know.

Know About Tarof

Iranian culture includes a practice known as tarof. Under this custom, anyone receiving money for a product or service will refuse payment the first time it’s offered. Payment is only accepted the second time it’s presented. If you get a ride around the city and try to pay your cab driver, for example, he may refuse to take your money. This is because of tarof and doesn’t mean your ride is free. The driver will fully expect you to offer payment a second time. Your ride is free only if the cab driver or other vendor refuses payment twice.

Bring Cash

Many countries run on plastic, but Iran isn’t one of them. In Iran, you should expect to pay cash for every purchase you make. Credit cards simply aren’t accepted. Debit cards, however, can work for people wary of carrying too much cash. To get one that will work in Iran, visit the Melli Bank in the Khomeini Airport. You can also exchange currency as you need to as you travel. Just don’t rely on your credit card, or you’ll run into trouble.

Don’t Bring Your Own Alcohol

Iran is a Muslim country in which the consumption of both alcohol and pork are strictly forbidden. It’s imperative that you respect these traditions while visiting the country. This is not a BYOB situation — anyone caught bringing alcohol into the country faces severe criminal penalties. The rules for pork are more lax for foreigners and there are a handful of places to get the forbidden fruit (or meat) if you absolutely must have it. In general, however, it’s best to simply forgo pork until you’re back home.

Connect Carefully

Upon arrival, you can purchase a SIM card for your phone that will grant you internet access in Iran. Be careful where your web surfing takes you, however. Americans who access their online banking while in Iran have reported having their bank accounts frozen until they provided their bank with proof that they had left the country and returned home.

A visit to Iran will prove a memorable experience. These tips will help you travel like a pro and make sure you remember your trip for all the right reasons.

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A Brief History of Persian Architecture

Rooted in the traditions of nomadic tribes, the vast Persian Empire stretched from North Africa to Asia. Under the guidance of bold rulers, like Cyrus the Great, ancient Persians wrangled Mother Nature to further civic developments and fashioned sophisticated architecture still celebrated today.

Early History

Though strict historians date the original Persian Empire between 550 B.C. and 330 B.C., cultural evidence dates back to 5000 BC. Over decades, archeologists have discovered vibrant ceramics, 3D art, and animal imagery and sculptures from Persepolis and Susa, two cities that thrived between 3500 B.C. and 1200 BC.

Egyptian and Greek Infiltration

By the empire’s official start in 550 B.C., Egyptian and Greek culture infiltrated Persian artistic and architectural expression. Known as the Achaemenid Era, it’s marked by massive structures, square towers, bell-shaped columns, porticoes, and elevated terraces. Notably, artisans and architects of the time continued to incorporate animals into their work.

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. ushered in new aesthetic notes. Stone became the preferred building material, and craftsman furiously sculpted Hellenistic heads, which builders dutifully used to adorn public structures and private palaces. Stucco also rose to prominence at this time.

Enter Islam

Around the seventh century, regional residents embraced Islam, which corresponded to an increase in square brick buildings with domed tops. Pottery and metalwork also rose in popularity during this time, as did art featuring enamel and leaf gilding.

Enter Mongols

The 13th century brought the Mongol invasions, and countless, priceless artifacts were lost to war. However, by the 15th century, Persians had started construction on the iconic Maidan-I Shah complex while Chinese influences crept into area art.

The Safavids and Neo-Achaemenid

By 1501 A.D., the Safavid Empire had acquired the Persian throne and reigned for nearly 300 years. A cultural powerhouse, the Safavids commissioned large scale mural paintings, lots of portraiture and presumably the venerated Shahnameh paintings. The style of the time can be summed up with two adjectives: elaborate and ornate.

As the 17th century stepped up to bat, European and Indian influences digested distinctly Persian styles and regurgitated a hybrid culture. Starting in the 20th century, however, architects of the Neo-Achaemenid school resuscitated the ancient Persian aesthetic. Today, several public buildings in Tehran serve as exemplars.

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The Growing Trend of Food Delivery Services

A major trend in ordering food online and having it delivered at home has been reported by UBS investment bank in a report called “Is the Kitchen Dead?” UBS expects food delivery sales to rise from $35 billion to $365 billion globally by 2030.

Millennials order food delivery three times more than their parents. The result of this trend can be seen in the increase in the number of restaurants listed on food delivery apps. The number of restaurants represented on Uber Eats has tripled in the last year. The top 40 apps downloaded in major markets include food delivery apps.

UBS reported that e-commerce business models are disrupting the restaurant and grocery store sectors. Although the total cost of the food plus the delivery is currently more expensive than home cooking, it may equal or even cost less due to the emergence of “dark kitchens.” Dark kitchens make restaurant food strictly for delivery. They use robots to prepare the food, and drones then deliver the food.

Grocery stores, food retailers, and producers of packaged food (Kraft, General Mills, Heinz, and Unilever) will suffer if the dark kitchen’s growth is massive.

Kitchens have become underutilized. If this trend increases, more homes will be designed with smaller kitchens or with no kitchens at all. Millennials desire to live alone yet share a communal kitchen could cause an increase in We Work’s We Live type living arrangements. UBS reported that the 25 percent single-person households in both the United States and the United Kingdom would enjoy the economic benefits of sharing as opposed to possessing an underutilized kitchen.

Building dark kitchens in response to the increase in demand for delivery in lieu of full-service restaurants may not only affect the commercial real estate market but may also cause a decrease in the sale of appliances.

The decline in cooking at home may be reversed by the rise in smart appliances, meal kits, and cooking apps. Other studies show that consumers are spending more and more time at home and are making cooking an “experience” that is often shared on social media. The trend to cook and eat fresh, healthy food is still growing.

Food subscription boxes are one of the most significant segments in the subscription box industry. The top five subscription box websites most visited in April in the U.S. with over three million visits were the meal-kit companies Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.

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