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Knowledge Needed to Showcase Personal Brand name Effectively

In social media marketing strategy template pdf; While the roles, responsibilities, and platforms continue to modify, some essential skills will still be relevant and key intended for social media professionals.

Research. Every one of the roles in social media are getting to be more data driven along with focused on the analytics involving what people are saying and discussing and how to strategically apply all these findings into actionable observations. Having a foundation in classic research methods (surveys, findings, interviews, focus groups, and so forth ) will still be apparent along with key for social media pros, but it is also important to be capable of determine how to collect, analyze, along with report specific findings about social media tools. This is probably just about the most important skills to have. Study for social media requires that you collect data and know what the numbers and final results mean but , at the same time, become creative in how you might incorporate these insights into the techniques for your role.

With investigation, several skills need to be linked into what this particular responsibility requires. Data analysis, that looks at the data being gathered, is an important skill. Being able to determine what is trending, why it really is trending, and how to collect, arrange, and report the data is yet a key area of focus. However some curiosity and creativeness should be mixed in with this particular part and duty. We have to look into the research and ask ourselves, “What is the ‘so what’? What is going on here, and what can we remove from this research? Are there any amazed we can note and possibly use for our advantage for an idea? ” This is where art comes into play along with research. We want to explain precisely what happened, but also why industry and what we can learn from the ability for the future. In addition , we have to be sure we can communicate the studies clearly. Statistics and other study terms may be a bit frustrating at times, but the main studies, the significance of each test from the experiment or study you could have conducted, and the overall tactical plan are essential for social websites managers to communicate.

Publishing and visual content creation.

Being a social media professional, you must always be one with writing. In relation to the skills and experiences models, corporations, and others are looking for throughout social media roles, it’s never just about being a strong copy writer, though; you have to be a strong writer as well. Sometimes you will make a caption for an image and still have to evaluate whether or not this was the way to approach the message or perhaps whether or not it really captured the particular brand’s voice. Your followers have to understand what you are conversing and sharing on social media marketing platforms and be aware of that they will respond to each article. In addition , it’s about comprehending not only the importance of writing in the interests of having great grammar and also spelling capabilities, but also the requirement to write for different platforms. To be able to tailor and adapt a communication based on the platform, channel, viewers, and situation is necessary. Flexibility both in real time and with automation of tasks capabilities for social media (e. g., scheduling of posts) needs to be taken into consideration as well.

Know about the power of content and what it indicates for brands, audiences, mass media outlets, and others when it comes to their particular business operations. Creating content-whether visual or textual-is an important and necessary component on the subject of social media roles. When a firm or Fortune 500 corporation has an established presence with certain channels or is definitely actively engaged in sharing information on its website (blog posts, ebooks, infographics, and so forth ), this is part of the information component necessary for the web 2 . 0 professionals’ tool kit. The ability to strategically align content with useful message copy that resonates with an audience is one of the major skills employers look for in a very social media professional.

When it comes to developing content, you may want to invest in and appearance at certain tools so that you can create a sustainable yet steady personal brand presence on-line. Across all of your social media users, you want to have a single style, voice, and message in your audience that speaks to be able to who you are and what you are a symbol of as a personal brand to your community. Here are some additional equipment to invest in and take a look at:

Canva (www.canva.com): Canva is a great graphic tool with affordable web templates and social media-size constructions for you to use, personalize, and reveal for branding online. You can find two types of Canva to take into account: the free version in addition to Canva for Work. A new paid version of the podium, Canva for Work helps you do more personalized tailoring in addition to branding for your accounts in addition to assets than the free type.

Adobe Spark (spark. ceramic ware. com): This app attributes mobile- and web-based solutions that allow you to create responsive websites (Spark Page), videos (Spark Videos), and posts to get social media (Spark Post) within a easy and interactive manner.

HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator (www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator): If you work on the side of producing content (blog posts, and so forth ), this may be a good program for determining topics to post about. You will want to use stats and listen to your neighborhood to determine what people would like to study and learn from you, but this is certainly another tool that can help an individual identify some possible suggestions to explore in writing.

CoSchedule’s Subject Analyzer (coschedule. com/headline-analyzer): Headers for blog posts or even several social media updates have to record people’s attention and help inspire your audience to click the link or look at the publish you have created. This application will give you an idea of where your current headline stands based on keywords and phrases, length, and potential to interest engagement.

Hemingway App: With the aspects of creating content-especially information that is written online syntax and spelling are crucial. If constructing your posts, make sure you are talking effectively and making the finest first impression.

Personality Insights by means of IBM Watson (personality-insights-livedemo. mybluemix. net/): What type of messages currently sending out to people when it comes to you possibly can you share online? One particular determine this is to analyze the writing through a tool from MICROSOFT Watson that allows you to see several of the reactions people may have while using content you are sharing on the net. In a way, this is a precursor from what you may want to do before you struck the “publish” button over a blog post or social media upgrade.

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The Omnichannel Retail Environment

The retail scene has considerably changed in the last few years due to the growth of online retail and ongoing digitalisation (Verhoef et al. 2015) with consequences in the role that the physical store plays in the omnichannel scenario. While some experts state that the number of physical stores will diminish and many will become mere showrooms (Rigby 2011; Retail Week 2014) other voices situate the physical store as the focus of the brand experience and the point of integration of the different channels of the company. The reality is that the role of the physical store is being redefined but the future evolution of the format is uncertain. In the omnichannel environment, the store is considered as part of a bigger and more connected shopping experience, which involves the delivery of an integrated and seamless experience without considering e-commerce and the physical store as separate channels (Cao and Li 2015). While a considerable amount of industry research has explored the evolution of physical formats, there is still a lack of academic research that addresses this issue.

In order to provide more insight into the process, this research aims to gain a better understanding about the role that the physical store plays in the current multichannel offering and the expected evolution of the format in the near future into omnichannel, from an industry perspective. This chapter conveys two main objectives: firstly, to explore the current situation of the physical store format in terms of experience, integration with other channels, role of technology and consumer’ expectations; secondly, to establish relevant guidelines about the future evolution of the format. Interviews with industry experts enabled rich data on the topic to be collected, analysed and presented.

The post is structured as follows. First, the literature review provides the academic and industry background about the issues considered. Then, the methodology that guided the data collection is briefly explained followed by the results and discussion. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are stated.

The Role of the Physical Store in the Omnichannel Scenario In the UK, the total clothing market (including womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and accessories) is currently valued at £44.2 billion and expected to reach £55.9 billion by 2021 with online sales accounting for £10 billion or 22.6% of total clothing spending in 2016 (Verdict 2016). The increasing growth of online channels has resulted in many retailers embracing multi-channel strategies that include aspects such as the integration of the retail mix across channels or the consideration of the consumer experience across those channels (Verhoef et al. 2015; Neslin and Shankar 2009). Not just e-commerce but the development of mobile technology has created another important change in the retail environment, changing consumer behaviour and expectations (Rigby 2011; Brynjolfsson et al. 2013).

The current retail scenario is dominated by the so called multichannel retailers who need to manage their different channels altogether and create a compelling experience for consumers. Some of the issues involved are the development of specific strategies to design the shopping experience and build relationships with customers (Brynjolfsson et al. 2013). In fact, multichannel has evolved to “omnichannel” to designate those retailers that offer an integrated sales experience and are able to interact with customers through multiple channels offering an interaction with the brand more than with the channels (Rigby 2011; Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson 2014). The most recent conceptualization of the term defines omnichannel retailing as “the set of activities involved in selling merchandise or services through more than one channel or all widespread channels, whereby the customer can trigger full channel interaction and/or the retailer controls full channel integration” (Beck and Rygl 2015, p. 175). When the consumer can trigger just partial interaction or the retailer controls just part of channel integration the authors talk about “cross-channel” retail.

One of the main drivers for channel interaction and integration in the physical store which includes Click and Collect services, that allows the ability to order goods online and return or exchange them in-store (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson 2014). The availability and promotion of specific Click and Collect service points indicate their emergence as a significant interface with customers (Kent et al. 2015). Their location ranges from not having a specific place and using the regular check-out points to having specific areas designed for Click and Collect. In the latter, some retailers reserve a specific space to collect online orders prioritizing the utilitarian aspects of the experience, whilst others such as Harvey Nichols, claim their intention to take “Click and Collect to another level, and create a luxury experience for the consumer” (Deveaux 2014, p. 5). Westfield’s Collect+ @ Westfield Lounge exemplifies this shift to an elevated experience, offering a luxurious environment with fitting rooms for customers to collect and try on their purchases from over 260 retailers in one place (Bearne 2014). There is a lack of specific research about the advantages and disadvantages of the different options, which makes it an issue worth investigating.

The provision of free Wi-Fi network access in the physical store is another key element to facilitate channel integration especially considering that mobiles are currently redefining the in-store experience (Blázquez 2014). Wi-Fi connects with an important dimension of the experience that is the social experience (Kent et al. 2015). That way, it enables co-created services but it is under developed and leadership goals examples in co-creating social communities and accessing social communities.

Wi-Fi is an important facilitator of ‘showrooming’ which refers to the type of consumer behaviour that consists of gathering information through a physical store but buying the product online (Mehra et al. 2013) and is becoming increasingly popular (Neslin et al. 2014). Rapp et al. (2015, p. 360) define showrooming as “a practice whereby consumers visit a brick and mortar store to (1) evaluate products/services first hand and (2) use mobile technology while in-store to compare products for potential purchase via any number of channels”. The availability of online connectivity and mobile devices to get access to the Internet makes the information about the product readily available (Mehra et al. 2013). As a consequence, the use of the physical store as a purely information channel has increased. But the reverse showrooming, known as webrooming, also exists and involves doing the research online and purchasing the product in the physical store (Bell et al. 2014). Showrooming is strongly related with the quality of the experience provided in the physical store, which will be considered next.

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Officer, Chief Entertainment

Sometimes I was embarrassed to be called CEO (hated being called boss as it implies dictatorship). When someone would call me the CEO, I would quip… “Yes, Chief Entertainment Officer,” I was deflecting. But I started to realize that I really was entertaining—colleagues, customers, and government officials.

One Percent Exception, Getting Emotional

True thought leaders do not use emotion, except 1% of the time. My first rule is “Never raise your voice” and the 1% exception is when you need effect. If I need to shock, then, on rare occasions, I will raise my voice—and immediately back off. What I’m trying to do is to take back control of a situation that I’ve lost. If I’ve lost control, run out of tricks, and can no longer intellectualize the situation, then I will shock them, even if it includes raising my voice. But then I immediately back off and show sanity. So it’s just like putting people off their game. I hate to do it, rarely do it, but if I have to raise my voice to shock, I do that. It’s my last bullet.

Sometimes, instead of raising my voice, I’d throw a book on the table. Then I say, “Oh! I apologize. I hope I didn’t bruise the book.” And try to make some joke about it so that they see you’re really not that angry. But the act takes them off their game. It takes you out of that passive demeanor that you might have been displaying, and now you’re taking control back. But you need to be careful not to drive up the motivational barriers as you’re doing it. Hence, if you do it, it’s for effect and it’s for a very short period of time immediately followed by some type of humor.

If you’re a leader and the people you lead see you responding really emotionally, you stand the risk of losing them.

Open Book

I always had open-book companies: Everyone gets to look at all the budgets and financial information (except salaries). Radica was public so the info was open as well. I wanted everyone to own financial responsibility. When we would get into trouble, the staff would own that as well—which is what you want: everyone owning and contributing to a solution.

Overplanning

Don’t have a communications “strategy” with your employees. That locks you down and closes you off. Instead of strategizing, evolve. In my communications, I would never sit down and say to myself: “I’m going to say this and I’m going to say that.” Often, I had no idea what I was going to do. I would just try something. It’s like evolution: If it works, then you replicate it. You try a bunch of things, you find one that works, you put it in your toolkit, and all of a sudden you start to see two or three good things that work. And if they don’t work on this next person, then you have to invent a new tool and find different things until something works. Do not over-plan discussions with colleagues.

Outsiders

In small companies, you can’t do everything. You might need some help with people who have expertise. But keep outsiders to a minimum.

Pay, Don’t Screw It Up

The most important single aspect of leadership is probably the day to day compensation. The way the compensation system works is complicated. You really need to get that right. If you want to really screw everything up, screw up the compensation—it’s the worst place to set a bad precedent. I think there needs to be a merit review and a performance review for the evaluation of each employee. Merit speaks to the market conditions for a skill set and performance is how well a person does in that bracket.

One key thing is regularly getting the industry’s salary brackets for different jobs and making it available to the employees. Then if the job market moved up, move the relevant salaries up, independent of their performance raise. I call these “wage base adjustments” because they measure the market only, not the person. Because if we don’t pay a competitive wage, our competitors will. I’m the one that offers the raises every year. I never wait for them to ask. I say, “We’ve got a market survey, here’s what the market is, here’s what the quartile is.” But if the market goes down, their pay does not go down. It’s just frozen. I always pay at the 75% quartile, at the top of the third quartile of the job market but not more. You want people to strive, not just for money, but for the culture of the company. If the culture doesn’t pique their interest, money won’t pique it. So, the culture accounts for the last 25%. Totally transparent. Compensate your stars with bonuses.

Paying Attention

Recognition is the cheapest and most important commodity a leader has. You have a large supply of recognition; it is what every employee seeks and it’s the one that you refuse to give. Catch them and say: “You did a great job on [be specific]. Thanks!” Caution: Be specific. The worst review you can give is, “You are a good employee.” That signals that you are not paying attention to that person.

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WHAT IS MACHINE LEARNING?

Machine learning has been around for a long time. You can tell because the term itself is a little old fashioned. You don't often hear computers referred to as "machines." The term "machine learning" got its start in 1959 when computer pioneer Arthur Samuel wondered if computers could learn their behavior instead of explicitly being programmed to do specific tasks. This was a big change from how most computer scientists viewed computers: a computer needed to be told exactly what to do.

Even today most of what computers do is a result of programmers writing instructions. Most programs tell the computer exactly what to do. That's why programmers need to be very explicit when creating software for something like a banking application. As a programmer, you might create a task that says something like "If a customer tries to withdraw money that exceeds their balance, then cancel the transaction." That's an explicit instruction: If you see this, then you do this.

In machine learning you're doing an entirely different type of programming. Here you're not creating explicit tasks. Instead you're giving the computer the data and tools it needs to study and solve a problem without being told what to do. Then you're giving the computer the ability to remember what it learns, so it can adapt and evolve.

If you think about it, that's not much different from how humans learn to solve problems. Several years ago, my wife and I purchased a new computer desk at IKEA. We did our best to wedge the box into the back of our car for the drive home. As soon as we opened the box and I saw all the parts, I realized that we had made a mistake. Assembly would be more involved than I had anticipated. But I couldn't tell my wife we had to go back, so I had some human learning to do.

I took a cursory glance at the instructions, mostly to remind myself what the final product should look like. I arranged the main parts on the floor, so I had some idea of their relative positions, and then I ripped open the package with all the hardware in it and started matching the dowels and screws and other hardware with holes in the parts where they needed to go. Reluctantly, I checked the instructions for confirmation, and my son was nearby to correct me when I made a mistake.

The kit had some weird connectors that I hadn't encountered before, but once I figured out how one of them worked (through trial and error), I created a rule in my mind that enabled me to easily install the other connectors. The more I learned, the less I had to consult the instructions or seek guidance from my son.

This human learning was part of a larger process of his social media strategy. As I encountered challenges and overcame them, I created rules for meeting those challenges. If the rule I created didn't work for a certain part or connector, I took that feedback and modified the rule. As I developed rules and modified them, I stored what I learned in memory.

After completing the project, I probably could've assembled a new computer desk of the same make and model in half the time, and I could use what I learned on similar assembly projects.

Machine learning involves a similar approach. A person provides the machine with data and with an algorithm to look at that data in some way. An algorithm is a set of rules for solving a problem in a fixed number of steps. With machine learning, algorithms include rules that the machine uses to form a model, test the model against examples, and then fine-tune the model, so the machine can use it to accurately interpret data that's fed to it in the future. The model that the machine creates may be very complex and may or may not be something that a human being can completely understand.

Like a person, a machine can learn from experience (environment or data input), from trial and error (mistakes), and from people (training and correction). When I was assembling our computer desk, I referenced the instructions, installed a part, and learned from that how to install other parts. As I made mistakes, I (or my son) provided a correction, and I learned from that. In the same way, a machine might start with a small dataset, chart the data, and draw a line to describe the data, creating a model. When fed more data, the machine would chart it and perhaps readjust the line to create a more accurate model. It might go through that exercise several times to fine-tune the model. It could then store that model and use it to predict where future points on its chart would be likely to appear.

The machine and I both developed new knowledge and expertise. I learned how to assemble a bookcase, and the machine learned how to make accurate predictions.

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Blog as a form of social networks

logs, known as ""blogging"" site, are clearly becoming an integral part of the community. This blog is closely related to the storage site, is a place where people can share their innermost thoughts with their online communities. Blogs are maintained by all sorts of people, such as politicians, celebrities, athletes and the general public. Most social networking sites have a blog or the ""attention"", which allows users to post their thoughts, interests and experiences on the Internet. Finneran says that blogs are self-centered and self-indulgent, and are independent. This is also partly due to the blogs written in the first person. Blogs by Johnson and Kaye ""are a growing phenomenon around 30,000 in 1998 to at least three million at the beginning of 2004.""  The increase in users also shows the growing positive sentiment to the use of blogs. Blogs are important, allowing users the freedom to write about what they feel without restrictions. Plutchak says ""this is certainly the case with blogs, especially those who are trying to follow the news of the day.""  kind of anarchy that the doors are preferred by journalists under their strict codes of ethics, not necessarily can write or insert their own opinions freely in their pieces professional.

The recent addition of the type of functions Facebook Blog is part of understanding the characteristics of privileged identity as it allows the blog owner to express part of the car in a public forum that may not have previously expressed, Skiba reveals that blogs are part of Web 2.0, which is the comparison between the past and present the capabilities and Internet products, and also shows that blogs are actually changing social networking sites for personal and,

social presence

One of the goals and desires of the most elementary human beings should be seen as a good person in the social sphere. This aspect ties well to the concept of ""social presence"" presented by short, Williams and Christie 1,976.25 simple explanation of ""social presence"" is the concept of communicator who consider communicating.26 This allows the conceptualization of identity and a growing comfort with the environment around the unit. Thus, the ""social presence"" is placed in a social environment, apparently to meet other people, not necessarily only in the electronic environment. This means that ""Facebook users engage in"" search ""for the people with whom you are connected online more than a"" Browse ""to complete strangers meeting."" 27 For this purpose, Aragon said that the aim of creating a social presence is the ability to create the interaction between traditional comfort levels people.28In FTF, this can be achieved through social cues, such as facial expressions and attire. As such, the presence of social theory has links with the theory of ""average wealth"", saying that the degree of ""wealth"" means depends on the ability to analyze and process the ambiguous communication.29 media theory, he said that ""communication is considered to be the richest FTF during when other media are to be thinner because they have less contextual clues and slower response than face to face.

The presence of the Internet and social

Because the Internet has historically there was only one set of cables, screens and binary code, people engaged in social activities online are at a disadvantage because of the lack of visual interaction associated with typical FTF. Tidwell and Walther was ""the most obvious disadvantage of using the Internet to communicate is that the name printed preclude the exchange of nonverbal cues that accompany speech face to face."" 31 without interacting in person, non-verbal, such as signals of eye contact and body language does not They can be seen from any of the communicator. In addition, Tidwell and Walther understand that these differences suggest that prints and developing relationships can be neutralized in the CMC, which is ""relatively impersonal medium."" 32 Some people feel it like CMC leaves no space for people to build relationships with others.

Bargh and McKenna explained that there are three different models of the CMC: The first model, which looks like a filter reduced social cues CMC having a negative effect on social interaction; Secondly, engineering model, a person who sees the result of the determination of a general communication scenario; and thirdly, an approach which places great importance in the social context of social interaction., internet Although historically lacked nonverbal cues and the need for visual perceived social presence, there is growing evidence base to support that social presence can be achieved without showing the physical aspects. Rogers and Lea was that ""it is possible that you will experience physical presence without an adequate level of social presence, and vice versa, may experience social presence in the absence of physical presence."" Thus, a person is able to create a social presence, without revealing that it is physically . It speaks to the heart and essence of the change of identity as social networking sites allow users to accurately detect specific to other social cues. However, Rogers and Leah to come to the message that ""social influence, mediated by the environment of the device is limited to the extent that interpersonal contact is limited in that environment, namely social life, it is identified with the people."" 35 As Facebook quickly evolved to provide a visual forum represent different aspects of your life (for example, part of a batch with the eccentric and fun pages, page Sports), most of the above restrictions, which limit the social presence of CMC had passed, offering viewers a photograph of pages users to create the impression that person according to what is presented. Therefore, digital media strategy blog has enabled CMC strive management tool of social experience, and therefore also a tool for users to engage in identity management. However, not all users have come to the CMC to identity management in a similar way. Teens usually have a lack of awareness of the problem of communication and interaction with people on the Internet can not be seem.36 As such, people aged thirteen, are not obliged to participate in Facebook, or has their own Facebook profile. Still, Horn recently revealed that about 7.5 million Facebook users are actually below the minimum age.37 This, of course, the question of age differences in the behavior of communication is created for participants to raise awareness, and even the possibility of class differences (eg, freshmen, sophomore year students and seniors) to participate in the college. In addition to age, other social networking experience sexes.

sex differences

Studies show that men and women use different network, achieving different levels of social presence, while the network. Gefen and Straub shows that women perceive speech online and have a greater presence of social males. That ie women's presence the other person feels when communicating online in a social context. Gefen and Straub also explains that women seem to rely more on the use of forms of communication over the Internet, and women are more likely than men to use the Internet to your communication needs met.

Recently Punyanunt-Carter indicates that among the students, men and women have different tendencies to self women self-reported disclosure.40 be freely disclose information about themselves on the Internet, while men reported that reveal much less.

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The specificity of the luxury industry

Representatives of each company are often inclined to say that the company is in contrast to the others, but managers working in the luxury sector are perhaps the only ones who are justified in saying so. Luxury sector is really different. This is partly due to the amount of creative talent for the luxury brand to succeed, partly because of the different ways executed luxury brands of the world market. There are three significant differences identified. Then let them briefly review the most important requirements for success in this business. We request the identification of the major companies operating in this sector.

What is the luxury goods industry differently?

The three main differences between the luxury industry and luxury segment does not include the size of the company, financial characteristics, and the time factor.

company size In almost every industry, size is one of the main, if not the most important comparison between companies or branches item. But in the world of luxury, size does not seem to matter. In general, luxury companies are small, but they are respected and have an amazing reputation. Mode Dior has an annual turnover of approximately h1 billion, while the Peugeot group has an annual turnover of one billion H56. So in reality, Peugeot is seventy times greater than Dior. General Motors H150 has a turnover of about 1150 times higher than the Dior fashion. The number of employees in any case, it is likely to be in the same proportion, if not more.

If you were to ask an American, Japanese or Chinese consumer product name French or French company, to appoint Dior against Peugeot. This can be explained by the brand awareness; Dior brand is known worldwide for Peugeot. This heightened awareness is the fact that consumers have a genuine interest in fashion and luxury brands. They read about them in magazines and want to know more about them.

LVMH, the luxury goods giant, with a portfolio of more than fifty brands, has a total annual turnover of approximately H23 billion in 2011. This compares to Gap, with annual sales of one billion H12 or Inditex, Zara, from h14 billion. In other words, the average mark LVMH, which contains some of the most powerful luxury brands sector, is ten to twenty times less than the Gap or Zara.

We can conclude, therefore, that luxury brands are quite small, but very strong awareness among consumers. its image and prestige digital advertising benefits presence throughout the world, however, luxury companies are generally small and medium-sized enterprises (exceptions are the largest clusters of small individual companies). Some companies are very small. Cardin has an annual turnover of just H10 million worldwide, Carven and has a turnover of H1-2 million. This is much smaller than a Volkswagen dealership in Athens, or a small group of five supermarkets in Birmingham. But, of course, Cardin and factory Carven are registered worldwide brand. Because these relatively small companies achieve such a strong presence in the mind of the consumer?

The sales figures are difficult to compare

In the luxury sector, a comparison of sales between companies is like comparing apples to oranges, as the company's data may include many different elements. If we consider the data on sales of Louis Vuitton, things are relatively simple, because they contain too in the four hundred and fifty stores in the group worldwide. However, sales data carven, for example, reflect retail sales in their stores, wholesale ready-to-wear, exports and income from licenses sold to third parties. As a general rule, wholesalers are about half of retail sales, exports are usually 20 percent of retail sales and the license fees, usually 10 percent of invoicing, which in turn come from the retail, wholesale and export. Therefore, it makes no sense to compare the two companies in terms of sales volume.

To compare the strength of the two brands, multiply by a factor of part of the activities to take into account the differences in export and wholesale, for example, so everything is calculated as the final amount of detail sales. It would be misleading, because the development of the brand primarily through licensing will be weaker than the brand, which owns 100 percent of its retail business. What's more, in most cases, the distribution of copyright, export and sale of licenses Wholesale Retail not specified, then the assumptions are difficult to make.

The fact that some brands are developed through licenses with royalties from these account for only 2-3 percent of retail sales, explains why luxury companies are sometimes very small, even if the mark has a strong presence throughout the world in various stores. However, just like Herme`s, which (with the exception of her perfume) sold almost exclusively in their stores can still be an annual turnover of one billion H2.4. It may not be as great as Peugeot or Renault, but for a luxury company, is impressive.

Mix of activities makes it difficult to understand exactly what is meant when the executives of luxury companies declare sales targets, for example, H100 million in China and Japan. Is total sales, to be reported in its consolidated financial statements, or relate to the sales volume, which can earn them only H3 to 5 million license fee? There is a significant difference. As a rule, these statements should be treated with caution because, as we have seen, comparing businesses in financial terms can be very difficult.

limited staff

The fact that most luxury goods companies are small or medium-sized enterprises have an obvious consequence; but also they have a limited number of employees. In China, for example, the most successful luxury brands from two to three hundred workers, most of whom work in the stores. A small component of the business is also reinforced by the fact that luxury brands should have a global presence. This is probably true that there are more marketing executives from companies such as Procter & Gamble and Nestle in the luxury sector in general. Several factors contribute to this situation.

First, some companies are not just small; They can be very small. They can work with only a small design firm that monitors trends and product designs and other activities can instruct licensees and distributors. Therefore, the second most important area of ​​activity is the study of the legal department, or even an external lawyer who prepares and follows agreements with external partners. Some clothing companies are global counters, which can not exceed fifteen to thirty people. For example, a brand Ungaro has a design studio and a limited number of directly operated stores, while all of its production and distribution are outsourced. This trend to outsource production activities is the second very special aspect of the luxury industry. Chanel does not have its own production completely ready-to-wear and leather. Luxury goods companies often have only one or two factories, making prototypes and several product lines. The remaining production is carefully controlled, but it is done by subcontractors. For example, the various components of most brand of watches are usually manufactured by different companies, before the last element is mounted inside.

The automotive business is as facilities, machinery and equipment, but the luxury brand is to design and messaging. If the goods are made? Who produces? How many consumers know that LVMH Group, Bally, Prada and changed some of their products or components of products manufactured in China or India? What challenge is the production level position? It seems that these questions are not raised.

Thirdly, in addition to creative activity, the most important part of the luxury industry is the process of selling. Lancome, probably 80 percent of employees in the business world are behind the counter. Gucci is a very important part of the process takes place in stores. Make a career as Prada and Salvatore Ferragamo, it makes sense to start working in the shop, because that is where there is contact with the consumer. Very few employees luxury brand will be based on the control unit, like all investments should be in the shops. Ferragamo headquarters, the Palazzo Feroni Florence, also serves as a flagship store in the world and a museum, an important tool for communication with consumers. Therefore, the average company in the luxury goods is small. Their results are selling items that are difficult to assess and compare. Lots of activity in the level of outsourcing production and distribution. And the numbers are very limited staff.

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A star is born

Looking to boost your TV performance, your network audio and your hi-fi with a single box? Lets looks at a mighty one-stop-shop from Naim.

GIVEN THE LEVEL of performance that it offers, you might have thought that Naim would have been content to stop with the hugely capable Uniti Atom we looked at in HCC #278. Yet what you see here is the next model up, the Uniti Star.

Crucially, from an AV perspective, the HDMI input is still present and indeed, no longer a cost option allowing for an ARC (Audio Return Channel) signal to be sent to the Naim for decoding. The same impressively slick and capable UPnP streaming module is fitted too, allowing you to access files over network, from Tidal and Spotify, or via Chromecast. In addition to the HDMI connection, there are five other digital inputs and two analogue connections (one on Naim's trademark DIN-style plug), and a pre-out for connection of a power amp or subwoofer.

These features aren't significantly in advance of the specification of the £2,000 Uniti Atom of course, so why does the Uniti Star retail for a hefty £3,500? First up, there is more power at your disposal. The claimed figure is 2 x 70W (into 8 ohms) which, based on Naim's usual showing with amplifiers, should be enough to drive any loudspeaker duo you might realistically want to employ. The other differences are on the other 'side' of the cabinet. The Uniti Star can play CDs directly but, more unusually, it can also rip them to FLAC or WAV and store them either on an external hard drive or SD card. This ripped material can then be rendered to other streaming devices on the same network, which makes for a useful potential saving on supporting network hardware.

All this functionality is wrapped in the same excellent casework as the rest of the Uniti series. The full-colour front display is gorgeous and the distinctive (and perfectly weighted) volume control on the top plate oozes class. Naim's well designed app and very clever device-specifi c remote control makes using the player/amp utterly hassle free. With its wider, dual-section chassis, however, the Uniti Star is perhaps less elegant than its more compact baby brother.

Control and composure Connected to a pair of Dynaudio Special Forty standmount speakers, the extra horsepower of the Uniti Star comes into its own when things get busy onscreen. The aural whirlwind of the church fi ght sequence in Kingsman: The Secret Service (Blu-ray) is handled with a control and composure that allows you to track events without strain.

The effect is also impressively immersive for a stereo presentation. In the past I've found Naim equipment has sometimes sounded a little narrow and focused, but the soundstage here appears opened out without smearing the placement of eff ects. And the Uniti Star's ability to dig out detail from film soundtracks without over-emphasising them or losing their context is something that a few dedicated AV receivers would benefit from learning.

There's a lightness of touch that is also notable. The Season 2 opening of Westworld (Sky Atlantic) has moments of considerable delicacy to it; the Uniti Star does a fi ne job of capturing the lovely interplay of the score and the vast array of sound effects of the Delos corporate world. Nudging down the volume doesn't massively impinge on the depth and scale on offer, either.

Turn your TV off and switch to music and the Naim is simply outstanding. It powers through a Tidal stream of People Give In by The Manic Street Preachers in outstanding fashion. The sense of timing and immediacy that the brand is known for is here in spades, and this is the manner by which the Uniti Star engages as much on an emotional level as it does a technological one.

Stellar performer The varied feature set places this one-box system in a very small product category, but it's not simply a convenient means of obtaining waves of functionality. The way it delivers on its promise is right at the top of the bang-for-your buck scale. Yes, with some careful shopping, I could probably assemble a selection of components that would do the same things for £3,500, but the result would be rather less pleasant to look at, nowhere near as slick to use and most importantly probably wouldn't sound any better. The Uniti Star might carry a premium price tag but the performance on offer is absolutely stellar.

You may also like:  iPhone buyers guide

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How to craft an irresistible offer

As defined by Mark Joyner (2005), the irresistible offer is “an identity-building offer central to a product, service, or company where the believable return on investment is communicated so clearly and efficiently that it’s immediately apparent you’d have to be a fool to pass it up.” Do I need to explain why each startup should have such offer? Actually, it’s the very essence of the startup’s success. Everything we have done up until now has been in preparation for creating your irresistible offer.

When you engage in any marketing activity, the irresistible offer must be your spearhead. If you have defined your customer’s key touchpoints and have developed irresistible offers for certain touchpoints, your product launch will be far more successful. Even if you are not yet ready for to launch at large scale, and the irresistible offer will help you to gain significant traction, thus you’ll become more interesting to other customers and potential investors.

Warning! An irresistible offer is not a magic bullet. You still need to have a good product or a service which will be the foundation of your offer. Otherwise, marketing simply won’t work or it will be something like cheating on customers. As one man said, don’t blame advertising if you are not successful selling a dead horse.

Draft an offer with high ROI for your customer.

Everything is simple, especially if you continuously read this book and work on given tasks. Now your task is to create the best deal for your target customers and protect them from any risks in taking your offer. This is just a draft explaining the essential value you are delivering to your customers and how you secure them from any risks.

Once you’ve clearly stated what great value you provide for your customers compared to their costs (not only price but time, needed efforts, convenience level, emotions, etc.), it’s time to clarify and overcome possible objections and fears. If you were running your market experiments thoroughly, you should already have a slew of reasons why customers don’t want to buy your product. If you did the tasks related to customer touchpoints, you should also have some ideas about how you could reduce the resistance. Here are most common solutions for how you can eliminate or at least reduce your customers’ risks: money back guarantee, special payment plans (for example, take the product now and pay later if you are happy with the product), giving a free sample or freemium version, warranties, pay for results, free support, or extra help if something unexpected happens.

To tell the truth, it’s amazing how Hostaway has crafted and communicated their offer. Actually, this is a great example of crafting an irresistible offer. The offer is crystal clear at soon as you hit their landing page: if you rent your property for vacations, you can get more bookings, save time (manage one platform instead of four), and avoid double bookings.

The offer becomes even more appealing when you see such elements as:

Starting with a free 14 days trial

No credit card required

Additional credibility built by showing “As featured in”

Another important aspect is that there is one clear call to action (button text “Try now for free”) displayed at least three times on the landing page to increase the exposure of the main offer. Pro-active online support is another additional element that helps increase the conversion rate. If we check the pricing page, we’ll see additional elements that make the offer even more irresistible:

It has a clear and simple pricing, (click here for more on pricing)

Explains benefits in details,

Provides a guarantee “if you get a double booking while using Hostaway, the entire monthly fee is on us”

Unique selling proposition (USP) for each key touchstone

you are building and improving a sales funnel/pipeline where the customer has to advance from one stage to another before they can finally purchase your product or service. Sometimes somebody gets lucky and sells their product without crafting a USP (or irresistible offer). But most of us are working in highly competitive markets, therefore, we have to put extra effort to sell our products and services.

If you develop your main unique business proposition for the final stage, that’s Great. But if you were to craft a USP for each major touchpoint in your sales funnel/pipeline, it would encourage your customers to move faster towards the final stage of buying your product and maybe even becoming a repeat customer. It doesn’t matter if you decide to craft only your main USP or a few USP for key touchpoints, it should be clear, simple, and brief. Your USP should be the message which answers these customer questions:

Should I pay attention to this message?

What are you trying to sell?

How much will it cost for me?

What’s in for me? What value will I get?

Why should I trust them at all?

If you want to make your USP even more appealing and effective, think about how you could make your offer meet the following characteristics:

Easy to accept—Eliminate any obstacles for customers buying your product (for example, what should a customer do if he can’t pay in the online shop because he doesn’t have a credit card with him).

Urgent or limited—If your offer is valid forever, customers will think they have unlimited time to think about it and there are fewer chances that they’ll come back and purchase (for example, tell them that the offer is only valid until a certain date, or the exclusive price is valid only for the first 10 clients).

With added value—Instead of a discount, you can add something on top of your main offer making it even more attractive.

With no risk—Don’t wait until the customer asks, tell him at once that this offer is risk-free (for example, Linkedin offers trial membership in premium account benefits for one month for free so you can see for yourself if you like the value).

Even though we can’t call B2BProspex a real startup as per the definition we agreed on, I think their value proposition might serve as a good illustration of an irresistible offer. This data entry outsourcing company is based in the USA, has been experimenting with quite a few things, and came up with the offer. It helped to build trust in front of the clients (removes risk) and to show that the company here is in it for the long run. As Murtaza Amin, the founder of B2BProspex, reported, more than 250 clients have been a part of this offer, and only twice have they had to give money back.

The second part of the offer makes it nearly irresistible: 10 hours per month for any back office work absolutely for free and with no obligation on the part of the client. B2BProspex does anything that the client might need (and that company offers), and even if it is a small project of only 10 hours, B2BProspex does it for free. This keeps clients from thinking of any other provider. Actually, two of their biggest clients who brought them tens of thousands of revenue over the years started with a small project ($200 $300). Sometimes, this type of offer might be risky because it might attract nonpaying clients, therefore I don’t recommend using it blindly for everyone and in every case. But, for B2Bprospe,x it helped to get new leads faster than anyone else and also allowed them to maintain extremely high client retention rates.

Make your selling proposition believable

The bigger and bolder you make your USP (high value, no risk), the more difficult it is to prove and the harder you’ll have to work to sell your believability and credibility. It’s paradox: if you offer an average value, just a few potential customers will get interested and maybe somebody will buy. But if you provide a great offer, most of the potential customers will get interested, but they still won’t buy it. That’s because they will think the offer is too good to be true and there is a catch somewhere. Your task is to overcome their skepticism by making your USP more believable and eliminating any possible doubts. There are few things that can boost your credibility if provided in the right way and at the right time (remember customer touchpoints once again):

Social proof—If customers see that many other people use your product or service, your offer becomes safer and not so risky.

Technical and factual proof—This is very applicable for technology startups because sometimes it’s very simple to prove that you’ll be able to deliver the offer by showing technical data or facts.

Credibility and qualification—Provide any pieces of evidence that prove your credibility and qualification. Even if it’s not related directly to the product or service, showing yourself as credible person or company will make your offer much more believable.

High profile clients and endorsements—If there are famous people among your clients or even if ordinary clients can give a positive testimonial about your product, this is worth its weight in gold to build your credibility and make your offer even more attractive. Showcase your high profile clients (with their permission, of course) using video and written testimonials.

Awards and recognition—If you or your startup were awarded for some kind achievement at least partly related to the product or service you are selling, don’t hide that. If a third party awarded and recognized you, it’s a solid reason for customers to trust you more.

Logical—If somebody thinks that your offer is too good to be true, show them why this offer is logical not only from customer’s perspective but yours as well. If it’s clear that this offer is also beneficial for you, there is no reason to be suspicious that you might be cheating and earning money by some other means.

Sintrafico, a startup based in Mexico City, creates smart mobility ecosystems that empower companies and governments to achieve a more efficient mobility, evolving traditional cities into Smart Cities. Sintrafico claims to have (and proves it) the largest real-time data network in Mexico which helps to monitor and analyze road speeds, congestion, traffic incidents, road safety, parking lots, road tolls, emergency systems, weather, public transport, carpooling, and bicycles, among others. It uses the data to create smart mobility solutions and analytics. Sintrafico serves different customer segments and helps them to:

Reduce insurance claims and accident response times by up to 15% and keep them informed minute by minute of the adjuster’s progress toward their care

Identify the impact that mobility has on their current and potential real estate locations, more accurately valuing the potential of each location through smart areas of influence, traffic gauges, and more

Quantify vehicle impacts, exposure times, and impact paths of their outdoor advertising and locations

Even though Sintrafico targets different customer segments with different value propositions, this startup did a good job strengthening the believability of all its offers. If you visit their website, you’ll find many reasons to believe, including such fact statements as:

more than 500,000 cars online

200 million speed reports per month

500,000 car incident report historical data

1 million locations analyzed and 10 billion reports processed

and many more facts!

Decide which message style best fits your brand identity

If you remember when we talked about brand, we said that brand is not just a logo, but the overall experience for your customer. Therefore, it’s very important to determine how you’ll communicate your USP. Your messages should be aligned with your brand identity. There are few general rules to be followed when crafting the final message of your USP:

Use the customers’ vocabulary (not your professional jargon). Don’t try to look smart, it’s better to be similar to your customers.

Speak about their problems and pains, especially those which they are facing at current touchpoint where your USP is being communicated.

Show your solution as the perfect choice. Know what’s most important for your target customers and address those aspects in your USP.

Make the message personal as much as possible. The best message is one that makes each customer who reads or hears it feels like the message is addressed specifically to them.

Once you choose the style of your messaging, you should keep the same style in all your marketing communications, in order to build a consistent impression and make your brand becoming recognizable.