So how does one of the largest media companies in the world wind up with a minority stake in a theme park that only said company could create? They got China-ed, that’s how!

Disney spent ten plus years working with the government, developers, and lord knows who else to get a Disney theme park built in China. Who wouldn’t want to tap that market of over a billion up and coming consumers?

Thanks to video pirating gone rampant, Chinese people are already way ahead of the curve on name recognition for almost all of the Disney properties, so the market is primed.

Then…interestingly enough, NPR reported last week that there were some anti-ostentation movements in the Party:

The city’s (Beijing’s) new rules state that ads must not glorify “hedonism, feudal emperors, heavenly imperial nobility” or anything vulgar, according to the Global Times newspaper. They also should not violate “spiritual construction” standards or worship foreign products — leading some to believe the campaign could be targeting foreign luxury goods.

If the rest of China, specifically Shanghai, follows suit, there are going to be some problems for “The Magic Kingdom” with all of their princesses, princes, and various nobles. Oh yeah, and isn’t Disney a foreign luxury good? When individual tickets in the US range between $68 and $161 each…I would call that a luxury.

What I think this boils down to is demographics. How much would any one company pay, negotiate, barter, or completely go down to the crossroads for, to establish themselves in what is probably the fastest growing economy in the world?

I’ll tell ya. They would give up 57% of the take, that’s how much.

All of this is just swell for Shanghai, but what does all of this mean for Disney, the Chinese middle class, and the world at large? What starts as well-branded theme park will generate millions, if not billions of dollars in ticket receipts, merchandising sales, concessions, membership programs, hotel room receipts, content licensing for Disney and their Chinese partners. Is it just me or did the communist party in China just take a wrong turn at “Albuquerque”?

You know what would be an even more interesting outcome from all of this?

Picture a little Chinese boy and girl walking with their parents through the “Magic Home Land”, and they turn over their Minnie and Mickie Mice comrade dolls and the tag that hangs out of the bottom of their little mice butts reads…MADE IN THE USA.

Now, wouldn’t that would be ironic?

What the mailing is, and what it appears to be, are two very different things.

What it appears to be, is a bowl of mints to put out on the front counter of your retail oriented establishment to entice passers-by to go to Google Places and write a review of your company.

What it is, is Google’s expansion into local advertising in the fifth trial city in the United States. This is not to say that they have not already had a profound impact on local advertising. Small businesses already use geo-targeted Google Adwords and other advertising mediums, as an example. But this is supposed to be different. This is Google Hotpot!

Princeton says that a “hotpot” is: a stew of meat and potatoes cooked in a tightly covered pot.

The community manager for a Google HotPot site says, “There’s no definitive answer to this, but if you go to the Wikipedia page for “Hot pot”, you’ll note it refers to communal eating. We liked the name — it’s different, it’s catchy, it’s foodie — so it just stuck with us.”

So now Google wants me to share my food with everyone. Can we encourage Google to share their money with everyone? But, who needs money, when you have mints, (and yet again…I digress…)

It is said that the sweet bowls of goodness were mailed out to 40,000 small businesses in the greater Charlotte area. That is no small mailing, let me tell you. A quarter of a million dollars in the hands of the United States Postal Service is, dare I say, a leap of faith.

Part of the incentive here seems to be Google’s continued desire to own local marketing. I can’t help but think that a site focused on the almighty ‘review’ may displace the Yelps of the world. From a recent article in the Charlotte Observer, (read it all here), the following serve from Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman…he said he doesn’t like the way Google is using Yelp’s information and that he considers Google directly competitive.

To which Jeff Aguero, a marketing manager for Google, volleys in return that Google values its relationships with its partner, and that, “the primary goal is to give as much information as possible to our users.”

The article also goes on to say that Google mailed (minty) promotional materials to thousands of Charlotte businesses, urging them to log onto the service and put in basic information Google-searching potential customers might want to know about their goods and services. That’s free, but companies can also buy advertising to further tout themselves.

And that is probably what this is ‘really’ all about. Ad revenue. Pay a little more to get yours out in front. Start getting competitive with your neighbors and spend a little more. Spend just a bit more and start hanging up your Hotpot crack pipe right next to your Google Adwords crack pipe, and you will be good-to-go.

I asked my friend what fate did await the little bowl of mints, and he said, (sounding much like Vito Corleone,) “They will be eaten.” I am sure you will enjoy yours too, that is of course, IF they arrive.

It may seem odd for a small Charlotte business person to have to do, but if your mints did not arrive, perhaps you should check the postman’s breath tomorrow.

Happy Hotpot-ing!

Onward.

Promotions are back you know?  The contest, the coupon, the free sample.  Look at the success of a company like Groupon.  They are selling millions in pre-paid coupons to folks who just have to have the darn things.  There is discounting involved, and the merchant has to share the take with Groupon, so numerous businesses are shying away and crying foul…that the discounts will hurt, not help, their businesses.

I am sorry…am I missing something?  When you pay for an advertisement that offers a customer 10% off of something in your store.  That ad costs you say, $1,200 to run for a week, (for the sake of argument.)  Your product cost $400 retail
Then…your ad works.  WOW!   Two people come in and buy your widget.  Great!

You made $800 minus the 10% discount, so you got to keep $720 of your sales.  Your product costs you $200, so now you are down to $320 in your pocket, and then you pay for the ad…or $1,200.  So technically you lost $880 in the process of getting two customers.

Wouldn’t you rather work with a coupon company that discounts your offering 50% and splits that with you, essentially giving you 25% of your total potential sales value?

You don’t sell anything, and you don’t pay.

Let’s say you the coupon goes out to 25,000 emails.  You end up selling 100 units at $400 retail or $200 with the 50% discount…and that is $20,000.  Split that with the coupon company, and your take is $10,000, and 100 people are now toting around your product to show all of their friends.

Now…I know I am a dummy, but what part of that doesn’t make sense?!?  I suppose IF your cost is $200 per unit, then it makes no sense.  But let’s think about that…and I do apologize for all of the math.

If your cost is $200 per unit, and you only take in $100 per unit, aren’t you losing your proverbial butt on this?  Are you?

If you sell 100 units and it is costing you $100 per unit to sell through a coupon system…then you spent $10,000 to sell these products…or “Market” them, as it were.  That is $100 per unit marketing expense. But what are these customers worth in the long term? “Customer Lifetime Value” should always be considered, and “customer acquisition” is always the most expensive component, with regard to marketing, of a long term relationship with a customer.

In the first example you sold two units for $720, got to keep $320, you spent $1,200 on advertising, and thus lost $880.  That is $440 per unit marketing expense.

You can chalk BOTH of these up to non-effective marketing tactics, or you can see the coupon offering as a way to build brand and market share.

What happens when 25 friends of those 100 sales come in an pay full price.  $10,000 gross sales and $5,000 net is what happens.

How about 100 of the 25,000 people who got the Groupon email come and see you at some later date and pay full price, because now they know your company is there?

I can’t think of anything better to say here than, “Ya feel me?”

When you are finished with this video, watch it again. Actually makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? Not sure whether this is meant to enlighten those members of our society that learn more efficiently with the use of rhyme and meter, or if the guy is deadly serious. I believe it may be the latter.

Social media may be king right now, but SEO is never something you should ignore. Keyword usage and subsequent search engine placement can still make or break your traffic, and thus your bottom line.

If you don’t think you are doing it right, or doing it at all, find someone to help you. There are many competent companies and individuals out there to help you get a search engine optimization strategy going. If you find a way to hire this guy, let us know.

Don’t wait!

Maneuver for Position by Bradley Walker Tomlin (Photo by cliff1066™)

How are customers looking at products today? Is it any different than yesterday? Drew McLellan brought up a good point that we found in our wanderings recently, that makes you think.

Take a hard look at your product/service and think of a customer need that it can fill that isn’t the first thing that comes to people’s minds.

Example:
A bank is always looking for ways to increase deposits. It is how a bank functions. Deposits equal capital, capital equals loans, loans equal income.

So how does a bank get that consumer’s money into their bank with increasing competition? There are a hundred ways to market bank accounts, but what need does a bank seem hard pressed to fulfill? Convenience.

Recently we noticed a bank campaign that offered a way for consumers to set up a “Registry” bank account at an this institution. Don’t know what to get that blushing bride? Not sure what that 17 year old will do with that graduation check? Want to put some money away for that new grandchild?

Why not save some brain-racking by making an effortless deposit into an account specifically set up for this individual to receive monetary gifts.

So what do you offer that can be looked at in a unique way? Teeth whitening for the job seeker to look his/her best at their next interview? Tires for a car that are specific to snow, (since we seem to be getting more each year now)? A gift registry bank account?

Think of a new way to look at your product or service. It can be packaging, your website, or a new verbal pitch. If you feel like the market has slowed for you, or it is time to expand your market, then it may be time to look at new customer needs.

1. TubeReplay

This site features a super-simple premise. TubeReplay will play a YouTube video over and over again, until you stop it or go mad — whichever happens first. Just enter the URL of the clip you want repeated and the site will do the rest.

2. DragonTape

DragonTape allows you to remix YouTube videos into a seamless mixtape. Search for the clips you want, drag and drop to set up the play order and then share the playlist with friends via an auto-generated URL, or embed it with the code provided.

See all 12 Hacks at Mashable.

Inc. talked to six top web designers and creative directors to find out their biggest pet peeves when it comes to web design. These experts will help save you from committing the seven deadly sins of web design, whether it be a flash-overload or forgetting about your audience.

1. Putting your brilliant design first.

“Whether or not the site is designed elegantly, what really matters to me is whether the navigation is intuitive, and whether the information is organized well. Design, for as much time as we spend on it, if it’s all about the visual elements, that can quickly get someone out of that site. I always try to focus on making sure the information makes sense before putting mouse on screen. Plan ahead. Get the answers before laying anything down. Get together with your project manager and design team, and get all the info from the client before start designing. It’s also important to get the navigation in front of people to make sure everyone can get that information quickly. Be constantly testing. Only then should you build the beautiful elements, the design of the site, around that. If that’s not there the site can be considered a failure. “

— Andres Orrego, associate creative director of Chowder Inc. in New York

Read the full article at Inc.

1. Design for Both “Like” and “Share”

Rather than choose one or the other, sites that combine “Like” and “Share” into the user experience see the greatest level of success in terms of driving referral traffic, building relationships and learning more about their customers and visitors. Why? Not only do “Like” and “Share” have different strengths and different applications, they actually drive the most value when used in concert. Let’s drill into the specifics to illustrate.

Read the whole post at Mashable.

Your Basic Blog

Frank Reed, owner of FT Internet Marketing, who blogs at Frank Thinking about Internet Marketing, says your blog should be part of your website, which will boost the search engine optimization of your site. “It becomes a body of work that tells your story better than your resume,” he says.

The idea of writing makes lots of small business owners break out in hives, but you don’t have to be Shakespeare. A great blogging strategy is to simply post a link to other content with a paragraph about why you think it’s important, Reed says. Don’t be afraid you’re driving people away from your own site. “People who share information get the most benefit,” he says. “You become an information broker.”

Read the full post at American Express Business.

Fremont Smith, vice president of High Start, a Boston-based consulting firm that helps bring new products to market offers tips on creating and using a sales pipeline.

Managing a Sales Pipeline: Getting Started

Your first step is to identify an account’s total budget, the likely length of the sales cycle, and the key decision-makers. “If sales people are not trained and managed to establish these three critical pieces of information, they will continually be over-optimistic about their pipeline,” says Fremont Smith. “In a worst case they will spend all their time writing proposals for unqualified leads, the whole time being certain that the deals will close any day.”

Of course, it’s not always so easy to gather that information from prospects without sounding pushy. So Fremont- Smith spends a lot of time coaching salespeople on language.  For instance, asking “Are you the decision maker?” will often alienate a prospect. Instead, she suggests a softer approach, such as “We find that with this kind of purchase, decisions are made by a lot of people on the executive team, and the process of really understanding your needs goes smoother if I can gather information from everyone.”

Similarly, a prospect reluctant to discuss budget may be coaxed into giving up a number when offered a range, such as  “our accounts often fall between $10,000 and $30,000; where are you most comfortable?”

Read the full article at Inc.