posted November 02, 2006 08:52 AM            

ongoing R/D agenda for products and services

You must improve and innovate, which will take information, statistics, and knowledge. To the extent that you rely on technology, just keeping up with relevant developments is a full-time job.

* What do you need to know more about?
* How will you acquire this information?
* How will you organize it, for example, by market segment, by technology, by source of information?

competitive analysis

* name of each competitor; link to web site
* basic stats: where, how large
* their market share
* how direct a competitor?
* which of you has competitive advantage: better, faster, cheaper

learn more: competitive intelligence resources

Don't forget your own company. What will your competitors learn if they research you like you're researching them?

market size and demographic segments

* Who are your customers?
* How big is the market?
* Is it growing?

Are you going to develop new customers or take a share from a competitor?
How are you dividing it up: age, geography, income?

List and name your demographic segments.

-- note: for purposes of this nine-week course, we're going to stipulate much of this important information

who are your potential investors?

customer profiles

Create at least one profile for each segment, in as much detail as possible. Pictures are good. In addition to personal information, think about this customers' psychology. Marketers often analyze them in an appropriate typology (or stereotype, though it has negative connotations).

For one example of such a typology:

* Your customer is extroverted, seeks new stimulation when shopping, and is likely to buy impulsively.

* Your customer is anxious and cynical and looks skeptically at any brand. A careful shopper, he or she avoid new things because they appear scary.

* Your customer is very brand conscious, into the latest styles, chic and gadgets even a bit of a brand slave.

* Your customer looks for authenticity, the unique. On the one hand, this customer loves quality, wants the best and the rare. On the other hand, this customer is a pretentious snob who always wants something his or her neighbors don't have.

survey instruments

In this article, Gerry McGovern is writing about website editors and readers, but what he says applies to everyone in marketing and their customers.

Web editors have a great future
by Gerry McGovern
New Thinking, April 18, 2005

<<
The first and by far the most important skill you must develop is to have a gut instinct for what your readers want. To develop a gut instinct -- to have your finger on the pulse of what your audience wants -- you will need constant contact with that audience.

Every week you must observe, meet, phone, and email your readers. Nothing else -- absolutely nothing else -- is more important. There is no greater skill to develop than to know what works with your customer and what doesn't; to know what they will read -- how much they will read -- and what they will not read.

Developing a gut instinct allows you to quickly evaluate the worth of new ideas for content or applications. This is a tremendous skill and will guarantee you a successful career in web management.
>>

What will you ask?

questionnaires

You can put these on your web site, you can hire a company to administer them by phone, and you can keep asking them every time you have contact with your customers.

focus group scenarios

Periodically, in-house or with third-party help, you should bring customers together to talk about and use your products and services under observation. For example, ask them to go to Google and search for your product. Ask them to find something on your web site.

web analytics

You should archive all the server logs and periodically report visitor and customer data.

to do

due November 2 for discussion in class that week and the week following

In reply to this message, respond to the customer profile section above in one of two ways. Put your responses (1) directly here at the Bistro or (2) on your Plaza web and then put a link to that page at the Bistro.

Introduce your customers to us. Create at least one profile for each segment, in as much detail as possible. Pictures are good.

posted November 02, 2006 05:21 PM         

Overall Group: Independent artists
Sub Group: Band http://killaj.buzznet.com/user/photos/?id=3653660
Typology:
* This customer is a group of musicians that have formed a band and want to market their music nationally.
* They are extroverted and love the attention of adoring fans and the media. They will do anything necessary to get this attention to their music and image.
* This customer is looking for a economic solution to "hit it big" in the industry.
* They do not want to be bothered with the daily tasks of marketing and advertising and want to hire a company to do this for them.

Sub Group: Individual Artist http://www.enya.com/
Typology:
* This customer is very creative and "artsie". They are free thinkers and like to express themselves through their music. Usually the financial and marketing aspects of the music industry is not their strong points.
* This customer is looking for a company to handle the marketing of their music for them since they are a "one person band" and are busy writing and producing their music.
* They are also looking for a economical advertising and marketing solution.

posted November 02, 2006 05:56 PM            

Michelle, 27, works for Harter, Secrest & Emery as a paralegal. She has an income level of 35,000-40,000. Michelle resides in Rochester, NY. She has plenty of free time on her hands. While at her desk she likes to spend time listening to music, but she can’t be seen with a radio or MP3 player in her hands. They would view this as unprofessional. Michelle likes the smart jewelry because she can do her work and listen to her favorite music.

Josh, a 16 years old student at Hornell High School, loves to listen to music. He has many study halls during the day and is ahead with his school work. The students are not allowed to have MP3 player in classes. With Smart Jewelry, he can listen to his favorite music and do his homework and no one will know. Also, he runs track. With the Smart Jewelry he can listen to music while he is running and not have to carry around a music device.

Kate (the girl on the left in the first picture), a 19 year old College student at Alfred University, loves music and is majoring in music appreciation. Kate is taking some of her electives to get them out of the way. Theses classes are very boring and Kate is not interested. In these classes she loves to listen to music and study for her core classes. Smart Jewelry allows her to listen to music for her other classes. This allows her to make it through those boring classes.

posted November 02, 2006 06:13 PM            

We are hoping to add a customer survey with the following questions so that we can somewhat personalize our service and product to meet the needs of our customers. By using the information provided by the customer we can keep AND add customers by continuing to fill demands where possible. Here is a sample of the survy at this time:

Please take the time to take this survey so that we can better serve you, your interests and your music needs:

• What type of music do you potentially listen to?

• What are your top favorite bands or musicians?

• Where online do you acquire your digital music?

• What price do you pay?

• How do you compile photos and or memorabilia?

• How extensively do you scrap book?

• What do you scrap book?

• How long have you had this hobby?

• Why do you continue this hobby?

• How often?

• What percentage of your scrap booking is done online?

• What percentage of your scrap booking is done offline?

• Your ideas are welcome here.....What other resources would you like at your disposal for this hobby?

• Reason for becoming a member of an online scrap booking site that allows members to share creative works with other members-please comment here:

• Other comments you would like to add:
  

[This message has been edited by AndreaT (edited November 02, 2006).]

posted November 02, 2006 06:16 PM            

Direct Competitor to BarCast

Currently they have the advantage they are bigger not cheaper.

1. Picture of Bar owner Karen and John a mom and pop pub owners. Making money not getting rich, looking for a pool table or another money making machine that will not take up space or cost them $. They currently dont lease any gaming machines nor do they want to.
2. Bill a private bar owner who has another full time job counts on manager to make decisions for the bar. Does karaoke and has a dance floor looking for swing clubs etc. to rent space on the slower nights. Likes the idea of the swing music without paying for all the CDs.

Ecast operates the largest touchscreen media network in the United States, with more than 8,000 digital-broadband jukeboxes nationwide. Each unit is linked to a database containing the largest music selection in the industry. By providing digital music to millions of listeners per month, the Ecast Network allows marketers and content providers to reach an audience of highly desirable, young-adult influencers who profoundly affect purchasing decisions and consumer trends.

Typical Barcast customer like the idea that they are the only bar in town with new cutting edge technology

Ecast runs the premier broadband network of digital touchscreen jukeboxes in the US, serving music and advertising to over 42 million consumers per month. Each broadband-enabled jukebox provides the freshest music catalog in the industry, allowing patrons to choose from a massive catalog of songs from independent and major record labels. With over 8,000 locations, growing at a rate of 300 per month, Ecast leads the growing on-premise advertising market, providing data-capture service and branding out-of-home. Ecast is privately

Sirius
Bar Cast
Music where and when you want it
This is the LOGO

posted November 02, 2006 06:29 PM            

Again market research would be -

Demographics

Gender: 70% male, 30% female
Age: 69% are 25-54
Income: 61% have household income $50K+, 41% have household income $75K+
Education: 50% college graduates or higher
Occupation: 42% are professional/managerial

Federated Media says its sites "cater to cultural influencers, technology decision makers, early adopters…":

Demographics

Gender: 79% male
Average Age: 32.7
Income: Average household income range $50,000-$74,999
Occupation: 50% management, 20% Director or above

posted November 02, 2006 07:12 PM            

Acquiring the following companies;

BluTone DemoPro
BackstageLive Worldwide Sports
MoveieFactory Sessions
Superproducers I-Trade
Sportsrecruiter BarCast
Me Smart Jewelry
Bitstream Lounge PopscrapInc
Community Improvement Fundraiser & Elevater

posted November 02, 2006 09:37 PM         

How he uses his IPOD: My job includes extensive travel. So when I’m in airports or on Airplanes my IPOD with satellite service is great. Long flight doesn’t bother me anymore because this product makes flights seem much shorter.

Tom Wagner
Age 32
Occupation: Management Consultant

How he uses his IPOD: I have an hour commute to work everyday on the subway. Before my IPOD it seemed like the commute took forever. It seemed like I was drained every morning when I arrived at work because I was so bored on the subway. Now I’m able to watch the new, sports and my favorite TV shows on my way to work and on my way home. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT!!!

Preston Waters
Age 21
Occupation: Security Guard

posted November 04, 2006 11:31 AM            

Michelle Wright
23 yrs, single mother of a 1 y.o
Likes to work out in her free time
Works with mentally challenge adults
Listens to Rap, R & B and Hip Hop
Always have her hands full with baby bags and personal items
Have to always multitask

Darlene Drake
40 y.o who works full-time
Lives in NYC
Has no car and rides the bus and train everyday
Has no home phone
Likes her old school music and enjoys some of the new
Makes about $25,000-$30,000 a year
Has an lazy adult daughter at home that drives her crazy
Jermaine Wilson
Young athletic
Travels around the world with his basketball team
He is married with a child at home
Most of his family lives in Buffalo and calls at any time
Listens to mostly Rap

posted November 08, 2006 07:31 PM            

Here are DemoPro's typical customers.
http://riccistreet.net/dwares/plaza/bouchard/demopro.htm

posted November 09, 2006 03:09 PM            

Cal Hassel
32 years old
Works full-time as a security guard
Has plenty of disposable income
Music enthusiast, guitar player (hobby)
Mostly likes bands from the nineties and rock bands that have been around a while such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica. He also keeps up-to-date on new rock coming from Incubus, Trapt and Nickelback.
Used to go to concerts all the time but now tries to keep up to date from the net.

posted November 09, 2006 06:16 PM            

Name: Ron
Age: 45
Location: California
Occupation – supermarket manager

After a tough morning negotiating with produce dealers on the price of melons, it is time for Ron to take a break. Ron casually struts to the break room, ignoring customers as they approach him, with his ear phones connected to his mobile phone, listening to his favorite 70's smooth jazz play list through Mobile Music. During his lunch hour, on warm summer day, he cruses the park, listening to his favorite tunes as people start to mob his car and start dancing all around it. All of this is due to his taste in music and can easily share his play list with everyone.

Is anxious and cynical and looks skeptically at any brand. A careful shopper, he avoids new things because they appear scary.

Name : Melissa
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Location: Nebraska

Melissa commutes to school every morning listening to her favorite play list broadcasting through Mobile Music. As she parks her car, blocks away from campus, she continues listening to her same play list through her mobile phone. This keeps the computer geeks from talking to her because they can see she is really into her music by the look on her face. After finally arriving to class, Melissa is able to listen to her music and share it with her friends using Smart Jewelry. At the end of the week, while parting at Sean Collins mansion, instead of exchanging phone numbers, they exchange play lists. Better luck next time.

This customer is extroverted, seeks new stimulation when shopping, and is likely to buy impulsively.

Name: Tyrese
Age: 41
Occupation: School bus driver
Location: Florida

After dropping a full buss load of wild kids at school, Tyrese listens to some old school Metalica played through the school bus radio from Mobile Music. This relaxes him before he has to pick up the kids again after school. After a long hard day, Tyrese listens to some R&B in his car to get him in the mood before returning home to his lady friend who has the same music playing as he enters the front door. Mobile Music, it's what gets you going!

Your customer is very brand conscious, into the latest styles, chic and gadgets even a bit of a brand slave.