Does Your Business Appeal To $227 Billion Of ‘Lohas’ (Green) Consumers?
Are you wondering what LOHAS stands for? Don’t feel bad if you aren’t familiar with it yet. If you’re living in the SF Bay Area, you understand it more than you may know. LOHAS is a convenient marketing buzzword that stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. Simply put, it refers to the $227 billion dollar consumer market of people who want more consciousness in their day-to-day lives and are spending their money accordingly. This large subculture is detailed in the book, The Cultural Creatives by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson. If you’re actively building a business in the alternative health, spa, or personal development fields, you’re probably in this demographic yourself, but either way, chances are good that a hefty percentage of your income comes from LOHAS consumers. This is not just a trend, but a massive change in the way that we all do business.
The LOHAS Journal first coined the phrase, and attributes 5 key values to this group of people:
Sustainable Economy
Healthy Living
Alternative Healthcare
Personal Development
Ecological Lifestyles
Advertising Campaigns That Get Results
“Advertising doesn’t work.” I hear it from my clients all the time. One client was about to file for bankruptcy because she wasn’t getting a good response to her radio ads, and the cost was killing her. But she knew her target market was listening; she knew she needed to get her name out there to generate more business. What should she do?
Owners of small businesses and professionals like yourself realize that to take your business to the next level, you need to get your products and services in front of a larger audience. You want to generate more leads, get more prospects to contact you and buy from you. Advertising is essential but how do you get more out of your advertising dollars?
Should You be Using OPGI?
What is OPGI?
There’s another term for it, but I prefer OPGI for three reasons:
Skip the Marketing Jargon to Attract More Paying Clients
Many people get tempted to use the fancy phrases that they use on a regular basis, in their marketing materials. Problem is they end up speaking “above” their prospects’ heads.
I see this use of jargon all too often when visiting people’s websites and in networking groups. My impression is there’s a lack of confidence in there somewhere and people are trying to compensate by trying to sound overly professional or fancy. Well, the result is that not only are people’s eyes glazing over, they’re also probably losing lots of potential clients that way, and not to mention, lots of potential referrals.
10 Tips To Help Every Marketer Convert More Prospects And Keep Them Coming Back For More
1. Begin with the customer in mind.
Remember, everything begins and ends with your customers. Try to
imagine being them. Mentally take a stroll with them, talk to them and
share their wants and frustrations. Try to feel what’s going on in
their minds?
2. Now, craft a solution in the form of benefits that will satisfy those
wants.
Now that you’ve entered your potential customers’ minds, can you see
those wants? Can you feel how satisfying it would be if the perfect
set of benefits were to be offered at the right price. Now write down
those benefits.
Beyond the Booth
With the advent of spring, trade shows begin to blossom. Research suggests that tradeshows are where today’s businesses invest much of their marketing budgets. According to EXPO Magazine, in 2005 revenue expenditures from booth sales will increase 27%! As these shows and conferences continue to grow in space and numbers, the challenge for businesses becomes how to maximize these shows to secure the greatest return on investment both in dollars and time.
Define the Goal - Successful trade show marketing begins by first defining the desired end results to be achieved from attendance at the show. This goal should be written using the S.M.A.R.T. criteria –Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically Set High and Time Driven. Sometimes, several desired results are defined such as: identifying potential competitors; identifying potential customers; determining if this is a trade show where my company should exhibit next year; learn what the competition is saying about our product(s), etc. Through these written goals, then decisions can be made as to the number of people to send and what type of people should the company send e.g. engineers, sales, marketing, etc. Without identifying the initial goals, companies will receive costly unexpected and unanticipated outcomes.
Telling Your Product’s Story
It begins with an idea. Then come the hours of hammering out form, function, and features. We pour our hearts and souls into the act of creation, driven by the new-spun inspiration of fresh ideas. And then…
We write a stale product definition document, create a list of bullets in a few PowerPoint slides, and try to sell that to those whose job it is, most often, to say NO.
Mission Position
Ahh, the mission statement. For some companies it simply describes their purpose for existing. For others it permeates the overall culture of the company. Some see its value, while others neglect to give it even a passing thought.
Whatever your position on having a corporate mission statement, you should know that your image is tied to your mission. And companies that don’t have a clearly defined image usually don’t have a mission statement. All success-bound companies need one, if for no other purpose than to stay focused on your core competencies, the very reason you’re in business in the first place.
Display Planning Checklist
So you’ve made it through the Trade Show Planning & Budgeting phase, and now you’re ready to Create a Winning Display! So where do you start? Before you can determine what your booth should look like, you need to think through all of the factors at play. The Display Planning Checklist below is a good way to get you started, and can put you well ahead of the game when you sit down with your display designer.
Set Your Budget.
Marketing is More than Advertising. Get better Results by Knowing the Difference
Too many small business owners focus on advertising as the only way to generate new business. Before you buy any advertising, you should know what you’re trying to accomplish. That goal comes from your overall marketing plan.
Let’s back up a moment. Start with your business goals. What would you like to accomplish this year? If you want 20% growth in revenue and a similar growth in profits then you’ll need more sales. You’ll need to attract new customers or get additional sales from existing customers.