Begin forwarded message:
From: Jonathan Rosenbaum freesource@cheat.org Date: March 3, 2011 12:41:20 AM EST To: Frank Gmeindl fgmeindl@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] Course participation
See my response below each of your embedded questions and comments.
On 2/10/2011 10:21 AM, Frank Gmeindl wrote:
Jonathan,
Your suggestion is innovative, rational and practicable. Please see my questions and comments embedded below.
On Feb 10, 2011, at 4:54 AM, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
I have read through this whole thread, and while I observe some good thinking going on, there really isn't anything earth-shattering about the approaches being discussed. Targeting businesses has been discussed in the past, but what I mostly hear being suggested is that we change our jingle.
News alert. I don't think that we have failed in our marketing efforts at all. In fact, I think the results we are getting are typical for the particular media approaches we are employing.
In general, it is pretty common for media marketing to produce very small percentage returns. While it's a great approach for large companies who are targeting large populations, it is probably not in the BB's best interest. I am sure all of you receive spam mail, and I suspect that 100% of you absolutely hate it or completely ignore it, but alas, probably about 0.00001% of people who do receive it become repeat customers which makes it a very lucrative business for its proprietors. But ironically, it also means none of you probably become the customers. These stats tend to be true with many types of media marketing.
Lets do some numbers. Let's say we have a $70k budget and we spent about $25,000 last year, and Morgantown's MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) population is 118,506. Let's say 40 people took our course last year. That means, our costs were $625.00 per each individual, and our market penetration was 0.00034%. Note: I am guesstimating some of these numbers.
Just for demonstration, let's say that after everything is said and done, we are paying $525.00 in marketing costs for each person we are bringing into our program What's wrong with this picture? A lot.
Here is the solution I suggest. Let's employ a traditional sales approach. Initially, we will find people who are interested in marketing our program.
What approach do you recommend to "find people who are interested in marketing our program" and who would implement your approach? From your writing below, it seems people that have completed TS101 or that have demonstrated that they know the material would qualify as marketers. I ask who would implement your approach because it won't happen unless somebody does it so the first job would seem to be to find somebody(s) that will take this on.
A person who took the course should in theory be the best marketer if they can share their excitement, and inspiration with other people; we should reward them for making an effort in bringing new folks to the program. However, sales do take skills, and we shouldn't rely only on people who have taken the course to accomplish this task, but rather on people who have expressed an interest in marketing the program. These people could be located via help wanted ads, job agencies, WVU, etc. People who have responded to our marketing opportunity could be required to take the course to understand our product and/or they could be provided with a marketing kit. Ideally, we should find a sales manager who could establish what the best practices would be. The sales manager in turn would find and train sales associates. The sales manager would be commiserated for their work by receiving a percentage for each successful sale completed by a sales associate. It would behoove the Bicycle Board to initially find a person who would serve as a sales manager. A sales manager could be located via help wanted ads, job agencies, WVU, etc. First, I would suggest going to WVU, because a student may want to do this as part of a project or one of WVU's work-learning programs. Contracts will need to be drawn up. In the case of a Sales Manager contract I would recommend that they be required to train an assistant sales manager who would take over the Sales Manager's duties if the Sales Manger can't continue their duties.
This is the fun part because we wouldn't have to pay them $525 for each person they successfully get to enroll in our program, we could pay them $50 or $35 or maybe even $25 for their effort. I could see this approach being really successful at WVU. First we would ditch offering free courses to WVU students. If you were a WVU student and you could make $600 by convincing 12 of your friends to enroll and successfully complete the course, wouldn't that motivate you to market our program? Yes!
Do you mean that the City would pay our "marketers" $25 for each person that they got to sign up for the course?
This payment would be a commission to the marketer for every person they bring into the program who successfully completes the course. The amount that a sales person would make per commission should be determined based on a cost analysis along with the expert advice of a sales manager (see earlier response).
Now here's a creative approach building on Aira's concept of raising our price. Let's raise the price to $100, but lets give our marketers coupons with their sales ID written on it. If their friend brings the coupon when they enroll, they will receive a 60% discount or maybe even a 100% discount! Once they complete the course we will offer them a sales ID which they can use to invite all their friends and associates. But, because good marketers aren't necessarily people who have taken our course, we could open up the marketing program to anyone who is a good marketer, i.e., we would interview them first, and if approved, hire them as an independent contractor and provide them with instructions on how we want our program presented to the public.
Are you personally willing to manage this?
No.
I say, let's get a good paid sales force because that's how the Bicycle Boards Education's 7,000,000 pennies from its Grant will be most effectively utilized to successfully build a large program that will produce a nice population of enthusiastic bicyclists.
-Jonathan
Gunnar Shogren wrote:
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 8:46 PM, Ryan Post rpostwvu@gmail.com wrote:
Ya, we got Old, Young, Woman and Cantankerous. Frank and Gunnar can fight over which 2 persona they are.
I'm really liking the idea of getting word out to businesses. I'm thinking it'll be a better bang for the buck, and also is probably less time spent by BB members than working up a new commercial. As much as I'd love to be in a 4th cycling commercial!
I'm expecting that word of mouth will be the most powerful advertising once a bunch of people have taken it.
Oh, and how do we get to this "bunch of people"?
-----Original Message----- From: bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org [mailto:bikeboard-bounces@cheat.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Shogren Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:15 PM To: Alice Vernon Cc: Jim Rye; chip wamsley; Elizabeth Shogren; Bicycle Board; Frank Gmeindl Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] Course participation
Thanks, Alice!
I am thinking the commercial could "introduce" our LCI instructors. Sometimes people are more apt to sign up for something if they can see that it is not taught by some scary hard-core freak. Establish a connection and all that...
On second thought, this idea could backfire. HAHA!! Just kidding!!!
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Alice Vernon vernon.mail@gmail.com wrote:
I think Betsy is right about the commercial and people not reading the paper. Alice
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Gunnar Shogren gshogren@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 5:59 PM, Elizabeth Shogren > elizabeth.schauer@gmail.com wrote: > >> I say let's make another commercial! Tons of people saw our PSAs, >> while I am not so sure that many people actually read the newspaper >> that often (especially students and other active types). >> > And the commercial that Betsy is talking about is one that promotes > the CLASS and not just safe riding in general. > > >> _______________________________________________ >> Bikeboard mailing list >> Bikeboard@cheat.org >> http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Bikeboard mailing list > Bikeboard@cheat.org > http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard >
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Frank Gmeindl