Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
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| DUQUESA MARKETING NEWSLETTER January 2012
5 Tips for Small Businesses & Start-ups to Use To Appear Bigger than They Really Are |
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| Duquesa Quote of the Month: |
| ”Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius”
- Joshua Reynolds, English Painter |
| Tip of the Month: |
| Keep Business Plans short, pithy and exciting without being bombastic. We usually cover all salient points in 25 or so pages–BUT–Exhibits to support product/project claims and assumptions can and should be extensive. |
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For many years I have worked almost exclusively with entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses
seeking to start, or grow a business against daunting odds and competitive disadvantages. We specialize in Consumer Products, packaged goods that are marketed in every category and sales channel. Despite the deck seemingly being so stacked against these micro-enterprises it is amazing how many succeed.
One of the lessons we counsel and preach is the importance of acting and presenting the business to consumers and merchants as being more solid and substantial than it in reality is. No one wants to do business with a firm that appears to be struggling. People smell weakness. They are attracted to success.
One of our goals for clients is to be able to meet key decision makers in a specific category and open doors that seem closed to most fledgling start-ups. In order to achieve this we must have the client act like the puffer fish and blow themselves up to appear bigger and stronger than they are. How can this be accomplished? The edifice that is presented as the core of the business can be inflated with creativity and a bit of illusion. It is essential that entrepreneur’s utilize every tool available to level the playing field as much as possible.
Here are 5 ways to embellish the appearance of strength for of a start-up.
1. Have a professional, original, customized Branding Strategy. Colors, icons, lyrical Branding Statements and graphics that work as one are crucial in differentiating the Company and its products and services from competitors, large and small.
2. Your place of business and mailing address speak volumes about your firm and product. Most start-ups cannot afford an office in Beverly Hills, or London. They can rent a mail box service in a prestigious zip code. For meetings, there are impressive offices with secretarial services that can be secured by the hour or half-day.
3. Put some effort and diligence into building and editing your web-site. The only thing worse than not having a web-site is having a mass market template that screams “unprofessional”. Currently, there are an endless number of do-it-yourself templates available to guide construction of a web-site. The construction is not as important as the content. Do not take shortcuts on content.
(Please click here to read the entire article)
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Domestic and International, startup or growth company, Duquesa Marketing creates unique product development strategies , on time and on budget, that achieves success. There are many different marketing consultant services we offer to insure clients have the greatest opportunity for success with product development and marketing.
Check our our website, www.duquesamarketing.com , for more information about product development, marketing strategies and how to start your own business. Call (859) 567-1609 and let us help you get your product ideas to market. |
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Sincerely,
Duquesa Marketing |
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Posted in Entrepreneurialism, Newsletters
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
| DUQUESA MARKETING NEWSLETTER December 2011
Adapt to Changing Business Climate & Prosper
or Get Left Behind & Perish |
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| Duquesa Quote of the Month: |
| “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
- 16th century proverb |
| Tip of the Month: |
| When selling, marketing, seeking investment or licensing opportunities, it is crucial to avoid taking shortcuts. This diminishes you and your project. The marketplace always culls out those that take the easy way. |
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Recently, the unbelievable pace of change the world business climate is undergoing has been reconfirmed. Visionary fashion designer Liz Claiborne died and her Company announced that it would sell or close 16 divisions. And, pioneering retailer Leslie Wexner announced that his firm, Limited Brands, Inc. would put up for sale the Limited and Limited Express chains.
The nature of retail, like most other industries, has undergone radical change. Big box category killers like Staples and Best Buy have evolved into dominating international success stories. Tesco, WalMart and Carrefours offer enormous scale, one stop shopping unimaginable a generation ago. Specialty retailers such as Wet Seal, Aeropostiale, Abercrombie and Fitch, L’Occitaine and Talbots attack specific niches.
Consolidation, bankruptcy and liquidation have allowed fewer and fewer national department store and supermarket chains. Macy’s has consolidated nationally after absorbing numerous regional department store chains such as Lazarus, Bullocks, Burdines and Marshall Field. W.T. Grant, Montgomery Ward, AyrWay, Venture and Gold Circle are only a few examples of once strong groups that no longer exist.
The Limited began in 1963 as a single clothing store in Columbus, Ohio. Leslie Wexner saw an opportunity to create an amazing retail growth story by replicating designer clothing designs, mass producing offshore and selling tailored business clothing to the rapidly emerging population of female businesswoman. He became a billionaire by leveraging and extending The Limited to numerous additional store brands including Limited Too, Victoria’s Secret, Henri Bendel and Bath and Body Works.
(Please click to continue reading this article)
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Posted in Newsletters
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
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DUQUESA MARKETING NEWSLETTER November 2011
Make Your Passion for Fun a Key Part When Seeking New Product Opportunities
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Duquesa Quote of the Month:
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“Profile and contour are the touchstone of the Architect. Hence he reveals himself as artist or mere engineer”.
Le Corbusier,
Swiss Architect (1887-1965)
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Tip of the Month:
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”As you only get one chance to make a Great first impression, be sure that when presenting yourself/product/project/
investment opportunity you have dressed all elements accordingly”.
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Most people lead rather ordinary lives, built around family, job, church and hobbies. This is fine for most. The need to pay the bills leads many to engage in work that is unfulfilling, boring and stifling. That so many people work at energy sapping employment should be a motivating factor in seeking entrepreneurial opportunity. Sadly, most people are totally risk averse and eliminate themselves from the potential rewards available almost exclusively to entrepreneur.
The perceived risk taker (the entrepreneur) is, in actuality, not the real risk taker. The real risk taker is the person willing to work a dull job, for average pay, letting life fly by without ever knowing the excitement of being in the fray. This person leaves life without ever having made a mark. Looking back on a journey that did not include excitement, change and risk would seem to reflect an empty, unfulfilled life lived.
Entrepreneurs crave change, excitement, competition and risk, understanding that these are the defining hurdles to be overcome if success is to be achieved. The ability to test oneself against the overwhelming mass of competitive opportunities available in the marketplace is a narcotic to serial entrepreneurs. They might not always succeed, but they will always try.
Most new products are developed from an entrepreneur’s life experience. The hundreds of new product ideas I review each year are overwhelmingly skewed to hobby: pet, cosmetic, sporting goods and children’s products. And overwhelmingly, these offerings can be described as having a fun component.
(Please click here to read more from this article)
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Posted in Newsletters
Monday, October 24th, 2011
| DUQUESA MARKETING NEWSLETTER October 2011
Bootstrapping Your Way to Success |
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| Duquesa Quote of the Month: |
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“What poor education I have received has been gained in the University of Life”
- Horatio Bottomley,
British financier
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There is no more accurate American descriptive phrase of the rags to riches success then: “He pulled himself up by his bootstraps”. The pioneers, backwoodsmen, cowboys, whalers and other prototypical American hero classes all possessed an air of courage, self-reliance, and belief that they could beat the odds. They are wonderful samples of entrepreneurs at the most elemental level.
My favorite method of starting a business, launching a product or service is the old fashioned, do it myself, Bootstrapping. The ability to bootstrap a startup eliminates so many of the hurdles normally confronting the entrepreneur. Raising money, building inventory, dependence on support from others and assembling fixed overheads is mitigated when you bootstrap your new venture.
My first two startups were both completely bootstrapped. I had no outside investors, no on hand inventory: my home was my office, factory and warehouse. I made a product prototype, only one. That was all I could afford, but I made sure it was production quality.
Then I hit the road. I made presentations to department store buyers, non-stop in geographic loops from my home in Cincinnati. After four weeks of presentations and living in cheap motels, and a few nights sleeping in the car, I returned with a fist full of purchase orders. I then took the orders to New York, along with my business plan: everything buttoned down and detailed, for presentation to factors.
(Please click here to read more from this article)
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Domestic and International, startup or growth company, Duquesa Marketing creates unique product development strategies , on time and on budget, that achieves success. There are many different marketing consultant services we offer to insure clients have the greatest opportunity for success with product development and marketing.
Check our our website, www.duquesamarketing.com , for more information about product development, marketing strategies and how to start your own business. Call (859) 567-1609 and let us help you get your product ideas to market. |
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Sincerely,
Duquesa Marketing |
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Posted in Newsletters
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
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A Simple 20-Step Test That Will Confirm Whether or Not a Product Development Project Is Market-Ready
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For almost four decades my Consulting firm has worked with entrepreneur’s to design, develop, package, Brand, Market and Sell a vast range of Consumer Products. Our job is to save clients time, money and mistakes. This goal is best achieved when we are involved in a nascent project from inception. Unfortunately this is not always the case.
Many prospective entrepreneurs decide to self-market their “alpha” product launch. This can certainly be done, though it requires a very high level of due diligence and trial and error. Unfortunately we are approached all too often by a rookie product developer who has exhausted their funds, mis-marketed the product or not been able to penetrate the target market at the most fundamental level.
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The following is a series of questions, a test, that can be used as a guide in deciding if you have the capacity to self-market a new product, service or business strategy. This test is general in nature and you can fine tune the questions to more closely apply to a specific product you are developing.
- Have you filed for Intellectual Property protection (patent, trademark, copy right, trade secret, etc.)? Yes___ No___
- Do you have a detailed Gantt Chart? Yes___ No ___
- Have you chosen Engineer, Designer, Lab (depending on product type)? Yes___No___
- Do you have Production Quality Prototypes (or formula, or recipe, etc. depending on product type)? Yes___ No___
- Have you conducted deep competitive product research (pricing, distribution, etc.)? Yes___ No ___
(Please click here to read more from this article)
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| Duquesa Quote of the Month - September 2011
“Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense”
- Lord Bollingbroke, 18th century british politician |
Domestic and International, startup or growth company, Duquesa Marketing creates unique product development strategies , on time and on budget, that achieves success. There are many different marketing consultant services we offer to insure clients have the greatest opportunity for success with product development and marketing.
Check our our website, www.duquesamarketing.com , for more information about product development, marketing strategies and how to start your own business. Call (859) 567-1609 and let us help you get your product ideas to market. |
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Sincerely,
Duquesa Marketing |
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Posted in Entrepreneurialism, Newsletters
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
10 Essential Traits for the Successful Entrepreneur
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What Makes an Entrepreneur Different?
Studies indicate that entrepreneurs are born, not made. As a serial entrepreneur myself, having worked with dozens of successful entrepreneurs, I can confirm that this is a truism. No two are exactly alike, but they are different from those who fail, or worse, never try.
I am often asked what makes an entrepreneur. In answering, I use the quote made by Supreme Court Justice Harlan when asked how he defined pornography. “I know it when I see it”. Entrepreneurs have a demeanor that separates them from the herd. They are different. Ready to take risks, fearless, passionate, problem solvers, positive and focused: entrepreneurs are the power that runs the engine of any capitalist economy.
I have assembled 10 traits that all successful entrepreneurs seem to acquire during their life’s experience. Some are stronger in one area or another, but the basics are covered here and represent qualities and beliefs that are remarkably consistent in successful entrepreneurs.
(Please Click Here to Read More from this Article)
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| Duquesa Quote of the Month - August 2011
“We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets”
- Karl Popper, Austrian Philosopher |
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Domestic and International, startup or growth company, Duquesa Marketing creates unique product development strategies , on time and on budget, that achieves success. There are many different marketing consultant services we offer to insure clients have the greatest opportunity for success with product development and marketing.
Check our our website, www.duquesamarketing.com , for more information about product development, marketing strategies and how to start your own business. Call (859) 567-1609 and let us help you get your product ideas to market. |
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Sincerely,
Duquesa Marketing |
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Posted in Launching new products, Newsletters
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
DUQUESA MARKETING CONSUMER PRODUCT SPECIALISTS
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING STRATEGIES
(859) 567-1609 gficke@msn.com
DUQUESA MARKETING NEWSLETTER – July 2011
Is Now the Best Time to Start a New Business?
Securing Professional Help – How to Market a New Product Idea
Successfully Approaching Marketing Professionals – How to Market a New Consumer Product
I am often asked if these are good times for new enterprise opportunities? Should I wait? Is the economy down too much? Is it a good funding market? Is competition too intense? These and dozens more stated concerns are nothing more than self-imposed hurdles to movement; excuses.
Now is the best time in history to start a business, launch a product or offer a cutting edge new service. Even with relatively high unemployment people still are working and shopping. More business incorporations are established each year than the previous year. Global prosperity is galloping along, with formerly poor countries like China, India and Malaysia experiencing spectacular growth (potential new customers for new products and services) and an emerging middle class developing in many third world countries.
Much of what I just stated might seem at odds with the media presentation of a struggling economy. The mass media knows that bad news sells. It is in their interest to report the problems of General Motors, layoffs, health care benefit cuts and downsizing while ignoring the spectacular growth of jobs and small business around the world. Mass media has a goal of keeping readers on edge; uncertain about the future and discontented. Pay no heed, do your own research on current market conditions if this is a concern.
The opportunity to successfully start a small business, market an invention or new service is always dependent solely on the value, novelty and benefits of the new offering. If there is an under-served market segment and you can identify a niche in a large market category, the time is always right to move ahead.
(Please Click Here to Read More from this Article)
Duquesa Quote of the Month – July 2011
”He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper”.
-Edmund Burke
Domestic and International, startup or growth company, Duquesa Marketing creates unique product development strategies , on time and on budget, that achieves success. There are many different marketing consultant services we offer to insure clients have the greatest opportunity for success with product development and marketing.
Check our our website, www.duquesamarketing.com , for more information about product development, marketing strategies and how to start your own business. Call (859) 567-1609 and let us help you get your product ideas to market.
Sincerely,
Duquesa Marketing
Posted in Newsletters
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
August 2, 2011
Shark Yourself!
It’s Shark Week, and we’re celebrating!
In an example of great marketing, Discovery Channel took a mundane concept and turned it into must-see TV: SHARKS! This week you can watch jumping sharks, shark attacks and weird sharks. You can even Shark Yourself! (See photo at right. I could have played with that all night! )
And speaking of sharks, have you see the show Shark Tank on ABC? It’s a show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to the “sharks” who might invest in their company and take them to the next level.
Well, you don’t have to be on Shark Tank to get your dream product or service out to the world. Our guest on Thursday, Geoff Ficke, has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs make their dreams come true. We’ll talk finding funding and product development, and Geoff will answer your questions on the show.
And have you taken some time recently to recharge? Renie, Sherri and I did just that last weekend when we went to Albuquerque for tequila, Tamaya and trouble! (C’mon, would it be us WITHout the trouble?!) Click here for more about our adventures.
We’ll have more on the fun of Shark Week in the Ponder section below. (Remember to take the quiz!) And Renie realizes she needs to stay away from sales. Click here to find out why.
Thanks for listening!
Pamela Atherton
A Closer Look Radio
Pam@ACloserLookRadio.com
Thursday, August 4th
You don’t need to be on Shark Tank to make your product or business idea successful!
Do you have a product idea but just aren’t sure where to start? Is your business ready to move to the next level, but you don’t have the connections to make that happen? Geoff Ficke has been helping hundreds of people make their business dreams come true! Companies like Estee Lauder, Sara Lee and Victoria Secret have flourished with his expertise.
This week on the show we’ll find out where to go to get our dream products manufactured, how to find representatives, where to get distribution and more. Got a dream? This week we’ll help you make it come true!
To find out more about Geoff, click here.
Thursday at 1pm PT/ 2pm MT/ 3pm CT/ 4pm ET
Posted in Newsletters, Press Releases
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