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Thread: What do business owners think?

  1. #1
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    Default What do business owners think?

    As part of furthering my market analysis, I am asking small business owners what they would think of free marketing in exchange for discounts on their products. More specifically, the marketing strategies include both online and physical marketing and the discounts offered would be exclusive to one type of membership. What would you look for or need in order to utilize those free services and how much would they be worth to you in therms of product/service discounts? Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated. Thanks.

    Ren

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    Wozcreative's Avatar

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    Essentially it is not free marketing as this is a bartering system. You do marketing, I give you # of hours of work on my service/product. This complicates things too much as I would have to determine how much marketing you can do for trading my service. I'd rather just pay instead if I needed your service.
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  3. #3

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    It would really depends on what service is being offered and the cost. I do like bartering, but am rather cautious. Let's say that person A is selling Jeep water pump for $50, no discount. Person B has Jeep water pump for $75, but will give me $25 discount for his/her product. What do you think? Bartering is not always the best idea. Don't take it wrong. I do like bartering, but watch out if you know what I mean.

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    I am more of a pay as you go, charge as you go type of person.
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  5. #5

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    Yeah, I agree with you all. I'm guessing you're having a difficult time finding paying clients? If so, I understand but bartering is way too difficult to measure.
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    Default Update

    Thanks for the posts so far. I'd like to rephrase my question though. What would business owners think about participating in a discount membership program for marketing purposes if doing so would provide increases in clientele or customers? So rather than bartering, would this just be something anyone would be interested in? Think of AAA and how members receive discounts to certain stores. For example, businesses participate in Groupon to attract new customers. Rather than paying half of a product you're already selling at 50% off, participating businesses can offer, say, 10% off a $50 purchase. Thoughts?

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    I personally think this is a good option for new business owner desiring to make a name for themselves. Marketing is key for my business genre.

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    Hey Ren.....

    I think you are unnecessarily complicating things. If you have a marketing system that is effective then demonstrate its efficacy and state your price for your service. I don't understand the need to complicate things.

    I would be very unlikely to participate in such a scheme as it seems like I would have to try to find some discounted service to try to justify participation in the whole thing. Basically, you are making it a pain in the rear to find value in your service. Why not just sell the service at a fair price for whatever it is worth?

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    participating in a discount membership program for marketing purposes if doing so would provide increases in clientele or customers?

    This, to me, sounds like someone wanting to start a membership type business and needs bodies to make it work.

    I need to see "how many" members. Not potentially. How many solid, verifiable members are already there.

    Admittedly, this is a chicken and egg issue.
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  10. #10

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    I also agree with everything that was said, what if you ask a couple of volunteers to help you do a market analysis at no cost to them and if it's not going to be a big cost to you, on the other hand you'll have their feed back and see if your work helped and they can even recommend you to other businesses.
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