Knowing customers and Competitors

 When starting a new business you have to no what the customers consider to be important. A business does not have to have the best all around product, just one that customers believe will meet their expectations and needs. Everybody can be different in a lot of ways, but are alike in their need for everyday living. Say if you  want to buy a pair of shoes, most everybody are going to look at 3 main things: comfort, durability and looks. If people go out to eat dinner, they want to be treated like their business is important to the restaurant.  Who wants a rude and uncaring waitress? Their food might not be the greatest, but if they treat people well and with respect they will probably keep coming back.
 To know the competition will help people figure out what the customers expect. It will also help to figure out what people do not like about a product. Knowing this it will help to make your product better.
 I read an article on line about the legalization on marijuana. They are definitely keeping up with their customers need for privacy, plus some are to sick to go themselves to pick it up. If you read the complete article, you would find there is not and age or financial class distinction.

Marijuana delivery services evade bans on dispensaries, spreading across California

Print

June 5, 2010 | Gary Cohn and Michael Montgomery, California Watch

A flourishing and unregulated industry of pot delivery services is circumventing bans on storefront dispensaries and bringing medical marijuana directly to people’s homes, offices and more unconventional locations across the state, records and interviews show.
The unfettered delivery of marijuana through hundreds of these services highlights how quickly California’s fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory. These new couriers include enterprising farmers, business entrepreneurs and even a former Los Angeles pot dealer methodically switching her former clients to legal patients.
In newspapers and on the Internet, hundreds of “mobile dispensaries” advertise a wide range of strains and other products, such as brownies and cookies laced with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. One service delivers organic vegetables along with medical marijuana, as part of a “farm-direct” service.
Some operate in multiple counties, including jurisdictions where storefront dispensaries are banned, or make local deliveries to drop-off points, such as Starbucks parking lots and gas stations. At least three ship to clients around the state using private prescription-drug couriers.

Matt Mills McKnightAngel Raish suffers from conditions related to a brain tumor. She uses a delivery service for her prescribed marijuana.

Although delivery of medical marijuana is not a new phenomenon, advocates say the growth of these services could be a game-changer in the state’s pot war, which pits law enforcement, elected officials and community groups in some localities against dispensary owners and patients.
And these businesses could increase in popularity if voters approve an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize pot possession.
“They’re delivering the product better, cheaper, more discreetly and probably at a higher profit rate than dispensaries,” said Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which advocates legalization. “These delivery services are starting to grab more and more market share.”

This story was reported in collaboration with KQED public radio, with assistance from the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. It was edited by Robert Salladay and copy edited by William Cooley.

Filed under: Public Safety, Health & Welfare

Tags: Los Angeles, medical marijuana, regulation, Riverside, San Francisco

Market Research

  We live in a society that has unlimited access to do market research. There are on line survey's, telephone survey's, mail survey's and in store survey's. This is just a few ways to gather information you might need to launch a new product. The internet has unlimited information about similar pass products. This could help with information anyone might need to help them make up their mind on if they should try to launch a new product. We live in a ever changing world though, what was bad yesterday, might not be bad today. What one person fail's at, another may succeed. I think talking and really listening to people are very important when trying to establish important statistics. People do not mind telling what they want to people who will listen.
  It always helps to know who could afford the product you might want to put on the market. Price range questions is something to think about before you get to far in the process. If very few can afford your product you probably want be successful.

New media marketing is a relatively new concept used by businesses in developing an online community, which allows satisfied customers to congregate and extol the virtues of a particular brand. In most cases, the online community includes mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, message boards, product reviews, Wikipedia, and social networks all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.
One of the primary arguments to promote new media marketing is the premise that traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. Backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions based on Internet research and referrals.^[1] These advocates strongly adhere to the notion that consumers are more inclined to believe feedback from like-minded peers than corporate marketing verbiage dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising.
Although businesses would be exposing certain weaknesses to the marketplace by allowing individuals, or even competitors, to post critical comments, responding with an honest and transparent answer designed around solving the issue at hand may mitigate potential risks.
New media marketing is most effectively marketed by internet-driven technology such as blogs, RSS, web video productions, podcasts and social networking platforms.^[2]
 
   I found this article in Wikipedia. The internet has made it very easy for people to research anything they might want to buy, or services they made need. Service industries are easier to investigate their history and background before you hire them, or use their services. People need to be careful though, not everyone will be honest. It could be competition  trying to ruin the business of their competitors.
  I think that the internet advertising is good and bad. The good part is that people have to be more aware of how they treat others. If they do not do a good job are sell a good product it will be hard to continue to make money. The bad to me is that you do not know for sure who is giving the approval ratings.(Most of the time) Just because it is on the internet does not make it true!
.

Loft Living

I had received a Good Life Magazine (Cullman County) from a cousin. They had done a article on another cousin. This is the web site to review the magazine, http://issuu.com/the-good-life-magazine/docs/good-life-magazine-fall-2013. The article is Returning to loft-living. The story and loft photographs are by David Moore. Lee Powell (my 2nd cousin), his wife Ginger and their daughter Emmaline live in their loft apartment. Lee has a Insurance Office downstairs. Since the article in Good Times Magazine, they have a new baby girl named Evie Mae. They have made a beautiful home and workplace. The space is convenient in many aspects of their every day life. I am sure savings in gas money alone is substantial. If anyone is considering loft living they should check out the photographs in this article. This is absolutely a great space.