Marketing Done Modern

Christmas is Over, Now What?

First off, I do have to apologize for my lack of posting for the past several weeks.  Being the holidays, I have been out of town for two weeks and now I am preparing for a whole new year.  The start of a new year is very exciting.  It's a chance to do things differently.  Personally, I am trying to be more conscious of my spending habits, continue working out, and in general, be a kinder person.  Although I can say these are my resolutions, they are more goals that I am working towards.  This is also a good time of year for businesses to have resolutions.  Where do you want your company to go in 2009?  Do you want to have more loyal customers?  More customers in general?  Higher profits?  Just stay in business?  Redesign?  What is it that you want to do?

This is a great time for businesses to look over what happened in 2008 and determine what it is you want out of the next year.  But it doesn't have to be a year long plan.  Start by planning the next month, the next six months, the next year, and so on and so forth.  Sure, you could continue the strategy that you are currently using, but maybe it's time to look where your company is going, rather than where it's been.   For example, you decide you want to have a sale to draw in new customers.  Think about when your target market is going to be purchasing your product.  Do you own a candy store?  It might seem obvious but special discounts around Valentine's are always a big draw.  Do you specialize in children's clothing?  How about a sale during the Easter season?  I always got a new dress for Easter. 

Another idea is to go through the books and determine slow times of the year.  Come up with a few ideas to bring new people in during your slow times.  For example, if you own a ski and snowboarding store (depending on your geography) my bet is that you're busiest between November and March.  What can you do the rest of the year?  Well, you are a ski and snowboarding store, why don't you sell water skis and other water sports paraphernalia.  It's just an idea.

There are many ways that looking to the past can help you in the future.  Just make sure that when you are looking to the past to help your future that you don't get stuck there.

Happy Marketing!!!

Unlike in High School, Different Can Be Good in Business

I remember my freshman year of high school.  I was still sort of the new kid (I moved the year before) was short, going through my "awkward stage", had braces and was just a little different.  This was also one of the hardest years of my life.  The other kids weren't mean, but they also didn't accept me for who I was.  It took me almost a year to find out where I fit in.  I am really glad that business is not like this. 

When I was in business school they kept talking about finding your niche.  Sometimes you don't have to find a niche and you create mass appeal.  For example, let's look at the Swiffer.  There are a million ways to clean the floors.  You can use a broom, a mop, get on your hands and knees, a waxer, a buffer, a sander, etc, etc, etc.  About 10 years ago the people at P&G introduced the world to the Swiffer.  While cleaning floors is not a new concept, the way the Swiffer cleans is.  The Swiffer has replaceable pads that are sort of like dirt magnets.  While it's not the same as mopping (they have the Swiffer WetJet to solve that problem) it's a good way to keep your floors clean.  I don't know if I know anyone who does not own a Swiffer.  It's different, but it has mass appeal.  Being different and unique can be good.  Time to gather around children, it's story time.

This summer, a girl I know won a free engagement photo session.  I love pictures and photography.  I also love looking at wedding and engagement photos.  Who doesn't like pictures of people that are in love?  It's almost as great as looking at pictures of babies and puppies.  So off I went to Beautiful Union Portraits.  I was extremely impressed with the pictures that I saw.  They weren't the traditional sit-here-pose-and-make-it-look-like-it's-spontaneous kind of pictures.  While on their website, I looked through their blog and their gallery.  What I found was incredible.  They do wedding pictures with a photo journalistic style.  It catches the emotion of the day.  They state that they will do the traditional stand up and pose at the front of the church photos, but what really caught my eye was everything else.  They really have an eye for detail and for beautiful photography.  I was completely blown away.  I hope one day, if I get married, that they will take the photographs for me.  This style may not suit everyone, but it's different, it's unique, and it really appealed to me. And that's why I liked them, they're different.  Anyone with a good camera can take a nice picture, but it's something else to take photos that make a complete stranger feel like they were there. 

Happy Marketing!

If You Think You're High and Mighty, Get Your Head Out of the Clouds

If you have been following the news recently, you will have read about how the Big 3 automakers are asking for a multi-billion dollar bailout.  One of the things that stood out in my mind was some members of Congress noted that the CEOs came begging for money on private jets.  This was interesting for several reasons.

1.) How much money do they need if they can afford a fleet of private planes?
2.) Why couldn't they fly first class on a commercial airline?
3.) Did they think that no one would notice?

The first two were mentioned a significant amount when the bailout was initially at the forefront.  But one thing that I paid particular attention to was the third.  Did they really think they could come asking for billions of dollars on private jets and have no one mention it?  It does seem a bit hypocritical.  I understand that a CEO of a giant company such as Ford or GM has a different role than a small business owner.  They may feel like they are above other people and they can take these fancy jets, but it did come back to bite them.  And you can tell me over and over it's for safety reasons, but until they went asking, I had no idea what these guys looked like or even cared.  As one congressman said, couldn't they have jet-pooled?  However, there are some things you should do to show that you actually "get it."

There is a small restaurant near my boyfriend's house that we like to go to called Francesco's Restorante Italiano.  He thinks the food is amazing and while I do agree with that, there is more to this place that makes me go back.  It's a small, family-owned restaurant.  The food, I will admit, is some of he best Italian that I've had since my Italian grandmother was alive.  Everything is cooked to order and you can change whatever you want.  Plus, the ingredients are fresh, the bread is homemade, and the cannoli is out of this world!  But the service and the atmosphere are really what stand out to me.  Both times that I've been, I have learned and remembered the names of my servers, and they've asked for our names.  Both times, they have personally recommended one of the specials (and let me tell you, they've always been right).  But here's what makes this place different to me.  Everyone does what is necessary.  This past Saturday I watched the owner do many different jobs.  Not only is he the chef, but he seated people when he wasn't cooking, he told them the specials, and even recommended a wine.  Now, there are other servers there, but since it was slow, the owner took it upon himself.  And I respect that.  To me, it means that he is willing to do jobs other than cooking.  He's invested in his business and he's doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done.  I may not be a great connoisseur of food, but I know dedication when I see it.

Happy Marketing!!!

  

The Price Must Be Right

Have you ever walked into a home decor store and found the perfect accessory for a bedroom?  Then noticed that the price tag is 4 times what you thought it would be?  I have.  Just this past weekend I was shopping with my mom in my hometown at a place called Perennial Accents.  I am currently looking for a little basket to put my boyfriend's parent's Christmas present in.  My mom pointed one out and it was beautiful.  However, it was over $50.  I understand that somethings are worth more like Longaberger baskets which do have a higher price tag.  But there was nothing special about this basket.  It was pretty and had some decoration on the side of it, but I didn't think that it was worth the price tag.  Plus, I had never heard of the company that made it.   And I did't blame the store, however.  I happen to know that this is a reasonably priced store that sells high quality products.  I have bought many a Christmas present for my mom from.  But I started thinking about how many times we look at something and don't feel that it's worth the price.

When it comes to pricing, we have to be sensitive.  Not only do we need to know how much our product is worth, but we need to find out if our customer is willing to pay what we charge and if we're making a profit.  One thing that always comes to mind for me is truffles, and I don't mean the mushrooms.  A handmade chocolate truffle can bring in about $3 per truffle.  I used to think that this was extravagant until I made truffles myself.  There's a lot of work that goes into them.  I understand now why they cost so much.  Plus, they are delicious.  But would I pay for a truffle if it was $5.  Or would I think it was really cheap if it were only $0.50. 

In research we use a technique called the Van Westendorp Pricing Sensitivity Meter.  It is a few questions that ask about pricing.  From the data, we are able to determine the optimum price.  We also can determine what is considered too high that it isn't worth price and what is too low that makes customers question the quality.  It's a really interesting technique.  I'm not saying everyone needs to do marketing research to price every thing in their stores, but price does have to be a consideration.  If you get a lot of people in your store and you know that you're selling a great product but you aren't selling much, it may have to do with your price.  Sometimes you have to start lower and work your way up so that people recognize the value of the product that you are offering.  There's a reason that Rolex and Mont Blanc can charge really high prices for their products while Seiko and Cross have more reasonably priced offerings. I guess you have to look at your pricing and determine if you're charging a Rolex price for a Seiko product.

Happy Marketing!!!

Consider Your Customers, And Where They Come From

Location, Location, Location.  This adage is one of the most well known sayings in business.  But location is more than being situated on a busy street or having the prettiest building.  Being in research, this is something that I think about a lot.  Who knows, one day I may want to open a bakery, I need to know where to locate it to bring in people who are truly interested in my product.  If you are already set with your location and don't plan on moving, that's fine.  This is a lot easier to do if you don't have a brick and mortar location yet or you're looking to move locations. But you need to think about where your customers are.  If your product appeals to soccer moms that live in the suburbs, then opening a store in a large, downtown, urban area is not a great idea.  It may be a great location, but are you really getting to your customer. 

Ok, today we are going to pretend that we are a jewelry store.  Let's say you want to set up shop in a college town.  Remember, not all college towns are based solely on the college, there are other things and other people in the area.  There are two locations.  One is on a very busy street, there is a lot of foot traffic that walks in front of the store.  This same location is also across the street from the university.  To the left of you would be a pizza place, to the right is an off-campus bookstore.  The other option is in a different part of town.  It's a quieter part of town and there would be less foot traffic.  The road, while not as busy as the other one, leads to a few new subdivisions.  There are several shops in this area and it's like a mini-downtown.  The shop to your left would be a gourmet food market and the shop to the right is a boutique clothing store.    I'm hoping it would be easy for you to determine which location is better from these two simple descriptions.  There are countless reasons why you shouldn't choose the location near the campus.  Although there is a lot of foot traffic, it's probably from college students who don't have the money to buy jewelry.  Also, if you're next to a bookstore, unless you have good sound protection, you'll probably hear a lot of what's going on in these stores, especially during the season when shelves are being stocked.  Not to mention, do you want to smell pizza all day long?  The other location caters to the type of clientele that you want.  It may not be as busy, but you're closer to the clients that you want and it's likely that if they are shopping at the stores on either side of you, they may have the money or the interest to stop into your store.

In my college, there was a video rental store called Video Hits Plus across the street from campus.  Being poor college students, a good night for us was renting a movie and picking up Jimmy John's to take back to our dorm.  It was reasonably priced to rent from there, plus, instead of getting a card, all you had to do was show your student ID.  It was perfectly situated.  While other video rental places are probably going under, this one is thriving.  Location does matter.  A lot.

Happy Marketing!

Your Employees Are Your Biggest Asset

"Stereotypical."  "Cliche."  "Nothing new."  I bet that's what you're saying to yourself right now.  But it's true.  Whether your employees are the people who do all of the work or are who is interacting with the customer, they are your most valuable resource.  Especially in small businesses.  Look at restaurants.  Nobody wants to have a waiter or waitress that is rude, snippy, and doesn't care about the customer.  I feel that at times, employees are not hired for their personality or skills, but because the job needs to be filled and they have some experience.  And I'm not talking about companies that need highly skilled workers like statisticians because sometimes that can't be helped.  But you need employees that work well together and work well with the customer.  Plus, they need to be treated well.  You treat a good employee poorly, you're not going to have a good employee anymore.  They may quit, their attitude might, a lot of things could change the person you once hired.  Once again, it's story time.

In the town next to my hometown, there's a restaurant called Sophia's House of Pancakes.  My parents love going here.  So does half of my town.  And I'll admit, they have delicious food.  But one thing that keeps us going back is their service.  The gentleman who owns it mans the cash register, the waiters and waitress are super friendly, and you know that you're getting a great price for a great meal.  This place is no different than the other million pancake places, except that business is always booming.  Always.  I don't think I've ever been there where there hasn't been a parking lot full of cars. 

I digress.  Not only is the service great, but the waiters and waitresses remember their regulars.  There is one in particular that my parents always hope they get when they go there because she is super friendly and nice.  This isn't just a place for people to eat anymore, it's a place where they feel like a part of a community.

Normally I don't have more than one example, but today I'm doubling up.  In the same town, there is a very small credit union, United Federal Credit Union.  However, it has a lot of customers for being so small.  This bank has more foot traffic than any other bank that I've ever been in.  There's almost always a line.  I remember in high school, I would take my check from my summer job to the bank to have it deposited.   And there was Dottie.  I loved Dottie.  She was this cute little old lady who worked at one of the counters at the bank.  And she was just so friendly, efficient, and nice.  I would purposely try to get her counter because I liked her that much.  Now, if there were only more Dotties in this world, everyone would have great customer service.

Happy Marketing

Earn an Extra $25,000 a Year By Reading This Blog!!!

Got your attention, didn't I?  How many of you saw the title and thought, "Yeah right?"  That's what I thought.  You're probably thinking that this will waste your time and is a false promise.  But this is a lesson.  Albeit a little tricky, but a lesson nonetheless. 

Under promise, over deliver.

This isn't a new concept by any means, but it should be applied more than it is.  Here's the thing, if a small business owner were to use some of my advice and work really hard at getting customers, it is possible that they could earn an extra $25k a year, but it's not a guarantee.  And it may be deflating to learn that it won't happen for everyone.  It's like when you go to a restaurant and it says "Free Cup Of Coffee" and in small print it follows up with "After a $7.50 purchase."  Here you are, going into a coffee shop, thinking you're getting a free cup of coffee, when actually, it's probably 7 times the cost of a regular cup.  Seems misleading doesn't it?   One thing that companies need to realize, is that customers are not only looking for a good product, a good experience, but a trustworthy provider.  If you're a bakery and you say you'll have baked goods ready for the high school bake sale on Friday and show up with two cupcake, technically you're delivering on your promise.  But was your statement misleading?  Absolutely.  That's why we need to under promise and over deliver.  Tell the customer what you plan to provide for them.  Then deliver better than expected if its possible.  Now, I'm not saying to under deliver to the point where someone questions your credibility because you're always delivering way better than you said you would, there is a fine line to walk.  But here is an example from my own personal experience working.

I work in marketing research and at times, we can have really tight turnaround deadlines.  I can't tell you my client, because that would breach confidentiality but I'll give you details to the best of my abilities.  This company is a fast food chain.  They were testing a new sandwich and wanted results quickly.  Based on the work that we have done for them in the past, it's usually five business days from receiving data to presenting a report to the client.  The clients that I was working with happened to want their data as quickly as possible, even though they knew what our "deliver by" date was.  We promised to have something on our deliver-by date and said we would try to get data to them earlier if possible.  I knew that they were on a time crunch so I made every effort to get them their data earlier than expected.  I received the data on a Monday.  The report was due on Friday.  I worked furiously all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and was able to provide them a report two days early.  Just because I was able to deliver early on this particular project doesn't mean I will be able to do it every time.  But, we under promised and over delivered, satisfying our clients needs. 

So if you offer free coffee, make sure it's a free cup of coffee.  You don't want grumpy people walking away with a $7.50 cup of joe.

Happy Marketing!!!

Don't Fight In Front Of The Kids

At some point in time, in every company, there will be disputes between colleagues.  Hopefully, these can be solved by some inter-office mediator, or people can be adults and solve the problem themselves.  However, there are times where even the most adult person can act like a child.  Trust me, I've done it.  I have this amazing ability to get upset with my boyfriend when he's off to work on his race team for the weekend.  I'm not really upset with him, I'm really just upset with the fact that I don't have anything to do.  Yes, I am aware of how immature this is.

There are many parenting experts that state that you should not fight in front of your kids.  Others may disagree, but for the sake of this article, we'll say that you shouldn't.  You take care of them and what you do in front of them can affect how they grow up.  It's not much different with clients.  It doesn't matter what personal problems are going on in the workplace, your client doesn't need to see that, ever.  This may be easier to deal with in some companies than others.  For example, it is very rare that we have a client come into our office.  Therefore, it is difficult for them to see how we interact with one another.  Not all companies are like this.  Take restaurants, clothing stores, and florists as examples.  It can really affect your client's perceptions and could possibly lead to them not returning.

Last week I was preparing to go out of town.  When I am in a rush, I have a tendency to forget to eat.  While running errands at 7 pm, I decided I should grab some food.  I stopped at Burger King.  It was a slow time; I was the only one in the drive through and there were only two people in the dining room.  While waiting at the window for my Whopper Jr., the girl at the cash registered literally yelled across the restaurant, "I'm out of quarters.  Bring me more quarters."  I understand that a lot of times it may be high schoolers that are working there to get money for gas.  However, I found this unacceptable. I'm not even going to discuss how there were no manners used, no please or thank you.  But I was right there at the window and she just yelled.  That was her first strike.  Then, when I needed change, she gave me all dimes and nickels (which I didn't mind) but as she gave them to me she said, "Sorry, I ain't got any quarters yet."  Strike two.  Mostly because she was insinuating that it wasn't her fault that she didn't have any quarters.  Then, while waiting for my burger to come, she's yelling to the manager and asking for quarters again.  Then she proceeds to say that everyone else heard her, she doesn't understand how the manager didn't hear her.  Strike three.  After she has struck out with me, she continues to talk about how stupid the manager is and that it's a good thing that she doesn't plan on working there much longer.  Let's put it this way, I won't be returning to that particular Burger King again, even though it is the closest to my house.  I don't need to see those problems.  Work them out, just not in front of customers.  I will go to another Burger King to get my Whopper fix.

Simply put, if these employees had put their differences behind them while I was there, they would  continue to have my patronage.  But because they were rude to each other, and in front of me, I felt that it discredited them.  Especially since this girl stated that she doesn't plan on working there much longer.  Don't fight in front of the kids, it applies to home life, and work life.

Happy Marketing!

Get Professional or Get Lost

And I don't mean the sort where I say "Scram, you're bugging me."  Like I discussed last time, if you want customers to actually use a program - be it loyalty, discount, etc - you need to provide them with some form of marketing material.  This is sort of the second half of that.  I find this topic to be very important to me, therefore, as a head's up, this is a more verbose article.  This means a lot to me so I'm typing out very plainly for all to see.

Provide professional looking marketing materials.

Now, I go further in depth on this one.  Anything that a potential client has a chance to look at should look as if it's professionally made.  I am not saying everything that you print and hand out has to look like a work of art, but it should look nice.  Plus, you don't have to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars on printed material.  But by spending a few dollars, it may give your clients a more favorable opinion of you.  I'm going to start with a few ways that you can still get high quality printed material for far less than going to a design studio to produce it.  Then, I will give you an example of how this can be really lucrative for you. 

Business cards are one thing that you should definitely have if you own your own business.  If you're just starting out, I'm sure you don't have a $250 budget just for printing business cards.  You don't have to spend that much, but too little can make your material seem cheap.  For example, one thing I really dislike is getting a business card that has perforation marks on it.  In my mind, this person isn't legit and they are too cheap to get business cards made.  They also may not be serious about their business or the product they are providing for you. But the thing is you don't have to buy 2,000 business cards and spend $150.  You have options.  You can go to Office Depot and purchase Avery Business Card products that have clean edges and come in quantities of 30 to 2500.  Another idea, that I personally love, is using an on-line printing company.  There are other places besides Kinkos.  A site that I really like is called VistaPrint.  Several times I have gotten personalized return address labels.  They aren't that expensive and they really show off my personality.  But VistaPrint offers many products including premium business cards.  They also offer free business cards if you aren't dedicated to a logo.  They offer several different templates that range from whimsical to very business like.  Granted, you may have to pay $5.45 for Shipping and Handling, but it's still 250 business cards for roughly $0.02 a card.   

Besides business cards, make sure all pamphlets and handouts look professional too.  I know that it may be easy to just type something up on the computer and print it out.  But take some time.  And you can print it out at home, but make sure you have a nice color printer and high quality paper.  And DON'T PHOTOCOPY!!!!  I have nothing against photocopying for somethings, but doing it for all of your material is unnecessary.  Changing the color of the paper also doesn't change the fact that it's a photocopy.  It may be cheap, but I hate getting photocopied material where some piece of information is missing because it wasn't scanned in properly.  I could literally write for hours about the need for personalized folders (if you provide a lot of information), glossy finish tri-fold pamphlets, high quality paper stock vs. generic ink-jet paper, but I won't.  I will explain how spending a little bit more for nicer materials can really pay.

Every year for the last three years I have had to move. I like choices when looking at apartments.  My last move occurred in May of this year and I visited about a dozen different complexes before deciding.  As petty as this sounds, if an apartment complex had a crummy looking marketing folder, they were automatically off my list.  Giving me a piece of paper which is supposed to include amenities but the last word is cut off just doesn't cut it with me.  Also, complexes that had information, but it had been written on rather than reprinted also bugged me.  It made me feel like they were more interested in getting me to sign a lease rather than making me feel at home in my new community.  I ended up renting an apartment, not only that I liked and fit all of my criteria, but they had a very nice folder with glossy inserts, no missing words, and it was all organized very nicely.  Considering I spend about $950 a month on an apartment, that's a pretty sizable chunk of my income.  $950/month * 12 months = $11400  While the marketing material wasn't the only contributing factor that lead to choosing where to rent, it didn't hurt anything.  Other apartment complexes lost out because I didn't even want to look at what they had to offer.  Just goes to show how something so little can pay off so big. 

Happy Marketing!!!

Provide Information, Produce Customers

Many companies offer discount/loyalty programs.  If you live near a Kroger, I'm sure you have a Kroger Card with you wherever you go.  Lots of people, including myself, have a Best Buy Reward Zone card.  The great thing about both of these programs is when you sign up, there is a lot of promotional material to explain exactly what it is you're signing up for.  Hundreds of companies offer discount programs, but not all of them offer promotional materials to accompany you.  I understand that it costs money to print promotional material, but is it worth the $0.25 it's going to cost you to print a brochure to lose a loyal customer?  A simple page can be printed easily, if you want it to look more profession, take it to Kinkos.  In my opinion, it's better to go with a more professional look, but we'll get to that on a different day.

Last week my boyfriend was visiting.  I gave him a Nikon D60 as a birthday/Christmas/anniversary/Valentine's Day gift.  While he was visiting he wanted to get a camera bag to protect the camera on his trip home.  After not finding precisely what we wanted at Best Buy, we went to Ritz Camera.  We found a great Tamrac bag and a couple of other items.  That's besides the point.  So while we are checking out, the girl tries to sell us a loyalty program where you get some discount on printing using their services.  The reason I'm so vague is because we really didn't know anything about the program.  When my boyfriend asked for some material to take with him to think about, she responded that she didn't have anything, just what she told us.  We say no thank you and move on to another store.  As we continue to shop, my boyfriend mentions that if they had some type of material, he would've considered it.  The other problem was that the program didn't offer any immediate benefit. 

Now, if they had provided some type of material for us to look over, we might have considered it.  But, now we will get our prints wherever we feel like rather than being repeat customers.  That's a lot of money if you consider that we just got a new camera, we sometimes scrapbook, giving pictures is one of my favorite fall back gifts, and I love to frame pictures.  They could have made a lot of money if they had just provided a little information.  A little information goes a long way.

Happy Marketing!