Seasonal Marketing

We all know that the weeks before Christmas are the busiest shopping days of the year.  Other holidays, real (Easter) and manufactured (Valentine’s Day) can bring out the shoppers as well.  But, what can we do to stimulate the shopping gene in those times between major holidays?

Why not have some fun with the more obscure festivities like National Embroidery Month or National Snack Food Month  (February) or Random Acts of Kindness Day (February 17).  To get you started, here’s a web site that lists all variety of occasions, both monthly and daily.  Add a little imagination and you can liven up the last week of February with a big Polar Bear Sale (February 27th).

These off-the-wall celebrations can be a lot of fun and you have little or no competition.

Retailers, What to do about the Internet?

I’ve been following a conversation on another forum that was started with my recent post, “Are Your Suppliers Letting You Down on the Web?“  You may recall that the original article was about manufacturers who don’t use the web effectively to communicate with their dealers.  Like most on-line conversations, this one has morphed into a discussion on how independent retailers and manufacturers should handle Internet sales to consumers.

We know that there are price-only shoppers who will come into your store, get all the information they need, then go to the web to buy the item at the lowest price they can find.  On the other hand, there are customers who do their research on the web then buy the item locally.  The question is, which group is bigger?  My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that more consumers fall into the second group.

Maybe I’m not a very good shopper, but I’m in the second group mainly because I (1) prefer to support my local merchants and (2) I’ve yet to find anything on line that I couldn’t buy at the same price, or close to it, locally.

Here’s the thing.  If I can buy an item for, say $200.00 on line and I can buy it for $210.00  or $220.00 locally, I’ll buy local every time.  Basically, I’m a mechanical idiot.  It’s worth it to me to spend an extra 5-10% to have somebody close by to hold my hand when I can’t figure out how to make something work.  I’m not alone.  Based on the statistics, a lot of people feel the same way.

Case in point:  I just bought a new cell phone.  The instruction book wasn’t in the box.  Today I’ll go back to the store and get it.  If I had bought the phone on-line, I’d have to send an email and wait for a response.  Assuming they get back to me, I’ll then have to wait for the instruction book to come in the mail.  Meanwhile, I have a $179.00 phone that I can’t use properly.

To me, the key to competing with on-line merchants is to let the customer know how much your service is worth.  Granted, some people just don’t care.  All they’re interested in is getting the lowest price.  Chances are those people aren’t your customers anyway.  If there were no Internet, they’d either buy from the big box store, or they’d be searching the ads in the back of the magazines.  Either way, you don’t get the sale.

There’s a lot of hype about on-line merchants.  The media love them!  Price shoppers think they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.  (I wonder what the greatest thing was before somebody invented sliced bread?)  Anyway, the facts don’t necessarily support the hype.  Depending on the industry, web sales still represent a small piece of the total pie.  According to the US Department of Commerce, 3rd Quarter 2009 on-line sales represented 3.7% of all retail.  Obviously the percentage varies by industry, but overall, nine out of ten retail dollars are spent at brick and mortar stores.

Big on-line merchants like Amazon.com are doing very nicely, thank you.  But there’s still a huge market out there for your store.  Rather than chasing sales that you’re never going to get, in 2010 your brick and mortar customer should be your major focus.

Granted, on-line sales are growing, 4.7% in the third quarter of ‘09 vs. 4.3% in ‘o8.  Today’s strategy may not work in the future but carpe diem,  seize the day.

Meanwhile manufacturers will continue to wrestle with the question of how best to market their products.  That 4.7% is worth more than $30 billion, hardly chump change.  Like I said in my last post, brick and mortar independent retailers should support suppliers who support them.

Here’s a post that I wrote in 2006 on Your Business Strategy that you might find interesting.

Are Your Suppliers Letting You Down on the Web?

If, as I suspect, you’re a web-savvy entrepreneur, (If you’re not, how did you find this post?) it’s in your best interest to find the manufacturers who think the same way that you do.  The fact that you’re a blog reader tells me that you know how to find relevant information and that you know what to do with it.

Whether we like it or not, (and we should like it) the way business is done in the US and in the entire world is changing.  You can pretend that you’re customers can’t find the lowest price on anything with just a few minutes of web surfing, but you’d be sadly mistaken.  You can assume that your customers have to leave their homes to shop, but you’d be very wrong.  Maybe you don’t think that eBay and Craigslist are your competitors, but I promise you that they are.

Wise manufacturers are working with their dealers to provide them with the best, most up-to-date tools and information.  We’re in the midst of an economic crisis yet many retailers are thriving.  Often, but not always, these dealers are supported by like-thinking vendors.  Some dealers thrive in spite of their vendors, not because of them.

By way of disclaimer, I don’t claim to be the most knowledgeable person on the subject of social media, but I have been a blogger, podcaster, and forum administrator for quite a while.  Between this blog and its predecessor, I’m approaching my 900th post.  I regularly follow dozens of blogs and podcasts.  Obviously I’ve invested a lot of time and effort in providing information to small business owners.  I guess that, since you’re reading this, you must find some value in the content of Mining the Store.

Sadly, there seem to be a lot of manufacturers who just don’t get it.  Twenty-first century business owners want and need help.  The climate is just too hostile for each of us to reinvent the wheel every day.  Likewise, very few suppliers have all the answers.  (even if they think they do)

The key to success in the year 2010 is community; communities of people with common interests who get together online to share information.  Whether it’s politics, sports, health matters, or business, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can find communities of interest where any question can find its answer.

A wise supplier will get involved in the communities that affect his/her market and become a contributor.  Simply lurking, seeing what people are saying, is critical but it’s far from sufficient.  The days of a company looking down at its customers, considering them necessary evils, are over.  There are too many other vendors who treat their dealers as partners in the supply chain.  They will be successful.  Make no mistake, the same rules apply to retailers and their communities.

The bottom line here is that you have to hold your vendors feet to the fire.  Demand that they give you the help that you need or you’ll take your business elsewhere.  I don’t want to generalize too much, but there are vendors whose sales are down who actually blame their dealers.  They have such a perfect product and such infallible marketing programs that the problem couldn’t possibly lie with them.  Therefor the fault must be yours.  One sales manager actually wondered on an industry forum why “the better dealers” aren’t participating.  Maybe it’s because “the better vendors” aren’t participating?  I’m just sayin’…….

I’m not advocating for insurrection here.  But I am suggesting that you insist that your suppliers give you the help you need to move the product through the marketing chain to your/their customers.  History has shown, even with the help of the Internet, that it’s very difficult for a vendor to go directly to the consumer.  They need you more than you need them.  If they aren’t giving you what you need, they’re not doing their job.

Now These are Funny!

OK, it’s Saturday and I thought we’d have a little fun.  Here are two pictures emailed to me by a friend.  I’ll let you insert your own captions.

NEVER Prejudge a Customer!

The story you’re about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I think most of us learn this lesson the hard way, but maybe today we can save you from yourself.

Mary is very overweight.  But she’s working hard to get into shape.  In fact, she’s training for a 5K run.  The other day she went into a large sporting goods store, not necessarily a big box, but at least a medium box.  She was looking for a pair of running shoes.

I won’t call this guy a “salesman” so I guess we’ll refer to him as a SDRG (shoe department retail guy).  Anyway, the SDRG approaches Mary and asks if he can help her.  (Not the best way to approach a customer, but in this case it’s the high point of the conversation.)

Mary answers that she’s looking for some shoes.  SDRG answers, “Mam, these are running shoes.”

Mary answered, “Yes, I know.”

SDRG, “No ma’am, these are RUNNING shoes.”   In other words, “Lady, the buffet line shoes are over there.”  The meaning wasn’t lost on Mary.

She answered, “I know these are running shoes.  I’m training for a 5K run and I’d like to buy some shoes.  In fact, I will buy some shoes, but not from this store.”

She went on to explain what SDRG could do with his shoes.  Since this is a family blog, I’ll leave it to your imagination.

The point is, you can NEVER prejudge a customer.  Appearances can be deceiving and relying on something so notoriously fallible as a first impression can lead to a lost sale or worse.

Mary told this story to my wife who works for a weight loss company.  I know she plans to repeat Mary’s story to all of her meetings this week and I doubt that she’ll disguise the name of the store.  By the end of the week the story will have gone viral in the community.  There’s no telling how much damage will be done to the store’s reputation because one employee decided that a well-fed lady couldn’t possibly be interested in running shoes.

Now That’s Funny!

As I’ve said many times, this isn’t a political blog.  However, I think all small business owners have an interest in politics.  Here’s a video from Ray Stevens that’s funny no matter what side you’re on.  Enjoy.

Check out the Ray Stevens web site for more funny stuff and to buy the audio version of  We the People.

New Year’s Resolutions-Better Late than Never

One of my resolutions for 2010 is to not procrastinate.  Sadly, just thirteen days into the new year I’ve already realized that this may be more of a challenge than I thought.  That having been said, I was catching up on my blog reading today and I came across a great post by Annita Brazzes on her On the Job blog called  Eat Your Salad First and Other Career Strategies

On the subject of New Year’s resolutions Anita offers this sound advice:

The key is not being too ambitious. After all, most people are doing more work than ever, and you don’t need to add to the pressure. Don’t make such sweeping plans that you would have to clone yourself a dozen times in order to accomplish a goal. At the same time, don’t try to tackle too many things at one time.

To get us off to a good start, she suggests these five tips:

1. Get more organized.
2. Improve skills.
3. Network.
4. Focus on quality.  (My favorite)
5. Take the high road.

Take a few minutes to check out Anita’s blog and get the detail of the five suggestions.  Meanwhile, I think I’ll go have some lettuce and an Almond Joy.  Then I’ll get back to reading the 8.117 posts sitting in my blog reader.

So You Think You Know How to Motivate?

Thanks to my Irish friend, Krishna De, for posting on her interview with Dan Pink, author of a new book called Drive. To make a long story short, pink believes that the old “carrot and stick” theory works in only a limited number of cases and may, in fact, reduce productivity, and he has scientific evidence to back up his claim.

Of course Pink has a solution to the problem which he explains in the book.

Check out Krishna’s post, especially the eighteen-minute video of Pink speaking on the subject.

Consumer Electronics–Good news?

In my younger days I was a regular attendee at the International Consumer Electronics Show, both as an exhibitor and as a buyer.  At the time it was the biggest trade show in the world.  It may still be, but I’m not positive of that.  At any rate, it’s definitely one of the biggest.

An AP story is reporting that it will be smaller this year than it was in 2009.  But the article goes on to point out that pre-Christmas consumer electronics sales in the United States were up 5.9% from the same period last year.  That’s not bad for products that aren’t exactly necessities.  In fact, following a successful November-December exhibitors were signing up for the show as late as last week.

Always looking for good economic news, I’d say that this is a good sign for 2010.  Floor space at CES isn’t cheap.  Suppliers scrambling for floor space the last week of December is surely a good sign.  It will be interesting to see how other shows fare in the coming months.

Happy New Year!

Bring on 2010!

Happy New Year!