Happy Birthday, Mr. Loss Leader

Every year around the New Year I'll get a few e-mails from some smart retailers who acknowledge my birthday.

For some time now, I've been signing up to receive e-mails from dozens of businesses including Circuit City, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, and a host of restaurants too numerous to mention.

Some of them send me a simple "Happy Birthday" message... nice... but not really taking advantage of the extremely low-cost of e-mail technology. Others, though, send me a B-day greeting with a coupon. Yippee! A good example is Don Pablo's, a Mexican restaurant chain. Their message stated that they "loaded" my loyalty card with $10 to use up until January 14th.

Am I going to use it? You 'betcha. Am I going to go alone to eat? Not a chance. I'll probably bring the family and meet some friends there too. Those friends, I might add, enjoy copious amounts of Corona beer and margaritas. Cha ching!

Don Pablo's was smart. They used me as a "loss leader" - they'll loose a little money on me but make it back five-fold on the patrons I invite to "dine" with me that night.

Can you identify a loss leader in your business? E-mail me with your industry information and I'll send you back a couple of ideas for free!

Marketing the Weather

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." ~ Mark Twain

When the weather outside turns frightful so many people start talking about the temperature, the accumulation, the precipitation, traffic reports, school closings, late openings, and 10-day forecasts.

If there was ever a time when weather is exciting, it's now. Compound bad weather with ecology/conservation and you have a recipe for some exciting marketing opportunities.

Run an ad on the weather channel, invite the local TV station to do a live broadcast from your business, sponsor a contest to guess the average temperature for the month, take $5,000 off the sticker price of an automobile if it snows more than 2" on New Years (buy insurance), or give away free t-shirts to those making the plunge at the local Polar Bear club. You get my drift (snow reference).

Take time today and think how many different ways you can you become a partner with Mother Nature?

Green Marketing

Although I'm only in my early 40s, I can remember reading Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Mother Earth News as a kid. Making your own solar panels, growing wheat grass, and designing an efficient compost pile were common headlines throughout their pages.

Many of the people photographed to accompany the stories were usually long-hair hippies with tie-dye shirts and bell-bottom jeans. I wanted to be one of those tree-hugging groupies... complete with peace symbol necklace and a guitar flung over my back. But I never became one. I was raised in a conservative Republican family that regularly went to church and registered me into Catholic school for 12 years.

"Loving the environment" back then meant you were a pot-smoking radical. Today, if you don't have solar panels on your roof, aren't recycling every newspaper and plastic bottle, or collecting the rainwater in clunky barrels attached to your downspouts, you're considered out-of-touch.

Open any business publication or turn on any financial show and you'll hear about how companies are going green, getting off the grid, and reducing their carbon footprints. And I can't tell you how many business cards have recently been thrust into my hand that have the words "solar", "green", "audit", and "energy".

Whether we like it or not, it's cool again to be an environmentalist. The concept is not going away. Your business needs to immediately become a team player with the rest of the world. Print on recycled paper, switch to low-flush toilets, reuse what you can, encourage employees to bike to work, and turn off the lights when leaving at night. It's all good, but in regards to marketing, you have to let the world know what you're doing. Of course, it's very altruistic, to save - to conserve - to protect the rain forest... but from a business point-of-view you have to promote every one of your efforts.

(This entry written right after carrying out the recyclables curbside).

What's My Price?

Everybody wants a deal. "What, me pay retail?!" is the rally cry of those who want to spend less than everyone else.

Is there a way for you to create a special club for those customers who are repeat buyers? How can you reward those who come back to you again and again?

On my keychain I have loyalty cards for ShopRite supermarket, Staples, Borders, and CVS, to name a few. When I could, I registered at their websites and joined their clubs. I get their e-mails, coupons, and am privy to their sales. I feel empowered, I feel good, and I even save a few bucks. Most important, I go back to these stores again and again, maybe not even realizing that I could be buying the same products somewhere else at a much lower price.

Smart companies keep close track of their customers and are in constant communication with them. We get brainwashed... "Ooh, that looks nice... I'd like to have that (even though I really don't need it)."

Smart companies also offer an incentive to customers who bring in others to be part of the club... "Earn a 10% discount if you get three of your family or friends to join our loyalty program." Can you say "bribe?"

Build a fort today and start your club and let me know when your next sale is going to be. And if you send me the coupon code I will probably send it to a couple of my friends.

Print is Not Dead

Newspapers, magazines, brochures, and catalogs are not dead. It's true that cable television and the Internet has redirected millions of dollars away from traditional marketing, but there are very few times I can remember that the later have been totally abandoned.

Catalogs, especially, have come to mind recently with my home mailbox already becoming crowded with Christmas catalogs. From toys to clothing, to baskets of cheese, it's all there.

Many of our clients have catalogs since they've been with us for years and are used to doing business with a bundle of catalogs cradled under the arms of their sales force.

When approached with the question "Should we stop printing the catalog?", we like to test market a small section of the catalog online. More often than not, there will be some resistance from our clients' customers - "Why did you do that?", "Should I throw my catalog away?", and the ever-popular "Now I have to print out the catalog off of my printer."

I like to judge success by comparing the average sales order for both mediums during a certain time period. For our business-to-business customers, catalogs usually do better and the business-to-consumer customers find that online ordering is more popular. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. Test and test again to find out what works best for your business.

Most important, make sure your catalog is Internet compatible and vice-versa. When designing a new catalog, take advantage of the latest techniques that make catalog upload easy, and maybe interactive.

As the marketplace continues to change, customers are looking for the easiest way to buy. The question to ask yourself is this... "In my industry, are customers more apt to boot up the computer or thumb through a catalog to find how much my product costs?

Doing a Little House Cleaning

Received a wonderful call from a gentleman who runs a cleaning company. He asked for some ideas to boost his business other than expensive Yellow Page advertising. In a matter of a half hour the following recommendations were made. Which ones will work and which ones won't? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

1. Door Hangars - Can be used two different ways. The first being a “calling card” to neighbors that you are providing a service in their neighborhood or as a general solicitation to canvas areas that you do not currently service.
2. Website - Probably the most important marketing tool a business can have in today’s “on-line” world. I’d like to see a nice home page and five inside pages.
3. Referral Program - Institute a referral program that could offer a direct incentive such as a Home Depot gift card or a discount off of a future cleaning.
4. Brochure - A simple six-page tri-fold brochure (3.5”x8.5”) should describe the benefits of your service
5. Yard Signs - It’s imperative that neighbors realize that you are providing a service in their area. There are two versions that might work well. The first being a permanent sign, i.e., ADT, Brinks, or a temporary sign that is placed in the yard while the home is being cleaned and removed when the cleaner is finished. Customers may be offered a one-time discount to keep the permanent sign in their yard.
6. Direct Mail - Design a postcard that can be targeted and mailed to neighbors within a certain radius of an existing customer.

Business Search Engine Trends

Our office is buzzing with the news that our Philadelphia Phillies have won the 2008 World Series. Pitching rotations, infielding skill, and managerial moves have highlighted the conversations. Some have even arrived in team jerseys and red colored shirts.

I jumped on Google to confirm my hunch that many people we're searching for information about our beloved baseball team. I was right. Out of the Top 100 there were about 20 listings for Phillies, Philadelphia, team clothing, and Philly baseball. The #1 search term was "Mambo Cologne" and the last was "Phinally" (the Philadelphia way to now spell anything that begins with the "f" sound.) P.S. I don't know what Mambo cologne is...

Surprisingly, out of the Top 100 I quickly scanned, there were less than three entries that were business related. Most were about celebrities I'm assuming are pop culture icons, the presidential election, and web-related sites.

Maybe it's time for www.business.com to take seriously the web address they paid millions for many years ago. It looks like a glorified paid-per-click site. Until then business owners will have to utilize the "majors" such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN and dig deep into search results to find the best match to their business inquiries.