Jeffrey A. Davis

Interesting Marketing Web Sites

2007-10-11T19:10:00.000-05:00

Thinking of using models in your online ad? Read this first.

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/02/how-a-pretty-face-can-push-visitors-away/

Wonder how Google works?

http://www.portfolio.com/images/site/editorial/Flash/google/google.s
Work Smarter Not Harder
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2007/11/05/work-smarter-not-harder/

More to follow.

The Unpublished Secrets of Direct Mail Marketing

2007-10-02T14:35:00.000-05:00

In 2001 the United States Postal Service delivered 21 billion pieces of direct mail.
In 2006 the United States Postal Service delivered 32 billion pieces of direct mail.

Yes that is billions and it represents an increase of 65% in five years. I think we received about half of these at our house.

So what is Direct Mail?

Simply put, it is an advertising message mailed to a client or potential client. Direct Mail comes in three forms:

Direct mail to existing customers. Usually this is a single mail piece meaning the only message the client sees is yours! Here you are marketing ONLY to consumers who have already done business with you. This varies in cost, but plan on spending at least $0.50 per piece. You can easily spend a lot more. For $0.50 you can expect to mail a single sheet, printed on both sides. If your product is a higher ticket transaction you may want to spend more on your piece. A nice catalog will cost more than $1.00 each to print and mail. Some companies spend $3.00 or more. The question you have to ask yourself is what is a client’s business worth to you.

This cost includes postage using bulk rate (the least expensive). For tips on how to save on mailing costs, visit www.bulkmail.info. For a more technically accurate snoozer on this topic, visit www.usps.org/national/pubcom/bulkmail.pdf.

Shared mail. Shared mail is when you share the printing and distribution costs with other advertisers. Val Pak and Reach Magazine are great examples. They are remarkably efficient at reaching a large number of households for a very reasonable price. For example, Val Pak will deliver 10,000 HH starting at about $350. The downside is that these products rarely offer product exclusivity, so you have to make sure your offers are HOT!

Rented Lists. Birds of a Feather Flock Together. Rented lists allows you to take the power of the individual mailed piece and prospect for new clients. The more accurately you can profile your best current customers, the better this program will perform. List brokers will rent you the names and addresses of individuals that match your profiles. The easiest to match are demographic variables like, sex, age, “live within three miles of my store”. But the most powerful matches come when you can provide your broker with more information – “owns a car that is four or more years old” or “lists gardening as one of their hobbies”. The more specific the profile, the better the results. And the higher the cost. The more variables you include, the smaller your target becomes, but this is good news! The perfect advertisement is the one going to a qualified prospect at the exact time they are ready to make a purchase.

Work with a reputable vendor. You can do direct mail yourself, but using a reputable vendor assures that you will be placing a timely, quality piece in the hands of your clients. Here in Toledo Ohio, I have worked with the following companies and have had excellent results.

Miami Systems, Mike Sands (419) 893-7619 x14, MikeS@miamisystems.com

Valpak and Reach Magazine, Jim Slattery (419) 475-4100, JSlattery@reachusa.com

Direct Mail Works!

The single most effective advertising that you can do is to advertise to your existing customers first. Don’t believe me? Go to MyCustomersAreDifferent.blogspot.com and read “How to Capture New Customers”. I have made a fortune advertising to some one else’s best customers – the ones you thought you owned. Existing customers are seven times more likely to make a purchase than a new customer.

The Law of Three. Regardless of which method you choose, remember The Law of Three. Commit to using the product you have selected three times regardless of the perceived results of the first flight. Frequency builds action. It takes time for advertising to find its audience.

Direct Mail Doesn’t Work!

Response rates are scary. In “the good old days” it was well known that you should expect a 2% response rate. Today that is not necessarily the case. Direct Mail to existing customers can easily generate a 2% response. I have seen 7% to 11% response rates. I have also seen 0% response rates. Want a great response rate? Send out a great offer! Not average. Not “the usual”. Be aggressive. Be unexpected. And also keep in mind that you can not take percentages to the bank. You take dollars. When measuring response rates, focus on the sales dollars generated. This is an easy metric to understand.

Do the math. Make sure you track the response. All three flights. Put an envelope under the counter and put the redeemed coupons in it. Write down how much they spent. Clip the coupon to the sales order. Do something. Don’t ask your customers if they saw your ad.

As much as 80% of all Direct Mail goes straight from the mailbox to the trash can. So what can you do to keep your advertising piece from being one of the “never viewed” pieces? Don’t hide who you are. Big bright logo on the envelope. Try printing a message on the envelope (yes this costs a few cents more) giving the customer a reason to look inside. “103 new fabrics to choose from.” “Save $20 on your next…”

Finally don’t forget to use Co-op Advertising Dollars. Check with your vendors to see what is available. Yes it is a lot of work, but it is FREE MONEY. A reputable direct mail vendor will help you with the documentation.

Federal Do Not Call List

2007-09-22T07:01:00.000-05:00

The Federal Do Not Call List has worked amazingly for our family. For five years now we have been able to enjoy our dinner in peace and quiet… Finally the federal government got something right…

No, I am afraid not. See, in their customary zeal to cater to the whims of the usual high powered lobbyists, this godsend to family time EXPIRES five years after your date of enrollment. That’s right, some time this year your phone will start ringing again with offers of aluminum siding, insurance quotes, new mortgages and a plethora of unsolicited offers.

Unless you take action. Again. The easiest way to re-subscribe to peace and quiet is to visit www.donotcall.gov and once again ask that your phone number be added to the Do Not Call list.

It is easy and you can enroll up to three numbers at a time. You will then receive an email which verifies and activates your desire to remain enrolled in this program.

There is also a discussion on the web site as to why you should not bother enrolling your cell phone number. I am not making this up. This year, Washington decided to allow companies to call cell phone numbers for solicitation purposes. Now they are advising us to not to enroll our cell phones in the program. I smell a conflict of interest, campaign contribution or worse… Here is their rationalization directly off the web site mentioned above:

"Did you get an email claiming that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls because of a new cell phone number database? Those claims are not true. In fact, federal law prohibits telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phones. You may place your personal cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry, but there is generally no reason to do so."

Notice it does not say they can not call. It says they are prohibited from using automated dialers. Nothing that says they can’t simply dial your cell phone…

Enroll all your numbers if you do not want solicitous calls. It is the safe thing to do.

A Reel Video Adventure

2007-06-28T09:21:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a local video rental merchant recently and asked if the new “video by mail” programs offered by Netflix and Blockbuster were affecting their business.

“It’s killing us.”

So what are you doing about it?

“I don’t know, but I wish we would do something… What would you do?”

Let me think about it…

This video store is located in a premium retail space in a strip center in beautiful Sylvania, Ohio. I have been a client since it opened under another name years ago. It shares space with a Little Caesars pizza and Jimmy Johns sandwich shop. What do you know, they both offer delivery!

By night fall it had become obvious to me that there were five choices.

The first choice is the most obvious. Do nothing. This will give you plenty of time to plan the store closing. If a business is not going forward, it is going backwards - towards extinction.

“It doesn’t do any good to sit up and take notice, if all you do is keep on sitting.”

The second choice would be to offer delivery. Hire a couple of drivers like the pizza joint and deliver the videos to the customer. The downside is that offering delivery during all business hours will add substantial overhead that probably can not be supported by the revenue generated. At an average rental of 2.5 videos per transaction times a $3 average rental, $7.50 doesn’t leave a lot of margin for delivery. You could charge for delivery, but how much could you charge to make it profitable, yet attractive to the customer?

The third choice is right on front us! Little Caesars and Jimmy Johns both use drivers, we need a driver, lets figure out a way for all of us to share a driver. Of course the downside to this is getting three business owners to agree on something when two of them are competitors…
The fourth choice is to make the United States Postal Service your business partner. Print up a box of pre-paid envelopes. Ask the customer to call (or email) you before the postman arrives and you can mail the DVD today and they are guaranteed to have the video tomorrow. Keep a copy of their credit card on file for billing or have them buy the prepaid debit cards and bill the rental to it. (Due to privacy concerns over identity and credit card theft, this will need special attention.) The customer can mail the DVD back or drop it off at the store. There are several downsides to this approach – the most obvious being that Blockbuster and Netflix have beaten you to it and this service is “owned” in the consumer’s mind by them. You are perceived as a follower, not a leader. You could attempt a price war, but assuming you don’t desire a “not for profit” certification, only customers win in a price war.

So the only approach left is to innovate. How can you solve this problem and add a service valued by your customers? The fifth choice is to “position yourself as a service provider and figure out how to add value to the video rental transaction”.

Offer delivery, but develop a marketing program around it that adds value. For starters, come up with a clever name for the program using a movie title – like “Special Delivery” or “You’ve Got Mail!” or “It’s in the Bag”. Then make the service premium and selective.

Ø Call us by 5:00 pm and we will have your movies or games delivered by 7:00pm!
Ø Develop logo delivery bags to use. An offshoot of delivery could be the development of marketing programs with other businesses to include a special offer, free sample or other items in your “bag” to help offset the cost of delivery. Coca-cola may want to participate. Little Caesars and Jimmy Johns in this case.
Ø When the customer calls in for a movie, check the computer stock to make sure it is available.
Ø If the title is not available, suggest a similar title that is currently available.
Ø If the customer still wants the title, log the customers name and phone number and when the title comes back in, call and tell the client you now have the video they want!
Ø Notice the change from customer to client… We are transitioning our customers - transaction based - into clients - relationship based - by adding value!
Ø “People do business with people, not businesses”. The business name or brand will bring the customer in the door, but the only way to keep them coming in the door is develop a relationship with them – person to person. This is especially critical in a service based industry where you are selling service, not commodities. One of the current inherent problems in the video rental business is that most of the marketing has been based on price – rent one, get one free! – rather than offering service. Netflix and Blockbuster are attempting to transition to a service based offering (delivery) and are making significant inroads gaining market share because they are innovating and offering services their customers want and are willing to pay for.
Ø Offer other products – would you like a 2 liter Coke and some popcorn with your movies? In selected locations like the one in question, you could offer pizza and sandwiches with the delivery.
Ø Automatically recommend other titles based on the clients previous rentals. The rental history is already a part of their customer profile. “I noticed that you watched “The Prestige”, have you seen “The Illusionist”?
Ø Email special offers only to members of this program. Every Tuesday new titles are released by the movie studios. Offer to send the “new Blockbuster” to them first.
Ø Develop special discount offers from selected local businesses (pizza and sandwiches come to mind).

Under this scenario you would not need a full time driver; you would know that every evening you need drivers to work from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

“What do you tell a customer who is standing in the store and they want the title you are holding for a “premium” customer?”

This is always a delicate issue, but I have always found that the truth is the best tactic. I am sorry but this copy has already been reserved for one of our Premier Club (VIP Club) clients. Do you know about our Premier Club program? Would you like to join? If you give me your name and phone number I will call you as soon as another copy comes in…

“Do you charge for delivery service?” This is debatable, but I would lean towards charging a nominal fee. Check and see what other delivery oriented businesses are doing. In Sylvania it is common to be charged for delivery by florists, pizza companies and other restaurants. Offer this service free for the first 90 days, then start the delivery charges – just be sure the client knows up front that after 90 days there will be a small delivery charge.

“How do you find the client’s home?”
Ø Google it and print a map.
Ø Sprint offers a mapping service available by cell phone at a nominal charge. It allows you to program multiple destinations so you can cover numerous households on one delivery run. I am sure other cell phone providers do as well.
Ø Note that you need to set up a reasonable trade area for offering delivery. I would determine this by exporting the addresses of all the current clients from your software and importing them into mapping software like MapPoint. This will visually plot where your clients live. In the automotive service I found that 83% of clients lived within a three mile radius of the service center.
Ø And since clients rarely shop in concentric circles, they tend to group in neighborhoods, making distribution routes easier than trying to cover the entire three mile radius.

“Birds of a feather flock together.”

In essence, never respond to what the competition is doing. Innovate and offer new services to your customers. Figure out what the customer wants before they know it and figure out how to offer it to them profitably.

“This program sounds like a lot of work.”

If it were easy everyone would already be doing it…

“Any suggestions for generating new customers when you don’t have a large marketing budget?”

Sure, instead of renting videos one at a time, rent a hundred videos to one customer.

“Are you feeling OK?”

When I was in the automotive service business I came across an interesting fact. My clients (tier two automotive service) were among the leading video rental per household segments in the nation. This was gleaned from a psychographic (lifestyle) research project that I did in an effort to determine what my clients were doing with their disposable income when they weren’t getting their cars serviced.

Tired of competing on price, I was looking for ways to add value to our services without having to discount our prices. So we ran a promotion where every customer who bought an oil change got a free video rental from a local video store. The video store gave me a great price on the rentals because:

Ø I purchased 100 at a time and gave them away.
Ø We printed the gift certificates with both our logos and addresses on them.
Ø The video manager knew that his average rental was 2.5 rentals, so the one free video (which he sold at a discount) would lead to additional rentals.
Ø By working with us, he would pick up new customers for his store. We were no threat and +80% of all our clients came from within a three mile radius of our service centers, so these customers lived in his trade area.
Ø As an added incentive, we gave him coupons for automotive service that he could distribute to his best customers. $12.99 oil changes (normally $25) or Save $20 on any automotive service. For the two businesses this was a win-win promotion and the customers loved it!

While Business to Business marketing does not seem a natural fit for a video store, with enough thought and lots of hard work it can add to the bottom line of any business. (How about selling blocks of video certificates to local businesses to hand out as employee incentives?)

One last thought (and this may already be in place in this chain)… Technology offers amazing ways to communicate with employees – a corporate intranet could support a marketing blog or company newsletter and address issues like these. More importantly it could provide a mechanism for two way communication which allows the field employees to offer suggestions on how to better serve their customers. Most of my best ideas have been gleaned from customers and employees working with customers! One of my first “success stories” was the development of a “Bright Ideas” program in the convenience store business where a usable, profitable employee suggestion garnered a certificate and small prize for the employee!

I think that is enough rambling for now…

Acupuncture - A Personal Case Study

2007-06-26T20:05:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey A. Davis
7356 Oak Hollow Ct.
Sylvania, OH 43560
(419) 787.6928
JeffreyDavis@Bex.net
MyCustomersAreDifferent.blogspot.com
________________________________________________________

Dr. XXXX XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Toledo, OH 43623 (xxx) xxx-xxxx

Dr. Xxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for the recent series of treatments. My back, neck and knee all feel great. OK maybe not the knee.

I have taken the liberty of enclosing a copy of one my favorite books for your library – Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith. It is one of my favorite reads and I have given out several hundred over the last 10 years. Today we talked about the idea of generating “Word of Mouth” (WOM) advertising and how a business owner can effectively go about generating this type of marketing campaign,

Most attempts to generate WOM advertising fail for two reasons:

Most service in the United States sucks. There are a number of research projects and professionals that will validate this statement. In professional parlance it is stated as “the service fails to live up to the expectation of the consumer”. Most service providers do not have WOM because they didn’t earn it.

The second reason businesses fail to generate WOM is that most individuals are reticent to give a service recommendation is guilt. They feel they will be judged by their friend or associate by how you (the service provider) performed. If you did not provide “Positively Outrageous Service”, they are not going to recommend you regardless of the incentive.

If you want to initiate a program that rewards your clients for referring your business, I recommend the following steps:

Free treatments to the client who recommends a friend or associate is a good start. However it still puts the existing client in a predicament – if they recommend you to a friend and the friend is not satisfied with the service provided, it creates an uncomfortable situation between the two of them. The original client feels guilty or hesitant recommending you, especially when the cost of the initial service is comparably high - $250 for an initial consultation and treatment session. If you want to attempt this type of marketing I suggest you eliminate this barrier. Give your clients a certificate for a free initial consultation. The purpose is to have then give the certificate to someone they know (new business) that would benefit from your services. If that certificate is used, you then credit the original client with free services. Now you have a win – win marketing program that your clients are more likely to embrace.

The offshoot of this program could be with the referral services that you already embrace. Give “free consultation certificates” to the individuals whose service you recommend (Example: masseuse) with the instructions for them to give these “limited quantity” certificates to their “best customers”. The ultimate goal of any marketing program is not to simply generate traffic, but to generate qualified traffic into your business. If a heavy user of masseuse services is inclined to use your services “to limber up for the golf season”, you want the masseuse to be giving these certificates to these golfers. On the back end I would develop an incentive to thank (reward) the masseuse for the referral – perhaps a gift card to a restaurant. Do you have a client in the restaurant business that you could barter services with?

The second suggestion I would make is to “fix your service”. (See page 8 – Bad News: You Are Competing With Walt Disney in Selling the Invisible.) Perhaps fix is a little harsh – “Improve Your Service”.

I have completed six treatments and here are a few of the items that impressed me about your operation:

I was amazed at how thorough your initial consultation was. I believe that you took down more patient history than any physician I have dealt with in the last 20 years. Great job!

Coleen does a great job of calling and reminding me of my appointments. On the snow day when the office was closed, she called me from her home to let me know that the office was closed and then she re-scheduled my appointment on the spot. I truly believe that most businesses would have left it to me to figure out no one was in the office after I had driven over there.

When I mentioned my knee problem on Friday you immediately offered to work on it while you were treating my back. Immediate concern for your patients well being. I felt that you were genuinely concerned about my well being. I only know of one other physician in Toledo who displays such empathy.

I was very impressed by the business cards of other service providers that you gave Janelle and I after the initial consultation. Short of my primary care physician telling me “go see a neurosurgeon that is in your health insurance plan", I have never had a health care professional who was so proactive.

Now how can you improve your service? Here are a few suggestions:

I asked you what made your service different than the other acupuncturists in the Toledo market. Your answer was “I am the only one to practice the ancient Chinese method of acupuncture.” This is a great point of difference – however, being new to acupuncture services, I still do not know what this means. Successful marketing in the service sector requires you to have a story to tell. Romance the profession.

Educate your clients. It solidifies your image as a professional. Why did you put needles in my ears to fix my back? Why did you not use needles in my ears during other sessions? What does my calves and feet have to do with back problems? And my hands? What is chi? Why didn’t you burn incense? You took copious notes on the procedures you performed with each session but I would like to know their significance. Service providers should not be compensated for the work they do, but for what they know. I would also suggest that you devise a system in your note taking that allows for easy follow up on suggestions that you make during the clients next visit. “Jeff, how are you doing with the suggestion of drinking a gallon of water every day? Are you still drinking coffee?”

Measure results. You seem reluctant to computerize your record keeping but I assure you it would be highly beneficial if you did. How many clients do you have? What is the average number of treatments with each client? What is the return rate? How much does the average client spend? The best clients? Which services draw in the most clients? If you had an electronic customer database you could map the neighborhoods of your clients and see where they live. (Note you could also do this with a box of pins and a map.) “Birds of a feather flock together.” Services appeal to various customer segments – people with similar lifestyles. When Janelle and I moved to Toledo it was important for us to live in a neighborhood with good schools for our three children and plenty of children of similar ages so they could establish new friends quickly. We settled on Sylvania.

I suspect that your clients are similar. Your best clients have similar attributes and I’ll bet they live near each other. Finding them makes marketing efforts more efficient. I suspect that your client base has the disposable income to afford your services since few health insurance plans cover acupuncture. Since “birds of a feather flock together”, by identifying these neighborhoods you could use direct mail to appeal to new clients. For example, if back pain is the number one service you provide, you could do a mailer into the Eaglewood subdivision educating prospective clients about new (or ancient!) remedies for back pain relief. It is a bit more cumbersome, but you could also do this type of analysis in a more analog format.

Keep in touch with your clients. Being a new patient, I do not know how you stay in front of your patients when they are not in the market for your services, but this step is crucial. Do you publish a newsletter? As you are setting up your web site I highly recommend that you incorporate a section that allows potential clients to receive a “free email newsletter”. Write a blog. Invite clients to ask questions via the blog or email. (Note as I post this blog in June 2007, I still have not been contacted by this physician after a service conducted in January!)

Ask your clients. Do you have a survey mechanism in place to ask your clients how well you are meeting their expectations? See pages 23 through 31 in Selling the invisible why this is so important and how to avoid common pitfalls. I am currently launching a satisfaction client survey for a large custom shirt manufacturer on the east coast. It is very interesting to see the differences between my clients perceptions of their service level when compared to the customers expectations.

Google is number one. Whether we like it or not, we now live in a digital age. Below I will share some yellow page research that I have conducted over the years, but one trend continues to grow exponentially – internet use to gather information. When I use Google to find acupuncturists in Toledo Ohio I do not see your business on page one of the search results. The same is true when I Google “Back Pain Toledo Ohio”. Google offers a regional advertising program that allows you to buy “key words and phrases” at an affordable price – Google Adwords. This limits the search parameters around the market you operate in (Ohio) and you do not pay for distribution across the rest of the country. As you develop your school, this may prove to be a great resource. At The Custom Shop I bought words like “custom shirts” for $.50 per click and the beauty of the program is that you do not get charged unless a potential client actually clicks through to your web site.

Yellow pages. As we discussed, the consumer’s usage of yellow pages has dramatically changed over the years. When I was growing up, if you wanted to know who sold refrigerators in Titusville Florida, the yellow pages were your only option aside from asking a neighbor. Now you are bombarded with TV ads, Radio ads, direct mail, Free Standing Inserts in newspapers and internet sites – all educating you that they sell refrigerators! My research at Tuffy Auto Service Centers did make one fact very clear about yellow page usage in the automotive service category. Yellow page ads were terrible at generating new clients, but they were efficient at reaching existing customers who were simply looking for the service center’s phone number. Like acupuncture, automotive service was one that clients used only when they had to. Making it easy to find you in the phone book is important in maintaining contact with your clients. Stay in the book, but go small! Make it easy for your clients to find you.

Behavioral modification. Do you want to loose weight? Stop smoking? Outside of pain relief, my perception is that consumers go to an acupuncturist to assist them with behavioral modification. True? This should have a major impact on how you go to market.

Lifestyles are important. With the proliferation of advertising venues today (our cable system alone carries 432 different channels) I have seen a dramatic shift in what constitutes effective marketing. The marketing programs that are most effective now are ones that do not advertise as much as they insert themselves into the lifestyles of the consumer. At Tuffy, Free movie rental with an oil change worked significantly better than lowering the price by $5.

Lower back pain got you tied up in knots? Golf season is just around the corner and we can help…

I am also increasing your library by including a copy of Positively Outrageous Service by an associate of mine T. Scott Gross. I have worked with Scott on a few projects and this is the book that launched his career. It is funny, informative and a very quick read. It does a good job of explaining the best ways to generate Word of Mouth advertising – both good and bad.

In addition to having the only acupuncture training school in Ohio, think how much more successful you could be in this endeavor if you offered more than medical training. What if you could offer an Acupuncture System (forget franchising or licensing) that trained physicians in how to market their services? Most physicians today rely on referrals and captive patients of the prevailing insurance companies. As you know, having to compete in the competitive marketplace for consumers disposable income takes a different discipline than the traditional system they are accustom to. This could prove to be another competitive advantage that only you could offer as you launch your new institute of higher learning.

If you would like some additional marketing expertise to assist you in generating an increase in new business, please give me a call.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey A. Davis

Potato Chip Marketing

2007-05-22T12:36:00.000-05:00

I am a man with few needs and even fewer vices. I enjoy playing golf and riding my 17 year old motorcycle (Harley!). I don’t smoke and rarely gamble or drink. But one of my biggest vices is a taste for potato chips.

There I said it. It is out in the open. As if it was a secret.

While doing research on several companies looking for a career match, I came across Poor Brothers and Three Cheese Jalapeno Potato Chips. Since they advertised a toll free number, I decided to expand my corporate research to include a sample of these chips. So on Wednesday I gave them a call.

I asked for the closest retailer that sold their product. “May I have your zip code please?”

“Sure, I live in Ohio, 43560.”

“Just a moment while I find the nearest retailer... Got it. The nearest store is in Oklahoma!”

Oh. I am in Ohio. I never get to Oklahoma. Can I buy them and you have you ship them to me?

“Of course. We do it all the time and we offer free shipping by Federal Express.”

Great, how much for a bag?

“$22.76.”

Must be a terrific potato chip. Why do they cost so much?

“We only sell them by the case and there are 12 in a case. We take all major credit cards.”

OK, here is my VISA…

Free Fed Ex shipping and 12 bags of Three Cheese Jalapeno Potato Chips. Today is Wednesday, so they should be here in time for the NFL draft this weekend. Fabulous.

Thursday comes and goes, no chips. Friday comes and goes, no chips. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… Finally Thursday arrives with the Fed Ex driver and my case of potato chips.

Now several changes have occurred in our client/vendor relationship. Initially I thought the sound of a three cheese jalapeño potato chip was a drop dead “no brainer”. Bring them on! I’m in love! But as we went through the transaction my perceptions of the product started to change – going up and down like a yo-yo.…

Up – three cheese and jalapeño – great!
Down - $22.76 for a potato chip?
Up – we offer free Fed Ex shipping
Down – Fed Ex takes eight days to get a package to me.

To me this is a great example of over promising and under delivering. Once she said “free Fed Ex shipping”, my expectation at the level of service I was going to receive was inflated. If she had said “free Fed Ex ground service shipping”, my expectations would not have been as high and I probably would not be adding this to my blog.

In the end was the process worth the product? I am ambivalent. I didn’t like them enough to order 12 more bags, but I did eat them all… I wonder if they would allow me to mix and match flavors in a case?

How in the World?

2007-04-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

How can an individual in a country as great as this go so unloved for so long?

"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true."

-- Niels Bohr, to a young physicist

How could no one do something?

"There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write."

- William Makepeace Thackeray

What in heaven's name is going on this week?

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children . . . Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

- Dwight D Eisenhower, from "The Chance for Peace" address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

I think Chris Rock has something to think about. We have the constitutional right to bear arms, but...

“You don’t need no gun control. You know what you need? We need some bullet control. Man, we need to control the bullets, that’s right. I think all bullets should cost $5,000. $5,000 for a bullet. You know why? ‘Cause if a bullet costs $5000 there’d be no more innocent bystanders. That’d be it. Every time someone gets shot, people will be like… ‘Shit, they put $50,000 worth of bullets in his ass.’ People would think before they killed somebody, if a bullet cost $5,000. ”Man, l would blow your fxxxxxg head off, if l could afford it.’ …’You better hope l can’t get no bullets on layaway.”

Chris Rock

Be useful. Be responsible. Be honorable. Stand for something.

"I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

-- Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) American Writer

"In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill."

- -- Sir Winston Churchill

"The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."

-- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish Dramatist and Poet

"Beauty, truth, friendship, love, creation – these are the great values of life. We can’t prove them, or explain them, yet they are the most stable things in our lives."

-- Jesse Herman Holmes

Aren't we suppose to be our brother's keeper?

Today is about hope...

2007-03-29T13:22:00.000-05:00

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope."

- Sir Winston Churchill

"If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf."

-- Bob Hope

"Man does not live by a turkey in every oven or a color TV set in every home. Man lives by faith and hope and love, by the star on the horizon, by the trumpet that will not call retreat."

- E. Merrill Root

"Great hopes make great men."

- -- Thomas Fuller

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.

-- Herbert Rappaport

The higher type of man clings to virtue, the lower type of man clings to material comfort. The higher type of man cherishes justice, the lower type of man cherishes the hope of favors to be received.

-- Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese Philosopher

Happiness is...

2007-03-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

"Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing up against your legs and jumping into your lap. "

William Bennett

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

- Siddhartha Gautama, 563 - 483 BC

A happy life is joy in the truth.

Augustine of Hippo, 354 - 430

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.

-- Rodney Dangerfield

The Law of Familiarity and the 2008 Presidential Election

2007-03-14T15:50:00.000-05:00

Why don’t we just move all the presidential primaries to next week and be done with it?

It is bad enough that we have to listen to the politicians, but now states are jockeying for position to determine who is going to hold the first primary.

Have you ever wondered why we are listening to politicians running for office in November 2008, debate, postulate and in some cases hyperventilate in March of 2007? It is because smart marketers understand the Law of Familiarity.

People act on familiarity. All things being equal, people buy based on familiarity. If they have heard of a product or a company, they are more inclined to buy. If they have not heard of the product or company they are more likely not to buy. This is the primary reason for advertising. It is why the 2008 election campaign starts two years before the election. Politicians know that people have to be familiar with their name before they will vote for them. Even if a voter does not know the views and beliefs of a politician, research shows they will stand in the voting booth and vote for the name that sounds familiar to them. This is the underlying principle behind the old adage “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” Over time, people will forget the details, but remember the name. Consumers act the same way.

“Nothing but the mint can make money without advertising.” Thomas Macaulay

Think about your favorite song playing on the radio. Perhaps you like it enough to go out and buy the CD. You pop the CD into your player and immediately search out “your” song. Then you listen to the rest of the CD during your drive home and are disappointed… One good song on the entire CD? But you continue playing it. Now the third track is starting to sound pretty good. Before you know it, you know the words to fifth track. At some point you realize that this is a darned good CD and you are recommending it to your friends! (Musicology by Prince) What happened? Did the CD get better? No. Familiarity set in. The same thing happens in our business.

So how do you become familiar to a customer? Consistency. Repetition. Advertising. In testing new advertising mediums, I am a firm believer in the law of three. Advertising works when your message becomes familiar to the consumer. “Let’s try Advo direct mail this month!” Great, but only if you are willing to invest in it at least three times. Frequency builds familiarity. When familiarity meets need, an opportunity for a sale is born. This is especially important in a service industry.

Sears and Woebuck

2007-03-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

I received a letter today from Sears. “I’m the general manager at your local Sears store. I just wanted to write to thank you for all your past business at my store. You truly are a VIP for the loyalty you have shown Sears all these years.”

Music to my ears. Finally some action! You see, I have had a running battle with Sears for the past 42 days. My wife and I were having difficulties with our very expensive Kenmore HE T3 washing machine. After doing some online research I sent the following to Customer Service…

Very disappointing. As a Sears’ customer and cardholder since 1977, I am upset. Our HE T3 washer started the F11 D 7 errors in January 2007 while still under warranty. I was told to turn off the machine for 15 or 30 minutes and it would “reset” the electronics. Success! Until late March 1st, now 31 days out of warranty. The “reset procedure” no longer works. I am now paying $471 to get my one-year-old $1,000 washing machine to finish my laundry.

I look around my home and see Kenmore in almost every room, Weatherbeater paint on every wall…. 2 refrigerator/freezers, stove, washing machine, dryer, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, freezer... I have been a loyal customer for 30 years. I never even thought about buying elsewhere – Kenmore ruled. Last year we had a similar problem with our newer electric stove. It needed a controller and I thought “one appliance out of dozens is nothing”. Now the next appliance I buy breaks down right out of the warranty period. Three rolling tool chests filled with Craftsman, enough saws, hammers, drills, routers, workbenches, and compressors to open my own store… Now I have to start questioning the other brands I hold dear. If I can’t trust Kenmore, can I trust the Craftsman name?

Oh well. Off to Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, Appliance Center, ABC warehouse… Actually they are a lot closer than my old dependable Sears store. Maybe I will save enough gas to pay for the repair…

I was pleasantly surprise when I received the following response from Sears Customer Service. Until I read it.

Dear Jeffrey A. Davis,

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to assist you with your recent concerns. Please be assured that we understand your frustration, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

By sharing your feedback, you have made it possible for us to address the issues. We will share your concerns accordingly. Truly, your remarks provide forthright feedback that enables Sears to achieve excellence in everything we do.

We value your relationship with Sears, and hope that you will continue to make Sears, Roebuck and Co. your choice for quality and value. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at (800) 579-2395.

Sincerely,

Mary J.
Sears Holdings Corporation

Maybe I am missing something, but what assistance? “Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to assist you with your recent concerns.”

I guess the translation means I am stuck with the machine.

But today I received the letter! “I’m the general manager at your local Sears store. I just wanted to write to thank you for all your past business at my store. You truly are a VIP for the loyalty you have shown Sears all these years.” It went on to tell me about the big sale… they are having…. on Kenmore appliances…

Having problems with your current Kenmore appliance, let us sell you another one!

Like I am going to buy another one if I can’t trust the one I already own.

But tonight I finally received the final Sears solution. “Tanya” called me to tell me that the warranty on my washing machine had recently expired and for only $279 I could buy an extended warranty.

I explained that I had just paid $471 to have the machine repaired… 11 days out of warranty…

“I know, that’s why I called. If you buy the extended warranty you won’t have those problems again.”

When Research Fails…

2007-03-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

“Marketing is finding out what customers want and delivering it to them profitably.”

I am a believer in research. But only when it is used correctly. Frequently research is used not to uncover information that allows us to make an intelligent decision, but is used to rationalize a decision we have already made.

I was reading a “classic” book today; Big Brands, Big Trouble authored by Jack Trout this morning and came across the following passage:

“..because market research convinced them that there was no demand for such a gadget. Despite the well known fact that one cannot conduct market research on something not in the market, researchers went out and asked people: “Would you buy a telephone accessory that costs upwards of $1,500 and enables you to send, for $1 a page, the same letter the post office delvers for 25 cents?” The answer, predictably, came back “no”.

Think you know what this product is? Here is a clue. This telephone accessory was invented in 1843.

In my other blogs (MyCustomersAreDifferent.blogspot.com and MyEmployeesAreDifferent.blogspot.com) I cite numerous examples of research that I have conducted on consumer behavior over the years.

I use research to discover how consumers have behaved in the past. Past behavior is a key indicator of future behavior. But I have found that this only works when the behavior you are researching involves continuity. If a customer buys Coca-Cola, you can reasonably predict that they will buy Coca-Cola in the future.

The one type of research that fails most frequently is predicting the future. Especially when there is little continuity between the past behavior you observed and the future behavior you are predicting. To ask a consumer who has bought Coca-Cola in the past if they would purchase a “completely new product that has nothing to do with Coca-Cola but is a liquid product” invites disaster.

I participate on a “consumer research panel” that sends me surveys to complete. One of the large confectionary companies is about to launch a new product and they want to know how I feel about it.

“Today we would like to get your opinion (because it matters to us!) about a new exciting confection that has never been in the marketplace, no one has ever seen, it is not a candy, not a gum, not a mint, we think it is good for you, you must sign the confidentiality agreement before you can even see a picture of this product…” “Use your imagination and I sure hope our marketing department has painted an accurate description of the product we are about to describe.” “It is crisp, clean, new…”

Some of my favorite questions:

“Based on the product description, how well do you think you will like the taste?” (Have you ever seen a product described as awful tasting?)
“How large of a package of X would you be willing to buy the first time?” (My guess is the smallest one I can get away with.)
“How often do you see yourself buying and using X?” (I’m still wondering how it tastes. By the way, how much does it cost?)

To me, this is an example of research helping to justify a decision that has already been made. X is rolling out somewhere. “We simply need research to cover our ass in case the product fails, so we can blame you.”

Would you be surprised to know that in 2004, 1.5 million of these telephone accessories were sold in the United States?

I am not implying that this is useless or even bad research. I just wonder if it is necessary research.

Sometimes successful marketing means stepping out on the limb and taking a chance. No risk, no reward. Successful marketing requires intuition and risk taking. My best ideas come from flashes of inspiration that can not be researched because they are new. They are based on a combination of years of experience and my best guess. If every marketing decision you make is based on research, you will never make progress. You will plod along re-inventing the same wheel. When Henry Ford was asked about consumer research as he developed the automobile, he responded “If I ask consumers what they want, they will say a faster horse.”

Take a chance. Lead.

The telephone accessory research attempted to destroy? The Fax Machine.

All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.
Alexis Carrel (1873 - 1944)

Another Message of Hope

2007-03-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

Fill your mouth with marbles and make a speech. Every day reduce the number of marbles in your mouth and make a speech. You will soon become an accredited public speaker -- as soon as you have lost all your marbles.

-- Brooks Hays

Busy, busy, busy…

As you can see I have managed to take my free time and successfully eliminate it in totality. I have started three different blogs. It is something I have talked about doing in book form for years. No time like the present.

JeffreyADavis.Blogspot.com
Ramblings of a mad man who happens to have a little marketing experience and isn’t afraid to use it..

MyCustomersAreDifferent.Blogspot.com
A step by step look at how the independent entrepreneur can successfully market their local business within the community. (A fancy way of saying how to increase sales...) This advice is written to my friend, Bryan, who operates an automotive service center in beautiful Sylvania, Ohio. It is based on a simple premise that I have heard over the years in every business environment that I have worked. “You don’t understand, My Customers Are Different.”
By covering topics like customer profiling, competitive marketplace analysis and identifying what it is you really are selling, hopefully I can dispel this myth and give you information that you can use in your business everyday. They really aren’t different; they all want the same thing. They want you to show them value.

It will also cover marketing and advertising topics like what is the best form of advertising?, how does direct mail work, what about radio and TV, print and outdoor? My personal favorite is yellow page advertising.
“It works!”
“No it doesn’t.”
“Yes it does.”
“No it doesn’t.”
“Don’t make me use my gun… again.”

It is based on ten years of experience with Tuffy Auto Service Centers. The facts and studies presented are real. Bryan’s shop is not.

MyEmployeesAreDifferent.Blogspot.com

The other offshoot of my years of business experience is the concept “Jeff, You don’t understand, My Employees Are Different.” Actually most employees are different. They are all people. Human beings. And all employees want is leadership. Covering a simple five step process that has served me for more than 25 years, it will cover the Recruiting process, the importance of Training and Developing the people you hire, how to Motivate your employees (hint – it doesn’t cost anything), how to Retain the employees you have spent time and energy working through the first three steps of the process and finally, the importance of Enforcing Company Standards.

Most importantly it will show you how to modify an employee’s behavior so you want to keep, not kill, them.

Thanks for visiting.

Jeffrey A. Davis
eaglewolfbear@gmail.com

Something unpredictable but in the end it's right, I hope you have the time of your life.

-- Greenday

2007-03-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome.

Please visit http://mycustomersaredifferent.blogspot.com/

Look for my latest work at http://myemployeesaredifferent.blogspot.com/

Enjoy and thank you for visiting.

Jeffrey A. Davis

My Background

2006-12-05T11:19:00.001-05:00

Jeffrey Davis
7356 Oak Hollow Court
Sylvania, OH 43560
Office Telephone: 419-787-6928
E-mail: JeffreyDavis@Bex.net
________________________________________________

Summary of Work Experience:
Successful results oriented, business professional with +25 years of senior marketing expertise, including Database Marketing (SQL, Oracle, Access), Search Engine Optmization and consumer profiling. Strategic thinker, visionary, problem solver. Internet veteran.

Michael Smith Custom Clothiers, DBA The Custom Shop. Dec 2004 – July 2006
Vice President of Marketing and Operations. The Custom Shop sells custom men’s clothing to the luxury market. Directly responsible for all marketing, advertising and operations. Heavy use of direct mail and email marketing. Managed stores, trunk shows, sales representatives, inside sales, order processing, customer service and web site. Developed Google Ad word and Search Engine Optimization programs.

Inspect Value Inc., DBA InspectValue.com June 1999 – July 2001
President and CEO. Developed Internet business focusing on the mechanical inspection and certification of used cars and trucks. Established Affiliate Marketing programs with Autotrader.com and MechanicNet.com. Continued to hold the position of Vice President of Marketing and Advertising at Tuffy Associates Corp.

Tuffy Associates Corp., DBA Tuffy Auto Service Centers May 1995 – Dec 2004
Vice President of Marketing and Advertising. Tuffy Associates Corp. is a franchisor of automotive service centers operating +265 locations in 18 states. Responsible for all marketing, advertising, brand development and marketing research. Introduced database marketing and direct mail to the franchise system. Established www.Tuffy.com. Member of Franchise Advisory Council, Franchise Review Committee.

Hickory Farms of Ohio Sept 1985 – May 1993
Director of Store Operations and Retail Marketing. Hickory Farms is a nationwide retailer of specialty foods and gifts. +100 stores, +600 kiosks.

Key Experiences:
Direct hands on management and supervisory experience with full P&L responsibilities.
Developed core customer profiles using demographic, psychographic and sales data that increased consumer response while reducing advertising costs.
Introduced database marketing and direct mail to the franchise community at Tuffy with stellar results.
Experienced with SQL, Oracle and Access databases using a web platform.
Experienced in all traditional advertising mediums including radio, television, direct mail, print and yellow pages.
Experienced in web development and ecommerce marketing including Search Engine Optimization, Ad Words, Affiliate Programs, Banner Ads and Email Marketing.
Proficient at identifying new market trends and new sources of revenue. Taught and wrote extensively on marketing strategies for New Dealer Training.
Developed consumer research to cut yellow page costs resulting in first year savings of $500,000 to the franchise community while increasing call volume.

University of Central Florida: BA Speech Communications
BA Political Science Pre-Law