A recent article in the WSJ, Retailers Cut Back on Variety, Once the Spice of Marketing talked about how all the largest chains are reducing choices for consumers. “Pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is cutting the types of superglues it carries to 11 from 25. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has decided that 24 different tape measures is [...]
The election in Iran, the improving economy, the GM bankruptcy, even iconic 70′s model Farrah Fawcett all took a back seat to the passing of Michael Jackson today. And for good reason. To paraphrase that old movie line, “We felt better about ourselves watching him.” Forget the easy, over-hyped digs about his personal life. At [...]
As to the actual ad, the blowup porn doll approach seems confused. Go with me here. If this is indeed an ad for a target demographic of young men, and you want them to eat them, are they in turn like the woman pictured? So should this be an ad in West Hollywood rather than West Madison, WI?
Want to really standout gift stores? How about videoing your customers as they select the perfect gift in your store. Next, encourage them to video the recipient unwrapping the gift and emailing the video back to you. Then combine them to make a YouTube video for your website, email newsletter and FaceBook fan page. You will have captured the joy of finding the perfect gift and the joy of receiving the perfect gift at your store. Brilliant!
For example, wherever it won’t affect displays for example general lighting, replace floodlights with compact fluorescents. Just make sure the new bulb fits entirely in the old holder. Nothing looks more third-rate than a bunch of pigtail energy bulbs sticking out of a ceiling fan, wall fixture or dangling from a ceiling. But for a display to pop, there is still nothing better than a halogen spotlight.
Here’s a tip for you looking at locations with leasing agents making big claims about an area: check the trash. With so many abandoned homes in major markets like California, Florida and the like, you want to know how many customers you actually could count on in your two mile trade area.
The challenge for managers and store owners will be how to not stomp on their creativity and interest that they approach the world with. As to the assistant manager I realized it would have been better to teach all the employees the 10 Steps to Merchandising, rather than just one.
So many times business, particularly downtown areas know they want to do “something” but do the tired, the tried, the boring. You can hear the customers as they open the paper, grab the mailer or click the link, “Yipee – another junk sale where everyone puts their last year’s castoffs on racks, drags them out to the front of their beautiful stores and cheap people paw through them looking for “bargains.’ Pass.”
You want to compete in a global marketplace? Standout from a world that is overbuilt with power centers? Take money out of the business instead of put it in every month? Reach higher. Hire salespeople. Encourage them to reach higher with every sale.
Sometimes small business owners or managers get so personally vested in being wronged that they lose sight of their priorities like some wronged hero in an action movie. Many times that is because it is easier to get worked up about someone else than taking responsiblity to change.
