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Obama's First 100 Days and Your Retail Store

oceanlinercolumbusDid you watch the presidential news conference last night or listen on your laptop or radio?  One of the metaphors he used towards the end are pertinent to retailers.  He talked about how long it takes change to occur in Washington, “the ship of state is an ocean liner, not a speed boat.”  He made the point that turning it a few degrees may not be seen soon, or even short-term, but would make the difference in the end when you could looked back in time at the moment the captain had decided to alter course.

I think many retailers have seen themselves as an ocean liner, that change comes slowly.  That’s why we hire our sisters’ friend because we like them, we don’t clear out bad buys of merch, we run the same ad we always did.  In short, we don’t want to change. It’s comfortable.

But we’ve never had times like we’re dealing with now.  Your smart competitors are looking at the wealth of new tools available to market to their customers.  They are speed boats looking to alter course dramatically.

I was talking to a client last week and he told me, “We wouldn’t have needed you last year – we were doing fine.”  But when sales are fine, we rarely change.

My point to you today is to decide if you are a speedboat or an ocean liner.  speed_boat_1Obama had thousands of people advising his running of the ship which is why it was an plodding ocean liner.  Most all of you only have to look in the mirror and decide where you need to go then set a course.

You don’t have the luxury of cruising anymore.

Luxury Market Not Dead – Newswires To Cry Foul

istock_000001389174xsmallHave you grown  tired of the Polly Paranoids who have pulled the wool over our eyes the past year that luxury is dead?  I have.

The ones who boldly claimed in articles and on covers of business publications, “we are in a whole new world where luxury is dead. And this isn’t just a trend, it is a fundamental shift for  shoppers.” Yeah, right. Got it, end of world right around the corner. Sack and ashes. Bad times here to stay. Life sucks.

If that’s the case then why, why did the news come in from Paris that LVMH, the biggest luxury goods company including the Louis Vuitton brand post a profit?  Don’t look for widespread coverage of that fact on cable news channels or your local TV station.  If anything they’ll have a talking head guy on to  say, “yeah BUT…”

For them, Wal-Mart and the Dollar Store are all we could be shopping at now and forever. After all, wasn’t it just about a month ago we saw Warren Buffet decrying a “new world” after the economy “fell off a cliff?”

A WSJ  article by Max Colchester details all the brands under LVMH in the article in today’s edition.  Here was one quote, “Mega brands are producing results ahead of the market average,” says Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.

Point of this post? The world is still spending on luxury. Hold on to your core customer. Sell your merch.  Don’t destroy your brand by discounting. Someone’s getting the $$$ – look in the mirror – maybe its your fault.

If you’d like some help, remember the Retail Doctor makes house calls.

Domino's Pizza Conover, NC Disgusting Behavior:10 Corporate Response: 0

In an unbelievably slow attempt to limit the damages from a “prank” on YouTube, Domino’s Pizza waited almost 48 hours to respond.  Now the entire brand has been compromised, not just a single unit.

The videos, four in total were taken down from YouTube but available if you want to make yourself ill at this blog. They feature a guy putting cheese up his nose, wiping a dish cleaning sponge on his backside and generally doing things we have all wondered about or seen in movies.

I remember when Los Angeles KCBS TV station Channel 2 did an expose of dirty restaurant kitchens. All Los Angeles county restaurants’ business fell off a cliff.  Did the CMO and the executive team of Domino’s not know this?

nose-cheeseThe two culprits were fired and arrested on felony charges even though they say it was a “prank.”

After hiring hundreds of employees, I have to tell you – I doubt this was a prank. Both of these employees were in their 30′s and clearly the store was open and orders were coming in. We’ll never know if the food was absolutely never served or not. You can read all about the incident at the NYT site at A Video Prank at Domino’s Damages Its Brand.

The point is much like my post on Monday about Amazonfail, you cannot be in business and think anything will just “calm down,” if you wait it out.   Look at last fall when Motrin made a reference to baby harnesses being painful and how quickly moms got on Twitter to complain.  They too took too long but that didn’t speak to mom’s fears of food safety.

Did Domino’s not “get” how this could affect all of their franchisees? That young people, the ones most likely to be on YouTube would say, “OMG – you have to see this?” and send to all their friends?

You can see Patrick Doyle, Domino’s President, YouTube response where he oddly looks off camera here.

Short post. Short point.  Two employees destroyed a brand. Avoid the Internet at your own peril.

Oh yeah and hiring the right people makes a difference too.

Get Out of the Yellow Pages Small Businesses!

The WSJ reported in an article, R.H. Donnelley Uses Debt Grace Period by Tess Stynes that the Yellow Pages giant is struggling with debt.  The story does not mention why but smart retailers know it is because no one uses them anymore.  If you are, get out!  And beware, with their sales in trouble their salespeople will be even more aggressive to tell you why you have to pony-up again. Don’t do it!

ypjpgThe Yellow Pages was a smart marketing move when it was the sole book from the monopoly of AT&T before it was broken up.  The Yellow Pages slogan, “let your fingers do the walking” was brilliant when it came out in 1962.

A 2004 survey by Opinion Research Corporation found that 55% of people used the Yellow Pages to seek out local merchants, compared to 12% who used Internet search.

That’s of course when using a FAX was cutting edge technology.

Nowadays, who uses the Yellow Pages? Maybe your grandmother looking for a plumber. Maybe.

Forget the out-dated information and demand – who wants to lug one of those 5 pound books up the stairs to the kitchen?  Mine are always tossed into the recycle bin. Not to mention the number of dead trees per listing.

You want to be where customers are looking for immediate answers – that’s the Internet. While I could go into all the ways you should be on the Internet, today I want you to visit Google Local. google-local-logo

Google Local is a feature of their maps and using GPS-like tracking of a customer’s logon location, delivers local results for their search.  While you can do a Google Local search and find your business, many times that information is minimal. Go to Google Local and register your business now.

Take the money you were giving Donnelley and use it on the Internet. Customers are still going to let their fingers do the walking, it is just on a keyboard, not thumbing through pages.

Using Recession and Bailout In Retail Signage Gets Results

An article in today’s New York Times by Peter Khoury titled, Welcome to Hard Times, the Sales Pitch detailed how local merchants are riding the recession alluding to it in their street signs.  One touted, “Wine Bailout Sale 100 Wines Under $10.’’  Another, my personal favorite on a sandwich board  advertising a burger special that includes chips and a drink said “‘Stimulus Plan Special, You’ve spent over $1 trillion on pork! What’s $10 more for an Island Burger?’’

Were these big discounts? No, they just put things in perspective with a wink. What I think is so smart about these merchants is they made you look.  Isn’t that all signs should do?

The words “recession” and “bailout” are just vehicles to hang your message on because they are topics in the news.  Yes there has to be value there but these merchants are creatively looking at engaging their customers who might pass them by – and results have been very good; some in the double digits.

When I was in New York one time a guy was shouting at passersby to come into his electronics shop.  As I walked by him he said, “Hey mister, you dropped your wallet!” I turned around to stare at the dirty concrete sidewalk while grabbing my back right pocket as he said, “made you look!”

I said to him, “Smart man,” with a wry smile.  He said quickly as I continued walking, “No man you’re the smart one – you still have your wallet.”  Which of course made me laugh.

Made ya look.

In a world crowded with signs hawking everything from unlocked iPhones to 70% off retail to 2-4-1, you should use every means possible to shake customers from their numb existence when walking past your business.  If a “‘Recessionista Sunday – all dresses  come with a free mimosa,’” gets people to consider your business – why not join them with “recession” or “bailout” in your signage?

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