A recent WSJ  story titled, “Can Shopping Be Fun Again” covered the phenomenon. Kimberly Grabel, Saks’s senior vice president of marketing was quoted, “Many of our customers already feel that Saks is a home away from home.”  That’s why she says Saks is adding “community rooms” that allow customers to host private birthday parties and book clubs for free.

Excuse me; Saks customers already feel Saks is their home away from home? In what universe?  Book clubs meeting at Saks? Doubt it.

Are there other brands that are doing it right? Yep…

Lululemon sells all manner of clothing for yoga enthusiasts.  They move out the racks and hold open classes throughout the week. A great fit (no pun intended) for their target customer and their products.

Topshop does a great job for their target market of teenagers with their novel idea of a photo booth at in-store events that uploads photos to their Facebook page – brilliant.

But events don’t sell merch–nor does CMO speak–salespeople do.

Can brands leverage an online community and develop one in-store? Let’s see…

H&M has 8200 Facebook fans. Are they fans because of the online community or because H&M is the leader in fast-forward fashion they have allegedly copycatted from the designers’ runways and delivered at a price point?

How about the guy who buys the Prada sunglasses for $400. Does he really want to be part of an online community he can talk about his sunglass experience? Or does he (or she) buy them to show others how cool they are to those who can’t afford them? My guess is the later.

Can in-store events help improve a customer’s experience? Of course, take B&H Photo in NYC.

B&H has an event space where they teach about how to use cameras, use images digitally – the works. This is a great fit. It helps customers better use the niche products the retailer carries.

Barnes & Noble and Borders host book clubs and have author readings – a natural fit.

But is there a need for retailers to use social media to create online communities and then hope to get them to meet at their stores?

As far as it goes, that sounds fine. But…

Don’t confuse doing something with doing the right thing to build sales. Anyone can put on a party with free food and “hang out,” like Anne Wintour’s idea last year for Fashion’s Night Out. The real thing missing from all of these “image” events is how exactly does it grow sales?

I think it’s a distraction. Look…

How many businesses do you want to manage?

I remember coffee house owners telling me they couldn’t wait to offer “free music” at night. Sounded great until they realized that they, the owner had to listen to all the demo CDs, review the fliers, make sure it was all setup and everything ran smoothly.  And then what did they have to do when the performer swore or told off-color jokes?

Events can be a way to build interest but it has to start with employees.  Explaining to them why are you doing it, showing how can they participate, asking for their ideas to make it better and sharing your goals for the event all help.

In a cross-channel world it is easy to see how building community online should compliment and build your community in-store. But is that really even possible given limited resources?

How many more salespeople could you put on your team for the money you’ve invested in the event? Or how much more training could you give them to help sell your entire store, not just what your existing employees got with their 25% off employee discount last month?

That’s what is missing in retail right now – the laser focus on selling more on the floor.  Much of what is getting ink and pixels right now seems to be a distraction.

What do you think about all the emphasis on in-store events?

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This basket itself was a showstopper

9 Elements To Make Any Event A Success

Macy’s annual flower show is in full bloom at their flagship store in NYC (and a few other locations) now through April 11, 2010. If you are in the area, make a trip as it has to be one of the last vestages of when department store events were used to differentiate one over the other.

I was in their store last year and saw two clerks who acted as if it were a hot August and people were miserable.  No energy, no smiles, no encouraging questions or pointing out the “specialness” of the event.  There were other long-term employees who were very proud it was their sixty-fourth show; you could see it in their smiles and hear it in their voices.

Smaller stores still do events such as book signings, story time, trunk shows, parties, live music, movie launches and new product arrivals.  All in the goal of driving new traffic to their shop, Main Street, mall or even city.

The one part that is missing when people talk about doing events is the employees or shop owners.  How will they greet the event?

With welcome arms or as a chance to bitch to the public? Unless this important link is considered, oftentimes the latter citing how it didn’t do anything for them but bring in “lookie-loos,” or worse.  I know, I hear it all the time.

Here’s 9 Elements To Make Any Event A Success:

1. Know why you are doing it in the first place – to drive trial from new customers who do not know you and to shorten the return to your shop/area/city by customers who know you.  In both cases it is to drive sales.
2. Create a timetable of explanations to employees, managers and owners with firm dates.
3. Explain to as many business owners and employees in person as possible why you doing it. Ask for questions ahead of time. Note any potential problems, parking, long wait times, where to get additional information.
4. Do a flier explaining why you are doing this, what the event entails, start and end times, etc. Even better a 2 min Youtube video that you email around.
5. Brainstorm some ways individual businesses can help participate – donations for prizes, prepared short updates for their Facebook Fan pages/Tweets.
6. Consider a contest for employees or shops that gets their buy-in.  If they have a stake in its success, they are much more likely to make it memorable – in a good way.
7. Get videos during your event of shops full of people, strolling on your sidewalks, etc. Encourage businesses to post their own on their Facebook Fan pages, their own webpages, anywhere they can think of.
8. After the event hold a meeting to debrief. What went well? What could be improved? Don’t let the grumpy Guses ruin it for everyone – keep focused on how it could be better, lessons learned, etc. What firm numbers did you, your merchants, your shopping district deliver?  We don’t want anecdotal evidence.  Sales up 3%? Write it down.
9. Create a file with all the information you created prior, during and the debriefing for use in planning another event or when someone says to do it, you’ll have everything in one location.

To truly move the needle of sales, customers who throng the stores should be met with the same wonder and excitement as the customers gazing at the flowers, listening to the music or strolling your downtown.  Remember, the reason you are doing this is to get buy-in that builds the event rather than takes away from all the energy you’ve put into it. Employee pride can make all the difference but it, like having a profitable business, takes work.

To find the prescription to making your business a success, pre-order The Retail Doctor’s Guide To Growing Your Business: A Step-By-Step Approach To Quickly Diagnose, Treat and Cure.

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When I got involved the Best Western brand was in a major battle with their independent owners. They knew that a scattered mash-up of properties could not hope to compete against the newer arrivals like Courtyard and Hampton Inn so they came up with new design standards.  They established a timetable and fined properties if they did not comply. Let’s back up a bit…

In the beginning over sixty years ago M. K. Guertin visited other motels and inspected them. If they met his muster, he included them in his travel guidebook.  Motels in the book then asked visitors where they were traveling and then offered to make reservations at one of the “approved” motels.

What had happened over the years was some of the original properties never updated.  That meant the brand of Best Western could promise a clean, comfortable room with certain amenities and a traveler could be disappointed at an individual property. (Nowadays travelers would rail on Tripadvisor or Yelp but then, it would just funnel back to the Brand manager.)

The only way to get control of that was to implement stringent standards across the spectrum.

After awhile a group of owners got together to challenge Best Western’s new policies.  I saw letters that screamed, “Whose customers are they?” Their point was they were their customers, not Best Western’s – that they alone were the brand.

An adversarial relationship ensued.  Most dropped out but not before creating an “us versus them” mentality and taking their own focus off of serving the guest and building the brand together.  (Not until they solved that could they grow the chain to become the largest hotel chain in the world with consistent positive word-of-mouth.)

Could that be you or your company?

I think it starts from a “take” mentality. The dealer will use the brand however they want, discount it, sell off of it or buy enough from one distributor or manufacturer – cherry picking really – enough to be important but use another for the rest of their orders.  I’ve seen this from restaurant delivery all the way down to gift stores.

Here’s the thing.  If it is an “us v them” how are you going to build either brand? You have to commit to the other party or suspicion and faithlessness ensues.

If we’ve learned anything from the housing bust its that you can’t take customers, retailers, distributors or even manufacturers for granted.

While “us versus them” is a common thread on Cable – everything from Project Runway to American Idol and from CNN to MSNBC and FOX,  if we don’t change the discussion, we all lose.

What do you think?

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The gist is that Bill Rancic, winner of The Apprentice and a “tech guru” and “designer” have 48 hours to transform the attitude and the operations of a small independent business.  And they are all about the attitude – their own.

A & E's Newest

From the moment they sweep into the shop everything is terrible and they have come from the mount to save the poor wayward fools at, in this case Berry Elegance.  The designer has to be the most annoying person ever seen on a business program.

Don’t take my word for it, look at their promos; which were worse!

I’ve done business makeovers for nearly twenty years, including for the Los Angeles Times.  They are never fun or easy but one thing I learned early on was that you don’t belittle people – especially in front of their employees.  Not here, that must be part of the “fun” of having a reality show purporting to show people how to manage their business.

What interests me about this show as well as Bravo’s, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover is that the “experts” come in, denigrate the shop, fill it with new fixtures and (since We Mean Business is sponsored by Dell – lots of new computers) they go on their way because they said that was what was truly needed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a big believer in sprucing up a shop. For Berry Elegance, it looks like they copied Godiva’s and it sure did look great!  Many of the ideas had merit including the use of color – if you could get past the condescension.

I think what will further distance viewers is to realize they don’t have the kind of money to pour into their business for new fixtures, signage, plasma screens, registers and computers.  And really, who needs to scan a barcode for a one-off shop that has very limited skus?  We’re talking a shop for chocolate dipped strawberries here.

They could have counseled her that a 5% online discount is worthless on a premium product. Instead of showing who’s eating them – how about trying to sell them with descriptive text?

And if you are going to have a blog Berry Elegance - especially if you are going to be on national television – update it for gosh sakes!  A & E visited them in June, the last post was March 13 – didn’t the “technology guru” think to look at their website at least once?

These reality show makeovers would lead small business owners to conclude the magic bullet is in the physical attributes of the store.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If you watch the follow-up clip on A & E’s site, you see how Amy, the co-owner of Berry Elegance is in just as much trouble as before but in a much nicer space.  In fact the employees and her co-owner Todd Jones have left Ms. Stipa to run the shop on her own.

Those great embroidered white chef’s aprons given as a parting gift from Bill and the gang? (Spot on Bill by the way!) Nowhere in sight.  She did hire a PR person to get in front of celebrities which got a large order – but at what expense?

The clip shows her ringing up a $6.50 sale.  Selling is a big problem for this owner which was ridiculed but largely unaddressed. My Five Parts To a Successful Sale retail sales training DVDs could help http://retaildoc.com/products/rxwhatyouget.htm .

Change takes time; meaningful follow-ups are what are needed whenever a business makeover is completed.

There are pitfalls to any business whether it is new, old, successful or struggling.  What you have to remember about reality shows is they are designed to make it look easy and to hype the tears.

To help you get real results right now, you can find a few of my ideas how to market your business at http://retaildoc.com/articles/market-yourself-article.htm.

And if you are looking for a host of a reality show based on results and not hype, give me a call; the Retail Doctor makes house calls.

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Contrary to the many pundits saying to lower prices, add discounts and coupons I ask, “How high is up?”  Can you bundle some products or add a service to make more profit?  That’s all you should be concentrating on: how to increase profits – not play Santa Claus with your markdowns. 

Cheap people like the occasional rotten employee will be with us as long as we are in retail.  The trick is limiting both and find both the profitable customer and loyal employee.

It isn’t brain surgery but it does take thinking.  When you get ready to offer yet another $20 coupon to your customers realize you have to sell at least $600 to make up the profit you’ve given away because the average GREAT business only makes 3 cents on the dollar. (It’s even worse if you are not profitable.)

Leave Santa Claus marketing for the others, your goal is to be profitable this holiday. Think about it.

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I’ve received your emails now for months, weeks, days. Like a jilted lover, you continue to hope that your discounts this time will be better, smarter, more focused. That you’ll allow “only me” to have your secret sale, friends and family day or free shipping – for only a few days.

You just don’t get it.

I stopped opening your email blasts awhile ago because they are all the same; generic, uncreative, uninspired – you don’t know me.

For if you did, you’d address the concerns I have like how to reuse an old article of clothing, when to alter a pair of pants, how to find a good accessory for a room.

But instead you keep begging, pleading, hoping like Sally Bowles in Cabaret, “Maybe this time..,”

Retailers, monitor your open rates of your email blasts. If they are below 30% it probably is due to your messaging. Make your message all about the customer using “you” and “your” and eliminate “we” and “I.”  Come up with five things your customers could use quick advice on.  Start a contest that uses your products. Be creative.

If not, you’ll end up singing the blues as your loyal customers stop opening their emails and more importantly your front doors.

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They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round;
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound;They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly;They told Marconi wireless was a phoney

A few months ago it was leaked that Starbucks had created a new instant coffee.  Pundits scoffed, what were they thinking?

This week the instant coffee arrives in stores with the name: Via.  Ad Age had a great story about how Starbucks plans to market the new blend. It reported in part, “The chain is expecting between 8 million and 10 million consumers to visit its 7,500 company-run cafes in the U.S. and Canada to participate in a taste test that runs Friday through Monday. Participants will receive a “thank you” card good for a free coffee on their next visit, and $1 off their purchase of Via at any Starbucks.

The CEO chairman and mastermind of Starbucks Howard Schultz said in a call with reporters,”I’ve been fooling people for almost a year now, at home, at the office. I make coffee for my wife almost every day. I tell people this is the instant version of Starbucks brewed coffee and they’re shocked.”

What makes this such an interesting story is that I can’t think of one other brand trying to get you to try their cheaper version and then proudly saying you can’t tell the difference. It’s kind of like Ralph Lauren’s POLO or Coach spending millions to tell people their outlet stores had the exact same merchandise.

“This is not your grandmother’s instant coffee,” Schultz said. “The quality of Starbucks Via is a mirror image of the quality and taste of Starbucks brewed coffee.”

This is not like GAP owning Old Navy but defying someone to tell the difference.  GAP realizes they are covering two distinct markets that have some overlap and my guess is so does Starbucks but they are crazy like a fox.

Do they really expect the Starbucks venti customer will switch to instant? Probably not but it gave them the opportunity to come back to the market with lots of press. They also sent out  coupons to their 4 million Facebook Fans. What was the hook?

You have to come in to the stores to taste it.

Whether they buy Via or not, Starbucks is expecting 8 to 10 million customers to visit from Friday through Monday. And while they’re there they also may become reacquainted with the habit of their morning coffee.

In a recession the first thing to go for some are the indulgences of specialty coffee; a weekly habit can easily cost $100 a month.  It’s not a secret that their traffic counts are down, this may just be the gimmick to bring those who have built Starbucks into one of the most easily recognized brands in the world back to the cup. They’re addicts after all trying to be good and not realize they are being led down the garden path to their old ways.

Via

Sure, Via is a product that is targeted to the larger fast food and vending machine market which is a big; somewhere between 17 and 21billion. Yes that’s with a B.  Who wouldn’t want a branded Starbucks cup of coffee out of a vending machine at your mechanics or hospital waiting room over the swill that had been sitting on a burner for two days?

Pundits are still puzzling why Starbucks would “push instant” at the expense of their premium brand. Crazy like a fox.

Notice they could have just as easily sent packets in the mail for you to try or bundled it with your morning newspaper. But they knew the goal of their event: to get people to come back to the store and rebuild a brand sorely in need of a jolt.

Instead of thinking how you can give profits and product away, find a way to have the guise of a giveaway mask your main objective:  to get them to return to your store.

Learn how to get customers to come back again and again.

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The driver quickly picked up, “No really, we’re great.  There are 160 Crowne Plaza properties in the US and we are #2 in terms of quality.  Our bar is very cool and features a fire pit. All rooms have a 42” plasma TV and on Tuesday and Wednesday night we have free massages.” We shut up, this sounded like a good place to stay.

The interior looked like a swanky LA or NY hotel. I checked in and was assisted by Jenny who did a great job, friendly, outgoing; you could build a business on her.  Just like the shuttle driver, Jenny and the other front desk agents were proud of this property.  Their enthusiasm was genuine.

The background behind the bottles constantly changed

As I finished up, Jason, the guy who rode in the shuttle said he was really hungry and Jenny  added, “You can eat at the bar if you want.” Jason touched my shoulder, “Hey, there’s the firepit.”

I was dog-tired; he wanted to get something to eat so we split up but not before I was able to notice the bar.  Under every low-hanging blue halogen spot was a full martini glass full of a bright red liquid.  The rest of the bar was spot lit throughout with three blue candle holders lit on the tables. Very high-end and inviting.  Like any great retail display it drew customers and the bar was full.

Spot lit red martini glasses

I went to my room and unpacked then figured, what the heck, I’d go back down and have a drink with Jason.  I found him chatting up a couple of conventioneers and got ready to sit down when he turned to me, “I’ve been waiting 15 minutes for anyone to take my order.”  I thought, Hmm, maybe not, excused myself and left.

The next night Jason was arriving with the rest of their convention goers as I was waiting in the lobby for my free  massage. “Good thing you didn’t wait, took forever to get my steak. It was great but … they did it again tonight. Three guys had ordered their drinks and couldn’t get anyone to give them the bill, they walked out to get on our bus. I’m sure the waiter was upset but they lost the business.”

After my massage, I went to the bar to order dessert. The barkeep told me they had cheesecake, berry sorbet and two other items.  I ordered the berry sorbet. She came back two minutes later, “Sorry sir, we’re out.”

Point of this blog is you can spend millions on having the prettiest business but if you can’t follow that up consistently with as exceptional an experience as your fixtures, what good are you?

The next morning, the bar was reset to yellow liquid in the martini glasses. Spectacular to draw attention

In retail you are known more for your compromises than your designs, products or store design.

The business goes to those who can live up to the expectation they set for the customer whether that is your four walls, your website or product claims. And that can change with the person you leave in charge or your lack of scheduling to demand.

Where have you found the expectations set by the shopping environment were matched with an exceptional experience you would tell the world about?

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He says one hiring manager called, but didn’t mention the shirt. Mr. Winninger concedes that “I”m not going to get a job as a result of sending someone a shirt. All I’m trying to do with that is get an interview.”

That’s the goal of any marketing campaign, it is a first step.  It’s not the ring at the wedding, it’s the fancy jewelry you wore for the first date to standout.

When I was a conductor of a chorus in Los Angeles county, the person responsible for publicizing our concerts let me down so I took matters into my own hands.  We were premiering a new work and I wanted to be sure we received advance publicity; a review wouldn’t help build ticket sales.

I went to Creative Cakery and had a custom design similar to the one on the right feature our event information in icing and I took it down to the Times office. They wouldn’t allow me to hand deliver it but I added a personal message and a press kit.  I called up a few days later to enquire if they received my gift.

The writer told me, “Bob, gifts are strictly forbidden.” I said, “Well you didn’t throw it out did you?”  ”No,” she said, “we all enjoyed the chocolate frosting. It was really good.”  The story ran and we had a large audience.

There was a house I wanted to buy in Long Beach, California.  I had told a realtor that when it came on the market, I wanted to know. February 13, 2002  he called and said, “It’s listed but she isn’t letting anyone see it until she cleans it up a bit.”

Like the Grinch, I paced, “I must stop others from coming.” I wrote a short letter to the owner describing how I wanted to make this house my home and asked to be able to see it that Saturday. I went down to the local party supply and picked up three Valentines’ balloons, attached them to the letter and slipped it under the mat.

I got a call from the realtor, “You’ll be the first ones to see the house this Saturday.”  It needed a ton of work inside but it didn’t slip through my hands.  I enjoyed that home for six years before moving to New York.  If you want something enough, creativity does rule the day.

While the WSJ article featured people saying such tactics wouldn’t work for getting a job by recruiters, I think it’s no different than that line, “gifts are forbidden.”  Be creative when marketing yourself and you’ll be able to standout from the rest.

Learn how to improve your business here.

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We have taught customers that printed price is irrelevant, someone somewhere will pay you to buy whatever it is. The retail landscape has become like Monty Hall’s game show from the sixties,  Let’s Make A Deal or a third-world bazaar.

Some of the biggest companies are helping all kinds of product dealers move inventory by paying the customer with rebates. Taking a page from how cars have been sold for the past twenty years – and that’s worked well, right? Everyone is embracing employee discounts, friends and family shopping days and rebate programs.

Why not just improve your sales team?

When I began my retail career, it was common knowledge that in many appliance stores there used to be a “loss-leader” that was heavily advertised;  a washer with a “the  golden spike” in it if you will. The understanding was if you the saleman sold one, you would be  gone because you couldn’t sell; a salesperson’s job was to sell the profitable item.

Sears’ had a different sales strategy I’m told by a former principal, “Sears sold up by selling down.”  They presented a full line of each appliance, from a stripped down model you probably didn’t want, to a model with gadgets that you really didn’t need.

They didn’t expect to sell many from the top or bottom of the spectrum.  The sales strategy was to present the full line quickly, identifying the shortcomings of the low end model and the gee-whiz features of the top-of-the-line.

Depending on how the sale was going, the salesperson would say, “Let me be honest with you.  You’re paying for features in the top-of-the-line model that you probably will never use.  I don’t think this is the best value for you.  The model under it has features that you will use and for a lot less than the top of the line.  I suggest you save some money by buying the next model down.

Sears made a profit, the customer got what they wanted, everyone was happy.  Nowadays in most appliance stores, if a clerk came over, they’d ask if you “found everything ok” and a sign would tell you there was a rebate on it.

Of course, that was then.  One of the people I follow on Twitter, EdisoftFan alerted me that at their local Sears is a chart ranking associates by credit card applications – nothing to do with sales.  Is it a mystery Sears is flailing these days?

In a related story in today’s Los Angeles Times details how IKEA is struggling for profitability in China, Beijing loves IKEA.  People flock to the store but not for shopping. Linda Xu, a company spokeswoman rolled her eyes when she came upon a trio of slumbering customers, ”The brand awareness is great, but the question is, how do we get people to open up their wallets and spend money?” That’s a salesperson’s job.

An office manager visiting with his family said he bought a couch elsewhere that looked just like IKEA furniture. “Why spend so much money when you can have the same thing cheaper?’ he said.”  That’s a salesperson’s job.

The only way your store will standout from your competitors, that your crew will be different than any other, that you’ll make a profit as we come out of this stubborn recession is to learn to sell better.  Your merch can’t do it alone. That comes from having a process, being coached and tracking results.

That’s why I’m hosting an intensive selling workshop in Chicago Monday, Sept. 21 for anyone looking to sell more of their products or services.It is based on the same sales strategies I’ve used for small mom & pops to companies like Brother, Yamaha and Hunter Douglas.   Full details are here.

Consumer sentiment is up – are you ready to sell the merch or continue sitting there looking for a pathetic handout like Whirlpool?

Sales training is the magic bullet to growing your sales, not discounts.  I have the track record to prove it in any economy.You won’t be able to use the excuse  its “the economy” any longer. Change or die my friends.

Take my challenge and meet me in Chicago next month.

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