CBCG Retail Report

It's TIME to start using social media for your business

2011-07-25T08:47:00.001-05:00

Another survey came out this week talking about business owners not using social media as a marketing tool. The survey shows that more than 47% of small business owners are NOT using social media in their regular marketing efforts. (Hiscox Insurance) The number one reason why: Business owners suggest that they don't see the payoff for the time and energy they invest.

At CBCG, we couldn't disagree more. If we met to discuss marketing for your business, I'm sure we would probably both agree that the goal of marketing for any business - large or small - is to connect with customers and share insights and information about the business. The key to successful marketing is to deliver the message in the right forum where your customers will read it.

If that premise holds true, then I suggest that there-in lies the opportunity for small businesses to use social media as a marketing tool. If your customers are spending time on Facebook, or watching videos on YouTube or Tweeting on Twitter, than you should be there marketing your business and engaging with them WHERE THEY ARE.

Reaching customers today is no different than when you marketed your business 20 years ago. You used the newspaper, put ads on the radio or put an ad in the yellow pages to share because that's where your customers were. The difference today is that some small business owners are not as comfortable using social media as a marketing tool because they know less about it or feel behind the curve when it comes to adoption of social media practices.

That uncomfortable feeling is limiting your success at connecting with customers and driving sales for your business. I promise, the tools are not that hard to figure out and once you decide to jump in, there are many resources available to you to help you create a message using social media that will reach your customers effectively.

The time to start using social media for your business is NOW. Your customers already are.

The heck with the heat, let's go shopping.....

2011-07-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

More than half the US is steeped in a serious heat wave this week. And it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon. It's so hot in many places that spending even 5 minutes outside can sap your energy and make you want to crawl into a dark cool room and just hide.

But for those of us that are in the retail business, we've still got employees to pay and sales to make, even in this blazing summer time heat. So how can you get more customers out of the car and in to your front door during the heatwave? Try some of these and let us know what happens.

Have a "Hot, Hot, Hot" sale. Make a game of it for your customers. Let them know if it reaches a certain temperature, you'll give them a discount on their purchases for the day! The higher the temp, the more the discount. Send out emails, post on your social media sites and put a sign in your front window to spread the word.
Put an old fashioned lemonade stand outside your front door. If it's too hot to man the booth outside, let them know you've got a cold glass waiting for them in your air conditioned store!

Open the front door. Yes, you'll let out some precious A/C, but as they are walking by, they will feel it and most likely, be compelled to come in out of the heat and take a look around. Once you have them in the front door, the rest is up to your salespeople!
Offer free bottles of water to all shoppers who come in. If you don't have premade labels in the store, get some blank ones and put your store logo on the bottles. Keep your customers hydrated, and advertise your store at the same time.
Run a contest. Guess the high today and win a prize. This will be most effective via social media like Facebook or Twitter because you can get immediate results. Award the winner a gift certificate for a future purchase.

Whatever you do, you must do something. Don't let the summer heat take the sizzle out of your business!

Does your store compel customers to spend?

2011-07-14T08:43:00.000-05:00

What do you do when vacation turns into a frustrating retail experience? Why you blog about it of course.

Admittedly, because of what I do for a living, I am hyper sensitive to retailers, the products they sell and the customer service they offer. Yes, it’s a hazard of my job, one that usually doesn’t cause such a problem at the same time!

But what I found on my visit to the retailers in Maine last week did not inspire me to spend money in the least. And the lessons for retailers out there who are in the same situation are worth talking about for all.

If you’ve not been to Bar Harbor, Maine summer is one of the best times to go. Visitors flock to the main attraction – Acadia National Park - during the very short season for a multitude of outdoor activities. And for those that don’t like the outdoor resources the park has to offer, there are plenty of shops and restaurants that are willing to help you wile away your time and spend your money.

This means that retailers must make hay while the “sun shines” in order to have a profitable season. With 8-10 weeks of prime time selling opportunities, the retailers need to be on top of their game to attract customers and get them to reach into their wallets and spend the almighty vacation buck.

And now the problems begin. After a morning hiking in the park, I set out for an afternoon of shopping hoping to find some mementos of my time in Maine. On a trip where I expected to be “wowed and wooed” to spend money in abundance, I wasn’t compelled to do anything of the sort. What I found – or should I say didn’t find from the retailers in town was concerning:

· Not one artistic or thought provoking window display that compelled me to walk in the front door of a store - on a very crowded retail street no less!
· No stores filled with one of a kind, unique, interesting products that inspired me to pull out my wallet
· Fair pricing on the routine items I forgot at home (I did without because of this)
· Not One – and I mean one - interesting marketing promotion geared toward making me pay attention to certain shops or products in any store
· A friendly merchant (or their support staff) that had a smile and a warm hello for me as I walked in
· A sign-up sheet for an email list or a facebook page so that I could follow store happenings all year round to remember the “fun” I had on my summer vacation.

Believe me, I know all the work it takes to make a retail store successful today. And I know that budgets are tight and costs are being cut everywhere just to try and stay in business for another year. But the simple take-away from my retail experience are reminders and lessons that don’t cost a lot to execute and ones that can differentiate your business to be the most successful it can be.
Wherever you live –and whatever you sell, every retailer must be vigilant about attracting customers and maximizing business opportunities where and when they occur. Forgetting about the 4 P’s of marketing are a critical failure to ANY business – no matter where it is. Especially in tourist destination stores across the country – Maine included!

Note to the Maine retailers reading this: I LOVE Maine – and I’ll be back –this isn’t about all of you- just some of your brothers and sisters who have forgotten the cardinal rules of retailing – that serve as a reminder to the rest of us. Customers WANT to spend money in your store. So please - give them a reason to spend!

Making Your Retail Business Social in 2012

2011-06-23T08:48:00.000-05:00

People around the world are using social media for many reasons. They are meeting long lost relatives or high school classmates on social media sites, watching videos, reading blogs and most importantly for retailers, they are using social media to connect with brands they know and love.

And the numbers show no sign of slowing down any time soon. By the end 2011— more than 63% of Internet users will be using social media. (148 million people) and the number will climb to 67% by the year 2013. (Source: emarketer.com) That’s a lot of people spending a lot of time with social media to do a lot of things.

And while some retailers are just getting started in using social media for their businesses, the industry is steam rolling ahead at warp speed. New social media sites are being created every day and the ways consumers use social media continues to evolve. So the question is - How is social media evolving and how will retailers be able to use it for their retail businesses in the coming year?

Here we present 5 emerging trends in social media. Many of them will be perfect for retailers like you as they seek to engage and share word of mouth experiences with customers in real time across a broad group of users. When you read them, don’t think about where you are with social media today, think about where your business could be if you integrated some of these tools in the coming year.

Consumer content creation—It’s all about being in the stream. Yes, you need to have an engaging presence with social media on your own that inspires people to come back on a regular basis. Now taking it to the next level and getting your brand evangelists and social media community members to talk about your business in their posts will be critical.

Think of it as PR and word of mouth marketing from your best customers. You will need to create programs that inspire them to share what you are doing in their social media posts. When your customers create the content for your business, it's the perfect word of mouth referral- except that it’s on line and a lot more eyes will be on the message!

Niche Location—Niche location social media sites target the exact location of the user and tells others about it. This has a great connotation for retailers who can use location based sites like Foursquare or Gowalla to run contests or make offers to customers who check in when they shop.

Its like getting free advertising for your store in real time, from people who are shopping at that moment! Customerse check in and get discounts, etc and then their friends see on line that they are shopping in your store and may be intrigued to come in and get the same deal. If you want to see how some brands have implemented location based marketing programs, take a look at what Ann Taylor, McDonalds, Starbucks and Best Buy have already done in this area.

Group Purchasing—This trend continues to grow and will expand with more sites in 2012. Simply put, group purchasing is based on the premise that creating a sense of urgency around purchasing will incentivize users to act quickly and to share the information with friends in their circle to insure the deal happens.

For retailers, it’s a great way to get a tremendous amount of marketing impressions for your brand that you could never afford on your own. And while the group purchasing sites take a percentage of the sales generated from the deal (and yes, there is some profit erosion on this first deal and customer transaction), the goal for using a GP site will be to create a longer term relationship with the customer over time to recoup your profit.

Using group purchasing sites like Groupon or Living social or Daily Deals has become a hotbed topic for retailers because they are concerned these sites don’t attract the right type of customers that can be retained long-term. I would suggest that the key to successful group purchasing participation is how you structure the deal and how you prepare in advance to create a process for you to capture contact information from the customers as well as create marketing programs to speak to them after the Groupon is over.

Social Gaming - In 2012 more game applications will be integrated in to social media programs to further engage customers with brands in a fun way. More than 56 million people currently play games with social media on a regular basis and brands that connect with customers while they are using the game platforms are poised to form a meaningful connection with them going forward.

Mobile Marketing - More than 50% of all cell phones will be smart phones in 2012. Consumers understand the time saving benefits that a smart phone can deliver and the social media trends for 2012 call for more mobile marketing programs from brands to connect with customers where they are. Discount codes coming thru phones, interactions with products while in store and QR codes offering information, games and other relevant services will further engage customers with brands and stores in 2012.

Whatever trend you think is right for your business, one thing is certain. Social Media is the way of the future for retailers to connect with customers. Just like creating a website was important 10 years ago and email marketing they way to connect with customers 5 years ago, social media is a trend that is here to stay.

Social media is and will continue to be a way of connecting with customers for your store and if you plan on being in business in 10 years – you must continue (or start!) to integrate these new social media tools into your marketing plans today.

Are you ready to be part of the Group?

2011-06-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

I’ve heard lots of dialogue (on both sides of the fence) about Group Buying Sites (e.g. Groupon, LivingSocial, PlumDistrict and BuyWithMe) and how they have negatively impacted small businesses. In fact, I’ve even heard a few stories about how they put small businesses out of business!

These stories include businesses who were overwhelmed by new customers, saw unplanned spikes in demand and businesses where group buying sites created surges in website traffic and need for increased cash flow to manage inventory capacity builds. On the surface, this might lead you to say that group purchase sites are not good for small business. This is one place where I completely disagree!

I'd like to suggest that in fact, it's not the group buying sites fault for delivering "too many customers" to a store that participates, but in fact, it is the unprepared small business owner who has created what I believe are problems that can be easily prepared for.

Oprah Effect
Think of the impact that product endorsements from the Oprah Winfrey show had on small businesses. Many a lucrative business was catapulted from the dark corners of mediocrity to the bright lights of notoriety by being endorsed by Oprah on her show. How did they ever survive? How dare Oprah promote their products…did she not know she could put them out of business?

In fact, most (if not all) of the businesses featured on Oprah had time to prepare for the impact that the show would provide. The benefit of this proper planning in advance created the positive opportunity that the Oprah effect delivered.

Be Careful What You Ask For!
Any promotion deployed in isolation without regard for the effects on business operations is a disaster waiting to happen. A small business owner must take into consideration the ramifications of a Group Buying Site promotion on all aspects of the business. The financial impact of the Group Buying Site’s offer on gross profits can be easily measured, but the potential investments required in other operational aspects (IT and IS upgrades, staffing, training, inventory management, onsite customer logistics, cash flow requirements, customer relationship management programs) are more difficult to predict. All must be carefully evaluated and considered BEFORE entering into an agreement with a Group Buying Site. Strategic preparation is critical to maximize the potential success of the promotion and mitigating potential risks to your business.

Long Term Value of the Customer

A key element of many of these Group Buying Site promotions is the immediate discount on the initial transaction. If the small business owner views this opportunity as a chance to drive one-time transactions, they are doomed to failure. The key is to consider the long term value of the customer; the promotion expense is merely the customer acquisition cost. If the new customer can be converted from a one-time discounted transaction to a regular consistent customer, then the true monetization potential of the promotion is acheived. All said and done, the small business owner may initially only break even on the Group Buying Site promotion, but they have been presented with a glorious opportunity to drive future sales and profit growth through customer retention.

Think long term and you have a chance for success. Deliver a great customer experience and you have a better chance for success. PREPARE with a focus on the long term and you will succeed.

2011-06-20T07:47:00.001-05:00

Managing your retail inventory and managing the cash flow that goes into managing that inventory is one of the biggest challenges retailers face. While there are many software programs and templates that exist to help retailers manage the process of buying inventory, I can’t tell you how many retailers I meet who still don’t see the benefits of using one of these systems to help plan their business.

In our never ending quest to help retailers small and large take more money home and not leave it on their store shelves, once again, we offer our rationale on why setting up and managing an Open To Buy program (of some sort) can be effective and why it should be used to help run your retail inventory.

You know what an open to buy is, right? It’s a system used to help plan your purchases on a department or class level and to match your inventory needs with planned sales you expect to do in that time period. A successful open to buy plan will maximize the flow of inventory and improve sales and turnover so that as the owner of the business, you can keep more cash from sales in your bank account and not spend it on inventory sitting on your store shelves that you don’t need.

And while many of you reading this have been in business a long time and are quite knowledgeable about what sells when in your store, there is still some fine tuning that can be done with the help of an open to buy program for a business of any size no matter how old the business is.

Using an OTB program will help you track selling by department on a regular basis and will alert you to shifts in business - very quickly. Reacting or proactively pursuing these shifts can and will save you money and help you drive more sales and profits to the bottom line for your business.

Whether you buy more merchandise because you react to a positive shift in sales, or react to slower sales by canceling or shifting dates on purchases, you can help your business drive more profitable sales in trending categories while reducing the inventory you spend on departments that are no longer selling. So how much money can you expect to save if you use an OTB program? Typical results from running an Open To Buy are turn improvement of between 7-10% the first year and a reduction in purchases of between 5-10% annually. These two things alone can pay for the cost of managing an OTB program and so much more!

And while there are tremendous benefits to using an open to buy program, it is not a silver bullet that fixes all that ails your store. You will need to spend time working on and with your open to buy to make it truly successful. You must not be ambivalent about your Open To Buy. For an Open To Buy plan to fully to succeed, you must be committed to following the plan you set in place and have the discipline to stick to the plan in the course of the year. The results will happen if you stick to the plan!

Make Your Summer Inventory Shine

2011-06-17T13:26:00.010-05:00

Next week brings the official start to summer. For retailers, no calendar needs to tell us that as we are already well into the summer selling season and working on marketing and promoting the seasonal products that go with this time of year.

But for those of you that are a little behind in your planning, or you need a reminder about how to maximize your seasonal inventory we offer a few tips on how to make your summer inventory sizzle and shine while making sure you are thinking about the profitable season end liquidation of those products.

By now, you probably have a great display of your seasonal merchandise right by the front door. Hopefully the display is set up in direct sight of customers when they walk in and full of seasonal products and geared to maximize sales. Make sure your display is fun and pull in as much merchandise as you can to showcase your all of seasonal products – and the other corresponding products that go with it in the store.

Don’t forget to include your store windows and any outdoor space (window boxes, benches, parking lots, etc) in your seasonal product displays. There is no better way to entice customers to buy like showing them how the products work and how much fun they are!

Besides a great display, one of the biggest things to help maximize sales of seasonal products is to create a fun and engaging marketing program for them. Summer is all about family, vacation and doing all the fun things we don’t get to do in the colder weather so make your marketing communications reflect the same attitudes.

Remember you have less time to sell seasonal products than you do with your average selling cycle so be sure to market often. Include seasonal products in at least 2 emails per month and use social media to talk about your seasonal products on a more regular basis. (Our suggestion is 2-3 times per week) With social media, don’t forget you can do fun things like picture contests, short videos showing people using the products in a fun way.
If you sell from the web, change your summer product images on the front page often.

A good plan for maximizing sales with seasonal products also includes a strategy for how to liquidate those products at the end of the season. It is critical to your success- and to your cash flow- that you plan the time you want to be out of the merchandise and then back in to when and how you will promote it to your customers.

A good rule of thumb is to plan to sell thru 75% of your merchandise at regular price (This assumes an 8-10% sell thru on a weekly basis for the preceding 8-10 weeks of the season) by 1 month before seasons end.

This allows you one month to take permanent markdowns and move it to a clearance section of the store or to run the merchandise as a POS markdown for the final liquidation.

Social Media and your retail business - the perfect combination

2011-05-24T16:48:00.001-05:00

We've recently returned from a series of social media trainings for our retail clients and the question we got asked the most was how to improve engagement and performance using social media.

With the continued emphasis from clients that want to learn how to create the right type of engagement using social media, we thought we'd repost our 42 tips on how to improve your social media presence. We shared it with the group and they added some of their own. We hope you find it helpful too.

1. Be Remarkable - Somebody Worth Making A Remark About
2. Sharing is Caring. Become A Trusted Resource for your Fans and Followers
3. Have Your Own Unique Brand Personality
4. Be Vocal And Opinionated – Politely, of course - Within The Community
5. Don’t Flood Followers With Requests. Follower Fatigue is Not What you Want!
6. Invest Time Into Social Media – Have A Strategy And Stick To It!
7. Produce And Share Content That YOUR AUDIENCE Will Love
8. Listen To What’s Being Said. Monitor Constantly. Respond Regularly
9. Become A Real Member Of The Community
10. Ask and Answer Questions - constantly
11. Provide Value To The Community
12. Get People Thinking- And Talking. Be Controversial when Appropriate.
13. Create Your Own Voice. Me Too doesn't Work in Social Media.
14. Contribute Regularly. Schedule Posts If Neccessary To Remain Present.
15. Don’t Be Negative—Or A Jerk. Neither One Works In Social Media.
16. Make It Easy For People To Share And Bookmark Your Content
17. Listen To The Community
18. Make At Least One New Connection Every Day
19. Engage Yourself In Conversations
20. Become The Conversation
21. You’re There To Make Relationships, Not Hard Selling
22. Take Time To Focus On Building A Loyal Following
23. Give, Give, GIVE!
24. Treat Social Media Like A Cocktail Party
25. Be Supportive
26. Syndicate Your Content Across All Social Media Platforms
27. Encourage Others To Syndicate Your Content Onto Their Sites
28. Fully Research The Community To Understand Your Market
29. Be Fun
30. Get To Know The Unwritten Laws Of The Community
31. Create An Attractive, Unique And Professional Profile
32. Use A Cool Avatar/Picture
33. Use The Same Avatar For Each Social Media Service
34. Don’t Disparage Others ( No Trash Talking Allowed)
35. Know What Your Followers/Friends Want And Give It To Them
36. Form Reciprocal Arrangements With Others
37. Monitor Your Noise Level
38. Never Cheat The System
39. Help Others Unconditionally
40. Be Yourself
41. Gain Credibility. Establish Trust.
42. START TODAY

There are certainly more ways than we have time to list, but we hope it's a start. Do you have a tip that needs to be added to our list? No problem- we'll make room. Comment away on our Facebook page so everyone can see it!

Sharing love from your long term customers

2011-05-17T15:06:00.001-05:00

Do you know who the brand evangelists for your brand are? Do you know the names of those customers who have been with you since the beginning and who have helped your store get to the level of success you have today?

Of course you do.

These satisfied customers are the backbone of your business. They have so many nice things to say about what your store carries and the customer service you have provided over the years. They tell all their friends to shop in your store and about how nice you are to them. But what happens if these loyal loving customers don't use the internet on a daily basis and can't help you spread the word by writing on line testimonials on Yelp or your Facebook Fan page - places where the "younger customers" of your business are looking for reviews and testimonials about businesses to shop at? How can you marry these two different groups of customers and share the most information you can?

It's Easy. Help your satisfied offline customers share their experiences online by setting up a computer terminal in-store where they can post comments about their experiences with your retail business. Ask them next time they are in if you could get them to take a few minutes and post a testimonial about their experiences at your store. Log in to your social web pages and show them exactly what to do in order to write an online review. Or better yet, ask them for a quote and ask if you can type it in yourself? Saving them time, but getting the genuine referral out for so many others to see!

While some of your long time customers may not be as internet savvy as your newest customers, they do have the best stories to tell about your business over the years. Make sure you do what you can to help them share it!

Is your retail business social?

2011-05-17T09:45:00.001-05:00

Today’s retail consumers are using social media in record numbers to engage daily with products and services they like. They are learning about features and benefits of brands, they are learning about brand personality thru contests and activities online and they are sharing testimonial information about brands they love with their online friends and family.

All this social media activity is great news for retailers who understand that they can now engage customers (existing and new) via their social media sites on a daily basis. In fact, today’s best in class retailers are now meeting consumers where they are by re-aligning their marketing methods and creating social media strategies that engage, inform and inspire their customers to participate.

So what steps must you make in order to make your retail business more effective with social media marketing today?

1. Strategy first. With social media, it is not a case of “if you build it, they will come.” With social media, you must begin with a strategy that defines your company goals and outcomes for using social media. Ironically, the social media tools are not complex it’s the development of a strategy and finding time to commit to it that sinks many companies starting out.

2. Abolish the fear of transparency. As you seek to engage your customers in your social media activities, you will no doubt receive some critical reviews of your brand. Do not hide behind your cyber walls. Acknowledge your failings in the public forum and try to right the wrongs as best you can.

3. Stand out from the crowd. Yes, you must have a strategy, but don’t forget, we’re talking about marketing here so you must create activities with your social media marketing that create differentiation among your peers and help your customers see the value in your company and brand.

4. Givers gain. Companies must learn that using social media isn’t just about constantly selling your brand. They must learn to have a shared communication with customers and give information that your customers find useful. Think about social media like a cocktail party- if you listen to someone constantly talk about themselves, you are looking for the exits in a hurry, but if they engage in a two way conversation with you, it’s much more interesting and potentially rewarding.

5. Abide by the 40/30/30 rule. Spend 40% of your posts talking about personal matters, 30% of the time sharing store or industry information that your customers would appreciate and THEN- and ONLY then, should you spend 30% of your time directly selling products your store carries. Maintaining this rule will help you build credibility and trust for your brand with your customers.

6. Create Value - it matters to your customers. Make sure you use social media to help your company showcase the value in your brand. It’s not just being there that matters, it’s about delivering value in the eyes of your customers on a consistent basis that separates you from your competitors on a consistent basis.

There is no doubt that using social media can be an effective tool for connecting with consumers of all ages. I know that finding the time to execute social media may be challenging at first, but when you make it a regular part of your marketing program, you will see what a wonderful tool it can be for your business to meet and market to customers on a 24/7 basis!

Where does the time go?

2011-05-11T09:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had a meeting with a client where we were supposed to spend 3 hours brainstorming a marketing strategy for new store grand opening. Instead, we spent the time organizing her schedule. She couldn’t even “think about marketing ideas and strategy" until she had made sure that everything was going to get done on time.

This got me wondering how many of our retail clients and partners are in the same predicament. How cluttered are their minds with day-to-day tasks? And how does this clutter affect the long term strategic planning that business owners must do to insure a successful future for their businesses?

So I’ve decided to create a series of blog posts that will give you information to help organize your time and tasks in order to make you more efficient in your day-to-day business operations. Hopefully, you can use the “extra” time you gain to strategize long-term projects (marketing,operations, social media strategy) that can and will improve the overall performance of your retail business.

Today we start with a tip that can improve your efficiency and help you to create a replicable process to help you achieve all of your daily activities. I’m talking about a to-do list.

Why do I believe creating a well-organized to-do list will improve your businesses’ overall performance? Most importantly, because I believe that creating a to-do list will help the most important person in the business - that’s you - focus on what is important to your business on a daily basis.

When you, as the owner and visionary for your business, define success on a daily basis it will make you focus (with laser precision) on the tasks that are necessary and most relevant for you to achieve optimum performance from your business. Here we offer some quick and easy guidelines to creating, and maintaining a to-do list for your business:

1.Create a final to do list before you go home at night. This will clear your head at the end of every day and insure you remember all the tasks that must get accomplished the following day. (Note: putting your list in plain sight and adding tasks as you remember them all day long will go a long way toward making the end of the day list building much quicker.)

2.Organize your to do list in 3 categories. Allocate time for each priority on your list.
a.High priority – These are the very important tasks and the ones that if not finished, will have the most impact on business operations if not accomplished.
b.Medium priority – While important, these are tasks that must get accomplished on time, but not critical to the bottom profit line of your business.
c.Low priority - These are tasks that are not critical to business operations and bottom line, but none the less need to get accomplished. Think of them as tasks that you would like to get accomplished (if there was enough time in the day) Tasks in this priority are not affixed to a specific weekly or monthly deadline. (These may be great tasks that if left on your list for a few days running, may be candidates to be delegated to another staff member.)

(Note: If anything remains a low priority on your to do list for more than 2 weeks, we suggest you take it off your list. Clearly, it wasn’t important to the future of your business otherwise you would move it up the priority list and make sure you got it done!)

3.When writing your list, check the calendar for future events. What is going on the next day? And in 2-4 days that you need to do work for? (Pre-planning tasks that need to be completed will save everyone in your organization from running around at the last minute to complete it.)

4.Communicate and schedule time in advance. Make sure that you engage all of the necessary participants required to accomplish your task well in advance of your deadline. (If you need your manager, marketing director, or bookkeeper to help you finish the task on your list, you must request their participation in order to make sure you can finish on time.)

If most of these tips seem like common sense, it’s because they are. The key is that you must have the discipline required to set up and to complete to do list on a daily basis. No one can help you meet the goals you set up for your retail business if you don’t start with a good example. So start writing a to do list and start accomplishing the tasks you need to for your business!

Benchmarking your retail performance

2011-05-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

As retailers, we’re always striving to do better. We have previously suggested that benchmarking can help give retailers the unique perspective they need to improve their overall performance. But the question remains, what value can be added to your retail business by benchmarking your performance against other like retail businesses? Here we suggest 4 areas where your retail business can be improved and made more effective from the use of benchmarks.

Sales Effectiveness.By measuring sales, you can determine if your retail business is achieving it’s optimal level of sales on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. Using sales is an obvious measurement tool, but understanding how other retail businesses are performing versus yours can provide some future goals that your business can reach for.

Merchandising Effectiveness. Determining how effective your merchandise assortments are and measuring turnover performance will help maximize your gross profit to it’s fullest potential. Utilizing measurements for like industry businesses can showcase any room for improvement your business can make.

Marketing Effectiveness.Using benchmarks to measure the investment in marketing for your retail business can determine if you are achieving the appropriate level of incremental sales and profit with your marketing dollars. Spending money on marketing activity is critical to your businesses’ long term success, so understanding the return on investment you should expect can give you performance metrics to achieve.

Management Effectiveness. Benchmarks can help you determine if your investments in non-sales generating overhead are appropriate for a business of your size. Recognizing any cost savings that can be achieved or reductions in overhead that are necessary will help improve your overall expenses and improve bottom line profits.

Understanding that benchmarks can measure both internal and external company effectiveness, the next step in setting up a benchmarking practice for your retail business will be to determine what you want to measure. Determining which benchmarks to measure should align with your strategic and operational goals for the business and be appropriate for current stage of your business life cycle. Some possible benchmarks for your business to focus on include:

•Sales Per Transaction
•Customer Conversion Rate
•Sales Per Employee Hour
•Average Inventory Turn
•Average Inventory Shrinkage
•Sales Per Square Foot
•Average Gross Margin Percentage
•Sales Per Marketing Activities
•Sales Per Promotional Investment
•Overhead Percentage Of Sales
•Operating Margin
•Return On Invested Capital
•Sales Per Working Capital Invested

(Note: When gathering comparative benchmarking data, choose the industry figures that best fit your company descriptions. Unless you measure against your own industry standards, you won’t measure your business within the right industry context.)

Setting up a benchmarking process for measuring your business effectiveness can help insure the long-term success. Looking outside the walls of your retail business will help you to gain internal knowledge that can and will lead to improvements in your businesses’ bottom line results.

Are you connecting with today's connected Moms?

2011-04-25T08:44:00.001-05:00

With Mother's day just around the corner, we can't help but think about all the wonderful Moms out there who are customers in our favorite retail stores. For many retailers, women- specifically mother's - are a core customer group. These customers are loyal and are the lifeblood of many retail businesses. Today's Mom customers are also very connected consumers who use the internet to find information about products and services they need.

Whether it's about speicfic features and benefits, pricing, or where to find the products they desire, Moms search the internet 80% of the time for information on brands.So how can you use the internet for your retail business to connect with thesse connected Moms? Here we offer a few examples:

Use social search sites like Yelp to create a testimonials for your business. Think of social search as a word of mouth referral, only bigger - and better - because more people can see it!
Create a You Tube channel for your business. Add videos about specific products you sell, showcasing store events, or run video contests to engage customers with your business.
Use Facebook Advertising to target specific customer groups and products. Facebook ads allow you to target specific locations and key words that make it very effective as a tool to maret your business.
Post on Blogs where your customers participate. Blogs can be a powerful referral tool for any business.
Advertise on relevant blog sites. Engaged bloggers make wonderful customers for your business.
Link blog posts, social media sites and videos in your company newsletters. Make your newsletters social to utilize all the wonderful content you've created across the internet.

Even if you don't use your cany webiste for selling products, there are many places to position your business on the internet today. Keying in on where your connected Mom customers are participating will go a long way toward helping you market your business effectively!

Is your retail business a peak performer?

2011-04-22T09:16:00.001-05:00

As retailers, we’re always striving to do better. Whether we’re looking for more sales, higher profits or better customer service. But do we really understand what doing better means? When we’re “judging” our businesses performance, what are we measuring our success against? And when we measure performance, how do we determine what results should be expected?

The answer is Benchmarking. For some of you, this may be a common occurrence, for others, a new concept that can be a game changer for your business. So, let’s spend some time here trying to explain what benchmarking is and how it can help your retail business profit on a regular basis.

For those who are new to benchmarking, let’s start with a definition. Simply put, benchmarking is the practice of being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at something, and wise enough to learn how to match and even surpass them at it. Benchmarking is a systematic and continuous process of searching, learning, adapting and implementing the best practices from within your own organization, or from other organizations, towards attaining superior performance.

Another way to define benchmarking is as a measured “best-in-class” achievement or a recognized as the standard of excellence for a particular process reference point or a standard against which other performance may be measured against.

There are many different ways to focus your benchmarking efforts within a business. Typically retailers will focus their benchmarking efforts on the review of key business drivers including market share and comparative data on sales and operations. Some examples of benchmarking for a retail business may include:
-Gross margin
-Annual sales per square foot
-Rate of customer complaint
-Annual sales per square foot
-Employee satisfaction rate

So why should retailers understand and utilize benchmarking? Most importantly, improving overall performance with the most up to date information can help any retailer improve their bottom line. Benchmarking can be used to help your retail business determine what optimum performance benchmarks should be from an objective source. These indicators can help your retail business define success more effectively and help you to determine any potential areas of weakness in your business. Benchmarks can also help you create realistic goals for improving your performance that is realistic and achievable. Some key benefits of benchmarking include:

-Understanding world-class industry performance
-Encouraging and stimulating company innovation
-Improving organizational quality
-Creating company buy-in for change
-Exposing employees to new ideas
-Broadening company learning
-Increasing employee satisfaction
-Raising level of potential performance
-Sharing of best practices

Obviously, there are quite a few areas where benchmarking can be applied to your retail business. Determining which benchmarks to measure should align with your strategic and operational goals for the business and be appropriate for current stage of your business life cycle. Then if you uncover opportunities for improvement, they can have the greatest effect on delivering results that align with your overall business objectives.

While benchmarking is not an easy task to undertake, the results can have profound results on your businesses’ bottom line. Is 2011 the year you look outside of your own company walls and utilizing benchmarking to determine if you are truly achieving the success possible from your business?

Your merchandise is NOT like fine wine.......

2011-03-31T09:33:00.001-05:00

Like most retailers, you probably have a consistent strategy in place for pricing products when they come in. But do you have the same consistent strategy in place to review and determine the selling performance of those products? In other words, do you have a markdown strategy in place for slow selling products that is consistently executed in your store? If not, the time to talk markdowns is now. Retailers must develop a process for reviewing sales and determine if markdowns should be taken to move products out of stock. Doing this on a consistent basis is a key component to maximizing your inventory turnover and improving cash flow for your business. Let’s discuss some of the reasons that your business might need to lower the ticketed retail price of merchandise in your store. Price reductions typically come in 3 different categories: 1) There are buying related causes. This is where most stores need to address markdowns. Included in this category are reductions due to assortment errors. There are also timing errors that you didn’t catch such as late shipment or ordering too much. Or perhaps you ordered from a new vendor and you misjudged the quality of the merchandise. Another buying related cause could be a supplier error such as late, damaged or incorrect shipments 2) Another category where markdowns would need to be taken is selling related causes. In essence, the product isn’t selling at the ticketed price to an acceptable level on a weekly basis. A good rule of thumb for retailers to use is a minimum sell thru of 5% weekly during regular selling periods. If the merchandise you are reviewing isn’t selling at least 5% a week that should be a basis for determining to take a markdown. 3) And lastly, there are operational related causes that may require you to take a markdown. These include damaged or dirty merchandise, odd lots or consumer shifts for certain products you carry. Depending on the reason that a markdown needs to be taken, retailers must enact a strategy to finish the liquidation of the distressed product. How much of a reduction to take, and when to take the reduction must be decided. This is THE most critical decision after pricing that happens. When products sell, every retailer wins, but having a strategy for dealing with merchandise that isn’t selling, after everything you have tried (correct pricing, marketing activities) is where retailers can either maintain, or give away their ultimate profits. There is no single right answer for when any retailer should reduce prices in their stores. Whether retailers choose to enact a temporary markdown, or a permanent one, retailers must analyze each product as it relates to their overall pricing strategy. Here are some key factors to look at when reviewing when to take markdowns and how much to take them for: a. Type of merchandise b. Store image c. Length of selling season d. Nature of target customer e. Size of initial markup f. Availability of selling and storage space g. Retailer’s sales promo policies - “mini” sales vs. “big-event” sales As mentioned earlier, a general rule of thumb is that products should sell thru at a Minimum of 5-7% per week. When you get to a 60 percent overall sell thru, you should take a first markdown, usually a 25% reduction. This cycle should generally take 10-12 weeks. If you think about how many times you go to market (2 major markets- and perhaps 2 minor markets in between) this makes sense. Each time you go to market, you are purchasing a ‘season’s worth’ of merchandise, so after 12 weeks, if the merchandise sells well, is typically time to get marked down. If you have slower moving merchandise (a sell thru of less than 2-3% per week) you may want to consider taking a markdown with a greater discount- somewhere between 33-40% off. And you may decide not to wait the entire 10 or 12 weeks. Remember this: Merchandise is NOT like fine wine, it does NOT get better with age. If you customers have “spoken” and they don’t like the products you have chosen, no matter how you have priced them, they will not sell. This leads to a serious lack of cash flow and in some cases, can lead to a lack of new products flowing in because there is no money to pay for them! Remember, a good overall pricing strategy and a coordinating markdown strategy is a key component to your stores ultimate success. Take the time to choose a strategy that aligns with your business goals, and then continue to monitor how the strategy is working on a monthly basis. This effort on your part will go a long way to building your brand as a unique and important store in the marketplace, and one that keeps your customers coming back time and time again.

Are you having fun with your customers?

2011-03-30T09:17:00.000-05:00

Retail tip of the day: Develop in-store events to showcase store personality. Create fun, entertaining environment for your customers to keep them coming back.

Pricing Right Delivers Profitable Results

2011-03-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

As we near the end of our March Madness of Retail tips, today we discuss a topic that is critical to all retailers’ success. Pricing.

While retailers understand that pricing is a necessary component to doing business, many retailers do not fully factor in product pricing as it relates to the store branding, profitability and the long-term success of their business.

When considering how to price products for your business, you need to think about aligning your pricing strategy with your overall business strategy. Choosing the appropriate pricing strategy will insure your business, sales, and profit goals are in alignment.

There are many pricing strategies that retailers employ however; there are three that are typically employed by independent retailers. While some of the methods are simpler to implement than others, there may be unrealized costs associated with using only one for your business.

Keystone Pricing. This is the most common method of internal pricing in retail today. Keystone pricing is simply the doubling of the wholesale cost of any item. (“keystone”)Wholesale ($5) à Retail ($10). Keystone pricing is the simplest method for pricing and one that can be instituted by any and all staff members rather easily based on the invoice costs of any product in the store.

The challenge with employing this as the only method of pricing is that it doesn’t account for all of other costs associated with selling products in your store. (Commonly known as Sales, General and Administrative expenses – SG &A) This can lead to low profit margins and eventually to restricted cash flows as all expenses are not accounted for with this pricing methodology.

Profit Margin Pricing. When using this method for pricing your products, retailers set prices based on helping your business to achieve certain profit margin goals. This method assures that you business will concentrate its pricing efforts around identified profit targets that will help you to meet your business objectives.

While this type of pricing assures that you cover the all the total costs (CGS and all SG & A costs) the argument against with this type of pricing is that many retailers choose products for their store that are widely distributed across numerous selling channels. With prices for any product being readily available on the internet today, retailers cannot randomly determine retail pricing based on their desired profit targets. Doing so may position your store unfavorably in the eyes of the almighty consumer. Customers today are savvier than ever regarding pricing so you can’t over price just to keep your profit margins high without risking losing them to another business nearby.

Discount Pricing. This method of pricing works best for high volume retailers or retailers who sell a high volume on certain products in their stores. This pricing method employs price reductions (temporary or permanent) to stimulate sales activity including incentive pricing such as special introductions, volume discounts, customer loyalty programs, sales affiliate programs.

Note: It is almost impossible to raise your prices on items once you have established low day in day out prices. Customers will expect that your prices remain low. This sets up a lower profit margin for your store on these products which is very difficult to overcome. You also run the risk of positioning your store as lower in quality versus most of your competitors (whether or not it is true).

Remember, a good overall pricing strategy is a key component to your stores ultimate success. Take the time to choose a strategy that aligns with your business goals, and then continue to monitor how the strategy is working on a monthly basis. This effort on your part will go a long way to building your brand as a unique and important store in the marketplace, and one that keeps your customers coming back time and time again.

Who are your partners?

2011-03-27T10:01:00.000-05:00

Retail Tip of the Day: Develop partnerships w/local biz like banks or rest. It's a great way to create loyalty w/your cust by offering them added value from their experience with your store.

Who works at your store?

2011-03-23T10:06:00.006-05:00

I meet lots of retailers every month. In almost every conversation, store staffing comes up because it is such a critical issue. These retailers share stories (some good, some not so good) and usually point to having 2 different types of employees in their store. Which employees do you have working in your store today? Employee #1 looks at the clock longing for quitting time, doesn’t move from behind the register when there are no customers in the store, and has little interest in helping grow/build sales with any customer. Employee #2 is constantly busy doing tasks (some assigned, some on their own) that make the store achieve sales goal faster, make the store cleaner or run more efficiently. This employee is always asking what else can be done to help make the business better. Of course, we’d all like to have a store full of #2 employees all the time because we know that we would have the running smoothly and that sales would be humming along- even if you didn’t go in to the store for weeks on end. So how do you find employees that are constantly engaged with the business and who are looking to make your store the best it can be every time they work? YOU DO. Your leadership and training from the first day they step into the store sets the tone for their success. YOUR training makes the difference. Today we share tips for creating top-notch employees who are as committed to your store’s success as you are 1) Make your employees THE KEY part of your store success. Share overall store goals and missions with all associates every day so they know what is expected. 2) Create a new employee handbook (can be as small as 2-4 pages) Use this book to share goals and expectations from their first day of work. These can be dress codes, hourly sales goals or any departmental responsibilities they have. 3) Lead by example. Be on the floor to show them how to work with customers, teach them to merchandise the selling floor and windows and how to close a sale properly. 4) Have a sales book at the register with financial goals for every day. Make sure every associate knows the goal from the time the store opens. 5) Track sales results during the day. (Or have your manager do it – show that making goal is priority one EVERY day.) 6) Let your employees know that they must be creative and deliver contingency plans if sales are not trending toward daily goals- empower them to do small things to boost sales in the middle of the day. 7) Announce sales results daily. Praise associates for making goals, work on re-strategizing if sales are down to plan. 8) Give every associate an area of responsibility in the store. Wiping shelves in a certain department, cleaning cash wrap, front door or windows. Everyone is responsible for how the store looks. Not just you. (Rotate tasks if some are more tedious than others.) These are just a few tips to get your associates on board for your stores success. They are not the only ones. Share with us what you do to keep your associates motivated and delivering results. We’d love to hear.

Blog your way to new retail customers today

2011-03-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

As we wind our way thru our March Marketing madness, we continue with todays' the retail tip of the day. Today we offer up a powerful communication tool for your retail business. The blog. Think of a blog as an online journal where thoughts are communicated and comments are posted by readers. It's like an online conversation. Through blogging, you can engage key audiences directly in fast, honest, conversations and while setting up a blog does have an initial time investment, it can be very effective for your business- no matter what size it is!

Why should your business create and keep a blog in it's marketing cache?

A blog is a place where you can share information with customers very quickly. You can also use a blog to generate interest with potential customers and even future employees. By writing a blog on behalf of yourself or your busiess, you can demonstrate your passion and more importantly, your knowledge and expertise on behalf of your business.
Blogs can help market new products, services or events you have going on at your store on a regular basis.
And one of the most important aspects of keeping a blog for your business is that you show the readers the personality of your business. Today, retail is entertainment for many customers, and using a blog to showcase the personality of your store can have customers and potentail customers lining up to see what you have to offer.
Maintaining an effective blog with effective inbound and outbound links can naturally help improve your search engine ranking

Note of caution: Blogging isn’t right for every store, so it’s consider your objectives and your target audiences carefully before beginning the endeavor. If you decide you've got information that your customers are looking for, and that you have the time to write and coordinate the blog (or the employees who can help you maintain the blog) then by all means, add it to your marketing tool box. A blog can be a powerful and effective tool to help your retail business prosper.

All Aboard The Social Media Train....

2011-03-15T08:13:00.001-05:00

Congratulations. You've decided that March 2011 is the year you're going to embrace social media and start using it to help your business grow. That's perfect because today's retail tip of the day can help you understand what your challenges might be (or should we call them opportunities to overcome) as you look to implement usage of social media for your business.

1.Strategy first. Using Social media is not a case of build it and they will come. As with any marketing endeavor, you must begin with a strategy that defines your company goals and outcomes. Ironically, the social media tools are not complex however it’s developing the strategy and finding time to commit to it that sinks many companies starting out. Don’t let this happen to your company.

2. Abolish the fear of transparency. Anyone who has joined CBCG for a seminar knows we believe that this one is key to your success. As you seek to engage your customers in your social media activities, you may also receive some critical reviews of your brand. Do not hide behind your cyber walls. Acknowledge your failings in the public forum and try to right the wrongs as best you can. You may not ever completely resolve the disgruntled voice, but those who see the interactions and how you are trying to correct the situation will be most pleased with your words.

3. Stand out from the crowd. Yes, you must have a strategy, but don’t forget, we’re talking about marketing here so you must create activities with your social media marketing that create differentiation among your peers and help your customers see the value in your company and brand!

4. Givers gain. Companies must learn that using social media isn’t just about constantly selling your brand. They must learn to have a shared communication with customers and give information that your customers find useful. Think about a cocktail party- if you listen to someone constantly talk about themselves, you are looking for the exits in a hurry, but if they engage in a two way conversation with you, it’s much more interesting and potentially rewarding.

5.Create Value. It matters to your customers. Make sure you use social media to help your company showcase the value in your brand. It’s not just being there that matters, it’s about delivering value in the eyes of your customers on a consistent basis that separates you from your competitors on a consistent basis.

Knowing the pitfalls can help you as you look to navigate the social media waters. Don't forget the advisors we mentioned last week who can also help you stay focused by offering information, education and inspiration on a daily basis thru their writings.

Do you have a retail social media strategy?

2011-03-14T09:16:00.001-05:00

In today's retail tip of the day, we want to help you create a working social media marketing plan for your business. Like any good marketing plan, a social media marketing strategy also requires planning, preparation and the right tools, but if you have a well defined plan, you can focus your time to help produce maximum marketing effectiveness for your business.

Where should you be? The first thing you must do is to decide where you should concentrate your social media efforts. For most retailers today, creating a Facebook Fan page is a good place to start. This will give you access to more than 600 million potential people-- both around the world, and around the corner from your retail store. If however, your business targets a very young audience, perhaps using videos on You Tube and using location based marketing programs such as Foursquare or Gowalla would be a good choice.

Remember, the right answer may be to participate in more than one place on social media at a time and have different messages running to attract different audiences on those media sites. You will have to create specific messages for each media to insure they hit the correct target audiences needs.

What is our company goal using social media? Once you decide where to be, then you must decide what your goals are and determine how to measure those goals. Your social media goals should be tied to your overall business goals? Ie. Do you want more market share for your business? Then your social media goal should be to gain follwers who may then turn into potential customers for the business.

Warning: Many retailers plan a sales increase as their "goal" for using social media. This can be risky. If you focus your efforts on creating mini advertisements all the time and do not work to engage your audience, you run the risk of turning them away from your business permanently. Build credibility and trust first. Then, and only, then, talk about your products in a selling manor.

What will we say about/for our business using social media?

Think of social media sites as another extension of your store selling floor. No matter what social media tools you choose to use, each one offers a chance to engage with customers in a venue that is their choice. (Remember, the reason social media is such a powerful marketing tool is that your customers find YOU there andthey seek to find more information about YOUR store. Unlike the old days of marketing where you placed a message and hoped they found the ad where you placed it!) If you have a brick and mortar loation, and you are using social media correctly, your customers should get the same feeling when engaging with you online. So if you're funny in the store, you should show that same personality on Facebook or Twitter or your blog.

The goal is to share information, gain the trust and credibility of your followers and to engage them further with your brand to establish or maintain their loyalty.

A good rule of thumb for posts (what to say) is the 40/30/30 rule. Spend 40% of your time sharing "personal" type information with followers. No, not your street address, but things like market trips, events in town, employee birthdays, customers of the week, etc. Your goal in this phase is to make yourself and your store human so you can build trust.

The next 30% of posts should be about sharing information. This is where you share knowledge- or share other industry experts knowledge with your fans/followers. This establishes that you are credible in your industry and you are doing them a favor by culling all relevant industry information for them. Even if you haven't written the article, your fans will appreciate that you saved them time and found them valuable, interesting information.

Then finally after credibly and trust are established, you can talk (ie.sell) for your business in the final 30% of your posts. If you've done the first two phases well, they will be engaged and want to learn more about the products you sell, the events you are having, etc. While it may seem like a long time to get to the sales aspect of the business, think about when a customer walks in the front door. You never start out by saying "Can ring that up for you when they walk by the first table or rack, right?" It's the same with social media. Start with "small talk" then build to the sale!

How will I measure the results of my time and effort on social media? After spending your time and energy (the good news with social media is that there are less dollars spent than with traditional marketing mediums, but there is the time factor involved) you want to measure results against factors that will drive your bottom line. With every social media site you use, there are analytics that can help you measure your results. Some of them are shown in overall numbers such as the total number of fans, followers or blog readers you have. If you grow these numbers, than you know that more potential customers are following your business.

The next set of analytics involve the content that you publish. In essence, the more views, posts, or people commenting back, mean that your information caught their attention and you have successfully '"engaged" your audience. That is your goal!! Some potential measurement tools for you to review on a regular basis include the number of video or other content views, volume of user comments posted to your blog or fan page, number of re-tweets of your content.

Social media is a fun, engaging, low cost marketing tool which can and should be part of any retailers marketing program today. The key is to create a strategy that ties to the overall goals of your business and engages your followers with your brand on a regular basis.

Turn your inventory into Gold

2011-03-10T10:37:00.001-05:00

Our retail tip of the day today focuses on inventory. It is usually the largest expense that any small business has and yet many retailers do not plan a through purchasing process to maximize the usage of dollars associated with inventory. To maximize your inventory turnover and reduce unnecessary expense on inventory, you must have a plan.

There are many options for you to choose from. If you're a long term retailer, perhaps you've got an inventory purchase system that works for you. Wonderful. Make sure you keep updating your system and checking your stores' overall performance against the key industry benchmarks that are available. The systems out there today keep improving overall performance of inventory- and you should be pushing your store to as well.

For those of you who are new to retail, or for those that haven't done any purchase planning to date, why not think about having a retail professional help you to set up an OTB plan for your business that will deliver proven results. He/She can help you find the best way to maximize your inventory you do have and not spend too much of your hard earned money on wasted inventory! If you find the right person, their professional advice will pay off almost immediately.

Specialists in inventory planning and open to buy management have had years of experience and can understand even the most subtle nuances of your business. They can translate even the slightest trend data and give you sound recommendations on how to maximize the opportunity at the same time cautioning your progress so you don't spend too much. A professionally managed otb can also help to:

Increase Sales - consistently maximize all key inventory contributors

Drive Profits - minimize inventory investment; increase inventory turnover

Enhance Overall Product Mark Up - utilize key retail industry benchmarks to improve mark up and gross margin targets

Improve Cash Flow – optimize inventory investment freeing cash flow for debt reduction

Improve Productivity Of Store Management – shift time spent on inventory management to building long term strategic sales and marketing efforts

Create A Proactive Emphasis On Inventory – interpret selling data for future purchase planning decesions

Gain Access To An Expert - an experienced, independent and objective perspective resulting in candid recommendations and action plans

Should you hire a professional for your otb services, some of the following outcomes are possible:

Sales Growth Typical sales improvements are between 2-5% annually – based on a $500,000 business, that’s an additional $ 25,000 in sales in one year!

Gross Margin And Profit Enhancement Typical gross margin improvement ranges between 0.5% and 1.0% within the first year - based on a $500,000 business this improvement alone would cover the expenses of running the otb program.

Inventory Investment Reductions Professional OTB management typically leads to inventory reductions of 8% -13% of average stock while simultaneously increasing sales - as the owner of the business, this adds additional money back into your pocket - almost immediately.

Whatever you decide, your own system, or hired professional, make sure you set plans and goals for your inventory performance. Every business can and should continually look to improve it's turnover, sales and profit performance.

Want to talk to a CBCG team member about OTB services?  Contact us today to learn more.

2011-03-07T09:31:00.001-05:00

We're one week in to our March Madness Retail Tip of the Day series. Thank you for all the feedback and for your particpation. Keep the comments coming! CBCG wants to give you as many resources as we can to help your retail business prosper. For today's retail tip, we offer a list of additional resources where you can go to look to for answers that can help you and your business. The list is just the tip of the iceberg, but we find the people listed have great insights and they help us to help you even more with their wisdom and knowledge! Enjoy!

Social Media:

Mari Smith - Facebook Guru/Expert who can simplify even the toughest new editions to the program

Chris Brogran - Author of Trust Agents, great writer on the how's/why's of Social Media

Marketing/PR:

Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch has lots of insights and information to help any size business

Seth Godin - Author of the Purple Cow. Thought leader on marketing and consumers

Helpareporter.com 3x daily newsletter where writers are looking for subject matter experts to comment for their articles. Want to get your store in the press more often? Sign up today for this great newsletter.

Retail Industry Websites/Blogs:

CBCG Retail Report (we certainly think this one is helpful, it's ours!)

National Retail Federation (NRF) - free daily newsletter gives you quick pulse of broad range of retail industry

MarketingProfs - Subscription based service that has numerous articles/white papers/seminars across every subject area

TopRank Online Marketing Blog- written by Lee Odden This one is all about blogs. From every angle. All the time.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. There are a variety of resources at your disposal to help you with your retail business! We're all here to assist you as you grow your sales and profits!

Is Your Retail Business Social?

2011-03-02T09:10:00.004-05:00

1. Social Media is great for businesses of all size. Using social media, small and medium-sized businesses can create marketing campaigns that are able reach large numbers of potential customers but at a fraction of the cost. However, Social Media is not a silver bullet. It must be integrated into an overall marketing campaign and deliver a message that supports the brand and that is focused on achieving a business goal. Note: The costs in dollars for social media may be low, but the cost incurred may be a steep one. Its time. You (or your employees) must be willing to commit the time to social media to achieve the results you desire.

2.Listen and you shall hear. Using social media is a great way to listen and communicate what your prospects and customers are saying about your business. Listening to the online chatter for your brand is critical at all times. Not only can you hear good news and nice things being said in real time to share with other prospects or customers, but you can also deal with potential unsatisfied customers in as timely a manner that can go a long way putting out a fire before it becomes an inferno. 3. Social media can dramatically influence buying decisions. In the past, customers looked for product feedback from trusted friends and influencers. Today, consumers take to the internet seeking online opinions – and as we mentioned earlier – many times from people they have actually never come face to face with. But don’t be fooled, the recommendations of “strangers” can have as dramatic affect on purchasing decisions as a referral from their own brother or neighbor.

4. The More the Merrier. Through social media, businesses can reach a significantly larger pool of potential customers. And while many companies might not be able to increase their physical space, they can afford to increase their online “space” to reach new markets and thus new customers all the time.

5. Social Media creates effective WOM (Word of Mouth) strategies– As we know from traditional marketing approaches, satisfied customers are more than happy to give referrals for a job well done or products they love. Creating a process which uses social media to spread word of mouth referrals for your business can deliver your referral efforts both farther and faster (upwards of 1000 fold more people!) than your current traditional WOM campaigns. That alone is worth the time and effort for your business to use social media!

Need more reasons to use social media for business? Email me directly. I've got to convince you about this powerful marketing tool that can and will help your business grow.

March Marketing Madness Starts NOW...

2011-03-01T08:52:00.001-05:00

Today is March 1. It's the start to March Marketing Madness. Every day this month, you'll get tips on all things retail that can help your business grow. Some quick lessons (as in less than 140 characters worth on Twitter) or some longer posts on topics that need more attention for your business.

Make sure to join the CBCG Fan Page or follow us on Twitter as that's where the tips will come. We'll also be offering long tips and articles on our CBCG Retail Report blog so check back often. Let's have fun with the tips and most of all, we hope you learn some tips and tactics that you can use for your retail business.

And don't forget to let us know how we're doing- and what you want to see. We'll add as much content as we can to help you and your business.

So here we go.. The Tuesday Retail Tip of the day is:

Review store selling every week. Determine best sellers to re-order and slow movers that must be liquidated on a regular basis so that your inventory is fresh at all time. As inventory is the biggest expense many retailers have, you must take the time to review what is working and what isn't on a weekly basis so you can make adjustments going forward. Slow moving inventory is one of the largest challenges small businesses have. It hurts cash flow as you've already paid for the merchandise, yet it is sitting on the shelves unsold. By creating a strategy to liquidate these slow sellers, you can free up cash to bring in more of what you have identified as a best seller and to try some new items that your customers might like better. Run a selling report today and see what it says! You might be surprised.

Does Your Marketing Drive You Mad?

2011-02-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

It's time for the annual March madness basketball tournament to begin and it's got us thinking about the madness that is everyday retail. While many of us have come to appreciate the constant activity that comes from being a retailer, I can't help but think of a day when there are processes and programs in place in every store that will make it run more smoothly and effectively.

To help with that effort, CBCG is going to post a retail tip of the day every day this March. Our goal is to share retail tips that can help you and your business prosper and be more productive on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. During the month, follow CBCG on our blog or our social media sites as we offer ways -both little (as in less than 140 characters on Twitter or Facebook) or big (longer detailed blog posts) that can help you improve the inner workings of your retail business for a long time to come.

We're going to start with tips on marketing and inventory planning and how you can make them both more effective to gain profitability for your business. Let us know if there are other areas you want us to cover. With 25 years experience, we've seen a lot of things and have lots of tips to offer~

Our first tip comes on Tuesday March 1 so be ready for it. Join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to make sure you get your daily tips.

And please, don't forget to comment on our tips if you have suggestions on how to make them work even better. We'll all get better if we share amongst ourselves.

Are you out- foxing your competition with your marketing efforts?

2011-02-10T16:59:00.002-05:00

Phew. I'm finally back on my home turf after spending the majority of the month of January speaking at trade shows across the world-- literally. I love gettting to spend time with retailers from every walk of life and learn about their businesses and all the good associated with owning a retail endeavor. But the one thing that never ceases to amaze me is when retailers tell me -again and again- that don't do marketing on a regular basis. What?

I know the economy is challenging, and that marketing budgets are slim,but you must continue to find low-cost or no cost ways to engage with your customers on a regular basis-or your competitors will! With so many tools available today to connect with customers affordably and effectively, you must put together a marketing program that will reach customers where they are watching.

Within any given month, here are 5 different ways to connect with your customers-mix them up,create a schedule that works for your business and start marketing on a regular basis today!

Facebook Fan Page. Simply put, you have to be here for your business on a regular basis. With over 500 million users, many of your customers and potential customers are on Facbook- and your business should be too!
Email marketing For many of you, this tool has become an effective way to reach customers. While social media is the darling of marketers (and highly effective) you can't abandon email all together. You can however include inks articles and information that is found on your social media sites to introduce those marketing tools.
You Tube Video Millions of videos are viewed and uploaded every day. This powerful tool offers a unique way for retailers to share information, education and store personality- all in 10 minutes or less! ( But don't go more than 3-4 min per video-folks get bored)
Blogging Writing short articles like this on topics relevant and interesting to both existing and new customers can highlight your knowledge and help build trust and credibility for your business.
In Store events. I bet you thought we'd leave out traditional marketing tools based on the emergence of social media. Wrong. Creating in-store events that bring like-minded customers together will drive sales and raise awareness for your business. (And look at all the tools above as places where you can promote your events)

Now that you've got some tools, it's time to mix them up,create a schedule that works for your business and start marketing on a regular basis today!

Lynn Switanowski is the founder of CBCG a retail consulting firm which helps retailers of all size to create and develop effective marketing and social media strategies. Contact CBCG at info@cbc-group.net

42 Ways Retailers Can Improve Their Presence on Social Media

2011-01-30T13:38:00.005-05:00

We've just returned from presenting social media seminars at some of our favorite trade shows. Retailers attended the sessions in large numbers as they were looking for tips and tactics on how to create social media strategies for their businesses in 2011. Based on the excitement and energy from the sessions, I can't wait to see the exciting ways that retailers will engage customers using Facebook, Twitter and so many other social media tools this year!

Whether it was the San Francisco Gift show, Philadelphia Gift Show, or the Snow Show in Denver, we were constantly getting asked about how to improve engagement and performance using social media. With all this interest in learning how to create the right type of engagement, we thought we'd repost our 42 tips on how to improve your social media presence. We hope you find it helpful.

1. Be Remarkable - Somebody Worth Making A Remark About
2. Sharing is Caring. Become A Trusted Resource for your Fans and Followers
3. Have Your Own Unique Brand Personality
4. Be Vocal And Opinionated – Politely, of course - Within The Community
5. Don’t Flood Followers With Requests. Follower Fatigue is Not What you Want!
6. Invest Time Into Social Media – Have A Strategy And Stick To It!
7. Produce And Share Content That YOUR AUDIENCE Will Love
8. Listen To What’s Being Said. Monitor Constantly. Respond Regularly
9. Become A Real Member Of The Community
10. Ask and Answer Questions - constantly
11. Provide Value To The Community
12. Get People Thinking- And Talking. Be Controversial when Appropriate.
13. Create Your Own Voice. Me Too doesn't Work in Social Media.
14. Contribute Regularly. Schedule Posts If Neccessary To Remain Present.
15. Don’t Be Negative—Or A Jerk. Neither One Works In Social Media.
16. Make It Easy For People To Share And Bookmark Your Content
17. Listen To The Community
18. Make At Least One New Connection Every Day
19. Engage Yourself In Conversations
20. Become The Conversation
21. You’re There To Make Relationships, Not Hard Selling
22. Take Time To Focus On Building A Loyal Following
23. Give, Give, GIVE!
24. Treat Social Media Like A Cocktail Party
25. Be Supportive
26. Syndicate Your Content Across All Social Media Platforms
27. Encourage Others To Syndicate Your Content Onto Their Sites
28. Fully Research The Community To Understand Your Market
29. Be Fun
30. Get To Know The Unwritten Laws Of The Community
31. Create An Attractive, Unique And Professional Profile
32. Use A Cool Avatar/Picture
33. Use The Same Avatar For Each Social Media Service
34. Don’t Disparage Others ( No Trash Talking Allowed)
35. Know What Your Followers/Friends Want And Give It To Them
36. Form Reciprocal Arrangements With Others
37. Monitor Your Noise Level
38. Never Cheat The System
39. Help Others Unconditionally
40. Be Yourself
41. Gain Credibility. Establish Trust.
42. START TODAY

There are certainly more ways than we have time to list, but we hope it's a start. If you have others, please leave a comment and tell us how you are successfully engaging your customers. (and don't forget to leave us your fan page or twitter address so we can follow you too!)

Revitalize Your Retail Business in 2011

2011-01-03T09:19:00.001-05:00

For most retailers I have talked to, 2010 ended with a healthy December sales trend that will add some much needed profits to the coffers this year. Signs point to this upward trend continuing into 2011 for retailers across many product categories. We look forward to the positive momentum continuing and for 2011 to be the year where retailers return to strong sales and profits all year long.

But what if the year didn't end with a bang, but instead, finished with a wimper? What are you going to do differently for your business in 2011 that will garner different results all year long? As we end 2010 and head into a new year where you have another 365 days to make all things possible for your retail business, CBCG offers up 5 ways to revitalize your retail business - and yourself in early 2011~

Make time for a strategy day. Take 1 FULL Day AWAY from your business early in the year to sit down and PLAN the coming year. Take yourself and any staff you think are needed to help you think strategically about your business. No phones, no customers, just the focused effort that your business deserves as you head into a new year. Think about marketing, staffing, sales goals and products you want to add or get rid of this year. Remember the 5 P 's of EVERY successful business: Prior Proper Planning Produces Profits for all!
Talk to the best. Choose 10 of your best customers and ask them to tell you what your businesses' biggest shortcomings are. These are people that love your business (and probably shop frequently) They are not fleeting and won't stop shopping (even if they think you can do some things better) Most importantly- they will give you honest feedback. Assuming these big spenders are like your typical average customer, asking them for ways to make the business even better will certainly help your business in 2011 - and well beyond!
Get SOCIAL If you haven't started a social media program for your retail business, 2011 is MOST DEFINITELY the time to start. It's no longer IF you should engage customers with these powerful tools, but HOW OFTEN. If you are already using social media, set goals for your programs. How often will you participate? What types of programs will you run? How will you engage customers regularly with your programs? As with any marketing program, if you are spending time using social media, you need to establish goals and you need to be accountable toward making them!
Go to school. Take some classes that can help you and your business grow in 2011. Need to know more about marketing and using social media? Attend a trade show seminar or a local business seminar on the topic. Are your lack of computer skills holding your business back? Find sessions that can give you tips and the tools you need to make your business prosper. Don't let your lack of knowledge (or your staff) hold your business back in 2011.
Take a break. You must find a way to take a short vacation (or long one) early in the year. Time away from your business will help you recharge your batteries and will allow you to see the big picture even better. Extend your trade show trips one day - or take a long weekend somewhere. The additional energy you will have when you return will do great things for your business in 2011!

Do you have other ways you plan on revitalizing your retail business in 2011? Drop us a line and let us know. We'll make sure to share! lynn@cbc-group.net

We wish all of our retail partners the best of luck in 2011! We hope you go out and make it a spectacular year. We'll be here along the way to cheer you on with ideas and solutions to your retail problems.

Lynn Switanowski and the CBCG Team.

2010-09-22T15:41:00.001-05:00

It's all about balance of content on facebook. Read FB guru @marismith view on things...http://bit.ly/cZnmYQ for another opinion (we agree!)

Time to get Time on Your Side

2010-09-15T08:34:00.001-05:00

Start by making time to read this! @retailhelper offers 42 Social Media Tips To help retailers everywhere improve their social media presence - http://bit.ly/ar7si6

Social Media in One Hour A Day

2010-08-09T09:13:00.028-05:00

Overwhelmed with social media demands? Unclear where to invest your time? Ill informed about the tools that can help? Social media management requires planning, preparation and the right tools, otherwise the demands of social media involvement can consume too much of your most important business resources.....you!

Step I: Decide Where To Concentrate Your Efforts

You can’t be everywhere at once – start slowly and build
The most frequented social media sites are, in order: facebook, twitter, youtube, linkedin, wikipedia, flickr and blogs - after pinpointing the best networks, spend time developing a working understanding of each (E.G., What it’s about, its features and how users interact within the space)
Learn best practices from industry experts
Before starting, be sure to secure your brand’s username on each site and check to make sure no one else is illegitimately representing your organization
A simple search on google ornamechk (http://namechk.Com/) will tell you if your preferred username is available

Step II: Define Objectives and Strategy – Establish Quantifiable Goals

What are you looking to get out of this investment today and in the future? What steps do you need to take to make it happen? Consider how to:

Expand brand or product awareness: how you will get your brand name out there (advertising, promotion, integration with other media, blogger outreach, and initiation of peer sharing and user-generated content campaigns, etc.)
Build community: how you will attract fans (awareness building, advertising, promoting, appealing to a specific target audience, etc.) and keep them engaged (tailored content plans, tone, frequency and types of interactions, special offers and activities, etc.
Engage qualify fans and convert them to customers: how you will solicit information from users (surveys, contests, facebook applications, conversation starters, measured content views, data mining and analytics, etc.) and use that insight to further the relationship (sales team involvement, product sampling, boosting the one-to-one nature of the conversation, etc.)
Improve customer satisfaction: how you plan to offer exceptional service and support, and how you will go above and beyond their expectations

Step III: Measure Your Efforts Against Factors That Impact The Bottom Line

Number of fans, followers, readers (or number of high-quality/targeted fans)
Number of video or other content views
Volume of user comments posted to your blog, profile or posted content
Retweet or peer-sharing statistics for related content and posts
Comment or retweet resonation (number of user comments multiplied by how many followers or friends each user has)
Engagement (duration of video views, time spent on your blog site, time spent playing your branded game application, etc.)
Media coverage
Media impressions (mentions on blogs or other media multiplied by the size of the audience)
Advertising click-through rates
Company website traffic statistics
Quantity of new qualified leads or sales
Volume of customer service issues handled.

Step IV: Research Available Tools - Select The Appropriate Ones Based On The Task At Hand

Listening - use tweetdeck, google alerts
Networking - use seesmic desktop,plaxo
Publishing - use friendfeed, social oomph, twit pic, tiny url, tweetbeep, mobile twitter, ping fm
Sharing - use stumble upon, del.icio.us, digg

Stay informed; social media constantly changes - continuous learning will enhance your success

Foursquare - The Next Twitter??????

2010-08-06T11:58:00.026-05:00

Who is the Mayor of your store?

There is a new tool gaining momentum with mobile shoppers; it's called Foursquare. Do you want to dramatically increase store visits and customer loyalty? Looking for ways to inexpensively but effectively build your brand? If you're still playing catch-up on the usage of Facebook and Twitter to drive sales, Foursquare may be exponentially more productive. Get on the trend early and maximize the impact of Foursquare on your business...before your competition beats you to the punch and your potential customers.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking service, used mostly on smartphones. The idea is that people "check-in" to venues they're at (restaurants, bars, stores, etc.) which lets their friends keep track of where they're hanging out. Essentially, Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so. If you check-in the most to a particular venue, you become the "Mayor" - although someone else can become mayor if you neglect your venue; wouldn't that be a great concept in real world public service? There's also a game involved, where users earn points for their activity and unlock "badges."

Foursquare is in a position to be a boon for businesses. In the same way that savvy business owners have utilized the Yelp community to promote and encourage reviews, they can tap into Foursquare check-ins to get people talking about their establishment and rewarding them for their patronage.

As a business owner, you can also use Foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with Foursquare "Specials". When they check in on Foursquare at your venue reward your loyal customers. Give the current Mayor of your venue extra attention to encourage others to want to be Mayor.

What if you owned a bar. You could put up signs indicating that the Foursquare Mayor drinks for free. Imagine how the competitive elements of the game could manufacture a social contest like no other. You would get intense mayoral races, which means more frequent check-ins, and a bunch of free online exposure. The occasional free drink would be a pretty inexpensive marketing investment for all that exposure.

Foursquare has developed an easy to use toolkit that allows you to set up specials:

Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. Who's the Mayor? It's your single most loyal customer! (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)("Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free order of french fries!")
Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.("Foursquare says you've been here 10 times? That's a free drink for you!")
Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins.("Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!")
Wildcard Specials: always unlocked, but your staff has to verify some extra conditions before awarding the Special.("Show us your foursquare Swarm badge and get a free drink!")

Seriously....remember the early days of Twitter when everyone mocked it. The early adopters really got Twitter, tweeted their enthusiasm, took to their blogs to evangelize the benefits of Twitter, and started to break down why it would be a game changer. The majority laughed and/or misunderstood - “why would I want to share or read mundane information about myself on the web. What pointless drivel.”

But Twitter didn't go away. It gained momentum. One by one more and more people started to tweet, started to figure out for themselves why it was important, and then repeat the same cycle as the early adopters before them. The media was initially quick to judge. Full of fantastic puns, and naysayers, until they started to use it and figure it out too. Long story short, Twitter, as simple as it is, was (and to some extent still is) misunderstood - but enormously popular.

Foursquare today is very much in the same boat as Twitter was a couple of years ago. The early adopters have started to utilize it, but for the most part it remains a service completely misunderstood, and even mocked from time to time. But here’s the thing, it is starting to catch on and people are starting to sit up take notice, and actually use it. Maybe it's time you did too! It might be great for your business. Maybe I could be Mayor!!!

2010-08-03T12:36:00.001-05:00

Are you struggling with how to write good blog posts? Does it take you forever to get your "creative juices" flowing? I know how you feel. But I just read this great post from www.socialmediaexaminer.com about writing a GREAT post in 15 minutes.

I HAD to share it. These guys know what they're talking about.

Read on and start writing!!! http://bit.ly/cfSR0T

Saving Pennies can help save the day......

2010-06-14T18:00:00.000-05:00

The retail outlook continues to remain challenging as we look toward the balance of 2010. While the economic recovery that started this year hasn't quite materialized the way most pundits expected, that does not mean that it has to be all doom and gloom for your retail business.

By continually assesing your business goals and objectives, and aligning your customer needs as priority one, you can and will survive this economic downturn.

Just as importantly, you must continue to assess your business expenses and look to trim wherever and whenever possible. As we continue with our mid-year business review process, review the following areas to determine if there are any additional savings to be had.

Cost of Goods Sold. Can you negotiate with suppliers for discounts based on year to date purchases or other shipping programs? Do you ask for allowances from vendors for past date cancellation orders, or orders shipped outside of the start/stop order dates?

Marketing. Analyze where your optimal return on investment occurs, proactively seek out deals from channel partners and request support from your product suppliers - they all have a vested interest in your success. Have you shifted your allocation of resources to more cost effective means in 2010? Can you expect to produce the same savings in the second half of the year?

Payroll. Assess training and development requirements and delay/eliminate where possible, increase the utilization of more productive sales staff and contingency plan for deferred bonuses

Technology. Re-assess near term capital expenditures to ensure adequate payback hurdles and make due with current non-sales critical assets

Rent. Assess the real estate market, gather data and speak to your landlord about reductions in rent

Banking and Credit Card Fees. Consider incentives to generate cash sales and negotiate with your banker and credit card processing companies for reductions in all fees

By throughly reviewing the expenses that you do have, and looking at the areas where you can negotiate more effectively with suppliers, I'm confident you can save quite a few more pennies before the end of 2010!

My Tank Gets 30 MPG - Is That Good?

2010-06-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

If I told you my vehicle delivered 30 miles per gallon would you say that was fantastic, average or awful? In order to answer that question you would need to know several key facts. Am I talking about a Vespa or a Hummer? What do cars like mine get for average MPG? What type of gas mileage did I plan to get with my car? Without considering these factors, answering the question would be premature and would have no frame of reference.

As with the car mpg, many retailers deliver marketing programs yet they have no idea about what results they can or should expect to deliver. In essences, there is no goal setting, thus no frame of reference for the results that are achieved. Are the results good? Did I use my resources (time and money) effectively on this marketing program?

Best practice retailers know that performance assessment on all marketing activity must be done to determine their ultimate effectiveness. If you haven't quite got in that habit yet for your business, June is just the time to review how your marketing plans are performing so far this year. Take a piece of paper and ask yourself the following questions related to your marketing events thus far in 2010:

How much money and resources did we invest in each marketing activity?

Did we implement this activity optimally?

How much incremental sales were driven by the marketing activity?

How many new customers were generated by the marketing activity?

Did my in-store staff capitalize on all the opportunities created by this activity?

How much new customer information was generated for the customer relationship management system?

Did the activity deliver new insights into customer needs that can be used to increase profits or market share in the future?

Did this activity contribute to long term customer loyalty and subsequent repeat sales?

How effective was each marketing activity relative to each other?

What are the industry leading benchmarks for these activities?

Answers to the above questions can help answer questions about yor marketing planning, effectiveness and about how your business is at implementing programs. If you don't like some of the answers you gave, or frankly, don't know enough because you didn't set objectives for the marketing activity you did deliver, now is the perfect time to re-tool and plan better for the balance of 2010. If necessary, get key stakeholders in the organization involved to help you maximize your success.

Keep in mind that successful marketing for your business is linked to overall goals and objectives that can and should be tied to industry benchmarks for success. After all, a tank isn't designed to perform like a scooter either. Don't let your marketing programs perform like a tank this year.

Is Your Marketing Hitting the Mark in 2010?

2010-06-14T07:19:00.017-05:00

Retail 101-Marketing IS essential for a retailer to effectively communicate with its customers in order to sell more AND to make more profit. Marketing is the key to manage your businesses' reputation, to maximize the flow and liquidation of of inventory and to launch new brands and intiatives that will catapult your store to it's next level of success. So the question we ask today is how are you managing this most critical element of your businesses success thus far in 2010?

As we approach the mid way point of the year, now is a great time to revisit your annual marketing plan and to consider if you're getting the results you anticipated from the marketing plans set forth for your business. It's time to ask yourself these tough questions to determine if the plan needs to be refined for the second half of 2010.

Question #1: Do you target the right customers? Although many retailers "think" they know their customers, in many instances this is not the case. Customers continue to evolve and are more sophisticated every day. It's ok to acknowlege that not everyone may want your products, but it's critical to focus on the ones that do, and to find ways to "meet" new customers who want your products, but just haven't been introduced to your store yet!

Question #2: Do you understand your customers' needs? The biggest element of marketing is to understand what your customers - and potential customers - actually want. With so many tools available to survey customers today, it must be a part of your marketing efforts to check in periodically and make sure your product assortment is hitting the mark. Simply put, if you make mistakes in the inventory arena and you purchase products people don't want - and your sales will be minimal resulting in higher than expected markdowns- to say nothing of the disappointment your customers will experience by not finding what they really want.

Question #3: Do your potential customers know about your store? So you know what your customers want and you have stocked your shelves with the perfect selection of products, but ensuring your customers and prospects know about it remains the critical communication piece to your ultimate retail success. Many retailers use the wrong communication channels and fail to let their target audience know that the products they want are available in their store. Make sure you are speaking to your customers where they are actually listening. ie. Are your customers using social media sites like Facebook, You Tube and Twitter, but you're not communicating with them in these venues? It's a missed opportunity for your business!

Question #4: Do you communicate effectively with your target audience? The actual words you use in your marketing messages are crucial. Not just what you write, but the way your write them. Everyone knows that only benefits sell and not features - but extracting the benefits that are going to turn your prospects into paying customers is perhaps the hardest part of marketing. Reconsider the message you are sending to customers and what your "call to action" incents your customers to do and to drive store visits and ultimately sales.

Question #5: Are your projections too ambitious? Everyone thinks their new products will fly off the shelves, but in reality this is rarely the case. Your marketing plan (and inventory strategy) should show a realistic path to profitability that aligns your actual revenues and profits with your written plan. Analyze your financial plans, or have a trusted advisor review them, to determine how realistic they are and what adjustments may be required.

A thorough analysis on the first half of the year's marketing plan and its results will ensure that the second half of 2010 is more productive. Marketing planning is not a static activity. It requires careful monitoring and refinements to maximize return on marketing investments.

Keep us posted on your progress. We're committed to helping you succeed in 2010 and beyond!

Bargin ways to boost staff morale - and boost the bottom line

2010-06-14T07:08:00.007-05:00

Your staff is the most important line of attack (and defense too) that you have in dealing with customers today. They are the key success factor bringing, or failing to bring, money into your store. As it gets harder to get customers to spend money, your sales staff may be feeling a bit down about their performance, especially since the register isn't ringing quite like it used to.
How about a bit of a morale booster from you to show your support for them.

Building morale is not always about putting more money in their pockets. It's about letting them know you appreciate them and building trust and long term value. You do not have to spend a lot - or even anything at all - to do something great for your staff. Try these ideas on for size.

Send them all a personal thank you note

Make your famous chocolate chip cookies

Ask a supplier to donate a small gift for every employee

Put their name and pictures in your monthly newsletter along with a thank you

Create a photo bulletin board with fun pictures from the past year

Organize an outdoor activity; Close the store on Sunday afternoon if you have to for a softball game, bike ride and picnic

Invite them to dinner at your house

Give one person each week an extra long lunch and pay for it

Stick a post-it note on their paycheck noting one important contribution they made in the last pay period and how much it means to you

Make a donation in their name to their favorite charitable organization

The more personal the gesture the better it will work. Your staff is your key to success. Thanking them with things that don't cost a lot of money but show that you care in a very personal way will go a long way toward ensuring that success for a long time to come!

How do you show your staff your appreciation? Share with us at www.facebook.com/cbcgroup

Boston Commercial Real Estate Improving

2010-06-14T06:48:00.003-05:00

Just read an article on www.boston.com discussing the commercial real estate environment in the Boston area. With rents reduced as much as 30% in some locations, vacancy rates are reducing, but the mix of tenants is changing the makeup of certain malls and retail clusters.

Read more at the link below.

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/framingham/articles/2010/06/14/mass_tops_us_in_retail_revival/?page=2

Social Media: Attraction or Addiction?

2010-04-21T09:51:00.000-05:00

Boston, MA - April 16, 2010 -Are you (or your customers) addicted to Facebook or Twitter?

As social media continues to grow, details are starting to surface about people's behaviors and consumption of information in the social space. As owners of retail businesses and marketers, when we learn more about the "how, when and where" of social users, we can better understand how to optimize our marketing efforts.

At CBCG, we're constantly on the look out for information about any retail marketing trends that can and will help you do business more effectively and efficiently. In fact, we've been talking about Social Media and how retailers can use it for the past 2 1/2 years. We feel its critically important that you start to leverage the power of this important marketing medium and begin to interact with your customers in this venue.

Last Friday, we found a great study that drills down on "how we act" and "what we want" in the world of social networking. It's from our friends at www.socialmediaexaminer.com If you're not following them, you should be. They've got great information.

Below is a link to the entire study. Particularly note how often people are checking their SM accounts. Think about how this opportunity to market your business in a 24/7 environment could help your business grow.

Click Here For Social Media Usage Study Results
Enjoy the study- and keep us posted on your social media usage!

Lynn Switanowski and the entire CBCG team

Incent The Desired Behaviors

2010-03-15T13:49:00.002-05:00

I just finished watching a 60 minutes segment on Wall Street compensation.....wow, talk about an eye opener. Millions upon millions of dollars paid out for "performance" that did not benefit shareholders....aka - the owners. Could you imagine paying your store workers a bonus of ten times their salaries for taking actions that bankrupted your business? Sounds crazy, but it did and continues to happen on Wall Street.

The issue is simple. You must design a compensation system that rewards the type of behavior you want from your employees....ones that build long term, sustainable economic value. If you design a short term reward system, heavily weighted on short term outcomes, you can have results that negatively impact longer term economic value....in fact your to blame for creating the incentive system!

Aligning all aspects of your business with long term strategic goals is sound fundamentals. Your compensation system is no different. In retail, you need to think through all aspects of the business thoroughly, before designing compensation....in particular bonuses. Be careful to consider all scenarios and potential impacts of your bonus structure. Individuals will always have an inclination to "game" the system to max out their bonus based on the system. You need to ensure your bonus system does not inadvertently cause behavioral changes you did not anticipate.

For example, suppose you have a system that pays a bonus on annual sales and has specific thresholds for % bonus. Say $0 to $99,999 is 5% and over $100,000 is 15% but you make no stipulations for returns. A sales person in November has already sold $100,000 and now pushes product through to his customers so that he can achieve a higher commission on remaining sales in the calendar year. If the customers return the goods in January, he still gets his commission. He may even ship the order at the end of December knowing they'll be returned. He may cut a deal with the customer to move up January sales into December (at a lower price to the customer) to make a higher commission. By not stipulating the rules of the bonus structure, you have allowed the system to be "gamed".

Next time you design a compensation system, be careful. You may be asking for something you never considered....just ask Wall Street!

Integration of Social Media Into Email Marketing

2010-03-15T13:33:00.002-05:00

The majority of retailers have been incorporating email newsletters into their marketing strategy over the past few years. They send out periodic emails to their customer lists providing useful content or promotional offers. Of late, more retailers have embraced the social media phenomenon. This requires more frequent communications with "followers" or "fans" in an effort to develop and nurture a community of loyal customers and loyalists.

Unfortunately, most retailers have failed to link both marketing efforts. Recent research indicates that only 13% of email marketers include features that make it easy to share content on social networks. This is a tremendous opportunity being missed. Think about the potential reach capabilities when you allow subscribers who already like your content to easily share it with others. That viral aspect of the Internet is what makes it such a powerful tool to a marketer.

See the link below to an article on the AMEX Open Forum for more details on the demonstrated potential of utilizing linking tools in your email marketing and start leveraging the power of both the Internet .and your social networks to drive sales.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/how-to-take-advantage-of-social-media-in-your-email-marketing-adam-ostrow

March Madness - Make Marketing a Priority

2010-03-14T21:50:00.012-05:00

I just finished watching the unveiling of the NCAA tournament pool – talk about a marketing engine! The NCAA and CBS sure know how to promote an event. They even make an event out of the tournament draw. It may be labeled madness, but it is very strategic. It's time for retailers to consider marketing strategies as our retail March Madness tips off.

You’ve survived the past couple of lean seasons, and intelligently invested in inventory for 2010. In order for you to win your retail tournament, you need to make marketing a priority …NOW. Some of your competitors have not survived the economic downturn. So, make sure you expend the effort required to increase your company’s visibility; both retaining current customers and securing potential new customers. You want to be the retailer they all look to when they decide to resume spending.

It’s only March. You have 9+ months of sales opportunities ahead. Now is the time to make those key strategic and tactical marketing decisions to ensure your business’s financial success in 2010. Budgets may remain tight, but retailers must continue to invest in marketing to drive sales. The key will be making smart investments.

Here are a few tips to squeeze the most from your marketing budget in 2010.

1.Invest in Search That Optimize Customer Engagement
Use search engine optimization (SEO) in combination with pay-per-click (PPC) to attract potential customers to your website and to your store. In addition, design your website to engage potential customers when they do visit. The website is where consumers usually begin the product and information-gathering process. Consumers have usually already researched your business (and developed an opinion) before they ever step foot in your store.

2. Use Technology to Personalize Customer Service
Your existing customers are your greatest source of potential new customers. Treat them well and they will reciprocate. Take the time to understand their needs and deliver information and content to them that helps meet their needs. Use technology to track and record customer behavior to personalize customer relationships and customize special offers.

3. Leverage Social Media to Attract New Customers
Embrace social media, but use it intelligently. Retailers are realizing that social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are invaluable for serving current customers and attracting new ones. Top performing retailers use their pages on those social media sites to provide access to information, invitations, and offers that respond to current and potential customer’s needs and interests.

4. Customize Email Marketing
Email marketing tools enable the segmentation of your email subscriber list into multiple smaller lists. You can segment customers into a variety of distinct groups to enhance customization of emails and offers. Putting in the effort to segment your customers at this stage and carefully considering the attributes that determine the segmentation will facilitate improved email capabilities and potentially increase email marketing effectiveness and sales.

5. Measure Results and Reallocating Marketing Dollars
Many retailers continue to do the “same old, same old” when it comes to marketing. That would be great if they actually knew that the current tactics were the best ways to spend their marketing dollars. Retailers need to measure the impact each marketing activity in an effort to optimize future return on marketing investments. Develop an objective, create a tracking mechanism, measure impact, analyze results and determine the effect on future investments.

Precision Promotions

2010-02-13T12:43:00.002-05:00

According to the 2009 Spencer Stuart survey of more than 300 senior-level marketers, 55% said emphasis on a short-term response to the economic downturn has led them to neglect long-term strategy. Marketers have to dramatically reduce overhead by cutting head count, reducing ad budgets, and reallocating the minimal spending they do have remaining. Given the priorities of everything they have to do right now, long-term strategy is probably not one of them. Sound familiar?

Marketers are unlikely to have the freedom they had pre-recession to spend their way out of poor performance. Pouring dollars into advertising, rarely increases profitability and sometimes it doesn't even boost sales. It certainly doesn't guarantee improvements in marketing effectiveness, ROI or operating profit margins.

To optimize the impact of a reduced budget, marketers must abandon the shotgun approach for more laser-like precision. That precision approach flows from accurate targeting. If you nail targeting, everything else will fall into place.

To get your retail marketing strategy centered to take advantage of the (albeit gradually) improving economy, you need to answer several key questions about your customers:

Which customers and which segments of customers will be the most profitable to pursue?Study data such as current spending, lifetime value, number and types of products or services purchased, and brand-switching history/potential to assess total customer value
Are your target customers open to your brand? They are open to considering and trying your brand if they're not already using it. They know your brand and have positive feelings about it. They are primed to buy if encouraged to do so. If not, don't waste valuable marketing dollars chasing them.
Are they influencers? They will tell their friends about your brand and become brand evangelists helping spread the gospel about your retail store.
Are they price sensitive? Customers that are less price sensitive, are likely to be more loyal to your retail brand and less apt to change - unless you mistreat them - and thus require less promotional investments targeted at them
Do they desire and value the newest products? If they value bleeding edge styles, releases or are early adopters of technology, ensure you promote your newest offers to them to ensure they're loyalty - they value having the latest and greatest and appreciate your recognition of this value

Understanding which segments offer the most value for your marketing investments and then strategically designing marketing programs to meet those segments needs will go a long way to achieving the sales and profit objectives for your store. Strategies and tactics that many know but few have the focused discipline to execute. Think laser, think target, think precision, achieve your goals!

Spring Promotions To Build Excitement And Sales

2010-02-13T11:21:00.004-05:00

Have you ever shopped in a store that was dull and boring? You probably wandered in and out so quickly or disinterested that you can't even recall the store's name. As a retailer, you don't want your store to become one of those lackluster shopping experiences. A great way to avoid becoming mundane is by strategically planning promotional events for your retail store. And no better time than the Spring to grab a little attention!

I'm not talking about the twice-a-year markdown sale your store has when you place all the season's leftover items on a table and smack a "Reduced" sign on the front. That's not the type of strategic promotion I'm referring to. No, what I'm referring to is a specially orchestrated promotion that can have a significant impact on product demand and sales. By planning several of these exciting events each year, you're giving customers a reason to return to the store on a regular basis. If you haven't planned one for March here are a few events you could potentially focus your promotion around:

St. Patrick's Day
Passover
Easter
First Day of Spring
March Madness
Baseball Spring Training
Academy Awards

There are over 12,000 other holidays and special celebratory events, day, weeks and months as well as holidays, historical anniversaries and festivals.listed in a copy of Chase's Calendar of Events. Don't let a promotional opportunity pass you by.

Retail Promotion Tips

Choose a promotion that fits your industry, target audience and financial objectives
Maintain an annual calendar of all planned and actual promotional events
Seek out community partners to share workload and benefits
Try to schedule well in advance to create an effective promotion
Define measurable goals and objectives (sales, new customers, email addresses, etc.)
Increase your open-to-buy and purchase extra inventory for special events
Measure results
Use an action log to ensure accountability for all post promotion follow up activities
Debrief with staff to improve process for next event

What are you waiting for......start planning that Spring promotion!

Data Suggests Recovery Under Way

2010-02-12T11:47:00.005-05:00

Economic Report From Reuters

Sales at U.S. retailers rose more than expected in January, suggesting consumers were feeling a bit more comfortable to spend and sustain the economic recovery. The Commerce Department said Friday total retail sales increased 0.5 percent. In addition, December and November were both revised to show stronger spending. December sales were revised to down only 0.1 percent, compared with the previously reported fall of 0.3 percent, while November sales were revised to up 2 percent from up 1.8 percent.

Retail sales are being closely watched for signs whether consumers are healthy enough to sustain the economy's recovery once government stimulus and the boost from restocking by businesses wanes.

The economy grew at a 5.7 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the fastest clip in six years. The economy has grown for two straight quarters following the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

High unemployment in the United States has sapped consumers' appetite for shopping, but improving labor market conditions may support future sales and help to nurse the broader economic recovery.

Excluding motor vehicles and parts, retail sales rose 0.6 percent in January after slipping 0.2 percent the prior month. Economists had expected a 0.5 percent gain. Sales were boosted by electronics and appliance stores, where sales rose 1.2 percent after declining 3.5 percent in December. Sporting goods, hobby and book sales rose 1 percent last month, adding to December's 1.9 percent increase.

Sales at general merchandise stores rose 1.5 percent in January, the biggest gain since February 2009.

Core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.8 percent after falling 0.3 percent in December. Core sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of the government's GDP accounts.

Unemployment continues to be a concern, but spending patterns suggest positive sentiment and confidence in a sustainable recovery. Let us know what you're seeing in your store!

Source: Reuters and cnbc.com

Ten Ways to Drive Consumer Action With Online Video

2010-02-10T22:10:00.000-05:00

I came across this great article on www.marketingprofs.com on how to drive consumer action using video content. This is very appropriate considering our emphasis on social media and the propensity to utilize YouTube as part of a comprehensive social media strategy. Bud Rosenthal is the author of this article and the CEO of Turnhere.com, which provides broadcast-quality online video advertising and Web distribution for companies in a wide range of industries.

Ten Tips

There's no question that online video is fast becoming a favorite of Internet users around the world. In fact, online video views have surpassed core search queries, and YouTube has become a top search engine.

But this shift in consumption has left marketers searching for the best ways to incorporate online video in their campaigns. The hit-or-miss nature of viral video, the brand quality considerations of user-generated content, and the general disdain for television commercials online have left marketers wondering, "How do I make video work for me?"

Video advertising is known for its powerful branding ability, but it can also be a great direct-response vehicle that drives measurable actions that result in sales when used properly on the Web. And with new production methods, quality online video can be produced for as little as $1,000 to $5,000 per piece, making video a marketing tool that can be used in multiples across Web campaigns while driving high return on investment.

In this article I highlight 10 ways that marketers can drive consumer action with online video.

1. Tell a compelling story

With users in control and limitless options available to them at the click of their mouse, your video must be compelling. Once users click play, you have 5-10 seconds to engage them and keep them watching.

Use a compelling narrative to captivate them for the duration of the video. The narrative storytelling format presents the information in a compelling and useful manner and ensures that the viewer remains engaged and absorbs the key messages in the video.

2. Be authentic

Online users are skeptical of the high-pressure sales pitch. And with so many choices online, they're looking for reasons to eliminate you from consideration in their search for the product or service that meets their needs. The fastest way to turn off online viewers is to bombard them with inauthentic sales pitches and weak emotional brand appeals.

Online viewers are looking for content that accurately and honestly provides information about a product or service to aid them in their decision-making process. A successful video will demonstrate value and relevance in an authentic manner that doesn't alienate the viewer with an over-the-top sales pitch.

3. Provide useful information

When users are in decision-making mode online, the last thing they want is an irrelevant branding commercial that mimics a traditional television advertising spot. At that point, they want to get beyond the sales pitch to features and benefits to determine whether your product or service will meet their needs.

If you fail to meet that deeper information need, you will lose the viewers' interest and the opportunity to turn them into customers. Your video should demonstrate products, features, and expertise in a manner that compels viewers to learn more by taking an action such as clicking a link for more information, filling out an inquiry form, or picking up the phone to talk to one of your representatives.

4. Use a call to action

Without a strong call to action, your viewers won't know what you want them to do once they've watched your video. Your video should create a clear action path, and the surrounding Web content should make executing that action easy.

Decide what action you want your viewers to take before shooting the video. Do you want them to fill out an inquiry form, forward the video to a friend, mention a coupon code, or click a link to learn more about a particular product or service? Whatever the action, make it clear in the video and easy to find, and execute on the surrounding Web page.

5. Don't over-produce

With the small player size of online video, user bandwidth considerations, and the audience's demand for authenticity, over-producing a video is simply throwing away good money. Professional production is important for maintaining brand standards, but fancy graphics, expensive effects, and other high-end production efforts will be mostly lost online. Worse, some of these effects may muddle the video, making the content and information difficult to comprehend, which can lead the viewer to abandon the video.

Maximize your ROI by finding the right balance between production value and delivering a clear, meaningful message considering the current limitations of online video.

6. Don't oversell

The user is firmly in control of the online video viewing experience. Users decide whether your message and content is worth watching or whether they'll click away to more relevant information. Respect that dynamic by using your video to inform, educate, and build preference rather than going for the hard sell.

You're not recreating late-night infomercials with Web video, you're looking to assist and aid in the decision-making process by providing authentic, relevant information and a clear call to action.

7. Measure and test

Affordable online video means that marketers can test messages, formats, and the call to action to see which mix resonates best with their audience. Try testing different offers, highlighting different product benefits and features, and using your video at different points in the decision-making process to determine the optimal use of your video in creating your desired consumer action. Provide a unique coupon code or URL, or other identifier, to let you track the impact of video on your online marketing initiatives.

8. Make it shareable

YouTube taught us all that video is a portable medium on the Web that starts conversations and spreads among friends and their social networks. Make sure your video facilitates tha natural phenomenon. Provide links and functionality to make it easy for people to email your video to friends, embed on Web pages and blogs, and post to their various social networking profiles.

By making your video portable, you increase its reach while gaining a tacit recommendation of your product or service with each person who forwards your video.

9. Place it at key decision points

According to a recent eMarketer report, video can often be the final push customers need to complete a purchase online. Video has also been shown to improve customer satisfaction and reduce product returns and abandoned shopping carts. No wonder, then, that e-commerce sites have increased their use of video.

By placing video at key decision points in your purchase funnel, you can create greater confidence and retain customers who might otherwise abandon their purchase.

10. Make it search-engine friendly

The advent of Google's Universal Search has made video an important part of the results returned in a user's search query. Companies can now gain visibility in the search engines quickly by providing video content that is search-engine friendly.

Do so by properly naming your video files, using proper keywords and titles, and surrounding them with keyword-rich Web content. Other best practices include keeping your videos in one video directory on your Web site, providing an MRSS (Media RSS) feed for all of your published videos, and publishing your videos to third-party sites such as YouTube.

Video is a Powerful Online Marketing Tool

By combining the above 10 best practices, marketers can drive consumer action using online video.

Keeping production costs inline with the realities of the online channel will ensure that the return on investment remains high, while creating a compelling story to help drive conversions and reduce abandonment in the purchase cycle.

As bandwidth continues to improve and more of the online audience makes video an important part of their online experience, successful marketers will understand how to incorporate video marketing in their online campaigns to drive favorable consumer action.

The Value of Trade Shows

2010-02-04T17:31:00.005-05:00

I've spent the past four weeks doing the trade show circuit. Minneapolis to Orlando, and Los Angeles to Dublin, giving seminars and consulting with clients on the buying and selling side. Another month to go as the season comes to a close in March. Traffic appears to have improved and reports are that buying transactions have increased, but the average dollar volume per order remains low as buyers continue to be cautious about holding too much of the wrong inventory.

Many people continue to question the future of trade shows as the adoption of online purchasing and restricted travel budgets apply pressure to justify attendence. My opinion is that they are still a valuable and necessary component of the sales process.

Sales is still a relationship business and those relationships are solidified in face-to-face dialgoues. Trade shows are like large parties - you network, you meet potential new friends and you reinforce friendships made at previous social gatherings. Although social media and teh Internet enable online relationships to be established, there is nothing like a face-to-face meeting combined with the ability to touch and feel product samples to solidify TRUST.

Sales may be down and orders may be smaller, but trade shows facilitate the development of TRUST - a fundamental element of a long and mutually prosperous supplier/retailer relationship. I continue to see the development of TRUST as a requirement in all industries and geographies and the trade show environment provides a wonderful opportunity to foster relationship building in a concentrated time and space. Long live TRUST - long live trade shows!

What Social Media Marketing Gurus Don't Want You to Know

2010-01-28T14:44:00.005-05:00

I read this interesting article from Zeke Camusio of the Outsourcing Company in Aspen Colorado. It's a cool perspective on Social Media utilization that I believe is the right approach. Thanks Zeke!

Do you know why most people fail miserably at Social Media Marketing? Because they don't really get what it's all about. They think it's about promoting their companies. It's not; it's about MAKING FRIENDS.

"Really? Making friends?"

"Yes, really."

See, people like doing business with their friends. If your toilet breaks and one of your friends is a janitor, you'll ask him to fix it. If you don't have any janitor friend, then you might ask your friends if they know a janitor they trust. People do business with their friends for two reasons:

They get a better service, price, deal, etc.

They give money to people they care about.

So, how can you apply this principle to Social Media Marketing?

Make sure your social media profiles say what you do and have links to your site.

Make friends. Discover your target market and start talking to those people. Don't sell them anything; just make friends with them and check out their status updates. What are they doing? Is there anything you can help with? Are they asking questions you can answer or looking for something you can give them?

After a few interactions, something very interesting will happen. They're going to ask you the BIG QUESTION: "so, what do you do for a living?". Just tell them what you do but don't make it sound like you're trying to sell them something. This is where your elevator speech will come into play. In case you want to know what an elevator speech looks like, this is mine: "I help companies get thousands of qualified visitors for their websites." Create an elevator speech and be ready to share it when people ask you what you do for a living.

People will add you to their "mental Rolodex". It works something like this: "Joan P. - High-end catering services", "Marty K. - Real estate agent", etc.

When they need a real estate agent, they'll call Marty. And, they'll also recommend Marty to anyone who needs a real estate agent (assuming that Marty took the time to build strong relationships with his contacts instead of trying to sell them his services).

I can't emphasize this enough: Social Media Marketing is about MAKING FRIENDS, not about selling your stuff. But remember: making friends is a great way to sell your stuff!

I believe that if we all understood the concept in this article, the Social Media Marketing world would be a lot more fun and efficient, so let me ask you a favor: spread the word. Send this to your contacts, re-tweet it, share it on Facebook, or share it any way you want.

Twitter Tip - 5 Proven Ways To Get Retweeted

2010-01-15T00:50:00.000-05:00

I've got Twitter on the brain these days as I head to the California Gift Show in Los Angeles this weekend. I am putting on a three day seminar on Twitter so excuse me if I am "dialed in" on Twitter.

I came across this cool article on strategies to get retweeted by Kristin Burnham on IT World. Check it out:

http://www.itworld.com/internet/92244/twitter-tips-5-proven-ways-get-retweeted?source=ITWNLE_nlt_thisweek_2010-01-14

Enjoy!

Retail Resurgence 2010 - Workshop February 23,24 Virginia Beach Resort and Conference Center

2010-01-14T23:35:00.013-05:00

The Retail Evolution Is Upon Us. To Thrive In The New Economy Requires Knowledge And The Will To Change. Learning How To Effectively Connect With Your Customers Is Paramount. Consumers Perceive Brands And Stores In Ways Never Seen Before. How Are You Being Perceived? How Are You Performing?

Session Topics Include:

Creating Financial Success by Understanding and Using Retail Benchmarks
How to Connect with Your Customers More Effectively by Using Social Media Marketing Tools
How to Use Innovative Processes Utilizing the Voice of the Customer to Grow Your Business
Retail Realities and Trends – Learn How to Adapt Retail Trends as a Competitive Advantage for Your Specialty Business

Wednesday February 24, 2010
Virginia Beach Resort and
Conference Center
Registration 8:30 am
Program 9:00 am to 5:15 pm

BONUS EVENT
Tuesday February 23, 2010
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Connections, Canapés and Conversation

Session Cost: $139 per participant, $99 per additional participant from the same organization The value is unbeatable – this small investment will yield great returns!

Reserve Your Spot Today. Call or Email:
shoptalk@shoptalk.org or info@cbc-group.net
Phone: 757-491-1411
Check or Credit Cards Accepted

For a pdf of this seminar flyer email
Lynn@cbc-group.net

On the Road Again-- Trade Show Fever

2010-01-14T23:15:00.001-05:00

January is always an exciting time for me as I get to head out to speak at various trade shows across the US. I'm always excited to talk to retailers about what happened this past holiday season and how they are planning for the upcoming year.

Planning is especially important in this challenging economy and sometimes, I don't think retailers give it a high enough priority in the day to day rush of getting everything done.

So for this post, I thought I would share a couple of ideas for retailers as they head into this frantic buying season full of excitement and Christmas dollars to invest in spring inventory. Keep these ideas in mind as you hit the road to fill your shelves and store rooms with merchandise

Determine Your Goals for the Trade Show IN ADVANCE

Set a budget by vendor and classification after reviewing last year's results and existing inventory - Stick To It.

Establish dialogue with suppliers on potential marketing support for this year

Network with other retailers and suppliers seeking new ideas to drive sales, market share and profitability

Prepare A Thoughtful Merchandise Strategy in Advance.

Develop a strategy for buying - number of units, sizes, classifications, vendors, dollars

Schedule appointments ahead of time with key vendors

Preview show map and develop a schedule and plan a route - don't just meander through the show aimlessly

Gather Relevant Industry Insights to Make Good Purchasing Decisions

Schedule time for relevant educational seminars during your trade show visit

Talk to key vendors about best practices for sell through and merchandising

Engage in conversations with key thought leaders - approach seminar leaders with questions

Gather contact info on opinion leaders and plan on following post show on twitter, blogs, websites and newsletters

Work With Your Suppliers

Pre-wire for support during the year and determine follow-up plan after purchases
Request placement on their website - store locator, hyperlinks

Ask for information about best practices from non-competitor

Seek merchandising suggestions

Going into a trade show with a defined set of objectives and a plan to achieve them will go a long way to ensuring you have a productive trade show and a great start to 2010. Think strategically and stick to the plan!

I'm off to Los Angeles and the California Gift Show. Drop by and see me and my colleague Ruth at our hands on Twitter sessions....put it in your schedule :-)

Reflections Before Resolutions

2010-01-13T22:54:00.007-05:00

Every year we make resolutions in January for all the wonderful things we want to achieve in the next twelve months. Many times those resolutions are the same ones we made the year before....ever vowed to lose weight, relax more, or better yet- get more organized at work or home?

Whether it's for personal reasons, or professional ones, I think it's a good idea to reflect on the previous year before we start considering the next one. Time taken to reflect on the lessons we learnt will hopefully help us avoid making the same mistakes in the the coming year.

As we retailers head into the buying season and the trade show circuit consider, I thought I'd share some suggestions on how to review the prior year in order to make business resolutions that will have an impact on your business during the coming year.

Reconcile last years sales to determine sale by vendor, sales by classification, profitability by vendor and profitability by classification; Any patterns, trends or best sellers?

Take an accurate inventory by vendor and classification; Any gaping holes or excessive amounts?

How did various classifications and vendors sales grow over the past year; were they consistent across the entire product portfolio? Did they correlate with inventory investments?

Assess the impact of any trends on your pending purchases; What intelligence have you gathered in seminars, from customers and vendors? How credible are these resources based on last years actual results?

A little reflecting on last year will help with your planning and resolutions heading into 2010.

Be Smart About Debt

2010-01-13T12:37:00.002-05:00

One of the most critical elements of learning to manage your retail business’s financial situation is understanding the difference between smart debt and dumb debt. Understanding the wealth building or destroying power of debt could be the defining element of your future success.

Dumb Debt

This is the kind of debt you rack up from making impulsive purchases that you cannot afford. Dumb debt often comes as a result of trying to do what you would like vs. what is right for your business. It’s the kind of debt incurred from the instant gratification of making excessive and unnecessary purchases. It only sets you further back financially and does not help you build assets or reach your financial goals. An example is buying a lot of inventory from a designer whose style you love, without considering whether your customers have the same admiration for the designer and the potential implications to profits caused by excessive markdowns.

While much of dumb debt comes from credit card spending, not all credit card purchases are dumb debt. In fact, using a credit card can help your credit score, because you are building a favorable credit and payment history. But if you can’t manage your payments and you are strapped for cash each month trying to pay your credit card bill, you are going into dumb debt and you need to rethink your spending habits. Dumb debt can often lead to dumb strategies in order to service debt. Only use credit cards for your business if your sure cash flows will enable repayments!

Dumb debt does not just come from credit cards. You can also rack up dumb debt by buying too much inventory, investing in non-productive, expensive store improvements, being too generous with employee hours, benefits and pay, expensing too many “personal” expenses through the business, or underutilizing payables terms.

Borrowing money for any reason must be carefully weighed against the financial (not emotional) benefit of the debt to be incurred.

Smart Debt

Smart debt is the kind of debt that helps your business financially. If you get the right loan, utilize the proceeds to develop incremental business profits and manage your payments well, debt is a great tool to leverage and multiply profits. Low interest bank loans, lines of credit and supplier loans can be smart debt, provided they drive increment. Even credit card debt can be a smart decision, as long as you pay off your purchases in full each month. The greatest businesses in the world were built with the assistance and leverage provided by OPM (Other Peoples’ Money). Debt is a tremendous tool…..used wisely!

Knowing the difference between smart and dumb debt is important. Resist the urge of dumb debt so you can reach your financial goals with smart debt.

Are You Ready and Rarin’ for the Holiday Blitz?

2009-11-18T13:11:00.003-05:00

Next week is Thanksgiving - where did the year go? So much has happened this year for sure, but the good news is we can be thankful that the signs of a better economy are everywhere!

Hopefully, this means that every retailer reading this will be busy from Black Friday thru Christmas Day! In fact, you've planned for it to be busy, you've bought the merchandise, you've dressed the windows, you've hired the staff and you've planned unique and sales generating marketing activities. But what if it's still not enough to make the sales you planned for?

This post is filled with last minute sales generating and profit saving tips for retailers of all size.
Whether it's marketing or a markdown strategy to help drive sales and improve your post holiday inventory position, we offer some last minute strategies to help your business thrive this holiday season. We know TIME is of the essence so we urge you to start implementing some of these ideas today!

Treat Your Kings and Queens Royally! Host a Private Sale during the two slowest days of December for your absolutely best customers

Invite your customers via email, FB etc. to keep marketing costs down

Email Subject line: VIP Party- Invitation Only- Please Join Us

Provide refreshments and have festive music playing.
Offer Special Savings on Key Products – (use this as a chance to sell slow moving products) Target slow selling Christmas merchandise.
Give customers a coupon for a future purchase with every purchase made on thE Private Sale night (day) – January 1- 31 when sales are slow

Motivate Employees Thru Christmas Day. Run a sales contest at least 2 times per week to keep employees motivated an in line with overall store sales goals. This works great to boost morale as everyone needs money for holiday gifts!
Liquidate Holiday Merchandise BEFORE the Holiday Comes. Review your Holiday product selling each week. Review dollar sales by category to make sure you are on track to liquidate it by the end of the month.

If sales are slow, start taking discounts by 12/16 –start with 20% off
Move to 30- 40% off on all Holiday product (cards, ornaments, red boxed gifts, etc) on 12/23-24 depending on sell thru (the new spending consumer spending patterns no longer suggest to "buy it for next year" so you will have more trouble liquidating holiday merchandise after Christmas this year than in years past.

It's not Fine Wine- It doesn't get better with age. Review ALL store selling during December. As we discussed earlier, even though the economy is improving, consumers will not have much discretionary income after the holidays are over. Review on hand inventory and work to liquidate it based on slower sales periods in January and February.
Suggested ideas:
Negotiate with Vendors to take back slow selling merchandise and trade it for new spring merchandise (since you've already paid for it, your cash flow will improve in the spring because of this!)
It's still not too late to call your key vendors and try and get money to help you advertise or markdown slow selling inventory. Trust me, the big box store around the corner is analyzing their selling every single day and they are already making these calls—Find the time to review your merchandise selling- it will pay off in the end.
Product Profiling. Review Spring 2010. I know you're busy trying to make Christmas happen, but you've got to find the time to review your January and February on order NOW. The key is to make sure that it's still merchandise you have to have and that you are prepared to pay for in a very slow selling time period. If you still love it and have to have it, review the quantities that you have on order.
These purchases should be enough to make the store look fresh and transition you to spring, but you don't need a 6 month supply of ANY merchandise that you pay for in January! If you still love the merchandise and are comfortable with the total number of units, see if you can get your vendors to split the shipments- Again, typical January sell thru rates are 3% per week. That's not a lot of customers or a lot of products going out the door. Why tie up your cash and pay for them?

Twitter and Facebook aid small firms

2009-11-11T16:16:00.003-05:00

Wanted to share this great article with you from BBC News.

Georgetown Cupcake uses social networking site for promotion.
It is the 21st Century equivalent of word of mouth.
From "mom and pop" diners to cupcake shops to technology start-ups, small business owners across America have been thrown an unexpected lifeline in the midst of the recession by social networking sites.

Companies that have jumped on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon are reporting a surge in customers while others struggle.

With minimal marketing budgets available to many small businesses, social networking sites offer a quick and, more importantly, free means of promoting their wares to a global audience.
In the face of stiff competition and a global economic downturn, it is a route more and more companies are going down.

Sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis have been using Twitter and Facebook as a marketing tool since they launched Georgetown Cupcake in Washington DC in 2008.
"Together they work like a virtual focus group, a bulletin board, a marketing campaign and branding exercise rolled into one," said LaMontagne.

As well as posting details of new flavours, specials and events, they are using the social networking sites to promote their new nationwide delivery service together with their new store in Maryland.

For some small business owners, traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and newspapers are prohibitively expensive.

For others, the web is a medium more in tune with their potential customers. "They're not a good fit for everyone, but if you're a small business with a customer base who uses social media, you can't afford not to use them," says Rachael Ritchie, who runs Goodfellas Pizza with her husband in the college town of Athens, Ohio. "It's a great way to interact one-on-one and build a relationship with our customers"

Alice Shin, Kogi BBQ recently asked her Twitter and Facebook followers to vote on whether she should use Coke or Pepsi as a soft drinks supplier. "That real-time feedback is invaluable," she says.

Goodfellas Pizza offers cross-promotions with other local businesses via Twitter.
They include Athens Relaxation Station health spa, which gives Goodfellas customers discounts, a deal which is reciprocated at Goodfellas. "I am a one-woman business in a small town so free marketing is a huge bonus," says spa owner Jennifer Hunt. "And if I get a last minute cancellation I hop on to Twitter and within minutes I've filled the appointment."

"Every day we are seeing businesses using Twitter in more and more creative and exciting ways," says Anamitra Banerji, manager of commercial products at Twitter.

"We've got lots of restaurant and bar owners right through to plumbers and building managers."
Though multinationals such as Starbucks and McDonald's were among the first to realise the potential of social networking sites, anecdotal evidence suggests it is small businesses that have the most to gain.

Twitter, which allows users to post tweets of up to 140 characters, is currently developing products to sell to business users, including software to verify accounts and analyse traffic to Twitter account holders' profiles.

The company recently launched Twitter 101 on its website, which includes advice for new users along with case studies, describing how companies of all scales and in various sectors have used the site to grow their business.

Facebook, which has 300 million users worldwide and recently announced it had become cash-flow positive, offers businesses special pages and the option to buy ads to show to users who like similar companies.

As well as using social media sites to communicate with customers, small businesses are using them to connect with potential suppliers, stockists and other people they can trade skills with, such as accountants, marketing experts and technology workers.

One recent Twitter post from a graphic designer asked other business users for advice on computer software his company was thinking of buying.

Kogi BBQ runs three Korean mobile food trucks in Los Angeles. It has 43,000 followers on Twitter and 3,150 on Facebook and uses the sites to post specials, discounts and details of where the vans will be parked each day. "It's a great way to interact one-on-one and build a relationship with our customers," says Kogi BBQ's creative director Alice Shin. "Customers feel a personal connection, which encourages repeat business."

But experts warn that social networking sites are not without dangers. "You are losing control of your message by inviting customers into a dialogue and that could be problematic if they criticise you," says Arun Sundararajan, a professor of information, operations and management sciences at New York University.

He advised users to think of it as a conversation rather than an advertising space.
"There is a fine line between giving people a steady stream of useful information and bombarding them," he explains. "If you do the latter you are in danger of turning customers off." This view was echoed by Andrew Sinkov, vice-president of marketing at Evernote, a California-based online storage company. "The key is to keep your messages concise, free of fluff or marketing jargon and only convey genuinely useful information," he says.

Evernote has 30,000 followers on Twitter, 12,000 fans on Facebook and has recently begun using Friendfeed, which was taken over by Facebook in August. Evernote directs its followers between all three sites and its company blog, creating a sophisticated, inter-linked online presence. "The days of large anonymous companies are over," declares Mr Sinkov.
"To succeed nowadays your company has to have a personality and it's easier than ever to create that."

YouTube & I Profit: Social Media for Retailers

2009-10-12T09:29:00.006-05:00

Co-sponsored by retail marketing and social media experts Lynn Switanowski-Barrett & David Perry “YouTube & I Profit: Social Media for Retailers” is designed to help retailers of all size chart a profitable course through the seas of social networking.
This webinar is at teaching retailers how to use social media for their businesses to connect with customers more effectively than ever (and so much cheaper too!) It’s a MUST attend event for any retailer that wants to stay ahead of the competition and connect more effectively with their customers - starting TODAY.

At “YouTube & I Profit: Social Media for Retailers”you will hear real-world case studies with practical lessons on how you can use social media to grow your brand, business and bottom line. You’ll learn why social media is growing so quickly and how your retail business can and should start participating immediately.

You’ll walk away with the knowledge and the know how to set up a social media strategy for your business and you’ll get plenty of time saving tips to help you execute your strategy more effectively. You won’t want to miss this opportunity.

Takeaways from “YouTube & I Profit: Social Media for Retailers”

Learn why your customers are continuing to move away from traditional media and why your retail business must embrace social media – or risk becoming obsolete!

Learn the key components to a social media strategy that will increase your sales and save you time doing marketing for your business.

Learn a 4 step strategy that will ease your fears- and improve your performance as you begin to engage in social media for your business.

Learn how to approach new media to get you press coverage.Learn how to use Twitter for brand identify, growing your “fan” base and even make money or fund raise.
Find out how to set-up, maintain and establish a blog and a strategy for driving traffic to it.

Get lessons in basic Web 2.0 tactics such as instant messaging, blogs, wikis, and texting.

Develop your own online polls and video page through YouTube, Vimeo and other online sites.

Get a handle on “SPAM” and learn how to put together targeted and personalized email, Facebook, Flickr strategies.

Register at http://www.davidperry.com/you-tube-i-profit-social-media-for-retailers.html Early bird special ends October 19th

Avoid These Common Holiday Marketing Errors

2009-10-12T08:58:00.007-05:00

Most retailers get ready for the holidays early in the fall. They ramp up inventory, consider more staff, and plan special deals and marketing for the biggest selling season of the year. By November and through December, when sales turn critical, successful retailers have a good idea what promotions will work....and which ones won't!

To help you learn from their lessons, here are four missteps that marketers often make during the holiday season. Avoid these errors and you’re more likely to celebrate the coming year.

Banking on deep discounts to boost sales - Don’t assume that low prices are the route to buyers’ hearts and wallets. Cheap products are not nearly as attractive to consumers as getting value for the dollar. In addition, if you cut prices too deeply, especially early in the season, you’re teaching year-round customers to wait for bargains. Instead, put appropriate prices on your wares and make sure you’re not merely increasing volume, but actually turning a profit on each sale

Being too casual about e-mail marketing - Provide real solutions for customers' gift-buying dilemmas at the time your customer is thinking about buying. Offer tangible recommendations and promotions tailored to your customers' interests and buying histories. With those goals in mind, you probably need a series of timed e-mails (or, at least more than one). Don’t begin your e-mail campaign with a discount offer (see Mistake 1, above), but do billboard the fact that you will be sending special prices and discounted promotions in a week or two. That gives you a better chance of getting recipients to open later e-mails. Make the subject lines and messaging more urgent as the season heats up.
Each message should have some call to action to attract the buyer to click onto your site. You might offer special content, gift-buying advice, a loyalty club to join with a late-December payoff, a contest, or a special greeting card.

Overlooking customer follow-up - By monitoring customer online e-mail and queries,and in-store requests, you can quickly take the temperature of your holiday sales. You can, for example, identify which of your products or promotions are hot, and then instantly adjust inventory or marketing accordingly. Set up a system to track all queries, assign follow-up and discuss insights. This systematic connectivity with customers may provide you and your store with the primary consumer research to enable high performance sales this season and it will definitely resonate with your customers in the long term.

Ignoring the last-minute shopper - Every year, it seems, more and more gift-buyers wait until it’s practically too late to purchase their presents. This feet-dragging crowd is probably a mixed bag of bargain hunters, procrastinators, distracted relatives, and overworked executives. In other words, just about everybody out there. Technology, of course, has helped fuel this trend. Just-in-time shopping and delivery is now possible almost everywhere. As a result, shoppers are buying gifts later and later in the season.
Capitalize on this trend by sending out a late-breaking e-mail that lets tardy buyers off the hook. Send it as late in the season as you can while still being able to fulfill orders. Make your subject line forgiving, saying something like: "It’s Not Too Late to Find Great Gifts." Offer targeted gift suggestions that will make it seem as if they put a great deal of time and thought into their choices. You’ll get credit (and repeat buyers) for making them look good.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Marketing - Time Tested Ways To Attract Shoppers

2009-10-12T08:32:00.007-05:00

Although the economy is slowly recovering, there’s still a long way to go before things are back to normal. For many small-business retailers, the holiday season is a make-or-break mission, representing a significant percentage of their annual sales. Smart marketing during this period is critical.

Typically, the online buying season kicks in on Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving and after Black Friday, when the brick-and-mortar holiday sales season begins. Still, in recent years, shoppers have also learned to wait further into the season in order to find online bargains and even lower prices. So the biggest online holiday shopping day is typically around December 12, when many online retailers stop offering free shipping.

As with most marketing campaigns, preparation is a key element. Prepare in advance and have your seasonal online site designs and promotions ready to roll in November. In addition, make sure to reserve some appealing offers and discounts for the late-buying crowd.

With that in mind, here are some practical, time-tested ways to attract buyers, boost sales and increase profits during the online holiday selling season.

Price strategically - As the season starts, set prices that offer some wiggle room, so you can lower prices later and still come out ahead. Promote a final-sale event.

Reward early buyers - Send out offers through emails and/or postcards in October and offer percent discounts (or more, if you can afford it) to anyone who purchases before November 15

Partner with other retailers - Forge an alliance with other online marketers or neighborhood retailers to offer two-for-one values or specials that bolster sales and encourage buyers. You can, for example, partner with several local complimentary retailers to send out seasonal e-mail offers across each others' email lists. You might also set up agreements with retailers for mutual promotions or website links. For example, if you sell holiday desserts, you might partner with a holiday ornament company

Share some of your profits - Promotions that give to a charity, support the community or a cause, such as the environment, will resonate with consumers during the holidays. Many marketers donate profits from select, high-margin items to charities. If you decide on utilizing this type of cause marketing, send press releases to news media and customers to let them know about your special promotion

Make your website holiday-friendly - Redesign the home page to focus on holiday gifts and promotions. Rework the page’s look, feel, and messages to reflect the season. Market and monitor your site. Throughout the season, fine-tune your response to Web traffic and visitor navigation patterns

Offer perks or discounts - After retooling your website and store for the season, don’t become complacent. Instead, keep adding or swapping featured products, discounts and promotions throughout December. You might also add holiday content, such as gift-buying advice. The idea is to offer more attractive deals or different kinds of incentives than you provide at other times of the year. In addition, you can motivate repeat visits by creating a timed sequence of promotions, discounts, or frequent buyer points that continues through the season. That way you incent customers into returning over and over again

Go the extra mile - Customer service and the personal touch are competitive advantages for smaller retailers. Make the most of that by anticipating your customers’ needs or by tailoring special offers for repeat buyers and your best customers. For example, you might send an e-mail notice that lets loyal customers know you’re available for special requests. At the end of the day, pick up the phone and call customers to thank them for their business. Likewise, you can arrange for a special expert or gift consultant to answer online or in-store questions during the final shopping days. Then, remember to promote that service in the first few weeks

All in all, you should prepare strategically and plan a series of marketing activities and tactics from Thanksgiving through New Year’s to maximize sales this holiday season.

TV Still Relevant, But Social Media Takes Center Stage

2009-09-28T14:23:00.003-05:00

CNBC hosted an advertising summit last week focused on how marketers connect with consumers. Lots of great dialogue about the future of marketing- and where consumers are spending their time today. Is TV dead as a marketing medium? Some interesting opinions were discussed-- Below is a recent blog post about the event- with some thoughts about the future of TV marketing. Let us know your thoughts.
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CNBC's Advertising Week summit on how marketers connect to consumers could have been called "No, really, we love TV!" The discussion was intended to be a free-roaming exploration about consumer passion, authenticity, and marketing challenges in a world that has little trust for business. But the gravitational pull of Facebook (whose COO Sheryl Sandberg was, appropriately enough, seated dead center) kept the conversation on social media.
The apparent subtext that TV might need to get its affairs in order wasn't lost on host Becky Quick, co-host of CNBC's "Squawk Box" show, who rhetorically asked more than once whether she would have a job next year.
"Television is still important," said Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO of Guitar Hero. "People have to re-think how they advertise. At Guitar Hero we took 40% of our budget that used to be on TV and it moved to the Internet. Television is wonderful, but when you have incredible sites like Facebook, you have to be smart with what you do, where your consumer is and how to reach them all the time."
He said the change was hard to sell to a skeptical employee base at first. "Guitar Hero was very successful, so I had to sit there and make the case. But if you look at Guitar Hero 5, we have nearly a million fans on Facebook. Where else can you find a million people who say, 'I love your product -- please communicate with me?'"
Pam El, VP marketing at State Farm, was candid about her product's lack of luster compared to, well, Guitar Hero. "[Rosensweig] has the coolest product on the planet; Sheryl [Sandberg] has the coolest way for people to talk to each other, and David [Jones, global CEO of Havas Worldwide, also on the panel] is just cool. But here at State Farm, we sell insurance. It's not cool."
She said that while the company uses Facebook to generate some emotional energy with consumers, "more importantly, we are moving into the community, so you will see us in high school and sports arenas -- so we are not only shifting media out of TV but out of the traditional media period into grassroots sponsorships."
On TV, El said, State Farm is doing fewer 30-second ads and more product placement and integration. Online, she says, the real competition is not other insurance companies, but companies like Guitar Hero.
"Now we are going after younger adults and Hispanics, which makes it that much more challenging. We are using Lebron James in a lot of our commercials," she said, adding that the latest campaign directed at the Hispanic market centers on telenovelas, with branded integration with "Entertainment Tonight." El said State Farm is also doing a marketing campaign that centers around the theme of "being there," starring the likes of Denzel Washington talking about what it means to "be there" for his wife and kids.
David Jones, global CEO of Havas, said the holding company did a survey 18 months ago, wherein 86% of respondents felt companies should stand for more than profit. "One thing that will change post-Madoff and post-economic crisis is -- consumers are going to be passionate about businesses that are socially responsible," he said, adding that 80% of respondents to the company's 2008 survey said consumers should censure unethical companies.

Karl Greenberg, Sep 21, 2009 09:07 PM
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=113981

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Yelp?

2009-08-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

Yelp is a great Social Search tool for businesses of all size- but especially useful for small to mid sized retailers.

By using the "power" of a peer testimonial showcased in a yelp listing, you will see the dramatic positive affect it can have on potential new customers for your business.

Take a look at this great blog posting on how to use Yelp to your businesses' best advantage.

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Yelp?

The 10 Commandments of Social Media

2009-08-26T11:18:00.003-05:00

Retailers: I just read a great article from the Fast Company Blog. I think it's a great way of looking at your involvement in Social Media. The upshot: Think of it as a commitment you MUST make for your business in order to thrive (perhaps even survive) in today's crowded marketplace.

I agree, the symbolism might be a bit over the top, but if you think of Social Media as religion for your small business-- I'm positive you'll see the results! Enjoy.

10 Commandments of Social Media

Posted using ShareThis

Tweeters - More Value And Less Babbling Please

2009-08-17T13:09:00.004-05:00

Twitter is 40% ‘Pointless Babble’: Report

Twitter followers are more likely to hear about what people are having for their lunch than read anything actually interesting or worthwhile, according to Pear Analytics. Fears that the site was becoming overrun with spam and self-promotion from companies getting on the Twitter bandwagon were refuted by the findings, Pear Analytics said.

Only 8.7 percent of messages were found to have pass-along value. Pointless babble was the largest category with 40.5 percent. Conversational tweets were 37.5 percent, but self promotion and spam only grabbed 5.9 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.

To read full article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32446935

You Only Have 30 Seconds

2009-08-16T12:06:00.007-05:00

Can You Describe In 100 Words Or Less What You Do And How It Is Relevant To Your Prospects – From Their Perspective?

When initially speaking with prospective customers, you typically have 30 seconds or less to not only get their attention, but establish a reason for them to engage in a conversation. During your “30 second commercial” you must let prospects know what you do and more importantly, why it’s relevant to them.

So, what do you say? Have you perfected your commercial highlighting key features and associated benefits of your product or service? When you give your pitch to prospects, do you obtain a favorable reaction? Probably not. At best you may hear, “That’s interesting” – even though they really aren’t interested. You may get a request for information as a way to end the encounter.

Why does this happen? Prospects have seen and heard it all before – radio, email, and direct mail marketing and advertising. Your commercial is just more of the same. Regardless of how unique, timely, and important you believe your message is, it’s just more noise to the prospect.
Unfortunately, your finely crafted commercial hurts you in two ways. First and foremost, it diminishes your credibility. You’re not someone who stands out from the pack, scrounging for your morsel. Second, you waste valuable time – yours and the prospect’s.

So how do you change the prospect’s response from “Send me some literature” to “ We need to talk”? Stop telling prospects about your company and your products or service. Stop telling them what you can do for them. Make it about them. If a prospect is going to invest any time talking with you, he wants to very quickly know “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM)

Use your 30 seconds to focus on the prospect’s world. Relate your product or service from the perspective of the problems and issues the prospect is dealing with or the goals the prospect is attempting to achieve. This approach establishes credibility by quickly getting to WIIFM question – distinguishing you from the rest of the pack. When prospects believe that you understand their problems, concerns, challenges and goals, they listen – making it easier to convert your 30 second commercial into a meaningful conversation.

To truly understand your prospects’ worlds, you must do your homework. You must be thoroughly familiar with their problems, concerns, fears, challenges, and goals as they relate to your product or service. You must know that the prospect would lose by not having your product or service. Then, you can create a description of your product or service around those elements, making sure to answer the WIIFM question.

Consider the following “commercial” for a company specializing in marketing and graphic design services for hi-tech companies:

We specialize in marketing and graphic design services for hi-tech firms who have a need , but not the resources, for a full-time, in-house department.

And, they need a company who already speaks their technical language so they don’t waste valuable time – time they would have billed for – educating company personnel in order for them to produce appropriate and accurate copy.

Because our design people have extensive backgrounds and experience in a number of hi-tech fields, we already speak our clients’ language and we’re able to help them develop and implement projects more quickly and economically.

The first sentence describes the type of work done, the companies served, and the reason a company might want the service. The next sentence address a particular challenge a prospect might be facing. The last sentence describes the value the design firm can provide.

It is short, and to the point. It very quickly answers the question, “Who is this person and why should I listen to him?” If your commercial doesn’t answer that question, your prospect will quickly tune out.

Can you describe in 100 words or less what you do and how it is relevant to your prospects – from their perspective? (The above example is 97 words.) Your opening statement will either draw prospects into the conversation or turn them away. So carefully consider what you are saying. Are you quickly answering their WIIFM question? Are you putting your product or service in the prospects’ world and telling the story from his perspective?

Whether you call it an elevator pitch, a commercial, or a position statement, a carefully considered and constructed opening with a prospect – one that focuses on the prospect’s world and the prospect’s issues – can make the difference between a prospect remaining a prospect or becoming a customer. Your 30-second commercial will become an invaluable tool that will help you make more meaningful connections in a variety of situations, including networking events, trade shows, voicemail messages, emails introductions, and cold calls. Crafting this commercial will help you make more connections and make the most of every opportunity.

Is the Retail Recession Nearing An End?

2009-08-09T13:35:00.002-05:00

We’re through another season of earnings reports from the major retailers and there appears to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Most economists are starting to predict a recovery from the recession, but there still exists many differing opinions on when and how rapidly the recovery will happen - such is the nature of economics!

Retail Forward released new data on Thursday regarding July same store sales. Declines in retail same-store sales (excluding Walmart) persisted for the month, but there were encouraging signs as shoppers ease their tight rein on spending plans.

Sales-weighted same-store sales (excluding Walmart) held roughly steady at -4.6% in July for the 32 retailers - most of them apparel retailers - reporting monthly results. That was about the same as the 4.7% decline last month, but down from the 1.8% gain in July of 2008 for the same composite measure calculated without Walmart. Including Walmart, same-store sales were up 2.8% in July of 2008.

“Shoppers are not yet ready to spend freely, but the results reported by retailers provide some signs that shoppers are easing up on their cutbacks. And that’s especially encouraging given the variety of factors weighing on retail sales in July,” said Frank Badillo, Senior Economist at Retail Forward.

Read the entire report at http://www.retailforward.com/pressroom/pressreleases/080609.asp

Can Social Networking Really Make a Small Retailer Any Money?

2009-08-09T11:44:00.012-05:00

After spending time this week at a social media conference, it's pretty clear that many “business gurus” have social networking on the brain. It's Twitter this and YouTube that, yet, when I walk down Main Street, I don't see YouTube videos or Twitter names. I see retailers trying to make ends meet, whose hours are already chock full to the brim and who don't comprehend how such online promotions can help them. Sound familiar?

While listening to a seminar on how to demonstrate a return on investment for social media activities, I couldn't help but wonder to myself, "What can my retail clients get out of Twitter or YouTube or Facebook?" For some, a lot of their clientele is outside the tech-savvy demographic, so what good can they possibly get out of investing countless time, effort and resources into these technologies?

If you want to actually make social networking cost effective and productive for your small brick-and-mortar business, here are several ways to do it:

Don't duplicate effort. Many retailers feel like they need to be on several platforms at once - and that takes a lot of time. Instead, I recommend signing up for a few services - like, for example, Twitter and Facebook - and then centralizing most of your participation. For example, you can post things on Twitter and have them automatically appear on Facebook by logging onto Facebook and setting up the Twitter application there. Also look into Friendfeed as a tool for leveraging content.

Make it really easy for people to find you. Put your Twitter or your Facebook ID out there so people can find it. Put it in your ads, your website home page and on your business cards. Sign up for these sites with the same account name now so you have them registered for when you may want to use them – remember when someone started tweeting as Shaquile O’Neil under the @shaq account at Twitter. Secure your account name now.

Participate in the conversations that you find. Once a day or so, visit these sites and see whether or not any conversations are going on that are related to you - and participate in them. Offer what you know - and be honest about it.

Offer up deals. Go on Twitter and offer up a coupon code for your business. If they come in and say they're using the "August Twitter coupon," they'll get 15% off their next item or maybe get a voucher for a free design consultation. If you have things set up right, you don't have to duplicate effort - just post it in one place and it'll propogate out everywhere.

Be focused - keep in mind why you're doing this. For a retailer, the reason to get involved is to retain existing customers and attract new ones to your store. The best way to do that is to be human and to be responsive. Answer questions and be lighthearted, but don't obsess.

Social media does not have to be a big time drain at all. Instead, it can be a very inexpensive and very simple way to retain customers and perhaps find a few new ones with little effort and almost no cost at all. Keep it simple, tell your customers about it, share what you can and start today.

So, can social media really make a small retailer any money? Yes!

20 Ways To Tweet: For Companies, Corporations & Small Businesses

2009-08-05T13:04:00.001-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

20 Ways To Tweet: For Companies, Corporations & Small Businesses

View more presentations from Brett Farmiloe.

42 Social Media Tips For Retailers

2009-08-03T13:25:00.002-05:00

Below are 41 tips to help grow your Social Media Presence. Knowing that all retailers need an extra push when it comes to marketing-- #42 is all mine! Good luck and have fun. Start growing your network today!

Be remarkable - somebody worth making a remark about
Become a resource to others- always
Have your own unique personality
Be vocal and opinionated – politely- within the community
Don’t continuously push the envelope by flooding them with requests
Invest time into social media – have a strategy and stick to it!
Produce and share content that YOUR AUDIENCE will love
Monitor what’s being shared about you
Become a real member of the community
Ask questions and then ask more questions
Answer questions
Provide value to the community
Be controversial when appropriate- Get people thinking- and talking.
Don’t be another “me-too” voice- create your own - and use it wisely
Automate carefully - it’s about people not robots
Don’t be negative—or a jerk. Neither one works in social media.
Make it easy for people to share and bookmark your content
Listen to the community
Make at least one new connection every day
Engage yourself in conversations
Become the conversation
You’re there to make relationships, not hard selling
Take time to focus on building a loyal following
Give, Give, GIVE!
Treat social media like a cocktail party
Be supportive
Syndicate your content across all social media platforms
Encourage others to syndicate your content onto their sites
Fully research the community to understand your market
Be fun
Get to know the unwritten laws of the community
Create an attractive, unique and professional profile
Use a cool avatar/picture
Use the same avatar for each social media service
Don’t disparage others ( No trash talking allowed)
Know what your followers/friends want and give it to them
Form reciprocal arrangements with others
Monitor your noise level
Never cheat the system
Help others unconditionally
Be yourself
START TODAY

Good luck-- we look forward to watching you grow your Social Media exposure!!! Keep us posted!

Tips reprinted courtesy of StanleyTang.com

Turning Facebook Fan Pages into Improved Business Finance!

2009-07-01T13:12:00.003-05:00

Arguably, Facebook is a great way to follow your friends' activities, connect with old friends (and see what they look like today), and even to see what your friends are interested in and who they are connected to- (including the businesses they follow) . But what about Facebook for your business? Is it worth the investment of time and perhaps money when it comes to business? My answer is yes! 1000 times over yes.

Want to know why? It's where your customers are! We already know about the large number of Gen Y'ers who inhabit the Facebook space, but over the last 12 months, the largest increase in Facebook users is coming from the 35-55 years old set!

This I believe, makes Facebook a great opportunity for retailers across every classification of business. Think of it this way, if my customers are on Facebook, then why aren't I?

So--- now you see the benefit to participating in FB for your business. What is next?

The first step is to create a FREE fan page for your business. This will be another way for people to find your business on Facebook besides your personal profile that might mention that you own a business. Need another good reason to set up a Facebook Fan page TODAY? Fan Pages are indexed by Google thus making your Facebook efforts help your other web efforts! To make this work most effectively, take special care in creating a fan page that will have many incoming and outgoing links to your website and other places where your business is mentioned.

Here are some suggestions for what to include on your Facebook Fan Page.

Add key application boxes
1. You Tube Box
2. Simply RSS (import RSS feeds)
3. Others that may be relevant to your specific industry or business
Your Company Blog
Photos
Videos
Share Posted Items
Have a contest
Start a thread on your discussion board
Acknowledge fans
Make sure YOU Become a fan of your own page

Once your page is built, the next stage is to market it effectively and gain fans who will follow your store. Don't forget to put a sign up in the store and direct customers to your fan page. Perhaps you could print a link to your facebook page on your register tape? Counter signs are another effective way to communicate your message. And of course, include a link to your facebook fan page on your website and all electronic mail you send out to customers.

With time and thoughtful content and participation, you can turn a Facebook fan page into a fun and financially lucrative marketing tool for your business. Do you want help setting up a Fan Page for your retail business? Contact CBCG today for more information at info@cbc-group.net.

Marketing Your Retail Business in a Tech Crazy Time Starved World

2009-07-01T10:39:00.010-05:00

Marketing a retail business today is more complex than ever. As consumers find more ways to get information about products and services via the internet, this means a more complex decision making process for retailers when deciding where to market for customers.

Today's marketing has gone thru an evolution thanks to the internet. In the past, savvy marketers used the 4 P's as their guiding principles when making marketing decisions. Deciding what the right product should be, at what price, promoted in the right way and put in the right place was a sure way to garner success in reaching consumers.

In today's business arena, marketing uses the 4 P's as a baseline, and then takes it to the next level by incorporating the 4 Cs of marketing. This means adding tons of relevant, education-based, and user-generated Content that is filtered, aggregated, and delivered in a Context that makes it useful for people who are starving to make Connections with people, products, and brands they can build a Community around.

In simple terms, it's: Content + Context + Connections + Community = Social Media Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch

So what does all this mean for your business? It means that your overarching goal as it relates to marketing is to find means and methods that connect with your customers where they are and in the context that they want to be talked to—not where you want to reach them.

In essence, marketing is becoming more "social." There is a new form of media to use for marketing. It's called Social Media. The key to social media is that all of the content involved revolves around the users (in this case, your customers) participating in the conversation and in some cases, having your customers actually create the content that your business provides!) The goal of social media marketing is to keep consumers talking about your brand in the marketplace.

As many of you may be just starting out, I am going to highlight 5 different categories of social media that you can use to help market your business. Some are more complicated than others to implement, then again, I'm sure many of your sales associates (or maybe even you) use some of the techniques in your personal lives. Why not think about using some of them to grow your business in 2009?

1) Blogging – For most small businesses blogging is the first step into the world of social media. It is the best way to take advantage of a set of powerful business tools while gaining a relatively quick return on your time investment. Want to try blogging for your business?

Begin by reading blogs (industry blogs or perhaps blogs by influential industry members or trendsetters)
Once you understand how people are participating and how the conversation continues, it's now your turn to begin to comment on what you are reading in the blogs. (Blog etiquette: Don't be a "know it all" or a self promoter, just like face to face conversations, this can and will turn off people in the blog community you are speaking with)
Begin your own blog. Now that you have people interested in what you have to say, it will be easier to get them to head over to your blog (where down the road you can shamelessly promote and market your own business!)

Again, how you participate and generate content for blogs will be the cornerstone for your social media programs. Always think about your posts as adding value to your customers in some way. Teaching them something they may not know (but are interested in) or sharing useful information are great ways to become a relevant part of the blog community in a short time. Blogging is the cornerstone to your social media marketing efforts. Make it a good reflection of your business!

2) Social Search – A social search engine is one that lists small businesses and allows people to rate and review them. This works perfectly for retailers as customers always have something to say about a business. Using social search, customers make comments about particular products, services or businesses that they have visited. The key to social search in today's marketing world is to harness feelings (hopefully positive) that customers have about your business and share it with a larger market than your marketing could ever reach (or that you could afford to reach on a small business budget!) If your customers are saying great things about your business, where others can see it, will help build your brand and boost your businesses' credibility. Some of the more popular social/local directories include: Craigslist, Trip Advisor, Yelp, Smalltown and Insider Pages

3) Social Networks – Networking has always been an important marketing skill. Think of social networks as online networking. Facebook is one of the most widely recognized names of social networking, however, you may have heard of others like the photo sharing site called Flikr or the video sharing website You Tube. Social network also provide business application with sites like Linked In where you join and share discussions, questions and business connections with others in your network. Joining these communities and building a presence for your business can help you connect with other bike minded enthusiasts which in turn will help you grow your brand and store reputation.

4) Social Bookmarking – This one is a bit more complex, but it does work. Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata. Tagging content and participating in social bookmarking communities can be a great way to open up more channels to your business. It can also generate extra search traffic, but it takes work.

5) Micro Blogging – Micro blogs are short bursts of content that reach users in real time. Using Micro blogs allows users to send brief text updates (in the case of Twitter, updates in less than 140 characters) or micro-media such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone which can be chosen by the user. Another important key to micro-blogging is the ease and flexibility of how messages can be sent. Traditional desktop or lap top methods to type messages can be chosen, or messages can be submitted via text messaging, instant messaging, email or by using MP3.

The key to micro blogs is that you build a community much like a social network, but you do with short bursts of content. (Want to try it out? Follow me on twitter. I'm @RetailHelper)

So now that you know just enough to be dangerous (or talk to anyone under 25 as it relates to social media) let's talk about how you can use some of these tactics for your business. My suggestion is that you walk before you run with these new marketing tactics and that you don't start using them until you are committed to keeping them active and vibrant.

Do you have questions about how to set up a social media program that will work for your retail business? Contact CBCG today at info@cbc-group.net.

Not All Customers Are Created Equal; Understanding Customer Profitability

2009-06-08T22:56:00.002-05:00

Although Customer Profitability is nothing more than the result of applying the business concept of profit to a customer relationship, measuring the profitability of a retailer’s customers or customer groups can often deliver useful business insights. Quite often a very small percentage of the retailer’s best customers will account for a large portion of the retailer’s profit. Although this is a natural consequence of variability in profitability across your customer base, retailers can benefit from knowing exactly who their best customers are and how much they contribute to the retailer’s profit.

At the other end of the distribution, retailer’s sometimes find that their worst customers actually cost more to serve than the revenue they deliver. These unprofitable customers actually detract from overall profitability. The retailer would be better off if they had never acquired these customers in the first place.

The analysis of customer profitability is a useless exercise unless the retailer utilizes the insights derived to modify business strategy. For example, segmenting customers based on nominal or percentage profitability may direct marketing efforts to higher profit segments resulting in increased return on marketing investments. Additionally, the analysis may identify unprofitable customer clusters that drain customer service resources, thus limiting the service levels delivered to the most profitable customers.

The biggest challenge in measuring customer profitability is the assignment of costs to customers. While it is usually clear what revenue each customer generated, it is often not clear at all what costs the retailer incurred serving each customer. Activity Based Costing can sometimes be used to help determine the costs associated with each customer or customer group. For components of cost not directly related to serving customers, the calculation of customer profit must use some method to fully allocate these costs to customers if the total of customer profit is to match the operating profit of the retailer. If the retailer decides not to allocate these non-customer costs to customers, then the sum of customer profit will be greater than the operating profit of the business.

Like other profit measures, customer profitability is historical. It is a financial summary of what happened in a previous period. And although the past is often indicative of the future, it is easy to imagine situations in which relationships that were unprofitable in the past might become profitable in the future (and vice versa). The forward-looking measure of the value to be derived by serving a customer is called customer lifetime value. Unprofitable customers can have high customer lifetime values (and vice versa).

Those retailers who recognize the value of customer profitability and customer lifetime value and make the investment to analyze their customer base on a regular basis will have a durable competitive advantage. The insights derived will enhance strategy development and enable improved return on marketing investments. The results, a more strategic approach to cost management, more operating profits for the retailer and improved retention of key customers.

Understanding Product Profitability

2009-06-08T22:54:00.002-05:00

If you’re like the majority of retailer’s you have a pretty good idea of your business’s gross profits and the grow margin and/or markup of each of the products you offer for sale. Unfortunately, if you’re like most retailers you do not have an accurate understanding of the profitability of each product taking into account ALL expenses related to the operation of your retail store. How do you allocate rent, utilities, sales staff, back office personnel, advertising and promotion, capital expenditures and other overhead expenses? If you’re smoothing those expenses across all products by revenue generated, the accuracy of your product profitability picture is suspect.

A more detailed analysis of your product portfolio and the allocation of ALL business expenses to each product will provide valuable insights into resource allocation and product portfolio optimization. You may be selling products that are not as profitable as you think. You may be allocating floor space, inventory space and advertising dollars to the wrong product lines. Your overall store profitability is likely under-achieving as a result of a limited view of your true cost structure and an inaccurate methodology of cost allocation.

Now before your eyes roll back in your head and you start to dose off, remember this is about a more strategic approach to product management that delivers money directly to your pocketbook. This is not just a boring accounting exercise, but a laser like approach to identifying the winners and losers in your product selection. Some basic activity based cost accounting is required to be applied, but if you don’t have the skills yourself, seek out professional help. An objective outsider, with an understanding of retail principles and the ability to ask the right questions will rapidly be able to create a product profitability picture of your business. The application of cost pools, drivers, allocation methodology and volume variance analysis are some of the steps required to accurately assess product profitability to aide your strategic decision making.

In the end, a deeper, more robust understanding of product profitability will allow you to make the correct strategic decisions that enhance bottom line results, generating incremental profits you can take home or reinvest in the business. Embrace the numbers, don’t fear them. The ability for you to approach your retail business from a disciplined quantitative perspective will allow you to make better strategic choices, improve customer satisfaction and retention, increase competitive advantage and drive profitable growth.

Increasing Profit, One Penny At A Time

2009-06-08T22:51:00.004-05:00

Let's face it. We've entered some very tough times around the entire globe. Profits in tough times can be enhanced with reductions in overhead.

The initial lens to assess overhead is the customer's. Classify expenses that contribute to the customer experience and those that do not. Obvious examples of the former would include store signage and merchandising strategies. An expense that would not enhance the customer experience might be an expensive subscription service to a specialized newsletter that comes month after month that everyone stopped reading a long time ago. If you look around your store or chain, you'll find many things that may be reduced or eliminated to cut costs without compromising the customer experience.

Here are some examples:

The watering service that comes weekly to water your plants in the stores and the office
The collection of subscriptions to trade magazines and newsletters that no one bothers to read any more
The delivery costs you pay for to get your office and store supplies delivered
Your courier account that everyone uses for all those emergencies
The high premiums you pay on your company vehicles because of your low deductibles
Hiring professional painters to paint the staff area when perhaps some employee or employee's spouse can paint it for a third of the cost
Equipment that racks up unnecessary electrical expenses such as the shipping terminal that's on all the time, the terminal in the manager's office and the stereo system that runs all night after the store is closed
The window washing service that could be done by a staff member in 10 minutes
Buying a new printer cartridge for $45 every month when you can refill the current one up to 20 times for about one quarter of the cost
Adopting a cheaper third party long distance service to replace the pricy one attached to your current phone
Evaluating your current store cleaning schedule and changing the frequency to cleaning every other day and carpet cleaning to every 6 weeks instead of monthly

Opponents to trimming costs can rationalize that every expense enhances the customer experience. Today's retailer can trim many expenses like the examples outlined that really don't affect the customer experience directly. What does it all mean?

It means that in these tough times, a little extra effort by everyone on your team can go far to trimming unnecessary expenses without compromising the customer experience or the motivational level of the employees. Trimming those trivial expenses that have crept in over the years can help ensure survival and prosperity in these tough times. In the short term you’ll see an immediate improvement in your bottom line profitability with no negative impact on revenues or the customer experience. In the long term, your business will operate more leanly and provide positive incremental profitability on an ongoing business as wasted overhead is permanently removed from the business.

Take Action Today

Develop a list of those unnecessary expenses that have crept into your business at all levels
Brainstorm with all staff and build a prioritized list of expenses that can be eliminated; focus on big rewards and ease of implementation in your prioritization exercise
Offer rewards to staff that suggest additional unnecessary expenses that can be eliminated thus improving the bottom line; be careful to emphasize that the cuts cannot negatively impact customer experience
Get staff to put in the extra effort when these expenses are eliminated by setting an example yourself. Roll up your sleeves!

LET’S MAKE A DEAL – Learning to NEGOTIATE in tough economic times

2009-04-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

As the owner of a retail business, you already know it’s tough out there, and it’s only going to get tougher. This economic slump is affecting your business. What can you do? I say-- let's make a deal.

In these times, you need to be especially focused on our bottom line in our negotiations with vendors, customers and everyone else. So how should we negotiate differently in this economic environment?

You're not the only one who's having trouble. Your suppliers are also trouble and they too are searching for ways to stop the bleeding they are experiencing. As a retailer consider how many suppliers you impact and how your existence ensures theirs in some way. Step out of your business for a moment and look at the world through their lens. By being objectively aware of their perspective and you’ll be able to successfully negotiate potential savings for your business.

RENEGOTIATE GOOD DEALS: Take advantage of the current buyer’s market to strike advantageous deals with landlords, suppliers, creditors and others. Just about everything is up for negotiation these days including existing agreements. Suppliers may be willing to exchange price reductions for longer term volume commitments, landlords may be willing to lower rents rather than face vacant store fronts, banks may lower credit card rates and vendor transaction fees, cell phone providers may lower rates rather than face high customer acquisition costs or loss to Voice over Internet Protocol services (such as Skype). It’s crucial to ask all your vendors and service providers what they can do for you and your business. If it’s not the right price, shop around. “People are cutting deals all over the place.”

BARTER: This time-tested mode of exchanging goods has a place in the modern market especially when cash flow becomes a problem. From Santa Barbara to Miami, barter is catching on. Does your web site hosting service require apparel for their staff? Did your graphic designer just have a baby and have a need for your products? Be creative and ask how you can work together and collaborate on ways to help each other. “It’s a ‘win-win’ with no cash either way”.

REVIEW YOUR ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLES: When things are starting to turn down, you want to keep a sharp eye out for someone who is in to you for quite a bit, because if they go under and cash is tight that could have a huge impact on your small business. Think about how you can help them get back on track. Be proactive but understanding – they will be more likely to take your call. Similarly, review your agreements with suppliers. Maybe you don’t have to pay in 30 days; maybe you can pay in 45…or 60. Negotiating your payables will help with any potential financing gap created by a delay in payments from your receivables.

This is just the beginning. Consider evaluating all aspects of your business for opportunities to negotiate better rates and terms that directly lead to bottom-line profit improvements. This diagnostic will help you develop an improved understanding of your suppliers’ capabilities to service your business needs and permit your business to be more competitive in your market every day. Come on - Let’s Make A Deal!

PARTNERSHIP PROFITS Every Business - Especially in a down economy

2009-04-17T11:28:00.005-05:00

Despite today's economic uncertainty, one thing is sure: we all need more sales! In pursuit of the next business opportunity or sale, we have to be vigilant in how we spend our time. Using partnerships is a tremendous method of leveraging your time and utilizing others to help drive your store’s sales. In fact, strategic partnering is no longer an option, but a must.

The whole idea behind partnership brand marketing is to find customers where your company and brand do not compete: It not only provides your brand with additional credibility in aligning with another company but also opens up distribution channels, allows you to reach and market to customers that may not be aware or thinking of your brand, and—most important—it captures the attention of new potential buyers who may not have your brand top of mind.

Find companies who sell non-competitive products or services into the same vertical and form a partnership to mutually increase one another’s distribution. Joint Ventures, strategic alliances, corporate partnering, licensing and distribution agreements, and numerous other collaborative business arrangements provide an exceptional opportunity to catalyze sales growth. In addition to rapidly generating new revenue channels, the formation of key partnerships can provide the additional advantage of creating competitive barriers to entry into certain markets or product lines.

There is no better time than now to evaluate the state of your current partnerships. A smart and cost effective strategy ensures that your current business partnerships are providing what I call "high performance and high impact" to your customers, partners and to you.

Start by objectively evaluating all your current partners (if any) and then drop those that don't align with these two categories that drive incremental value to your business. Or find some new ones in which your capabilities, combined with those of your potential partner, will differentiate your offerings from those of your competition, and drive more business.

It is important to be involved in strategic partnerships to help drive sales in these difficult times. Be careful not to invest too much valuable time and energy into partnerships that don’t maximize the return on investment for your business. Work smart, not just hard, and you will successfully utilize partnerships to grow your business.

Boom! Twitter More Than Doubles Unique U.S. Visitors To 9.3 Million In March

2009-04-17T11:04:00.003-05:00

So you're not really sure that this "Twitter thing" is going to stick around - and how it might have applications for your retail business, right?

Well, it's clear that lots of people-- including potential customers for your business, are catching on -- and signing up for Twitter. Now it's time for you to look into it, and get started for your business.

Check out the article below. More than double......wow...
Boom! Twitter More Than Doubles Unique U.S. Visitors To 9.3 Million In March

So the question must be-- how can I use/adapt Twitter for my business. It's not going away, and it's becoming a powerful tool to spread the word for businesses of all size. Your's included.

Does your business have a "Facebook" Strategy?

2009-03-30T11:38:00.000-05:00

Facebook is certainly a media darling these days. And in my opinion, for good reason. There are so many applications for both personal and business use that everyone should be using it.

I recently found this great article that explains a simple 5 step strategy for using Facebook for your business.
Enjoy.
Let me know if you have any other ideas-- we add our own steps.

Basic Facebook Strategy ; 5 simple steps

Why Business Blogs Fail & Succeed

2009-03-27T12:07:00.001-05:00

This is a great presentation from Lee Oden from this weeks Search Engine Strategy Conference. The how to's are easy to follow for business of any size!
Enjoy.

Why Business Blogs Fail & Succeed

View more presentations from Lee Odden.

Spreading the Word; Change Your World

2009-03-25T09:34:00.001-05:00

These days, any size retailer or small business has a lot on their minds-- and so do your customers. It's as tough as ever to get people to spend money in your store, let alone talk about it to other people.

How can you get them to spread the word for your business today? In a word: Creativity.
Saw this great article that shows you how.... by Marketing specialist Jim Connolly.
word of mouth marketing how to Jim's Marketing Blog

He's got a ton of other great content- and a marketing newsletter too! Great stuff. Hope it helps.

OFFENSE OR DEFENSE? MAKING A KEY DECISION IN A DOWNTURN

2009-03-24T14:31:00.000-05:00

Look at any of the grim economic news – consumer confidence and manufacturing indexes are at 25-year lows, major stock indexes declined by more than 30 percent, storied companies such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and AIG have succumbed to the credit crunch – and it’s easy to see that the world is in a significant recession. Governments around the world are scrambling to save the financial system, led by the United States, which has stepped in with roughly $8 trillion in bailouts, stimuli and other guarantees—an investment worth half the size of the entire U.S. economy.

In an economic downturn, decision-making is distilled in to a clear-cut choice: Do you go on the offensive, aggressively pursuing growth, or do you become defensive, protecting your revenues and profit margins? In CBCG’s experience, the decision is determined by a firm’s competitive position and ability to counteract income-statement and balance-sheet stresses caused by the downturn. Imagine then that you’ve just won the coin toss. Should you receive or kick off?
Lessons learned from the last recession, the dotcom bust of 2001 and 2002, provide hope for survival and some guidance for success. They show that while the impact of economic downturns is wide-ranging across industries and companies, it seldom creates a level playing field: in a downturn, some companies clearly outperform others (see Figure 1).

For example, in retail, while thousands of stores closed across the United States in 2001, and companies such as Kmart and Ames filed for bankruptcy, retailers such as JCPenney and Kohl’s outperformed the competition.
Given that there are such opportunities to outperform even during severe downturns, in 2009 most retailer’s are facing this crucial question: How do we approach those decisions that will allow us to outsmart our competitors?
The choice: Offense or Defense?
Severe economic downturns cause numerous stresses on income statements and balance sheets, led by declining revenues and margins, productivity problems and cash shortages, among others. The current downturn certainly has its own unique DNA, with credit contraction, bank failures, rapid declines in housing values and low consumer confidence impacting nearly every aspect of business. Given this challenge, CEOs looking to the future face a difficult question: Should they go on the offensive, taking advantage of the downturn to buy struggling competitors, or are they better off playing defense, hunkering down and protecting existing revenues and operating margins?
The question does not have a simple answer. The right choice between defense and offense may differ for each particular problem. In some cases, offensive strategies such as pursuing revenue growth in a key market segment or strategic investment in a particular business unit may be the right choices; in others, aggressive protection of revenues, profit margins and the balance sheet may be the correct.
With limited resources available during times of economic distress, the key question is which option to pick and how to plan the execution.
Going on the offensive is a restricted option
Several factors determine a company’s ability to go on the offensive during downturns. First and foremost is the ability of the core business to withstand the stresses created by the downturn. For example, countercyclical revenue streams can allow a retailer to withstand a downturn in one product category if it is successful in another; strong innovations can help to maintain pricing power; sufficient variability in cost structure can help protect margins, and a sound capital structure can give a company the financial flexibility to expand or acquire competitors. Companies that developed these traits in boom times are generally in the best position to take the offensive. Moreover, these traits have been in place for some time before the economic downturn and the related headwinds began.
In some cases, luck or timing can have a significant impact on the ability to get aggressive on go on the offence. Consider this: What if Microsoft had succeeded in buying Yahoo! in February, 2008 for $45 billion, a premium of 62 percent at the time? By the end of the year, Yahoo’s stock had fallen an additional 50 percent, leaving Microsoft in a much better position.
In other cases however, the ability to go on the offensive is purely a result of prudent business strategies put in place prior to the downturn. Before the recession of 2001 hit, Kohl’s focus on a low-cost structure, a unique merchandising philosophy, lean staffing levels and sophisticated management of information systems led to growth that significantly outpaced the retail industry (see Figure 3). When the downturn began, Kohl’s was strongly positioned for an offensive strategy. While other competitors, such as Ames and Kmart, were declaring bankruptcy, Kohl’s step-by-step expansion included organic growth and a series of acquisitions. Eventually, Kohl’s emerged from the downturn with 50 percent more retail space and access to numerous new major metropolitan areas.
Figure 2: Kohl's Goes On Offense And Successfully Outpaces Industry Throughout The 2001 Downturn

Kohl’s Continues its methodical, step-by-step expansion strategy throughout the downturn:
· 137 new store openings, with the total square feet of selling space increasing 46% to 34.5 million ft.²
· 40% growth in number of employees
· Acquisition of existing locations from Bradlee Stores and Caldor Stores as an entry strategy into new markets
· New market entry into major metropolitan areas such as Houston, Phoenix, Boston, Los Angeles etc.

Going on the offensive, however, is not for everyone. While the success stories of pursuing growth during downturns appear seductive, companies with a weak competitive position going into a downturn have little possibility of forming an offense strategy.

A Solid defense: Protecting the core business
Companies facing significant income statement or balance sheet stresses during a downturn will find that its best strategy is to protect its core business by strengthening its defenses. Such a strategy can protect revenue streams and profit margins, or preserve the balance sheet. For example, revenues and margins can be protected with targeted or segmented pricing incentives, strategic sourcing or SGA reduction; balance sheet strength can be preserved by restructuring assets or managing working capital more effectively.
At first glance, defensive actions such as cost-cutting might sound like weaker strategic alternatives compared to offensive moves such as acquiring a struggling competitor. However, analysis indicates that a well-executed defense can in fact present an opportunity to clean house in the short term, and prepare the company for potentially significant growth down the road. Operational strategy and cost transformation highlights two priorities a retailer needs to have to ensure a successful defense during a downturn: 1) Be aggressive with cost-transformation initiatives, in order to step ahead of the downturn, 2) Prepare the business to go on the offensive at the end of the recession.
1. Aggressive targeting of costs
To be successful in the short-term and create longer-term strategic advantages, retailers have to look beyond the “low hanging fruit” for cost transformation and develop an all encompassing strategy. Instead of simply targeting headcount or minimizing inventory, retailers should seek a comprehensive set of changes that can drive success both sooner and later.
Finally, aggressiveness also relates to the velocity of action necessary to implement cost-cutting initiatives. Severe economic downturns create a need for long-term realignment in the way retailers do business. The speed with which owners respond determines how fast they emerge from the downturn.
2. A strong defense means preparing to take the offensive
While the short-term objective for CEOs may be to halt the decline in revenue or margins, the best defense prepares the company to go on the offense when the downturn ends. The strategy adopted by the executive team at JCPenney during the 2001 economic downturn is an outstanding example of such an approach.
As shown in Figure 3, JC Penney sputtered into the economic downturn following a history of several years of declining profitability and operating margins at levels below most of its competitors. JCPenney had missed the “retail wave” of the 1990s because of a host of problems, including poor merchandise selection, an unproven marketing message, and a decentralized operating model. Furthermore, management’s lack of faith in its retail assets led it to use the company’s capital to diversify into the drugstore business with the purchase of Eckerd, which became a drag on profits. Under the leadership of a new management team, a five-year turnaround strategy was launched to turn the ship. The early initiatives were classic defensive moves: staff reductions, the closing of unprofitable stores, the introduction of more effective inventory management, and the eventual sale of non-core assets, such as Eckerd.
Figure 3. JC Penney’s Defense Strategy Led To A Remarkable Turnaround
However, JC Penney’s defensive strategy also focused on the creation of long-term strategic advantages that would eventually enable the company to go on the offensive. The company invested in a new distribution system to decrease long-term transportation costs in the supply chain, a costly move but one that was critical to its long-term growth. After almost 100 years of decentralized store management, JC Penney transformed itself into a centralized company that included a unified marketing message, more targeted merchandising, updated technology, new store layouts and improved store operations. All these initiatives, coupled with a renewed focus on consumer preferences led to a remarkable transformation in the years following the recession.
The lesson for retailers who choose the defensive option for withstanding an economic downturn is crucial: Be aggressive with the turnaround plan, but also ensure that any plan for remaining on the defensive includes details for switching strategies and going on the offensive once the downturn shows signs of coming to an end.
Putting the plan in place
There are significant opportunities to improve competitive position during a downturn, regardless of the strategy chosen. On the one hand, companies that go on the offensive can either continue to follow their existing growth strategy or leverage their strong competitive positions to adopt even more aggressive strategies, such as acquiring weaker competitors at a discount. On the other hand, an aggressive, well-executed turnaround plan can create a sustainable advantage for a company and potentially position it to outperform even its stronger competitors by the end of the downturn.
No one knows how deep and long the current recession will be. Competitors could fail, creating unforeseen opportunities, consumer confidence could sink even further, or the balance sheet could be in worse state than previously thought. Retailers are hearing about the choices and challenges of this environment from every direction—family, friends, lenders, investors, the media and others. Meeting these challenges requires any retailer to answer this important question: Do I choose to receive the ball and start with the offense or do I kick off and put my defense on the field?

Source: Ivey Business Journal, CBCG and ATK

Marketing Strategy Rules to Improve Effectiveness of Your Campaigns

2009-03-09T20:15:00.004-05:00

A good marketing technique is one part of the business that is absolutely essential to its success. In fact, the ability to properly market a product or service is actually more important than the product itself. Even an inferior product can be a financial success if marketed properly.

Regardless of the nature of your business, the managing of the marketing function will demand more creativity and more astute judgment than any other single phase of the business. The end purpose of all the activity – e.g. inventory accumulation and production – is the accomplishment of those exchange transactions called “sales.” A smart entrepreneur designs the firm’s organizational structure so as to give the marketing component its deserved prominence. Below are some rules to increase the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

Consider the "80/20” rule
Do you know that but 80% of your marketing efforts are often spent on the customers or clients yielding only 20% of the annual revenues? A practical rule of thumb that you can apply to your marketing planning is the eighty-twenty principle. Look at your client list and identify those customers that were taking up all of your time and not producing results. Some of your prospects may recognize their need or problem and understand that you have a solution, but are not ready or able to pay you. Find customers who will pay you to meet their needs or solve their business problem. Shift your focus to the more productive clients and less time-consuming with long-term growth potential.

Get close to the customer
In today's marketplace, getting close means treating customers and clients (and in certain cases, even vendors) as if they truly are your strategic partners and you truly care about them and their employees. It is important to try to satisfy them with the right products and services, supported by the right promotion and available at the right time and location. Customers can easily detect indifference and insincerity, and they simply will not tolerate it. Long-term client and customer loyalty is a long-term challenge that you must earn every day and with every transaction. Building customer loyalty is particularly difficult for e-commerce businesses, where competitors are but a mouse click away. Small business, in order to compete with big conglomerates, should strive to establish a culture of customer service that aims to delight the customers.

Work smarter
Often the most effective marketing strategy or campaign is not necessarily the most expensive or the most complex. Traditional businesses – from the emerging growth companies to the industrial giants -- are getting better results by focusing on simplification. Simplification is achieved by reducing unnecessary product and service lines, outsourcing post-sale functions such as training and support, cutting back on trade promotions, easing up on coupons, trimming new product launches, spinning off marginal brands, and using old-fashioned face-to-face meetings for maintaining relationships with clients and customers.

Take advantage of advancements in technology
More and more firms are setting up web sites and learning how to use the Internet as a marketing tool. The Internet has allowed even small entrepreneurs to reach a much wider market, providing information about the company and serving customers’ needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some traditional companies use the Internet as a powerful complementary marketing tool, while some small businesses start directly on the Internet.

Reach out to the global markets
The World Wide Web has allowed every e-commerce web site to make its offerings globally accessible. Small businesses therefore need to expand their marketing and sales efforts beyond the domestic markets. Take the time to learn the challenges of doing business overseas and how to serve foreign customers well. Many small and growing companies that have ventured abroad as pioneers of doing business in the global village have discovered lucrative and receptive new markets. Remember, if your business is not yet global, then you are missing the opportunity – and the point – of conducting business on the Internet.

Keep your eyes open
A growing small business needs to constantly have their eyes and ears open to emerging trends in their markets, technological developments, and steps taken by their competitors. To keep you informed, closely monitor the attitudes of your employees and the opinions of your "stakeholders" such as vendors, customers, staff, landlords, lenders, directors, and stockholders. Successful entrepreneurs are focused 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on how to get new customers and clients as well as how to keep existing clients happy.

Take care of existing clients, while getting new ones
While small businesses need to constantly capture new customers, the priority should be continue pleasing the existing customer base. Companies that fail to nurture their customer base ultimately fails. Your ability to attract new customers will be limited and eventually impossible if you can't hold on to, and delight your existing customers and clients. It costs twice as much to get new clients rather than maintaining your customer base. Remember, one of the keys to marketing and growth is getting more business from existing clients and customers.

Prioritize your relationship with customers
This old adage is also applicable to marketing and customer service. Too often growing companies’ focus on the customers only, not on where the customers come from. The sources of client and customer referrals are relationships that must be coveted and maintained just as effectively as direct client and customer relationships. This is particularly true on the Internet, where it is important to build, enhance and maintain relationships that direct traffic to your site, by reciprocating wherever possible and refining the relationships as they evolve.

Think outside the box
The traditional solutions to sales and marketing problems yield traditional results. Putting your company on a rapid growth track means being willing to break through old paradigms, engage in street fighting with your competition, and approach marketing and promotion with fresh ideas and approaches. For example, instead of focusing on lowering prices to meet the competition, retool your strategy around adding value and enhancing the customer's experience. Nordstrom's strategy of focusing on the quality of the customer's experience and not on the price is very effective. The old adage "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten" is true in many types of industries and can be a much more profitable strategy in the long run.

Marketing is as much about perception as it is about reality
Marketing is the art and science of moving the image of your business to the forefront of a prospect’s mind. In the mind of the customer, a product or service has an assured baseline level of quality. Hence, small businesses need to emphasize the intangible and often elusive “value added.” The task of the marketing plan, therefore, is to advance the image of your product – preferably one that emphasizes customer benefits and your “distinctive competency.” Entrepreneurs must strive to build brand image and loyalty as well as establish market leadership. In several instances, market leadership and consistency in the customer's experience can often triumph over quality. For example, the market leadership and worldwide consistency of McDonald's keeps sales growing, even if its hamburgers are not the best on the planet.

Remain focused on your core products
Most successful companies have stayed focused on a particular product or service category, even if it meant the sacrifice of ancillary sales or the loss of certain customers. For example, when you think about Blockbuster, you think about video rentals. Over the years, Blockbuster has also inched its way into video game rentals and a limited line of candy and merchandise, but the focus has remained on video rental. The key point is that Blockbuster could have tried to sell other products and services to the "captured customer" who spends 15 or 20 minutes choosing a video in its stores, but it had the discipline to stay focused on its core business, which has propelled its growth worldwide.

Source: Powerhomebiz.com

Tough Times Call For Bright, New Ideas

2009-03-09T19:59:00.005-05:00

It's a scary time to own a business, and the knee-jerk reaction may be to just keep chugging along and wait out the financial storm. But that's a risky decision.

This recession is expected to be longer, deeper and deadlier for businesses than any this nation has seen in decades.

The savviest entrepreneurs right now aren't hunkering down. They're rethinking their business models and hunting for new strategies based on the assumption that consumer spending won't be rebounding to prerecession levels and that the types of products and services people want will be much different from before.

For a business owner, this can mean finding new sales channels, trying new marketing tactics and promotions, forming strategic partnerships and introducing new products that appeal to frugal shoppers. "Unfortunately, bad news has this huge ability to paralyze people," says Victor Cheng, a San Francisco business consultant. "I think it is very important for a small-business owner to be fast and nimble" right now. He suggests businesses do a hard evaluation of all segments of their businesses and focus in only on the ones that seem to be faring well in this economy.

New Outlets
Many businesses have already started making changes big and small, sometimes with benefits they didn't expect.

Stone Hearth Pizza, an organic-pizza chain with three small restaurants in the Boston suburbs, considered opening a fourth restaurant last fall. But founders Chris Robbins and Jonathan Schwarz were then approached by natural-foods grocery chain Whole Foods Market about selling prepackaged pizzas in the stores' refrigerated-foods section. After evaluating the idea, the founders decided that starting a wholesale channel would diversify their business at a time when consumers are dining at home more because of the weak economy. Sales at Stone Hearth's restaurants have fallen about 6% to 7% since early December, but grocery-store sales nationwide are increasing, Mr. Robbins says.

Later this month, Stone Hearth will begin selling its pizzas in 26 Whole Foods stores across New England. The company is also reaching out to other grocery-store chains and major commercial food-services providers in hopes of expanding its wholesale channel.
What's more, the founders stumbled across another benefit to selling wholesale: It's much cheaper to prepare and package pizzas from a commissary kitchen than it is to run a full restaurant, hiring wait staff and leasing the space. "We'll be able to do significant volumes with one shift, 9 to 5, Monday through Friday," says Mr. Robbins.

Expanding Services
For other entrepreneurs, now is a good time to focus on better serving loyal customers and offering new services to make them even more loyal.

Heather Becker, owner of the Chicago Conservation Center, which restores artwork and antique furniture for private collectors, corporations and small museums, recently launched a free email newsletter with tips and information about conserving artwork. She sends it to about 20,000 previous customers every other month.

She is also promoting free in-home consultations for area residents with questions about conserving their collections, and will provide advice to collectors who email photos. She recently leased a 20,000-square-foot building so she can rent out storage space to art collectors -- something several collectors have inquired about in the past.

Ms. Becker hopes that expanding consulting and educational services will garner more trust and appreciation among her customers, leading to new revenue streams as she shows how passionate and knowledgeable she is about art preservation. She has also been giving lectures on art preservation. "If clients really perceive you as a resource for knowledge, I think they can more rely on you when they really need help with something," she says.

Hitting a Wider Audience
Some small businesses are coming up with lower-priced options and forming strategic partnerships with other businesses that can help their own.

Parties That Cook, a San Francisco company that hosts cooking parties as corporate team-building events, typically sells packages for $75 to $115 per person -- ranging from appetizer cooking classes to an "Iron Chef" type of competition where employee teams are judged on concoctions they prepare. But more companies are slashing their events budgets this year, and sales fell 50% in January from the previous year.

Chief Executive Bibby Gignilliat and her team recently introduced a new offering: For $45 per person, companies can bring employees for a cooking demonstration rather than having employees fix dishes themselves.

The company also began partnering with other food businesses in the Bay Area, including an urban winery and a sustainable-agriculture organization, and in coming weeks is hosting an array of cooking classes for the general public. Though these don't generate as much money as corporate events, Ms. Gignilliat feels they're more marketable right now. "We're trying to get into budgets that aren't going to be eliminated in this economy."

Source: Kelly K. Spors, Wall Street Journal

Twitter- Is it right for my retail business?

2009-03-09T13:12:00.010-05:00

As retailers, we're time starved on a daily basis. Yet we know we have to find and make the time to do marketing for our business. In today's challenging retail market place, the biggest marekting buzz for businesses of all size is to use social media and social networking as a way to market a business.

Somewhere, between the boxes and the ordering, we have heard that SM can help us improve the marketing reach and help build a loyal community for our business. So how can we manage to find time we need to participate in social networking for our businesses?

Twitter is one of the social networking sites that can help you achieve your business and marketing goals. It's a type of micro blog- no need to write long winded stories here-- Twitter is all about short bursts of characters - 140 to be exact (perfect for busy retailers!) The key to success with Twitter is learning how to manage the time you spend on the site wisely to help you maximze the results for your business.

There are many applications that are available today to help you maximize your twitter experience- and thus your brand exposure - take a look at this great article by a twitter expert @problogger. (If you're on twitter make sure to follow @problogger too!)

10 Twitter Tools that Help You Work Smarter
Posted using ShareThis

Hope it helps you understand some of the possibilities that can help you maximize your Twitter experience.
And by all means, if you're on twitter-- let's follow each other--CBCG can be found at @retailhelper

Postage Costs are Going Up - Do You Know What That Means?

2009-03-08T10:24:00.002-05:00

All businesses- retail and otherwise are tightening their belts and looking to save money at every turn during this challenging economy-
As postage costs go up March 11- have you thought about what that means for your direct mail costs? Should you be looking to make some shifts in how you market your business?

Here's a great article on that subject by one of my favorite small business advocates- Anita Campbell. Enjoy-- and think- about what you might need to do differently for your business in the coming year.

Postage Costs are Going Up - Do You Know What That Means?

Modernize Your Marketing – FREE WEBINAR

2009-02-25T12:44:00.003-05:00

Presents:
Modernize Your Marketing Today and
Reap the Rewards All Year Long
Thursday March 12, 2009 1- 2 pm EST

Join CBCG founder and President Lynn Switanowski-Barrett as she shares compelling marketing ideas that can propel your store to success all year~

• Discover How Changing Consumer Demographics And Evolving Retail Marketplace Dynamics Are Affecting Your Business; Learn Simple Changes You Can Make Today That Will Have An Effect All Year Long

• Learn Modern Marketing Tactics That Can Improve Sales And Profits At Any Time Of Year; Save Money Using The Internet To Connect With Customers Of Every Age

• Understand What Marketing Activities Will Build A Community Of Loyal Shoppers And Brand Evangelists At Your Store; Create A Community Of Users That Will Rave About Your Brand For You!

This webinar can help small businesses of any size to create a more effective marketing strategy. Learn how Newspaper and Radio were yesterday’s choice, and why today’s choices are so much more compelling to your customers!

Effective Marketing Means Delivering A Message Where Your Customers Can Find It- Sign Up And Learn Some New Marketing Tactics That Will Help You Connect With Your Customers And Drive More Sales For Your Store Today!

Sign up today! Space is limited to 50 people. Join us on March 12 and move your marketing forward this year.

To sign up, Please email us your name and the email address where webinar details can be sent at info@cbc-group.net. (Please be advised, you will need an email address an internet connection to view this webinar.)

For more information about CBCG or it’s founder, please visit our website http://www.cbc-group.net/ or call us at 617 437 9191

Make a Referral - jump start the economy

2009-02-16T15:45:00.001-05:00

"Let's help make small business even better- One referral at a time. "

I'm pledging to make a referral to a business I want to help as part of a national campaign to make 1000 referrals March 9-13. What a great small business stimulus plan.

View >>

60-Second Guide to Managing Upset Customers

2009-02-12T00:11:00.004-05:00

Having respect for your customers will ensure their faith in and loyalty to you and your retail business. Studies show that it is nine times more difficult to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one, so it is critical to keep your current customers happy. Surveys, focus groups, and questionnaires are helpful ways to measure your customers' perceptions of your business and to determine how to improve.

If a customer is dissatisfied, take action immediately to win back their confidence in the services that you provide. People like to know that their opinion counts and if they feel like you care about what they think, they will think positively of you and your business.

In just 60-seconds, you'll learn how to manage upset customers and turn them into long-term, satisfied customers.

0:60 Stay Calm
Listen carefully and without interruption to your customers' complaints. Acknowledge that there is a problem, and empathize with unhappy customers. Let them know what you can do for them and make them aware of all of their options. Always treat your customers with respect. Customers should feel that you are calm but concerned. Your attitude when dealing with upset customers should be professional, mature, pleasant, and reasonable.

0:46 Work At Gaining Loyal Customers
The number one reason that customers stop buying from a particular business is because someone at that business treated them poorly. Again, it is much more cost effective to retain loyal customers than to gain new ones. In order to create loyalty, you have to calm down upset customers and ensure them that you will work to find a solution that they deem acceptable. Let them know that their business is important. Thank them for their patience and cooperation. In many cases, it pays to reward upset customers in order to keep their business.

0:38 Look And Act Professional
A first impression is a lasting impression. Your appearance should signal that you are professional, mature, and knowledgeable. Nonverbal communication also speaks volumes. Your body language and tone of voice should be polite and tactful. Pay attention to your facial expressions, posture, gestures, and speech.

0:20 Choose Your Patrons
There are some people who will never be happy with your products or services. Repeated complaints from a customer and terminal dissatisfaction are signs that you cannot please him or her. Your business is better off without such customers, and you may want to refer them elsewhere.

0:11 Ensure That Mistakes Aren't Repeated
Once you determine the problem and how it originated, you can take steps to ensure that it does not happen again. Learning about a problem can actually help improve your business so long as you ensure that the problem is avoided in the future. Don't make the same mistake twice. Through dealing with upset customers, you learn about human behavior and become better at resolving similar situations.

0:03 Don't Take Criticism Personally
Many discourteous customers act that way because they made a mistake and want to blame someone else. Don't let these customers get to you by responding emotionally or giving in to outrageous demands. Tears, anger, and sarcasm are highly inappropriate reactions.

Source: SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business"

What Do The World's Best Retail Loyalty Programs Have In Common?

2009-02-12T00:05:00.002-05:00

Innovation and creativity are among the key factors that define a successful customer loyalty program, particularly in the retail sector. The primary objective of the retailer is to keep the high-potential customer from straying by offering a loyalty program that is unique and exciting. That said, some underlying elements set apart the world's most successful retail loyalty programs from the also-rans.

Clear And Specific Objectives
Objectives are to a loyalty program what the destination is to a journey. A successful loyalty program is based on specific measurable targets and objectives. For instance, 'increasing share of wallet by 10% by year-end' is a better objective than 'increasing sales'. Laying down specific objectives has several advantages. It enables the retailer to design appropriate loyalty strategies and target relevant consumer segments. It simplifies the process of communicating the rationale behind the program to all concerned. Once the program is launched, the progress can be monitored against the goals and targets, and strategic changes made if required.

Thorough Research And Analysis
The customer is at the core of all loyalty-building measures. Hence, gaining a deep insight into consumer behaviour, motivation and expectations is crucial to the success of a loyalty program. The research needs to be well balanced and must contain data from various perspectives like demographic profile and socio-economic status of customers, purchase patterns, behavioural drivers, reward expectations, special interests and lifestyle factors.

The Feel-Good Factor
If there is one single factor that can decide the fate of a loyalty program, it is the personal touch. The raison d'etre of a customer loyalty program is to make the customer feel privileged and valued. The best programs do not stop with doling out rewards, cards and discounts. Instead, they constantly work at building a lasting relationship with the customer through various initiatives like customized loyalty cards, newsletters that not only help the firm and the customer stay in touch but also create a sense of belonging; a card or a voucher on birthdays and special occasions and organizing members-only events. For instance, members of Club West, the loyalty club of the Westside chain, receive an exclusive invitation to the bi-annual sale. They have the privilege of starting their shopping 90 minutes before the store's regular opening hour on the first day of the sale. The chain also pampers its loyalty program members with birthday cards, gift vouchers and special discounts. To ensure that the relationship is a two-way affair, Westside regularly seeks feedback from its members and ensures that complaints, if any, are dealt with promptly.

Smart Rewards
No loyalty program can survive on assumptions like 'everyone loves a discount'. A smart reward is one that is valued by the customer and at the same time, meets the program's objectives. Variety, uniqueness and attainability are among the several aspects to be considered while offering rewards. Often, an ongoing privilege scheme such as a discount on every purchase makes more business sense than a one-time gift, since the former encourages more footfalls and repeat purchases. Some of the most popular loyalty programs also involve several retailers and services as partners. This bundling of rewards creates a perception of maximum benefit to the customer, who becomes eligible for gifts and discounts from each of the partners. A prime example is UK's Nectar Card, which is jointly floated by Sainsbury's, BP, Debenhams Stores, Ford and many other partners. Similarly, the BonusLink Card, which is hugely popular in Malaysia, allows members to earn points and rewards at several major retailers.

Technology
Thanks to the technology revolution, cutting-edge software and data tracking mechanisms have emerged as a distinctive feature of the best loyalty program. As with any strategic intervention, the operational aspects are as crucial to the effectiveness of a loyalty program as the concept and plans. Loyalty software that combine multiple functions like data tracking and storage, automated transactions, updating membership details, points and churn etc. can ensure that the loyalty initiative is well co-coordinated, efficient and hassle-free.

Data Mining
A major advantage of implementing a loyalty program is that the company gets access to a wealth of customer-related data. Successful retailers realize that the utility of this data is not restricted to the loyalty program. They use the information to foster better relationships with the customer, improve the product or service delivery process, from new product development to the nitty-gritty of the marketing strategy, and enhance the quality of business intelligence. A smart firm realizes that the first step to customer loyalty is through customer satisfaction.

Ongoing Communication
Many firms make the mistake of launching a loyalty program with great fanfare, and then letting it drift. A loyalty program is not a one-time affair, and definitely cannot run on its own steam. It needs a push now and then to enliven it, and to get the customer enthused once again. The best programs maintain an active relationship with the customer by informing them of new developments, offers etc. and seeking their feedback. This last bit is tricky, for customers also expect firms to act on feedback and let them know they are taking the communication seriously.

Organizational Commitment
Customer loyalty programs need complete support and commitment from the top management in order to be successful. The program should also secure buy-in from all employees concerned by involving them in formulating the program strategy and implementation plan. Nothing could be more disastrous than a disgruntled employee lackadaisically administering a loyalty program. A final word - a loyalty program reflects the values and culture of a company's leadership or owners. The truly successful loyalty programs are not just short-term measures to expand the customer base. By aligning with the organization's strategy, mission and vision, they contribute significantly to long-term profitability, growth and competitiveness.

Source: http://www.direxions.co.in/

2009-02-11T23:22:00.002-05:00

10 Tips To Build Customer Loyalty

The key to a successful retail business is a steady customer base. After all, successful businesses typically see 80 percent of their business come from 20 percent of their customers. Too many retailers neglect their loyal customer base in pursuit of new customers. However, since the cost to attract new customers is significantly more than to maintain your relationship with existing ones, your efforts toward building customer loyalty will certainly payoff.

Here are ten ways to build customer loyalty:

1. Communicate. Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, reach out to your steady customers.

2. Customer Service. Go the extra distance and meet customer needs. Train the staff to do the same. Customers remember being treated well.

3. Employee Loyalty. Loyalty works from the top down. If you are loyal to your employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to your customers.

4. Employee Training. Train employees in the manner that you want them to interact with customers. Empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customer.

5. Customer Incentives. Give customers a reason to return to your store. For instance, because children outgrow shoes quickly, the owner of a children's shoe store might offer a card that makes the tenth pair of shoes half price. Likewise, a dentist may give a free cleaning to anyone who has seen him regularly for five years.

6. Product Awareness. Know what your steady patrons purchase and keep these items in stock. Add other products and/or services that accompany or compliment the products that your regular customers buy regularly. And make sure that your staff understands everything they can about your products.

7. Reliability. If you say a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, deliver it on Wednesday. Be reliable. If something goes wrong, let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience.

8. Be Flexible. Try to solve customer problems or complaints to the best of your ability. Excuses - such as "That's our policy" - will lose more customers then setting the store on fire.

9. People over Technology. The harder it is for a customer to speak to a human being when he or she has a problem, the less likely it is that you will see that customer again.

10. Know Their Names. Remember the theme song to the television show Cheers? Get to know the names of regular customers or at least recognize their faces.

Source: www.allbusiness.com

Retail Resolutions for 2009

2009-01-14T12:12:00.004-05:00

2009 is going to be a challenging year for retailers everywhere. CBCG has resolved to help retailers-big and small - survive- and even thrive in this challenging economy.

We've compiled our top 10 resolutions for the New Year. We hope you will make them part of your everyday business life in 2009.

1) Conduct An Objective Strategic Assessment Of My Business
2) Investigate Less Expensive Electronic Marketing Methods
3) Improve Effectiveness Of My Email Marketing Campaigns
4) Increase Utilization Of Social Networking Applications (Or Resolve To At Least Learn More About The World Of Web 2.0 Before It Becomes Web 3.0)
5) Be Disciplined In My Inventory Management Practices
6) Get Face-To-Face With My Customers More Often
7) Be More Assertive In Negotiations With My Suppliers
8) Optimize Cash Flow Management And Financing Terms
9) Objectively Assess The Opportunity For Additional Sales From Alternative Channels Of Distribution– Internet, Corporate, Etc.
10) Overcome Fear To Ask For Help When I Need It

Networking 101 for 2009

2009-01-04T16:40:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year!

It's time for a new year and a new strategy to help your retail business grow. We're looking forward to sharing lots of new ideas with you over the coming year that you can use in this challenging economic time. We're starting off the year with a reminder that sometimes a new twist on basics can have wonderful results.

Networking is hotter than ever as the "NEW" way to grow your business this year.

Here's what in and OUT this year when it comes to networking courtesy of Women's DISH from the DowntownWomensClub.com (Speaking of networking, start with DWC, it's a great place to meet and network with Women)
Enjoy.

2009 2008
Networking both online AND in-person Networking exclusively online OR in-person
Boosting your Google juice Hiding from internet search engines
LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Rolodexes, mass emails, and cold-calls
Using technology to save big money Spending big money on technology
Investing in yourself Investing in your closet
Taking credit for accomplishments Living on credit to appear accomplished
Working smarterm Working longer
Peer and reverse mentoring Top-down mentoring
Helping others Helping yourself
Networking right now Putting off networking until later

Courtesy of: Women’s Dish Downtown Women’s Club
http://womensdish.typepad.com/the_womens_dish/2009/01/whats-in-and-ou.html

Holiday retail sales forecast-- Are you ready?

2008-09-17T16:04:00.002-05:00

So, it's finally arrived. The first news about the projected Holiday season. I'm quite sure that many outlets will pick this up soon.

http://www.retailforward.com/pressroom/pressreleases/091708.asp

The Question is - -How is your business prepared for this Holiday?
Are your inventory levels in good shape to weather this projected downturn?
Do you have a well planned and comprehensive marketing program set up to engage, excite and inspire your customers to make purchases at your store this holiday season?

If the answer to any of these questions is no- I suggest you start planning right now!
And don't stop until you come up with something that will wow your customers and win the $$$ out of their wallets at your store!

Good luck.
Lynn

You Tube for Your Business?

2008-09-08T18:04:00.006-05:00

or How to use Social Media Marketing for Small Business

As a supporter of small businesses, and one who understands the words "limited budget" I think it's imperative that small businesses use any and all ways they can to attract attention to their businesses. That is why I am so keen on including social media marketing to grow even the smallest of businesses.

To get you started, here are six ways small businesses can jump on the social marketing bandwagon with a moderate investment of time and/or money.

1 Start a blog. Blogging is old news to many (Web 1.5, perhaps?), but for many small business owners, there is a lot of uncharted water here. What is a blog? A weblog, or blog, is a great way to open up a dialogue with your customers, and that connection is the reason social marketing exists. There are many blog sites that will help format your blog- WordPress is one that comes to mind that is absolutely free. The time investment is completely up to you, but this truism applies: The more you put into it, the more you'll get out. Still, it's okay-and I'd even say it's recommended-to start slowly and increase your time investment as you get comfortable with using a blog.

2. Comment on other blogs. You can't blog into a vacuum. Blogging is about creating and joining conversations, and that includes reading what others in your industry are saying and joining the discussion on other blogs. It's free, and again, the time investment is up to you. You'll be able to supply your name and websiteURL when leaving a comment, and there's no debate that intelligent comments on other blogs helps build traffic to yours.

3. Make and share videos. Good video cameras are cheap these days, and a short video needs little editing/production. Even if you do decide to add some sizzle to a video, the required software won't break the bank. How-to videos are an obvious choice. "Tour" videos-tours of your business, restaurant, the homes you build or sell, etc. are also a good idea. In addition to using them on your own Web site or blog, YouTube is an obvious sharing destination. Local search is also embracing video: CitySearch recently announced that local video ads will be added to its listings, and YellowPages.com is also pursuing video opportunities.

4. Take and share photos. I'm a longtime believer in using Flickr as a marketing tool. The time and cost investment is minimal. And thanks to Flickr's incredibly active photo groups, you can share photos of your products with people who are interested. A pet store owner could share photos with the 2,000+ members of the pet parade group, which is one of dozens of animal-related groups. A company that makes iPod accessories could post nice product photos in the Apple group, with its ~2400 members. And a construction company that makes custom homes could post photos in the appropriate city group, like San Francisco or Chicago.

5. Try StumbleUpon. Of all the discovery-type of social sites (Digg, Reddit, Netscape, etc.), I believe StumbleUpon requires the lowest time investment. Joining groups related to your industry and adding friends from those groups can be done quickly. Once you do that, as you add pages to StumbleUpon-including your own great content-other users will "stumble upon" what you've added. As those visitors give it the "thumbs up", your content is then shown to even more users. Best of all, you won't need to spend several months building up a great user profile.

6. Join groups & mailing lists. Social marketing is about finding your customers where they are. There's a good chance at least some of your customers are using Yahoo Groups or Google Groups to share interests. Much like the Flickr examples above, there are probably groups/lists that are highly related to the products or services you offer. And much like the Yahoo Answers suggestion, being able to help others in this community setting can be a great marketing tool.

Every social marketing opportunity will have its own rules to follow, and you should make sure you know those rules. But here's one general rule for using these sites as marketing tools: Don't spam the system. Flickr doesn't want your entire product inventory posted, and they have rules against doing so. But a few high-quality photo submissions that add to the community are fine.

Whatever social marketing you do, ONE KEY RULE APPLIES-- Be An Active Contributor. Add to the signal, not the noise. When you do that, you're on the road to social marketing success and to driving both sales and awareness for your business- no matter what size it is.

Learn the Fatal Flaws That Can Lead to Fabulous Failures at Retail

2008-05-27T10:25:00.004-05:00

5 Fatal Mistakes for Small Retailing

In today's fast-moving and ever-changing business environment, mistakes can be fatal. Even at best, statistics show that about half of small businesses last less than two years. Even though the list of potential mistakes that retailers can make is long, with the help of our friends at http://www.entrepreneur.com/ we offer five of the key areas to watch for where a mistake can be costly- and devastating for your business.

Failure to plan effectively and objectively: Many new retailers plunge into business with little more than a prayer and a lot of optimism. In today’s challenging economy, prayers won’t even be enough! It takes time and discipline to prepare a business plan and estimate your financial needs. Nothing kills a retail business quicker than being underfunded to whether slow times, or to cover unexpected start up costs. Planning should also include location research, target market definition and appropriate product selection to meet your target markets needs.

Focusing on products and not the market: Too many small businesses hang on to products well beyond their optimum selling lifetime. True, key items provide sales and profits that are hard to give up however the law of diminishing returns says too much of a good thing can be a bad thing for your business. Don't become married to your products. Look for signs that the selling is slowing down, and plan for the end of one good item by constantly testing new items and finding new products that can fill the sales revenue you once had!

Failure to change with the market environment: Where customer’s shop, how much time they spend shopping and what they will pay for products has dramatically changed since the advent of the internet as a viable shopping destination. Don’t let your store get caught in a sales slowdown by not anticipating the changes you need to make to keep current- and relevant- for ALL your customers. For some of you, this will mean an inevitable crash course in marketing online and using technology as a business tool, but trust me, if you don’t study, you will eventually lose out to more updated and sophisticated competition!.

Underestimating the demands of retailing: Those of us in the retail industry are some of the most passionate people in the world, however, passion doesn’t always translate to profits. The constant demands of operating a successful retail store are all consuming and many times, retailers mistakenly underestimate their abilities to service all the needs of their business. For instance, many retailers don’t carve out enough time for marketing their businesses. They assume that because they have a good eye for choosing product, customers will come. Trust me, if you can’t create effective marketing campaigns to tell your potential customers that you carry those products, your store is a candidate for failure. If you're not prepared to commit a large portion of your life, at least in the beginning, perhaps owning your own store should wait a while longer.

Neglecting customer service: This may be the single biggest cause of failure for retailers today because so many of them take it for granted. Customers are not there for retailer convenience, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Retail businesses can succeed or fail because of their locations, but wherever you are located, not having business hours to accomodate your customers needs will hasten the process of failure for sure. The other major sin in this category is failing to treat all customers with courtesy and respect. I'm constantly amazed at the treatment customers receive from retail employees. Things as basic as not greeting customers when they enter the store, offering help in merchandise selection, and ignorance about the store policies and stock are commonplace occurrences. Key lesson: Train your employees--and yourself--on the basics of customer courtesy and service.

Although avoiding these five fatal mistakes won't ensure retailing success, committing them will surely bring you closer to the brink of failure. There are so many risks and pitfalls in today's rapidly changing marketplace, it makes sense to increase your odds of success by avoiding them.

For other great tips on small business, CBCG recommends visiting http://www.entrepreneur.com/.

On The Shelf Or In The Bank?

2008-03-11T16:34:00.006-05:00

Where would you rather have your inventory dollars situated? It sounds easy to answer, but those in the business know that it is a tough thing to execute for even the best retailers in the marketplace.

Think of it this way- every item you have sitting on your shelf should eventually be transformed into cash in your bank account, and the sooner the better. As long as it's inventory, it's basically dead weight. If it is not moving, you're not having cash flow. So, what is YOUR plan for turning inventory into cash for your business? Here are some of our favorite ways. Want to add your own? Drop us a line. dave@cbc-group.net.

Here are six recommendations to minimize the cost of your inventory:

· Attempt to forecast as accurately as you can the day, week and month what you expect to sell. We all know that inventory levels grow during the fall season as Christmas approaches-but do you plan to taper your stock levels as Christmas draws near so you don’t end up with overstocks in January and February?
· Determine which item accounts for 80% of your sales. Staying on top of the best sellers will allow you to focus your attention on items that are driving sales and profits for your store. Likewise, I also suggest focusing on the worst selling (I like to use 10%) items in your stock. This will allow you to cut your losses and stop funding items that bring no revenue back to the store. You’ll be amazed at what focusing on the top and bottom can do in a very short time.

· Determine how fast you can get inventory, once you order it. Push your suppliers to deliver as close to your time of need as you can. Better for your cash flow to have it sitting on their warehouse shelves than yours when you don’t need it. Example: Some firms can use "just-in-time" inventory which enables them to receive their order the day they need it.

· Determine your economic order quantity and don't order too much inventory just to save a few pennies. Remember—once you take delivery of the merchandise, you are expected to pay for it. If it sits on your shelves for 3 months and you save 10 cents—is it really good for your businesses cash flow? Could you have been using the money you paid the invoice with to do some marketing for the store during that same time period?

· Shop around and make sure you are getting competitive prices. The internet provides a great opportunity to see what selling prices are at retail these days. If you see a much lower retail price from one of your existing suppliers, you should ask for a discount on the same products. It’s not competitive of you to have higher priced merchandise than your fellow retailers!

· Develop a policy for determining what is obsolete inventory, and how you can get rid of it. One of my favorite sayings holds true for retailers across every product category. “Slow moving inventory is NOT like fine wine, it DOES NOT get better with age!” Come up with a plan to assess and then dispose of slow moving merchandise. This should take place all year long. Not just after Christmas!

So what are you waiting for? Go turn that inventory on the shelf to cash in the bank! And let us know how it goes!