Comments for Marketing Rules!

Comment on Kroger’s New Venture by Wendy Foley

Wendy Foley — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:48:17 +0000

This is an excellent example of how Wal-Mart is becoming competition to everyone. If you are in business, you can expect to have to deal with Wal-Mart eventually, as this company wants to be everything to everyone. But is Kroger wise to use the strategy they are? That depends.
If Kroger is going to actually DO something with all the customer information they get that is one thing. But unfortunately, most companies have loads of information that just sits there doing nothing. If Kroger is going to use this information to fight back, than that could be important for them.
On the other hand, many in business should read a book called Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. This is the story of an area manager and a fairy godmother called Charlie. (Yes, it’s fairy godmother, Charlie.) This book talks about how to deliver exceptional customer service. The area manager is taken on tours of businesses that do just that.
In his tour he goes to Sally’s market. Sally’s was a focused grocery store. Sally didn’t develop film or rent carpet cleaning machines. But they did provide the best fresh produce, meats, and had the best groceries anywhere. Sally’s was a FOCUSED store.
A good example of what happens when a business is not focused is K-Mart. Years ago K-Mart bought other businesses. If I remember correctly they owned a few fast-foods places, and some other businesses. Owning those businesses took their focus off of the department store, and took it to businesses they KNEW NOTHING ABOUT. Eventually, they had to sell those businesses and concentrate on K-Mart. But it was too late and the damage was already done.
If Kroeger is going to lose their focus by getting into other areas of business, it could hurt them in the long run. Lets hope that doesn’t happen.

Comment on Sites to Investigate by Betti Saubel

Betti Saubel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:03:54 +0000

Keep up the good work!

Comment on Sites to Investigate by Enrique Burgos

Enrique Burgos — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:51:18 +0000

I found very interesting Colloquy, I didn knew them, and its a good source of information. Thanks.
I reccomend you to visit the Guy Kawasaki Blog (http://blog.guykawasaki.com). Really interesting and useful.

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by John Hayes (Ireland)

John Hayes (Ireland) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:35:15 +0000

Hi Wendy and Darcy. Thanks for your help. I will certainly try some of the ideas you mentioned and I’ll vist your website Darcy.
I’m a bit busy the next few days as I’m getting ready to attend the 2007 Marketing & Moneymaking Super-Conference in Chicago, but I’ll give you feedback after I return.
Thanks again.
John

Comment on Hello by Ben

Ben — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:13:26 +0000

LOL OMG my parents started a blog! They are officially hip now! Even dad!

Comment on Sites to Investigate by Ben

Ben — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:10:51 +0000

Hi mom and dad! What’s next, a podcast? Myspace/facebook page?

Comment on Kroger’s New Venture by Lauren Stopyra

Lauren Stopyra — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:22:33 +0000

Personally, I am not one of those who takes advantage of banking while grocery shopping. When I am shopping I am interested in the freshness and the variety of what I am purchasing, as well as good price value. Let the banking industry worry about banking. With the increase of usage of debit cards and on-line banking, the number of shoppers who need to visit a bank in person is rapidly dropping. People can do all those things – shop for a mortgage, compare home equity lines, purchase any kind of insurance or sign up for credit cards, over the internet in the convenience of their homes. This is a waste of store square footage that could be put to better use as a specialty corner marketing ethnic foods, local produce, or hard-to-find high-end herbs/spices/seasonings/organics.

Comment on Should you advertise on the Internet? by Hartley Jackson

Hartley Jackson — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:27:35 +0000

Murray is right, and you do not have to be in sales to try it. I will take a look at the content of our NVMUG web site and see if the initial index page could be improved this way.

I almost said you don’t have to be in marketing or sales, but aren’t we all in marketing – trying to promote something – if only ot create good will for who we are and what we represent?

Hartley “Jim” Jackoson

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by Darcy Moen

Darcy Moen — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:30:25 +0000

In reply to Jon from Ireland, here is a link to a download from my web site for you.

http://www.dcadshop.com/tinyurl/1n

The download is for a new customer form I used in my own drycleaning shop to capture contact information from customers. I trained my staff to use form whenever we created a new customer in our point of sale system. When the customer returned to pick up their order, we captured the rest of the contact information we needed to complete the customer file. This led to my fascination to data mining and customer relationship marketing, and a 16 year relationship with Stan himself.

Another method we use is encouraging customers to fill in a form on out web site. You can see an example of a web site designed to build an email list at http://www.reginadoc.com

Feel free to contact me via the web sites above if you want more methods to gather customer contact information, I have more techniques to share.

Comment on Hello by john erickson

john erickson — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:02:43 +0000

Somebody has to be last to say ‘welcome!’ And I did read through all the above, which came later. But, and a big but, it does take time to read it all; and the compulsion to do so has to be generated quickly and well. Even as few people go to the second or third page of Google lookups, the old KISS and AIDA formulas still work–but I think on the internet it even has to be faster, more concise, and very, very direct (to coin a phrase.) But dop continue on–however, I think you have to remind me every day; I’m probably not going to look for you!

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by Wendy Foley

Wendy Foley — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:27:35 +0000

I own a small Christian bookstore in northern New York. I have a computer with point of sale software in it. I have gotten customer names a few different ways.
1) I ask them when I make the sale if they are in my computer datebase. If they say “no” I ask them if they want to be. I haven’t had anyone refuse yet! Adding customers to my particular point of sale takes only a minute.
2) Years ago I had a guest book. I had a sign that said if you wanted to be on my mailing list, you should sign the guest book. Many did.
3) I get customers names and addresses from those who pay by check.
4) I ocassionally hold drawings for free product. Customers filling out the entry form put their name and address. I also ask them for their phone number so I can call them if they win.
There are other ways I’m sure to capture peoples names and addresses, but these few have worked well for me. In addition I also send out a thank you card to everyone who is a first time customer in my store. People have called or come in just to thank me for the card. Hope these few suggestions help.

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by John Hayes (Ireland)

John Hayes (Ireland) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 10:22:17 +0000

I read Stan’s book “The Entrepreneurs Club” about a year ago and I really enjoyed it. I work with retailers a lot and like Becki Maxson says in the comment above, the ideas are so simple but yet so profound to most retailers.
It amazes me how many business owners get excited about the concepts of keeping in touch with their customers etc, but fall down completely when it comes to the very first part – capturing their customers names, addresses and email.
Has anyone any suggestions or ways to get them to do this?
From reading Stan’s material I would say he was a really nice guy.
Regards
John

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by Becki Maxson

Becki Maxson — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:42:00 +0000

Sounds like Stan knew what all great marketers know and something I enjoy helping folks develop…the critical importance of an effective ‘keep in touch’ campaign. See, you guys are still talking about it even now.

I love how he shared his creative marketing ideas with others in his industry all over the country…that’s leverage! That’s something we all can do.

I’m frequently amazed as I find how many small business owners really know their own ’stuff’ but they don’t know marketing. It’s fun to see the light bulbs come on when we talk over some very simple but powerful ideas!

Comment on To Blog or Not to Blog by Darcy Moen

Darcy Moen — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:52:19 +0000

I’ve been blogging for some time. Commenting on other blogs, writing my own, its a great way to exchange ideas, and discuss theory, or just plain debate. Glad to see you out in the blogosphere!

Comment on Marketing Lessons From Stan Golomb by Darcy Moen

Darcy Moen — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:47:02 +0000

Stan was an inspiration, a mentor, and one heck of a friend. Of all the books I have in my personal library, my most treasured book is the autographed copy of Find, Capture and Keep Customers by Stan Golomb. For those of us who knew him, we were blessed. For those of us who were able to work with him, we were fortunate, for those of us he taught, we were very very lucky. We miss you Stan, and thank you for being our friend.

Comment on To Blog or Not to Blog by Blaine

Blaine — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:08:12 +0000

Thanks for the invite. Not “into” blogging myself . . . at least not yet . . . but maybe this will change my mind.

Comment on Could Google Change the Face of TV advertising? by Mike Paul

Mike Paul — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:47:25 +0000

I think this is a genius idea for google. I think the personalization is a way for google to help companies maximize their revenues by targeting demographic locations specific to them. I do feel that people, especially those with children, would be willing to give up some information about where they live, a ballpark figure on their income, and the number of kids they have in order to receive commercials specific to their family. This also helps ensure that families with younger children don’t receive “racy” or “sexy” commercials that may be inappropriate for certain ages. This is not just a way for google to make more money, it’s a way for people to “subscribe” to what TV commercials they receive in their home. As Dan said above, if I were receiving commercials that I was interested in, I would be less likely to TiVo them, or change the channel when commercials came on. However, I do see it as a way for google to steal money from marketing firms by stepping in as the middleman just so they can have their name on it. It will be interesting to see how the business relationships work between the marketing firms/departments, google, and the networks.

Comment on Could Google Change the Face of TV advertising? by Erin

Erin — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:49:10 +0000

I think that the article shows a high interest in trying to personalize, but I think that the personalization is to much. I think that that is to much information for companies to know about us. Why do they need to know about our children, its bad enough that our government already knows that much information about us. The government can already track us through our cell phones, why do computer ads need to track us through our tv’s and computers. I think that this should not come into affect on society.

Comment on Could Google Change the Face of TV advertising? by Amy

Amy — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:44:45 +0000

I think becoming too personal is not such a good thing. First of all companies advertise on tv to reach many different types of viewers and in doing so hope to encourage people to use their product, that may not currently have any use for such a product. Second i think it will backfire on google, because too much personalization is invading, and scary.

Comment on Could Google Change the Face of TV advertising? by Dan Travis

Dan Travis — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:37:45 +0000

I enjoyed the article about Google emerging in the television advertising market. It is logical that corporate advertisers would only want to have people in their target market view their advertisements. I think that people would be willing to give up some of the confidentiality to disclose personal information to Google. People do not enjoy commercials, but if I was given information on products/services that I am interested in or need I would be much less likely to TiVo them.