Give & Receive

It’s been said “what you give to your community, your community will give back to you.” There’s a lot of truth to this. I’d go one step further and say, “your involvement in the community will harvest involvement with your business.” Local Store Marketing is about reaching out, making connections, building relationships, and offering something of value to particular segments. Let’s take schools for example. We’re going to assume you have one or two fundraising programs that you make available to schools, clubs, groups, and organizations. If not, we encourage you to think about developing them.

The savvy local store marketer not only uses tools available to them, but they know how to quickly find the decision maker.
Since we all have schools in our trade areas that could use some assistance with fundraising, here are the decision makers – plus a few extra marketing ideas for getting your product in the hands of potential customers.

Elementary and Middle Schools
· Talk with the school and ask if you could sample product at parent/teacher meetings. Do you have pizza, coffee, tea, or ice cream that you could serve in small sample sizes to parents and teachers for a one or two-hour window at least one night each quarter?
· Ask the school about the Parent/Teacher Organization and the person in charge of fundraising. Find out if you could meet the fundraising chairman and share your fundraising programs with them.
· Visit the school’s front office and give the office staff and teachers a coupon and fundraising information. Lots of teachers around the country could use assistance with school supplies.

High Schools
· Visit the front office and ask about student organizations and the teacher advisor. Ask if you could provide fundraising information to the different groups (some schools will have over 50 organizations!).
· Do you have a product that is teenager-friendly (like pizza or burritos)? What about selling product at high school games and giving a portion of the proceeds back to the physical education department?
· Private schools will have active Alumni Associations. Find the president of the association and talk with them about your fundraising opportunities.

Have the courage to make that first visit and talk with the front office. One way to open doors is to bring some free product with you. Who could turn away free samples and a smile?!

Keeping up with the Jones'

If the majority of your customers live within a 5 minute drive of your store or restaurant, this posting is for you. And if you are opening a new store or interested in learning about an existing store’s neighborhood – keep reading.

Technology has made things so much easier for marketers. Within minutes you can learn a little about the people who live in your trade area.

Visit http://www.census.gov/. To the right of the screen you’ll see Population Finder – it should be the first field. Enter your store’s zip code and then state. Hit zip code on the screen that appears. And then Fact Sheet. This will give you a snapshot of your zip code.

What does this information tell you?

Age – how many people have children at home under the age of 18? Is it more of an “empty nester” zip code?

Race – do you offer items that appeal to a certain ethnicity? Do you need to change your offerings?

Households - In addition to the total number of households, you can find out how many people own vs. rent. If there are a lot of renters, you know you are in a transient area. Or maybe there are a large number of apartment/condo complexes. Also good to know -- so you can tailor marketing programs to this group.

Want to a more current look at your neighborhood? Visit http://realestate.yahoo.com/. Hit the Neighborhood tab at the top and then enter your city, state and zip. This will give you information like spending per capita per category and updated demographic information.

The whole process will only take 10 minutes or so – definitely worth finding out topline information about those who are potential and/or current customers.

One Person Can Make A Difference

A client sent this video to our attention. Please take a moment to watch it.

It should serve as a reminder that as human beings, we really can make a difference in the world.

And as business owners, we hope you are inspired to empower employees to bring new ideas to the table. And to implement those ideas.

One gesture can change the course of how your corporation does business.

Happy viewing.

http://www.stservicemovie.com

Local Store Marketing Featured on Reality Show

Last week’s Apprentice was a neighborhood marketers dream!

Creating a new bowl for El Pollo Loco, from the ingredients to the name, was the task for each of the teams. Not only did they have to create a product that would appeal to consumers, but they had to market it inside and outside the four walls.

Both teams took a very different approach. One dreamed up a bowl made with chicken and fruit (yikes). And they spent hours laboring over ingredients and a name.

The second team spent most of their time creating in-store POP and brainstorming ways to sell the product. And they developed a bowl with ingredients that were popular with El Pollo Loco’s core customer.

Who won? The team who focused on sales and marketing (of course).

Team members sampled the new product in the drive-thru prior to customers ordering. At the register, they suggestively sold the new item. And team members visited a local car dealership, informed them about the new bowl, took their lunch order and walked away with a big sale. That sale is what made them this week’s winner.

That is the essence of neighborhood marketing – doing a “meet and greet” with a local business, telling them about your product and walking away with a sale for the day. And most likely new customers who will visit you again and again.

Don’t be shy about getting out in your trade area and meeting potential customers. I promise you it will be worth the effort.

Happy Marketing!

What You Can Learn From Your Customers

Ever wonder how many times a month your customers visit you? Or why they decided to spend money with you and not a competitor? Or what they think about a new product you’re offering?

Why not just ask them?

There are a number of ways to talk with current customers to find out what they think about your business. Here are a few methods to consider:

1) Develop a survey, type it up, make copies and distribute to customers for two weeks. Your goal should be to get at least 200 responses. Make it quick and easy for them to fill out by providing no more than 15 questions with a few being open-ended (for them to write a short answer). The rest should be on a scoring system (for eg: 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest). Make sure you give an incentive for completed questions like a % off their next visit or make it drawing for free product and randomly pick a name at the end of the survey.

2) Technology-based survey companies are making it easy for businesses to conduct on-line surveys. Companies like Survey Monkey (see http://www.surveymonkey.com/) have made it so easy for marketers to find out more about their customers. All you have to do is design your survey on their site. Read through survey monkey’s site as there are a few options: one is free and the other option is about $20 a month – this option allows you to pull the final data and put into spreadsheet form with accompanying charts and graphs. Again, offer some type of incentive to customers for completing the survey. Put the survey link on a business size card and hand to customers or put it in their shopping bag so they can take the survey at their convenience.

3) Talk with customers in person. Many owners/operators are afraid they are “bothering” customers by asking them to spend a few minutes talking. But most consumers today want to be heard – want to share what they think about something.

I recently called a franchise handyman service and booked an appointment for some work to be done. This franchisee had an opportunity to market to me – at no cost! Yes, at no cost. It would have been so simple to call me the next day to ask if I was pleased with my service, how I found out about them, would I tell my friends about them, do I need additional work done, and what did I think about the price vs. the service I received. A quick two - minute phone call would be a great way to solidify an on-going relationship with their company. This company has my phone number and address and they’ve never made contact with me. What a missed opportunity. If you decide to talk with customers, speak with at least 5 customers a day for 5 days. Have a series of no more than 10 questions that you can ask in person. If you are not comfortable doing this, have a store manager or third-party person ask the questions and report back what they found.

Today’s smart marketer knows that the best way to learn about your business (and grow sales) is through dialogue with customers on an on-going basis.

Marketing Touches Every Part of Your Business

Marketing touches every aspect of your business. Here is a story from Mac Anderson, Founder and past President and CEO of Successories. During your next staff meeting, share it with your servers, hostess, back-of-the-house staff, manager, counter person and anyone who comes in contact with your customers on a daily basis.


Change
By Mac Anderson

Over a century ago, William James, one of the founders of modern psychology, said "The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitude."

Each day we wake up in the morning, we choose our clothes, we choose our breakfast
but, most importantly, we choose our attitudes. One of the most wonderful things about having a positive attitude is the number of people it touches, many times in ways you'll never know.

I told the story about going into a convenience store to get a newspaper and a pack a gum. The young women at the check-out counter said, "That 'll be five dollars please," and as
I reached into my wallet, the thought occurred to me that a newspaper and gum didn't
quite make it to five dollars. When I looked up to get a "re-quote", she had a big smile on her face and said, "Gotcha! I got to get my tip in there somehow!"

I laughed when I knew I'd been had. She then glanced down at the paper I was buying and said, "I'm sick and tired of all this negative stuff on the front pages. I want to read some good news for a change." She then said, "In fact, I think someone should just publish a Good News newspaper - a paper with wonderful, inspiring stories about people overcoming adversity and doing good things for others. I'd buy one everyday!"

She then thanked me for coming in and said, "Maybe we'll get lucky tomorrow; maybe we'll get some good news," and she laughed. She made my day.

The following day, after my business appointments, I dropped by the same store again
to pick up a bottled water, but a different young lady was behind the counter. As I checked out I said, "Good afternoon," and handed her my money for the water. She said nothing - not a word, not a smile...nothing. She just handed me my change and in a negative tone ordered...."Next!"

It hit me right between the eyes: Two people, same age; one made me feel great, and
the other, well, made me feel that I had inconvenienced her by showing up.

By the choices we make, by the attitudes we exhibit, we are influencing lives every day .
in positive or negative ways...our family, our peers, our friends, and even strangers we've
never met before and will never meet again. So when you brush your teeth every morning, look in the mirror and ask yourself..."Are there things I'd like to change?" How will you choose to live your Dash...as "the grouch" or as "the good news girl?"

Your answer will go a long way toward determining the joy and happiness that you will experience in your life.

Marketing = Future Sales

For anyone who is directly responsible for increasing sales or customer count, you know how frustrating it can be when you don’t see an immediate response.

If we step back and wear the hat of a consumer, it’s easy to see why we are frustrated. We are used to having everything happen at warped speed – e-mail, text messaging, cell phones, drive-thru lanes at a restaurant, ATM machines, and the list goes on and on. We experience instant gratification on a daily basis. So it’s easy to see why we get frustrated when sales don’t increase at the rate we are accustomed to.

That’s when I have to remind myself that marketing
equals future sales.
A cold call to a prospect may lead to new business presentation.
From there, it will lead to a proposal and then maybe
the potential client will want to do business with my company.
On average, it can take 3 months or longer to “seal the deal”.
In a fast-paced society, 3 months feels like eternity.

The seeds that we plant today will yield a crop in 3 months.

As you continue on your journey as an advocate of local store marketing, remember to have faith that your efforts today will yield sales in a few months. And continue to plant seeds each week and you will have a full crop all year long.

Keep at it – it will be worth it!