Communication

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Web Summit 3.0

September 14 in Vegas | REGISTER HERE

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Is your online strategy struggling? Do you even have an online strategy? The third release of the Industry-Wide Web Summit will unite home furnishings retailers, manufacturers, representatives and suppliers to:

o Brainstorm new solutions

o Work through existing conflicts

o Bury old misconceptions

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You CAN show and sell furniture online.

We’ll show you how.

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You will leave the Web Summit with practical, real world information and implementation strategies for all areas of electronic media and web for the furniture industry. Seating is limited. Registration is required for this free event.

Click here to register: please provide your name, company and telephone number.

How to Implement Email Marketing and Social Media for Results | David McMahon | PROFITconsulting

Throw Web-Based Marketing Into Your Mix | Ron Carpenter | Strategic Marketing Solutions LLC

Demystifying the Online Furniture Shopper | David Lively | The Lively Merchant

Create an Engaging Website that Brings Your Brand to Life Online | Renee Loper | aspenhome

Tags: furniture, furniture store advertising, internet, market, online
Posted in About Retail, Communication, Events, Family Business | 2 Comments

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Idiom: Information

“Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”

Ms. Jones might pull out this Joe Friday line when she’s furniture shopping. Even if she falls head over heels in love with a sexy chaise or a beautiful bedroom, she’s going to have to justify her financial investment with some cold, hard facts.

Look at the following areas where Ms. Jones might find information about furniture. Rate them for accuracy, and then rate them for influence:

1. A recommendation from a friend

2. The internet

3. A store visit

Now rate your store in these same areas. Have you irritated your customer base to the point that your name is dragged through the mud more often than it’s recommended? Do you have a website? Is it fresh and relevant? Do you have tear-offs in the store that she can take home with her? Does your entire staff know your policies? Are your designers well trained? Be honest!

Once Ms. Jones is in the information gathering stage, she has already decided that she’s going to buy furniture. The only question is, from whom?

How do you ensure that it’s from you?

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms | Leave Comment

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

PROFITinnovation

Steve Jobs says, “Innovation distinguishes a leader and a follower.”

Our Partners at Profitconsulting and PROFITsystems are talking about retailer innovation:

Date: Wednesday, August 5

Time: 11:00 am Pacific | starts at 12:00 pm Mountain, 1:00 pm Central, 2:00 pm Eastern

Cost: FREE

You’ll learn 21 innovative practices to help retailers maximize profits and cash flow from David McMahon, PROFITconsulting Senior Consultant and Furniture World Contributing Editor. You’ll also be given proven strategies highly successful retailers are using to get the upper hand on their competition.

You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about practical application of the practices in your business.

for money-making, money-saving ideas.

Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/361477657

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Leave Comment

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

I might be the only furniture guy with a brain on the bookcase next to my desk. Brain science has changed our understanding of free will, consciousness, memory, motivations and indeed, connections between the mind and the brain.

There is branch of marketing called neuromarketing. Science is attempting to explain why we buy. Books like Buy-ology, Iconoclast, and The Power of Less all take a stab at explaining this emerging field of study.

If you’re interested in how the 3-pounds of soft tissue in your head works, you might want to begin with The Owner’s Manual For The Brain, a fascinating 1007-page technical explanation of why we do the things we do. Or check out this podcast series on the brain which explains how business will be structured, organized and run in the not too distant future.

In a Los Angeles Times article, “Searching for the Why of Buy,” Robert Lee Hotz talks about insights into the human brain made possible by revolutionary new scanning technology. He wrote, “Much of what was traditionally considered the product of logic and deliberation is actually driven by primitive brain systems responsible for emotional responses.” So, what does this mean to you? It means that your customer buys because of emotion, not logic and deliberation.

Consumer behavior studies will never be the same. If you ignore brain research about human behavior, you are risking your future. Your competitors are studying this issue and putting their new knowledge to work daily.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Personality Type | 1 Comment

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Why do customers unsubscribe from your email marketing?

Just because you think you’re hot stuff doesn’t mean everyone else does. People don’t break up when things are going well.

She says: “It’s like you scream at me every day; you don’t like me anymore.”
She means: You e-mail me too often. Your product or service doesn’t require daily e-mails, so less frequent e-mails may produce better results without annoying me. About every other week is best for retail stores.

She says: “You are double timing me.”
She means: Instead of using the same old web site’s content, give me a reason to receive your e-mails. Include content in your e-mails that I won’t find anywhere else — articles, special savings, promotions, downloadable offers, etc. This increases the value of your e-mail.

She says: “You already have me, but your email always feels like a pick up line.”
She means: I’m
not getting what I expected. What exactly did I sign up for? Was it information on new products, or tips and user information? Don’t abuse my permission by sending sales-oriented e-mails when I only opted in to receive decorating ideas.

While most breakups hurt at first, you will be more attractive in the long run by making sure you keep your word to each of your customers. Bait and switch list building or eblasting to opt-in users will have all of the beautiful people running for the hills with their pocketbooks in tow.

Oh, and if you aren’t using email marketing already you are missing a huge opportunity.

Posted in About Retail, Communication | 1 Comment

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

What’s in your skillet?

When are we going to stop debating and begin fixing the problem? Whatever “the problem” may be, knowing when to stop talking and start walking are a key indicators of success. If we don’t ask enough questions, we’re likely to go off half-cocked and make half-baked decisions. On the other hand, debate, discussion and refinement can be a never ending pit. We can work ourselves so deeply into a problem or situation that we forget the desired outcome of the distant solution.

I often ask customers, friends and family the same question: “How does it end?” The question isn’t original, and people often look at me like I’m nuts, but I intend to keep on asking. Frankly, my mom’s description remains the best; she always said, “You can’t be a fart in a skillet.” I used to think she didn’t understand how things worked. Today I think she’s a very smart woman. I’ve always heard children eventually realize how smart their parents are.

Use the tools you were given to co-labor toward the outcome you desire. Whether it’s fixing things, challenging the status quo, networking behind the scenes, organizing the facts, standing up for the weak, or pursuing the brightest light of center stage, the finish line you’re seeking comes from using the skills you were given directed at the end of the line.

So, I’ll ask you again, “How does it end?”

Posted in Communication, Family Business | 1 Comment

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

How to persuade a crowd

TS Eliot said, “Business today consists in persuading crowds.”

Do you believe your marketing and training message is persuasive?

Does your organization show understanding, trust, threat, tension, surprise, substitution, specificity, social proof, similarity, repetition, push, pull, perception, passion, obligation, objectivity, logic, involvement, investment, interest, hurt and rescue, harmony, framing, fragmentation, experience, exchange, evidence, distraction, dependence, deception, daring, contrast, consistency, confusion, confidence, closure, bonding, authority, attention, assumption, association, arousal, appeal, amplification, or alignment?

Each are positions in persuasion that, used correctly and with timeliness, will raise the impact of your story.

How it works

When a person receives a communication from you, they decide if they can trust you and your message. Mixed messages result when beliefs, values, attitudes and prior words and actions do not tell the same story.

You know, like when will claim to have the biggest or best of something, only to eat humble pie when someone proves your claim aren’t true. Saying one thing and doing another causes a loss of trust, and a falling of confidence, and makes you appear shallow.

Remember the prayer? Your will, NOT mine… Alignment.

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Generations | Leave Comment

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Ms. Jones does not want to play Hide & Seek

“She’s out there and she’s looking for you. This is not the time to play hide and seek.”

So says Ray Allegrezza, Editor-In-Chief of FurnitureToday, in a recent editorial. “It’s always a good thing to be connected to your customers — current and potential. But in this current economic climate, being disconnected from your customer is not just risky business, it can be deadly business.”

We couldn’t agree more, as we said loudly (or, in my case, hoarsely) during the E-Commerce Strategy webinar we conducted this week with our partner, PROFITconsulting:

Complete audio presentation

Complete PowerPoint

PowerPoint Presentation in .PDF

Give me a call if you want to analyze your web strategy (or create it) or contact Wayne McMahon at wayne@profitsystems.com or 719-332-9824 to see what PROFITsystems’ e-Marketing can do for you.

Incidentally, Allegrezza quoted a study by Nielsen Online, whose Claritas market segmentation is the basis for the Meet Ms. Jones™ personification we use to help you give the right message using the right media to the right customer – online, offline and in-store.

Your back yard is a whole lot bigger than it used to be. Make sure Ms. Jones can find you.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Leave Comment

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

One more reason our Tell Ms. Jones™ email marketing is better than the rest…

… no male strippers!

Check out the paid ad FeedBlitz, another email marketer, inserted at the end of this email I received today.

Tell Ms. Jones™ is different in a lot of ways, one of them being that we will never humiliate you or infuriate your customer with ads for “daytime shock-value strip tease” – or anything else, for that matter. These “ad-funded” emails can cost less – but really, what price would you pay to avoid this?

Tell Ms. Jones™ is only $100 each time you send an email to your entire mailing list, no matter how many names. Our customers report that it yields the highest rate of return on any of their marketing.

Alas, no strippergrams. Sorry.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Products | Leave Comment

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

“Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance only a little.”

Good thing Fred Astaire paid no attention to MGM’s review of his screen test.

Beethoven’s violin teacher declared him hopeless as a composer, while Einstein’s teacher wrote that he “would never be able to do anything that would make any sense in this life.” Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas.

How many of you could share a story – either personal in nature or well known in your family – of how certain failure actually turned into real success. Can you share a dead end that lead to one of the better times in your life?

I don’t want to be like one of those naysayers who tried to squash a genius, but I have to disagree with a blowhard professor from Wharton who predicts the end of advertising because of the internet. You can read his entire point of view here.

To me this an opinion whose time has not yet come. Failing newspapers and declining radio revenue are examples of changes in media usage. But the death of standard push media is greatly exaggerated.

Time will tell. Don’t let new age ideas that are ahead of their usefulness affect your bottom-line. Invest in the future at a manageable pace. Make sure the people who are advising you have a real world understanding of your challenges. A book full of words and a brain full of academia rarely produce outcomes that produce jobs for employees, sales to customers, or profits to pay your bills.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Comments Off