August 2004 Edition

Clever Use of a Database

A while ago, I was talking to a toy retailer who was somewhat depressed because business hadn’t been too brisk. "Have you been getting the names and addresses of the parents and grandparents?" I asked. "If you get that sort of information for your database, you’ve got them for the life of the kid. Start when they are babies, and mail special offers relevant to the age of those children prior to every birthday and Christmas.’

He’d never thought of getting names and addresses, so I suggested a couple of easy ways to do it. One was to ask all customers who wanted to receive a catalogue or special offers to write down their names and addresses plus birthdays and ages of their children. Another was to get all customers to put their names in a draw each month for a $100 gift voucher.

You can apply this ‘Ages and Stages’ idea to databases for a huge range of businesses. As people grow and start families, their needs change. If you operate a nursery, for example, young gardeners might want a do-it-yourself gazebo kit; older gardeners a comfortable kneeling pad. Add a dash of imagination to the gold mine that is your age-based database, and you’ve got ongoing business for a long time.
 

Building Trust Into Your Relationships

In a recent edition of my Business Marketing audio program I reminded listeners that, if you deliver information in an appropriate and authoritative manner, its amazing just how many people will accept what you say without question.

For example, in 1957 the British news show, Panorama, broadcast a segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show's anchor, discussing the details of the great spaghetti crop as they watched a rural Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets.

In tone of absolute seriousness Dimbleby informed the audience, "Another reason why this may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil, the tiny creature whose depredations have caused much concern in the past."

The narrator anticipated some questions viewers might have. For instance, why, if spaghetti grows on trees, does it always come in uniform lengths? The answer was that "This is the result of many years of patient endeavour by past breeders who succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti."

Really the broadcast was just an April Fool's Day joke but, soon after the broadcast ended, the BBC began to receive hundreds of calls from puzzled viewers. Did spaghetti really grow on trees they wanted to know. Others were eager to learn how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC reportedly replied that they should "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

The prestige of the Panorama show itself, and the general trust that was placed in the medium of television, also lent the claim credibility.

This underlines how important it is for us to be absolutely scrupulous in our dealings with our customers, clients and patients. Once we win their trust and confidence it is important that we respect it and do nothing to destroy the relationship. When people trust us they find it easy to reject the lure of low prices and fancy offers from competitors. Visit the website

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/aprilfool2.html to get the full story and even download a video of that program.
 

Two Great Marketing Ideas

I'm always on the look out for sneaky, smart and simple marketing ideas and here are two that my Business Marketing audio program listeners heard about recently. In their advert at http://www.winstonmarsh.com.au/subscriber/May04/toothfairy.htm some lawyers show very simply how good they are at divorce work with a great picture... worth 1,000 words. And who'd have thought that a dentist would have had a day that dragged kids (and their parents) in but it worked gangbusters.

Absolutely Phenomenal Headline Creating CD

You'll have heard me say that 80% of the impact of an advert is getting the headline right and that's often the difference between an incredibly successful advert and a miserable failure. I've discovered a totally amazing program on CD that literally creates headlines for you... feed in the basic information and a stack of headlines are produced. Its fantastic and for just 44 bucks it's a must have for anyone who have to write adverts now and then. Place your order here.

Smart Thinking

There's always scope for great thinking. I read that an MIT student spent his summer going to the Harvard football field wearing a striped shirt, whereupon he blew a whistle and threw birdseed. When it came time for the first football game, the referee walked onto the field, blew the whistle - and was descended upon by a flock of birds. The game had to be delayed for half an hour.

How To Deliver Great Customer Service!

No matter what your business, there's a way you can increase the value of your average sale, have customers come back more often and produce heaps of referrals. And what's that? Just give great service that has people saying "Wow!"

Trouble is finding ways to put the "Wow!" factor in is not something that most bosses or team members are very good at doing.

That's why I'm presenting a tele-seminar on Tuesday, 31st August, when I'll spend an hour discussing some very practical ways to deliver great service that team members will find easy to start using.

It's one that you'll want all your team to listen in on and that's easy because you can just have them gather round a speaker phone and participate, following the notes provided. You can build your team meeting around it.

For more information or to register go to our website.

Retail Seminar

The Australian Centre for Retail Studies does exactly what their name implies. I reckon their information is brilliant and they are holding half day seminars in Melbourne and Sydney very soon. Details on 03 9903 2455.

Advertising On The Net

There's no doubt that the web pervades the life of everyone and cunning businesspeople are finding great ways to attract people to their site, involve them and push their products as this news item reveals.

MIAMI - A man in a chicken costume who follows typed commands is sweeping the Internet as part of a Burger King
advertising campaign. The actor that appears, complete with a garter belt, responds to hundreds of typed commands, but stops short of pornography.

At www.subservientchicken.com  the chicken will obey a command to pee on the couch as well as respond to commands to river dance, moonwalk, somersault and bullfight. The soundless site looks like one of many Web cam pornography sites where a user can type in a command and a person on the screen will follow it.
However, ask the chicken to do a lewd act and it walks up to the camera and wags a scolding finger. "The site is geared to reach out to the 20 and 30 year-olds that are difficult to reach with traditional advertising," said Blake Lewis, a spokesman for the Miami-based chain. There is little reference to Burger King, apart from a button to give details of the Tendercrisp chicken sandwich. No need to add that sales of that product are going through the roof. What are you doing with your website to attract more visits and make more sales?

Worried About Speaking In Public?

If you have problems knowing what to say then this site is worth a visit speeches.com as there's an "Instant Speech Generator" there to help you create your speech in seconds.

On the other hand if you get dry mouthed, your knees knock and hands shake when you speak then my tele-seminar coming up soon is just what you need. In just one hour I'm going to share some very simple tricks and techniques you can use to become a calm, cool and confident speaker.

Rules For Cutting Your Own Firewood!

1. Park twice as far from the tree as the tree is tall.

2. It helps to notch the tree away from the truck.

3. The fact that you live within driving distance of a forest does not make you a lumberjack!

4. Just to be on the safe side, always borrow your buddy's truck!

Tell It Like It Is In Adverts!

This is a mid 1800's help wanted sign for the Pony Express.

"Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be excellent riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages are $25.00 a week."

The Pony Express people could have beaten around the bush and minimised the dangers to pull more responses but most prospects would have pulled out when they discovered the truth. By telling it like it was they appealed directly to men who had the courage and skills they were seeking. When you advertise for team members (and prospects) you'll often get a better response when you tell it exactly like it is.

Toilet Paper Trivia

I'm sure that you'll find something of interest at this site:

http://noveltp.com/trivia/

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