Pile-up on Groupon, Coupons, Discounts

Fenderbender to 20 Car Pileup

You can see it coming as pundits line up to speak out against the excessive discounting being practiced by recession fighting sellers. A 20-car pile-up is about to happen.

People who wrote books and articles about aggressive promotional marketing to drive traffic and build business are seeking to stand out as they speak out against the avalanche of discount oriented advertising that they themselves promoted to fill up our mailboxes and the center of the Sunday paper. All of a sudden it seems that coupons, Groupons, freebies and discounts are ALL bad.

Casting those who provide mindless marketing services such as Groupon, and those who aggressively promote discounting as being stupid is just stupid. Companies that fabricate ridiculous offers that destroy their companies are probably destroying their companies in several other ways.

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WHY Do Customers Think of You?

What do customers think of you?

While they probably don’t just sit around and actually think much about the companies they do business with, consumers generally form specific opinions about stores over time and exposure to marketing messages, personal experience, and what they hear from others.

Whatever value equation a company brand has established with a consumer, unless it is a discount brand, it is lowered by constantly promoting deals and discounts on what customers already want to buy. These discounts do more than cost money. They also make it easy for the customer to categorize in their mind what type of retailer each store is to them. And once they’ve chosen the category, it is very difficult to change their perceptions.

It Ain’t _ _ _ _ Until It’s Over.

This is addressed mainly to garden centers that are located in the areas that experienced a very strong and warm early spring, a very wet and cool early May, followed by recent high humidity and daytime temperatures. This year that covers most of you.

In the past several days I’ve talked with several garden centers and found all of them to say something to the effect that there was NO WAY they could make up what they’re behind this year. I think they are WRONG.

Sampling Sells MORE Stuff

Sampling Sells More Stuff

If Sampling Sells MORE Stuff WHY Don’t We Do More Sampling?

On consultation sessions with clients who sell food of any type I am always disappointed that they are not sampling when I am there. Maybe I’m just hungry? Or is it because I know (and we would all probably agree) that sampling helps sell what you’re selling. Why aren’t they doing it?

Do you sample dips, etc. to help sell herbs, veggies, etc.? I’m not advocating getting into the food business, but if you’re already there get sampling! Being in the food business (any part of it) and sampling go hand in hand.

If you really believe sampling helps sell products then you would surely want to sell more wouldn’t you? The whole idea is to get a customer to try a product in hopes that they’ll like it well enough to become a regular purchaser of it as well as a regular customer in your store. Otherwise you’re just taking what comes your way and not creating a market for your products. Figure out a way to sample consistently well and keep on doing it.

Open Letter to Independent Garden Centers

Read Time: Approximately 5 minutes text, 15 minutes with links and video.

Friends,

Independent garden centers are my future. I am a fortunate person to love what I do and do what I love. I sincerely want that to continue, and I realize it is entirely dependent on the success of my clients.

Today I feel compelled to share with you some information you would probably rather not hear or would rather not consider. Sticking your head in the sand is a possible reaction to this.

Consider carefully how you choose to respond. This could be a decision that changes the course of your business and your life completely within a very few short months.

Is the sky falling? No, it definitely is not, however, just because the sky is staying where it is does not excuse us from examining other things that may be falling.

What’s Wrong with this Message?

Enough about the economy stupid.

Yes, we need to be empathetic to the consumer’s need to save, but the problem is amplified and exacerbated when everyone who is marketing has the same basic message across all communication channels. A basic tenet of marketing – differentiation, is lost.

Shouldn’t your brand be all about helping consumers escape the everyday issues of life? Keep in mind that when your advertising messages remind your own brand constituents of the harsh realities of living today, and that they should save money every time they buy you are NOT making them feel like they need to have what you’ve got.

The Customer Segmentation Gift

The Gift of Each Customer Comes in Many Sizes

The gift of today is the customer who finds your company and your products engaging today. They come to you for precise reasons, sometimes precisely different each time they arrive. What is it today?

Hoping for a Rising Average?

Boiling The Frog,
originally uploaded by purpleslog.

Still Comfortable?

Like frogs in a pan of water with the temperature rising, our comfort with increasing sales revenue from an increase in average transaction dollars is not feeling so comfortable in recent years. Here’s why:

Should you be a Publicity Hound?

© Milosluz | Dreamstime.com

Yes, it is uncomfortable tooting our own horn. Mom said not to brag and we are all maybe a little too good at not promoting ourselves. However, the art of shameless self-promotion doesn’t have to be shameful. Remember, mom also said to “stand up for yourself if you’ve got something to say.”

The passion in our industry is based on the real benefit of plants to people. There is a physiological need, as well as a financial benefit from what we do. Promoting what we do is not only important, it is essential. One of the saddest things I have witnessed in the past 30 years is the fact that our industry has silently allowed an entire generation of American people to grow up and become adults without much of the required knowledge or the desire and interest to garden.

You’re It! MS Tag Wildfire Sparked

Strategies Blog MS Tag

This is not a vision test.

It is not a psychological test. It may be an aptitude test for your adoption of new technology. My prediction is the new Microsoft Tag 2-D bar code is a “Killer-App” (Killer Application = works so great you can’t do without it.)

The website is amazingly simple to use, and the Microsoft Tag website allows you to send the tag reader to use it direct to your cell phone.