FCPNY

FCPNY
Serving free paper publishers, sales managers and salespeople in NY state

Friday, September 30, 2011

Value -- it's a double-edged sword

I had the opportunity to listen to Kevin Slimp last weekend, courtesy of Free Community Papers of NY which hosted Kevin for our annual publisher's conference. If you don't know Kevin, you should. He is the graphics guru for our industry and he is on top of everything it seems: best prices, best practices, best advice. Kevin talked a lot about the Groupon/Living Social/Daily Deal phenomenon in advertising. After great initial growth the fortunes of this ad medium, in general, are taking a hit. One big reason is that advertisers are learning that people who take advantage of their deep discount deals don't come back as repeat customers at regular price. They only buy the product when it's on sale.

New technology...same old story.

We had a good restaurant advertiser a few years back who did the 'buy one, get one" thing very well with coupons in our papers but wasn't happy that the same people came back time and time again with that coupon in hand. We got fired from the media mix for doing our job too well it seems. Advertiser not happy, newspaper not happy, and reader not happy that coupon is now gone. It's not supposed to work that way.

It all comes back to value. A business has to make a real value offer to attract customers today but they also have to learn how to market to the audience they attract and turn them into something more than discount shoppers. We in the media have to bring our expertise to the table to coach advertisers on how to make life long customers out of folks who respond to a coupon. It's about more than just selling them an ad. And both medium and advertiser have to recognize that today's shopper has changed, the market has changed and we have to learn how to offer attractive value that doesn't undermine the bottom line. Value should cut to the chase for our customers; it shouldn't cut us off at the knees.

New technology...same old story:

Take care of the reader with value, take care of the advertiser with valuable marketing planning and we in the media business will be taken care of as a result. Reader happy, advertiser happy and newspaper happy.

We at the Scotsman would love the opportunity to try to make you happy. Call us at 315-472-7825 or info@scotsmanmediagroup.com. Thanks!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Getting in "touch" with your sales process.

I had the opportunity this week to spend a few hours at a seminar put on for printers who use digital printing equipment manufactured by a well known, large international firm whose name rhymes with Xerox. Don't want to give away any free plugs. The lesson learned that I'd like to share with you had little to do with their equipment but a lot to do with how all of us do business. And it was fascinating. Simply put, how many times does someone in your organization "touch" a sale? Phone rings and customer service person answers equals one touch. Gathering price information is another touch. Preparing a quote equals a touch. You touch it one more time when you write an order. And so on.  In a workshop consisting of multiple small groups, the norm was about 40-plus touches per sale. The goal is to reduce the number of touches and streamline your process. Here's why.


Case studies show that companies that increased sales by 10% saw a 1% rise in their bottom line profits. But companies that cut their costs by 10% increased their pre-tax profits by 9%.


Final score: Accountants 1, Sales 0


I have to admit we could decrease our total touches if we tried and saved some dough, but most companies I know today are just like we are. Lean. Most of us have really been cutting costs for a couple of years at least and that can lead to an anorexic result in some cases. Especially if cost cutting harms your sales ability.


I think the trick is to be lean AND mean. You can't cut your sales and fulfillment process to the point where you no longer have the energy in your system to be aggressive. No one ever grew faster than their competitor by cost cutting. No one ever gained market share by cost cutting. No one ever came out stronger on the other side of a deep recession by just cost cutting. You've got to grab new customers, hold on to current ones and reclaim former clients to grow.


Growth is what we are about at the Scotsman. It may be through advertising in our Pennysavers, taking advantage of our commercial printing services or by adding one of our niche publications to your marketing plan. Contact us at 315-472-7825 or info@scotsmanmediagroup.com for more information. Thank you!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Reaching goals or avoiding pitfalls? It's all in a day's work.

I had the pleasure of attending a meeting last evening of the Waterloo (NY) Business & Professional Association. It's the resurrection of an inactive merchant organization in the Fingerlakes community and, based on those in attendance last night, it has a much brighter future this time around. The folks there were passionate about their town and are working to attract new members and the Scotsman has pledged to help them do that. We put on a brief small business marketing presentation last night and will be doing a second installment in the near future.


When we do these presentations, the topic has little or nothing to do with our publications or products. We try to help local businesses find new ways to look at what they do and market themselves better. Sometimes that involves a Scotsman publications campaign and sometimes it doesn't. It's not about our success, it's about the business' success. In the case of a local Chamber of Commerce or merchant group, it's about group success because when the community thrives, everything thrives, including our business.


We give advice (ADvice, like the title above). I wish we had the chance to advise one radio advertiser that I happened to hear a spot from last Saturday. The date was September 10, the day before the tenth anniversary of 9-11. No explanation needed, I'm sure. The advertiser was a race track and they were hosting a demolition derby that evening. I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this in a big booming radio voice:


"(Name of track mercifully omitted) will be ground zero tonight...the eve of destruction...!"


Ground zero? Eve of destruction? Really? Are ya' kidding me? If they were ignorant to what the date was, then someone in advertising should have reminded them. If they knew what the date was and went ahead with this anyway, then someone in advertising should have grabbed them by the ears and told them to stop! I shared this with a friend who is a race fan (I'm not) who tried to explain it away by saying racing is a different culture. Every race I've ever caught a glimpse of always seemed awash in red, white and blue patriotism. I think race fans deserve better and I think advertising people -- all of us, especially me -- should pray that we are on top of the situation every day for our clients. Helping them improve their marketing is our goal, but helping them avoid mistakes is our job.


We're not perfect at the Scotsman, but we're trying to be. That's why our Pennysavers reach almost 99% of the homes in our marketplace. Contact us if you'd like to know more: 315-472-7825 or info@scotsmanmediagroup.com. God bless America!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Can you replace lost opportunity?

We experienced at least one washout weather day this past Labor Day weekend in the Syracuse area. I live up the road from a very popular local public golf course. The parking lot was completely empty this particular day, and I recalled it was just as empty a couple of weeks before when I drove by on a very rainy Sunday. That's a catastrophe to a golf course, when a summer weekend day or holiday gets completely rained out. It's not like a foursome will come back on Monday or Tuesday to play when their Sunday outing goes down the (storm) drain. It's business the course likely doesn't make up, like a ski area without snow over the Christmas holiday. It's opportunity lost, and through no fault of their own.


Every business has such challenges, when the forces of nature, a slow economy or similar acts of a higher power combine to close out what normally might have been a great business day or season. How do you get that chance again? Typically, a business has to do something to lure the make-up business to the door, and that probably involves added advertising investment, reduced margins from markdowns and loss-leader pricing and other extraordinary expenses. It's certainly not as profitable as the premium price charged to willing golfers on a busy, sunny Sunday.


Well, the answer to the question is really very simple, the kind of advice your Grandpa would have given. Save for a rainy day or, in our case, plan for a rainy day. We know the bad days are going to happen, we just don't know when or how bad they're going to be. Lessen the blow by marketing your business with a specific, consistent plan that builds steady success over the long haul. Give customers reasons -- value reasons -- to do business with you on a regular basis. You can rebound from the unfortunate acts of business nature much more quickly when you have a consistent base to deal from. Even then, if you have to hold a special event or sale your bottom line will better handle the temporary dent in your margins when you have a long term plan that makes sense.


I had this chat with a colleague who said this is a little like telling someone to deal with the flat tire by avoiding the nails in the road. It's unrealistic. The point here is that in today's pressurized, competitive marketplace, it's unrealistic to think you'll be successful without a plan in place before you begin your seasonal campaigns.


We have a staff of trained marketing people who want to help you develop a long term plan. Drop us a note at info@scotsmanmediagroup.com and thanks so much for checking in.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

What's the difference? It's what different with you!

First things first: our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by Hurricane Irene. There was a lot more impact on parts of Upstate NY and Western New England than expected, areas close to home for me here in Syracuse. Personally, my family was fortunate in a different sense: we vacationed the week before Irene on the Jersey Shore, another area that got hit pretty hard. We enjoyed a pretty dry, sunny week in the Wildwood Crest/Cape May area and it's there where we start today's advertising & marketing tale.


Seasonal vacation areas like the Shore really drive home the point on having an effective ad campaign. Think about it...the season lasts three or four months and the streets literally are full of prospective customers. Cars from Jersey, NY, PA, DE, CT, MA, MD, DC are in the parking lots of hundreds (maybe thousands) of motels, hotels and resorts. Most folks are there about a week, so as a business you don't have a lot of time to build a relationship with shoppers/diners/buyers who don't know much about you. You want them now! How do you do that?


Two part answer to the above question. First, use the media that hits customers where they are. Airplanes fly by the beach all day towing messages from amusement parks and restaurants. Limited opportunity so it's probably pretty pricey from an ad budget standpoint. Not many billboards -- interferes with the view. Everybody is listening to an iPod-like gizmo so forget about radio. We're all outside so forget about TV. I watched a man come into our hotel one day and refill a rack with stacks of brochures from all sorts of businesses in the area. And those racks are in every hotel, restaurant, drug & grocery store, gas station and more. My family probably picked up 20 to 25 of these; we used one coupon the whole week we were there. I'm glad I'm not a media buyer for advertisers in that market because I didn't see anything that looked like a sure-fire winner. I hope the locals have a better feel for it than an educated visitor like me.


The second part of the answer is easier. USP. I hit on this a couple of blogs ago. It's your Unique Selling Proposition...that which sets you apart from your competition. In summer vacationland, shoppers make decisions quickly on where to go, what to buy, where to eat. Businesses that point out great value and unique qualities that only they can provide -- and point them out clearly and concisely -- will garner the lion's share of the business. It's no different where we are. Look at the speed of everything today: computers, internet, smart phones and such. Shoppers everywhere are moving faster and making quicker decisions. Be sure your ad message helps them do that, and pushes your USP and value to the max!


We at the Scotsman want to help you develop your USP message. Contact us at info@scotsmanmediagroup.com. Thank you so much for taking the time today!