Newspaper… Not dead yet.

2009 Budget, Everything in order but something is missing… Newspaper!
As I reviewed our projected numbers for 2009 I was as sure as the consultant and CEO that we were wasting money on Newspaper Advertisements because I was told, "Newspaper is a dying media" by a very web savvy marketing consultant.

Over the past 2 or 3 weeks my organization has been faced with interesting situations that has had to win public opinion. We were faced with a media chess game with another company. Our focus became the newspaper. With Heralds and Telegrams being at the center of my mind I realized something. To us web savvy cats, with our fancy iPhones, blogs, & twitters the internet was it. I couldn't even tell you how much a paper would cost before all of this. Well I can now as I found myself buying it every morning for the last few weeks. Receiving a wakeup call from my boss at 7:30ish on a Saturday with, "Grab the paper and call me back- we need to plan" as a response to headlines I was amazed how quickly I was learning how important the local paper is in a small town community.

Now I realize when your target audience is the younger, text messaging, internet surfing crowd, yes I agree with the fact that "PR 2.0" is the way to go. For the rest of us… nope. Even though we created a website just for the subject we had people calling the number left and right asking us what was on the website because "they didn't use that internet stuff". Anyone with a mixed crowd of ages as your target audiences, especially in a small town, don't discount the power of the local newspaper.

Yes and as this conversation has continued to go on among "social media savvy marketers" on twitter and others I know from Social Media Club, yes the numbers are correct paper is falling off… the amount of profit and the overall amounts being sold is dropping however, I had more people talking to me about the article they read in the paper than what they saw on the 6:00 news the facebook groups were never even brought up. I feel like that is pretty powerful. So on ward Social Media "gurus" just don't forget to fax in a press release to your local paper. You'll be amazed by the response.

Internal WOM and Employee’s Reaction Effect on Your Business

Often as consumers, we come across disgruntled employees. After leaving a restaurant with a rude server or a department store with a sarcastic cashier, you can’t help but think “what was his problem?” The answer is usually “well, wouldn’t I hate my life too if my job was…” As marketers our job is to pick apart advertisements, promotions, customer service, & the overall vibe of a company because we are constantly looking for what will further our clients' businesses.

One key to improving a business is to make sure that the atmosphere within the company is friendly. Internal relations can instantly improve a company’s success. Anybody that has ever worked in retail or a job with multiple supervisors understands the confusion caused by not knowing who you were going to answer to that day.

People want to work for employers that allow them to do their job effectively and with little micromanagement. One way companies can do this is by empowering their employees. Empowerment comes with the knowledge of how to do their job such as how to make sales. For example, personal testimony is the greatest way to sell an item. When I worked at Eddie Bauer, I was at a great advantage when it came to selling to tall women because all I had to say was, "Yeah, I wear these everyday and I'm 6 foot tall." SOLD! A lot of times repeat customers would come in and ask, “how is that running? short? long?” Since Eddie Bauer allowed its employees to try all the clothing and let us buy jeans for $1 a pair in the fall, we were knowledgeable about the products. We were able give our customers the inside scoop on our personal experience with the product like, “yes, they shrank a little or they stretch out in the first hour of wear”. Having the personal connection to the product allowed us to share our personal connection to the clothes.

Another example is when I was employed by Victoria's Secret. They did the same type of promotions as Eddie Bauer by giving the employees the newest hottest product we would be promoting the next few months. Anything from lotion and make up to hair care to bras, they wanted their employees to be able to engage the customers with personal testimony of the product.

However, after working there for 3 years, I saw the quality of the brand start to go decline. They stopped giving “giveaways” to the employees and strongly encouraged them to buy the new product by increasing the discount. Most employees stopped buying the demo products and when people would come in and ask if the new push up without padding worked well, the associates would give blank stares followed by the prepackaged answers which were supplied to us on small cards that we carried around in our blazer pockets. As the prices in the store rose, the quality of the products dropped in addition to the quality of service that employees were able to provide. The employees became frustrated about not making their sales goals because of being uneducated about the product. Plus, the employees could no longer boast at how generous the company was to give free stuff which meant that they could no longer tell everyone about the amazing new product. Being able to say,” my company just gave me the hottest new bra of the season” created excitement and positive WOM internally.

Retail is being hit hard right now with the state of the economy and might say,” We can’t afford giveaways to our employees”. However, can you afford not to keep your employees feeling valued and empowered by knowledge of the product? Increasing your employees’ awareness of how the products they are selling perform is a good business practice because it will increase your employees’ potential to sale and increase customer satisfaction. Keeping your employees happy will keep your customers happy.

Twitter Networking

It has been an emotion start of a new year for some members of Twitter. The social networking site has always been on my list of, "okay this is cute but what is the point really..." this morning when I logged on I had a new reason to believe in this social network.

David Armano was the man who was helping a friend in need out on twitter yesterday night and by this morning reminded us all we are part of something bigger. In his blog, which many of us follow daily, David had a call to action for this community to reach out and help a battered friend.

The twitter community jumped to help the man that brings us amazing insight on Marketing and even gives us a look into his life. Having that "personal" feeling connection with David is what probably sparked his readers to swing into action. Although his playful yellow cowboy hat could be part of his brand today we all got to see a different side. A serious, emotional, grateful side of David.

I am glad the twitter community could help his friend in a time of need but I'm more glad that we could all give back to David in some form since he does after all change our ways of thinking most mornings when we log on his blog. This truly has been a great example of Logic + Emotion.

All the articles can be found at the link below.
http://darmano.typepad.com/