Honest Abe and “Reason Why” Advertising

Honest Abe and Reason Why Advertising

By Keith Lee

Even if some of the stories were fiction, two of our greatest presidents were known for their honesty – Honest Abe and “Yes I chopped down the cherry tree” George Washington.

This month we’re going to tie honesty into “reason why” advertising.  People like to know why.  This applies to a lot of things and certainly applies to your advertising and 3D Mail advertising.  Also, while there may not be any real reason your customer saves more at an “Anniversary Sale” or “Back to School Sale” or “End of Season Sale” or etc, etc, we all know that an “Anniversary” or “Back to School” sale is more effective than just “Sale”.

The NOT SO OBVIOUS Part of Reason Why Advertising

The “reason whys” I use above are pretty obvious and are used a lot, but I want to talk about some not so obvious “reason why” advertising and the power in using them.  I send a marketing tip of the week each week (actually twice a week) to my American Retail Supply clients (you can sign up to get the tip at www.AmericanRetailSupply.com by clicking on “Free Retail Store Marketing Newsletter.”  With each tip I send a ‘special of the week’.  Here’s a special I recently went with a reason why.

Let’s look at difference between using ‘reason why’ advertising verses ‘just telling you it’s on Sale’.

I could have simply said “Sale ½ Price” and included the details of the product itself.

Instead I told a story.  Here’s the story with the reason why:

‘I won’t go into details but our client received the wrong OPEN sign so we have this one here in our warehouse, and since it’s not in our catalog, or on our web site, it will just sit here unless I tell YOU about it.  Sale Price One Only $151.93

Now I don’t know how many orders we would have gotten had I simply offered the same product at ½ of its normal price, but I know that the Sale sign in the tip, with reason why advertising, was sold before 10AM on the morning that the Marketing Tip was sent.

So what does this have to do with Honest Abe?  Often a great reason why is simply telling the truth of why you’re having a sale or something in particular is on sale.

Here’s another example of reason why advertising that I used in a marketing tip of the week special:

We just got done with our twice yearly inventory and we found a few things that are going to just sit here taking up room unless we tell you about them.  So, over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing these items with you.  Now remember, these are here due to some mistake so the supplies are very limited at these prices.

Here’s an example of our sales rep using reason why advertising and making lemonade out of lemons.  BTW – this was a huge success!

The picture shown is of a refrigerator magnet.  The middle of the magnet can be removed after the event and used by the recipient for other pictures.  The American Retail Supply logo shown is the picture below is a label that Ariane used to cover up the RSVP phone numbers, email and the like.

Here’s the letter Ariane sent.

“You’re Invited…”

OK, I admit, you’re not actually invited to my wedding. To be perfectly honest the wedding was called off before I could even send out the invitations, and now I’m stuck with 200 of these magnet invitations! But I am inviting you to take a couple minutes to look at the enclosed magnet and flyer and see if they’d be right for your store.

I’ve always been one to make lemonade from lemons, and after holding these things for over a year wondering what the heck to do with them, I finally had an idea. I’ll send them to my top clients, like you, to show you the great BIC products especially magnets you can get from me at American Retail Supply.

I’ve enclosed the flyer so you can see some of the shapes, sizes and colors you can get for your store. I realize budgets are tight right now, but you’ve still got to advertise your business and get the word out. Promotional products and magnets in particular are a great way to do that. You can give them away as gifts to your best clients, give them to people who make a qualifying purchase, or you can even sell them in your store and make a profit while you advertise yourself!

Hopefully you know by now when you purchase your packaging and fixtures from me you’ll always get my “Make-You-Happy” customer service. The same goes for any promotional products including:

  • Magnets
  • Pens
  • Cups & Mugs
  • Key Chains
  • And 1,000’s of other great products!

As an added bonus, I’ll give you 20% off your first order of any promotional product, you purchase in the next 30 days. Please give me a call at your earliest convenience to talk this over. I look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,

Ariane Caruso Ariane (AmericanRetailSupply.com

800-XXX-XXXX ext. XXXX

P.S. Remember, no matter what you order from me you’re always guaranteed to get my “Make¬You-Happy” service. If you’re not over-the-top, grinning from ear to ear happy when you receive your order, just give me a call at XXX-XXX-XXXX and I’ll do what it takes to make YOU happy.

(End letter… con’t on next page…)

 

How can you use ‘reason why’ advertising in your business?  You know, I think it’s next to impossible (and very risky for your business) to have one way to get 100 new clients each month.  I think it’s much more secure and achievable to have 100 ways to get one new client each month.

The same is true of keeping existing clients and getting them to buy more from you.  You need 100 different ways of doing that.  But how do you find time to do that?

If you’re going to do the marketing for your business (and I suggest you do) you better have systems in place to see that everything else runs very well.

That’s what I do.  I spend the huge majority of my time doing the marketing for American Retail Supply.

How do you get 100 things done?  Our Management System creates consistently great client service but also allows for a lot of personal initiative.  So in the case of Ariane’s letter, Ariane had the idea.  She took the idea to Travis, and Travis created the letter.  Then our receptionist Megan stuffed the envelopes to complete the mailing.

So the point is, I don’t personally complete all the 100 ways we have of getting or keeping a client.  I can’t get 100 things done and I don’t have the ideas to get 100 things done.  We have systems that encourage individual initiative and that means I’m not the only person getting 100 things done.

How can you tie in transparent honesty with your “reason why” advertising?

 

Beating The Odds – Part 2

Beating The Odds – Part 2

We’re picking up our conversation on one of our great clients at American Retail Supply, McLendon’s Hardware, which has seven locations throughout the Seattle area.  To review part one, refer to the last blog post (Beating The Odds).

Competition Makes Them Better

I’ve done a lot of research over the years on how to compete with the national chains.  I’ve been sharing that information with my clients in my monthly newsletter for 21 years and my bi-weekly email retail tip since 2004.  In my research I found that those companies that survive and thrive look at the new competition as a challenge to get better themselves.  McLendon’s has done this also.

For years McLendon’s knew they should be looking into better automating their inventory and point-of-sale computer system.  When the retail giants came to town they made the investment in their future but also were sure to invest in new software that really helped them stay focused on their customers and not allowing the software to take away from their exceptional customer service.

Other areas in which McLendon feels the competition has made them better are display, advertising and pricing.  McLendon says, “We never really concentrated on end caps other than to put things on them.  Now we have a person in every store hire just to do that.”

McLendon’s realizes that with the big guys right down the street they need to be much more aware of price competition so they can be seen as having “good” prices.  Their advertising person consistently pushes to have “hot buys” in their ads.

What can you learn from the competition to make you better?

Variable Pricing Structure

McLendon refers to his variable pricing structure as A item, B item, C item pricing.  “A” items are very competitive, commodity items, that everyone uses and everyone knows the price.  McLendon knows his prices must be “good” on these items.  They don’t need to be the same or lower than the retail giants, but they need to be very close.  “B” and “C” items are not as competitively priced and the company can get better markups.  Sadly, too many independent retailers refuse to accept this type of pricing strategy.

Buy Right

McLendon’s, like many who compete well with the mass merchandisers, is a member of a buying group.  They buy a lot of their product though True Value.  With the exception of direct import items, McLendon feels their costs are in line with the retail giants.  But he believes the retail giants often get advertising allowances that he does not get.

Don’t Compete Directly With the Retail Giants

McLendon’s knows their niche-huge selection and great service.  In addition, McLendon’s now very carefully considers location as a niche when opening a new store.  When opening a new store McLendon asks, “Is it their market?”

The retail giants in the hardware business like to be near freeways and locations that attract large number of people.  McLendon’s looks for a niche that is not close to freeways, has a good population base, but isn’t a place that the retail giants are likely to put a store that requires a huge population to support.

This is huge.  How can you position your product and/or services to go where the competition ain’t?

Brand Names

A strategy retailers like to use to compete with the retail giants is to carry brands that the giants don’t carry.  In the past, McLendon’s tried to carry brands that the big guy didn’t carry.  With the number of competitors now in the market, and the huge popularity of a few brands in the hardware business, that strategy doesn’t really work.  As a whole, McLendon’s tends to carry quality brand products.

Hours of Operation

Historically hours of operation for McLendon’s shows the company’s long roots and reflect the work ethic in the community – early to bed, early to rise. The company has always opened early and closed early.  Today they’re finding they need to extend those hours.

Store used to close on Sundays.  Today, Sunday is the company’s second busiest day of the week.  McLendon’s stores used to close at 6:00 PM.  Now they close at 8:00.

Temporary Sales Decline

McLendon’s has found that retail giants moving into their market is a cause for concern and an opportunity to improve, but it is not a cause for panic.

Like retailers across the country, McLendon’s has found that stores sales drop somewhat when a retail giant opens a store close to McLendon’s.  but like many independents, McLendon finds that within nine months sales are back to where they were before and growing… maybe not growing as fast as they did before the big guys moved in, but growing.

You Can Thrive

Mike McLendon and McLendon’s Hardware have proven that yes, you can thrive in the shadow of the retail giants and compete with them, but not directly against them.  McLendon’s focuses on a broad product line, great customer service, and a niche location to not only survive, but thrive in the shadow of retail giants.

Discover more ways to improve your business by requesting one of my free books: How to Control Your Business and Your Life and The Happy Customer Handbook

by Keith Lee

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy

Intro given by Keith Lee

Dan Kennedy is not only the leading expert in Marketing; he is the highest paid Copywriter in the world and is my personal mentor.  Everything Dan says to do, I do because I know what an impact it has had and will continue to have on my businesses.  If you are a small business owner looking to grow your business you’d be wrong to NOT listen to Dan.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Success and productivity are not the same things nor does maximum productivity necessarily translated to success. You might, for example, achieve a very high level of productivity at cold-calling prospecting and pushing through CEO’s doors in order to sell your services, but come to understand that you do not feel at all successful as a result; instead, perpetually stressed and anxious, demeaned by the ‘numbers game’ and the rejection; burnt-out…and come to realize you would have been better served devoting productive energy to building a marketing system that brought interested prospects to you.

As you set out to get a far stronger grip on your time, to enhance your performance, it’s important to be constantly assessing your reasons for doing so and the validity of the objectives you are pursuing and achieving.

Entrepreneurs tend to be under more constant assault than executives or others, so it is easier to lose grip on the thread that leads through the muddle to the prize. Prizes you don’t really want to get set up in front of you by others, and you race to get to them while losing the critical thinking that questions the appropriateness of the prize. This takes your time and invests it where it can’t get a desirable return. Entrepreneurs are, by conditioned habit, often by ingrained compulsion, perhaps even by nature Problem Solvers and Mountain Climbers. It’s what we do. But not every problem is one you need to solve or should care about solving. Not every mountain you are led to needs conquered by you.

My racehorses are incapable of critical thinking. They are bred and trained and conditioned nearly from birth to race. They are notable and fierce and automatic competitors. When I climb into the sulky and drive the horse to the track, get him moving behind the starting gate amongst the other horses, never, never, never does he stop and think—gee, maybe this is a race I don’t need to run. But you and I are capable of such critical thinking. We can reign ourselves in. As entrepreneurs, we are automatic competitors, automatic problem-solvers, automatic mountain climbers—but we are capable of overriding our automatic inclinations.

If you put a business problem or opportunity in front of a true entrepreneur, he automatically leaps upon it and begins solving it or capitalizing on it. He reacts as if a lion is thrown a hunk of raw, red meat. The lion will respond even if he has just had a big meal and is not hungry.

The entrepreneur will respond even if he has more on his plate than he can handle, no need to respond, no time to respond. In this way, entrepreneurs are dangerous to themselves.

You can reduce that danger with more disciplined time management. With entire weeks scheduled and scripted in advance, the new and unexpected must take a place in line, patiently wait, and instead of reacting impulsively, you can attend to it more calmly and thoughtfully. One of my principles is that nothing is ever as bad or as good as it initially appears. Before acting hastily based on first impressions, each new thing—problem or opportunity—must be carefully inspected.

Temptations by Dan Kennedy

Click here to find out what Dan Kennedy is giving away!