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We Need More Rock Stars

Not just any Rock Stars – we need Retail Rock Stars. You know the stores I’m talking about. The ones you would be most disappointed if they closed. The ones who always seem to have traffic and buzz and excitement. The ones you think should probably be in a book or something because of how they merchandise the store, how they treat the customer, how they participate in the community.

Retail Rock Stars change the landscape of a community. They become the focal point of the shopping center, whether downtown, in a strip or in a mall. Retail Rock Stars attract customers, but they also attract other retailers. People want to be around winners.

The best way to grow your business is to decide right now that you are going to be a Retail Rock Star in your community. You are going to be the retailer everyone wants to be like, to locate next to, to build a community around.

How? Decide what a Retail Rock Star store looks like and do it.

Merchandising? Yes! Displays that are fresh and ever changing and new and eye-catching.
Staffing? Yes! A friendly, helpful staff that will bend over backwards to delight your customers. And I mean BEND OVER BACKWARDS.
Products? Yes! The latest products, the newest innovations, the fresh-hot-off-the-presses stuff.

The Retail Rock Star does not have peeling paint on the side of the building, an old sign, a tired window display. The RRS does not have old lighting, faded carpets, and a tired, boring staff. The RRS does not have merchandise older than the store’s pet dog.

The RRS is a learning store, learning new techniques for marketing and merchandising and training. The RRS is a trying store, trying new things, measuring and tweaking.

These are the kinds of retailers I want to help build. These are the kinds of retailers this economy needs to get out of the current funk. These are the kinds of retailers your community needs to grow and attract people and business. Yes, your community needs you to become an RRS!

That is the goal of the new and improved Jackson Retail Success Academy.



A HISTORY OF THE JACKSON RETAIL SUCCESS ACADEMY

Six years ago Scott Fleming, then director of The Enterprise Group in Jackson County challenged a full alphabet of organizations with the task of supporting and keeping indie retailers in town. From that meeting the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce (GJCC), South Central Michigan Works (SCMW), Jackson DDA, Jackson Local First (JLF), Midtown Association of Jackson, Small Business Technology & Development Center (SBTDC), City of Jackson Economic Development, and The Enterprise Group developed the Jackson Retail Success Academy (JRSA).

JRSA was designed to help start-ups and new retailers with less than five years under their belt get the tools they needed for retail success. For the last five years we have been doing exactly that. Well, kinda…
A number of retailers that took the class closed. They found out while doing the math that their business model was flawed from the get-go and there wasn’t enough market in Jackson to make it. Others were just too deep in trouble to dig out of it. A handful of class members took it to the next level, but for some, the next level was to merely go from struggling to surviving.

Most importantly, we weren’t accomplishing the real goal – to turn Jackson into an indie retail haven, a place where indie retailers would not just survive but thrive. We kept looking for struggling retailers to take the class, super small retailers, the minnows in our pond. We were hoping to grow them into fish.

We were focused on the wrong crowd. Winners attract winners. We needed to spend more time trying to grow whales, not fish. We needed to create more Rock Stars.

Time to refocus.

The new and improved JRSA is starting over with a new focus. We are looking for the whales, the established indie retailers who want to go from surviving to thriving. The curriculum is pared down to the essentials of Rock Stardom. The instruction is updated to include thriving in this most challenging new era of retail where all the rules you knew before have changed.

This is not to say that start-ups and newbies are not welcome. They are. Gladly. The information is only as good as the effort you put toward using it.Anyone willing to put forth the effort will get the results they want. But my focus for JRSA will be to go whale-hunting.

The bait is pretty good.

-Phil Wrzesinskiwww.PhilsForum.com

PS The beauty of the new and improved JRSA is that it is easier to take on the road.  If you have a handful of retailers in your town that are on the verge of Rock Staardom, but just need that push to get over the edge, get in touch. I can cram all 20 hours of instruction into two days that, if your head doesn’t explode, will rock your world.

Inspiration and Creativity

“Where do you get your inspiration for the ads you run on the radio?”
“Where do you get the creativity for the ads you run on the radio?”

I doubt a week goes by where I am not asked at least one of those questions.

My stock response is that’s the fun part of my job. Here is the real answer…


INSPIRATION

I love quotes. They inspire me. I type words into ThinkExist.com and just start reading. Sometimes a great quote is all I need to spark the engine.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

I love to read. Fiction and non-fiction. Children’s books and adult books. I wrote an entire book on hiring because of this line in the children’s book Taran Wanderer (book #4 of The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.)

“Before you learn the craft, you must first learn the clay.” -Annlaw Clay-Shaper

I listen. To music. To talk-radio. To interviews and podcasts. To comedians (I love comedians). I wrote a song after hearing a comedian’s routine about road signs when he said…

“I saw a sign along the highway that said ‘Gas Food’ and decided I was no longer hungry. Glad I didn’t stop. The next exit had a sign for a Gas Food Hospital.” (-unknown)


CREATIVITY

Is creativity something you’re born with, or something you learn? I think both. I think some people (like my sister) pop out of the womb with a talent that cannot be denied. I think the rest of us can learn creativity by learning to not be afraid of criticism and failure. I am bolstered by this quote…

“I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison

I am also bolstered in my ad writing by this little exercise Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads made me do…

Quick, write down the percentage of your traffic that is repeat business. Customers who come in time and time again. Now write down how much of your traffic is referral business. Customers who are in because one of your repeat business customers told them to stop by. What is left?

When I did this, I wrote down 60% for the repeat, and 25% for the referral. That left only 15% of my traffic that is location/advertising driven. When your advertising only accounts for 15% of your traffic, you can take some more risks and be a little more crazy.

Creativity for most of us is like a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Writing this blog is like doing a dozen push-ups. Writing emails and Facebook posts is like taking a half-mile jog. Writing songs and books is like taking a spinning class or six. Writing a thirty-second ad that is interesting, tells a story, makes only one point, and connects emotionally is like doing 60-second planks ten times a day.

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” -Blaise Pascal

And one last quote…

“Now you know the rest of the story.” -Paul Harvey

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One of my goals is to write a short story all from famous quotes by other people. That would sure take some creativity.

PPS I don’t know if my percentages of repeat and referral business are accurate. They probably aren’t. That’s quite okay by me. I got what I needed out of the exercise – to take more risks with my advertising. Consider it just one of those 10,000 ideas Edison learned from.

Business Boot Camp This Thursday

This Thursday, August 8, 2013, I will be holding a four-hour Business Boot Camp on Marketing and Advertising.

Four hours of world-class information on Branding and how to make yours stand out in the crowd.

Four hours of deconstructing the myths of Advertising, unlearning all those things uninformed advertising sales weasels people tried to teach you.

Four hours of unveiling the mistakes that even the big boys with billion-dollar budgets make every single day.

Four hours of clarifying how ads work, why ads work, where ads work and what you should do make yours work, too.

Four hours of making your ads more memorable, powerful, and effective without spending a penny more on your budget.

Four hours of getting you to think, laugh, and maybe even cry.

Four hours to turn your advertising around and make sure it performs to its best so that you can perform to your best.

Are you in?

Call the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce at (517) 782-8221 to sign up. Cost is only $99.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you get all that for $99. It should be $2000. At that price you would think there must be something to the class. You wouldn’t sign up – not in your budget – but you’d think the class was more valuable. Isn’t it funny how we give value to information based on what it costs?

If it makes you feel any better, what you will learn cost me thousands of dollars to learn. Plus, I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars testing it to know that it works. The Chamber and I are only charging a small fee because we want to see this spread.

Two More Freebies For You

Why do I give it away for free? It is part of my Core Values to be helpful.

Don’t get me wrong. I love getting paid to sell toys and baby products. I love getting paid to travel across the country and impart some of the lessons I’ve learned to a room full of peers.

I also love helping and sharing. I want my ideas and thoughts to spread farther and wider to help my friends and peers in the independent retail industry. Plus. more often than not, I’ve already been paid.

All of my Freebies are the notes written from presentations I have done. That is why they are short and sweet – so you can print them easily. I could make eBooks more like power points with full-page graphics, tight bullet points and simple messages spread out over 72 pages. But I would rather keep them down to seven pages or less so that I can use them as handouts. Short and sweet so you can print them at home and read later. Short and to the point for you to email and share with your friends.

Since I got paid to do the presentation, I have already been paid to write the eBook, too. Now we just need to spread the word.

Here are two new Freebies worth sharing.

Generating Word-of-Mouth – You know Word of Mouth is the best form of advertising. But do you know the five ways to generate it? Do you know how to get people to talk positively about your business? This Freebie shares all the secrets behind getting people to talk about you.

(Yes, I decided to put it under Great Marketing. Put your best stuff where the customers are most likely to see it.)

Making Your Ads Memorable – Most ads are ignored, because most ads are lousy. The truly remarkable ads are the ads most remembered. This Freebie will show you three things you can do to make your print and broadcast advertisements cut through the clutter and be seen, heard and remembered by your potential customers.

Enjoy!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Some have argued that by giving it all away, no one will ever hire me to speak. Fair enough. Of course, the live explanations are always more fun and interesting and worth every penny. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t offer to do them.

Is Word-of-Mouth Advertising or Customer Service?

I recently did a workshop in Jacksonville, Florida for PRO on Customer Service. We started with a 45 minute presentation on Generating Word-of-Mouth.

Most people think of Word-of-Mouth as a form of Advertising & Marketing, not Customer Service. They would be correct.

But…

The easiest way to get Word-of-Mouth is to offer over-the-top, OMG, I-gotta-tell-someone Customer Service. Do something so unexpectedly nice for your customer that she has to tell other people about her experience. Do something so unexpectedly generous and helpful that it is the first story she tells her friends. Do something so unexpectedly wonderful and delightful that she wants to talk about it on Yelp and Facebook and TripAdvisor.

Yeah, Word-of-Mouth is about Customer Service, too.

So where should I put the new free eBook on Generating Word-of-Mouth? On my Freebies page under Great Marketing or under Great Customer Service?

Hmmm….

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The key phrase in there is unexpectedly. If she expects it and gets in, you get a thanks in return. If she expects it and doesn’t get it, you get a whole different kind of word-of-mouth. You have to do something unexpected to get her to talk. Then, after you do it enough, it becomes expected and you have to raise the bar even higher. That’s okay. I know you’re up to that challenge..

Showing Your Values

I am digging through old archives of our store. One of the Core Values of our business is Nostalgia. We are putting together a display of old pictures and old advertisements from the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Tim Miles wrote a great post on whether or not you should use how long you’ve been in business as part of your advertising. You know, phrases like “serving your family since 1979.”

My answer to that is… only if your start date has something to do with the Core Values of your store. What happened in 1979 that got you to start serving families? Why do you serve families? Why does 34 years of history mean anything?

Nostalgia is part of our culture. We sell toys and baby products, so we get customers for the birth, the birthdays, and Christmas. We’ve been selling toys for over 60 years so we have multiple generations of customers. Not a week goes by without at least one customer telling me about visiting the old store (we moved to our current location in 1967).

There are better ways to show Nostalgia than simply saying when we opened.

For instance, here is a radio ad we ran back in 2006 about an event that happened in 1965…

Christmas Eve, nineteen sixty-five. He didn’t know if he would make it. Nine months of active duty, he missed his family. And he was an uncle now. His sister had a baby girl, a precious little child for which a stuffed animal from an airport gift shop just wouldn’t do. As his dad picked him up in the family sedan, he asked, “We got time to stop by the Toy House?”  “Of course, son.  Welcome home.” Merry Christmas from the Toy House in downtown Jackson where Christmas magic happens.

True story? Check.
Speaks to the heart? Check.
Consistent with our Core Value of Nostalgia? Check.
Lets people know we’ve been in business a really long time without just saying the date? Check.

Roy H. Williams said branding is every single interaction a customer has with your business plus how she feels about it. Control the interactions, build them around your Core Values, and you control the feelings.

Are you showing your Core Values both in the store and in your ads? You should. It works.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. We tend to get a far stronger response from our Nostalgic ads and Nostalgic posts on Facebook than anything else we do. Of all your Core Values, you need to find the one that resonates most deeply with your customers, then build your message from that value. One way to find out is to post messages and pictures to your Facebook page showing different values and see what gets the best response.

No Ads or Better Ads?

The most common complaint about television and radio is that there are too many ads. If that was really true, Satellite radio and premium TV would have killed advertising-sponsored broadcast media. They haven’t and it doesn’t look like they will.

But the complaint still sits there and begs the question… Is the problem that there are too many ads or is the problem that most of the ads on the air today suck?

We don’t complain about too many ads during the Super Bowl even though there are more ads than any other sporting event of the year. Instead we watch closer. We critique the ads, rate them, show them to our friends, go watch them on youtube, and read what others have to say about them. We don’t complain because most of the ads are better than what we normally get.

The truth is that most ads do suck. Most ads are boring, unoffensive drivel that doesn’t move the needle. Heck, it doesn’t even get you to pay attention and listen.

It doesn’t have to be that way. At least not for your ads. You can start producing better ads right now and something amazing will happen. Your ads will not only work better, they will stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the noise.

Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads, wrote two pieces about creating ads that anyone who advertises should have taped to their wall. The first was posted back in 2009 and is every bit as relevant today. The second was just published in last week’s Monday Morning Memo.

Bookmark them. Read them. Print them. Read them again. Follow them. Your ads will stand out. Your ads will work harder than ever before. Your ads will never be part of the too many ads on the air complaint. Instead, your fans will be saying, “I wish more people advertised like you do.”

That means they are paying attention and listening.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Soon I will be launching a new eBook in the Freebies section on simple ways you can make your ads stand out amid the clutter. Think of it as a companion piece to the two Roy articles above (that I read regularly, over and over and over.)

PPS Before you start crafting your message, however, I highly recommend you read what Tim Miles wrote here first. He’s one smart cookie. His clients do better than industry averages across the board.

A Great Use of Stories

I ran into Molly on a Saturday morning at the bank.

“Phil, we’re having tours of our new building this summer. What are you doing this Tuesday at 5:30?”

Molly runs the Center for Family Health, a healthcare facility for Jackson that is especially helpful for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured patients in our community. They just consolidated two facilities into one shiny building a couple blocks from our store.

I went, expecting the usual, a high-ranking person, maybe Molly herself, walking us through the building with a bunch of blah blah numbers about healthcare and how important they are to the community.

Oh we got that. But we also got a whole bunch more. At each stop along the tour we met a new person who shared a few facts with us. Then that person gave us a testimonial from a patient, put a face on that department and showed us with tear-jerking reality what a difference they make in the lives of people we know.

By the third stop I was looking for a tissue box.

The stories were real. The stories were emotional. The stories were about situations you and I could relate to. The stories were illustrative of the services offered by the center. I sat in a dental area and saw a picture of an 8-year old girl with teeth black and rotting. Then I saw a picture of the same girl at 16 with a full, beautiful toothy smile. I didn’t need a dentist with facts and figures and flow charts to figure out what they do. I knew from those pictures and her story.

I’m glad I went. More importantly, I’m glad they understood the power of stories. I cannot remember a single fact they shared with me (well, except the 500 births they do each year – that was surprising and useful information), but I remember all the stories in detail. I walked out of the building wanting to share what I had learned with the world.

I just did.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You have stories. Tell them. They are more memorable and make a stronger, more emotional connection than facts and data ever could. Remember, we make more decisions with our heart than our mind and when the heart and mind are at odds, the heart almost always wins. We use our brains to justify what our hearts have already decided.

How Much Can You Remember?

We played a game at a baby shower for an employee. Someone brought out a tray with random items on it and we were supposed to look at it for about 30 seconds and then write down everything we could remember.

While my memory is not quite photographic, I was the hands-down winner, getting sixteen of the twenty-two items down on paper in the allotted time – 73%. The next closest was eleven items or 50%. Most people had in the five to nine range. And that was after being asked to pay attention.

Just imagine how much less you would have noticed if the tray came around while you were engaged in conversation, or driving a car, or making breakfast?

Yet that is what most businesses expect out of their radio ads. I know. I used to be one of them. I used to tell my radio and TV people that I couldn’t use 30-second spots because I couldn’t say all I needed to say in less than 60 seconds. Until I realized that the more I said, the less people remembered.

Try to make five points in your radio or TV ad and even the customers paying attention are likely to only remember one or two of those five points. The ones cooking bacon won’t remember a thing. So give up on the notion of saying everything in every ad.

Make only one point. Make the only point they need to remember, the one point that will move the needle. Make one point and make it so interesting that even the bacon chef will sit up and take notice. Make that one point often enough and they’ll have to remember it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Three things you can do to get people to notice your ads and notice your business…

  1. Tell a story that relates to your Core Values.
  2. Tell it in as few words as possible.
  3. Make only one point.
Do all three over and over again and your advertising will get you the results you want.

Less is More (Powerful)

Take two bottles of perfume. Pour out half the perfume in each bottle. Now fill one of the bottles the rest of the way with water. Leave the other bottle with only perfume.

Which perfume is more potent and powerful?

Take a 60-second radio ad. Cut out all the black and unnecessary words, the words that do not interest or delight or move the point forward. Keep cutting until you get it down to 30 seconds while making the same point.

Which ad will be more potent and powerful?

You get the idea.

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” -Thomas Jefferson

“I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.” -Blaise Pascal

-Phil Wrzesinski
wwwPhilsForum.com

PS One of the best exercises Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads, ever did during my trainings with him was to take a green sharpie to my written ads and cross off all the boring, dull, black words. The paper looked like green Morse code when he was done, but the words left behind had incredible power and impact. Give your ads the same treatment and watch their impact rise with every slash of the pen.