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An Expensive But Effective Form of Advertising

I was doing my presentation Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! yesterday, talking about how to deal with unhappy customers.  Someone brought up the question…

“But what if there is a problem with the product and the manufacturer won’t back you up?”

I answered that I have taken a loss on products a number of times to make the customer happy. The only difference is that I did not look at it as a loss of money.  I looked at it as an opportunity to be her hero.  I looked at is an opportunity to be helpful, to make her smile, to turn her from unhappy into evangelical.

Do you know how much it costs to turn one customer from unhappy into evangelical?

Better to ask, how much more will it cost if you don’t?

The losses from that transaction are not losses. They are advertising expenses.  Think of it that way and you will never hesitate in doing the right thing.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I have then dropped a vendor for refusing to back me up.  But that is a whole different story.

What Do You Sell?

I don’t think I know any toy store owners who didn’t like the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.  It immediately made my top 5 list of all-time favorite movies.

For me, the beauty was in the name of his store which described what he sold with ultimate clarity.  Mr. Magorium did not sell toys.  He sold Wonder.  Pure and simple, unadultered Wonder.

I’m pretty sure that after a couple hundred years in business, Mr. Magorium knew a thing or two about branding, too.

I am not in the business of selling toys.  I sell Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles.
I am not in the business of selling baby products.  I sell Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles.

And when I recognize that, it makes it easier for me to choose what products to fill the store.  Does the product fulfill my goal of selling Nostalgia, Education, Assistance and Smiles?  If so, on the shelf it will go.

The easiest way to keep from being boxed into a corner is to change your thinking from what products you sell to what ideals you sell.  Products are fickle and have limited shelf life.  But ideals and values are lasting and unchanging.  More importantly, ideals and values attract customers who share those ideals and values, customers who will become loyal followers and evangelists for your business because you speak to their heart.

That is the true essence of branding and the true brilliance behind Mr. Magorium’s WONDER Emporium.

He sells Wonder.  What do you sell?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  For more about branding and core values, download my FREE eBook Understanding Your Brand and the accompanying Worksheets.  It may be the most worthwhile exercise you do for your business.

Breaking Down an Ad

I’ve ripped apart a couple ads previously here and here.  Time to do it again.

Today I will be recording the following ad…

She is a writer.  Journals.  Poetry.  Stories.
She is a writer.  Loves to put the pencil to paper.
She is a writer.  Birthday coming up.
She is a writer.  She lives in Belgium.
She is a writer.  Her book is now published.
She is a writer.  Happy 10th birthday!
She is a writer.  Got started with a gift from Toy House
Toy House in downtown Jackson.  We’re here to make you smile.

My five points for writing an ad are:

  1. Make only one point
  2. Speak to the heart
  3. Speak more of customer than you do yourself
  4. Back up all your claims
  5. Tell a story

Make Only One Point
She is a young writer who got a gift from Toy House to launch her writing career.  Did you get that point?  Good.

Speak to the Heart/Tell a Story
The whole ad is a complete story.  A writer.  A birthday coming up.  Lives out of country.  Published.  Wait, she’s only 10?

The fact she has a birthday coming up gets your attention and makes you want to listen more.  Birthdays are powerfully nostalgic.  The part about Belgium (true story) adds to the interest and intrigue.  Then the clincher – she is only 10 years old.  Melts your heart, doesn’t it?  It did mine the first time I heard this story from the grandmother.

Speak More of Customer Than Yourself
Spoke of her or you ten times, me only three.  (See if you can spot what I am counting.)

Back up Your Claims
The closest to a claim I make is that she got a gift from Toy House that launched her writing career.  This really is not a claim. I am not promising anything, just sharing what happened.  If I were to say, “If you buy this product, you will become a writer,” then I need to back that up with evidence.  In this case I am just giving you the details of the story.  Notice that I do not mention the product either.  Mentioning the product shifts this ad from a story to a sales pitch.  Leaving it out makes people feel more emotionally connected, which is the real goal of the ad.  They will come in and ask about the product if writing is their dream.

The best thing about this ad?  It doesn’t sound like any other ad on the radio.  People will listen to this ad, even as they tune out everything else they hear on the radio.  Isn’t that the first most important part of advertising?  To get them to pay attention?

Of course it is.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Nostalgia is one of the points of my Character Diamond.  Do you have a Character Diamond that drives all of your business decisions?  Would you like one?

Heart and Mind

The mind uses logic to justify what the heart desires.

Roy H. Williams taught me that back in 2005 and I have shared it with countless other retailers since.
Win the heart and you win the mind. But what does it mean to win the heart?
It means to win the right hemisphere of the brain where emotions and colors and sounds and images exist.
It means to win the right brain of connections and patterns and relationships.
It means to win the right brain that does not care about logic or labels.
It means to win the right brain, the part that never sleeps.
You do that with emotions.
You do that with relationships.
You do that with patterns.
You do that with music and sound.
You do that with surprise and delight.
You do that with stories.
Can you tell a story about your store that will connect emotionally with your potential customers? It will be far more powerful than any facts or data.
I ran this ad in December 2005, again in 2007, and again in 2009.
He left Detroit 9am Christmas Eve. Someone somewhere had to have the one toy his sweet little six year old wanted. Six cities, seven stores later he stood travel weary in front of me. “I suppose you don’t have any Simon games either.” As I handed over the last of the Simon games he smiled and said, “God bless you.” Believe me, he already has. Merry Christmas from Toy House in downtown Jackson. We’re here to make you smile.
No facts. No data. Just a true story about my first Christmas Eve on the sales floor back in 1980. Would you believe the three years I ran it are three of the best holiday seasons in the last 20 years?
Win the heart (the right side of the brain). You know how.
-Phil Wrzesinski

Universal Laws are Universal – Use Them

Newton’s second law states simply that Force = Mass x Acceleration.

That law is accepted as fact. It is a Universal law. That means it applies to everything.

Including your business.

Force = Mass x Acceleration
Impact = Size of idea (mass) x Speed at which it is delivered (acceleration)

If you have a great business idea and you deliver that idea quickly and succinctly, you will make a big impact. If you have a lousy idea and take forever to deliver it… Yeah, you get the picture.

You can even break that down to your advertising. Do you know why sound bites work so well? Big idea delivered in few words. Build your ads the same way. Make it about one and only one really big point. Deliver that point as simply as possible. Watch the needle move.

Tap into the laws of the universe and you can make them work to your advantage.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I learned this from Roy H. Williams at Wizard Academy. You should go there some day.

How Many Points Should You Make?

(Full disclosure: I have no idea where this story originated. I think it came from Roy H. Williams or one of his Wizard Partners because it sounds like something they would say. If anyone knows where this story started, please let me know.)

The ad committee met to discuss the new copy for their next missive. After much heated debate, they finally came to an agreement on the twelve points that needed to be made.

They called in the copy writer and asked him to sit down at the end of the conference room table.

As they began explaining in detail and nuance each of the twelve points, the copy writer pulled a board out of his bag with a dozen nails sticking straight up. He laid the board on the end of the table. With puzzled looks and just a slight pause the ad committee chairman continued his description of the points.

The copy writer then took a frying pan out of his bag and slammed it down on the bed of nails. This shocked the room into silence. The copy writer then showed the small indentations on the bottom of the frying pan to the stunned committee.

Without saying a word, the copy writer pulled another board out of his bag. This board contained a large solitary spike. The copy writer took the same frying pan and slammed it down on the spike. The pan was impaled by the spike, sliding all the way down until it was stuck firmly to the board.

The copy writer looked up and said, “Now… how many points did you want me to make?”



-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS Yes, that’s my pan and my boards. I tried it out on the Jackson Retail Success Academy students back in January and I’m pretty sure that point stuck. If you would like to make the point in your ads stick better. Check out my free ebooks, How Ads Work Part 1 and Part 2.

Two Things You Can Correct Right Now

Did 2011 go the way you wanted?

Do you want 2012 to be better?

Here are two things you can work on right now that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, but will make a difference.

BEAT YOUR CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS

Your customer has a set of expectations of how she will be treated when she comes through that door. Either she knows what to expect because she has been there before, or she thinks what to expect based on your reputation or advertising.

And when you meet her expectation, she may smile, she may even say, “Thanks!” But that is as far as it goes.

When you exceed her expectation, however, magical things begin to happen. By the power of reciprocity she feels like she now owes you one.

She may repay that by feeling more loyal to your store and making a return visit.
She may repay that by gushing about you to her friends.
She may repay that by spending more the next time she is in.

One way you can exceed her expectations is Generosity. Is there something you can give away that will pleasantly surprise her? A classic example is the jeweler who changes your watch battery for free. Doesn’t advertise it, just does it. My favorite example is the expensive restaurant with the mouth-watering dessert menu. You and your friends have decided to split a dessert or two when the waiter comes to the table exclaiming how he is in a good mood and would like to buy dessert for everyone at the table. Do you think you’ll be bragging about this restaurant for a while? Of course you will. And you will be going back sooner than you think.

For more ways to exceed your customers’ expectations, download my free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to Wow.

SAY SOMETHING REMARKABLE

Your advertising is blah. How do I know? Because 99.9% of the advertising out there is blah. That is why it does not work. It has nothing to do with reaching the right people. It has nothing to do with the medium you are using. It has everything to do with you not being brave enough to make a bold statement.

Most ads are written not to offend. And they become so beige that they do not move the needle at all. Since about 90% of the population is not shopping with you right now anyway, who are you afraid of offending?

The best phone call I ever received happened last December. A gal called to tell me how much she hated my ads. At first I thought it was a prank. But when she did not break from this message, I asked her why she hated them. She said, “Because you make it sound like all the other stores sell crap.” Good! That is what my ads were supposed to say.

Spice up your advertising by saying something bold. Back it up with evidence. Make it interesting and relevant. Without spending a penny more, the money you are spending on advertising will become far more effective.

Do those two things and you will be praying the Mayans were wrong about 2012.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Not sure what to say in your ads? You should read these three eBooks. Don’t worry. They are short, sweet, and best of all, FREE. Read them in order and email me if you have any questions.
Understanding Your Brand (and the accompanying Worksheet)
How Ads Work Part 1
How Ads Work Part 2

How Many Customers Does it Take to Change a Retailer?

Two numbers every retailer should track are Number of Transactions and Average $ per Transaction. (Yes, if you know the first number then you can calculate the second).

Number of transactions is simply how many times you rang up someone on your register. Did that number go up or down? If it went up, life is probably pretty good. You can skip the rest of this post and wait for the next one talking about the Average Ticket.

If it went down, read on…

There are two reasons for your number of transactions to go down:

  1. You didn’t get enough traffic through the doors

  2. You didn’t convert that traffic into purchases


YOU DIDN’T GET ENOUGH TRAFFIC

There are a number of reasons why you might not have as many people coming through the door. Here are the most obvious ones…

The market shrank. The population in your area decreased or at least the population that shops your category decreased. We have seen a decline in births in county for four straight years. Since we sell baby products it is not surprising that the number of transactions has declined. Fewer babies being born means fewer people buying cribs.

You can get population information from your local government. They track things like foreclosures, house sales, rental property availability, unemployment claims and taxes to determine what is happening with the local population.

In a similar vein, did your market dramatically change? Was there road construction outside your door? Was there a major shopping center constructed somewhere else (even if they didn’t have a competing store)? Was there a fundamental shift in traffic patterns? all of these could have an effect on the amount of traffic coming through your doors.

The competition increased. Did a new competitor come to town? Did a current competitor step up their game? Although I often tell retailers to focus more on what you can do than on what your competitors are doing, you still have to watch them. In 2010 Toys R Us opened a pop-up temporary store in our market. It only took a small piece of the pie, but in our shrinking market every crumb counts.

Your advertising did not work. Did you cut back on your marketing efforts? Did you change your message? Did you forget to change your message? If you cut back or made major changes to your message you may have caused the drop in traffic. (Not sure what your message should be? Download this free eBook “Understanding Your Brand”)

YOU DIDN’T CONVERT TRAFFIC INTO TRANSACTIONS

Two main reasons why this happens:

You didn’t have the right products. When there is a hot product in your market and you don’t have it, you’ll get plenty of lookers, but no buyers. Nothing cures more retail ills than having the product everyone wants. Did you have a bunch of calls or requests for a particular item? I know one store that has a daily worksheet that all the staff fill out including what requests were made to which they had to say NO. From that worksheet she often finds new products and categories to carry. Her rationale? Customers come in thinking she should have it. Why disagree with the customer?

Your sales staff wasn’t up to par. How much did you commit to training? How much did you work with the staff on what great customer service looks like? How much did you leave to a manager to do? Does the manager care at the same level as you care? Not only does a poorly trained sales staff cost you in conversions, it costs you in average ticket (which we’ll explore in the next post), and it costs you in repeat business (traffic coming through the door).

More than likely, if your transactions are down it is a combination of many of these factors. The two you can control the most are your Advertising and your Sales Staff Training. Get working on those right away. In fact, even if you had a good year, you can still raise the bar in both of those categories.

And that will make it a Happy New Year for your business.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One other thing that could happen… Your POS could change the way it tracks transactions. Our new release of our POS software did just that. Took us two months to figure out why our number of transactions spiked all of the sudden. Got that figured out so now we’re comparing apples to apples again.

The Purpose of Your Advertising

One of the best lessons Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads, taught me was to look at where I get my traffic. Ask yourself these two questions:

  1. How much of my business is repeat business?

  2. How much of my business is referral business?

The remaining is the business you got from your location and your advertisements (which by now you know are one and the same – location is one of the greatest forms of advertising.)

The typical independent retailer gets most of his or her business from Repeats and Referrals. The best way to get more of that is through your customer service. WOW your customers and they will come back and bring their friends with them.

Yet much of the advertising we do is geared towards preaching to the choir, trying to get our regulars to come back. It is much cheaper to service them extremely well than to spend a lot of money advertising to them. If you feel you need to reach out to them, use Facebook and email. They are better (cheaper) for speaking to your regulars because they are one-to-one and personal.

The bulk of your advertising, however, should be focused on getting new customers. Farming. Planting seeds that will bring you a new bumper crop to harvest in the future.

Take a good look at your marketing efforts and see how much is geared towards Repeat and Referrals and how much is farming for new customers.

Take those dollars spent on the R& R and bump up your level of service. Then spend the rest on farming. You will reap the benefits.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Not sure what to say in your farming? Start by downloading my free eBook Understanding Your Brand. The people most likely to shop with you are the people who share your values. Once you identify clearly what you value most, you’ll be able to reach the like-minded customers.

PPS I’m going back to see the Wizard in February. Want your world rocked? Join me.

Ripping a New Ad Part 2

Time to take another critical look at some radio ad copy. This is my ad for November…

The Toys They Play With
It wasn’t on his list. In fact, he’d never heard of it. Christmas morning, it did not get the same exclamation of joy as those other toys he thought he wanted. But when the excitement of those TV-advertised toys turned to disappointment because they barely engaged him longer than their ads, he picked up this other toy. Guess which one he’s still playing with. There are the toys on their list and the toys they play with. You know which ones we carry. Toy House in downtown Jackson. We’re here to make you smile.

Like before, let’s break down this ad on the five points that turn okay copy into great copy. As a reminder, the five points are:

  1. Make only one point

  2. Speak to the heart

  3. Speak more of the customer than you do yourself

  4. Back up all your claims with evidence

  5. Tell a story

Make Only One Point
The point on this ad is clear. The toys we sell have more play value than the ones your kids see on TV. Those are the types of toys you should buy.

Speak to the Heart
This ad has an emotional appeal because it talks about Christmas and both the excitement and disappointment of the toys/gifts of Christmas. Telling it from the perspective of a child adds to the emotional tug. Telling a story that speaks to a fear all too familiar to many parents – getting a bunch of toys that just aren’t as fun as they looked on TV – also resonates emotionally.

Speak More of the Customer Than You Do Yourself
In this ad, neither the customer nor the store dominates the copy. The boy does. Story formats, however, help the customer picture herself in the midst of that story. Therefore, this ad speaks implicitly just as often of the customer as it does the store. Informational formats should be more explicit and focus more heavily on the words you and your.

Back Up All Your Claims
The claim in this ad is that toys do not meet the expectations set up by their TV ads. In this case, you either agree with that statement and the ad resonates with you, or you disagree with that statement and therefore disagree with the premise of the ad. I am not trying to convince you of that statement. I only use the claim to define my audience. I am willing to take that polarizing stand because I know that the people who believe that statement will like what I have to offer. Those that do not, will not be interested in my ad or my business.

Tell a Story
Going back to my favorite form of advertising here. Stories beat facts every single day. We are skeptical of facts (hence the importance of backing them up). But we love stories. We are more willing to listen to a story than to hear a bunch of facts. Stories get attention. Stories move people to action. Stories make people feel. Wouldn’t you like your ads to get attention, move people to action and make them feel something?

Don’t let your radio ads sound like everyone else. Do and say something different.

-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/


PS Based on the five criteria, I gave my last ad a B. How would you rate this one?

PPS I have to give my son, Ian, credit for the inspiration for this ad. Ian told me that one of his favorite Christmas gifts was the large stuffed dog he got in 2005 that still stands guard over his bed every night. As he says… “It wasn’t even on my list!”