One of my favorite lessons learned from the Wizard of Ads is the Advertising Performance Equation. This equation gives a quick lesson into the factors that influence how well your advertising works. The equation looks like this: SoV x IQ x PEF x MPo = Sales

I won’t go into details about the equation right now, but one of those factors has been weighing on my mind.

PEF stands for Personal Experience Factor. Roy Williams (the Wizard) teaches that your advertising creates an expectation of your store. And when a customer experiences your store it will have an effect on the power of your ads. If you do not meet the customer’s expectations, all future ads will be seen/heard with disdain and not work as well. If you exceed the expectations created by your advertising, your business will grow.

The goal, then, is to ALWAYS exceed the customers’ expectations.

This can be done two ways. Set a really low bar that is always easy to beat or set the bar higher and higher with each passing day.

As Stewart B. Johnson said, “Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.”

I’ve always believed that success for Toy House falls more into line with Mr. Johnson. We need to constantly be striving to be better. Not better than our competition, but better than we were yesterday.

But with that said, there is some validity to setting a really low expectation. We see this every year in political debates. Who “won” the debate is primarily based on who met or exceeded the expectations.

In advertising, some say that you should never brag about your customer service because you raise a really high bar of expectations that will be increasingly difficult to exceed.

I’m not sure I’m fully in that camp. Raising the bar of expectations attracts a lot of customers. Plus, it gives you incentive to train harder, to prepare more, to be more creative in ways that you can please customers.

So, I’m just gonna lay it all on the line. I believe my staff are some of the finest retail workers in the toy industry. They are informed, helpful and friendly, and will give you the best shopping experience you can find in Jackson.

There. I’ve said it. The bar has been raised. I double dog dare you to give us the chance to exceed those expectations.

-Phil