As many of you know, I am an advocate of learning more about our businesses and not just from the school of hard knocks (meaning the make-mistakes-and-learn-from-them-syndrome).
My three favorite are networking, the buyer education programs at tradeshows, and books, not necessarily in that order. Books, in fact, are one of my favorites because, generally, they are a frugal way to keep current and inspired.
I just received a newsletter from George Whalin and that reminded me to give you some ideas for new books out there. You'll see some wiidgets in this newsletter for some you'll want to buy or get grom the library. A couple are George's
recommendations. The rest are mine.
Just so you know, I'll be at the National Stationery Show this May speaking and signing books with fellow retail speakers and authors like Linda Cahan. Be sure to research the amazing buyer's education program that Debra Gold of Gold & Co. has put together for the show.
I always say, if I can attend a seminar and take home just one great, money-saving idea, I'm ahead of the game and, in many cases, I've paid for my attendance at the show. One year I brought my manager, Susan Polda, to the California Gift Show. We went to a seminar on gift wrap ideas. It was not only fun, but Susan went back to her store and utilized about a dozen ideas from that presentation, ideas she used for years. I believe the benefits were more far reaching than improving our gift wrap services. I think she went back to Vegas invigorated. I mean, Las Vegas isn't the only place with lots of glitz and flashing lights, now is it? (-:
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Retailers Gotta Know More About Writing Now They're Blogging
Yay! My new little help for writers is on Amazon in all its chartreuse, red, and yellow glory!
I am on a one-woman campaign to make better writers of my fellow retailers. We often handle our own advertising and now, of course, there is the Web. Newsletters. Blogging. So we need skills beyond the grammar we learned in high school and the test-taking skills we needed in college.
So now, you can now order a copy of this booklet to put in your briefcase and read on the fly! It’s the Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers: The Ultimate Frugal Booklet for Avoiding Word Trippers and Crafting Gatekeeper-Perfect Copy.
Notice that this is a booklet. It isn’t intended to be a complete reference for every sneaky homonym in the English language. For one thing there is a nice list of those pesky guys in The Frugal Editor (http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor). It’s small partly because it isn’t intended to be drudgery. It’s only 54 pages, so it’s a small, easy-to-read dose of some of the most difficult word trippers, not the ones you learned in the fourth grade. And it is written with a bit of humor to brighten the experience. If you don’t learn anything from it, send it back to me and I’ll refund your money.
Buy the paperback at http://budurl.com/WordTrippersPB. It is only $6.95. You support a friend (me!) and you brush up on skills for your writing career. It's will soon be available for Kindle, too. What could be better than that?
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Friday, March 5, 2010
Quick Marketing Tip--Don't Throw Out What's Great
Everyone would like to know which promotion they're doing works and which doesn't. That rarely happens. Sometimes we think we know and we don't. Recently Pepsi redid its logo. Dan Neil, LA Times marketing expert, laments what they did. He says "It looks like some strange foreign knockoff of Pepsi--Pipse, maybe."
Here's the thing. People are inflexible. You train them to like you, like what you do, like what they see. They can even get attached. When you change things you have to be very careful that 1. what you are discarding truly is no longer working and 2. that what you replace it with doesn't alienate their sensiblities. I mean, poor Dan Neil had his nostalgia button flattened and for no good reason.
He quoted Scott Montgomery as saying "People are running around saying, "Oh my gosh, we've got to do something'...There are all these pressures. Sometimes it's a good thing, if you can make sure you're not throwing away something important. "
Trust me, if a marketing powerhouse like Pepsi (or Coke--remember their Classic Coke fiasco?) can booboo, so can an independent retailer on a small budget. Often the most frugal approach is to do nothing. Your next consideration is do something, but take it easy. Put your little toesies in the water and see what happens. That's market research if you do it formally. If not, it's just playing it smart the easy way.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Here's the thing. People are inflexible. You train them to like you, like what you do, like what they see. They can even get attached. When you change things you have to be very careful that 1. what you are discarding truly is no longer working and 2. that what you replace it with doesn't alienate their sensiblities. I mean, poor Dan Neil had his nostalgia button flattened and for no good reason.
He quoted Scott Montgomery as saying "People are running around saying, "Oh my gosh, we've got to do something'...There are all these pressures. Sometimes it's a good thing, if you can make sure you're not throwing away something important. "
Trust me, if a marketing powerhouse like Pepsi (or Coke--remember their Classic Coke fiasco?) can booboo, so can an independent retailer on a small budget. Often the most frugal approach is to do nothing. Your next consideration is do something, but take it easy. Put your little toesies in the water and see what happens. That's market research if you do it formally. If not, it's just playing it smart the easy way.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
"Collectibles" is Not a Dirty Word
You'll have to pardon my mustiness but I come from a collectible background. Several of my stores included what we called collectibles in their heyday. And before that, I carried antiques (a fancy name for old collectibles) in my Palm Springs store.
I advocate looking at collectibles in a different light in A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions (www.budurl.com/RetilersGuide) and did so when I was writing a column for Home Decor magazine. Imagine my delight when Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine fame wrote about the rush for election souveniers. Given a little time she may write about the rush for Olympics souvenirs.
When I talked about them I mentioned that we were originally gatherers--long before we were hunters. I even ventured that we are genetically coded for collecting. Then Gibbs mentioned that her kids are natural curators (a fancy word for collecting judiciously) including stuff from Happy Meals. And, lo! She remembered that Freud's theory "had to do with toilet training and the trauma of relinquishing a part of oneself."
So, now, are you retailers going to trust me to take a look at collectibles again? We want people to want more than one, right? Retailers of shoes have built-in collecitbles. We women gotta have our Keds, and boots, and house slippers and sandals.
So what fits with your product mix that is collectible? No you don't have to call them "collectible," but if you stock some, you're sure to turn a profit.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
When I talked about them I mentioned that we were originally gatherers--long before we were hunters. I even ventured that we are genetically coded for collecting. Then Gibbs mentioned that her kids are natural curators (a fancy word for collecting judiciously) including stuff from Happy Meals. And, lo! She remembered that Freud's theory "had to do with toilet training and the trauma of relinquishing a part of oneself."
So, now, are you retailers going to trust me to take a look at collectibles again? We want people to want more than one, right? Retailers of shoes have built-in collecitbles. We women gotta have our Keds, and boots, and house slippers and sandals.
So what fits with your product mix that is collectible? No you don't have to call them "collectible," but if you stock some, you're sure to turn a profit.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
Monday, March 1, 2010
Opening Salvo: Great Marketing Begins with a Acknowledgement
This is my first post on Survive and Thrive for Retailers and I thought I'd start with wisdom from Seth Godin. You may or may not know him but recently he posted "Win the Fight, Lose The Customer" on his blog and it so nicely fit with a professional marketing stance for retailers, I thought I'd begin with it. It is sort of an affirmation or a mantra to say yourself (or to your customer) whether you think the customer is right or wrong but it's especially good if you're convinced he or she is wrong. It goes like this:
"I have no problem acknowledging that you're unhappy, upset, or even angy. Nex time, I'd prefer to organize our interaction so you don't end up feeling that way, and I probably could have done it this time, too. You have my attention and my empathy and I value you. Thanks for being here."
You can, of course, frame this in language you feel comfortable with, but the essentials are all there.
There are occasions when one doesn't want a customer back. I may discuss those rare instances in a future blog. But in my nearly 30 years as founder and operator of my own stores, I found only two of them. I admit I'm a patient person.
Whether one is patient or not, Seth's appoach is a valid one. Who is right is rarely the point. The point is, how customer or client and provider can get past the incident and move in a positive direction. In other words, reach for a win-win. This same approach can be used by vendors when dealing with their retailers.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
"I have no problem acknowledging that you're unhappy, upset, or even angy. Nex time, I'd prefer to organize our interaction so you don't end up feeling that way, and I probably could have done it this time, too. You have my attention and my empathy and I value you. Thanks for being here."
You can, of course, frame this in language you feel comfortable with, but the essentials are all there.
There are occasions when one doesn't want a customer back. I may discuss those rare instances in a future blog. But in my nearly 30 years as founder and operator of my own stores, I found only two of them. I admit I'm a patient person.
Whether one is patient or not, Seth's appoach is a valid one. Who is right is rarely the point. The point is, how customer or client and provider can get past the incident and move in a positive direction. In other words, reach for a win-win. This same approach can be used by vendors when dealing with their retailers.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:
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