Joan Stewart Guest Blogs: When Not to Follow Your Lawyer's Advice

I am very proud to have Joan Stewart as guest blogger today on Survive and Thrive for Retailers.  She is a marketing guru and her advice works well across industry borders.  Today she's addressing my retail friends, with my thanks!  Be sure to connect with her. Check her credits at the end of this article.

What do you do when faced with a lawsuit?

By Joan Stewart

While you're at lunch today, a reporter leaves you a voicemail message telling you that one of your customers has filed a lawsuit against your store for shoddy business practices.

The lawsuit claims your cash register charges more for certain items than what's listed on the pricetags. The reporter has called because he wants a comment.

You know nothing about the lawsuit. Your first inclination may be to call your lawyer.

Clarence Jones, a media trainer and former award-winning investigative reporter, is betting that your lawyer's advice will be wrong.

In almost every instance, Jones says, the lawyer will tell you not to comment, which is the same as screaming, "I'm guilty!"

Think about it. You've read dozens of news stories about companies being sued, and the CEO or store manager says, "We can't comment on this because it's in litigation."

Your attorney's Number One job is to cover your butt in a court of law.  Problem is, most attorneys don't know anything about covering your butt in the court of public opinion.

By the time a lawsuit winds its way through the courts, and you win, your reputation could be tarnished, your store closed, and your business in ruins.

Jones says your company--and even you, if you're a sole proprietor--must know how to respond in bad-news situations so you can put your best foot forward and take control of the story.  If you find yourself in a PR crisis, weigh your lawyer’s advice along with the advice of others such as a good crisis counselor.

~ Publicity expert Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, shares tips like these in her ebook, "How to be a Kick-butt Publicity Hound." It's a one-stop-shop on how to generate publicity for your retail outlet using traditional and social media. And it includes a handy glossary of terms at the end so you aren't confused by media lingo. Read more about what the book will teach store owners and managers at http://www.publicityhound.com/publicity/publicityhound.htm. Joan also does private consulting. Contact her at JStewart@PublicityHound.com or at JStewart@PublicityHound.com. Sign up for her free weekly email newsletter chock full of publicity tips at http://www.PublicityHound.com.  

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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:

You, Your Hiring Trends and Huge Retail Heists

It used to be that the really huge shoplifting heists for retailers were internal. We once lost $30,000 in Swarovski jewelry (at wholesale value) that way.

Now the LA Times reports that new bigtime gangs are targeting big chains and small with all kinds of tactics. They use all kinds of tactics including using booster bags that deactivate anti-theft devices and a technique they call "Box stuffers" where they remove cheap items from boxes and replace them with pricier goods and then check out. 

In the Phoenix area alone 36 people were indicted this year. They are allegedly are members of  vast retail crime syndicates. 

Some "CSI Units" are using forensics to catch them.

Still, retailers need to continue their vigilance, let their people know what to watch for--and certainly have enough people on the floor to combat this scourge.  It may very well be false thriftiness to cut back on employees when crooks like this know very well how to divert the attention of members of your staff.

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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:

Joyce White Reviews New Social Marketing Book for Retailers

Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers:

Tweaking Your Tweets and Other Tips for Integrating Your Social Media
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Paperback: 130 pages Publisher: CreateSpace (April 1, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1451546149 ISBN-13: 978-1451546149 Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches Available as paperback, e-book, and for Kindle This Book Is Sponsored by Gift Shop Magazine Blurb: "It's entirely possible that three or four years from now, we'll have moved on [to something new on the Web]. But the key elements of the Twitter platform will persevere. Every major channel of information will be Twitterfied." ~ Time Magazine

Reviewed by Joyce White originally for Amazon and Sculpting the Heart Reviews--Five Stars

“When business is slow,” says Carolyn, “the last budget one should trim is advertising.” Up until now Tweeting cost us nothing unless we become addicted. In that case, I suggest you stop tweeting if it hurts.Carolyn writes that tweeting helps us connect with our target audience in a way that delights them, builds relationships, and creates a sense of community with people of like interest.

Since I am a new author myself, and Yes, I tweet; but, after reading this book, I realize I haven‘t been appreciating what an exciting and versatile tool Twitter can be in promoting my books and myself over the internet. Carolyn reinforces the ideas that tweeting will help you not only drive new traffic to your site, but it will also help you create a loyal following of repeat clients . . .even help you make new friends. I like this idea. There are several books out there on tweeting but Carolyn Howard-Johnson's "Frugal and Focused Tweeting for Retailers" should be the one considered mandatory reading.For all who want to successfully compete in the marketplace regardless of the services or products being offered to a consuming public, her books are like a  congenial roadmap with all the shortcuts and detours to your future prosperity.

Twitter is about making new connections, says Carolyn.For retailers that means, it’s a customer-building process. We aren’t fussy about who comes into our store as long as they are reasonably well behaved. It’s the same with Twitter.

FIVE STARS FOR AMAZON

~Reviewer Joyce White writes Sculpting the Heart Book Reviews at www.wingedforhealing.com.

Joyce White
Author
Sculpting the Heart with Art Therapy
Read Now - http://bit.ly/d1jGLN
Twitter - @wjoycewhite

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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:

Salt, Taco Bell, Reverse Marketing, and YOU

On Marketing

In the world of marketing there is something called “Reverse PR.” It’s used by companies that are doing something that would benefit their public in the long run.

This kind of marketing has a moniker of its own because it's a special case where businesses don’t want their public to know what they are doing--no matter how admirable their actions may be. They fear that if the public noticed what they’re doing the placebo effect would kick in and their public  would disrespect what they did before or judge the new effort more harshly.

That is such a difficult concept to explain it needs an example. So here it is from a recent case published in the LA Times.

The example comes from the fast food industry: Taco Bell cut 20% of the sodium from its menu across the board. Good for its customers’ health, right? But if you knew would get real picky? Taste each item? Savor them? And declare them not as tasty as they were before—even if it is better for you?

It’s not quite a parallel example but a self-published author might decide to pull their book off the market because of faulty editing and then republish with fewer typos and maybe better formatting. But if readers know about this effort, would they watch the new book even more closely to catch that author in some kind of error? Would it negatively color the great opinion they had of that author’s work before? Some things are best not marketed, just done.

Greg Drescher, executive director of strategic initiatives for the Culinary Institute of America says, “This is one of those reverse PR deals. You don’t want people to notice what you’re doing.”

The trouble is, it’s hard to keep some things a secret. The LA Times reported on a bunch of good guys in the food industry reducing salt. Among them Carl’s Jr, El Torito. And here’s the downside. Sometimes when something like this does get reported, the company in question is left with little or no control over the information that goes out. In this case, the Times highlighted the fact that these chains are only doing it because they are threatened with legislation that will restrict salt—not because they give a hoot about the health of their customers.

So, the more you know about marketing, the more you control you have over how you handle the marketing of your own business right? Have you done something recently that should--by all rights--be great news that you're better off not telling your customers about at all...or better of telling them the way you want the story told?

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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:

Learning from Borders' Closing

The big news among publishers, authors and retailers last month was the closing of Borders bookstores. They will be missed.

The truth is, this has little if anything to do with the economy. It has to do with innovation, the cycling of an industry—in this case the publishing industry—into something new. It also has to do with the tendency for most bookstores not to adapt. In fact, the tendency of much of the retailing industry not to adapt...or at least not recognize opportunity when it comes up and stares us in the face, nose to nose.

I bring something unique to the publishing industry. Well, if not unique then rare. I am a writer with retail experience as owner of my own chain of retail stores. Nearly three decades of it. And this is how successful small and large retailers adapt to changing times.

1. They get local. In the case of bookstores, they could featuring local writers to increase their profitability. I worked with Borders as an author a couple times. It wasn’t easy going!
2. They partner. In the case of bookstores, they can partner with local authors, combine contact lists and promotion power to get more customers in for special events and to increase loyalty. Retailers of most any ilk could easily boost their net income on any given day from  2 to 20%.
3. They listen to their customers. That might mean narrowing their focus to reach niche markets. Unfortunately large chains either refuse to do this pleading expense, but the successful large ones do. As an example, Walmarts buys different kinds of merchandise for stores in areas that have different interests and different needs.

The question for authors and retailers is, can they learn to use one another's power to benefit both.  

See my comment on this article put out by Wharton’s school of business.http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/07/bad-news-for-borders-and-for-publishing/.

For retailer who isn't yet convinced, I've written a book that addresses the benefits of these kinds of partnerships and a lot of other ways to increase bottom lines, too. The book is . A Retailer's Guide To Frugal In-Store Promotions: How-To Increase Profits And Spit In The Eyes Of Economic Downturns Using Thrifty Events And Sales Techniques. In it is a chapter on how retailers can benefit from partnering with authors for events. Authors, too, could learn something from it. The more we know about retailing, the easier it is for them to help retailers see the benefits of working with them.

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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: