What We Can Learn About Branding From Santa C.
I would dare to say that in terms of worldwide brands, few – if any – are as big as Santa Claus. Heck, the big guy was an expert on branding more than a century before today’s marketing gurus discovered the concept. And whether he originally designed a global branding strategy or is just a natural born branding genius, there are many things we can learn from him. Let’s look at some notable features of his branding strategy. Consistent look and feel. Santa Claus runs a global empire and is well known on every continent. And although he has adapted to a wide range of cultures and language groups, his red and white clothing makes him instantly recognizable anywhere on the planet. By the way, I suspect Coca-Cola marketers used his color palette for inspiration. Regular and dependable. You can set your watches – well, at least your calendars – by Santa’s schedule. He never misses a delivery. Come Christmas morning, his deliveries will be under the tree. I might note that because of his reputation and universally known schedule, Santa does not have to waste valuable resources developing and maintaining a tracking app. Also, to assure his dependability, Santa makes lists and checks them twice. Good advice for all of us. By the way, rumor has it that he has abandoned his old bound volumes and now is managing all his lists via Evernote. Multicultural. Long before the concept of multiculturalism was on anyone’s radar screen, Santa had adapted his operation to a wide variety of cultures, ethnic groups and nationalities. He recognized early on that it was vital to his brand. Generous. Santa does not charge children for the presents he delivers. At first this might seem crazy, but you need to see the big picture. The presents he gives children assures their love and loyalty as they grow up. Later when these same people have children of their own, they go to work for Santa, donating their labor and goods! In the same way, Google and Apple give away their map apps for free and we all go around helping them improve their navigational database. Content marketing. Santa is a content marketer without peer. Consider a narrative like The Night Before Christmas. That piece of marketing content first went viral in 1823 and it has been “shared,” “liked” and “retweeted” (actually “republished” – it’s more than 140 characters in length) millions of times since then. I won’t even begin to list all the popular songs about Santa. Knows his target demographic. Santa is huge with kids from six to 65. This group has been his focus from day one and it continues to be that way today. I don’t see it changing. There is much more that I could say about Santa’s success. For example, although he delivers all around the world, his mode of transportation leaves no carbon footprint. In fact, it leaves nothing more than a few small hoof prints atop roofs. This forward-thinking strategy has done much to endear him to eco-sensitive consumers. But rather than take more of your time, let me end with a line from that famous narrative I mentioned earlier: “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good...
read moreFill Out Your Holiday Sales Report Card
In the spirit of “there’s nothing new under the sun” and don’t try to “reinvent the wheel,” let’s look at what merchants, on average, did to boost sales over the holiday buying season. Consider this a report card against which you can judge your efforts this year and then use it to plan for other major shopping seasons. You participated in “Small Business Saturday.” (10 points for a “yes” answer.) While I don’t believe this event increased sales overall for the season, I think it demonstrates your commitment to supporting local businesses and that serves to spread the notion through your community. You participated in a town-wide “holiday stroll,” “Shop Local” or other type of town event designed to draw more people to your area. (10 points for a “yes” answer.) This is the local version of American Express’ “Small Business Saturday.” It’s a little more beneficial because it also helps you build a local framework for staging events. You did a cross-promotion with one or more local businesses. (20 points for a “yes” answer.) Now we’re talking! If you did this you really got aggressive and creative. Find more ways to support one another in the coming year. Learn to value cooperation at least as much competition. You offered discounts and specials. (10 points for a “yes” answer.) This is the “go-to” strategy for the Christmas season. How well did you monitor your pricing? When stock got low, did you hike prices a bit? Websites, entertainment venues, airlines and others use variable pricing based on supply and demand. When almost all the seats are sold for an event, prices go up. You can do the same with some planning. You offered unique or hard-to-find products. (15 points for a “yes” answer.) If you did this, it means that you were alert throughout the year looking for those special items that no one else offered that you knew your customers would love. Keep up the good work! You extended your holiday hours. (10 points for a “yes” answer.) This is a standard tactic around the holidays. However, did you keep good enough records to be sure that the move was cost effective? You held some special events. (15 points for a “yes” answer.) If you managed to pull off one or more special events, how was attendance? How would you do things differently next year? Talk to your customers after the season is over and see if your programming met their needs and ask what they would have like to have seen. You offered your products online. (10 points for a “yes” answer.) If you’re retail, you should have an online presence by now. If you answered yes to each of these, you will have scored 100 points. You’re a holiday shopping season star. By the way, all of these strategies come from a survey that Alignable conducted. They asked 50,000 Alignable B2C users about their plans and these are their answers. If you’re interested in connecting with other small business owners through social media, check out Alignable. It can make a difference. Image: Grandmother’s 3rd Grade Report Card, © 2010 Kyle Harmon, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
read moreFederal Regulations: A Modest Proposal
I have a friend who occasionally jokes that if the United States wants to decrease poverty and encourage wealth creation, the government should use the same strategy it does when it wants to encourage a certain behavior and discourage another. For example, we give tax breaks to people willing to install solar energy in their homes because we want more of that and we tax the heck out of a pack of cigarettes because we want fewer people to smoke. If we want to be consistent, he says, we should raise taxes on the poor and lower them on the rich. He doesn’t expect his proposal to get very far, but this is exactly what we have been doing with small businesses through regulations for years. According to a 2012 report, regulations are 80 percent more costly to small businesses than they are to big businesses. An earlier study (2008) found that the annual regulatory cost per employee to small business was nearly $11,000, which was 36 percent higher on a per employee basis when compared to larger businesses. EPA costs high When the study broke it down to various types of regulations, if found that environmental regulations costs small businesses $4,101 per employee while that number is just $883 per employee for large businesses. The reason, of course, is the costs of various licenses, permits and even reports are fixed so their costs represents a much smaller percentage for larger companies. To flip my friend’s “tax the poor to end poverty” upside down and apply it to small business, how about reducing the currently-fixed costs of regulation for small businesses? Make those costs reflect the current way we do taxes – give breaks to those on the lower end of the income scale. Be doers not talkers I’m speaking rhetorically here, but there are things Congress and the president can do. The most important of these is to stop talking about small business and its regulatory burden and actually be willing to do something about it. The recent “budget” that Congress passed may be a signal that we will see some movement on this front – or at least some real debate. Republicans in Congress managed to push through rescinding an irrigation ditch and farm pond water rule the EPA was about to enforce under the Clean Water Act. Also rescinded was a Department of Transportation regulation that would have required more rest for truck drivers. President to fly solo? President Obama has vowed to act without legislation to move the country forward on various fronts and during the next two years he will be facing an even more hostile group of legislators. This could get interesting. There will have to be some compromise on both sides, as there was with the budget deal. The question is whether there will be any easing of the regulatory burden. If it happens, I expect small business would greet it enthusiastically. Business formation would increase and expansion would be renewed. Stay tuned....
read moreAre You Loosening Up Your Arm Getting Ready to Throw in the Towel? Read This First
The final few weeks of the year are always a time of reflection and planning. For some of you it will be outlining marketing or expansion plans for 2015. Others may be looking at 2015 and wondering if its time to throw in the towel and move on. Here are some approaches to take as you try to answer that difficult question. Various systems designed to explain human nature have opposing or complementary elements, like the id and ego, and the yin and yang. Business is similar. There is the unforgiving “bottom line” and then there is the less tangible side, which includes elements such as your brand, innovation, and consumer acceptance/demand. Dealing with the doubts If you’re beginning to think that it’s time to fold your small business, then we know that the profits you are generating are unacceptable in the long run. If you were to make your decision solely by this criterion you would close shop. However, you probably still have some nagging doubts about the less tangible elements of your business, so let’s put them under the microscope. What did your market research say? You either conducted formal market research or considered your own ideas and observations as sufficient market research. If you had good reason believe there is demand for your product or service, it leads to two questions: Is your marketing, branding and customer service (including your physical location) good enough? Is your product or service uniquely solving problems for your customers? When the answers to both of those questions is “yes” and you still aren’t making it, it’s probably time to move on. If the answer is “no” to either or both of those questions, you may be able to turn things around. Improving your marketing, branding and customer service just takes knowledge, effort and money. It can be something a simple as your location. I know a funky little hat store whose initial shop was on a quiet street where she got no business at all. She moved to a location that was experiencing a retail revival and she started to flourish. Is yours a better mousetrap? If your product or service isn’t really exciting your prospects and solving their problem, then you need to ask yourself if there’s a way to pump some innovation into it. Talk to prospects who don’t buy and find out why. Talk to existing customers and find out what they like or don’t like. See what more they need. You may find a niche that you have overlooked. If you’re struggling and yet you’ve “got the word out,” then there is a reason people aren’t feeling compelled to buy. How can you change what you’re doing to light a fire under your prospects? And if in the end you decide to close, don’t feel too bad. While many of us love our Apple computers, none of us are working on NeXT computers, are we? NeXT computers, Steve Jobs’ company after he was fired at Apple, was a commercial failure. However, it set the stage for Jobs’ return to Apple and the outrageous success that...
read moreStop Your Workers from Singing: ‘Tis the Season to be Stealing!
By now we have all seen the pictures of looters destroying small businesses in Ferguson, Missouri. They make compelling television images and it’s a tragic situation for the local business owners, their employees and the citizens of Ferguson in general. However, there is another crime spree that’s picking up steam throughout the holiday season that doesn’t provide the network and cable TV crews with the kind of photo ops they thrive on. I’m referring to employee theft. This theft can take many forms and hit virtually any business: retail, restaurants and service providers. Here are some of the causes: Hectic workplace provides better cover for illegal activities, Increased alcohol consumption, Employees experiencing financial pressures, Demanding schedules at work and in private lives, and Addition of temporary workers. We all immediately think of stealing retail items when we consider employee theft and certainly that is a big part of the problem. But it doesn’t stop there. If you have employees who handle cash, they could be making sales without ringing them up properly and then taking the cash at the end of the day. Restaurants frequently notice food and beverage costs increasing faster than sales. Employees may be helping themselves to food or treating friends to free food and drinks. One of the biggest problems that often goes undetected is employees cheating on their time sheets. If you’ve brought in extra help or are scheduling extra shifts, it’s easy for an employee to leave early without being noticed. Further, if you’re pushing employees too hard, they may feel that they are entitled to the extra money and extra time off they get by falsifying their time sheets. Temporary workers always pose a special challenge during these busy periods. First, owners and managers often don’t screen them thoroughly. Second, usually they are added to the team without any corresponding addition among supervisors. This means some workers are probably not being watched as closely as they would during regular working conditions. The first, and most important step toward lessening your losses is to be increasingly vigilant and let your employees know that you’re paying attention. Holidays are a time when we often assume that people are at their friendliest and most caring. Unfortunately, theft statistics tell a different story. Be sure you’re doing these things: Change up the way you handle cashiers and monitor/audit their operations frequently. Check references for temporary employees. Provide adequate supervision throughout your operation. Deal with fraud and theft immediately. Finally, don’t think it can’t happen to you. A 2011 survey conducted by the National Retail Federation reveals that the greatest theft occurs in convenience stores, truck stops, shoe stores and stores that sell office supplies and stationery. The high-end operations, like jewelry stores and Apple Computer stores, suffer less employee theft because they have excellent controls and internal safeguards to begin with. There’s a lesson in...
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