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NEWSLETTER
FOR FEBRUARY 1985 VOLUME
76
$15.00
GIFT CERTIFICATE He
tells the customer that all they have to do is to take the form
home, (a form with space on it for twelve names) , fill in the
names and addresses of some of their friends who they think would
like a family photograph done, bring the list back with their
order, and they will receive a certificate for $15.00 that can
be applied to any wall size portrait.
The
photographer then turns around and sends, to everyone on the list,
a gift certificate with an expiry date, with compliments of the
person who gave the photographer their name.
He
then telephones them about ten days later and makes the booking.
He
says that it has a tremendous flow on effect, he has more work
than he can handle, he can withdraw the offer at any time, and
it is certainly a lot cheaper than running an advert in the local
newspaper, and more effective.
Look
at it yourself, next time you run an advert for a particular promotion,
count the numbers that come in for that promotion, divide the
numbers into the cost of the advert, and you will be surprised
at the unit cost.
To
the customers that come in with the $15 voucher they've been sent
by their friends, he just gives them a different sheet that says
they would like the photographer to send a portrait gift certificate
to the following people.
He
gives this out at the time of the proofs being presented, and
receives it back at the time the order is placed.
When
he telephones them to tell them that the order is finished, he
reminds them not to forget to send the certificate in. He does, also, give them a self addressed envelope, and
70% of them do get posted back.
He
does keep a list of the people to whom he sent the gift certificate
to in a separate book, so he makes sure he doesn't send two certificates
to the same people. He
also marks them off with a date when they make the appointment,
so he also has a list of people for future mailings.
What
are the figures on these? Lets start off with one customer. Lets assume that everybody gives you four names, lets assume
there is a fifty percent return on those four names.
Look
at these figures below.
Now
I'm sure you will call Uncle before you get up to that last figure. But it does give you an idea how this thing can multiply.
If
you average from a family group portrait sitting is $300, it represents
a allocation of 5% to your advertising budget.
If
your average is $150, it represents a 10% advertising budget.
If
your average is $100, it represents 15% advertising budget. Still 2.5% less than Paul Linwood Gittings was spending
who says he spend 17% for procurement money.
It
works. It is simple
to get going, and costs very little.
NEWSLETTER
FOR MAY 1985 VOLUME
78
REPORT
ON SEMINARS The
five 'rights' of marketing are ... to
have the right product, in the right place, in the right quantity,
at the right time, at the right price.
The
theory of the marketing concept is that marketing is the satisfaction
of customer needs and wants, integrated amongst all store personnel
at a profit.
One
particular concept I got out of this course was that you could
do a survey of your town to get a list of the most influential
people and then use them to build your business. You of course probably know most of the influential people
in your town so the concept of this was to photograph all these
people, put them on display one at a time and then on the TV,
radio, newspaper or whichever of the mediums suits you - get a
personal recommendation from this person on what it was like to
be photographed by you. Now how one would work this? It would require a lot more planning and thought before
it could be put into practice but those are the bones of the idea.
Parental
Responsibility - It was mentioned that most people consider
that it is the parental responsibility to take photographs of
their children and their family. Most parents feel that this is a drag, the children won't
perform, everything goes wrong when they try to take it so, therefore,
this is a concept for promoting your services and I can see a
TV advert on the screen now. It is of a typical family trying to do photographs, of
the individuals and the results then showing how simple it is
to engage a professional and the results they will get. Another reason that parents feel that photographs are necessary
is because it aids in parental bonding ie. you can share the memories
together.
Prove - In marketing you prove to your customers you can serve their
needs better, therefore you must find your market dependant upon
what your strength is ie. your strength may be volume, high quality,
pets so whatever your strength is you go after that particular
market.
18 Year Olds - 18 year olds spend almost all of their money on clothes. This is a fact that could be incorporated in some sort of promotion to get these sort of people into your studio and some of the money they would normally spend on clothes into your business. Your
Customers
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In
most cases your customer will take whatever you offer because
they know no different, however, most times quality is the number
one want but what do they perceive quality to be? You must also find out how important to your customers
are the other things that your competitors offer. Of course your competitors are not only other photographers
but the video people, the TV people etc. etc.
Try
not to satisfy everybody. You have limited resources so you must go after one segment
only. Why must you
do this? To do otherwise
your resources must be vast to serve them all.
The
Limited
They
found in 1975 that their clientele was getting older and they
had the option of looking for a new flock of young people to start
using their services or alternatively changing their style. In 1975 they decided to cater for the 24-30 age group.
They
opened another range of stores called the Limited Express for
the under 24's and they purchased a large chain of mature women's
stores called Lane and Bryant so they catered for the complete
market with their three range of stores.
They
now have an import/export company, offices in the Orient, their
own distribution center, and trucks that travel throughout America
shifting their stock. None
of their trucks are marked with Limited, therefore, it means that
if they are sending stock from Chicago to Denver with dresses
on the return trip from Denver to Chicago they can pick up somebody
else’s merchandise and take it as the truck is unmarked. All of their warehouses have their stock sorted and recorded
by computer.
Okay
so what?
They
are a medium priced store, however, every 25th item in their stock
is highly priced. In
other words if their normal price is $100, every 25th item is
$300. This psychologically
tells the customer who is shopping when they see all these $300
items that this is a high priced store. Nobody likes shopping from a bargain basement and this
maneuver has overcome this particular problem. They may walk out with a $100 dress but they have the choice
of dresses that were 3 times the price and so nobody could accuse
them of shopping in a bargain basement.
So I think you have to take a leaf out of the Limited's notebook, look at your location, what is the image of your store? It must look right to your customer. That means you must keep changing the look of your premises to keep pace with their living style. If
you have premises which were last decorated in the 70's ... I mean seriously decorated there is a pretty good chance
that the style does not reflect today's living style and so, therefore,
your premises will look old fashioned. This also means that if you last decorated your premises
3 years ago you may be moving out of style and also be considered
to be slightly behind it rather than with it.
Sears
of Sears Robuck, probably the largest range of department stores
in the States that works with mail order - in fact their catalogue
has become one of the original mail order catalogues ... they
have a guarantee policy which is 100% - it is company policy and
can not be changed by managers at any level.
This
means you buy a bed from Sears and 3 years later you take it back
and say I am not satisfied, there is no argument, there is a complete
refund. It is an interesting philosophy. It is one that fascinates me. All one has to do is have sufficient guts to put it into
practice.
Titbits
Store
design is very hard to copy which means that the layout of your
store, the look of your store is one of the original things that
you can keep.
The
crux of marketing is the consumer. Why should you customers buy
from you?
Advertising
gets them into the store, after that the sales force is supposed
to take over.
Large
international chains are the only ones that can really afford
TV promotion.
At
some point in time, to get more business you may have to spend
20% to move your graph up another 10% on your turnover. In other words just like a characteristic curve of film
things can peak.
The final gem from this seminar was 'you might be on the right track, but if you sit there you might get run over Selling
by Communicating |
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