Ron Weinstock of Weinstock Marketing and ITB Partners lands New Client, Disinfect Group.
Disinfect Group USA, offers a variety of systems to allow retailers, offices, venues to reopen safely. Total flexibility of units depending on the size needed. All manufacturing is in the USA. Disinfect Group USA’s product has the ability to:
Disinfect people and their belongings safely – 99.9999% effective
Take thermal temperatures
Count capacity in/out
On product branding
Offer LED sponsorship opportunities
Disinfect Group – Sanitation Tunnels
SANITIZING TUNNELS
Dry Fog is an innovative new product that creates an invisible “haze” in our tunnels which are completely safe and approved for use on humans against viruses and bacteria. It works using electrolyzed water technology.
Available with 1 to 5 tunnels and comes as a fogger or a misting sprayer.
SANITIZING FOG
Each visitor and worker pass through a completely safe dry fog before
gaining access to your facility.
THERMAL IMAGING SCANNER
Screens for elevated body temperature at a safe distance for employees and guests entering your facility. Alerts staff when a high temperature is detected.
DIGITAL CAPACITY COUNTER
Add a Body counting camera that helps you know exactly how many people are in your venue or facility at all times.
NO-TOUCH SANITIZER DISPENSER
Automatic hand sanitizer dispensers allow everyone to disinfect their hands helping stop the spread of viruses.
STAY CLEAN. STAY SAFE. RETURN TO WORK.
Contact Ron Weinstock for more information.
(310) 663-7669 | ron@weinstockmarketing.com
Ronald D. Weinstock
Ron Weinstock is an experienced restaurant and retail industry executive, consultant, and entrepreneur.
Over thirty-plus years of successfully launching, building, and revitalizing national and regional brands have positioned Ron Weinstock as a business and marketing leader in industries that include restaurants, financial, health, entertainment, and retailing. Ron is a business and marketing executive with a proven track record and a passion for team building, which/that includes leading cohesive & purpose-driven teams that consistently deliver exceptional results.
Have you heard of “cashback shopping”? If you have heard of Rakuten (formerly Ebates), then you have experienced the leading example of business to consumer (B2C) cashback shopping. In B2C cash back shopping, the cashback is paid directly to the shopper as an incentive to buy. Why? It is much less expensive to sell an item on-line than in a brick and mortar store. Online retailers take a portion of these savings and invest them in cashback advertising to bring more shoppers into their on-line stores and encourage on-line vs. in-store purchases.
This same cashback shopping concept can be also be applied in a business to business (B2B) environment. The biggest drawback of B2C cashback is that shoppers are reluctant to provide their personal contact information to someone they do not know, in this case, Rakuten. In the B2B environment, shoppers already have a relationship with the sponsoring organization. The sponsor might be their bank, church, favorite restaurant, or any number of other organizations. The key is for the sponsoring organization to have a trusted relationship with the shopper. In many cases, the sponsor may already have significant personal information on the shopper and be sending the shopper regular communications.
Most organizations with ten thousand plus (10,000+) patrons can benefit through adopting cashback shopping as a component of their on-going promotion program. The more potential shoppers, the greater the benefit. The cashback that flows to the organization can be utilized as a donation (for churches and charities), to pay for future purchases (retailers), and to pay a portion of the price of current purchases (grocery stores, insurance providers, and power companies). Most sponsors keep at least a portion of the cashback to pay expenses and as accretive to profit.
The benefit to the organization can be quite substantial. For example, a charitable organization that is keeping 100% of cashback as donations can expect to receive roughly $1 million per 10,000 shoppers. A commercial business will receive the same amount but will likely pass 80% or more on to the shopper in one form or another. Therefore, a commercial operation keeping 20% of cashback will be retaining roughly $200,000 per 10,000 shoppers.
To learn more about cashback shopping and its potential for your organization, contact Philip A. Davis at pdavishr@comcast.net or 678-977-5578.
Thank you for visiting our blog.
Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners
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Like the eye of a hurricane, businesses raked by the leading edge of the COVID-19 pandemic are now taking a cautious look outside. Though the winds have subsided, and it’s tempting to think that the worst is over, the eye simply gives us a chance to prepare for what’s left to come. But the time is now to begin planning for the rebound.
If you withstood the worst of the impacts of the pandemic so far, you likely have accepted that the storm was coming, and had battened down your hatches (or at least applied for PPP funding to keep vestiges of your business afloat). Now, as we can start to imagine a future, it’s critical to have your plan in place when the rebound hits.
For those who haven’t been willing to consider the details needed in your post-pandemic recovery plan – or simply weren’t willing to “go there” – now is the time to plan for your rebound.
The public has been released from their quarantine in many states and other states are scheduled to open. Research indicates consumers will be ready to shop and dine. The world into which they will venture will indeed be changed. Will their appetite for dining with you also be transformed?
In my view, planning for the rebound – the re-grand-opening into the brave new world – will require a three-step planning process:
An accurate assessment of NOW – Analysis and cost-cutting based on where you are today, and how you’ll conduct business until social distancing is no longer needed;
Planning for NEAR – Executing on pivots or changes to your offerings to help your cash flow to improve your survivability, and;
Plan NEXT – Stop random acts of marketing and follow the 12-step approach that follows “The Growth Gears,” a strategic marketing book authored by Art Saxby and Pete Hayes, to plan for your recovery.
Where have your customers gone? Are they still in need of your unique brand of hospitality? Have you maintained your competitive edge? Can you keep your employees active and engaged in the business? Many businesses are grappling with these and other questions, as they fight for survival in an apocalyptic present, and uncertain future. Here are four tips to consider when planning for the rebound and assessing your business:
Review costs
Most people have already done this – things like canceling recurring services that are simply irrelevant, asking for payment terms on necessary services, and in general, having a series of difficult conversations about labor, supplies, and rent. Job No. 1 is to understand your cash flow – and factors influencing it.
Review competition
What is your competition doing now? How have they pivoted? Did they reduce hours of operation? Were they forced to close? Is there something you could do with your local competitors to encourage customers to order takeout and delivery? For example, an entity called “The Great American Takeout” has formed, and has encouraged customers via social media posts to takeout food to support restaurants every Tuesday since March 24.
Reconnect with your employees
Did you furlough or lay anybody off? With the crew that is left, what has the pandemic done to morale? How are you? Now is the time for frequent communication with your current and past employees. To prepare for reopening, you should prepare a plan to re-hire and train employees.
Reassign tasks
To keep employees on the payroll (assuming you have sales because you are offering curbside pick-up or delivery), reassign team members to answer the phone, shuttle deliveries, or serve as curb-side ambassadors. In the short term, this could also mean repurposing the business for strictly philanthropic purposes. One restaurant invited the American Red Cross to park its Bloodmobile in their parking lot for a blood drive to help medical professionals.
Step 2: PLANNING FOR NEAR
Planning for the rebound needs to happen now. If you’ve withstood the worst of the pandemic so far, you may find that the tweaks you’ve made temporarily should be considered for permanence. Now, more than ever, understanding the customer’s needs and wants – and how you are positioned to be a guiding force in their upturned lives – can be a make or break proposition. Here are some ways to be a part of this change:
Rethink offerings.
If you’re a restaurant, you might offer groceries or sell toilet paper. Most restauranteurs reduced their menu offerings to optimize the to-go experience. For retailers, this can involve sticking with conveniences like online ordering and curbside pick-up. Creativity is key. Here are some creative examples:
Red Roof Inns: The lodging company offered up hotel rooms as a remote office and alternative resting spaces during the day for truckers for only $29.
Fogo de Chao: The unique Brazilian restaurant shifted its focus to offer curbside packages of ready-to-grill cuts of meat.
Wow Bao: The restaurant has begun “selling the materials necessary to make a simplified version of their menu of bowls, buns, and potstickers to other restaurants and ghost kitchen facilities,” according to the website Restaurant-Hospitality.com.
Subway: The sandwich chain is testing a Subway Grocery concept in California. The beta program allows customers to order items such as baked bread, deli meats, sliced cheese, vegetables, and soups.
Panera: Like Subway, Panera Bread has launched a grocery offering at scale to allow customers to order essential grocery items such as loaves of bread, milk and produce, and to have the items available for delivery or drive-up pickup.
Reconsider sacred cows
As businesses rethink their offerings, they can run smack into certain “sacred cows” that seem to be integral to their identity. For example, a full-service eatery may balk at delivery options, since that fish dish might be ruined in the 30 or 45 minutes it takes to deliver it. This is no time for those kinds of pretensions. Find a way to make a meal pack, or focus on offerings that can be delivered successfully. Several restaurants have created pop-up drive-throughs, with no more than a tent and a landlord’s blessing. And the likes of Home Depot have shifted to curbside pick-ups even as it prided itself on counseling customers in the store.
Reschedule Initiatives
Retailers and restaurants that had planned remodeling projects could move those up, but only if the resources exist to do so. Only the best-capitalized businesses will be able to embark on a remodeling project now, but if you can move up the date, it’s worth doing while your dining room or bricks-and-mortar location is closed. Of course, such initiatives can still be hindered by government directives that limit non-essential work and will vary by municipality.
Reconnect
Communication matters more than ever. We may be keeping our distance physically, but we’ve never been more social. We have regular Zoom happy hours, and we can still call upon clients virtually on a regular basis. B2B companies will have closer relationships since they sell directly to their clients, but B2C companies shouldn’t go quiet either. They need to reach out every few days, so long as they are mindful in tone and content.
On an April 8 webinar sponsored by Valassis and featuring data from Technomic, they suggested:
Source: Valassis
If you can maintain communication with your customers through advertising, social channels, and email, do it. You must be mindful of your tone and message, but the research of the past 93 years is clear – if you can maintain or increase your advertising during a downturn, especially when your competitors don’t, you will be rewarded with higher sales and market share during the recovery.
Step 3: PLAN NEXT
Opening Soon
Planning for the rebound sooner, rather than later, is critical. Those who wait for the rebound to begin will be late to the party. If you wait too long, you will likely lose market share to more aggressive competitors.
With what you’ve gleaned from studying your competitors and company in Step No. 1, above, it’s time to learn more about your customers as they exist today, to get an idea of what and who they may be in the future. The shifts in public policy, social interactions, virtual workspaces, and personal hygiene will likely be tectonic in scope. As a result, you need to understand how the shifts will affect your business and which ones you may be able to exploit.
Ways to learn about your customers now, so you can plan for the Next.
Google Analytics – Look for shifts in devices used, demographics, source of traffic, etc.
Email surveys – Query your customers about their lifestyle, media preferences, food choices, favorite foods, etc. as they were prior to the pandemic, and as they are now. Do a gap analysis to find opportunities.
Read – Information abounds online regarding perceived or guessed new behaviors by many sources. Pete Hayes, CMO, and Principal for Chief Outsiders outlined the basic steps to follow in his blog “COVID-19 Crisis – 12-step Pre-Recovery Checklist for CEO’s. Also, McKinsey & Company posted an opinion on how to prepare for the next stage of the crisis. Their opinion is deeply rooted in management consulting expertise and is more about preparation for the next stage of the crisis vs. recovery.
Regardless of your current posture on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a certainty that the danger will eventually come to an end. Now is the time to be sharpening your pencils and honing your strategies so you can be ready for the next steps.
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Maintaining advertising in a recession has been proven over time to increase market share and boost revenues over time.
In these uncertain times amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there are likely two distinct pathways for businesses to follow — adapt or perish. Because none of you reading this would ever consider laying down your arms and not fighting for survival, I thought I’d share a couple of quotes from noteworthy types who chose the latter mindset, choosing to both adapt, and thrive, rather than survive.
“To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.” –Winston Churchill
“Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.” – Wayne Gretsky
Of course, your survival instinct is just a starting point. What will it take to truly gird your organization for the post-pandemic economic recovery?
In this blog and the one to follow, I’d like to lay out some steps that might be worth taking. First, we’ll discuss why your advertising budget should be spared the ax. We’ll then discuss strategies to employ to prepare for an economic rebound.
Onward, ho!
Playing to Win the Ad Game
History is full of examples where businesses that maintained or increased advertising budgets during a recession were rewarded with more market share and higher sales and profits.
During the Great Depression, Post cereals reduced its advertising budget while Kellogg doubled its ad spend. The result? A catchy slogan — “Snap, Crackle and Pop” – for its new Rice Krispies cereal, and a 30 percent increase in post-depression profits. Oh, and they’ve been the market leader ever since.
During the 17-month recession in 1973 -75, Toyota maintained its ad spend and became the No. 1 import in 1976, surpassing Volkswagen.
In the 1990-91 recession, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut took advantage of McDonald’s decision to reduce its advertising spend. Pizza Hut sales increased 61 percent and Taco Bell,s jumped by 40 percent, while McDonald’s decreased 28%.
More than 40 studies over 93 years for Advertising in a Recession
In 2009, Gerard J. Tellis and Kethan Tellis compiled and synthesized 40 historical empirical and non-empirical studies on the topic of advertising in a recession. What they found was a healthy dose of evidence that advertising during a recession is a good thing. Several studies found clear evidence the reduced recessional ad spending led to lower post-recession sales; still, other studies found that the inverse – higher spend led to higher sales – was true. And, some studies actually found that market share can actually increase more for some companies during a recession than in stable times. The likely reason is a combination of lost share by competitors and the entry of new, more nimble firms into the post-depression marketplace.
Advertising Drives Word of Mouth
In another example, researchers looked at the lessons learned from the automotive and financial industries during the 2008-2009 depression. Brad Fey and David Shiffman concluded that:
Advertising plays a substantial role in driving positive word of mouth (WOM) for major brands.
Even during a major crisis, ad-driven WOM continues to be nearly as positive as during normal times.
Cutting back ad spend during a crisis diminished the impact of a valuable tool for offsetting negative news (though customer service, public relations, and social media also play a role).
From personal experience, I lived in the 2008-2010 recession. While a member of the executive team at Firehouse Subs, we used the downturn to reposition the brand and double our ad spend – actions that led to increased market share and exponential growth from 2010 to 2016, at a 20 percent year-over-year clip.
“The optimum response to the recession is to maintain, and ideally increase your advertising investment.
Unfortunately, to pull this off you require three things. You need to have some money available to spend on advertising. Then you need an executive team smart enough to know marketing is an investment or trusting enough to listen to your presentation that explains all of this to them. And, finally, you need to not be shit.”
How Does This Relate to Today?
Of course, we know that cash flow is critical, and maintaining ad spend during this crisis is easier said than done for many brands. But, if you have the ability to communicate with your customers through email/SMS text and other owned channels like social media, do it. As Fey and Shiffman learned from their work, the message is important, and this is the time to do all you can to maintain positive Word of Mouth with your customers.
If you are fortunate to have cash reserves and can maintain ad spend, especially by shifting to digital channels where “shelter in place” directives have increased usage, do it too.
Messaging Counts Too
Now, the message you convey during the COVID-19 crisis will vary slightly by industry. In some industries like restaurants and retail that are considered essential services, the advertising message could be similar to pre-COVID-19 messaging, since customers seem to be sympathetic to the struggles being experienced by their local merchants.
But striking the right balance is critical. If you are seen as putting profits before people, you may squander trust in a way that it cannot be recovered. A recent study by Edelman on brand trust confirmed this fact but also found that most brands are using their advertising powers for good rather that evil. Consumers in the survey responded as follows:
90 percent want brands to do everything they can to protect the well-being and financial security of their employees and suppliers, even if it means substantial financial losses until the pandemic ends.
89 percent believe brands should offer free or lower-priced products to health workers, people at high risk, and those whose jobs have been affected.
83 percent are seeking a compassionate connection, including brand messaging that communicates empathy and support with the struggles they face.
84 percent are turning to brand social channels to find a sense of community and offer support to those in need.
65 percent like hearing from brands they use about what they are doing in response to the pandemic because it is comforting and reassuring to them.
The takeaway?
Though it may be ok to advertise product or brand, as usual, it is advisable to change messaging, especially in owned channels like email, SMS/text, and social to a more humanistic tone and values.
“There is no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis is more than a recession. It is much worse and physical distancing is a demand killer. However, we at Edleman believe there will be much pent-up demand after the tide turns. American consumers like to be mobile, to eat out and spend money shopping. Don’t under-estimate the power of “Cabin Fever” and the “stir-craziness” for all Americans due to physical distancing.”
In our next blog, we’ll look at the importance of strategic go-to-market planning in being ready for the rebound.
Doug Reifschneider
Thank you for visiting our blog.
Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
I thought it was time to look into the crystal ball. After scouring news articles for 60 days, several themes arose from the ashes of the pandemic to reveal the top-10 changes for restaurants after the crisis ends.
Chains will rule – 7 of 10 restaurants are owned by individual operators according to the National Restaurant Association, most of whom are independent. Unfortunately, those independents have been the majority of closures and if 10-15% of all restaurants permanently close during the pandemic, then only healthy chains will be left.
2) Growth will rebound – Chains will increase unit growth to fill the void left by closed restaurant locations. New independents will arise out of the ashes. The new wave of restauranteurs will have learned from the recent crisis and will focus on sustainability of operations by leaning hard into delivery, take-home, contactless payment, and other enabling technology.
3) Ghost kitchens – new and existing concepts will cooperate together to develop ghost kitchens where multiple cuisines live in harmony to satisfy the appetite of urban dweller and the virtual food court will become a thing.
4) Cleanliness is next to Godliness – Serve-Safe and other entities who train restaurant employees to prepare and handle food will proliferate and the constant disinfecting of communal surfaces such as counters, door handles, tables, chairs, and condiments will become the expected norm. The reopening guide by the NRA will be followed by all and probably expanded by many. https://go.restaurant.org/covid19-reopening-guide
5) Off-premise will continue to grow – Now that consumers are getting used to ordering food digitally and internal and external delivery is expected, the trend may slow after the pandemic ends but the trend for facilitating delivery, take-out, meal kits and the like will proliferate.
6) Digital Rules – Every restaurant, whether they be independent, or part of a chain will provide as many e-commerce channels for guests to order food as possible. Wing Stop, Domino’s, and Chipotle are doing well during the pandemic because they were positioned to survive in a crisis. All restaurateurs who don’t learn that they need to embrace digital orders and provide ways for customers to get the food where they want it and when they want it will fail. Perhaps this should be #1 on the list for the top-10 changes we will see in the restaurant industry.
7) Shrinking dining rooms – Because of the shift to off-premise dining, new restaurants in all categories will reduce the square feet of their dining areas. Existing locations will remove tables and chairs to always be prepared for social distancing.
8) Marketing mix shift – Whereas TV was a big part of the advertising mix for national chains and larger regional chains, the shift to off-premise will force restaurant brands to lean much more heavily into digital advertising channels. The shift will occur because restaurants will more easily track conversions from online visibility to online orders as a key metric. The brands that do continue to use to TV will determine how to make Outcome-Based TV buying work.
9) Marketing Messaging – All restaurants will need to understand their consumer and know the new customer journey better than ever before. Every brand will also need to nail their brand proposition because if they don’t, all ads after the pandemic ends will be about digital ordering and delivery. Digital channels may be a convenient benefit, but if every restaurant offers the standard digital channels, those digital channels will not be unique to anyone.
10) Counter Culture – There will also be creative and innovative individuals and organizations that will buck the status quo. Whether they embrace video dining, reinvent food halls, or return to a cash-only payment model, we will see successful attempts to do everything they can to not be trapped by the previous 9 changes.
In conclusion, the top-10 changes for restaurants may be different from this list but you can bet many of the themes will occur because they are happening now.
Doug Reifschneider
https://www.itbpartners.com/doug-reifschneider/
Thank you for visiting our blog.
Jim Weber – Managing Partner, ITB Partners
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
According to a recent study by Chief Outsiders, a national marketing strategy consulting firm, 88% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) see the difficulty in staying ahead of Marketing Technology.
Why?
According to Forrester, technology has not just impacted business, it has disrupted it. So much so that CNBC reported that the average life span of an S&P 500 company is about 20 years. It was 60 years in the 1950s according to Credit Suisse. 1
The way technology is evolving, imagine what that figure might be in 20 years.
All you have to do is look at Moore’s law to understand why technology is moving so fast.
What is Moore’s Law & How Does It Impact Marketing Technology?
In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel, made this observation that became Moore’s Law.
Moore’s Law refers to Moore’s perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. In addition, Moore’s Law states that we can expect the speed and capability of our computers to increase every couple of years. Plus, we will pay less for them too. Another tenet of Moore’s Law asserts that this growth is exponential.2
Moore’s Law tenet is that the number of computer chips on a single board grows exponentially.
Source: Moore’s Law graph3
It is hard for a human to keep up with exponential growth. And marketers are human. This is why marketers are having trouble keeping up with marketing technology.
Why specifically do CMOs think it will be hard to stay ahead of technology?
Because many CMOs haven’t kept up with marketing technology to-date. And the exponential growth that is expected to continue will be mind-boggling.
The Marketing Menu Changed!
For example, as recently as the 1990s, marketers had a finite list of advertising and promotional tactics at their disposal. The tactics to increase sales, improve brand awareness, and grow market share were low tech too.
Out of Home (Billboards, transit benches, and shelters, taxi’s, etc.)
Promotion (sports teams, schools, etc.)
Yellow pages if a local or multi-location business
Today, with the addition of OTT (Over the Top) TV, banner ads, advertising on social media, and other digital options, the choices on where to place advertising dollars are staggering.
MARTech = Marketing Technology
The modern CMO is faced with options in Martech and Adtech. Yes, those are real terms used within the marketing world. In 2011, we had about 150 MarTech choices. By 2019, there were over 7,000 choices.
In 2011, there were about 150+ Martech vendors. By 2019, there were over 7000!
To put in perspective, RedHat published the following tech stack that is aligned with the customer journey. One brand using this technique would interact with over 30 Martech vendors.
Who can keep up with that, let alone stay ahead of it?
Illustrates 30 MarTech companies have to work with to manage the customer journey.
Source: 4
Technology has disrupted business in many ways. According to Forrester, the primary reason technology has disrupted business is based on three issues:
Empowered consumers
Blurred lines between digital and physical
Disruptive business models powered by data and tech
In their reports titled “Winning In The Age Of The Customer,” and “The Customer-Obsessed Enterprise” Forrester suggests that companies that are not just customer-focused, but customer-obsessed, achieve higher revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.
Enter the COVID-19 pandemic
To put into perspective how important technology to business is, consider how different brands in food service were impacted by the pandemic.
Chipotle sales decreased 16% in the last two weeks of March compared to -25% at McDonald’s & Pizza Hut, -30% at Taco Bell and -35% at KFC
According to Black Box Intelligence, sales reported by all restaurants in their database for the week ending April 19 were -47.6%
As reported in QSR magazine for Domino’s “What’s happened in the first four weeks of Q2 (March 23 to April 19) has been more enlightening. Domino’s witnessed U.S. company comps jump 10.6 percent. Franchises are up 6.9 percent. Blended, it’s a 7.1 percent year-over-year same-store number.”
The first 3 examples are from brands that were already focusing on their digital capabilities. Wing Stop was one of the first restaurant brands to offer chatbot ordering on social media platforms. And Domino’s has become the de facto leader in the pizza segment when it comes to technology.
The key takeaway for restaurants is that the pandemic created a new set of consumer desires and demands and the brands (often chain with marketing teams) already knowledgeable and leading in technology won. This plays out in retail too. If you’re a retailer and you didn’t have an eCommerce platform prior to March 13, you’re probably hurting bad, or closed.
The pandemic forced many brands to accelerate their use and adoption of technology to meet the new consumer needs.
Conclusion
The bottom line when it comes to brick & mortar businesses is that marketing technology is part of the customer experience and great technology can create a great frictionless user experience. Bad technology can do the opposite. The pandemic forced business owners to embrace eCommerce, digital ordering, and contactless payments and transactions faster than ever before. Consequently, brick & mortar brands must:
Own all the consumer touchpoints
Own customer data
Connect offline to online for a true omnidirectional view of your customers
It’s not easy to keep up with technology. The effects of social distancing and working from home simply made every business pivot or adapt to less touch and more connection via technology.
If Forrester is right, the technology we marketers use to reach intended customers needs to pivot and more companies need to become customer-obsessed to succeed.
Staying ahead of that trend will be very difficult, very difficult indeed.
Doug Reifschneider
Doug Reifschneider is a 30+ year marketing veteran in the foodservice industry. He currently works with Chief Outsiders as a fractional CMO.
…to you, your clients or other business owners who could use a sounding board at this time: Input on urgent problems (surviving); Thinking through strategy in order to come out of the crisis (thriving); Focus on building/rebuilding value if working toward a sale. Happy to share insights from 20 years as a consultant, coach, and exit strategist; helping clients grow, solve problems, build value and design their exit strategy & succession planning. Working together, we WILL get through this! Stay safe and healthy!
There was a time, generations ago, when buyers didn’t venture too far from their home to satisfy their basic needs. Today, most consumers don’t think twice about using a few keystrokes to get the necessities shipped from some distant warehouse to their front door.
Despite this phase shift, “buying local” remains a relevant concept and even a source of pride for communities that rally around the brick-and-mortar businesses that still dot the landscape.
So, in the face of Amazonian-sized efforts to get consumers to do otherwise, how can you, as a multi-unit CEO, provide the necessary marketing support to your local units to keep the lifeblood flowing?
Local store marketing, or LSM, though not easy, isn’t really that hard. Once you commit to a strategy, the actual motions can be exceedingly easy. Nonetheless, LSM requires patience, commitment and resources; and execution can be time-consuming and tedious. And unlike online marketing, where data flows in both directions, many LSM efforts are still measured by feet (the human kind), and not 0s and 1s.
So, how do we define LSM, and what are some key considerations to foster success?
LSM – A Definition
First, let’s consider the following examples:
• A local restaurant drops off a catering menu to your office.
• You notice that a little league baseball team is sponsored by the local hardware store.
• You encounter three dry cleaners within a mile of where you live, each with a sign that promotes their price or extra benefits.
Of these, which would you consider to be LSM? If you answered “all,” you would be correct. Whether you know it as guerilla marketing, shoe-leather marketing, neighborhood marketing or even just plain old “local marketing,” all of these fit the definition of LSM – marketing and advertising for a small business location to augment other national or regional marketing, IF the small business is part of a larger brick-and-mortar chain.
Lather, Rinse and Repeat
To be effective, LSM has to be executed every week, all the time. Sponsoring a little league team once, or replying to online reviews twice per year, or buying an ad in the local shopper twice is what we at Chief Outsiders call “Random Acts of Marketing” – those sporadic and non-strategic one-offs that do little to move the needle.
To be truly successful, LSM needs to be a fixture of every local store’s marketing plan – in the words of Vince Lombardi, “it is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing.” The best way to make this happen is to commit resources to it as part of your overall marketing mix. Since it typically comprises but a small percentage of your chain’s overall marketing budget, it is built for endurance – not speed – so you need to be patient with the outcome.
Site Awareness is as Important as Brand Awareness
I’ll share a true story about an experience I had when I was at Firehouse Subs. The story takes place several years ago, when online reviews weren’t yet a big thing, and mobile didn’t have the pervasive influence that it does today.
It was at a time when Firehouse Subs had about 300-400 restaurants, and we determined that, without the air cover of regional or national advertising, we had to do something to jump-start sales and get franchisees engaged.
One way we did this was by conducting “Founder’s Tours.” The co-founders, COO and many of the rest of the HQ staff went on bi-weekly road trips, known as Founder’s Tours. On one trip, we pulled up to a restaurant in central Florida and clamored out of the bus. There were 12 of us on the bus that day and when we arrived at the restaurant at around 9:30 a.m., we were given a map of neighborhoods and businesses to visit and bags filled with catering menus, courtesy cards, cookies, and chips. Of course, one person had to remain behind to be the sign waver.
That’s right – the sign waver. That’s because the two primary LRM tactics we were modeling for the franchisee were:
1. Neighborhood canvassing to get to know your neighbors
2. Sign waving to draw attention to the location
Sign waving in the rain
While I waved a large sign with a Firehouse Subs logo on it, six teams of two people each went into the trade area and visited as many other local businesses as they could in about two hours. When everyone returned to the restaurant, we debriefed.
Here’s what we learned:
• Each team covered a distance of about ¾ – 1 mile from the restaurant
• Most businesses were happy to receive the “free” goodie bag
• About 75 percent had heard of Firehouse Subs (Brand awareness, yes!)
• Over half of those visited did not know of the specific location of this restaurant
I’ll let that last bullet point sink in for a moment. Over 50 percent of the people we talked to within a mile of the restaurant had no idea they were less than a mile from the restaurant. Had this been a new location, site awareness would have been expected to be low. Unfortunately, the business had been open and operating for more than 4 years at the time of the Founder’s Tour visit.
That’s when we realized that brand awareness is one thing, and site awareness is another. Having brand awareness without site awareness is worthless.
How can a small business let potential customers in their trade area know where it is located?
Be active in the community, get to know your neighbors — and be visible.
In other words, commit to local marketing for your locations, and be found.
About the Author
Doug Reifschneider is a dynamic marketing leader with 30+ years of experience in the restaurant industry and a demonstrated history of driving growth through the creation and delivery of unique, creative brand strategies enhancing customer affinity and market position.
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The NFL sent this football to every high school in America where one of their former students had played in a Super Bowl. I was privileged to receive a phone call from the principal of Hardaway High School, Matt Bell letting me know he had just received this from the NFL. I was not aware the NFL was doing that. This was sent prior to Super Bowl L (50).
Each year, following Super Bowl XIII (13), I reflect on my experience of the game and how much my life has changed over the years. Yes, they are getting ready to play Super Bowl LIV (54). I do not even like to do that math anymore, 54-13= “I cannot remember”. It is better looking at it in Roman numerals rather than years…..
I now look at the Super Bowl more like an out of body experience, almost not believing I got to play in a Super Bowl game.
Inevitably, my mind always moves back to the business of the game, the financial impact the game has on the city where each Super Bowl is hosted and more importantly the Super Bowl commercials.
No one cared much about Super Bowl commercials in those early years. The cost for a 30-second ad in Super Bowl I was $37,500 dollars. In Super Bowl XIII, it was $185,000. Today, it is $5,600,000 which is not that much money if you say it fast as my father used to say.
This is a pretty good investment of money for 30 seconds of airtime. Speaking of saying it quickly, that is only $186,000 per second.
The interesting thing about this is that is just the cost of air time. That does not include the cost of production of the commercial itself, which could be a million or more dollars. Now, you are talking about serious money for getting your message to an audience of more than 115 million people.
Fox Sports and the Fox Brand will make a significant haul this weekend. The final estimates are close to $550 million dollars in pre-game, during the game and post-game commercials.
The game is always the draw for the fans and sponsors. The halftime show is now an ‘over-the-top’ experience each year because each entertainer or entertainers wants this to be a statement for themselves. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson made a statement a few years ago that everyone still talks about.
The commercials are a show in itself. Every company that buys an ad is making its own statement. A statement about their product they are promoting but also how the company can connect with the audience. The number one commercial is the Mean Joe Green commercial, which we all remember that is was a Coca Cola ad featuring one of the toughest football players with a young fan when the fan offered Mean Joe Green his Coca Cola in one of those twelve-ounce bottles. Mean Joe turned it down as he was limping to the locker room. The fan was persistent and Mean Joe finally took his offer and swallowed the entire bottle in one swig. As the fan turned away, Mean Joe turned around and said. hey kid, here catch”, offering his game-worn Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. The kid was elated. That commercial was aired in the 1980 Super Bowl and it is still the number one commercial.
There have been plenty of bad commercials as well. The worst and I would bet no one reading this will remember it. But, Nationwide, a company and brand that hardly ever makes a mistake made a big blunder with this one. Nationwide showed a child, that had died, promoting their life insurance, that this child would not get to experience the Super Bowl or anything else because of his premature death. The commercial bombed and Nationwide apologized to the world for its’ mistake.
The interesting about each Super Bowl game, halftime and commercials is the experience and for those whose team is in the game, they remember every element. For the average fan, which I am today, is more about the entertaining element. I always watch the commercials because of the advertising value and the education I receive as I analyze each commercial.
My question to each company, each CEO, every salesperson, and even every CFO is this. What is your Super Bowl commercial? More importantly, what is the value of your Super Bowl ad?
Almost every time I ask someone about their Super Bowl commercial, I am immediately met with the response, “oh, you mean my elevator pitch”. NO, I am not talking about that. An elevator pitch is 30 – 45 seconds as you ride up an elevator or at a bar or cocktail party. An elevator pitch needs to be a quick intro of you, the name of your company, and the product you sell and a one-sentence statement about something unique about you, your company or your product. Nothing more. The next statement out of your mouth needs to be, ” and how about you?’. This does not matter if you are Ain an elevator, a bar trying to score points or at a cocktail party where very few people really care who you are or what you do. Am I right?
No, your Super Bowl commercial is much different than that. Here is the best news of all. When you ask a prospect to lunch, have a 30-minute meeting scheduled or even a scheduled introductory call, you have about five minutes to get your guest to engage or the worst fear of all is to have your guest, also known as your next best prospect, check out of the conversation. We all know when it happens.
I once had a competitor come up to me at a cocktail party, he was trying to make a point and try and shame me, and make a bold statement in front of a few of his friends. He said, “I bet that ring, pointing to my Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl XIII NFC Championship ring, gets you in a lot of doors. I quickly said, to his embarrassment, You know, John, you are right. It has gotten me in a few doors. But, you know what else, it has not kept me in a single one”. He quickly departed because he knew I had kicked his butt on a few deals he desperately needed.
What did I mean by that? I was referring to my Super Bowl commercial. Yes, I have guys and gals ask me about my sports background. The people who know me also know I do not wear that on my sleeve or speak about it unless asked. After the normal pleasantries. your guest, also known as a prospect, is more interested in how you can help them or their company. Everything else is a waste of time.
My Super Bowl commercial is always about three to five minutes long, well written, practiced over and over, and delivered as if I was on TV in front of a national audience. The best news of all is that it does not cost me millions to prepare, nor millions more to air on TV. This is my story, my moment to share this story and a very short attention span of my guest or prospect.
Please do not think of this as an elevator pitch.
This is also what you want to use during a job interview, an approach to the opposite sex, your boss asking for your next raise or for the guys when you ask your potential father in law for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Let me say this could be construed as a “sales pitch”. Yes, it could be that. But, I believe it is much more than that. For the CEO, who may read this, this is something every single person in the company should be able to state when they are out in the public eye. I believe that every person, employed by a company, represents that company no matter if they are at a cocktail party, at a sports game, other social events or even a family reunion.
As you watch the game this weekend, it will be a great game, enjoy all the three elements of the day. The game, halftime and the commercials. Especially the commercials. Put yourself in the shoes of the executive and the creative staff that is anxiously waiting for their commercial to air. Will it one a hit? Will it bomb? Will they remember which company made the ad? Will it generate more sales. An investment of $7 million dollars to tell the world who you are or why your company is the bomb, your job could be on the line.
More importantly, when you call in sick on Monday, more than 1.5 million of us will, sit down and write out your Super Bowl commercial. It will not cost you seven million. But, it could make you seven million. The next job, the next few sales or even the next promotion could earn you millions. It has worked for me.
Let me conclude that putting together a Super Bowl commercial, that becomes a game-changer for a company, is hard work. So it will be to create your Super Bowl commercial. You may do this for you personally, your company to use for every salesperson or every employee as they represent you in the public square. Mr. or Ms. CEO. every person in your company is in sales whether you now or even believe it.
If you would like help in creating your Super Bowl commercial, send me a note. You can reach me at robert@mympb.com. I teach people how to fish, so they are fed for life. If you want to join our team send me a note as well. If you are a CEO and want to learn how to get your entire team to act as a part of your sales team, I would be happy to have a call as well. Life is fun. Learn to enjoy the journey.
Robert H Steele
Robert Steele has 40 years of Insurance, Employee Benefits, Healthcare, and Technology experience as a sales and marketing executive. Robert’s biggest asset is his ability to take companies in transition and turn them around when sales, marketing or product development was causing financial or operational bottlenecks.
Thank you for visiting our blog.
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Thanks to a booming economy, the start-up scene is thriving. Co-working places everywhere are full of entrepreneurs with innovative new ideas, taking advantage of a digital economy that is providing unparalleled opportunities, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
Yet, statistics remind us of a sobering number. Among start-ups that manage to attract outside funding, around 70% never make a profit. Over half of all companies don’t even make it past their 5th year.
So how do you beat these miserable odds?
The answer is that it’s not simple. You need thick skin, a strong mind, a lot of determination and not just a little bit of luck. But you can greatly increase your odds by creating an awesome communications strategy and narrative.
By strategy, I simply mean the purposeful use of communication to fulfill your mission – the right message/content, to the right target audience, at the right time using the correct medium/messenger. Done right, it will inform investment decisions, win over potential clients and investors, and position a company for long-term growth.
Sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not. Most start-ups have a business plan, a financial plan and even a basic marketing plan to establish an online presence. Very few have a sound communications strategy mapped out. In fact, among the start-ups that I’ve come across, I’ve yet to find one that had thought about this.
Some start-ups do decide they need good ‘PR’, usually after about six months to a year into their existence, but they often do it for the wrong reasons, or with little or no strategy.
Just last week, a prospective client asked me if I knew any journalists. “Of course, I do” I answered, “I know plenty,” but explained to him that it’s really the wrong question – see point 5 below.
Initially, most small companies also rely on communications and marketing themselves. After all, they can write, sell and know their product better than anyone. Thanks to a wide variety of new digital tools, everyone also has access to inexpensive solutions that help you build a website, post blogs, send mass emails, or do basic marketing.
Being an entrepreneur naturally means they should take advantage of these new tools. But there is a reason that large, successful companies spend millions on communications and marketing, and smaller companies would do well to adopt some of these same lessons.
So here are 6 of my favorite lessons that I learned while working at a fortune 500 company, that could benefit any start-up:
Starting with why is not enough
Most start-ups will have been advised to start with why (thanks to Simon Sinek). It’s a good start, and better than only talking about what you do, but it’s not enough.
The why is only part of the ‘context’ – which should include why you exist, what problem you are solving for your customers, what gives you the authority, and, implicitly, ‘who’ you are targeting.
Tell the story of how and why you were founded. If you can, try to make an emotional connection in the delivery, it will make for an audience that is a lot more engaged. Extra bonus point for telling the story of how you are helping your customers achieve success.
Explain what you do in a few words
Any idea worth its time should be told in a natural way, in plain English, in less than 15 seconds. It’s more difficult than you think. For most, this will mean forgetting all the technical language they are accustomed to. It also means forgetting that 100 other companies make similar claims.
Too many start-ups try to differentiate themselves unnecessarily through complex wording or technical capabilities to prove that they are special. My advice: differentiate yourself through the way you fulfill a need and address a problem for a segment of the market, in a way that a prospective customer would easily understand.
Include strategic communications in your business plan
A great business plan will benefit enormously from a great communications strategy.
That means that if you need to find software engineers to power your start-up, you need a strategy to boost your brand with the local university. Go give a lecture, a seminar, or sponsor a hack-a-thon.
It means that if you’re trying to get teachers to use your product in the classroom, you need the right language, the right content and the right medium to reach them. Partner with a teaching website or school district to give your company message.
It means that if you’re taking on a dominant competitor, be provocative – you don’t use ‘safe’ language that a multinational would use. Stand out by differentiation, and by not being afraid to ruffle some feathers.
I could go on, but you get the point.
Fit the message to your audience.
While a company ‘boilerplate’ with standard messaging is a great tool to have, you’ll need to adjust your messaging depending on the audience. One size does not fit all.
Building on point 3, identify your top 5 stakeholder groups that are critical to your growth and write down the key message points and language you would use to communicate and win over each audience. Once you’ve done that, you can identify the channels/materials in which you can best reach these groups.
This again sounds like a no-brainer, but the discipline of this exercise will help everyone stay on message.
Own your space.
Many start-ups will look for a silver PR bullet. A write-up in a newspaper, a listing on a top 100 of hot start-ups, a mention on TV. Great – this may work for you if your story is there and you have something new or interesting.
For most start-ups, their story is not (yet) of interest to receive what we call ‘earned’ media, and they are much better off building their brand in the ‘owned’ space. This means writing blogs in a medium that you own; it means building a kick-ass website and content across different social channels; it means writing a regular newsletter and industry content for trade magazines.
Often overlooked is physical space – most companies own assets. You can also consider ‘shared’ media; using your content in partner owned channels can be a win-win.
Point is, start-ups have many options other than selling their story to journalists or buying advertising.
Be authentic & address your purpose
Audiences smell bull-sX#! from a mile away. In a world where we are bombarded with information and polished content, presenting the real, authentic you is a competitive advantage. Make sure you tell your story in a way that is compelling, with proof points that are real and relatable. Also, remember to include a vision that is purposeful and that has meaning.
The company vision is where communications strategy and company strategy really meet. Why does your company exist? What’s the ultimate goal?
The most obvious and easy answer is, of course, to sell more products & services, but try to dig one level deeper to think in terms of benefits to society. It will not only help focus your company, but it will help motivate your employees, attract investors and ultimately help improve your sales.
After spending years working with some of the biggest brands in the world, I love helping smaller companies achieve their goals and vision. It’s one of most rewarding aspects of my new role after leaving the corporate world behind.
That’s not to say they don’t have their own set of challenges; many don’t have revenue yet, lack good time management, have strong opinions, operate on limited budgets, and present solutions in search of a problem.
Yet, despite all of this they’re still my favorite clients (with apologies to my corporate clients). Quite simply, having a great communications strategy for start-ups can make the difference between failure or success – it’s that critical.
On my next blog, I’ll focus on the basic difference between good and great marketing. Until then, I look forward to your feedback.
Sebastian Van Der Vegt is the Managing Director of Untold Communications in Atlanta A native of the Netherlands, van der Vegt has lived in Canada, Brazil, Switzerland, and Turkey before settling down in the U.S. He has a degree in Psychology and has taught strategic communications at leading business schools. For more information, please contact him atSebastian@untoldstrategies.com.
Thank you for visiting our blog.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
Thanks to a booming economy, the start-up scene is thriving. Co-working places everywhere are full of entrepreneurs with innovative new ideas, taking advantage of a digital economy that is providing unparalleled opportunities, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
