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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume 3, Issue
#39 - September 26, 2002
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In this issue:
One for the road
It’s cool to promote!
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One for the road
Last week, I had
the wonderful opportunity to present at a conference in New York and
meet the editors of some of the industry’s leading publications. It’s
always fun to connect with those in the vanguard of the nutritional
retailing field. I like to hear what they have to say about what’s
happening now and listen to their vision for the future. It’s also
interesting to see what this well-educated and respected industry is
still missing
Here’s one for the
road: most people still don’t get it that sales and marketing are two
different parts of the same animal. To hear people use the terms as
though one is synonymous with the other both cracks me up and makes
me cry. I laugh because it’s funny; I cry because until people know
the difference between the two, they will continue to struggle to grow
their business - unless they’re lucky enough to live in great economic
times or with hot new products that the media talks up and don’t need
to market themselves.
Maybe the following
example will show the difference between sales and marketing. If you
went to a restaurant, ordered an appetizer and the chef brought out
dessert, would you laugh? If you had your taste buds primed for an
appetizer, perhaps you would cry. From the chef’s perspective, appetizers
and desserts are both part of the meal and he makes money selling them.
But there’s one primary difference between an appetizer and dessert.
One comes before the other.
The same is true
with marketing and sales. They’re both part of the process of growing
your business and helping more people, but they are not the same thing.
Marketing is composed of all the efforts that go into educating and
informing your customers and prospects so they are positively predisposed
to buying your products or services. Once they express interest in
what you have to offer by calling, stopping in, sending an e-mail or
just saying "hi" at a football game, it’s now time for sales to do it’s
thing. It’s a two-stage process and marketing comes before sales.
In the not-too-distant
past, learning how to "sell" was important. People wanted your products
and services and retailers needed to know how to sell or "close" them.
In the movie "Glen Gary Glen Ross," one of the characters writes three
letters on an old chalkboard - A, B, C. Then he circles the letters,
looks at the sales team and says, "Always, Be, Closing!" That’s using
sales to turn qualified prospects into customers.
The problem is many
retailers never had to learn how to market themselves. The economy
was so strong that all they needed to do was sell. Someone sat across
the counter from them and the retailer simply sold their products and
services. Those days are history. It’s difficult to employ the magic
all of those great sales skills when you can’t get a prospect to answer
the phone, look at your mailer or come to your store.
Well ladies and
gentlemen, now is the time to create an ongoing, sustainable marketing
system that works during good times as well as bad and brings new prospects
to your store so you have an opportunity to sell. In these days of
an uncertain economy and a bear market, you simply will not have the
opportunity to "close" until you get people in the door.
Please don’t get
me wrong. I know that sales is a critical step in the process. But
businesses won’t survive on sales alone. It’s time that the industry
sees marketing as a critical element of long-term success. It’s time
for retailers to make marketing the cornerstone of a successful practice.
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It’s cool to promote
Last week, I was
also in Las Vegas for a conference and I loved all the great promotional
items that were handed out like candy! Over the years, I’ve endorsed
using seeds as a way to get noticed. People like to grow plants and
what better way to talk about the ingredients of a product than to see
it grow in your won yard!
Here’s another promotional
item I saw that I think is wonderful. I can’t wait to use it with our
customers! I’m sure most of you have seen compressed T-shirts and golf
towels at conferences. Now you can use them as U.S. Postal Service-approved
mailers. What a great concept - a seminar invitation with an image
that the recipient can keep and wear.
The cost is about
$6 per printed shirt, compressed and ready to mail. A company called
$2.95 Guys (www.295guys.com) is offering my readers a special.
Ask for Rebecca, mention Nutritional Marketing and I think you get 72
FREE shirts with your order. They also offer regular T-shirts for $2.95
each and I think those would make a great promotional item for new products
or to give out at schools.
Another promotional
item that tickled my fancy was cut up casino chips and coins. After
they’re no longer useable, they’re cut into small pieces. I think they
would be great to add to mailers that talk about customers gambling
on their health. Simple and fun to look at.
I’m not a fan of
the over-used pens or traditional trinkets. But some promotional items
can stand out and make a very strong and economical case for your products
and services.
As always, have
fun with marketing!
Marty
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Quote
"Take calculated
risks. That is far different from being rash."
George S. Patton
Now is the time
to take a calculated risk and start an ongoing, never-stopping marketing
program. Now is also a good time to take a risk with promotional items
that will make you stand out from the crowd so you get noticed.
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Please note that
all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter or
on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As you
know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
