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Greetings!
We're not happy with the constant "doom and gloom" news. There was a recent article that surveyed a number of up-scale restaurant chains about business trends. The decline in business ranged from -8% to almost -18%. This should not be surprising since money is tight and customers need a "value" choice. The fast food restaurants are doing fine, McDonalds reported an increase of 1.9% in 4th Q sales at existing stores. Those upscale restaurants should follow the lead that I have seen by offering "specials".
Robert's of Charleston offered a rollback to 1980 prices for January and February, much to the delight of regular Charleston customers.
Get a little creative to sell some of your product and services. Offer specials, early or late discounts, a percentage off a second entree, and advertise it. You will attract both old and new customers.
This is not to pooh-pooh the drop in business. Difficult times call for difficult decisions. One place you can cut is advertising. You cannot drop it all together, because you have to keep your name in front of the public. But, newspaper advertising for example, should get a hard look. I haven't seen one newspaper that has had an increase in circulation (except USA Today), but the prices don't drop. Why pay more for fewer homes? Newspapers all over the country are filing for bankruptcy and only printing a newspaper on select days. Circulation is down dramatically, most people under 50 don't even glance at a newspaper, the advertisers are turning to other media . As Albert Einstein said some 60 years ago, (sort of), "If you are still advertising the way you always have, and expecting different results, YOU'RE CRAZY".
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| NEVER USE "WE" |
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Never use the personal pronouns "I", "me", "us", or "our" in advertising, packaging, sales literature, or anywhere else in marketing communications. "we" is about the marketer. Customers don't care about the marketer; they care only about themselves. "We" is the first person. The only person that is first to the customer is the customer. "We" is a bad proxy for your brand name or company name. Your job is to build brand awareness, not to build "we" awareness. "We" can be any brand, any company. "We" means nothing.
Never use "we", "us", or "our" in the headline. The advertisement is not about you, it is about the benefits of your product to your customer. When an advertiser uses "we" and not the brand name, the company must assume that the customer already knows the company, or instantly recognizes the company. If the customer already knows the brand message, then why advertise at all? "Brand awareness" advertising means keeping customers aware of the brand, not of the personal pronoun.
Here are two key research findings: (1) in head-to-head comparisons, the ad featuring the brand name in the headline generates higher brand recall than the same exact ad using "we"; (2) copy written in the first person is perceived by customers as self-serving and not objective. Conversely, copy written in the third person is perceived as more objective.
Putting "we" in the headline is no different from substituting "we" for your company name on corporate signage, on stationery, or in the Yellow Pages. You wouldn't spend money and erect a huge sign in front of your building that says "Our World Headquarters." You wouldn't put "Me" on your business card and omit your name. So, don't do it in advertising or anywhere else.
(Chapter by Jeff Fox, Marketing Superstar, from his book "How to Become a Marketing Superstar")
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| "CREATIVE" WRITING |
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Consider your words carefully ...
 The ability to speak and write is such a marvelous "sense". Especially when you can take a peek at some quotes from Richard Lederer's (condensed ) "history " of the world....these were actually written by prep school students.
Near the beginning, the inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Desert and travelled by Camelot. Certain areas of the desert are cultivated by irritation.
God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birthmark. One of Jacob's sons gave refuse to the Israelites.
The Pyramids are a range of mountains between Spain and France.
and
The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric and Ironic.
Mr. Lederer used to teach at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH and says these all came from student essays.
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| "FEED 'EM BECAUSE WE NEED 'EM" |
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That's the new mantra being touted by longtime broadcast veteran TJ Lambert who is concerned about broadcast's recent cuts in sales and customer service in the name of cost savings. "I took it from an email that was sent to the sales and customer service reps at my brother's company," Lambert told NTS MediaOnline Today.
"Here's some food for thought: Does anyone know when the last big recession hit the U.S.? It was 1981-1982. McGraw-Hill researched 600 companies covering 16 different industries from 1980-1985 and guess what they found? During the '81-'82 recession, companies that maintained advertising, personal customer relationships, and provided superior customer service realized a 256% increase in sales by 1985! Recessions historically reward companies with the most aggressive sales forces and penalize the timid." Wise words to consider during these troubled times in our industry. Our advice? Buy your sales crew lunch today. And make "feed 'em because we need 'em!" your new office mantra.
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