WalMart Hunger Relief

To many Americans, WalMart is known the devil of corporate America. Their ethics with employee treatment, poor customer service, and horrific working conditions for their overseas employees have put them in the dark side of American corporations. WalMart receives constant criticism with regards to these factors, and they need to change their ways before their customers shift their shopping habits elsewhere. Walmart organized a project plan to give back to their community. This should help them gain some popularity among customers, especially because they have a series of television ads running.

During the month of April, Walmart will be providing food for families in need when customer purchase Walmart brand products. They can also vote online, on facebook, or in the store for communities in need of funding and Walmart will make a monetary donation. They will donate $1 million to the top community for food support. They will also be awarding 20 other communities $50,000 each.

This appears to be an obvious publicity stunt. In companies I see that do work for community such as this, they do not run extensive ad campaigns; companies put out press releases and promotions in the stores. What do you think of Walmart's strategy? Has it changed your perception of Walmart?

Best Buy's NOT so close-out sales

When stores close down, customers expect deals. I know I do. I remember when Circuit City went out of business, I went in for their close out sale and bought an iPod and athletic style headphones for a fraction of the regular retail price at stores such as Best Buy or The Apple Store.

A lot of customers heard Best Buy stores were closing and were hoping for big savings on merchandise throughout the store. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Best Buy is not going out of business, they are merely reducing the number of store locations across the United States.

What does this mean for customers? Well do not expect any discounts on premier items such as Apple products, TVs, or appliances. These items are going to be relocated to other stores and sold at the labeled price. Discounts will only be applied to smaller items such as cell phones accessories, batteries, cables, and video games.

As a customer, I am disappointed that Best Buy will not be offering TVs for 50%. However, I can understand why they are not offering those close-out deals...they are not closing out the business, just a few stores.

Dr Dre say "Tupac Lives!"

Tupac Shakur lives again! He was performing along side Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella 2012. How did they do it? Hologram? Nope. They projected Tupac onto a piece of glass. This was not created using old footage from his shows before he died in 1996; this was all computer generated. Everything from his physical figure, attire, voice, and movements. I highly recommend viewing the links below because it is truly a sight to see!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304818404577348243109842490.html
Link to WSJ article discussing the performance and business behind the show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQgrce1VflI
Link to footage from the show of Tupac

I wonder who will be the next big performer that this technology can "rise from the dead". Michael Jackson? Biggy? Maybe never a movie star? How that this has been done with a star as large as Tupac Shakur, do you see this technology making a larger presence in the future?

A Name - A Misnomer

I read an article containing tips for naming your company. I felt as though this article was very repetitive in its ideas, yet the ideas given were all very practical and useful.

The main idea I took out of the article was to gain as many ideas as possible and do not limit yourself. The larger pool of words you have, the more potential you have to develop a great idea. The article gave great resources as well, such as the Visual Thesaurus - this takes words that you want and creates new words that customers will associate with your word. I tried it for myself by entering the word WINTER into the search bar. It gave me the options of WINTERTIME, OVERWINTER, and WINTRY.  It creates a "web" on the screen and connects all of the words. The program allows you to click on one of the new words and it will automatically construct a new web using the newly selected word. Unfortunately, it only allowed me to make 5 or 6 clicks before closing the window because I used up my free instant trial. But it gives you the option of signing up for a 14 day free trial, and then you can also purchase this tool. For a start up business, this would be a very valuable tool for generating that list of words to associate with your company and maybe use in your company name.

 Prior to reading this article, I was under the impression that companies using real words chose their names due to the meaning of the words behind them. This article changed by view entirely. It brought an interesting point, "the etymologies of words or word parts that you use in your name don’t matter. What do matter are the associations people make."  Your company name may have a great origin, but if the name has a bad association, that is what the customers will think of when they hear your company.

This article has many useful tips for naming or renaming your company and also gives thinks to various other website resources. Check it out:

http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-tips-for-naming-your-company-product-or-service/


Here is the link to the Visual Thesaurus:
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Grab your customers before its too late!

The markets are shrinking. Businesses have only one way to survive - they must build customer loyalty to earn repeat business. The easiest way to build loyalty with customers is to increase their pleasure when conducting business with you. This is known as 'Customer Satisfaction' and must be obtained in order to run a successful business.

"The gulf between

satisfied customers and

completely satisfied

customers can swallow

a business."

- Harvard Business Review

This was a quote from the Harvard Business Review in 1995. This information was found off the website of a customer service measuring website. The company name is Quality Digest. They act as a 3rd party for businesses by calling customers and asking about the service they received at their last visit. The information is gathered and a report is sent to the company. A company can use the data collected by Quality Digest to increase their service in areas that are lacking, and continue to excel in areas that are pleasing customers.

There are several trends that occur with many companies that use this service. Let me set the stage with an example: "Company A" newly hired Quality Digest do perform customer service phone calls so they can learn how customers viewed the service they received. After the first month, Quality Digest sends the report to the owner of the business. The scores are "completely satisfied" is a few categories, "somewhat satisfied" in a few categories, and "dissatisfied" in one category.

Now besides that one "dissatisfied" category, that is not a bad rating - everybody was satisfied in one way or another by the service. Company A puts forward an initiative to increase the score from the "dissatisfied" category to a score more acceptable. The next month, another report is delivered to the owner of Company A. This month, the company was able to increase that score to "Completely Satisfied". However, it seemed that the efforts put forth to increase that score caused the employees to sacrifice time and focus in the other categories, which caused those scores to fall drastically.

The lesson here is to correct what needs to be fixed, but pay close attention to your other areas of focus as well. Just because you GOT a high customer service score before does not mean that it will happen again with less work. Remember how hard you worked to get that score, and that is how hard you must work in order to keep that score.

This is a very interesting website and company. Their site offers statistics about customer service and the benefits it can have for your customers:

"A 5% increase in loyalty can increase profits by 25%-85%"

When you get a job, think about these facts and how strong customer service can help grow a company. Good service goes farther than you could imagine!

http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/satisfaction.html

Enterprise. National. Alamo?

Enterprise Holdings is a privately owned company which owns and operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Several years ago, they acquired National and Alamo car rentals. I saw an ad on Youtube for Enterprise talking about the merger with the companies. I thought it was odd however that the ad was only for Enterprise and National. Why would they not include Alamo car rentals in the ad?


I asked my boss at work after I saw the ad. Apparently, Enterprise and National are known as the rental car companies for insurance replacements and corporate renters. Alamo is known for its airport locations and typically rents to people on vacations. Do you think this advertising strategy is a good idea? What harm could be done if Alamo would be to added to the ad? Wouldn't it just help the companies to be affiliated with each other, especially if they had a positive experience?

Do your research

It was March of 2011 when I interviewed with Enterprise Rent-A-Car for my internship as a Management Trainee Intern. I spent many hours looking through their website in an effort to learn as much about the company as possible to gain information to use during my interview. After many hours of website surfing, I decided to Google search the people I had contacted and my interviewer from HR. As I scrolled down the page, I found Facebook pages, Linkedin pages, and pages that related them to Enterprise. About half way down the page was a link from internships.com. I opened the link and began to read the article. It was an interview which included 5 questions about the application process of interns like myself. I memorized the questions and answers on the website and used them at every opportunity I could during the course of my interview. I don't want to put my success on the website, but I did get the job.

In conclusion, I highly recommend you Google search the company and interviewers you are going to be in contact with. You never know what you are going to find.

Here is the article I found that assisted me in my application process:
http://www.internships.com/eyeoftheintern/applying-2/employers-applying-2/5-5-enterprise-rentacar/

Direct Response 101

Direct marketing reminds me of Chuck Norris trying to sell me the TOTAL GYM at 2:00am on a Wednesday morning. It never struck me as an efficient way to communicate with customer and sell them a product or service. Not until I did some research on the subject did I really understand what it fully entailed, and that is when I realized just how effective this form of marketing is.

For those of you who do not know what Direct-Response Marketing is, here is a definition: A type of marketing designed to generate an immediate response from customers, where each customer response and purchase can be measured and attributed to individual advertisements. In this form of marketing, there is no room for middlemen or retailers. That would inhibit the company from determining which marketing technique was successful in attracting business. The main forms of Direct-Response Marketing (or DRM) are the following:
DRTV (direct response television)
Radio
mail
Print Advertising
telemarketing
Catalogues
Internet

Direct response television how Chuck Norris attempted to sell me his TOTAL GYM. The difference between a regular commercial and a direct-response commercial is the company's intention. Let me give you an example. Nike released a new running shoe and they wanted to run an ad on ESPN to promote the shoe and increase sales. The commercial may tell you about the shoe, maybe demonstrate the unique characteristics, and then tell the viewer where the shoe can be found and purchased. Now think of a 30 second ad for the PERFECT PUSH UP. This ad does everything that the Nike ad did, but then they added something extra. They displayed a phone number and/or a email address in which the workout equipment can be purchased. By including the phone number and/or email, it gives the customer a direct line of purchase to the manufacturer. This tactic enables businesses to track where customers purchases and analyze there marketing tactics effectively.

Radio Advertising. Or not?

I am a DJ at Saint Michael's College. As part of being a DJ on campus, they train you on the rules and regulations of being on the air.  There were a lot of them - no swearing and no inappropriate language were obvious, but one of the rules took me by surprise. That rule was "no advertising". The instructor gave us an example: If a band were playing at a venue and you wanted to talk about it, you can say anything you want, except how much ticket prices are and where to get tickets. So all the information you give other than ticket information is not considered advertising. What do you think? Dictionaries define advertising as "

a paid announcement, as of goods for sale, in newspapers or magazines, on radio or television, etc." or "A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy".  So by not being paid by the artist or venue, we are not allowed to tell where to find tickets or prices. This is an interesting logistic to being on a radio station.

SuperBowl Ads

Companies use the Super Bowl as a way to reach millions of viewers by running ads during the most watch sporting event of the year. These ads are so compelling that they can be used to attract viewers to the Super Bowl. With so much emphasis on the new ads for the Super Bowl, why is it so easy to see the "Super Bowl Ads" online days before their television premier? Why would a company want to release the ad prior to event which inspired the ad in the first place?

It is expensive to run ads during the Super Bowl. The average price for a 30-second ad in the 2012 Super Bowl is $3.5 million - the highest average NBC has ever charged.  Airing the ad online would allow them to be seen by more viewers prior to the game. It could build anticipation to see the ad again. M&M has a strategy of building up anticipation for the debut of Ms. Brown, the newest member of the M&M crew. She has a twitter account and tweets frequently. She has built a large following of anxious fans who can not wait until the unveiling of her during the game. This is a way for M&M to attract viewers to the game and ads who normally would not watch the event on live television.

It will be interesting to see where Super Bowl Ads go in the future. In 1985, ads for the Super Bowl cost companies $1 million for a 30-second ad (adjusted for inflation). That is an increase of 200%.  NBC does not sell more ads, so they chose to raise the price for them in order to maximize revenue. But who can blame them? If the companies are willing to pay, why not charge them more. Running a Super Bowl ad has become a level of stature for a company. Does your company have enough revenue to support a $3.5 million 30-second ad? That exceeds the yearly advertising budget for most companies in the United States, let alone for a single ad. Economists predict that the price of ads could double in the next 10 years, but only time will tell.

Help With Job Interviews

Apply for jobs can be stressful. Much of a job offer relies on the interview. So how can you make sure you are prepared for the questions they are going to ask you? This article informs the readers of 10 difficult interview questions and tips on how to approach them when asked. Marketing oneself is very important when entering the job market, so proper answers to these questions will build a good picture of yourself to a potential employer.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/07/27/the-10-toughest-interview-questions/