Stop and Smell (Sell) the Roses

Flowers... nothing more appealing to my delicate and romantic soul than a rose... the smell, the colors, the delicate thorns, symbol of love and hate, the perfect image of a sentimental relationship...





Enough of that: let's talk biz and money.

I love this guys at 1800flowers.com, very smart. They grew their little mom and pop shop into a multimillion dollar public company.

And if you are curious about how they did it, click here for the autobiography of the founder, Jim McCann: easy to read, funny at times, surely instructional.

Now, let's do some disecting of this marketing specimen: first of all, I got it thru Amazon.com, in my little delivery box. Great idea: strategic alliances.
But what I like the most is the trackability of the results: notice the inducement for the customer to enter code "24V" to get a discount when purchasing on the web.

Fantastically done: they will be able to compute exactly the ROI (Return On Investment) of their partnership with Amazon. And they gently persuade the user to help them out, giving a discount: as we were anticipating in a previous post (the Birthday card one), with the right inducement, appealing to the self interest of the prospect, smart marketers can get us to do pretty much anything they want.

Notice also the 1800 number: it is NOT a special one (it's 1800 FLOWERS), so NOT trackable.

Hmm, does it mean they are inconsistent in tracking results? Nahhh, simply using this number builds their brand in the name of the client (would I remember next time to call 1800 FRTGKFD?). And I bet my best pair of used gym shoes that when a person calls that number, the first question they ask is "Do you have a promotion code so you can get a discount?". Bingo ! They got the cake and eat it too: they got brand and phone number recognition AND track results.

Enough for today: let me call 1800IAMVERYHUNGRY to get something to eat.

K

Le Cirque du Soleil: these guys know marketing...

I don't know you guys, but I love Cirque du Soleil: it is such a great group of people, performing with passion and bringing the ancient art of Circus back to the modern times.



Ok, enough with the romantic stuff: let's talk business.
And here too, the Cirque is second to none: we will talk in a separate posting about their e-mailing techniques, very sophisticated and well orchestrated (do they work? Hmmm, yes... they got me to buy the tickets...)

What I love is that, paying via credit card on the web, they capture the address of the guests and use it for future, very targeted and relevant, emailing.

So, when they came to town few years ago, I decided to "invest" my hard earned cash in a ticket for the Cirque. And, alas, this year, they invite me to check out their new show in town... One postcard (cost of probably 25 cents or so) and they get people to purchase a 60$ ticket.

Let's see: the ROI (Return On Investment, for the normal people out there) is a meteoric 24,000% (that is 240 times the money put in). If they only get one person out of 100, they still make a very respectable 2.4 times ROI...

All this because somebody was smart enough to collect the names and organize a database... ups, databases again...(see previous posting, on birthdays).

Alles les gars, on y va au Cirque du Soleil.

K

The Birthday Cash Cow

Ohh, beautiful and always anticipated with joy... the day that marks your being one year older...
A nice occasion for friends and family to throw you a surprise party with a lot of nice gifts ! Enjoy !

In my yearly calendar, few dates are so emotionally important for me as my birthday: I am such a sucker for birthday wishes, I love people remembering about my special day.

I am surprised so few business caught on this human quirk: why not more people send me special discounts/offers for my bday? I am very prone to check them out, because it's my special day... Oh, I can hear the most professional of you wispering the magic word: Database...database... yeah, that's the point and we will come back to it in the next postings. Creating and maintaining a database is a pain in the neck, and it pays off only in the medium long term. But the returns can be colossal.

Not a single restaurant in my life ever asked me about my bday: oh, I can hear you "The privacy, people would not give their info that easy"... ahh, in one of the next postings I'll show you that we are all so ready to give all the info we are asked, provided there is a good reason... come back to learn more in the next days.

In the meantime, I paste for you an example of smart business, that uses the bday idea. A friend of mine, living in Texas, passed it to me (thanx S. !)

Notice also the expiration date: smmmmaaaart guys, they put some time pressure on us, using the scarcity principle (interested in more info on Dr. Cialdini persuasion principles: click here and here).

Ok, enjoy your day and, as usual, think: more profit is just few thoughts away.

K

Headlines, Headlines...

All right, I knew it: my first post would be about headlines...

It still amazes me how so few companies have any clue about the power of headlines.

It's cute to see professionals struggling to compose the best text/copy for their ad, and not paying attention to the headline.

"Hmm, Sir, if the headline is boring, nobody will read your ad/article/posting"...
The answer is usually "Oh sure, you are right" and for few seconds they seem to understand. Then, back to usual...

So, I really enjoy when I see professionals of headlines at work. Check this one out:

Now, only a person that lived in seclusion in a cave for 20 years would not know the people listed in this headline. And they way it's proposed, it is almost impossible NOT to open the envelope.
Which is the function of the Envelope headline... getting the package open...

Ok, it's all for today: little Headline, you did your job on that cute yellow envelope: you got me curious and you got me to take action and open it !

Till next time

K