Archive for March, 2011
A Look At One Creator Of Sports Logos
The members of every sports team wear an embroidered logo somewhere on their sports gear. That embroidered logo is a symbol of pride. The makers of those logos are equally proud of their creations.
Who makes those embroidered logos? Does each city with a professional team have its own set of embroidery experts? If one were to look at the logo for the Philadelphia Phillies, one would get that impression. Their logo contains a liberty bell. It looks like a logo designed by a present-day Betsy Ross.
Yet “Ross” was not the last name of the family that did the embroidery for that logo. That family had a different last name. Their name was “Moritz.”
Before the depression, the Moritz family had a business focused on the making of embroidered lace. Then during the depression, Carl Moritz, the founder of the company, and two of his sons changed the nature of the company’s efforts. They got the employees to start doing the embroidery for the emblems put on sports uniforms.
At the time of its founding, 1885, the Moritz’ company was located on Vine Street in Philadelphia. In 1970 the company moved to northern Philadelphia. In 1986 the Moritz’ company moved much further north. It moved to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Moritz family has been an important part of the embroidery industry for five generations. Carl Moritz, Jr., the grandson of the company’s founder, took time off during World War II to serve in the Marine Corps. After three years of service (1943-1946) he got an honorable discharge, and then he returned to Philadelphia to help with the family business.
His son and grandson have also lent their efforts to advancement of the skills required for making embroidered logos. They have made sure that the company has stayed in tune with the times. The youngest Moritz has created a new line of offerings called QDT Products. Those products are computer hardware and software for use in the embroidery industry.
By using such QDT Products, embroidered logos can be made much more efficiently. Design changes can be readily added to the available software. That makes it easier to train the employees who will make the embroidered logos.
With computers as part of the logo-making process, it is doubtful that sports logos will soon go out of style. They will probably be an important part of professional sports for quite some time.
‘Stop the Stupid Stuff’ In Your Business
We are living in a world of change. Shift happens! Competition comes from all over the world, which means that many American businesses are in trouble.
Many decisions are being made that are contrary to both good business sense and building customer loyalty.
Most organizations’ marketing is usually an exercise in figuring out what to do to get current or potential customers to spend more dollars with them.
I’m suggesting that instead of thinking about what to do, figure out what to stop doing. In other words, stop doing the “stupid stuff.”
Not doing the stupid stuff means finding out what prevents customers from spending money with you and making sure that that action or reaction never happens again.
Here’s an example of what I call “stupid stuff.” Some airlines now want to charge customers who want to speak to a live agent.
That’s stupid stuff in two ways. First, they’ve chosen to penalize customers who want to continue getting what they’ve always gotten – one-on-one attention. Worse, they’ve done it by saying they will charge more for this previously standard level of service. How many customers will they lose because of this decision? I know of at least one.
There are more subtle, but no less damaging, stupid things businesses need to stop doing.
Take, for example, the new Wheaties boxes. General Mills recently introduced Wheaties boxes with photos of the U.S. Olympic gold medalists. One was missing: Paul Hamm. Why?
This was General Mills’ response to my inquiry:
“Selecting a Wheaties Champion has never been an easy task, especially when we have witnessed so many outstanding performances by so many championship athletes. But it simply isn’t possible to honor every champion on the Wheaties box.”
So they leave off the first U.S. man to win the Olympics all-around gymnastics championship in one of the sport’s greatest comebacks? His return from a disastrous fall to a near-perfect high-bar routine won near-universal praise and, for most of us, defined the word “champion.”
But there was controversy. As most of you know, a South Korean gymnast claimed that a scoring error cost him the gold and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for sport. The court recently ruled that Hamm can keep the gold medal.
Even though the medal was disputed, it was not because of anything Hamm did or did not do. Still, General Mills decided to do the “safe” thing. But by being safe and leaving out Hamm, Wheaties is alienating the millions of customers who see him not as controversial, but as a hero, and losing customers in the process. Now that’s “stupid stuff.”
So start stopping! Stop saying “No” and start using the word “Yes.” Stop charging for services that most of us think are free.
Find out what exasperates, discourages, hassles or confuses your customers and stop it.
3 Easy Ways To Crank Up The Sales Volume
1. Supersize It!
Okay, okay… the real marketing term here us upsell it, but the word association takes me to McDonalds. You’ve been there… you pull up to the window, place your order and they always say… “Would you like to supersize that?”
What bugs me is that I instinctively say, “Yes!” After all, for a few cents more I’m getting nearly twice the amount of fries and beverage. We won’t discuss the fact that a person with normal size kidneys couldn’t possible drink the supersized drink before it goes flat… and that if I were to eat all of the supersized fries I’d be perfect advertisment for an acne medicine company… but hey, I got a good deal!
When your customers have their wallet out and are reaching for their money, they are ripe for shelling out just a few more bucks to sweeten the deal. In fact, about 50 percent will say yes without a second thought. It’s the perfect time to offer an upgrade or an extra warranty.
2. After The Sale Offers.
Have you noticed that novel sequels seem to go like hotcakes? Once the author has caught the audiences attention with the first book, they can’t wait to get their hands on the follow up.
The same idea carries over with your customers. A customer who is happy with the product and service you provided the first time, is much more open for a second experience.
The backend product you offer doesn’t even have to be your own. Affiliate marketers are rolling in proceeds on ebooks that cover material associated with their products. It’s an easy and painless process to market this way… the affiliate handles all the sales, while you collect the commission.
3. Reward Referrals
Customer surveys that ask 3 basic questions: What did you like best about the product?, How can we improve the value of the product?, and Who do you know that would benefit from the product?
In a nutshell, you are letting the customer know that his needs and opinions are important to you, and that you want to help someone else fulfill their needs too. You’ll gain valuable insight into customer satsifaction, provide material for valuable testimonials, and get tips on potential customers.
Upselling, backend selling and referral selling work together to increase the number of sales you net, without increasing advertizing budgets. Try it… you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to increase your marketing effectiveness within your current customer audience.