Sex saves the environment

This is one of my favourite marketing stories of the year and it comes out of the Fast Company blog. Everybody knows that marketing with a green twist is a great way to show your business is socially responsible and get brownie points from consumers. You may have thought in the past "I don't know if my company can take advantage of this marketing fad to help us engage customers."

......and then this story came along

"You know Thomas, this economic downturn has really affected our brothel. Not nearly as many people these days are paying for sex! It's like they realized it was an unnecessary cost, so they are now going to the bars and trying to pick up girls with the rest of the male population."

"I know. But don't worry I have a way to get press, make our brothel appear environmentally concious, and get more guys in the door. We'll offer a $7 discount for anyone who bike or take the train to their chikka chikka bow wow."

"Next step..........carpool discount!"

The Discount Economic Indicator

As I mentioned in an early post (and as is obvious to most everyone) retailers have been using sales/discounted items to try and entice customers to keep buying during these rather tough economic times. Walking through a mall it is tough to get a look into a store because of all the discount/sale signs cluttering the front windows. You can practically see the invisible hand lunging out and grabbing at people's wallets as they walk buy.

But, according to my freshly developed economic measuring tool - The Discount Economic Indicator, we may be starting an upward turn. Now my tool is not something Al Einstein would be proud of, and really when you think about it, its just me taking notice of one thing. In fact maybe I should call it the Banana Republic Economic Indicator, because it is based off of the email flyers they send me. Here's a breakdown of how it works:

• The higher the discount they offer me, the worse off we are economically

Simple eh?

So here's what i've seen so far:
1. First signed up: 10% discount and let me know when new items arrived
2. Last fall: 20% discount flyer
3. Christmas: 30% off flyer
4. Christmas: 40% off flyer
5. End of winter: 35% off flyer
6. Spring: 30% off flyer
7. Today: 20% off flyer

Now i'm sure everyone will want to pat me on the back, call me a genius, and give me an honorary doctorate, but it is interesting to see how their sales have pretty much followed the economic outlook for Canadians. Plus, good work by the marketing team at Banana Republic to continually offer sales to their best customers (the ones that gave them their email) encouraging them to buy.

Although I stand by my Discount Economic Indicator, i'm not quite as optimistic about the economy rebounding this quickly and I think we have some more downtime ahead, but this appears to be a good sign.

Sales promotion a true art form

With the recession in full force across North America it is tough to walk down a street and not see some kind of sign in a businesses window offering a sales promotion to entice prospects into purchasing. But what happens as we start to work our way out of the recession? People will have become addicted to sales because thats all they will know. Will there be a worldwide Intervention by major retailers to inform you that the sales no longer apply???? If so, I hope Jack Von Vonderen runs it, now thats an interventionist. Great mustache too.

What is the effect that these sales promotions will have on a company's brand image?

For example, I am part of Banana Republic Canada's e-mail database and they send me information on sales, etc. For the first 4 to 6 months that I was on the list I got maybe one offer for a 20% off one day only sale, which still seemed like a good offer. They make good quality, fashionable merchandise, at a mid-level price. There clothes are not cheaply priced, nor are they in the league of a Harry Rosen. That was until now. In the last 3 months I believe I have gotten at least one offer every month for a MINIMUM of 30% off, most of the time for an entire week or weekend.

Now obviously most people understand why they are doing this, the economic times mean you have to entice more consumers to purchase your products to meet your organizations sales goals. So you put items on sale and get more people in the door that way, including those that are not usually your regular market.

So what does that mean for the future, does this erode Banana Republic's brand image now that more and more people can afford to buy it? What happens when the sales dry-up? How many customers will they lose and will it lead to a counter-effect where they need to start producing clothes cheaper to hold on to these consumers that expect their items to be cheaper.

I assume there is quite a struggle going on between marketing and the sales teams at Banana Republic these days, but it is probably overshadowed by the increased volume they do everytime they push out another sale. I just wonder what the future consequences may be.

Too early for greediness

These days on television it is rare to find a commercial not touting some way to bust the recession through pricing or financing that they have. One of these such offers was observed and taken up by yours truly.....it was for Quizno's. Quizno's typically offers a higher priced sandwich than Subway because they have the ever sneaky oven to toast your sandwich along with probably using higher grade ingredients. Well, Quizno's saw what was going on with the economy (and i'm sure their sales department also took note of it as people started eating less there) and decided to offer our fair population of Canada a stellar deal. Their Real Deal sandwiches would be $5 for a large one. Wow! Great deal, and especially for an above average sandwich. Now granted the Real Deal sandwiches only offer 5 different selections but it is still a great deal for someone looking for a tasty lunch at a great price. I partook in this deal multiple times, they had won at least one customer.

Then the other day I went back for another $5 sub.......

The price had been raised to $6.49 for a large!

Wait a minute does that mean we are out of the recession????? Hooray.....wait no we aren't. So they weren't really willing to help us then? First off this seems a little like a bait and switch tactic and i'm sure I wasn't the only customer a little chagrined by the 30% increase in price all of a sudden. But the worst part is that you say you are there to help out people when they need it, and then all of a sudden your greedy again. Now maybe the $5 price point didn't leave enough margin, okay I can understand raising it slightly, but 30%!!!!! Come on. We aren't out of this economic trouble yet and if you have found a promotion that works and helps bring customers into your store during these tough times, then it is a good way to build loyalty as we work our way out of these tough days.

One too many burgers to the brain

Okay, we've all seen ridiculous expansions of product lines and names into areas that don't need it. Think Donald Trump water. Mike Weir Wines. MC Hammer parachute pants.

But this story/idea is just utterly ridiculous. I know that just about every famous person wants to have their own cologne so that everyone can smell just like them.......unless of course you are made of 100% beef.

Burger King has officially launched a cologne...

Wow. The economy is in a downturn and BK has decided to pick up sales and profits by pushing out some meat stink. Maybe not the smartest move guys, i'm guessing you were going for the shock/viral campaign but I think this one might not have the engine behind it. First off, a huge portion of men's colognes are bought for them by girls.....which girl would buy a BK smell???? It might as well come with a meat baster for application. Secondly, aside from a gag gift what regular guy would actually buy a BK cologne.

Hey dude, what's the smell?
Oh that? thats just my new Eau de Fast Food by BK.

To me this was a ridiculous stunt and not a good use of money, others may think otherwise. But i'd like to hear why someone might think this a good idea.

The Return of Goodwill

A couple of months back someone mentioned to me that lawyers, dentists, doctors, etc were all having tough times selling their practices/clients as they moved into retirement. This is because the economy was so good that a brand new Doogie Howser could form his own office and have clients banging on the door as soon as he flipped that little sign to "Open".

Purchasing someone's business, it's clients and throwing in some goodwill for those that had worked tirelessly to form that business seemed to be a fading idea.

What about now though? Wouldn't a start up rather have an established client base than having to form their own by pumping money into advertising and promoting. I think that with the current economic state goodwill shall be brought back into the game. Maybe as a result some of those that were hit in the pocket book by the crashing stock market will be able to retire sooner than later.

Positive Reinforcement

This just in......The economy is in the shitter. Maybe you have heard.

Now take a deep breath and lets start to think about this a new way.

The world is not ending, there are still a number of positive stories out there that are very good for the economy.....they just aren't getting as much press because the negative stories are grabbing peoples attention more, which means the media is much more interested in telling us about them (see my previous post about wildfire).

Here are a few positives that I have heard over the last little while:

• The Canadian dollar is getting hammered (Negative). However out of this comes some positive also. The movie industry in Canada just got a lot more interesting to american companies, could this be the re-emergence of Hollywood North? What about tourism? With our dollar dropping every day a trip to Canada starts to become a bargain once people start travelling again.
• Housing prices have plummeted. Well guess what, they weren't affordable for the younger generation before and everyone has been waiting for them to come down. Now this generation that is invigorating the work force and business in general will soon be investing in property as the prices fall to a level that works for them. That sounds like a good thing for the economy.

Let's start spreading some of the good stories, because that is another way we can help ourselves get out of this situation. With more positive reinforcement people will be more willing to contribute and help build the world economy back up. But until then the more and more negative we get the darker the world appears. So share your positive perspective on the economy here.

Wildfire

The economic crisis moving throughout the entire world has easily become the single item at the forefront of everybody's mind. Everyone is concerned and eagerly waiting to see how it folds out. It affects everyone and therefore is being talked about non-stop between friends, in newspapers, on radio and tv and in the blogosphere. It literally is the biggest wildfire I have seen in my entire lifetime.

As an example I was in Seattle on the weekend and went out to a nightclub one night. The bouncer looked at our IDs and literally thanked us for coming down and stated that they needed our help to boost their economy.....Pardon. A bouncer? We are talking about the stereotypical slow, beefy, pure muscle no brains type of person right. Well with this economic wildfire spreading everyone knows about it and it can pretty much make it into any conversation between 2 people.

On a lighter note, wouldn't it be great if you could make your product/business/service into a wildfire that everyone talked about. Granted you aren't going to have politicians making points about your widget during nationally televised debates broadcast on every possible television station. But how can you start a wildfire marketing campaign? As is often discussed these days, social media has made it a lot easier for you, but there are many other factors you need to line up that will ignite the forest of consumers/businesses. Here are some things to think about:

1. Why should anyone care about your brand?
You say its the greatest or the lowest priced on the market, well that's fine. Prove it to them, every consumer has heard this before. Once people experience it for themselves and have a positive experience then they are more likely to fan the flames

2. Do something new
With the internet people are exposing themselves to so many more ridiculous and crazy things each day that a mundane advertisement will not even register on them. Therefore you need to think more creatively, let your imagination run wild and truly there are no bad ideas at this stage.

What else would you do to fan the flames and start a wildfire?