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.

True Service

Kal-Tire has got it right.

And their brand/image is incredible for an industry that is typically seen as a bunch of grease pigs that rip off the consumers.

Kal-Tire's slogan,"True Service.", is a bold statement. But one they back up.. To be honest, I have never heard anyone say anything bad about them because they treat each customer great, and clearly have a strategy of building an ongoing relationship with every individual that walks through the door. Everyone needs tires, and they will need tires throughout their lives. Why not build a good relationship with every customer.

Now when someone walks through a tire store's door they are at the company's mercy, they are more than likely frustrated, and they are probably irritable.

Yesterday I had the good fortune of waking up to a flat tire and after figure out my jack and lugnut wrench I threw on the magnificent looking donut of a spare tire. With this in place I headed to Kal-Tire to see about repairing the flat or getting a new one. I dropped it off and heard from them after 2 hours. "Your front one is not repairable, but we were able to fix your right rear tire which also needed it." So they went above and beyond to make sure the rest of my tires were okay, fine i'll gladly pay the extra amount for that service. They didn't have the tire I needed to replace the damaged front tire but were quick to refer me to a place that would have them. Perfect.

So I went in after work to pick up my car and got to the counter, "Here is your total charge and that includes a discount too." Huh? What did I do to deserve a discount? Nothing, I chose Kal-Tire and they know the value in having a happy customer who will bring their car back to them for any future tire problems.

That my friends is True Service, and truly an impressively run company.

Something to think about the next time you are trying to figure out what image your brand should project in your customers minds. How can you build a better relationship with customers to extend your customer lifecycle?