Newsletter Archive

Welcome to the third issue of Stratamar News. Much of this month's newsletter is devoted to marketing gaffes I've noted over the past couple of weeks. As you would suspect, virtually any marketing miscue can be avoided with just a little bit of forethought, planning, and empathy for the customer.

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to write, call, or email me. You can find the numbers and addresses on my Contact page. Also, if you have any colleagues or clients who would be interested in receiving this, just contact me and we'll get them right on the list. Thanks for your interest.

By the time you read this, 1993's first quarter will almost be over. Are your sales and profits on track? Is your market share in line with plan, and are all expected first quarter new products/services launched? Did your competition play nice and NOT toss any surprises at you? If the answer to any of these questions is "NO" and you're in a bind, give us a call. We can help you reevaluate your plans or the marketplace, launch that new service, or train your employees to really understand and implement marketing with each customer and prospect contact. Call 614 946-4614 or email.

A bank in my neck of the woods, from which I still receive all customer communications although my accounts are now elsewhere, recently mailed its quarterly fee increase notice. Routine, and written to ensure that nobody reads it (I've written dozens of 'em, myself), but an extra line at the bottom of the page caught my eye. This bank now charges a several dollar processing fee for any overdrafts or NSF occurences, on top of a penalty fee in excess of twenty dollars. A handy way to get income when a customer has his/her back to the wall, but are they really going to develop long term relationships with customers when those customers are charged for the right to pay penalty fees?

A retail outlet of a major drug store chain shut down just outside of my development a month ago, less than a year after it opened. The problem? Retailers might tell you it failed because of the existence of three established competitors within two miles of the new site, e.g. poor site selection. Local customers (the market) will tell you instead that the new store failed because of broken promises. The developer of the strip mall in which the store was located failed to install promised landscaping around the site, reneged on a promise to convert an adjoining narrow road into a bike path, and dumped excess dirt from the lot's built half onto the unbuilt half rather than hauling it away. The store compounded the problem by applying for a carryout liquor license despite previous assurances to the contrary during zoning hearings. The result? - nobody patronized the store. There was no organized boycott or campaign, but enough prospective customers were ticked off about the perceived lies that it will be years before any store entering that strip mall can succeed. An expensive lesson for the developer and retailer.

41% of dog/cat owners leave the radio or television on when their pets will be alone. Hmmmm . . .

I may have witnessed the biggest example of logo excess since the Olympics this past weekend. At a professional basketball game in Columbus, the half-time "entertainment" was actually a mini-game featuring eight recognizable (costumed) logos of area corporations, including a bank, TWO pizza chains, a restaurant, well, you get the picture. Happily for the audience, the "game" only lasted six minutes.

In line with a trend I started in the last newsletter, here are a few more Internet sites I have used recently which may be of benefit to you, a co-worker, or a client. Enjoy!

and, for your next trip to Cleveland . . .

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