Marketing is in the Details: Sears Catalogue Disaster
Marketing is in the Details: Sears Catalogue Disaster
Marketing is everyone's responsibility because each staff member sends messages about your business. Often your unintended messages have a greater impact then your intended messages.
What affects your marketing messages the most? Details! Are you attending to the little details that make or destroy your marketing message?
Too many businesses make the mistake of delegating marketing to the marketing department. Watch the downward spiral of your business when the CEO hands off marketing responsibility to a department. Marketing is not a department thing - it is a company wide thing. All the creative work of the “marketing department” can go 'down the drain' because of sloppy execution or poorly trained front line staff. You can blame marketing but the CEO is responsible.
Look at the mistakes that Sears made not in the creation or production of their catalogue but the delivery. Read the details and cringe. Then start checking how your marketing message is delivered.
The Sears catalogue was delivered to my house. Where would you expect to find your Sears catalogue when you look out your front door in the morning? In the mail box? In the magazine rack? Perhaps on the mat? Maybe on the porch? Or at least close to your door? All reasonable guesses and expectations.
I discovered the Sears catalogue at the far end of the drive by the street where I normally put my garbage for pickup. I know that's how papers are delivered in rural areas - end of the driveway - but we are in the city. It's a short driveway - not long enough fit two cars one behind the other. It is not a long walk to my front door from the street. Yet the Sears catalogue was dropped or thrown out of a car window at the end of my driveway as though it were litter.
As I went for my morning run I noticed all the houses on my street and neighboring streets had a Sears catalogue at the end of the driveway by the edge of the road. Some of the packages were ripped open and the pages strewn across lawns.
It had rained but fortunately the Sears catalogues were wrapped in plastic. Most of them were probably dry inside the plastic. That assumes that householders would pick up the wet package, brush off the wet leaves and carry it into the house. Why would they do that? When I returned home from my run I gingerly picked up the offensive package and deposited it into the garbage. Then I went inside and washed my hands. Yuk.
Just imagine the time and money that went into the creation of that catalogue - plus the hopes of the CEO and VP sales. They probably patted themselves on the back for creating another colorful catalogue. The marketing department probably awarded themselves another trophy for their creative design.
So will anyone really know why sales were down during the next season? Will anyone investigate the details of delivery? Perhaps they'll conclude that catalogues don't work anymore. Maybe they'll blame it on the economy.
Where the Sears catalogue is placed is a small detail. And small details can sink your marketing campaign.
Post Mortem: I contacted Sears by email to tell them about this incident. The only contact that I could find on their website was “Customer Service”. The person who responded insisted that I must complete a form before they would talk to me - which conveyed another marketing message - forms are more important than fixing a major problem.
It might be too late for Sears. You can still fix the marketing messages in your business by obsessing on the details.
Marketing is in the Details Sears Catalogue Disaster - To learn more about this author, visit George Torok's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Marketing can make or break your business. Marketing is about sending messages.
Marketing is everyone's responsibility because each staff member sends messages about your business. Often your unintended messages have a greater impact then your intended messages.
What affects your marketing messages the most? Details! Are you attending to the little details that make or destroy your marketing message?
Too many businesses make the mistake of delegating marketing to the marketing department. Watch the downward spiral of your business when the CEO hands off marketing responsibility to a department. Marketing is not a department thing - it is a company wide thing. All the creative work of the “marketing department” can go 'down the drain' because of sloppy execution or poorly trained front line staff. You can blame marketing but the CEO is responsible.
Look at the mistakes that Sears made not in the creation or production of their catalogue but the delivery. Read the details and cringe. Then start checking how your marketing message is delivered.
The Sears catalogue was delivered to my house. Where would you expect to find your Sears catalogue when you look out your front door in the morning? In the mail box? In the magazine rack? Perhaps on the mat? Maybe on the porch? Or at least close to your door? All reasonable guesses and expectations.
I discovered the Sears catalogue at the far end of the drive by the street where I normally put my garbage for pickup. I know that's how papers are delivered in rural areas - end of the driveway - but we are in the city. It's a short driveway - not long enough fit two cars one behind the other. It is not a long walk to my front door from the street. Yet the Sears catalogue was dropped or thrown out of a car window at the end of my driveway as though it were litter.
As I went for my morning run I noticed all the houses on my street and neighboring streets had a Sears catalogue at the end of the driveway by the edge of the road. Some of the packages were ripped open and the pages strewn across lawns.
It had rained but fortunately the Sears catalogues were wrapped in plastic. Most of them were probably dry inside the plastic. That assumes that householders would pick up the wet package, brush off the wet leaves and carry it into the house. Why would they do that? When I returned home from my run I gingerly picked up the offensive package and deposited it into the garbage. Then I went inside and washed my hands. Yuk.
Just imagine the time and money that went into the creation of that catalogue - plus the hopes of the CEO and VP sales. They probably patted themselves on the back for creating another colorful catalogue. The marketing department probably awarded themselves another trophy for their creative design.
So will anyone really know why sales were down during the next season? Will anyone investigate the details of delivery? Perhaps they'll conclude that catalogues don't work anymore. Maybe they'll blame it on the economy.
Where the Sears catalogue is placed is a small detail. And small details can sink your marketing campaign.
Post Mortem: I contacted Sears by email to tell them about this incident. The only contact that I could find on their website was “Customer Service”. The person who responded insisted that I must complete a form before they would talk to me - which conveyed another marketing message - forms are more important than fixing a major problem.
It might be too late for Sears. You can still fix the marketing messages in your business by obsessing on the details.
Marketing is in the Details Sears Catalogue Disaster - To learn more about this author, visit George Torok's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to George's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 |
|
George Torok Video - Marketing is more science than art. Marketing is about the numbers. Marketing insight from marketing expert, George Torok.
|
|
|
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
|
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Serenity Cards Trainning Template Internet Marketing Campaigns English Get Ready for The Recovery |
|
 | ||
 |
Guide To ERP Software
Business Management Software | |
 |
The Top 10 ProBlogger Posts
Best Posts for Bloggers | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
