Reflecting on the year that just was, I learned to appreciate the gift of life. I learned the gift that a blessing can be, the doors it can open, the healing and transfiguration it can bring. When we bless, we work from a place of inner vision, clearer than our hearts, brighter than our minds. Blessing is the art of harvesting the wisdom of the invisible world. From day to day it offers us new gifts. With this blessing by John O’Donohue, I’d like to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. A Blessing At The End of The Year As this year draws to its end, We give thanks for the gifts it brought And how they became inlaid within Where neither time nor tide can touch them. The days when the veil lifted And the soul could see delight; When a quiver caressed the heart In the sheer exuberance of being here. Surprises that came awake In forgotten corners of old fields Where expectation seemed to have quenched. The slow, brooding times When all was awkward And the wave in the mind Pierced every sore with salt. The darkened days that stopped The confidence of [...]

Within two weeks we’ll begin seeing TV ads for 1.800.flowers and websites promoting the sale of home delivered roses for Valentine’s Day. Since every Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart, SuperTarget—even Home Depot—will be promoting Valentine’s Day as well, what are you planning to do to make an impression with your customers and sell some Valentine’s Day products? Did your Valentine’s Day 2010 set new sales records? What are you planning to do differently in 2011 for Valentine’s Day? Valentine’s Day is perhaps the easiest holiday to plan for. It also offers the most “upside” selling opportunities for supermarkets. Why not plan a Valentine’s Day event on Saturday, February 12th and have a record week? Some ideas to consider for Valentine’s Day 2011 include: Brand your Valentine’s Day event and publicize the event in late January. Give it a name. One of our customers calls their event “Sweetheart Affair: An Affair to Remember.” Start with a great name for your event and go from there. Set the stage for romance. That’s a tough order in a supermarket, but you should position the event properly in your marketing materials (e.g. print ads, in-store bag stuffers, website mentions, and e-blast invites). Set up an area [...]

Positioning is one of my favorite topics. Positioning is KEY to differentiating your brand from your competitors. The most dangerous competitors are those that are most like you. And the best way to separate yourself from your competition is to own a distinct market “position.” In talking about positioning, marketers and agency folks define it in different ways. It’s the story you want to imprint in people’s minds about your store and why it’s better, the solution your store is offering to address buyers’ problems, the bundle of attributes and benefits you want to tell people about, or simply your unique selling proposition—the reason consumers should shop your store rather than someone else’s. It’s highly advantageous for a company to stand for something important, to be remembered for something significant. To have a powerful positioning is clearly a good thing. A positioning tells a customer what a brand stands for, what the brand believes in, and what the brand can deliver. It gives the buyer a reason for trying the brand once, and coming back to shop there over and over again. An effective positing offers a company the opportunity to both defend and attack. It helps a company retain [...]

For two decades, there have been “New Resident” programs available to supermarkets. For the most part, the programs included: Mining a list of residents “new” to an assigned marketing area. Mailing (direct mail/US Mail) a letter or packet from the supermarket, welcoming the new resident with a preformatted “welcome” letter from the store manager/owner along with some special offers to encourage repeat visits. In some cases, tracking the response rates of redeemed offers to determine who isn’t responding to the initial offer. In the case of a new resident not responding, determining if an alternate offer should be mailed. Fast forward to 2010. Many of these programs have evolved, and some of the best programs are worth implementing as a way to increase your customer counts and sales per transaction levels in 2011. If you google “new resident marketing program,” you’ll be overwhelmed with over 460,000 offerings. Many of the programs are pretty much identical. So what should you be looking for in a great “new resident” marketing program? Here are seven suggestions to consider in your new program: First, a warning about some of the new resident lists that some companies offer: be aware of the sources from which [...]