Clandestine Marketing Blog

It is often the case that small business owners are so focused on attracting new customers, that they forget about the customers that they already have. Neglected customers can easily jump ship to another brand.

Here are some tips for serving your loyal customers:

1. Offer trade-ins for a good cause. Have customers bring in goods in return for a discount and your company and they will be helping a good cause.

2. Loyalty cards. Rewarding people for being good customers is a great way to keep them coming back.

3. Keep in Touch. Making contact on their birthday, when their favourite products are in stock, etc is a great way to stay in touch with your customers. This can be done via an eNewsletter, sms, etc.

4. Follow up. It’s a great way to find out if your customers were unhappy with your service in anyway or if anything has gone wrong since the purchase/installation, etc.

5. Get their opinion. Conducting market research through surveys is an effective way to see how your company is viewed.

6. Engage with them online. Start a Facebook page or Twitter account and interact with your regular customers and fans.

7. Rewards for referrals. If a current customer recommends your business, reward them.

8. Target local companies. Offer discounts to local businesses and their employees.

9. Give products away. It’s great to receive something for free, give a gift to your customers every once in a while.

10. Be creative. All of these tips are great and work, but always try be creative and unique with your approach. You will stand out.

What are urban legends? Well, these are folks - stories or beliefs which are backed by adequate credible logics for which people are always keen to wonder whether or not an idea will come true. Well the store Shop N Check has an urban legend as well- many organizations might find this experience similar to theirs when they also ventured appointing a mystery shopping agency.

A couple of years back, a client intently consumed in a lecture on How mystery shopping programs can be integrated in a company’s manifesto to boost the internal development and increase the level of efficiency. While he was gathering insight on the many fold aspects of mystery shopping and was deciding to employ one as he himself had trouble most of the times keeping tabs on his retail business- he bumped into an intriguing issue. In that very lecture it was emphasized that the frontline employees be informed that they will be mystery shopped, and they should also be explained the rationale behind the questions of surveys as well as how the results will be interpreted. Now, at this point they lost the client- he was startled and confused. He raised the question- How does the very mystery of Mystery shopping exist when it has been foretold to the employees? And if the employees already know that they are going to be shopped-aren’t they going to score 100% when they shouldn’t?

What people fail to realize that is the scope of mystery shopping doesn’t end only at collecting data. The collected data has no value until or unless it has been interpreted with proper analysis. Even the analysis is of no use if the organization can’t come to any conclusion with all the hypotheses presented.

After many studies of mystery shopping and the patterns those occur after they have been adopted for the first time- the pros in the area have come up with a number of stages which all the companies have to go through regardless of the type or reason of mystery shopping. There is no scientific basis for such assumptions, however these are highly predictable. The differences in the stages occur due to the fact whether any organization have previously experienced mystery shopping sessions or not.

One thing that must be maintained in mystery shopping program is that it must be top-driven. Without the active participation of the top management there is no point in carrying out such programs- when the core objective of the program is to figure out the faults in the management.

Below are described the different stages of mystery shopping:

1. Denial:

This stage is most obvious with the companies adopting mystery shopping procedures for the first time. Most of these cases the management finds it difficult to rely on the results that have been obtained. They blame the days, the situations, the moments or any other or all the other surrounding factors for the unexpected turn of results- but they cannot believe the fact that there have been some faults in their systems, even though sometimes they have carried out extensive training sessions. A number of reasons feed into such criticisms of the denial stage:

* If there has been some bad prior experience with unskilled mystery shopping agencies.
* If the management is suspicious about the corporate programs.
* Poor knowledge of the implementation, analysis and utilization of the obtained result
* Tendency of blaming the result on the return of a day or the performance of one specific employee.

2. Acceptance:

It takes time for the clients to start seeing through the bad figures on the results and usually it takes multiple shopping experiences before they appear at the stage of acceptance. At the denial stage managers may wave out a result or question its validity blaming a bad day or a bad employee. But with time when concurrent shopping results come out with unsatisfactory results managers find it hard to disregard or cancel out.

Numbers of reasons give into hastening of acceptance-

* When the top as well as the mid-level management decide on the importance of the mystery shopping program and thus include it in the vital strategic system rather than regarding it as a punitive program.
* When the top and mid-level management signifies the objectives of the programs
* The frontline employees as well as the store managers when engage with the program interactively. Hence they can use a forum to discuss the outcomes and their possible remedies. Some mystery shopping organizations also provide after shopping feedback to individual employees.
* Last but not the least the quality promise of the program is crucial.

3. Primary Rewards:

This stage starts when there are strategies undertaken as well as implemented in order to attain better shopping scores in the next session. This is the most basic reinforcement that can be provided.  While this plays as the initial focus- the focus is shifted as soon as the performance starts to improve. Hence the effect of incentives should be kept in mind as well. Later on the real benefits are accrued in form of:

* Heightened customer satisfactions
* Improved retention of the customers
* Stronger customer loyalty
* Increase in sales
* Increase in employee satisfaction and retention
* Customer service awards.

4. Cultural Indoctrination:

Now when the organization have started to rip the results of the mystery shopping programs and incorporated the rewarding systems- the final stage is to indoctrinate the process in the organizational culture, i.e. to regard mystery shopping systems as THE vital component of the management process and to link it with the strategic decisions. Hence onwards, mystery shopping is used for quality improvement and managing brand promises.

Source

Since the last article about supporting the Blogger Bake Off there has been a lot of baking and sharing of recipes from supporters all around the world.

Here is the official press release from Breadline Africa:

The winner of the Blogger Bake Off announced

Jayashree Mudaliar, the winner of the Breadline Africa Blogger Bake Off, hails from India and her recipe of Almond and Raisin Bread Rolls has been chosen as the winning recipe. Breadline Africa will donate a container in her name to an impoverished community and will award her with the $500 Amazon voucher.

The Blogger Bake off was a joint initiative between Breadline Africa and Quirk eMarketing with the goal to raise funds to end poverty in Africa. People worldwide were encouraged to join the Blogger Bake Off, submit their baking recipes and photos, tag other bloggers to do the same and donate online to Breadline Africa. The Blogger Bake Off was a first initiative of this kind and the website has won a number of awards for digital innovation.

The money raised will go to Breadline Africa’s projects of converting containers into soup kitchens, classrooms, and clinics. The collected recipes will be compiled into a Blogger Bake Off cookbook with all the proceeds going to the projects and communities supported by Breadline Africa.

Join the World Wide Blogger Bake Off.

In a previous post “The band’s gonna make it“, I mentioned that there is a time and a place for asking for donations… well this is it.

The world wide blogger bake off is a new initiative aimed at raising funds for poverty in Africa… they’re going for $1 Million, so you you’d better start baking and donating!

There are various ways for you to get involved:

• Join our campaign.
• Submit your bread baking recipe.
• Make a donation to Breadline Africa.
• Vote for your favourite recipe.
• Bake a loaf of bread and blog about it.
• Bake many loaves of bread and host a bake sale.

Sign up for the world wide blogger bake off here.

It’s official, South Africa has fallen into a recession for the first time in 17 years.

South Africa’s economy decreased by 6,4% in the first quarter of 2009, which is worse than the market expected.

The next few years will be hard on all businesses and intelligent decisions need to be made with marketing budgets.

Why is Market Research still important?

During an economic struggle, opportunities cannot be missed. Company resources are limited for the marketing and development of company products and services, therefore fewer products and services will be offered.

Conducting Market Research can help reduce the risk of product or service failure by providing consumer insight into the demands of the current market, rather than relying on trial and error.

A fair amount of prediction is needed before launching new products and services, which market research can reduce by providing key information about the wants and needs of consumers.

“Market research is the process of systematic collecting, organizing and analyzing data and information about customers, competitors and the market.”

Quirk eMarketing’s blog - GottaQuirk has written a great article on Online Market Research.

In the article, Kat chats about whether there is a place for Online Market Research in South Africa, mainly to do with the lack of a large sample size, due to the poor number of internet users.

“Despite its obvious benefits, however, Sarah has some criticisms of online as a research methodology in general and specifically in South Africa.  Sample size, context and outside influences can all have an impact on whether or not information is truly insightful or just one person’s response.”

Hand Written notes and Snail Mail still give that Loving Feeling.

I do a lot of work and consulting with some large Google Adwords Campaigns, each having big advertising spends. Because of that, I have an Account Management Team at Google… and they’re pretty cool.

I get quite a few tips, updates and ideas from the Google Team, but their most recent method of communication stood out from the crowd and it made an impact. I felt special.

Would you eat this?

A Virgin Atlantic frequent flier has taught the world about the best way to complain about customer service without coming across as a grumpy idiot. This funny letter of compalaint, directed at Sir Richard Branson, has become a viral hit and is circling the world via blogs and emails.

The thousand word letter detailing the unappealing complimentary meal is sourced from The Telegraph and has been republished here.

Virgin Airlines food compaint

“Dear Mr Branson

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation…

To survive in this economy.

Thousands of jobs are being cut to improve business efficiency, but strategic marketing is the key to differentiate decent companies from the elite. Analyzing your consumer base is a key method to ensure that your business is offering the best quality service to the right customers.

Market Research can be used to find ways to create a better quality experience for each of those consumer groups. Many consumers are cutting back on spending and this creates an opportunity to offer them products which will save money and promote efficiency.

To help survive in a declining economy, it’s advised to promote your company using intelligent and innovative marketing, rather than cutting marketing spend altogether. Researching growth opportunities can prepare your business for a faster recovery when the markets resurface.

When marketing this festive season, it’s all about what you offer. Rising food and fuel costs have taken first place when it comes to the priority spending of a consumer, who’s focus is on saving money and spending on necessities, rather than luxuries.

Marketing and adverting should offer more motivation for customers to buy your products.

Advertising should be in the form of an integrated message, using more than one medium to entice consumers. Print advertising, SMS marketing and website links can be used to inform and engage the customer in order to guide them to your store.

Perform some market research to find out more about your target market and what the hottest selling items are. Create a small integrated marketing campaign around these items and people with a clear message.

Financial times may be tough, but effective marketing shouldn’t.