INSIGHTS & JOY
A business newsletter with Pizzazz!
"We help leaders become better
marketers
using a holistic business approach!"
November
2006
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
This is the time of year when
it is altogether appropriate to pause and thank my clients, family, friends,
associates, and fellow consultants for the great support they continue to
provide to me during 2006. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
On a slightly different note,
this is also the time of year when we all get inundated with mail order
catalogs. These colorful offerings tempt us to buy everything from clothes and
home furnishings to fancy chocolates and food. Forgive me for focusing on the
powerful marketing punch of mail order catalogs this month. You look at
them...you know you do...but who actually buys?
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Check our web site for: $
Million Marketing Tips, Insights & Joy Archive, Speaker's Directory,
and our Article Library!
IN THIS ISSUE
Oh no, another mail order catalog!
Smiles make the day!
$ Million Marketing Tips
Amazing Facts!
Marketing Facets - The Market Focused
Guide to Company Analysis
Oh no, another mail order
catalog!
It arrives in the mail, along with
holiday cards, monthly bills, direct mail postcards, car wash coupons, fund
raising appeals, and perhaps even a note or invitation from a friend. Yes,
another mail order catalog arrives to tempt you. Some people immediately toss
catalogs into the trash. Like most of us, you put the catalog aside as
we open cards, bills and correspondence, intending to toss the catalog away. Two
days later, you notice the catalog again and leaf through it as you watch
television or sip your morning coffee.
What made you notice and pick up the catalog
again? Was it the beautiful picture on the cover? Was it the thick,
high quality gloss paper? Was it your innate curiosity that made you open the
catalog and scan the products? Believe me, the mail order folks know how to
design and print something that demands attention and makes you want to look
inside...almost against your will. Catalog marketers, like the sirens in Homer's
Iliad, know how to appeal to your senses and your impulsive nature. They
know just the right time to mail, to find you in your most generous mood. What
new goodies will Omaha Steaks offer season? Should I get my spouse
something from Land's End? What is Victoria's Secret revealing this
year?
Who actually buys from a catalog?
Evidently lots of people succumb to the temptations that mail order
catalogs offer...they keep coming! I suppose Sears Roebuck gets the credit
for the biggest catalog success back in the days before rampant urbanization.
People first bought from catalogs out of necessity. Many items were only
available through the mail when a person lived on a remote farm or ranch or in a
small town. Nowadays, most people have multiple options for purchasing what they
need or desire, yet catalogs are still too numerous to count. Mail order
shopping is a very convenient way for the elderly or disabled to shop. People
are busier than ever, so shop-by-mail can be a time-saving alternative for those
with more money than time.
What of the Internet? The
Internet is a gigantic electronic catalog and library. The Internet
has grown quickly to become a multi-billion dollar distribution channel for
goods and services. Just think about the products being shipped by Amazon.com
each day. Check out the furious action on eBay. Computer literate families
love the time-saving convenience of shopping on line. The variety available is
astounding! Today, you can shop Circuit City on line, order what you want, and
pick your item up at your local Circuit City store. Better yet, go to my
own website, www.morganmarketingsolutions.com,
and click on the article archive to download a free copy of my famous
Tortilla Soup recipe. Tortilla soup is a great way to
use up the leftover turkey from your Thanksgiving feast! You will also find
a lot of other free stuff if you look around my website.
Will the Internet make mail order obsolete?
I believe that it is very doubtful. Many people are still uncomfortable
with computers and the Internet. Some refuse to reveal their credit card
information on line, yet they will do so on a mail-in order form or over
the telephone to a catalog house. The Internet has revolutionized shopping
from home, opening up so many more choices and price points. eBay sellers
open electronic storefronts from which they sell used boots, pre-owned blue
jeans, collectible plates and figurines, stamp collections, and other
items in the international marketplace. Still, there is something fun
and exciting about perusing a mail order catalog and imagining how your home
would look with that fabulous accessory, or dreaming about wearing that sexy
negligee or rugged Australian outback jacket. Shucks, I can almost taste that
thick chocolate almond bark stacked high in a golden tin on page
15!
Before the holiday season is over I am
betting that you, too, will casually pick up a fancy mail order catalog and
spend a few minutes escaping into its pages of tempting photographs and
tantalizing copy. Perhaps, you will even decide to order something for someone
special on your gift list. Join the club and enjoy a bit of in-home window
shopping!
Smiles
make the day!
Computers
The
computer is a great invention. There are as many mistakes as ever, but now
they're nobody's fault.
The computer saves a man a lot of guesswork -- but so does
a bikini!
There is now a female computer on the market. You
don't ask it anything, but it tells you anyway.
Computers will never
replace human beings entirely. Someone will be needed to complain about the
errors!
Some computers are almost human. When they make a mistake they
blame the software programmer.
Computers do our thinking, so now we need to invent a worrying
machine!
To
err is human, but to really louse things up, you need a computer.
Some
executives have computers to do all their thinking. Others just have their
wives.
Computers are now arranging weddings. Couples promise not to fold,
spindle, or mutilate!
$ Million Marketing Tips
TIP: Can you tell customers and
prospects, in one compelling sentence, why they should buy from you instead of a
competitor? Work on it!
TIP: Everything about your business
affects how customers perceive your products and services. Visual images and
perceptions are very powerful, so be sure you consistently show your
customers that you can serve them better than competitors.
Amazing Facts!
1. As late as 1950, pork was still
overwhelmingly the most popular meat in America.
2. Canada consumes more Kraft macaroni and cheese than
any other nation.
3. A lonely parrot can go insane.
4. What animal has the largest brain in proportion to
its size? The ant.
5. The first American magazine appeared in 1741 and was
called The American Magazine.
6. The River D in Oregon is the shortest river at 120
feet long.
7. Of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan is the only one to
lie entirely within the U.S.A.
8. In what month are the most babies born?
September.
Marketing Facets - The Market-focused Guide to
Company Analysis
Marketing Facets is a practical resource
for those involved in determining the current health of a company and gauging
its future prospects. I designed my 103-page guidebook to be
a supplement to other evaluation procedures and information normally
gathered during a thorough due diligence or business valuation process. The
workbook takes a holistic approach, assembling facts and management assumptions
in key areas to help the analyst form and support conclusions.
Marketing Facets is a valuable
resource to private investment fund managers, individual investors, venture
capital specialists, investment banks, and valuation specialists.
Marketing Facets can also serve as a guide for C-level
executives who wish to perform their own company analysis as part of normal
business planning, or in advance of efforts to refinance, acquire or
divest.
Marketing
Facets is available in electronic form via the Internet, on CD/ROM,
or in print with a ring binder.
> Electronic in MS Word .doc or Adobe .pdf format via
the Internet @ $79.95
> CD/ROM format @ $85.95 including U.S.
shipping and handling
> Ring binder version and CD/ROM combo @
$99.95 including U.S. shipping and handling
P.S.
Ninety-five percent of our engagements originate as a referral from
helpful people like you! If you know someone
who:
> Wants to develop a more productive
marketing program, or
> Needs help building and implementing an
effective operational business plan,
I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the
situation with you.
Our ideal client
is a business owner or CEO between 30 and 60+ years
old. Usually with a financial, engineering, or production background. Who is
often impatient, and interested in improving company performance.
Comes alive when you ask, "How's business?" He, or she, is practical but also enjoys
the finer things in life. So, you may see my ideal client driving a Lexus or SUV
to Neiman Marcus...and to Sam's Club. Who do you know that fits this
description?
A client
speaks: "Your introduction of strategic planning, action plans, and
implementation guidelines was the point where our planning took on a
professional approach. Operations, marketing, finance, and personnel all were
beneficiaries of the planning process you provided."
Ben Johnson, Johnson
Diversified Enterprises, Inc.
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© 2006 Morgan Marketing
Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. Other distribution permitted with proper
attribution.
Richard P. Morgan CMC
Morgan Marketing Solutions,
Inc.
Two Galleria Tower, Suite 10008
13455 Noel Road, Dallas, TX
75240-6620
Telephone 972.931.7993 fax 972.931.0542
email
rpmorgan@morganmarketingsolutions.com
www.morganmarketingsolutions.com
Author, Marketing Facets
- The Market-focused Guide to Company Analysis
"We help leaders become
better marketers using a holistic business approach!"
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