sales
US thanksgiving black friday sales record set
Although the final numbers arent in yet, many analysts are already predicting a record year for Black Friday sales. IBM is predicting a 24.3% increase sales over last year for black friday sales. ComScore says online sales grew 26% (compared to 2010) totalling $816 million. ShopperTrak said : “This is the largest year-over-year gain in ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate for Black Friday since the 8.3 percent increase we saw between 2007 and 2006. Still, it’s just one day. It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season.
The PC is dead. Long live the iPad.
Top tech analyst firms, Gartner and IDC, are both reporting that the sale of personal computers dropped for the first 3 months of 2011. It seems this is another trend was able to break. It was able to grow its sales and market share (compared to a year ago). Although the increase is different depending on the firm you choose, it is somewhere between 8.5-9.5% (compared to 7% last year). Could this be the slow and painful death of the traditional PC lead by the tablets?
Are coupons an efficient marketing tool
From newspapers and magazines to flyers and pamphlets, coupons are everywhere. They have become so popular that “coupon clipping” is now a hobby. Putting aside the thrill of saving money (sarcasm intended), is the cost worth it for the retailer or manufacturer? Risk Sharing Using your friends and neighbors as your own personal test subjects is always a lot of fun. Recently a new Greek restaurant opened in my area. The decor looked simple but elegant and their menu appealing. I have gone to too many “bad” restaurants and I simply wasn’t in the mood to risk going to another one.
Honest Tea: The Most Honest City In America
Honest Tea is a competitor to the Snapple brand in the United States of America. They conducted a brilliant marketing campaign and social experiement. It was so original I wanted to share it with you. They wanted to see which of the major US cities was the most honest. They installed un-manned racks of their product and asked people to voluntarily donate a dollar per drink. The experiment was filmed and the results were tabulated. Watch this fantastic experiment and campaign unfold.
Marketing to the different GENERATIONS
Long term strategic planning is one of the most important tasks a business executive must perform. Properly determining market direction can mean the difference between becoming number 1 or edging on the precipice of bankruptcy. There are 5 distinct generations alive today in the United States. The GI Generation This group of the population was born between 1905 to 1924 and at one time accounted for as much as 57 million live births in the USA. This number has now dwindled to less than 5 million.
Conversational Hypnosis #2
This is part 2 of my series on conversational hypnosis. Please read part 1 before continuing. Let me start by thanking everyone that wrote in with positive comments about my blog and the content. One of the requests was to break the content into smaller nuggets, which I will be doing starting from this entry. I have read lots of books and attended dozens of seminars... Dr Cialdini has really summarized the “Principles of Influence” very succinctly. These are :
Conversational Hypnosis (part 1)
After writing my entry about selling encyclopedias, many readers wrote in asking for more details. I had an internal debate and wasn't sure whether I should write a detailed article about covert hypnosis.... I have spent the better part of my carreer learning the techniques of covert hypnosis. When people read the word hypnosis, they think of a guy with a pendulum trying to get you to do things you normally wouldn't. They think of negative manipulation. Whatever your job or position, you spend your day convincing people to see situations your way.
Build Rapport in 30 seconds or less
In my previous entry (What I Learned Selling Encyclopedias), I talked about overcoming objection. Quite a few of the readers of this blog wrote to me asking what techniques I use. The techniques of persuasion and overcoming objection cannot be explained in one entry and takes years to master. I have spent a lot of time and money learning various techniques and practicing them over and over to get them just right. I will share with you some of those techniques in upcoming entries.
What I learned selling encyclopedias
In my youth, I was full of spunk and illusions of grandeur. While my friends were working at the local theater for minimum wage, I was scoping out more lucrative opportunities. One such opportunity was the sale of encyclopedias. For my younger readers, there was a time when most homes did not have the internet or a computer. During these “dark ages” the only way to find information was to go to a library or buy a set of encyclopedias. The job was simple; we were expected to sell kits door to door.