PlusOne – Marketing Musings

I have been following some interesting discussions in several web forums about prices we pay in regular bricks and mortar stores  compared to online and where the anti-online buying move and misrepresentation on both sides leaves the argument undecided.

Not surprisingly, methods to retain customers were raised, which of course raised the whole can of worms about pricing, how GST influences things so much, that items are cheaper to buy overseas, etc. Of course each of these factors has their merits and counter argument.

There were even proposals that traditional bricks and mortar stores needed to set up online versions of themselves – even to the extent that sales staff could be made redundant and stores operate merely as pick-up points. (Harvey Norman is moving to this is a very limited way – allowing online sales and in-store pickup.)

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While you know your does the best of any around, your store is competing with other store for customers, plus a whole raft of other similar product choices.

So how to get your offers in front of ready buyers?

We suggest SMS is an ideal method, regardless of whether you are an independent operator, a franchisee or a franchisor to distribute your offer direct to consumers, at just the right time – when they are wanting to buy – as a text message using SMS.

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With the favorable exchange rate it seems every second person is heading overseas on holidays or business travel.

All to often however, people come back and get a nasty surprise – and I am not talking about health related ones

Just as shocking can be the arrival of the next phone bill with a huge amount for global roaming costs, both for calls made and for those intrusive, well meaning relatives who just want to phone all the time to see ‘how things are going?’

It is not unusual for people to receive a phone bill of several THOUSAND dollars. This soon wipes any advantage of cheap holidays brought about by the high Aussie dollar.

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Another blatant spammer sending emails promoting courses is Enterprise Architecture Services.

I don’t know what a TOGAF course is, much less do I care. I care even less when I get the same emails (more than one) to several email addresses from a diversity of website I have – even ones not related to any business activity!

Here is a clue

You are receiving this e-mail because you happen to be either our client or were added to
our comprehensive database on account of your contribution in the IT domain.

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Sorry people at

Channel 1 Creative Media

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In the past week I have had contact with several people who have lost files,or suffered other issues with computers that have caused much anxiety and in some cases, information, or pictures have been lost forever.

While backing up data would seem to be a  self evident task for every business, even home computer users need to look seriously at backing up their data.

Take these statistics from a survey of small business in the USA – I am sure they would be similar here in Australia: Continue Reading»

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Being in one of the first places in Australia earmarked for the National Broadband Network rollout (Toowoomba) I thought it a good idea to go along to the one hour information session to learn more about it.

Presentations weer made by a Govt officer and a rep from NBN co.

The takeaway messages that I share with you are: Continue Reading»

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Today I received an email touting the PM Training Concepts – PMI REP 3147 course.

The thing is despite it being personalised and having an unsubscribe link at the bottom, I have never subscribed to their list (the email used is never used to subscribe to anything – that is what Hotmail and Yahoo accounts are for).

So this means PM Training Concepts must be using trawling to build their lists. This is one black mark as spam.

Black mark two is the fact that the contents of the email did not explain fully what PMP is (there are some fleeting references to project management) – therefore it is not a legitimate business approach as is has no relevance to me.

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The ease of shopping on the internet has seen a boom in ecommerce, to the frustration on bricks and mortar outlets. But are businesses their own worst enemy in creating wariness amongst customers?

Increasingly products that have struggled to sell due to customer’s concerns about sizing issues have started to sell well due to a dramatic shift in the way the etailers do business, specifically with returns of products that do not fit.

An example of an online etailer who has removed just about every barrier to shopping online for items where sizing may be an issue is StyleTread Shoes. In one deft swoop, they have turned online shoes sales on their head with their free delivery, 100 day return period, free return shipping and fast refund on returned items.

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I have been very fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Uri, who is the developer of a great Australian software title called Nominal Accounting software.

During my discussions with Uri I have said that he needs to rename the software to something like Nominal Business Suit, because his software does so much more than just handle the books.

Here is what is does: Continue Reading»

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