ETD: 672 Reaching your audience - Trade Shows; Online banking goes mainstream; Ads in E-mail; Top 10 global companies; What's in a name?

[E-Tailer's Digest]

  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0672		         March 27, 2003
  George Matyjewicz, Moderator         mailto:georgem@gapent.com
  Published by:  GAP Enterprises, Ltd.  http://www.etailersdigest.com
===================================================================

  CONTENTS

  [1]  Greetings
  [2]  Reaching your audience - Trade Shows
  [3]  Online banking goes mainstream
----- ---- --- -- -> Important Offer <- -- --- ---- ---- --
  [4]  Ads in E-mail
  [5]  Top 10 global companies
  [6]  What's in a name?

===================================================================
  [1]  Greetings.
===================================================================
Hi All:

Well, the change to the new list server went quite smoothly.  Only a couple 
of glitches with a few folks.  Nothing serious.  Thanks for your patience 
and ongoing support.  Hopefully, this will be the last change we make, 
since we now own the list server.

Today's issue is late getting to you, not because of the list 
server.  Rather it's because of my unexpected return from Dallas.  Our main 
C-level contact at the client was ill, so we left early.

We have some more comments on some ongoing topics, which our list members 
were kind enough to share with us.  And, I had to post that funny "what's 
in a name" piece. Have you checked your name recently?

Watch the new trend with debit cards.  Online banking is growing rapidly in 
the US and Europe.  So it's time to visit debit cards for your 
business.  Or, if you are a service company, consider ACH links to have 
clients pay for services.  My favorite is the ability to draw a draft on a 
client's account automatically so that you get paid timely.  And, from a 
psychological point of view, it's beneficial, in that the owner/manager 
doesn't have to be reminded that he'she is paying you a lot of money each 
month.
We have four requests for information from new list members, to which I 
wrote some replies.  How about helping them?

Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.


Sincerely


Dr. George Matyjewicz
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem@gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com


===================================================================
  [2]  Reaching your audience - Trade Shows
===================================================================
Re; Trade shows- they seem to work for most firms. We did a large show in 
Seattle this past October. One of the visitors to our booth was from 
Hawaii. I told him that I can't service him due to the 6 hour time 
difference from NY. He said he is currently being serviced out of Boston. 
We can compete with that, and have been. The profit from that account alone 
has paid for the Seattle show expenses. Typically, that is what happens, 
there will be a single contact that pays for the trip. That has been our 
experience, and all of my friends in myriad industries.Shows are the 
place  to make the contacts that you follow up on afterwards. You have to 
make your own luck. Pull them into the booth, this is not the time to be shy.

Joe Dweck

+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Thank Joe.  IMHO, most folks don't know how to organize and conduct an 
exhibit at a trade show.  It's not just showing up and waiting for 
visitors.  Rather you need to work before, during and after the show to be 
successful.  And, of course, you need to be sure that the show reaches the 
audience that you want to attract.  If you are selling POS software to 
retailers, you wouldn't want to do the NAMSB show.  Rather you need to do 
the NRF show in January.  The first geared toward buyers seeking a men's 
line of clothes.  Buyer attend.  Not POS decision makers.

We have a paper entitled "Trade Show Tips & Pointers-2003" which has 
recently been updated.  To request a copy send an email to Trade 
mailto:georgem@gapent.com?Subject=Shows_Tips_and_Pointers_2003

George
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  [3]  Online banking goes mainstream
===================================================================
A recent report from Gartner indicates that 17 percent of Americans used 
online banking services by the end of 2002.  And over 60 million Europeans 
now bank online, according to new research from Forrester.

On another note, Sears has put it's credit card business on the block for 
sale - both their in-store cards and their Sears MasterCard.

What makes this interesting is it ties in to my research for my doctoral 
dissertation where I discovered that Europeans use debit cards more than 
credit cards.  Why is this important to retailers/etailers?  If you don't 
take debit cards, you better start.  It's the best way to sell - no such 
thing as chargebacks; immediate cash in your account; less fraud; issues 
regarding product are where they should be - between you and the customer, 
not a third party.

So, do you take debit cards?

George


===================================================================
  [4]  Ads in E-mail
===================================================================
Re the problem with ads in the emails being caught by filters, most data I 
have seen suggests recipients prefer copy in their emails and a link to a 
page (which carries the ad)

Many companies (especially in New Zealand) do not let their employees 
receive anything other than text based email which saves money anyway on 
download data levels.


Kind Regards


Michael Campbell MMktngM
Programme Leader Business
School of Business Faculty of Commerce
Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology
campbellm@cpit.ac.nz
Phone 03 9408359

+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Thanks Michael.  The same holds true in the US, UK and other parts of the 
world.  I have my e-mail program (Eudora) set to warn when something comes 
in that is over 40k.  That allows me to delete a lot of nonsense without 
wasting bandwidth, and without running up additional charges when I am in a 
hotel.

George

===================================================================
  [5]  Top 10 global companies
===================================================================
Fortune magazine listed the most admired global companies for 2003.  Here's 
the top 10...

1 Wal-Mart Stores
2 General Electric
3 Microsoft
4 Dell Computer
5 Johnson & Johnson
6 Berkshire Hathaway
7 Procter & Gamble
8 IBM
9 Coca-Cola
10 FedEx

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/globaladmired

Interesting to note two retailers - yet the tops in their respective 
arenas.  See what good service and value pricing does.

George

==================================================================
  [6]  What's in a name?
==================================================================
Ever wonder what your company name or marketing campaign really translate 
to in other languages?  Here's a dozen bloopers from major companies...

1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" 
prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their 
attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read 
as "Suffer from diarrhea".

3. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an 
American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux".

4. Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, into Germany only 
to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use 
for the "manure stick".

5. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same 
packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they 
learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of 
what's inside, since many people can't read.

6. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a 
notorious porno magazine.

7. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market 
which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the 
shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).

8. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi 
brings your ancestors back from the grave", in Chinese.

9. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite 
the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the 
dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic 
equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth".

10. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "it takes a strong man to make a tender 
chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes an aroused man to make a 
chicken affectionate".

11. When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were 
supposed to have read, "it won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you". 
The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to 
embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you 
pregnant".

12. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class 
seats in the Mexican market, it translated its' "Fly in leather" campaign 
literally, which meant "Fly naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

George

===================================================================
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===================================================================

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