ETD: 826 Positioning; WEB Translations; Kay Berry Offers
Retailers Disaster Relief
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Oct 14 11:00:49 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0826 October 14, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Positioning
[3] WEB Translations
[4] Kay Berry Offers Retailers Disaster Relief
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Positioning. What is it? Why do I need it? What will it do for me? It's
what differentiates you from the rest of the pack. For many smaller
companies, they are afraid of positioning themselves, as they don't know
themselves what they do for a living.
Over 50% of Web users are non-English speaking people. Should you
translate your site to another language?
Kay Berry should get a new humanitarian award for their efforts in helping
retailers hurt by the hurricanes. Do you know of any other such company
doing the same?
73 days until Christmas. What are you doing this year to increase business?
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?"
site. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a
form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't
know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Positioning
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One of our new members asks if anybody has had any experience positioning
their company or products/services?
In my experience, I find many smaller companies use the "toss it to the
ceiling" approach to marketing. Toss their business ideas to the ceiling
and see what sticks. That's what they "position" themselves as. A CPA
firm can do everything, so they offer a myriad of services, whereas if they
focus on one industry they would become the experts and grow faster and
steadier. A giftware retailer that sells "all things gift," i.e.,
whatever they think sells they carry.
That's not the smart way.
In the 1970s Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote, spoke and disseminated to the
advertising and PR world about a new concept in communications called
positioning. Until then, agencies had primarily been basing their media
campaigns on internally conceived benefits of the client's product.
These campaigns may have been creative, they said, but they would simply no
longer get the job done in what had become a heavily over communicated
society. There were too many products, being pushed by too many advertising
dollars on too many media lines and the prospect's head was just too full
of everyone's noise for the old kind of advertising to get through and make
any kind of impact.
The game had changed, said the boys. If you wanted to reach your prospect,
the focus of your campaign could no longer be based on internally conceived
benefits,- what management thought was cool -, the target was now the mind
of the prospect. You had to focus on the perceptions of the prospect. You
had to find a place in the mind of your public in which to put your product.
This was positioning.
Trout and Reis described positioning as follows:
"... positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you
do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position (place) the product
in the mind of the prospect."
The way you do that is to tie the product or service to something that is
already in the mind. In so doing, you are able to instantly communicate to
an audience about something about which they had previously been unfamiliar.
We see positioning all around us, usually in taglines: Avis - "We Try
Harder"; Tyson "We're Chicken"; Purdue "We do chicken right"; Crowe Chizek
(#8 CPA firm) "The Unique Alternative To The Big Four" (the "Big Four"
a/k/a the "Final Four" being the last of the big CPA firms - formerly the
"Big Eight").
With each of these, they have positioned themselves with a simple statement.
How about sharing your positioning experience?
George
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[3] WEB Translations
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Has anybody ever used Web Translation services? According to research done
by International Data Corporation, non-English speaking users make up over
50% of the total online population, and 70% by 2005. Business Web users are
three times more likely to buy when addressed in their own languages
(survey by Forrester Research).
I know there are automated services, but we all know the horror stories
with conversion, as reported in earlier ETD issues with some of the
advertising snafus by major corporations. The best way to translate seems
to be to hire natives who have business experience to get to what you are
trying to convey and translating accordingly.
My question is does anybody have their sites translated to other
languages? If so, has it helped business? If not, are you considering a
translation and how will you do it?
Judy Lesiak
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
While 50% may be non-English speaking, I would want to know what other
languages. Spanish? French? Mandarin? And to what language would you
convert, unless, of course, you have a product/service for an ethnic group.
George
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[4] Kay Berry Offers Retailers Disaster Relief
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To assist customers impacted by the recent hurricanes in the Southeast, Kay
Berry will offer free merchandise to help retailers get back on their feet.
The company will take the average of a customer’s past paid invoices to
determine the value of the merchandise, plus freight, that it will provide.
“At Kay Berry, we value our customers and understand that people face
tragedies every day — some of which can be devastating to the small
business owner,” said company president Charles Wasson. “This is something
we have done quietly for many years, but with the number of retailers who
have recently been struck, we felt it was time to make everyone aware of
the program.” The only requirement on the part of the retailer is a
commitment to rebuild their business. Kay Berry manufactures cast stone
products for the gift, garden, floral, and pet markets.
Quinn Halford, Editor In Chief
Matthew Kalash, Managing Editor
Gifts & Dec Online
www.giftanddec.com
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
To be that is one of the best gestures I have ever seen. It's nice to be
nice. They make some very nice products. http://www.kayberry.com/
More companies should pitch in and help others. I still use a company in
Florida who suffered during the Andrew days years ago, mainly because of
the way they handled their disaster at the time.
Anybody else have similar stories they can share?
George
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