ETD: 903 'Viral' Marketing Offline; Inventory Turns; Luxury Report 2005

E-Tailer's Digest etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Jul 12 13:49:20 GMT 2005


  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0903           July 12, 2005
  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]  'Viral' Marketing Offline
  [3]  Inventory Turns
  [4]  Luxury Report 2005

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  [1]  Greetings.
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Hi All:

Last night I met with the National Director of a volunteer organization who 
is looking to grow their group tenfold within three years.   I gave them 
some ideas, and thought it would be a good topic of discussion.  While this 
organization is specific for a particular group, the concepts apply to any 
not-for-profit.

Inventory turns are always an issue.  One of our list members offers some 
valuable information and correction.

Pam Danziger has a new luxury report that should be of interest to those 
who sell to the luxury market.

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]  'Viral' Marketing Offline
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I'm volunteering to help a volunteer organization who wants to make it's 
brand a household name.  We met last night to plan some activities, and, of 
course, they have very little idea of how to promote their services.  Their 
concept and goals applies to any organization.

They presently have 10,000 members who work one-on-one with their partner, 
which means they have 5,000 partner teams. Their goal is to have 100,000 
members nationwide by the end of 2008.   And they are trying to accomplish 
these goals with a very limited budget.

They claim to be "a health club for the brain," a  place where you can 
spend an hour a week sharpening your mind and expanding your horizons. A 
gym in which you spar with the greatest heads in history.

I suggested viral marketing offline, where they ask each of their existing 
members to try to recruit two new members each, and continue that with new 
members.  The members are all very happy with the organization and should 
be able to talk it up very easily (I'm a member and I do).

A second suggestion is to develop regional contacts to whom somebody can 
call for more information or to join.  These regional contacts can also 
organize local events to recruit new members.

Since they have a limited budget, they can't do massive 
advertising.  However, they do have trifold brochures, so I suggested they 
have the regional leaders place these brochures in local stores where their 
target audience may shop so that they can spread the work about the 
organization.

The business community is also a great resource for them, more for 
contributions.  So, we will establish a team to meet with the business 
world to see what they can do to help.

What do you think?  What other ideas would work?

While this is geared for a specific target, the concepts apply to any 
not-for-profit group.  This group,  Partners in Torah, provides men and 
women who have an interest in Jewish study - but may lack the 
self-motivation or academic background - with their own personal Torah 
trainer.  http://partnersintorah.org/

George

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  [3]  Inventory Turns
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In your article http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/inventory.htm 
you  said...

"The official calculation to figure out how you are turning inventory, is 
to first find out the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for the past 12 
months.  Then take the current inventory and divide it by the Cost of Goods 
Sold and you get the number of times you have turned inventory."

I've read the opposite on some other websites.  Isn't inventory 
turns  calculated by dividing COGS by (avg) inventory value?

Cindy Clayton :-)
SLBA Business Intelligence
(336) 519-5683
Ask WHY until you understand!

+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
You are correct.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to be able to update that 
article, even though we told them about the error.  I have to try again.

Inventory turns need to be calculated on the average CofGS.  Many companies 
have difficult calculating average, but it is the most accurate way to 
calculate turns.

Thanks Cindy.

George


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  [4]  Luxury Report 2005
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In Luxury Market, Competition Is Horizontal Across Categories, not 
Necessarily Vertical within Categories

Luxury consumers come into the market with lots of disposable income they 
can spend in many different ways

Marketers are traditionally trained to think of their competitive landscape 
as vertical.  For example, if you are in the home appliance business, then 
you compete against other home appliance companies for the consumers' 
dollar.  If you are in fashion accessories business, then you compete 
directly with other fashion accessories companies.

But in today's luxury market, the competitive landscape is horizontal with 
marketers competing against other marketers across categories for the 
ultimate prize: the luxury consumers' discretionary spending.

The emergence of a new horizontal competitive landscape adds complexity and 
new challenges for luxury marketers today.  For example, in the five 
quarters Unity has tracked luxury consumer spending, we found spending on 
home luxuries and experiential luxuries were inversely related.  When 
luxury consumers spent more on home luxuries, they spent less on 
experiential and vice versa, when spending on experiences went up, then 
spending on home luxuries went down.  In effect, that means luxury kitchen 
appliance companies, bed linens' brands and tabletop companies are in 
direct competition with travel providers, luxury resorts, cruise lines and 
fine dining establishments.

The Luxury Report 2005 study of the luxury market provides the results of a 
three-year longitudinal research study of the luxury market, which combines 
qualitative and quantitative methodologies.  Some 600 luxury consumers were 
surveyed (62 percent female and 38 percent male respondents) for the 2004 
study.  Their average income was $135,000 and their ages spanned 25 to 65 
years of age, with 43 percent of the survey sample Baby Boomers and 44 
percent GenXer luxury consumers.

Details about what these luxury consumers bought, how much they spent, 
where they made their purchases, and in certain categories the luxury 
brands they patronized are reported in three major categories of 
luxury.  The Luxury Report 2005 includes details of all three categories, 
while the Home Luxury Report 2005, Personal Luxury and Automobile Luxury 
Report 2005 and Experiential Luxury Report 2005.

For details on this important report 
visit  http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/luxury/luxury1.html

We also have  a free, 2,000 word white paper describing the "Eight Things 
Every Marketer Needs to Know about the New Luxury Market." It is available 
with registration at http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/downloadPDF.php

Pam Danziger,
President
Unity Marketing
http://www.unitymarketingonline.com

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