Every Monday, I profile a person or company doing cool things to market themselves online and offline. Got an idea for me? Let me know!
This Marketing Monday was not inspired by my happening upon something cool in the digital world but something I saw in the real world which reminded me of the power of retail.
One of my friends hosted a girls' weekend at her place in Vermont these last few days. Besides hanging out and catching up in a general way, we also did a few fun local things, one of them being a visit to King Arthur Flour, seemingly one of the area's largest employers.
I would like to say I am not a shopper. I am a get in and get out kind of girl when it comes to a retail experience. Also I am not a baker. Stopping at a store that sells flour sounded about as fun to me as visiting the dentist while watching paint dry. But when you're with friends, you go along with this sort of thing and try to have an open mind.
Twenty minutes later, I was a convert. I left the store with French style flour and a baguette pan. I happily handed over money. King Arthur had successfully made me, a self proclaimed terrible baker, want to make the perfect bread. In my opinion, here's what King Arthur is doing right:
The employees have a lot of knowledge and experience.
You know when someone says something and you've understood each individual word they've said but still don't understand the sentence? That's how I, a baking novice, felt this weekend when I overheard what people were asking to the staff of the King Arthur Flour (KAF) company store, pleasant looking people milling around the store with aprons on.
The thing was, no question or request seemed to phase them. As a customer, my experience was that the store was staffed by people who actually baked and wanted to help. Neat!
The free samples, cheery displays, and overall setup actually made me want to shop..and want to come back before I even left.
We can talk a lot about how the internet can enhance your storefront but how I felt this weekend reminded me of how there is no substitute for a good retail storefront when you are buying products, especially for us hesitant shoppers.
Taking the time to logically and beautifully lay out a store doesn't happen by accident. (As evidence to my claim, I think we've all been in stores that we wanted to immediately leave without any concrete reason.) KAF made me want to be a baker and buy things to symbolize that, and I think this urge had a lot to do with the store's physical environment in addition to the staff.
The KAF website carries over the experience of being there.
King Arthur Flour was great but there is no way I can drive to their store very often. How is a happy retail customer to carry on a long distance relationship? I have to like their website.
Many websites don't feel like being in the stores they are supposed to represent. The KAF website with its recipes and other useful information is not only full of information but has a design consistent with the brand: home-y, country, and a bit old-fashioned.
As a user, I can share my experience.
This afternoon, in between projects, I made French bread. And it was good. (And I'm sorry I ate it all before taking photos of it!) As someone who once messed up cake mix, I wanted to tell everyone my bread was good.
The Baking Circle, King Arthur's online community, allowed me to tap into the membership portion of the website that has over 100,000 users. Members can post photos, questions, and ideas. In addition to the satisfaction of bragging or getting a question answered, there is additional incentive to sign up for this community for the members-only KAF promotions.
I will say that this part of the website does feel a little clunky compared to the rest of KA's online presence but it seems to serve the purpose.
King Arthur responds to everyone who writes to them.
Think King Arthur Flour is only paying attention to those high influence internet users? I thought so too, but noticed they replied to a Twitter user who has 12 followers and to one that had over 1,000 within the same five minutes.
From a quick investigation, it doesn't seem like KFA is playing favorites, which gives everyone a good impression. As someone who doesn't respond to all my blog comments (though I do read and love all of them!), I am impressed. I wonder how many people are in their PR department handling this...
In short, a good retail store can maintain and extend its following if its website provides additional information and if the website feels like an actual extension of the store, rather than an afterthought. Good job, King Arthur!
Every Monday, it's an example of a business, non-profit, or website doing something interesting to promote itself online. Got an idea? Let me know!
Now I'm not a big fan on national cable companies but I thought how Time Warner is handling their Disney/ABC negotiations pretty interesting.
They are keeping customers informed via email.
I've gotten a few updates about the current negotiations via Time Warner Cable email (and yes, I opted not to receive anything extra). I haven't unsubscribed because these emails aren't frequent. Also in their favor is they tend to be short and all driving customers to another website if they want longer versions of anything: http://www.rolloverorgettough.com/
They are driving their customers to a separately branded website.
Time Warner needs to keep running its day-to-day operations going on their company website, and these cable negotiations are a small part of what it does. So, for this 'campaign' they've set up a different website for educational (and political) purposes. I appreciate how they have their company name in the sidebar (as in they aren't pretending to be some third party group). But it is smart of them to keep their advocacy separate from their business, at least in terms of branding.
I've gotten a few emails. "I miss your blogs!" I miss them too!
Last weekend, I was in a wedding in Massachusetts and, combined with being busy at work in general, updating my own blog often seems like something I want to do and don't have time. Maybe when I get a smart phone in a couple months, it'll be easier to do these things in transit.
Here's what's going on at Breaking Even Communications:
I moved my office into my living room. I was most excited about my move from 220 square feet late last year precisely because I could have a separate office and living area. There was really only one logical choice for my 'office'.
Fast forward to months later. Why is my energy so low? My office had one small window behind me and it was not motivating to work in a cave.
So Imoved my desk to my living room (other office-y things like printer, stationary, etc. stayed in the old office). Yesterday morning, I watched a gold finch hover near a flower. I also got a ton of work done. For the whole separation of work and life, I might eventually get a screen to close off the area in the after hours but for the moment, this arrangement is working, and well.
Every Monday, Breaking Even looks at a business, website, or non-profit doing cool things online. Have an idea? Contact me and let me know!
It's easy to do the whole internet marketing bit when things are going well but what about when you have a PR disaster? How do you handle bad press about your company when you've made yourself very available online?
Jet Blue had an employee freak out on them last week. He's been getting tons of press and I don't feel a need to give him any more.
That said, I do need to say how Jet Blue has handled it seems really great.
They briefly and professionally addressed it on their company blog. It would be weird to completely ignore the controversy but what should you say when you don't want to be libelous or strangely silent? Read the great blog post solution called 'Sometimes the weird news is about us...' They aknowledged what happened and thanked their great employees.
I often get asked, "Why don't you give free seminars?" I've been thinking a lot about it lately and here's my response:
First of all, it isn't true that I don't ever give free seminars. Once a month, I do a free seminar for a business-related non-profit: chambers of commerce, Rotary, and other groups of that nature. If I get two requests the same month, I ask the person who contacted me second if they'd mind holding off. This is because I need to reserve time to do paid work so I can keep going as a business. Also, these free presentations are very general, usually introducing basic concepts as that's what time allows (and usually what the group wants).
Everyone else gets charged, whether it's a customized training session ($75/hour or $500, whichever is more applicable) or as a fee for a Downeast Learning workshop (between $25-$50/person). Am I just a money grubbing jerkface? Well, I might be... but even if I am, I have some good reasons for doing this:
1) It takes time to create workshops. I spend on average of 10 hours preparing slides for a typical workshop. I usually create an outline, get feedback on it from colleagues, make slides, and then get feedback on the slides. If you've ever been to one of my presentations, I hope you can see the thought that goes into them!
In addition to the time making the presentation, I also write a press release, post the workshop on several online event calendars, post it over Facebook and Twitter, update my blog, put up posters, contact all the local chambers, and do other things to get the word out, probably to the tune of a couple hours per workshop.
2) It costs money to present workshops. You'll notice if you go to my workshops, they are held in a space that isn't my home office. Since my house is tiny (not to mention ill equipped to handle 20ish people and their computers comfortably), I have to rent space.
Every Monday, the Breaking Even blog takes on a business, non-profit, or website with a good marketing idea. Have one? Send it in!
This morning, I was listening to NPR (on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network) and heard about former marketer now turned non-profit marketer Sid Lerner talking about the Meatless Monday concept him and his firm started as a way to get people to eat healthier one day a week. According to the story, 20% of the American population was aware of the term. Personally, I've heard about it on a few blogs I read (I do like food) and I was surprised the recognition of the phrase was that low.
I LOVE king arthur flour! (of course I do - I'm from VT, after all!) Luckily Carver's has it! Yay! You really need to check out two of their cookbooks - the 200th anniversary cookbook and the cookie companion. TONS of good stuff!
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... written by Sean,
December 08, 2009
I am so excited to find out that this company is a cooperative! "People over profit!"
My favorite flour! We always bake with King Arthur. Glad you had fun baking!
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Thanks so much! written by PJ Hamel,
December 08, 2009
On behalf of my fellow 167 employee-owners (yes, another reason we're happy campers here), I wanted to tell you how pleased we are you had such a great shopping experience at our store. I work on the Web team, and we work hard to make the entire KA presence as "connected" as possible. As for bakingcircle.com - LONG overdue for a makeover. in fact, a new community gathering site, to incorporate bakingcircle.com and bring it all up to speed, is on our radar for this spring. Again, thanks so much for posting this - and I wish I'd seen your baguettes. I'm always happy when a newbie baker has success (with baguettes, no less!) right out of the gate. Cheers - PJ Hamel, King Arthur baker/blogger
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