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Old Sofas Borrow a New Idea
From Cars
Photo Credit: Stewart Cairns for The New York
Times
PRIVATIZATION
Ruby & Quiri, a furniture
store in Johnstown, N.Y.,
offers customers incentives to trade in
old furniture.
By JULIE SCELFO
Published:
September 23, 2009
THERE were many reasons the
federal government's cash-for-clunkers program this
summer was wildly popular: consumers loved the idea of
saving on a new car, helping the environment and
ensuring future savings on fuel. There was also the
convenience of accomplishing all this in a single
transaction.
It was a potent concept that
mixed financial incentives with the emotional appeal of
unloading a burdensome possession and getting something
new in return - and maybe improving the planet in the
process.
Now, an array of home furnishing
retailers and manufacturers are hoping to capitalize on
similar motivations by introducing trade-in programs for
everything from outdated entertainment centers to
stained ottomans and used mattresses.
At Ruby & Quiri, a family-run
home furnishings center in Johnstown, N.Y., customers
receive a $25 gift card for every piece of used
furniture they turn in, or $50 for upgrading an
appliance to an Energy Star model. The clunker is picked
up when the new item is delivered, and depending on its
condition is either donated or broken down for
recycling.
At Pacific Manufacturing in
Phoenix, which sells custom upholstered goods to
interior designers, a used piece of furniture earns
clients 10 percent off the purchase of any new furniture
item or mattress and, after the clunker is delivered to
a local charity, a tax-deduction receipt.
Similar programs have sprung up
in places like Portland, Ore., and Lexington, Ky., along
with variations like Credit for Clunkers at
1-800-Mattress, Cash for Couches at Lillian August in
Connecticut, and what some retailers are calling Cash
for Teakettles, which Chantal Cookware Corp. will
introduce next month.
Continue Reading
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/garden/24clunkers.html?_r=1&em
Source:
The New York
Times
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The Smart Move: Invest in
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 Tech Tips
Types of serialized items
You can track your serialized items in
one of two ways: "always serialized" or "sometimes
serialized".
Always
serialized
Always serialized items allow you
to exercise tight management control over the movement
of quantities for the item. Serial numbers must be
specified for every transaction (receiving, sale, etc.).
You may only sell serial numbers that are actually in
stock. "Always serialized" tracking ensures that there
is a serial number in your records for each unit shown
in your quantity on-hand.
Sometimes
serialized
Sometimes serialized items
provide somewhat looser control. Recording of serial
numbers during receiving (or other transactions) is
optional. You can also specify for each item whether
serial numbers are required when selling and/or
returning. "Sometimes serialized" tracking is useful for
businesses that don't track in-stock serial numbers but
do want to record serial number information at the time
of sale.
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How to Discount (If You
Insist)
Discounting can wreck
brand value and profits. Follow this discount strategy
to avoid those pitfalls
By Steve McKee
Discounting stinks.
As a marketer whose job is
to create preference and profitability for my clients, I
don't like discounting. In fact, I hate it. I call it
the D-word. It's distracting. It's demeaning. It's
destructive and depressing. And yet I see companies do
it all the time.
These days discounting is
more prevalent than ever. Now into the second year of
our economic tsunami, we are getting used to headlines
bemoaning declining sales and shrinking profits across
virtually every sector of the economy. The current issue
of the Harvard Business Review even coined
the term Post-Recession
Consumer, whose "new
thriftiness and desire for simplicity" will change
business for a generation. Just this month Yahoo!
(YHOO ) introduced a new Web site called
Yahoo Deals, offering coupons, information about
limited-time promotions, and even a cheap gas finder.
The company reports that searches for the term
"printable coupons" are up 50% this year because, as
Greg Hintz, head of Yahoo Shopping, puts it in a recent
Brandweek piece, "Frugality is the new
'cool.' "
Many companies are getting
caught up in the frenzy and slashing prices. Even
marketers who should know better-those who have made big
bets on discounting in the past and lost-have not been
immune. Both McDonald's (MCD) and Burger
King (BK) recently fought public skirmishes
with their franchisees over the price point of their
low-end burgers. Their corporate offices want to drive
traffic, but franchisees complain that it does them no good to sell any product at
a loss. And Macy's (M), the nation's
dominant department store chain, lowered its price on a
popular line of men's slacks in an effort to generate
sales. While the decision resulted in "tremendous
sell-through" according to CEO Terry Lundgren,
it also required "low price points and no margins," an
article in The Wall Street Journal quoted
him as saying.
Discounting destroys brand
equity, hamstrings investment in innovation, and zaps
profitability for companies and their stakeholders.
Which raises an interesting question: Can discounting
ever be an acceptable strategy for a business?
Rules for discounting
wisely
If there's one thing I've
learned in more than two decades as a consultant, it's
never say never. There may be times and places where a
discount can make sense to achieve a limited,
well-defined objective. That said, discounting should be
rarely used and carefully managed. Let me suggest three
rules of thumb that should be kept in mind if (when) you
begin flirting with the discount beast.
First:
Discount briefly. Discounting is like a
drug. Employed for a limited time to treat a specific
condition, discounting can have its place. But like a
drug, it's addictive. Companies that get hooked on it do
little more than drive their value proposition down,
sometimes past the point of no return.
Continue
Reading:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/
aug2009/sb20090814_425078_page_2.htm
Source:
BusinessWeek | | |
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The Great Trust Offensive
Companies as diverse as
McDonald's, Ford, and American Express are revamping
their marketing to win back that most valuable of
corporate assets
By David Kiley and Burt
Helm
"The spark began where it
always begins, at a restaurant downtown, in a shop on
Main Street," intones a narrator as the camera lingers
in a restaurant, bakery, and bike factory.
"Entrepreneurs like these are the most powerful force in
the economy. As we look to the future, they'll be there
ahead of us." The music swells, and the narrator
concludes: "While we're sure we don't know all the
answers, we do know one thing for certain. We want to
help."
The commercial, which began
airing across the U.S. this summer, was developed by
Ogilvy & Mather for American Express (AXP). Its mission: to cast AmEx not as a financial
titan but as a humble service provider assisting mom and
pops-establishments consumers typically like to support.
AmEx, its gold-plated reputation tarnished by subprime
bets, wants to regain the trust of its customers.
In the world of branding,
trust is the most perishable of assets. Polling in
recent months shows that increasing numbers of consumers
distrust not just the obvious suspects-the banks-but
business as a whole. In a phone survey conducted from
May 26 to July 3 by public relations firm Edelman, only
44% of Americans said they trusted business, down from
58% in the fall of 2007. The shift in sentiment is
forcing companies from Ford Motor (F )
to AmEx to tweak marketing and focus on rebuilding
credibility. "Trust is what drives profit margin and
share price," says Larry Light, CEO of the Stamford
(Conn.) brand consultancy Arcature and a veteran of
McDonald's (MCD) and ad
agencies BBDO Worldwide and Bates Worldwide. "It is what
consumers are looking for and what they share with one
another."
Not long ago, trust and
reputation were the domain of the PR department.
Marketing executives, by contrast, pushed products and
brands using the classic Procter & Gamble
(PG) two-step: spending huge sums to
maintain "share of voice"-marketing speak for
outspending rivals to drive brand awareness-and
endlessly reminding consumers of the "unique selling
proposition" (Tide won't fade colors).
A NEW DAY
That approach doesn't work
so well now-and not just because recession, job
insecurity, and hammered home values have made consumers
disinclined to part with their coin. The days of
consumers passively absorbing a TV commercial-or, for
that matter, a banner ad-are over. People research
purchases as never before, and they read peers' opinions
about brands and products. Meanwhile, the Web and
smartphone have given companies a cheap way to reach
consumers and adjust their message on the fly. That,
says Light, is why "share of voice and unique selling
propositions are easily copied by competitors."
Even before the economic
meltdown, companies with trust issues began realizing
they couldn't keep talking past the problem with slick
television commercials. One of those companies was
McDonald's, long vilified for serving unhealthy food.
Global Chief Marketing Officer Mary Dillon says
McDonald's made a tactical decision to enter the
conversation. "Trust and transparency [are] more
important to us than ever," she says.
Continue
Reading
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content
/09_39/b4148038492933_page_2.htm
Source:
BusinessWeek | | |
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