The salesman's dirty little ploy, part 2

My senses were right, I've been charred.

My folks so badly want a beautiful full color box that my boss has questioned where I got the salesperson's name. "Was it really the right salesperson?" Although he politely asked, I feel bad. Worse than the question, I felt like he questioned why I called the salesperson in the first place.

I am charred. I'll put together several proposals, at least one full color.

"The day's just begun,

already where has it gone?

The sweet dark of tonight

my elixir to make things right

and yes, the next day will surface

with progress stale in my mind"

maryo

The salesman's dirty little ploy

Age has brought wisdom to tread carefully, but not enough wisdom to know precisely what to do.

In bringing a more updated look to our marketing, our papaya boxes are lagging behind. Our old box manufacturer is not to blame, there's only so much you can do with two colors and a print process that make gradients look like vibrations.

From my second day on the job - when one of the sales managers took me aside and showed me a beautiful competitor's box with fruit poised on a wave lapped beach - I've known what the sales team wanted. But boxes are variable costs, add twenty cents costs to each box of a low margin item and you have to question the cost.

And that's what I did, today I questioned the additional cost of twenty cents a box.

The new papaya box project has been going on for quite a while. I first got my hands on the project five days ago. Right away, something didn't quite jibe. The sample box bore a three color process, the specifications only provided measurements and illustration. My calls to customer service ushered in full details on the 3 color process but referred me to the salesman for details about the full color process.

The salesperson was allusive. He was driving could I email what I needed. Oh he got my email but I wasn't clear on... He couldn't find my email could I send him another. He'll send me some info but first I needed to email him again.

Exasperated, I called back customer service. One of the reps let it drop that full color was printed on a wrapper off site and then glued to the box material before cutting. I knew that process meant more than just the little additional cost my folks expected.

When I twisted the salesperson's arm today, he let me know the twenty cents additional costs (approximately, don't hold him to it). I knew he hadn't given us a quote, so he was thinking an additional cost was nothing when you didn't have the base cost to begin with. What's an additional cost, if I had put together some tempting artwork for the box by the time he did get around to giving us a quote.

The salesman's ploy was deeper and darker than a timing issue. He had talked my OPS and Sales VPs into launching a box test. To test the box's stability, unprinted boxes have been sent to Belize for packing and shipping back here. By the time the quote will actually surface our company would be far down the sales path, perhaps too far to hike back out and make the journey with another box manufacturer.

What made his ploy darker, is that the salesperson told me about the box test. He must have hoped my guts level was low, he must have told me thinking that I'd let it slide. Sliding heightens the chances of getting a beautiful new box. It felt a little like blackmail.

Chances are I'll get burned so I choose to get a little charred vs. flamed. I told the Sales VP. I'll be slightly charred if the salesperson comes back with a slimmed down additional costs of say ten cents more. Sales VP's thought process, "Mary chicken little." Better than full flamed, if I let it go and my CEO vetoes the whole thing at the end, somehow I think the salesperson would let it be known that I knew the costs all along.

I'll keep the salesperson in the dark on what I did on his little blackmail bar-be-que grill. I may have chosen charred but the bar-be-que isn't over yet and this salesperson seems to like flipping whatever he's grilling.

"No plastic flowers for my grave,

when silk will only do."

maryo

The consumer mailstream

The United States Postal Service sends out a monthly magazine about direct mail. In this month's issue, they publish what is in their customer's mailstream. They want us marketers to know what our direct mail pieces need to 'stand out against.'

Unfortunately for direct mail's cause, the numbers are showing an overwhelming percent of unwanted mail, direct mail in its various forms (flyers, letter-sized direct mail, donation requests, nonprofit letters, and advertising). And I'm counting catalogs as wanted mail.

I had to do a bit of deciphering. The USPS looking through their own glasses thought that the main criteria for a sort was whether or not the piece of

mail travels first class or standard mail. I don't check whether its first or standard mail before throwing the junk mail in my recycling bin as I go in my back door.

The nice imagery is the USPS's graph. The listing on the left is my own doing.

Not surprisingly when I do the list, the first or standard criteria is kicked out and my list just shows the type of mail in the mailstream( in descending order). Also not surprisingly, direct mail in some of its various forms is at the top.

I massaged the data a bit more, and choose what mail I would want in my mailstream. The 'What this Consumer Cares About' list shows that over half of my mail is something I don't care to look at, and yes I include catalogs in my 'want to look at' list.

Admittedly my mailstream is different, ever since renting a 'Pak Mail' box (not USPS box), I don't get the flyers. I rented a box after my bank checks and then my IRS tax refund got put in my neighbors' mailbox. One neighbor returned it to the post office with the appropriate note only to have it back in her box the next day. Then there was the time an important letter was put between the pages of the advertising circular. It almost got thrown out.

Can you tell I'm not a direct mail fan. My motto, neither a sender or a receiver be.

Modeling agency closes, declaring bankruptcy

Irene Marie Modeling Agency is closing.

They've tried to keep their posh 8th and Ocean* offices on Miami Beach open but the decline in advertising and the thrust to do photography for ads in Africa and Asia has done them in.What?

Something doesn't make sense. A modeling agency is just a collection of talent - it's very important that you have great talent and just as important that great talent want to be with your agency - but a modeling agency is just a collection of talent. In theory you could exist with one model, a web site and an administrative assistant.

Rose, an owner of an agency that places computer technology experts in companies, does just that. She does quite well with her computer, cellphone and a part-time assistant. Her experts work across the nation and she herself works across the globe (not that she's looking to open accounts in Spain, but right now she's enjoying the Spanish Mediterrean coast while working her normal 10 hour days).

If a modeling agency is having revenue problems, why didn't they eliminate some costs: closing their office, offering models to do shoots in Africa. Something's not quite right.

This tells me that business has changed not only for marketing but other industries. Not changing with the times can leave you with what you think are very few options. Option numero uno: opportunities are still there, if you can change.

*the address says it all, their offices have unobstructed ocean views.

Consumer trends for the New Year

No surprise here, the economy will affecting shopping.

Health and wellness concerns were the overriding theme for 2008. With concerns about the global economy, insecure consumers may push back healthier behavior to grapple with the economy's impact on their family life.

Chicago-based Mintel (www.mintel.com) says there are five ways consumers will adapt and businesses can thrive.

1. Consumers are in control: They are confident and demanding about how they live their lives and spend their money. They will seek out products and services that give them exactly what they want and when they want it, especially as their budgets tighten. Give your customers precisely what they want, let them customize to their hearts content.
   
2. Simplify and purify: Consumers will continue to seek convenience and simplicity, demanding honesty and transparency from the companies they buy from.
   
   Cooking at home and gardening will become increasingly popular and help people stretch their budgets further.
   
   For manufacturers, focus on cleaner ingredient labels, positioning fresh, clean and pure as essential values. Brands should communicate what they stand for and how they make life easier. This will earn consumers' trust and loyalty. Create better products for at home dining, relaxation and entertainment, people will be cocooning more.
   
3. Rebuild trust: Crumbling economic markets, food scares and toy safety problems have fueled an era of consumer doubt and insecurity. Consumers will seek out open relationships wherever they can.They want to know all about the products they buy, from where they were sourced to how they were manufactured. They will cling to the long-standing, nostalgic brands they know and love, looking for products with a real sense of familiarity.
   
   Manufacturers need to back up words with actions, conduct business in a more open, honest way. Reassure consumers they are acting in the consumers' best interest. Long-standing brands could move into new markets to exploit their position of trust.
   
4. Trading down (but a little trading up too): As purse strings will continue to tighten. And your consumers may trade down to cheaper store brands and eat out less. But everyone will crave a little treat now and again.
   
   Middle markets will be squeezed and will have to prove its worth. Position products as more affordable way of experiencing a more expensive brand, form of entertainment or eating out at a restaurant.
   
5. Playfulness, lightening the mood: In tough times, people not only crave life's little luxuries, they also need to enjoy themselves. Mintel expects to see a widening range of products that soothe, energize or simply lift the spirits.

The guilt of double spaces between sentences

I learned 'keyboarding' on a manual typewriter. Kidding, no there weren't any personal computers around when I learned to type. But one typing convention has still stuck with me, 2 spaces after a period.

It's a typographical faux pas. And we're told that typing two spaces before the start of a new sentence is absolutely, unequivocally wrong.

It makes sense to do it on a typewriter because it's one and only font was mono spaced. Every letter whether 'W' or an 'i' took up the same amount of space. This makes for very open-looking spacing, so the convention of adding an extra space between sentences was established to achieve a noticeable separation between sentences.

I can't even remember the last time I typed on a typewriter.

Nearly all computer fonts (except Courier) have proportional spacing, which means that the width of the characters and the spacing surrounding them are in proportion to each other. Proportional spacing results in a more even, balanced appearance. Because of this, a single space is considered enough to create the necessary visual separation between sentences.

I don't necessarily agree. Check out these two samples of typed text. The one in yellow is typed with 2 spaces after the period, the green only one space. I find the top easier to read!

It's what I used to; I know. 'Easier to read' trumps typographical etiquette. But it does mean that I'll need to check the use of double spaces in my marketing materials.

Since working in the digital age, we are now the typesetter as well as the designer and writer. It’s our responsibility to make sure the final copy is the ultimate in readability. If that means being free of double spaces, so be it.

My proofreaders catch it. It's easy to fix using the application's search-and-replace feature to replace double with single spaces.

But not easy to catch in this blog. And I'm finding myself half using and half not, which is even worse.

Don't know who's playing the Super Bowl

Yes I miss New Jersey. Especially today Super Bowl Sunday, when a group of non-football addicts would go somewhere that was usually crowded.

• The year we did Statue of Liberty and was able to stay in the crown for over 30 minutes. Fantasic view, beautiful day for a January.
• Metropolitan Museum, am I ever again going to find friends that would spend the entire afternoon in the Eygptology section with me? No one translates the book of the dead like Nooneluckier.
• Ice skating in Central Park. Although I always found that people in crowds would help me stay upright. The crowd may be fearing a domino effect if I went down.
• The year we did IKEA. Scathingly brilliant idea. When IKEA reps have the time, they really can strut the store's stuff.

Most of all, I miss talking to other marketing people on a day-by-day basis. We really are a different breed. Great folks down here, don't get me wrong. Doing the blog is a help.

Go, Fight, Win 'whatever team' you're cheering for today.