Joe's Journal

We just received a “tweet” from our local c-store manager, Darlene, to let us know about her July 4^th promos that are kicking in this week. No, Darlene isn’t practicing her karaoke version of “Rockin’ Robin”. She has catapulted her store into the Social Media Marketing Age and utilizing the website, Twitter, to inform her customers of the latest goings on at her store.

D’s tweets range anywhere from the latest promos and discounts to new product shipments. Because setting promotional pricing and date ranges in her PriceBook Manager software is so simple, Darlene can have her promos ready to roll and be speeding along the information superhighway to update her Twitter account faster than Bernie Madoff ‘s cellmate can say “wanna’ back rub”.

CMI clients such as Darlene, may also find Chapter 8 in the training manual helpful when setting promotional pricing. It covers Zone and Store pricing, depending on your particular needs. The changes are easy to do, just remember to record the expiration date of the price change so your pricebook will automatically revert to the regular pricing after the promo period.

Happy 4^th of July everyone! Let freedom (as well as your cash registers!) ring!

When marketing a business, it is oftentimes easy to get caught up in the high-level hierarchy that comes with trying to simultaneously obtain new customers while, at the same time, retaining the old.  We become consumed with finding that newest cash cow product or finally striking gold with that magic number price point. The thought for this week questions “Are you effectively communicating your new discoveries to your customers?”

A fellow CMI employee and “Darlene” from the convenience store down the street are quickly becoming BFFs.  Here is the story my co-worker recounted to me last week:

“I went in today for my regular chips and sandwich lunch purchase and, as I was checking out, Darlene let me in on their combo promotion. She told me that if I purchased a fountain drink, I would receive combo pricing.  After verifying that they had fountain Coke products (and not just Pepsi…ick!), I said why not and filled up.  So, now, with the combo pricing my total came to $3.50ish. Typically, without the combo pricing, just my chips and sandwich would have been over $4!  Here is my insight:

1)     Luckily, Darlene was nice enough and had time (as opposed to being buried under a pile of paperwork), to fill me in on these discounts.

2)     While it’s always an adventure to converse with Dear Dee, I probably would have been making this combo purchase weeks/months ago (and possibly more frequently) if there had been signage or a banner advertising their “value meals”.

Regardless, I’m definitely psyched about the promotion (however old it is) and am solidified as a repeat customer.”

As the price of fuel climbs in the coming months (and, come on, folks, you really didn’t think the oil companies were going to play nice all summer did you?), are you doing what is necessary to keep your customers  coming back to your store every day?

Proper signage and advertising are a must, but, more so, are your cashiers giving your customers a verbal invitation to partake in your “rope them in” promotions? After all, the allure of the c-store is that you can get “In-N-Out”, fairly “Quck & Easy”, and make it a “SpeeDee Stop”.  Your customers may be in such a hurry that they pay no attention to the bright red banner perched about the hot dog rotisserie. It never hurts to give a heads up and, in the end, it could be the start of a beautiful relationship between your store and customer.