Harvard Management Update completed a survey that should alarm most business owners.  It revealed, "Eighty percent of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only eight percent of their customers agree."

With this in mind, we are going to review 3 D's to implement to increase this percentage to make more of your customers High Profit Promoters like we discussed last time. 

1. Design the Right Promotions - We want as many of our customers as possible to be High Profit Promoters.  That means they not only buy good amounts of merchandise, but also are great advocates for the company.  Design promotions for these customers to provide incentives for them to sing praises about your store.  Many promotions can cost very little in comparison to the sales that they can end up generating. 
   
2. Deliver the Promotion to the Customer Effectively - Often the best promotion idea can become botched due to poor planning and execution.  Prior to offering any promotion, know what your customer wants.  Talk to the customers in your store to get their opinions.  You may even take a couple of your best customers to lunch to find out their thoughts and ideas.  These ideas and opinions can then be used to more effectively execute your promotions. 
   
3. Develop the Skills to Repeat the Process - Customer value promotions must continually be evaluated and changed.  They cannot just continue to remain the same.  With this in mind, the first two steps must continue to be repeated so that your promotion is a success every time you execute one.  Also keep in mind that part of developing skills is to keep your employees well trained and well treated so they can (and will want to) effectively service the customer.

As business owners, we all do some market research to find out what type of customers want our product and what is the best way to get those customers to buy once we have their attention.  What we often fail to do after we attain the customer is determine how to target or maybe even weed out particular customers. 

Every customer falls into one of four categories.  Our job as business owners is to find what type of customer they are so we can better serve their (and our) needs.  Below you will find the four types of customers along with suggestions on how to better serve them.

1. High Profit Promoters - This is your star customer!  They buy a high volume of your product repeatedly AND they spread the word about what a great store you have.  You want to offer programs to let this customer know how much you appreciate them.  Perhaps have a referral program where if their friend mentions that your customer referred them, the one who referred gets a reward (i.e. a discount card or a free gift the next time they purchase).
   
2. High Profit Detractors - These customers can significantly effect your profits if you lose them.  They also are repeat buyers that buy significant amounts, but they are not really pleased with your store for some reason. Because of this, they will tell others they are not happy, making them attractive to your competition.  You need to find out WHY they are not happy.  It might be that you only need to change the fragrance of candle you are burning in your store to something more subtle or it could be more involved.  You should value this customer's opinion and be open to their suggestions because you could easily convert them to the first category (high profit promoters), where you want them.
3. Low Profit Promoters - This customer could easily be gleaned into a #1 customer.  Their current buying patterns are not so hot, but they love your store and are telling everyone they know about it.  You might make them a part of your referral program as well.  This would give them an incentive to be an even better advocate for your store and helpfully hope boost their own level of purchases.
4. Low Profit Detractors - This customer is the never pleased one.  They buy very low amounts of merchandise and make sure everyone knows that they are NOT pleased with your store.  With this customer, it is better for your bottom line to help them over to your competition because they will not be happy there either.
   

If you take Marketing in college, one of the first things you learn in Marketing 101 is the 4 P's.  You might say, "What in the world are the 4 P's?", but they are very essential in the success of any business.  They are Product, Place, Promotion, and Price.

Product - You must offer products that people want in their home today.  If no one in your area likes purple, don't sell purple items!  Stock you purchased in 1988 is not going to fly off your shelves.  Customers want what is popular now.

Place - This is very important.  You rarely find booming businesses in extremely small towns unless they are touristy.  Your business has to be where the people are shopping in order to be successful.

Promotion - This is where most small businesses make the largest mistake.  Too many small business owners say, "I can't afford to advertise!".  The response to that is "You can't afford NOT to advertise!"  While you are not advertising, your competitor is and guess where your potential customers are shopping?  Advertising does not have to be terribly expensive.  Large discounts are often given to vendors who sign contracts to advertise in the local paper weekly.  Obtaining a mailing/emailing list from the visitors in your store is very easy and sending email is basically free!  This is essential, though, to your store's survival.

Price - This final P is often overlooked, but with places like Wal-Mart popping up in every town, this can no longer be the case.  We all realize there is a difference between quality, specialty merchandise offered in your stores and what is in discount stores, but there is also a limit on what you can charge.  Be mindful of the frugality of your customers when pricing your items or even selecting merchandise to offer in your store.  If you know that there is no way your customers are going to pay $30 for a jar candle, why even clutter up your shelf space?  Put an item there with a price point that you know your customers are going to want.  Pricing items to sell is the key.

Summary - When either planning to open a business or trying to build an existing one, the Four P's of Marketing are fundamental in growing the business into a thriving business that will provide you with a comfortable income for years to come.

About Harvest Scents and Traders
Harvest Scents and Traders is based in the Fishers, Indiana suburb located on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Harvest Scents and Traders specializes in helping retailers become more profitable by providing uniquely designed wholesale home décor and giftware. Harvest Scents and Traders' customer base is made up of gift shops, chain stores, crafters, online retailers and general retailers.
Learn more about Harvest Scents and Traders.

Harvest Scents and Traders announces its 2010 Mid-Year Supplement Catalog is now available.

There are many new items that are sure to be great sellers for retailers!

About Harvest Scents and Traders
Harvest Scents and Traders is based in the Fishers, Indiana suburb located on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Harvest Scents and Traders specializes in helping retailers become more profitable by providing uniquely designed wholesale home décor and giftware. Harvest Scents and Traders' customer base is made up of gift shops, chain stores, crafters, online retailers and general retailers.
Learn more about Harvest Scents and Traders.

-June 12-14 Market Square’s The Marketplace, Oaks, PA
-June 27-28 Market Square Midwest Madison, WI
-June 26-29 Columbus Gift Mart Fox Enter. Showroom       
-July 16-20 Atlanta Gift Mart, Building 3, Floor 1, Booth 135 Holiday & Floral Section
-July 24-27 Chicago Gift Market, 8th Floor Booth 3103
-Aug 13-17 Minneapolis Show Backroads Showroom Red 217
-Aug 20-24 Columbus Gift Mart Fox Enterprises Showroom

Click on our Tradeshows link at the top of the site to reach links to each of these shows.

About Harvest Scents and Traders
Harvest Scents and Traders is based in the Fishers, Indiana suburb located on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Harvest Scents and Traders specializes in helping retailers become more profitable by providing uniquely designed wholesale home décor and giftware. Harvest Scents and Traders' customer base is made up of gift shops, chain stores, crafters, online retailers and general retailers.
Learn more about Harvest Scents and Traders.

We at Harvest Scents & Traders are proud to announce some changes in our process for handling customer claims.  We are now more heavily utilizing our system software (SAP Business1) to automate the claim recording process.  This should cut down the time to process your claims in half!

What does this mean for you?  We will be able to complete claims timelier and have the capacity to process more claims in the same amount of time.  Speedier service should make you very happy!

About Harvest Scents and Traders
Harvest Scents and Traders is based in the Fishers, Indiana suburb located on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Harvest Scents and Traders specializes in helping retailers become more profitable by providing uniquely designed wholesale home décor and giftware. Harvest Scents and Traders' customer base is made up of gift shops, chain stores, crafters, online retailers and general retailers.
Learn more about Harvest Scents and Traders.

When listening to small business owners speak about Wal-Mart, you most often hear negative comments and assurances that they will ruin the small business owner’s business.  Wal-Mart definitely is a competitor to take seriously, as is any competitor, but it is not necessarily an assurance of you having a going out of business sale in the near future.
When a challenge is presented, one needs to arise to the challenge and learn what is necessary to overcome it.  Believe it or not, there are some great business principles that can be learned from Wal-Mart.
1. Don’t be afraid to take a risk.  Wal-Mart started with two brothers and a dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas!  When you conduct studies on the risk factors in starting this business when and where they did, the results say, “Don’t even try it!”  However, they decided in their minds that it was going to work, and look at it today!
2. Don’t be afraid to buy in larger quantities.  Part of Sam Walton’s vision was to have large distribution centers that service area stores.  He could then purchase in enormous quantities for the best prices possible.  Because of this, they can offer “Everyday Low Prices”.  You will not be able to stock a distribution center, but if you know a product will sell, buy in larger quantities!  This gives you the opportunity to afford to offer a lower price and still get the mark up you are looking for.
3. Have an ever evolving store.  Another of Sam Walton’s visions was to be continually evaluating his stores to try different things to make sales better.  Frequently aisles will be rearranged or entire stores revamped to test the effect on sales.  Try the same in your store.  If your candle display is not pulling as many sales as you think it should, then move it to another location in your store.  Frequently rearrange displays and the layout of your store.  Part of the success in this is that now your customers have to look for something.  If you always keep it in the same spot, they can go right to what they need without really looking at anything else.
With these three tips, dare to take on big box stores like Wal-Mart.  With some smart business planning and niche marketing (which we discussed last time), you can succeed!

About Harvest Scents and Traders

4 DAYS ONLY.....SALE!!! SALE!!! SALE!!!!!

Take advantage of our SALE on SALE/CLEARANCE items thru 5pm Tuesday.

All items are already on SALE and we are giving you extra discounts off the SALE price!!!

Promotion Details:

-Call IN ORDERS (317-598-0002) only qualify. Online orders aren't valid.
-Valid items are only those on the CLEARANCE/SALE link below. No regular priced items can be on the order.
http://www.harvest-scents.com/62405e0598d786f089cab08eaf0fd093.dept.  If you have trouble clicking on the link below, go to our website http://www.harvest-scents.com and click on the CLEARANCE/SALE category on the left.

-10% off items now 15%, 20% off items now 25%, 50% off now 55%, and 70% off now 73%!!!

-Minimum order $135 of SALE items only. Orders less than this amount won't qualify for the extra discount.
-Must take immediate shipment.

-BOGO items (Buy 1 Get 1 Free Items) qualify but but no extra discount will apply.

-If an item has "^^^^^^" or "######" in front of the description, it doesn't apply to the minimum order requirement as these items are not in stock.

-MUST MENTION PROMO CODE "CALL0510" to our sales associate when placing your order otherwise discounts won't apply. Extra discounts will be applied at time of invoicing.

-Supplies are limited therefore some items on your order may not be shipped.

-Expiration: 5pm EST, Tuesday May 25, 2010.

About Harvest Scents and Traders

Niche marketing is a term that has been around for about a decade or more in the marketing world.  Some may ask, though, “What is niche (nitch) marketing?”  According to www.dictionary.com, it is “marketing to a special area of demand for a product or service.”  In other words, it more defines what you are marketing to whom.

Niche marketing gives your business power as it more defines your market, product, and business strategy.  Before deciding on one particular niche, though, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have a target audience with similar wants and/or needs?
2. Is this market large enough to support me financially?
3. Can I tailor my business to meet the needs of this target audience?
4. Is this target audience currently under served?
5. Can I reach my target audience cost effectively?
6. Is your product life cycle long term?

1. Talk to your potential customers individually – Find out if your customers are interested in your more narrow market.  
2. Conduct market research to verify your findings in step one - Go out into the community to see if others that currently do not buy from you would if you narrowed your focus.

Developing a mailing list of your customers and potential customers is essential to thrive in this extremely competitive retail market. It is very easy to manage, and you will see results.

First, just place a note pad or guest book next to your door or cash register. When anyone comes into your store, ask them to please fill out your guest book. Important info to obtain is their name, mailing address, and email address if they have one. Obtaining email addresses is important because it is more cost effective to send information via email than buying postage. You can easily store your information in an Excel spreadsheet. With a spreadsheet, you can copy and paste emails into your email program or you can print mailing labels for those customers that do not have email. If you are using your normal email program such as Outlook, you will want to break your emails up into groups of no more than 50 emails at a time as those programs do have limits on sending mail.

Next, just send your mailing out to your mail list. To save time, compose your newsletter in a program such as Word. Once your mailing is finished, you can either print off the number of copies needed to mail or send your mailing to a copy place such as Kinko's. To send your email mailings, simple copy and paste your file directly into your email. Please be sure to include a line at the bottom in case anyone wishes to unsubscribe from your mailing list. Just hit the send button to easily and cost effectively communicate to your customers and potential customers.

Please keep in mind the purpose of sending these mailings. The purpose is to just remind your customers that you are still around. The mailing does not have to be anything elaborate, and you do not have to have huge sales going on. It is just to keep your name in front of them. This can be accomplished simply by letting them know you have a new type of item now available, one particular type of item is now on sale, or you're offering a free cup of coffee next Saturday morning from 9am-11am.

You are now ready to build your mailing list. You are sure to see an increase in traffic to your store as well as revenue just by implementing this relatively easy and cost effective way of advertising.
About Harvest Scents and Traders

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About Harvest Scents and Traders

SALE!!!   SALE!!!   SALE!!!!!

Take advantage of our SALE on SALE/CLEARANCE items.

All items are already on SALE and we are giving you extra discounts off the SALE price!!!

Promotion Details

-Valid items are only those on the CLEARANCE/SALE link below.  No regular priced items can be on the order.

http://www.harvest-scents.com/62405e0598d786f089cab08eaf0fd093.dept  
If you have trouble clicking on the link below, go to our website http://www.harvest-scents.com and click on the CLEARANCE/SALE category on the left.

-20% off items now 25%, 50% off now 55%, and 70% off now 73%!!! 

-Minimum order $135 of SALE items only.  Orders less than this amount won't qualify for the extra discount.

-Must take immediate shipment.

-BOGO (Buy 1 Get 1 Free Items) can be on the order but no extra discount will apply.

-If an item has "^^^^^^" or "######" in front of the description, it doesn't apply to the minimum order requirement as these items are not in stock.

-Order must be submitted via our website only.

-MUST PUT "SALX410" IN THE NOTES SECTION OF YOUR ORDER, otherwise discounts won't apply.  Extra discounts will be applied at time of invoicing and will not reflect on your website order confirmation.

-Supplies are limited therefore some items on your order may not be shipped.

-Expiration:  Sunday Midnight April 25, 2010

Harvest Scents and Traders has a twitter page. Follow HST and see what we have to tweet!

About Harvest Scents and Traders
Harvest Scents and Traders is based in the Fishers, Indiana suburb located on the northeast side of Indianapolis. Harvest Scents and Traders specializes in helping retailers become more profitable by providing uniquely designed wholesale home décor and giftware. Harvest Scents and Trader’s customer base is made up of gift shops, chain stores, crafters, online retailers and general retailers. Learn more about Harvest Scents and Traders.

• One free 2" mini (pip) berry candle ring when your customer purchases six votives. 
• One free 4" mini (pip) berry candle ring when your customer buys two 20 ounce jar candles. 

Harvest Scents and Traders will be attending the Denver Gift, Jewelry & Resort Show later this Saturday through Tuesday, February 27 - March 2, 2010.

All retailers are welcome to stop by our temporary booth to see hundreds of new items.