Some of What’s Old Will Hopefully Never Be New Again

My mother-in-law has officially never thrown anything away. Ever.

She is incredibly efficient, runs a tight ship and actually transmitted a “Coupon Clipping” gene to my wife that has occasionally made me go back home to retrieve a coupon worth slightly less than the gas it took to do so. In my family, we had the opposite gene, resulting in some highly efficient comments like, “Man, the air conditioner has put stalactites on the ceiling again. We better open a few windows!” But, I digress.

Anyway, at my mother-in-law’s house, you can find seriously old magazines, broken toys (anyone need half a G.I. Joe?), ashtrays that haven’t been used since Nixon and I think she’s saving burned out light bulbs just in case they come up with a cure. And she’s neat about it. I mean, this stuff isn’t like “Hoarders”; it’s, like, categorized.

But nothing compares to the treasure trove I just came across. This one photo pretty much says it all…

I came across a J. C. Penney’s catalog from 1977 containing hideosities I’ve either blanked out from having seen, or no one ever bought them, which might explain J. C. Penney’s current difficulties.

Every page of the catalog was a new fashion wonder of increasing horror. Please, fashion gods, do NOT ever let this come back in style. There were several of these “his ‘n’ her” outfits. To me, wearing this would’ve been an invitation to get Maced on sight. Any judge would vote in favor of the Macer.

“Maybe it’s the shirt talking, but those wing-sized lapels are giving me impure thoughts.”

And I am so digging on the dude’s windswept hair. She is looking at him like, “I may have hairspray envy, but your El Rancho shirt is making me forget about it.”

With any luck, the models went into witness protection and have had their identities erased.

Yet many contractors are not so lucky.

Dated Marketing Alert

We recently offered no-cost MPIs (Marketing Performance Indicators) to properly analyze the marketing programs of over 100 real-live, legitimate contractors. No need to bore you with what we do, but it’s basically like a marketing “physical.” We found MANY contractors with media allocations that were like 1977.

And these are good folks with good companies, but wondered why their clientele’s average age has continually risen while little “new blood” is filling in behind them, or why leads have fallen faster than Disco’s demise. Here’s Why…

1. Some are running Yellow Pages budgets approaching 30% of their total budget. (YP shoppers typically start at 55 years old.) Our current recommendations are under 14%, and dropping. Get smart with your allocations to extract maximum performance.
2. Nearly 20% of our MPIs showed contractors with an “unclaimed” Local Listing. This means neither your mother nor Madam Conzella the Psychic can find you online. Get your listing claimed. We can do it here or you can choose any agency you like. The point is to get it done.
3. Over 60% had no customer retention program. That is like seriously 1980s, and it means that their customers are very vulnerable to never getting a customer back from the 40% of contractors who had one! This type of marketing “shuts the door” on customer loss and can pile on new profit (by stemming attrition). Get a sample here.NOTE: Most of our clients have a Customer Retention program because we yell at them constantly, so the ‘real’ industry number is closer to 20%. Shocking.
4. Sadder still, a full 50% (also known among math wizards as “half”) are dependent upon manufacturers for co-opped ads. Fine to get co-op money, but a “dependence” on it and the ads sends a VERY mixed branding signal to your market. Be careful. And finally –
5. Though the individual ads weren’t quite as dated as the killer clothes in the photo, some were close. There were a LOT of “Institutional” looking ads, trying to appeal to everyone, with every product and service crammed into one ad. The current trend that works is message to market specificity. We’ve touted this for over 5 years in a row, with increasing results. “Match” your ads to your market and watch the leads increase.

So, dear contractors, take a look at your marketing and decide “who” it appeals to. If it’s not pulling in the leads, image or customer retention you want, it’s probably time for some adjustments.

Please, don’t let the 1977 J. C. Penney’s Catalog be your marketing model! Think of the shame it could bring your family… and your hairdresser.

- See more at: www.salesandmarketinginsider.com