The Greatest Story Never Told: Who we are and what we do is SO important

October 1, 2012

Every manufacturer or retailer began at some point. There are so many stories about determined men and women who mortgaged their homes, maxed out their credit cards, rented the back of a warehouse, and worked night and day to get their business started.

Many ended up failing, but a select few had the right mix, the right look, the perfect style and quality that consumers were looking for. Retailers and brand manufacturers alike tell their story in different ways.

When you go into a retail store, you will generally find the story of how the store or company was started and the person responsible. Whether on a poster or in the marketing pamphlet, this story is so important because this is who you are, and the female consumer wants to know about it. She gets validation for her purchases, stemming from a deep trust that who she is dealing with has staying power, a good reputation and a commitment to providing the best product at the best price. The story is a highly important part of the customer's buying process, but the typical consumer is visiting to retail stores less and less. Unfortunately, this means that the story of who you are and why you exist is not being told.

At least twice, and sometimes up to four times per year, manufacturers spend an inordinate amount of money to simply tell their story in a market showroom or other event. The research, development, space, food, display - it all costs precious dollars. You spend 2-3 days before the market training your sales staff to tell your story.

Then the retailers arrive, buy bits and pieces, and in 4-6 months when the product ships, they try to share your brand's story (very fragmented at that point) to their sales staff. From them, the end consumer gets a very small fraction of the overall story.

So much effort goes into telling a retail store or brand's story to the most important person in the equation, which is HER, the end consumer who is spending her money to support the retailer and the manufacturer. But it's getting lost.

It is imperative to be able to convey your message to her where she shops. The internet provides unlimited shelf space and an immediate platform for content sharing - content that shares your story. Telling your story to the customer shopping online will aid her in her buying decisions and will raise the brand awareness of both retailers and manufacturers.

Can you imagine an online platform that will tell your story exactly when it needs to be told, and to the most important person to hear it? Telling customers online who you are and why you do things is what will help turn the tide in what has been a challenging period in our industry!

Posted by Dan Minor on October 1, 2012 | Comments (4)

Industries: Furniture Retailing

January 7, 2013

In response to: The Greatest Story Never Told: Who we are and what we do is SO important
Gerardo commented:

The trouble with reatbe affiliate marketing is that it is high-risk.First of all, many of the programs I've seen tell you to do it for merchants with Clickbank. The thing they don't mention is that reatbes are explicitly against Clickbank's policies. When they catch you at it you lose all your pending earnings.Other companies may or may not allow it, but you generally have to get special permission.The other risk is that you may pay out a reatbe and then have the customer get a refund, and your affiliate commission goes away. You have to do some very careful tracking and only give reatbes after the refund period. Pretty tough when people are likely to want immediate gratification.Medical transcription can be a very good job, but you do have to pay for your own training. I did it for three years. The Andrews School, M-Tec and Career Step are generally considered to be the top 3 online schools.As for online jobs, yes, they do exist but there's a lot of competition. As with any other job you need to consider your skills. You can do customer service if you have a very, very quiet place to work. Most such companies allow no background noise at all. Data entry is a popular option, but there are only a few legit companies, so the jobs are hard to get.You may also want to consider general transcription. If you have some basic transcription skills already, Tigerfish has an online test you can take, then you just wait for a job to open up if you do well enough on it.

October 6, 2012

In response to: The Greatest Story Never Told: Who we are and what we do is SO important
www.gabyhandyman.co.uk commented:

In this blog of yours, I found so many interesting themes and even if I did not yet responded to none, you to know that I read them with great interest. Success.

October 2, 2012

In response to: The Greatest Story Never Told: Who we are and what we do is SO important
Dan Minor commented:

Andrew, That was a great article. Last Month, I watched both the Democrat and Republican convention. Both candidates gave their wives prime time opportunities to do nothing but tell their story. My wife told me that helped her see the candidates in a whole new light. Since none of us have a national stage to let someone tell our story, this has to be trumpeted throughout our retail stores, manufacturing offices, and to the masses through individual sites and public sites. Each time I see a Stickly gallery, there is generally a placard that has the story of Gustav, Alfred and Aminy Audi. I read it every time. It is very powerful.

October 2, 2012

In response to: The Greatest Story Never Told: Who we are and what we do is SO important
Andrew Nemiccolo commented:

Dan, Great post! Consumers connect with the authenticity of the founder's story, and the "underdog effect" creates a positive emotion in buyers' minds, especially for family-owned businesses.

sevenstorylearning.com/tag/about-page/

As the article shows, the ABOUT PAGE is one of the most highly visited pages on business websites, and every employee should be able to re-tell it, too.