CEO of Major Manufacturer says...

CEO of MAJOR mfg. when asked what surprised him most at market, “How many of my dealers are down 30% and don’t have the faintest idea of what to do about it.”

I was the one who asked him this question when we were seated next to each other at the American Hall of Fame Dinner and this answer blew me away-both for its honesty and what it told me about the state of furniture retailing today.

So, I am going to use this post today to tell you a bit about the world of social networking through my own story and to ask you, dear readers, to hire my company to help you navigate this morass of uncertainty and consumer reluctance. I am asking this sincerely as I know for a fact-not a theory-that  social networking, online reputation management  strategies and careful data mining of your website’s analytics-properly and carefully thought through and deployed-can get you out of this mess, but I need you to work with me. Hopefully, the information I’ve given and shared freely with you over the past three years has helped you and you have seen some value from the ideas  you may have implemented.

Here is my story..in full disclosure mode. I write this column  for Furniture Today for free. I have never received any money for it nor any special dispensation from Furniture Today. No ads in the magazine, nothing. I do it because I have a SINCERE desire to help the industry where I have spent my entire professional life. I am lucky enough to work independently and to have worked, over the past six years, with over 40 retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and hundreds and hundreds of retail sales consultants. My value proposition to you is that I understand the needs of ALL stakeholders in our industry and I also happen to love to write and share my knowledge. I am a strategic thinker and PASSIONATE  about the internet, social networking and the convergence of the online and offline worlds.

I have a blazing desire to work with you professionally to show you how to navigate the world of social networking, online reputation managment and analytics. They are THE three key marketing disciplines that MUST be implemented by all of you in ‘09. These are not “maybe” propositions. Over 560 million people use some sort of social networking site on a daily basis in our world today. 560 MILLION.

Millions also look up a company’s online reputation before they ever do business with them. What plans do you have in place to capitalize on this? Most have none. NONE. THIS is why our industry  is in trouble…we are just not UP TO SPEED and it is sinking many of you. We are NOT WHERE THE CONSUMER IS. It is time to stop wondering and thinking and JUMP IN AND TAKE ACTION.

I KNOW you don’t all understand the internet. Many barely understand search engine optimization, much less social networking and online reputation management and data mining of analytics. But, it’s OK. That is why I am asking you to let my company help you. I DO UNDERSTAND and can guide you properly.

And, here is the reason why this is a smart business decision-because once you have a strategy in place, social networking tools , online reputation management tools and analytics are FREE. So, you have a one time cost of implementation and then YOU ARE DONE. Your marketing and advertising becomes a  GREATLY REDUCED line item in your budgets and your marketing, advertising and sales expenses  become much more tightly aligned and targeted to what your actual consumers are wanting from you.

Please, read that again. You will (not maybe, but WILL) greatly reduce your operating expenses while at the same time increasing your top line revenue. It is instant? NO. Nothing is instant. Is it IMPERATIVE? YES. YES. and YES. Just because you may not use these tools yourselves, understand that your CUSTOMERS and your FUTURE customers ARE USING THEM TODAY.

It is literally PAINFUL for me to watch our industry floundering and KNOW that the solution is within reach of all of you. It’s just that no one understands it(either at all or not very well) so the word is not getting out that there IS a way out-RIGHT NOW.

I  am doing all I can, for free, to help you through the writing of this column and my Technology and Retail series I am writing for Furniture World magazine(www.furninfo.com).

But, now, I feel that I have to take this one step further and ask you to hire my company, The Kaleidoscope Partnership, to help you navigate these new marketing tools so you will have the know how to pull out of this slump and survive and thrive. These tools DO work- there are case studies upon case studies available about it-but I can’t have these conversations for free-as many of you ask me to do when you email or call me privately.

So, TODAY, take action. Call or email me and ask me to help you. The sad truth is that many mfgs. and/or retailers have marketing VP’s who can barely keep their heads above water and simply don’t have TIME to understand these new marketing paradigms. I will work WITH your currrent teams to give them workshops, educate them, and help them strategize, based on YOUR market demographics, how social networking, online reputation management and analytics tools can be deployed so that 2009 will be the best year IT CAN BE for your business.

At the very least, you will know that you are moving forward and learning and, best of all, when the strategies are deployed, your customers will know it, too, and respond accordingly. Everyone wants to do business with a winner.

Still have doubts. Look at Apple, Target, Ikea. They GET IT and there is nothing they are doing that you cannot do-even if you have to do it on a much, much smaller scale due to your budget.

Give me a call at 713.705.2482 or email me at leslie@tkpartnership.com. Follow me on twitter at tkpleslie and/or ask to be a “fan” of  my business on Facebook at, The Kaleidoscope Partnership. And, if you want, go to www.linkedin.com and link in with me. Let’s work together and make this a win win for each other’s businesses. That’s how we’ll  survive and grow-by me supporting you and you supporting me through hiring me to help you understand how to use these new tools-which, again, once you get it, are FREE.

And, if you still don’t believe it…. Best Buy, Wal Mart, Toys R Us and Kohl’s have, since May,added Facebook pages for their businesses. Why? Because they recognize the value in FREE and energizing their consumers-even it it means opening up their businesses to criticism. Why? Because they’ve decided to listen and change to adapt to their consumer’s preferences-even when it’s painful-even when they don’t like it-even when it topples existing power structures or long held beliefs. They understand their consumers control their brands-they GET that they MUST enter the conversation-not control it.

The tipping point is here and now…not next year…not three budget cycles from now. NOW.