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I discovered some great marketing while helping a friend move last weekend.

I’m not talking about fancy advertising or a slick viral campaign. Nope, this was just good old “selling the right thing in the right place at the the right time.”

I call it the U-Haul Mini-bar.

At the back of the truck we rented there was a dolly (or hand truck, depending on where you are from) and a package of furniture pads. Both were strapped securely to the wall.

Each one was covered with a sales pitch and price information.

Finally, there were green plastic ties that had to be snapped in order to access the items.

If the ties were broken, you get charged. It’s as simple as that. Just take what you need and they’d add it to your bill.

The hand truck was $7 and the furniture pads were $5. I think both prices were pretty reasonable (especially compared to a $6 bottle of water found in a traditional mini-bar). I’d love to see data showing how often each one is used.

Overall, I love this upsell tactic because it’s a really simple, yet very effective, way to solve a customer’s problem. You may have snubbed the idea of moving pads while renting the truck, but after hearing your spouse tell you for the 12th time not to scratch the furniture - they may start to look like a good idea.

Brilliant.

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Apparently, BP wasn’t the only oil company to cut proofreading jobs….

This one is hard to read because I snapped it while driving.

It reads:
We support locally owned businesses.
Because we are one.

I know advertising gets a little leeway in regard to proper grammar, but there was really no reason for this. Would the message have had that much less impact if it was all one sentence?

And, while I’m ranting, I really don’t like the way they are presenting their position either. It’s clearly an attempt to convince people that Citgo isn’t a huge faceless corporation ripping them off.  To do that, they are alluding to the fact that most of the stations are franchised (i.e. locally owned).

That’s all fine and good, but it comes off as really shallow. A lemonade stand? Give me a break. I’d like to know HOW exactly they support locally owned businesses? By selling them gas? Right…

I took some time off and headed out to Virgina Beach last week. It was nice not to have an agenda. I really enjoyed doing a whole lot of nothing.

Anyway, we stumbled upon Bloom supermarket and were thoroughly impressed. In addition to hosting a Redbox out front (this is the second vacation in a row that we’ve picked up a $1 movie to watch at the end of our day) they had something incredible on their shopping carts.

Ready for this?

A map of the store.

How cool is that? Being a resort town, they probably get a fair amount of tourist traffic. It makes a lot of sense to show people where everything is. In fact, it makes so much sense that I’m not sure why I haven’t seen it before.

Another cool thing about the carts is that they had two sizes: standard and mini. Again, Brilliant!

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Last time I checked, “And helps keep them clean.” didn’t qualify as a sentence.

Most fast food places use the back of their receipts to get you to take a survey, but I thought the Quiznos approach was kind of interesting. Observe:

If you visit the website, you get ten changes to win. TEN! Wow!

Of course, if there is only one winner per day, and everyone gets ten chances - then the odds of winning didn’t really change, did they? Very tricky, Quiznos.

But wait, maybe they did. What about the poor suckers that call to do the survey? They only get one entry into the contest. There’s a cost saving measure if I’ve ever seen one. I’m sure the online survey is much cheaper to administer. Again, well played, Quiznos.

I was going to end the post there, but I decided to do some investigative journalism (just for you), so I took both surveys (and not-so-coincidentally got 11 chances to win).

Last time I took an online survey I was very unimpressed. This one didn’t do much better. It was kind of entertaining though. Here are, without further ado, my top 5 questions / screens.

5) Surprise, I didn’t win.

4) Despite asking the date I visited (two weeks ago), they wanted to know if I had purchased specific items “today.” I was tempted to say no across the board, but I decided to cut them some slack.

3) They nailed it. I come to Quiznos for the visual enjoyment…

2) I’m not very health conscience. Do they really have to rub it in three times?

1) And my favorite question: “Why not?” There was nothing proceeding it. I was just instructed to think about my recent visit.

The phone survey was kind of clumsy as well. It took about 6 minutes and “using my touch tone phone,” I had to type in half the info from my receipt before I could start. There were many of the same questions, but it was definitely shorter. My favorite part was in the middle of the survey when they said:

“Tell us why or why not you enjoyed your visit so that we can improve.” Then, with no warning: beep - it was recording.

My answer? “I liked watching my meal being made.”

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PS. The new site is finally up. Go check it out.

I saw this posted at one of my local Wendy’s restaurants yesterday.

I’m very interested to see how many people an event like this draws. I’ve seen signs for Bingo at other locations in the past - so it has to be at least mildly successful.

Why don’t I just go and see for myself? Well, because it was a week ago. Wendy’s should probably take down the signs.

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Skybus, a four year old “you’ll pay extra for anything remotely close to a frill” airline, shut down unexpectedly (at least to ticket holders) last week.

Their business model was fairly straight forward:

1) Fill the Seats With Really Low Fares
They offered the first 10 seats on every flight for only $5 (I think; I’m shooting from memory because their site has been taken down), and very low prices from there.

2) Keep Costs Down
They used the cheapest airports they could find. “Chicago”, for example, was actually a third tier airport in Indiana (which, for the geographically challenged - is the next state over). Boarding was done from the runway, and I believe the only way you could book a trip was though their website.

3) Exploit Extra Revenue Sources
Nothing but the seat was included with the ticket price. They sold food & drinks, the ability to bring baggage, and rumor has it - seatbelts (unconfirmed). Additionally, both the interior and exterior of planes were sold as billboards to advertisers.

So why did they fold? Here’s the official statement from their website:

Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.

Why this makes sense on the surface:
As any gas consuming American can attest, prices are up. Skybus’s policy of using some of their tickets as a loss leader had to be hurting them. They couldn’t very well jack up the price for peanuts to make up the difference.

The “slow economic environment” (SEE from here on out) means that leisure travelers would probably be taking less flights. And, since they didn’t have much of a following for business travel, this did directly effect their core customer base.

Why, when you think about it, it’s kind of a cop-out:
Jet fuel is up…but it’s up for everyone. The other carriers have raised prices, so Skybus should have been able to do the same while maintaining it’s lowest fare position. If a commodity issue affects a whole industry, it’s not a good excuse as to why others are winning the competitive struggle.

The SEE means people have less money to spend on travel. Fair enough, but as the discount carrier - shouldn’t have this worked to their advantage? Meaning, even though less people may be flying, the ones that are will be more likely to shop for the lowest price. You’d think that they would actually be worse off in an FEE (the F is for fast…or fantastic - take your pick).

The Real Reason:
I considered flying Skybus in February and was pretty unimpressed. The fact is, once I considered all the extra costs and inconveniences - it just wasn’t worth it. And that, I believe, is why they ended up in the big terminal in the sky. SEE’s had little to do with it. I think other discount carriers offer low enough prices that Skybus couldn’t undercut them enough to make flying them worth the inconvenience.

Agree? Disagree?

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I hadn’t been stopped at airport security in a while, but my luck ran out yesterday. Good thing I wasn’t running late (for once).

Apparently there was something suspicious about a cluster of items in my carry-on that warranted a bag search. Why they weren’t suspicious the last 40 time I’ve flown, I don’t know. Maybe the Columbus airport is just that much safer than the rest of the country.

Either way, I wouldn’t have really minded if they hadn’t used my bag to train a new employee. What should have taken 2 minutes - took, I kid you not, close to 10. That’s right, a quick peek inside wasn’t nearly enough. They had to take things out, fan though my magazine and folders, and my favorite: run a cloth swab inside all the compartments and than have a machine analyze it.

Here’s the conversation I had with the experienced TSA employee, Robert:

Me: “So, what exactly is the swab test looking for?”
Robert: “The things that keep me up at night.”
Me: :::blink:::blink::: “I don’t get it.”
Robert: Chemicals and explosive residue.”
Me: :::long pause::::”Oh.”

OK, I actually knew the answer before I asked the question; I was just getting bored. And, since the trainee was still giving the April issue of Fast Company a full cavity search, I knew I had at least a few more minutes to kill.

Actually, what I really wanted to do with the time was to go put my order in at Chili’s. The restaurant is right outside of security and I was starved. I thought about trying it, but figured I’d probably be tackled to the ground if I left the area.

I don’t know if you can bribe a TSA employee, but I think I’ll start carrying some Lunesta just in case. I think it’s a fair deal: Robert gets help sleeping and I get to breeze though the line. Think it would fly?

The rules of racquetball are simple.

Two players lock themselves in small rectangular room and alternate hitting a ball against the back wall. A point is lost when a player fails to return the ball before it bounces twice on the floor.

It’s a great game for beginners because the lack of skill doesn’t translate into downtime chasing the ball off the court (see tennis). Essentially, you’re in a small room where the ball can be hit off any of the four walls (or even the ceiling) – and it’s still in play.

What’s the point?

New players focus on strength. They consistently hit the ball as hard as they can and assume that the extra force will win them the point. The two problems with this strategy are that it tires them out faster, and the extra force of the hit often causes a higher bounce (giving the receiving player more time to return it).

Experienced players focus on placement. They vary their shots to keep the opponent scrambling to different parts of the court. They use a mix of force and finesse to keep their opponent guessing.

No really, what’s the point?

Your business, your marketing, your career – are all like games of racquetball. If you’re expending full force on everything – you’re going to run out of steam (energy, marketing dollars, etc.). Placement is key. Every time you make a hit you need to figure out what is going to net the best return. You have to continually evaluate the alternatives and ignore the impulse to just throw extra money, time, and energy at your problems.

Placement is realizing that you don’t have to outspend your competitors to win market share. Placement is knowing that a few key projects can do more for your career than years of 60 hour work weeks. Placement is the classic “work smarter, not harder.”

The point? Work on placement.

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I noticed the following sign hanging at the register of my local supermarket.

In case you aren’t wearing your glasses, it reads:

We Strive For 5!
Our team members have been working hard to give you a Highly Satisfied shopping experience. If we earned your vote with our great service, please rate us a 5 when you receive a customer survey at the bottom at the bottom of your receipt.

Doesn’t asking for a high rating kind of defeat the purpose of getting feedback?

The signs are cheap copies - definitely not corporate issued. My guess is that there are incentives based on the survey results. The scores are quite possibly tied directly to somebody’s bonus. That said, it looks like the local management is probably trying to give their customer service rating a boost. Shameless…

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