But What Do You Want Them To Remember?

I watch, and sometimes read your email posts and facebook posts as you promote your cosmic bowling nights, your short season leagues, your 8 for 8 leagues, your Bowling 2.0, your company parties, your fundraisers and your birthday parties.  

And just when I thought I had seen all of your programs, you bombard me with information about seasonal holiday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas week and New Year’s Eve, not to mention Monday Night Football in your sports bar along with every weekend football {Go Pack! Go Badgers!} 

Now over the course of probably a month, I received many emails from you about your promotions and special offers…but what do I remember? At best, I will remember two or three of the offers. At worst, I will remember none of them.  

But more importantly, I will have no definitive idea of what you stand for, what is the meaning of your brand and why I should pay attention to what you say.  In fact that is the very reason why you need to use a multimedia and layered approach to promote both specific individual offers as well as promoting these offers within your BMU, “brand messaging unit.”  This is one unit of branding embedded with a specific offer that supports your brand,

So what to do? 

Pick one thing you want your customers to remember about you.  Maybe it’s: “Happy Lanes – Home of the Best Birthday Parties” or “Happy Lanes - We Make Short Season Leagues Fun” or “Happy Lanes – We Make weekends Fun.” Or…well you get the idea. Or at least I hope you do. 

Better to pick one thing to be proud of rather than trying to be all things to all people and thus ending up nothing to anyone. Use your new found brand identity and carry it under or over or around your center name.  

Preach about it inside of the center; use it as an intro statement in your PA announcements: add it to your hello speech when you answer the phone.  {“Thank You for Calling Happy Lanes, Home of the Best Birthday Parties, This is Fred, How May I Help You Today?} Do not abandon or be derelict in executing this approach.  It will build your business if you treat it gently. And if you build credibility for the position with testimonials, great stories and picture support, you will grow your business. 

There is one caveat to this whole message.  You really do have to be the best at what you proclaim; no BS allowed and you have to defend and grow that position every chance you get which is every day of the week, 52 weeks a year...

10 Holiday Marketing Tips to Get You Focused NOW

It was 4:12 this morning, when I pulled into my local gas station for a quick cup of coffee and a two pack of Entenmanns chocolate donuts.

My friend “Focus” was there. “Focus” is a Jamaican man in his mid 30’s who pulls the 12am to 8am shift six days a week.  We talk about his “happy island,” my travel, the Giant’s game and then I am gone, off to catch another plane to another great client.

Somehow I can’t stop thinking about “Focus” and what he said as I was leaving.  “Yoh mon,” he said, “I got my name because my mother and father wanted a baby boy very much and my father used to say to my Mother, Now, Nan, you focus on what you want and you want dat baby boy, you focus on getting him.  So after all the months, my father was saying to my mother, ‘Focus’ she was pregnant, she decided to call me “Focus.” “And that’s a true story", he said through a broad smile and a quick laugh.

I thought that was pretty cool, but the message about focusing on what you want stuck with me.

In the darkness of the highway, I started to formulate all the things I needed to get my clients to focus on…at least through the end of the year.

So while I don’t compute and drive any more, I can voice record., I created a checklist of marketing and service items, upon which, you might need some additional focus.

1.    Send one more email blast to your company data base, targeting smaller companies with 15 to 50/75 employees within 3 miles of your center, offering them a lane package of $99 to $149 per lane depending on your market. Package is valid for up to 5 people and would include a buffet of appetizers like pizza bites (cut your pizza into squares), chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers and some veggies and dips.

2.     Follow up with phone calls to those who hit your website and invite them in to see the center.

3.    Be sure you have two or three league concepts- to start in January - on your site, on fliers and prepared for emailing and face booking.

4.    Retrain the staff, before thanksgiving, about the importance of customer service.  If you want a power point presentation on it, drop me an email to fredkaplowitz@gmail.com and I’ll send it off to you.

5.    Examine your pricing. The weekend before Thanksgiving (like this coming weekend) is the perfect time to raise your prices. Kids back from colleges and families who haven’t been to see you since last year have no idea what the price is and given that the average league bowler bowls about 2.3 times annually, in your center, price increases of fifty cents to $1 should not get much pushback. Please remember FREDQUARTERS MARKETING RULE #121 on Pricing:  If 15% of the people aren’t complaining about your price…it’s too low!

6.    By this time your thanksgiving programs, emails and blog efforts as well as robo calls should be set up to communicate your Wednesday night (TG EVE) special edition cosmic night along with  any programs you have, if you are open on Thanksgiving.

7.    Get names, get names and get names during this holiday weekend. Make a PA announcement that you are giving away a $50 of open play bowling and that you or one of your team members will be coming down to get your entry. Do this every 90 minutes all day and all night. Be sure this sign up card has age and gender questions as well as questions about:
               a. Are you interested in receiving information about  (check all that apply)

                                          i.    Short season bowling? _______

                                        ii.    Company parties?  _________

                                       iii.    Fundraising _____________

                                       iv.    Birthday parties _______

8.    Focus on planning for new years eve NOW and get that communication plan together so you can at least speak to some of the families or seniors who will be coming in over the TG holiday weekend

a.    Family parties.  (When, What, Price, Promotion, ROI, new concept to delight and surprise.)

b.    Adult parties or NOT (When, What, Price, Promotion, ROI, new concept to delight and surprise.)

9.    Become a more visible part of the community.  Become a drop off point for Toys for Tots or collecting food for the homeless people or clothes for the poor.  Not only are these great causes, but you will get some notoriety about your community efforts.  It’s good for the community and good for you.

10.  Be not afraid of doing something different; creating change and pushing the outer limits of the envelope.  (I.e.) Get a live band for the Wednesdys before TG; have a petting zoo in your parking lot for the kids; get a magician for your Saturday night Cosmic.  Get the idea? :)

After all, the holiday season is upon us.

Purposeful Marketing

No its not about cause marketing, environmental marketing or even green marketing; this is a blog about the purpose of your marketing.


A few friends and faithful followers of ye olde blog will say, "Fred, "don't be silly. You know, I know and all your readers know the purpose of all marketing is to ultimately sell something, so whats up?

"Well" says I,  "Me thinks the purpose of marketing is to create change. For example you are planning to do a presentation to the local Chamber of Commerce about your company's party offerings and fund raising abilities and you are struggling with how to get it focused and directed..

First, realize you're not going to get any one to go gaga and throw thousands of dollars at you during that meeting.

Second, at best - and your goal should be this - to change some attitudes about viewing bowling as a corporate event venue or fund raising venue.  

Third, you want this change to open doors for you; to create possibilities.  Ultimately, you want this presentation to lead to action; to making a sale.

But if you're subconscious goal is to get out of this presentation without getting barraged with negative questions, then you will build a presentation that will merely entertain and waste people's time.  And they will recognize that in a heart beat and tune you out equally as fast.

So go back to the drawing board and realize that every presentation, every ad campaign, every flier, every facebook post, and every email you send has one reason for existence: to change someones mind from either apathy to yes or from no to yes (the latter being more difficult and requiring much more thought and planning) and question: is your message  attempting an attitudinal change; is your tone inviting; does your graphics say "come in and spend 30 seconds of your precious time with me"? Do your testimonials seem substantive and verifiable?  Is your guarantee real? Is your offer too good to be true and therefore too easily to be picked apart by the skeptics that lurk in all of us? 

If your marketing doesn't create change; you have failed. Game over.

But if you do create some change and offer some outrageous program that actually gets accepted, two things will happen.  You will be expected to do it all the time., and that's OK because it will push you every time, even though you may not succeed every time.  But at least you went all out!  Or you might shrink back from the outrageous and do the safe and secure. In that case you would fail again.

In the end, it is far easier to do a "mediocre -i-don't-really-care" job then to create change that says "I- really- give- a- damn." But you can't because the change you strive for, just might make a real difference! 

Coloring Outside The Lines

7:45am this morning found Marie and I on a Delta flight to Pittsburgh to visit our daughter, son in law and new grand-dogger, "Mavis," a cute brown and white 4 month old Labradoodle.

Only 17 people boarded the plane and all but one of us sat in first class. 16 empty seats with pillows, blankets and real hot coffee and maybe a sticky bun.

I was looking for rooting for Delta to do something different that wouldn't have cost them very much, but would have made 16 great impression and no doubt hundreds and hundreds of great word of mouth impressions, Facebook posts, twitter tweets and who knows what else.

But when I asked the head flight attendant if we all couldn't sit in first class, she gave me a look as if I had burped her baby backwards. "Oh no, we couldn't possibly do that", she exclaimed.  "And why not, I said, "it would be a great good will gesture and wouldn't cost anything."  She laughed at me and said, "Oh no, I would be fired for that."  "Really", I said, "what a shame," as I walked away shaking my head in despair.

Isn't it crazy in a day and age where we are all fighting for customers and doing everything possible to get and retain customers that a simple act of doing something unexpected and delightful, that would have exceeded expectations, was nipped in the bud because this person just couldn't imagine coloring outside of the lines.

No doubt our employees are often as guilty as the Delta flight attendant described previously.  Maybe we are too. Maybe we just have too many rules; too many policy manuals; and too many penalties too soon for doing something different.  Maybe we are too jaded as well.  (I had one proprietor tell me what a great business this is, if it wasn't for the customers.) Yikes!!

So loosen the reins a bit, give your employees the opportunity to do something great.  Lead them, teach them and  set the example yourself.  Who knows, you may just be talked about all over the Internet as being a business that ACTUALLY exceeded your customers expectations.

And wouldn't that be cool?

"Last Minute Louie" is a Marketing Opportunity for Your Business.

Many of us tend to be “Last Minute Louies.”  We procrastinate, put off and wait until the last minute to do anything.  That mode of operation has worked for us in the past, so why shouldn’t it work now?  Yes, most of the time it does, but every now and then, you come up short and there is no way to fix it.

With the holiday season approaching, there are a lot of corporate “Last Minute Louies” out there that haven’t planned or even thought about their company party…which means a lot of opportunity for you and your center.

Try to craft a story about your “Last Minute Louieness” and communicate that to a prospective corporate decision maker; maybe it goes something like this:

“Dear Executive;

Last year, I had a big problem and I need your help.

You see, my business, Happy Lanes located at ________ was getting ready to host company parties, when on December 10^th  I received not one, but three desperate calls from company executives, requesting time at Happy Lanes to have their company party.  They had heard about what a great time other people had and how affordable it was that they wanted to get in on the fun too.

Unfortunately I had to turn them away, because I had no room.  This year I called them in October and reminded them about last year’s problem and they quickly reserved their holiday party with "the friendlies" at Happy Lanes.

So I am asking, if you know anybody who hasn’t made company holiday plans or who hasn’t gotten that task off their desk, would you please, please  tell them that we still have some openings, but I know after this email is read, my phone will start ringing. 

So please, tell a friend today. And remember, “Friends don’t let friends go without a great company holiday party.”

Yours Truly,

Sam Proprietor                                                                                                                     

Happy Lanes

P.S. Oh yes one more thing.  Please tell them if they reserve their party before (date) they’ll get a $100 discount. I just feel so bad for these “Last Minute Louies” that I want to help them out.”  

P.P.S. You know what, tell them that if they dont like their party or if we didn't meet or exceed their expectations, I'll give them back all of their money. If we didn't deliver the goods, they don't have to pay. Thanks for your help...and for your time.

   With that email letter in hand, I would send emails to my entire “company data base.” 

You do have a company data base don’t you. No?  Ok, Google www.Infousa.com  and follow the instructions on how to find out how many companies are within (x) miles of your center.  Then follow the instructions to find out which companies have employees over (Y) number of employees and under (Y) number for employees.

I usually look for companies with over 15 employees to about 75 because these companies are probably privately owned and don’t necessarily have stringent "corporate" deadlines and reporting dictates…and probably haven’t booked their party yet. 

But I would also get a sample of 75+ companies and mail them the letter too, just to test Fred’s theory. (What works in one market doesn’t always work in other markets, right?)

Buy about 2,000 addresses. Even if there are no emails associated with the title you want (smaller companies, the title is President; bigger companies the title is VP of Human Resources). 

But as a marketer who believes in “frequency”, I would email and mail at the same time.  Maybe even a fax!

This may cost you about $500 for the names and if you had to MAIL all of them at 46 cents; it would be an additional $920 in postage and about $100 to print the letter on you stationery.

So your investment is about $1400.  That’s 3 $466 parties or 6 $233 parties.  As a percent of the 2,000 mailings, that would be between .003% to .006%...less than one third of a percent.  

What are you waiting for?

If you like this idea, just go do it. (You already have the start of a story letter above. It just needs your center’s personal touch). 

Otherwise, you’ll be a “Last Minute Louie” too J

Why Not?

I noticed that Sunday night football reached 26.4 million viewers, a 54% increase over last year’s same Sunday’s audience.  Now, of course this was the Denver Broncos with Payton Manning returning to play his old team, the Indy Colts.  The hype built around this event was huge and it worked. Over 26 million people watched the game.

So strong was the appeal of the star, Payton Manning, that some fans wore football jerseys to the game that had half a Denver Bronco side and half a Colts side stitched together.  Some fans cried when he was introduced proclaiming that “he put Indianapolis on the map”).  Gee, I always thought it was there already.  The city of Indy was out in full force. Record numbers of people in bars and restaurants watching the game were reported.  It was shockingly amazing, but not unexpected, especially when the majority of a city rallies around ITS team.

So why doesn’t bowling have city teams from NY to LA and as many points in between as possible.  Isn’t this the next step for the PBA?  Real teams, mascots, naming rights. divisional series, championship series  and of course our very own “Super Bowling Champion Game.” (The photo on this page was from the 1954 Pfeiffer Bowling Team out of Detroit, Photo courtesy of Jimmy Carter)

Franchises could be sold to high net worth individuals; TV rights obtained and players drafted to play on a team with a schedule of X# of “Baker format” games so sponsorships could be sold locally and nationally.  Fan loyalty for their city’s team would grow and people would show up to watch the games. Heck, proprietors could even sell peanuts, popcorn and cracker jacks!

Why not?

Database or Mailing List?

I know that lots of you have moved towards a database where you can send out emails promoting your open play specials, special events and league programs.  But while only 13% or less of your database opens anything you send, you still keep on sending.  Why?

Many of you don't have gender or age variables in your database so if you're one of these folks, know that you're cosmic bowling mailing could be going to a 49 yr old Mom whose kids are out of the house and your offer to her is irrelevant.  Or the offer you sent to her about bringing her kids to your Halloween party; yup also irrelevant.  And then you sent her a "Rocking Thanksgiving Eve" cosmic promotion; equally as irrelevant. and guess what? She finally opts out, because you are, in her mind, sending her spam...and lots of it!!

As a side bar, even if you ONLY send her relevant offers, she will probably opt out any way.  Email cannot and should not be used as a substitute for direct mail.  If you are only using it to sell, sell, sell, you are driving away potential customers.  Go ahead and check it.    How many people have opted out of your email list in the past year. If you don't know how to check this, go to "Google Analytics" and follow the instructions.  You might be surprised...and not in a good way.  Please, use the social media tools you have to be social...not just to "selly, sell"

So the first thing you need to do is get birth dates. why not send out an email asking your audience to complete a small survey and in exchange you will send them a coupon worth $10 of free bowling (if they spend $20 or more. Ask them their gender and birthday month and year.  Then ask them what other activities they do in their spare time.

No, you won't get 100% completion, but you will get a start. NOW if you make this survey a part of every email you send out, you will start to get more and more and pretty soon you will have segments by age and gender to which you can send RELEVANT COMMUNICATIONS that more closely align to their predispositions and preferences.

The secret here is this in order to have a database you need to have data besides an email and an address.  Google has made billions on learning your preferences and selling these to advertisers to send you RELEVANT communications pertaining to what you bought in the past.

While you may not have the software horsepower to be that sophisticated, you can keep asking questions, keep collecting information and over time have a much clearer picture of WHO your customer is for a specific product that you
are selling.

Here are some examples of the kinds of information, over and above gender and birth date, you might want to collect?

1. Are you interested in receiving information about birthday parties?  Yes___
2. Are you interested in receiving information about company parties and group outings? Yes____
3. Are you interested in receiving information about short season bowling programs? Yes______
4. How frequently do you think you would go bowling, over the course of a year, if you knew you could get a 15% discount every time you went?   none___  one ____ two___  three____ four____ five to seven____ 8 to 10___  11 or more_____
5. What is your favorite food you would like to eat while bowling?  ________________
6. What is your favorite beverage to drink while bowling?  ______________________

People love to tell you what they think and if you publish this information back to them, you will be involving them in your business, thus creating some loyalty resulting in more visits and more answers to your questions.

Information is power. Go be powerful.