- Posted by Paul Friederichsen on December 10, 2009
... So I Must Be Doing Pretty Darned Good!
This year at SURFACES, I’ll be in the company of two awfully smart, energetic, and knowledgeable people in the floor covering business: Scott Peron, President of Big Bob’s Flooring; and Christine Whittemore, Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now LLC, a unique consultancy she started a year ago or so. The three of us are teaching a session together entitled “Marketing in a Recession 101”. They’re giving us a three hour-length session to cover the topic, but we could go longer – there’s much to talk about.
This “great recession” has been a great hardship on a lot of dealers – indeed many of us. Many have had to pull back their advertising. Many have simply gone out of business altogether. It’s tough to hang in there, so we’re hoping this session will be a source of inspiration, encouragement, reacquainting with basic marketing ideas and practical advice and tips to take back and utilize. You see, the three of us believe in the power of marketing, especially in times like these. I heard a commercial from a media company (obviously) the other day put it this way: Not advertising to save money is like turning off your open sign to save on your electric bill. Talk about being penny wise and pound foolish!
As for me, I’m an old ad guy (guess I’ve now been the business long enough to qualify for that description) and I’ll be laying the ground-work for the session: branding. It’s foundational to everything. To get into the topic, we’ve created a fictional dealer and tell his story. We’re betting a lot of you will identify with this composite character and how he rediscovers the power locked inside his brand to survive and thrive.
Next, Scott will get you pumped-up about advertising. I met Scott a few years ago when I introduced his session at Surfaces and I’ve been a fan ever since. The guy is a walking dynamo. But equally important is his experience and skill with marketing. He’s not your typical company president (no offense to any company presidents out there) but he loves this stuff and it shows.
Our session wouldn’t be complete without the third member of our trio: Christine. She’s everybody’s favorite expert on the Internet on how to utilize Social Marketing. It’s fascinating and ever so important nowadays to business success. Christine is one of my favorite people in this business – pure class. How she’s learned all this technical stuff, I’ll never know. But she also practices what she preaches, and she’ll show you how at our session.
Branding, advertising and social marketing. Those are the big three to help you generate success with your business in this day and age. Join us! You’ll be in good company.