Stever Robbins over at HBS Working Knowledge has some excellent Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload.
His examples of good & bad emails are quite illustrative. My 2 favorite suggestions:
Related Posts:
Get Your Email Read with Specific, Compelling Subject Lines
Better Email Tips
“If your paper is worth so much (and it is), and you want to charge for it, how about charging for fresh news, and giving away the stale stuff?”
The ‘more-for-new-less-for-old’ model is a good one. Let’s take a look a couple industries where it seems to work well:
Back to the newspaper business. If I want the latest, most up-to-date reporting, I turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper, or more likely, head to a news-provider’s website via Google News. Always free (if not heavily subsidized). If I want to link to their specific article in this weblog, you (the reader) will need either register or pay to have any context.
This is a disincentive for me to link to the newspaper’s articles. Thereby artificially limiting the useful life of the article (what’s being called the long tail).
This is fine if newspapers are actually in the fish-wrap business. In that case, the paper itself is the most valuable. The usefulness is not in the reporter’s words but in the fish, birdcage, or compost bin the paper eventually lines. Not a message I would send to the beat reporters.
A few months back, I heard the president of Schwan’s Foods talk. From his perspective, Schwan’s isn’t in the frozen food business as much as the food delivery business. Just like Amazon & Wal-Mart not being in the retail business, more the logistics and fulfillment business.
These slight shifts in perspective make a huge difference in your implementation and customer relationship.
If newspapers are in-fact still in the news business, the need to explore avenues that customers readers (not advertisers) will finance. Along the lines of Jupiter Research. Otherwise, they’re a history lesson just like the recording, oil, and airline industries.
A couple days back, I wrote a half-formed rant on the current state of department stores (Picky Customer or Circling Vulture). This morning, while skimming my blogroll [opml] in search of a pick-me-up, Hugh McLeod 1) knees me in the groin 2) points and laughs. He did both in his Cheapest or Best post.
First, his enigmatic business card cartoon:
“if the f’r doesn’t cost you your life, it isn’t a quest.”
Hugh, thanks, I needed the reminder. Today especially.
Second, the post reads like a better Picky Customer, with fewer words. Actually, I should just replace that post with these 2 thoughts from Hugh:
“You have no automatic right to revenue.”
“We are now moving into a world where you have two basic survival choices:”
- “You can be the cheapest.”
- “You can be the best.”
“There is no middle option.”
Amen. Why are department stores, commercial radio stations, hub-airlines, and advertising agencies failing left and right? In Hugh’s list of survival options, they are neither.
Choosing either cheapest or best will give people a reason to do business with you more than once. As an added Free Prize, it will inspire passion (positive and negative) all around – in customers, employees, the press. Passion always means people care and that’s why we’re all here.
UPDATE: Brand Autopsy dissects JC Penny’s Missing Middle strategy. While McLeod and current market conditions are promoting cheapest (Wal-Mart / Target) or best (Neimann Marcus / Nordstroms), JC Penny’s is firmly planting themselves in the middle. Short term, it seem to be working for them (year over year sales up 3.3%), long term it sounds like a strategy to be bought by Kmart’s real estate arm.
Jen and I went to a mall on Saturday. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a mall on a Saturday afternoon. I left buying nothing and feeling extremely uninspired to shop.
I now know why Target sold Marshall Field’s last year to May Department Stores and why May Department Stores is praying to be bought by Federated.
Like advertising, commercial radio, and the airline industry, the entire department store model is broken. It’s no longer useful to customers like you and me. Every store looks exactly the same. Each store offers the same products under the same brands, in the same colors, at the same price, with the same reason offered to buy from them – none.
Perhaps, like in commercial radio, this homogeneity is a result of consolidation. That may be. I submit consolidation itself is a result of:
Even if stores aren’t sharing inventory, they’re striving for blandness by stocking the few items that move at competitors and dumping the unique items – the ones that don’t sell. Leaving me, and I suspect, you, with a strong sense of blah.
As we walked through Marshall Fields (or was it Herbergers or was it J.C. Pennys?) the majority of the customer activity was in the inter-aisle sale racks. 50% off jewelry, 60% off menswear, racks and racks of stale inventory clogging up the aisles. That’s where the customers were. The full-price stuff getting no attention. The scene reminded me of my mom – doing the bulk of her furniture shopping at Going Out of Business sales.
Retail stores traditionally mark up their products 100%. That covers things like: the staff, the building, and the products that aren’t selling. Things that keep the business running, that keep the jobs in your neighborhood. If stores get the bulk of their business when they run sales (going out of business or otherwise),
This relationship is like that mean, yet popular high school girl telling the infatuated A/V club president, “We can be best friends as long as we never see each other.” Yes, we’re the popular high school girl and the stores are the geeky boys.
A handful of questions come to mind:
Five months ago, I was excited to see the opening of the Gate 3 Work Club in Emeryville, CA.
I completely believe in the principles;
I was skeptical that Herman Miller furnishings were necessary, and thought IKEA would be fine.
Well looks like February will be their last month open…due to funding issues.
I wish Neil Goldberg the best in the next iteration of the Work Club concept.
Best Buy has taken the first step in their persona-centric model. According to the Wall Stree Journal’s Analyzing Customers, Best Buy Decides Not All Are Welcome, the sales associates have received training to briefly interview customers to determine if they are a Barry, Jill, or Ray Buzz.
In an effort to keep their store relevant in an increasingly e-commerce industry, Best Buy is also reducing rebates, promotions, and sales. Others may disagree, though I commend them in that decision.
This was also picked up by iaslash.
The Gate 3 Work Club officially opens this week in Emeryville, CA.
The culture of work in the US is dramatically changing. No longer segregated to the industrial parks and office buildings, knowledge workers and other members of the Creative Class are more mobile, more collaborative, and more flexible with their work.
This cultural change creates an opportunity ripe for the picking. Gate 3 Work Club is the first to pluck.
Gate 3 WorkClub is a flexible, “out of the office” workspace, designed to meet your needs – whether you work for a corporation or for yourself….Gate 3 WorkClub members discover an alternative to noisy cafes and the isolation of home offices.
All the amenities of a “real” office are there:
…WiFi, conference rooms, copiers, printers, phone, mail service.
My initial reaction is that the overhead could be lower. A place like this doesn’t need to be furnished by Herman Miller, IKEA would be fine. I also say nix the workstations and wired internet – those in need of a place like this already have laptops with wifi and mobile phones.
In all, best of luck to Gate 3 Work Club on their opening. I expect to see more competitors and locations soon.
Recently, a collegue and I went to lunch at Pancheros, a 14-year old burrito chain started in Iowa City, IA. I’ve spoken about the power of lunch before as well as the lunch experience. Always enlightening. This time was no exception.
I’m a big fan of Chipotle, they’ve taken the Subway model and transferred it to Burritos. In the process, created the fastest growing resturant segment and an engaging write-up in Trading Up: The New American Luxury.
Rather, I thought it was Subway, until I stepped into Pancheros.
The process at both Pancheros and Chipotle are identical; start with the burrito, then rice, beans, meat selection, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and greens.
The difference is at the start; Chipotle has pre-pressed burritos that are steamed for each order, Panchero’s creates each burrito fresh from a ball of dough for each order.
According to Pancheros website, freshly-pressed burritos were introduced in 1998 – as Pancheros’ differentiator I suspect, for that was about the time I discovered Chipotle.
Bad idea.
This was the Panchero’s order-taker’s process I observed:
Compare this against Chipotle’s order process:
As I discussed in my 5 Organizational Tips from Academia entry, the infrastructure is often the bottleneck to greater capacity. Panchero’s capacity is being limited by their fresh-pressing.
If you have both in your neighborhood, pick a nice day and stop by both. I predict the Chipotle will have a line out the door and the Panchero’s might have 10 people in queue.
What should Panchero’s do? I recommend taking a cue from Baja Sol Tortilla Grill and differentiate on offering and freshness.
Big box retailers are continuing their search for the Holy Grail of Retail – increasing merchandise selection without increasing real estate costs.
For years, Click’n’Pull for years. Unlike Click’n’Pull which is only available for in-store items, “Ship to Store” is only available for Wal-Mart’s web exclusive items.
This development is interesting in 3 major ways:
Dallas Morning News articles: Wal-Mart tests store pickup for online buys
Any time someone in your organization has any contact with your clients or prospects, they are performing a marketing function.
Thanks to John Jantsch for this timeless thought.