David Squires
It has been a while since I enjoyed an advertising/marketing book as much as I enjoyed Bob Hoffman's "101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising". Joyously vitriolic, the writer aims a firehose at a decade's worth of accumulated hogwash that has risen in the marketing field in the wake of the Internet's rise. To wit:
Most people like you for very specific reason.
It might be that you're the only store around that carries David Yurman. Or maybe it's your own award-winning custom designs. Perhaps it's the free jewelry insurance you offer with major purchases. Or it could well be the music you play in your store. Maybe it's the fact that your ads make people laugh. Or because they love coming to your Monday night football game-watching parties. It might be your collection of estate jewelry from Hollywood stars of yesteryear. Or it could be the oatmeal-raisin cookies you serve. (And that great, fresh-baked cookie smell.) It might be something as small as the way your doorperson says "Hey-hey, whaddaya say?" when a customer arrives.
The arrival of the Las Vegas shows marks many retailers' annual opportunity to shrink and simplify their list of suppliers.
Of course, most retailers don't look at it that way, and continue to spread themselves and their inventory ever more thinly over a wider range of suppliers.
We've got some fresh video on our site of one of our 2012 "America's Coolest Stores" winners, Worthmore Jewelers, who were spotlighted in the March 2013 edition of INSTORE.
I love Mark Twain. There's never been anybody better at saying smart things in a way even the dumbest person could understand.
In honor of the debut of Baz Lurhmann's "The Great Gatsby" (based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel), which earned a robust $50 million over the weekend, we asked INSTOREMAG.COM readers to send us their family pictures from the decade in which the movie takes place — the 1920s. Today we bring you a gallery of those images below.
This week, a few random-ish thoughts that could possibly be of use in running your business (or living your life):
Just completed "The Energy Bus" by Jon Gordon, a book that obviously has reached a responsive audience, as it remains on the business best-seller charts six years after its publication.
Okay, so some of you weren't able to get away from your stores for a day or two to come see us at the SMART Show Chicago. Tough luck, but we understand.
Retailers Rate the Show: 'Amazing', 'Insane', 'Intense'
A gallery of retailer reactions to the education program at this year's SMART Show:
