CP&I Marketing

A large drop in sales- we are seeing this with restaurants across the country, and Denver hasn’t been unaffected.  The economic slowdown is keeping people in their homes for meals instead of in your restaurant, and your numbers are down 10, 20,maybe even 30%.  You need to turn this around, and we’ve got the experience to help you do it.  Pat Diggles, one of two Co-Founders here at CP&I, has over 20 years of experience managing restaurants, on top of his 13+ years of marketing experience.  This has allowed CP&I to help many restaurants in the Denver area stay in front of their target sales numbers and combat the recession.  If you aren’t satisfied with your current marketing team, or are looking for a team with years of restaurant and marketing experience, give us a call and let us see how we can help.

Here’s an article from the Denver Business Journal talking about some creative ways restaurants and retailers have combatted lower spending by customers.

There is a great article in the Harvard Business Review (only available in subscription) this month about the AFLAC duck and how the idea originated.  Before the duck, AFLAC had a 12% name recognition, and after the first test audience, the duck drew 27%.  The CEO had to choose between the duck and another safer idea that featured Ray Romano during the height of “Everyone Loves Raymond”, which drew an 18% response from the same testing.

The idea originated when a member of the ad team they hired to rebrand them kept saying “It’s Aflac- Aflac- Aflac- Aflac,” when a coworker asked what the name of the company was.  He thought it sounded like a duck.

Luckily for AFLAC, they went with the bold new idea and they saw unprecedented growth and name recognition. It has become one of the most recognizable brands in any market, not just insurance.  Here is the first AFLAC duck commercial.

In our Continuing series of the Top 10 Reasons NOT to Advertise for your Business:

Reason #6:  Your bank called and said your operating account is full!

Your business has been doing so well throughout this so called “recession” that you’ve reach your checking and savings account limits at the bank.  If you advertised your business, you’d have to open up ANOTHER bank account, at a different bank and go through that whole process all over again.  And what happens when that account fills up?  Another bank account!?!  No.  Clearly, you and your business don’t need any more customers giving you any more money this year.

Like they always say, “Mo Money, Mo Problems!”

In our Continuing series, the Top 10 Reasons NOT to Advertise for your business, here is Reason #7:  You run your business the way your grandfather ran it!

Advertising is like Exercise- Who needs it!?!

If it worked in the 1920’s, it should work today, right?  Who needs the newfangled  Television to let people know about our business, let alone that “interweb!”  Advertising is for other businesses, one’s that don’t have 3 generations of relationships in this town.  We will be fine advertising in the Farmer’s Almanac, just like we’ve always done!

Not every business uses advertising to spread the word about what they have to offer to the public. They have their reasons for doing so. Here is #8 on that list:

#8:  You thoroughly enjoy driving your 9 year old car that your Dad gave you!

As you’ve told all 5 of your dates over the past few years, “Having two bumpers was killing your gas milage,” which is why you still haven’t replaced it.  Or the passenger side door after that accident.

This is a segment from CNBC that ran Oct 19th called “Turning Audiences Into Advocates”, talking with IBM’s Social Marketing Manager and Wired.com’s New York chief.  They discuss why it is so important to be a part of the conversation about your company on social networks, and how if you aren’t, you are missing a huge opportunity to participate with and engage your audience. To give you an example, IBM has 17,000 company blogs written by employees with no editorial oversight.
Don’t let your competitors be the only one talking- make sure your company’s voice is heard, too.

News item of the day- google and Bing will now be including twitter and Facebook tweets/posts in their real-time search results. This means that staying involved with the current conversation is becoming more and more important. And that’s why I’m here! Take a look at the article.

“Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft
has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook
updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to
search results.”

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/10/21/facebook-and-twitter-now-more-important-to-search-rankings

Reason #9 (why NOT to advertise for your business)

9.  Your brother-in-law opened an advertising agency!

It’s in the bag.  Your brother-in-law is going to handle it for you, free of charge and right away!  He’s not really that busy at work, anyways, and he really really likes you and how you’ve stolen his sister away from the family.  Problem solved!

We’ve been hearing the same questions over and over from our clients in recent months, all about Social Marketing. Is Social Marketing important? Why is it worth while investing in? What can it do for my business? What concrete results can we see from our investment in Social Marketing, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube?
We keep going over the basics with our clients, answering very similar questions to ones we fielded 10 years ago about whether or not it was necessary to have a website for their business. That answer seems pretty obvious today, as these questions about Social Marketing will a few years from now. One of the main issues with convincing people of Social Marketing’s staying power and relevance is having hard data to support it. Since it’s such a new concept, the data hasn’t been readily available- until now. This video uses verifiable data to support the claim that Social Marketing is here to stay, and in a BIG way. Take a look.

This video was made by XPlane.com, copywrited 2009

Let’s embrace these changes and make them work for your business. The bottom line behind Social Marketing is that there are now more ways to connect with your customers and provide them with valuable information about your company. But only if you are engaging with Social Media.

Not every business uses advertising to spread the word about what they have to offer to the public. They have their reasons for doing so. Here is #10 on that list:

10. Golfing is more fun than work! Duh! With less business coming through the door, you’ll finally have time to work on your backswing, and be able to finally earn that 15 handicap you’ve always said you have.