Monthly Archives: January 2014

January 10, 2014 · 12:05 pm

Is All You Can Eat Bad Business?

Foodie Friday, and this week I had a number of food related items from which to choose.

SpiceMarket Buffet American food

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One thing I noticed this week kept popping into my brain, however, and so that will be our topic today.  This was the item:

Starting January 2, 2014, you’ll want to head to your local IHOP® restaurant because “All You Can Eat Pancakes,” a perennial favorite among guests, is back for a limited time.

I preface what I’m about to say with an acknowledgment that there are few things more obnoxious than a reformed anything ramble on about their former addiction.  Like many folks, mine was sugar and carbs.  With that disclaimer, I think we all know there is an epidemic of obesity in this country.  Each of those (quite tasty) IHOP pancakes is roughly 150 calories and 22 net grams of carbs.  That’s as many calories as a large York Peppermint Patty and as many carbs as two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – the big ones.  As a once in a while indulgence, they’re a treat.  As an “all you can eat” incentive, they’re deadly.

Besides the ranting, I do have a business point to make.  IHOP isn’t alone in the food business in using the promise of low prices or vast quantities of food for the money to attract business.  I suppose this seems like a customer-centric way to market.  Dollar menus and all you can eat buffets are staples of our food culture.  However, while these promotions seem customer friendly, I would ask how friendly it is to kill off the customers sooner.  So much for average lifetime value!  How friendly is it to promote something that can lead to serious health issues?  It’s interesting to me that we forbid cigarette advertising and put warning labels on the packs but unlimited calories, carbs, and fat are all seen as virtuous offerings.

The food business isn’t the only one at fault in terms of promoting one thing and delivering another.  Anything that’s presented as all you can eat often has strings attached.  Take “unlimited” data plans.  Some wireless carriers won’t sell them any more.  I have one grandfathered in, although I know once I get to some point each month the speed gets cut back.  Some ISP’s throttle back speeds or charge more once certain limits are hit despite that usually being buried in the fine print.  Consumer centric?  I’ve seen ads for “unlimited” green’s fees for one price at golf courses only to find that a cart fee is due every round. False advertising?

I don’t think businesses need to “nanny” their customers.  If someone chooses to eat a lot of unhealthy food, so be it.  There is nutrition information on the walls of most quick service and family restaurants and I’ve never seen a line waiting to read it.  I’m not sure, however, that we ought to be in the business of encouraging it nor making it the center of our marketing.  I also think the marketing needs to be clear about what “unlimited” means.  What do you think?

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January 9, 2014 · 11:50 am

Mom and Pops

Before we get too far into the new year I wanted to write about something I saw over the holiday.  We have several very good local news sites here and there was a piece on one of them about local merchants and how they’re having difficulty competing both the online retailers and the national chains.  What was interesting to me was how almost every one of the merchants quoted focused almost entirely on price competition.  Many also mentioned “showrooming” – looking at goods in a store but buying the online where they’re usually less expensive.

The same day I read a report on a paper issued by Silverpop.  As MediaPost wrote:

Apple, Lexus and Amazon.com have transcended prices and features to create compelling and fulfilling customer experiences, says the report. They’ve embraced the customer revolution and are raising customer expectations for every other business.  A recent study reported that 83% of consumers are willing to spend more on a product or service if they feel a personal connection to the company. And one fifth said they would pay 50% more if they felt the company put the customer first, points out the study.

The paper talks a lot about how retailers can integrate data with the in-store experience and how that can then move across from the real world into the digital world.  You can read the specific suggestions in the piece.  For example, I wonder how many of the local guys quoted routinely gather email addresses in store and communicate in a way that helps them understand and reflect the customer’s needs and preferences?  I’ve had retailers ask for my email (and physical) address but inevitably they end up sending me a catalog, not something tailored to my buying interests.

The end of the MediaPost article states it nicely:

In 2014, marketers will have two choices, says the report they can keep running marketing for marketers, delivering generic promotional messages when the company has an offer it wants to push out, and focusing solely on driving customer transactions. Or, they can start running marketing for customers, delivering content uniquely tailored to each individual’s needs and expectations.

That’s how marketing has evolved over the last decade.  The big guys are learning it and the Mom and Pop retailers must if they are to survive.  It must be for customers, not for marketers.  Do you agree?

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January 8, 2014 · 10:29 am

The Dishonor Unroll

If you are a typical email user your box probably gets a fair amount of mail each day that’s not exactly spam but also not of huge interest to you.

Image representing unroll.me as depicted in Cr...

Image via CrunchBase

That mail may come from companies or services to which you’ve subscribed (probably when you signed up and didn’t uncheck the “send me news” box) but for which you don’t have any great need of immediate news. If you’re a power email user you’ve probably figured out how to set up filters in your email client to dump those mails into a folder you can check later. For the rest of us there’s Unroll.me.

Unroll.me is a service that does just that. As they put it, you can unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions, discover new ones and organize them all in one place. From that they create what they call a Rollup:

The Rollup is a digest that gives you an overview of all the subscriptions you receive each day. The Rollup will keep your inbox clean by organizing the subscriptions you receive into a daily digestible email.

The screed today isn’t a love note to the service although I do use it and find it useful.  As you might imagine, the company collects an awful lot of information about who is subscribed to what since it is granted permission to look at your email stream.  It also knows what percentage of people who subscribe to something either unsubscribe or send the mail to the Rollup and not to the inbox.  They stopped over 1 billion emails from reaching their users’ inboxes in 2013.  And from whom do those emails come?

Funny you should ask.  Unroll.me just published lists of the companies who get dumped and who get aggregated.  These are the companies from which users unsubscribe:

  1. 1800 Flowers — 52.50% unsubscribe rate
  2. Ticketweb — 47.50% unsubscribe rate
  3. Pro Flowers — 45.10% unsubscribe rate
  4. Expedia — 45.00% unsubscribe rate
  5. Active.com — 44.70% unsubscribe rate
  6. Eventful — 44.20% unsubscribe rate
  7. Oriental Trading — 43.60% unsubscribe rate
  8. Shopittome.com — 42.10% unsubscribe rate
  9. 1800 Contacts — 42.00% unsubscribe rate
  10. Party City — 41.60% unsubscribe rate

I’ve only listed the top 10 – the link will show you more.  Now if I’m on the above list I’d be asking myself why.  I can answer the question:  you’re not providing anything of value.  My guess is the mails tend to be about you and not about your customers.  Perhaps you’re opting people in for your mail as a default instead of allowing them to make the choice.  Compare that list with the Top 10 most rolled up companies:

  1. Hulu — 61.60% Rollup rate
  2. AmazonLocal Deals — 46.00% Rollup rate
  3. GoDaddy — 44.40% Rollup rate
  4. Codecademy — 40.50% Rollup rate
  5. Google Offers — 39.00% Rollup rate
  6. Evernote — 36.40% Rollup rate
  7. Microsoft — 34.90% Rollup rate
  8. About.me — 34.40% Rollup rate
  9. Groupon — 32.80% Rollup rate
  10. LivingSocial Deals — 32.40% Rollup rate

These guys are offering value although not enough so that users feel the need to see their news immediately.  Not awful, but if you’re in a time-based offer business like GroupOn or LivingSocial, this could be a problem.

If your business uses email for communication, think about what, how, and how often you’re using that list to communicate.  Time is a precious commodity and all of us have less of it than we’d like.  To get customers to give your mail some of that time you need to provide value – a return on that time investment.  Otherwise, unsubscribes result and you’re on the list next year.  Not a place I’d like to be.  You?

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