Vantage Point

Strategic marketing concepts and business observations. Small business start-up experiences.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

To China Coast:

You have worked hard and reached a profitable point in your business and now it's time to assess the situation and develop a five year plan. I will assume that you want to maximize profits and build a business that you can later sell to provide retirement income.

Your success to-date has been from selling your merchandise at local antique and crafts shows. Secondarily you have built a following of antique dealers and home designers who purchase at wholesale. Your website has pulled in favorable comments but is only providing supplemental income and has been difficult to keep maintained with fresh merchandise.

You have indicated that you prefer to primarily be a retailer so my comments will be based on that premise. Your merchandise is largely Chinese "country" antiques - good quality and priced reasonably. Keeping that focus is important as you build your brand and expand your customer base.

(to be continued . . .)

.: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:15 PM

Friday, May 16, 2003

To The St. Petersburg Times:

You are such an impressive newspaper to be coming from this community. It gives me hope that Pinellas County isn't a total write-off. In particular the SPT has written many investigative articles that are thorough and well done. To mind come - Reverend Lyons as well as Lisa McPherson and the Scientologists. I also appreciate the affiliation with the New York Times so that I can read the columns by Thomas Friedman and others during this war-torn time. One area extremely inadequate is the Business Section. I remember being shocked when I first moved here that they didn't even have an elementary listing of the foreign exchange rates. I realize that the local business community is relatively small but there are some subscribers that ache for national and global business information.

More amazing to me was the marketing decision to invest a wealth of money into The St Pete Times Forum, the Tampa event center. If it had been my decision, first I would have pumped up the business section, then I would get visibility on television before paying millions for the Forum naming rights. Possibly you were competing with the Tampa Tribune - I don't know.

But you NEED TO BE ON TV! The Tribune is - because it has common ownership with one of the local stations (grandfathered to bypass media regulations). The SPT should parlay on its investigative expertise and work up an affiliation with Channel 10 who also has a good, respected investigative reporter, Mike Deeson. You could sponsor his reports and get the first right to publish the story in their paper the following morning. Your motto is "Tell the Truth". That would be so powerful to market on television. Why are you missing the boat?

Sincerely,

Vantage Point

.: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:05 PM

Courage International - a charitable organization providing nurishment and education for children ages 3-12.

Why don't educators work more with the buddy system where children with acquired skills teach them to younger ones? Is it a matter of protecting the learning child's self-esteem?

.: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:02 PM

[3/30/2003 12:47:29 PM | Carol Gamel]
To whomever has the gift shop and refreshment concession at Ft. DeSoto Park -

The opportunity to generate more money abounds! Some investment is required but remember the old adage, "It takes money to make money." Frankly, the place needs help . . . For starters:

1. Change your hours to be: From Sunrise to Sunset.
2. Start the day, everyday with a recording of Reville.
3. End each day at Sunset with a recording of Taps. Entertain the thought of having a live horn blower for the weekends, or at least for holidays.
4. In the mornings offer goooood coffee, cappuchino, lattes, or such along with fruits, juice, and rolls. Turn on the classical music and offer newspapers and magazines.
5. During the day, crank up the tempo of the music to make it livelier and livelier. By late afternoon, it should be salsa or merengue, something fun.
6. Ask the park for more outside concrete umbrella tables for the uncovered patio area.
7. Make room in the gift shop for nice tables and chairs where people can sit in air conditioning or protected from the rain.
8. Find some historical memoribilia for souveniers. Play up the Spanish American War action! Be creative here.
9. Have good food, refreshing drinks, and reasonable prices.
10. Your "team" should be friendly, clean, consistently dressed. Can you come up with a Spanish American War "costume", or at least a hat that would be different? Something you could also sell as a souvenier?

There's no rocket science in these thoughts. It just pains me to see a wasted opportunity.

Sincerely,

Vantage Point

.: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:00 PM

To Home Shopping Network:

HSN needs to turn themselves around and catch up with the imitators that left them in the dust. A simple, inexpensive way to start moving in a better direction is to embrace a new tagline that is pertinent to their audience as well as their team of employees.

HSN - WHERE SHOPPING IS FUN & EASY.

A simple yet powerful statement with profound impact. It goes back to the roots of the business where show hosts used to honk horns when items sold out and customers testimonials were novel on TV. They were having fun! Now when you tune in a shopping channel, it can be same ol', same ol'. How boring! Imagine having fun new products and the exciting on-air buzz that can be created. Imagine shooting the show in front of an audience or touring the country going from city to city bringing people INTO the programming. Imaging the back-end systems finding ways to make it easier for the customer, not harder and more frustrating. Imagine the customer service opportunities when everybody has a better attitude.

You can go on and on and on building the enthusiasm back into the business by allowing the employees to find ways to make shopping FUN & EASY.

Sincerely,

Vantage Point