It May Be A Little Unnerving To Stand In Front of a 10-Foot Tall Picture Of Your Face...
How A Portland Remodeler Fared 90% Better At This Year’s Home Show:
A Few Minor Adjustments Made All The Difference In The World.
By Rich Harshaw
Note: This article is part of Monopolize Your Marketplace’s ongoing “Client Success” series. All of the information is real and current; please respect the privacy of the companies mentioned; they don’t want to be overwhelmed with questions and comments.
At the end of the day, bigger really is better.
And more is better than less.
At least when it comes to home shows, it is.
You may recall hearing about how our client Don Isaacson (a.k.a., the “Persnickety Remodeler”) who turned his home improvement website into a cash-printing machine in a previous blog post. Or you may have heard me talk about him on one of the webinars I’ve done.
So he went to the home show last year and had a good, solid response. Got a lot of home improvement leads, set lots of jobs, made good money.
But this year he wanted to do better. As he thought about what the negatives were from last year’s show, he felt like he simply didn’t have enough room to showcase everything. After all, ten linear feet is not very much room to cram a ten-foot backdrop, a couple of pop-ups, and all of your promotional materials.
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It’s Time To Officially Declare War On Krispy Kreme. This Is Going To Be Tasty.
Now That The Force Of The Brand Is In Place And Customers Have Been Recruited, The Final Blow To The Evil Empire Can Be Dealt…
By Rich Harshaw
Note: This article is part of Monopolize Your Marketplace’s ongoing “Outside The Box” series, which feature ideas, strategies, and case studies from OUTSIDE the remodeling industry, with suggestions of how to implement those ideas into your contractor marketing efforts.
Click here to read Donut Wars, Part 1 before reading below….
Episode 3: The Kill Shot
Please be advised that the following strategy is not for the faint-hearted. It would take tremendous audacity to even attempt it… and unwavering courage to follow through, especially as the opposition toughens up and strikes back. Some of you will read this and say things like “I would never do that” or “that’s totally unprofessional” or “that’s just not very nice.” If that’s you, you are cordially invited to NOT execute this strategy should you ever find yourself as the owner of a local donut shop. You can be the owner of another crummy little store that perpetually gets stomped on and is happy to just eke out a meager existence. Good luck with that.
Our program is called Monopolize Your Marketplace. Monopolize. Think about that for a minute.
The Kill Shot strategy for our little donut shop is to declare war on Krispy Kreme. Not war as in “we are going to do our very best to get as many customers as we can” war. But war as in “we are going to openly declare to the world our official intention to take you down” war.
Sorry, Krispy Kreme. You are now in our crosshairs.
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Here’s A Story Of A Puny, Rebel Marketing Force That Takes Down An Empire.
A Strategic Plan For A Little Start-Up Donut Shop To Take Down Krispy Kreme.
And Hope For Little Guys Everywhere.
By Rich Harshaw
Note: This article is part of MYM’s ongoing “Outside The Box” series, which feature ideas, strategies, and case studies from OUTSIDE contractor marketing, with suggestions of how to implement those ideas into your business.
Nothing brings joy to a Saturday morning in the Harshaw household more than a couple dozen Krispy Kreme donuts—fresh, hot, and ready to dunk in a cup of cold milk. My six locust-wannabe children can devour two dozen in approximately thirteen seconds—sprinkles and all.
So one Saturday morning when my oldest daughter reminded me she had to be at school for a band competition at 8:30, it was a perfect chance to make a run. My oldest son jumped at the chance to come with me and get the hottest of the hot right after they go through that glaze waterfall thingy. There’s nothing like father-son bonding at 240 calories and eight grams of fat per donut. Homer would be proud.
After we hastily dispatched of the flute player (more for the rest of us!), it was on to donut Shangri La. As we turned right onto Highway 26, my donut radar efficiently picked out a daring new player in the local donut scene. A new shop bearing the generic white letter sign “DONUTS” was a dead giveaway that this was a Korean-owned store. And judging by the parking lot, they weren’t experiencing the typical traffic control problems associated with Krispy Kreme grand openings. In fact, there wasn’t a single car in the lot.
My son was already locked and loaded: “Dad—check it out! A new donut shop! Let’s go there instead of Krispy Kreme. I hate Krispy Kreme. We always go to Krispy Kreme. I like the big donuts from the little shops better.”
The glaze waterfall thingy would have to wait for another day. The Koreans had just won a new customer.
No small feat considering that at approximately three miles from my house, this was the ONLY locally-owned shop in existence. Krispy Kreme had decimated the rest when they opened their mega store three or four years prior.
As we walked in, I was not surprised to see that indeed, this was a Korean shop. “Just opened?” I inquired as I approached the eager employee standing behind the counter ready to serve what appeared to be an endless and yet-untouched supply of donuts. “Three weeks open now,” came the broken-English reply. Amazing—three weeks and already the place had the look and feel of a crusty little donut shop that had been there twenty-five years.
It wasn’t dirty—but there was absolutely nothing remarkable in the entire place. The walls were all painted pale yellow, and on the left wall was the standard-issue donut shop drink cooler with sliding glass doors and an assortment of juices, milks, and energy drinks. Just past the cooler was the huge Jesus picture—the one that’s always there in these kinds of shops, unless they have the more traditional Buddha-type statues. Just below that was the seventeen-year old CD boombox playing random light rock hits from the 80s. The back wall featured a bulletin board where you could leave your business card, which caused me to think—do you really want to hire an accountant, plumber, or personal trainer you found on the bulletin board at the donut shop? A half-dozen of those flimsy little donut shop tables and chairs were in the middle of the shop for those who preferred to dine on their donuts while reading the Korean newspaper that was conveniently available. The glass cases under the counter featured a wide assortment of nice looking donuts—plus those creepy hot dog things wrapped in a bun that I’ve never really seen anyone buy.
Six dollars a dozen was the asking price on the menu board above the clerk’s head—it was the generic kind with lines on it that you can stick letters on to form whatever words and prices you want. Fancies and cream-filled would cost extra—but for regular old donuts, their price was a full dollar less than the Evil Empire was charging less than a mile down the road.
We bought my standard cache—a dozen glazed and a dozen chocolate sprinkles—plus three chocolate milks for the kiddos back home. Then, to my surprise, the lady threw in a dozen donut holes for free—a nice touch. We got out of there for just under seventeen bucks. Not too shabby.
As we drove home I couldn’t help but think that this brave little startup was doomed to be crushed by the venerable Krispy Kreme—it was only a matter of time. But it didn’t have to be this way! A savvy marketing Korean shop could take a substantial chunk out of KK’s hide if they would just employ a few simple strategies. Four strategies to be precise—detailed here for you reading pleasure, so you may be able to use them in your construction, plumber, or HVAC marketing efforts. Think of me as the holographic Princess Leah R2-D2 kept showing Luke in the original Star Wars.
Citizens, we have a plan to destroy the Evil Empire.
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Can You Handle The Truth? There Are A Few Basics You HAVE To Understand…
Listen Carefully: You Can’t Shoestring Budget Your Way To Success.
By Rich Harshaw
I had a conversation with my head of business development lately about a potential client who was struggling to commit to the amount of money we were asking him for our construction marketing services.
$599 a month.
The contractor, it seems, owns a smaller company… and that $599 a month represents a lot of money. If he gives it to us to perform our contractor marketing services, I was told, the contractor probably won’t have any money left over each month to spend on other marketing activities.
Given the fact that our primary service offering includes creating an Identity, building a killer website that converts, performing search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) services, and developing pre-positioning materials, the concern is valid that “it will take a while to develop that stuff and have it make a measurable impact on my business.”
It’s true. Our website building process takes about six months. It takes another six months after that to get your site ranking where you want it in organic search—if everything goes right. Our program is not a “give Monopolize Your Marketplace money and then take a huge check to the bank the next day” kind of program.
It’s more like building a foundation that your entire marketing program can be built on.
So I gave my head of business development some advice about selling our services to that struggling contractor:
DO NOT SELL OUR SERVICES TO THAT COMPANY. PERIOD.
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