Tonight as I ordered take away i came across an enlighten concept from an unlikely source – My local Chinese takeaway. As i finished ordering the phone operator informed me that i should collect the food from the competitors take-away and gave me directions. I was a bit surprised and she explained how the restaurant I had called was closed for renovations and they had agreed to sever their clients during the interim.
So was this a good or bad marketing strategy?
Effectively they were giving the customers to the competition was my first reaction. But then I realised I would have gone to the competition anyway, the restaurant was closed and they were the obvious second choice. So why forward on the number and encourage the competition? Well I only have one take away number in my phone and this is now still the case. I surely would have looked up and saved the alternative if this were not the case. When they reopen i will still call that number when the need arises. Also they could / should have monetarised the customers by forwarding to a traceable phone number to get commissions.
They have a now strengthened a healthy relationship with the competition and even shared staff to help them with the increased business, keeping the staff in wages during their closure.
So by passing the sale to the competitor they lost the sale and kept ownership of the customer. By putting the customers needs first they conceded a battle and won the war, in my opinion at least.
So how can you apply this to your business? Can you establish your firm as the one that your customers turn to for all their answers? Do you make friends or foe of your competitors?
I’m was really annoyed (and slightly worried) this evening.
I got a call on my private mobile this evening, a gentleman wanted help from customer service at one of my businesses. As its outside of business hours this gent decided he’d call me on my mobile… now I don’t know this man and my personal mobile number is something very very few people have and although i like to work long hours… on a bank holiday like it is now i switch off from work, totally off.
So the obvious first question was – “Ofcourse i’ll can help you. But would you mind telling me where did you get my personal number”. He told me he looked it up. I explained it’s ex directory and not listed anywhere, thinking someone might have published it online . “Listen, it’s none of your business where I got your number, I have a problem and your gonna sort it out” – He was a Guard.
Now its not that i ever mind helping a customer, but no one likes been spoken down to, especially by someone ringing you in the middle of dinner. Since this guard has gotten my number illegally through his capacity as a guard (Is there no data protection anymore?), I was worried. Not that anything was wrong, but if a cop is the type that will break one law who knows i might find myself getting pulled over every ten minutes or worse.
So i left my dinner, luckily i hadn’t sipped the wine yet and drove into work. Traced his order and called him to tell him that it has been delivered this afternoon (it was only ordered yesterday) and was signed for by… and gave him the name of the guard on duty.
So that’s how i spent my bank holiday evening and now i’m in a foul mood….
This weekend i finally got around the putting up some content and working on the design for Zatori website. It was something that’s sat on the to do list, but had never been touched. Really do people ever get to the Important but not urgent sections of a to do list… Anyway i made it a priority this weekend and so far here’s the first draft.
Zatori Website Screen Grab
Having got some great feedback on twitter we will be lightening the theme a bit, as several people i really respect thought it was too dark – something i liked, but hey majority rule on this occasion. If any readers have any thoughts or feedback on the site i’d love to hear it.
The other interesting thing we’ve done is laid our cards on the table and spelt out what two new businesses i’d be launching in 2010. I don’t thing we’ve let the cat out of the bag, but if anyone’s interested in what industries i’m looking to shake up, visit the Zatori site.
I’ve noticed lately that many UK sites that are clearly doing over the £35,000 threshold in B2C sales to Ireland, still aren’t charging their customers Irish VAT. With the country in such a mess financially at the moment surely this kind of low hanging fruit is something revenue should be focusing in on. Eventually i would guess revenue will catch on and then they will back charge the companies for the VAT they should have been charging.
So to my fellow E-Entrepreneurs if your delivering into Ireland and make over the threshold in sales, get registered to save yourself some unexpected audits and penalties.
I’m delighted to announce the launch of the Brand New Mollys.ie – My latest e-commerce venture in partnership with Mollys founder Claire Lanigan. Mollys Pet Boutique is one of Ireland’s Top Pet Shop Brands.
Using a new platform and combining that with the tips and tricks picked up from other businesses in my portfolio, this is one of the most exciting projects to date. The pet industry has some big established competitors and it’s extremely populated, selling dog clothes and healthy cat food might not sound like an obvious step for the guy that spent the latter half of last year choosing my favorite bikini models, while moving one of Ireland’s fastest growing e-commerce companies to a whole new level. But the business principles and strategies are similarly aligned and i do love a challenge of taking on bigger and bigger opportunities. Will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
As always would love to hear your thoughts on the new site:
Today is the final broadcast for ChristmasFM so i wanted to thank all the team of volunteers that helped us make the station such a success again this year.
Although we can’t release the official amount of money we’ve raised for the Simon Community (fighting homelessness), I can let slip that it was in excess of our forecasts. The official figure will be announced in the Irish Daily Mail.
Also thanks to our sponsors for 2009 – EBS, The Irish Daily Mail, Tesco, Lemon Sweets, D4 hotels, Webworld, Formit, TheCostumeShop.ie. Also all the presenters, Street teams, people that donated their skills in any way to make the station happen.
We go off air at 7pm today.
Plans are already bring thought up for next year to make it even bigger and better. But we’d love to hear your feedback on Christmasfm.ie
I love stumbling across great and new marketing approaches. recently i saw this marketing campaign on d-lists blog and was really impressed with this advertising / design by Publicis Mojo.
What methods could you do in your business to become a talking point?
Every found yourself In a toy store in January scratching your head and wondering why on earth after the small fortunate that Christmas Cost and the lifetimes worth of amassed stockpile of toys your child has accumulated over the festive period are you yet here you are again opening your wallet. Then you remember you made a promise to a child and you need to show them a promise is important…
Sound familiar?
Every year it’s always puzzled me how the big toy that everyone wants is always no-where to be found. Radio station talk shows advise parents where the last items could be, parents queue for hours for the chance to get one of the “last batch in”. Listen out for it this year, it’s the best marketing, that money can’t buy. So with the speed of production and distribution in the modern economy do the toy companies really get demand predictions that drastically wrong, is it just a coincidence that it happens every single year???
Surprisingly not! Toy companies are smarter than you think, the more rare a commodity the more value is placed on it. The fact that you can’t get a certain toy makes people talk and demand go up. January is a notorious slow time in the toy industry and to combat this the toy companies have a little trick up their sleeve. They:
1. Create the demand – you promise your kid a toy for Christmas 2. Limit the supply – so you can’t get it 3. Do supply a wide range of substitute goods – If your not capable of fulfilling your promise to your kid toy companies know that in the feeling of guilt you are likely to spend even more and buy even more toys to try and compensate for your feeling of letting them down. 4. And here’s the real clincher – “But Mum You Promised” come January your back in the toy store buying that gift anyway.
And this my friends is what strategy is all about, cleverly disguised as love and affection, subconsciously toy companies are maximizing your buying budgets through psychology. So next time you find yourself puzzled of how someone managed to get more of your wallet share than you were will to part with ask yourself… at what point did you loose control and in where children are involved did you really ever have a chance of winning?
October 2009 was a great month for The Costume Shop .ie. Founded just over 2 years ago it’s grown rapidly to a point where we needed to take on an additional 50 temp staff for the Halloween period and add additional warehouse space to bring us to over 10,000 square feet.
What had me really excited however was the data. Within it’s first year TheCostumeShop.ie had the number one position in the market place for fancy dress costumes, however even in our wildest dreams we didn’t think we’d be one of the biggest Irish owned B2C e-commerce businesses in the country. In fact we were, according to Alexa, #284 in rankings for sites in Ireland.
To quantify that lets compare the data on that specific lets compare to another online company on the same day, supermarket giant – Tesco.ie
alexa data
Just to be up in the top 500 would have been a huge compliment, but to be up in the top 300, playing with the big boys and beating them was an amazing feeling. I appreciate its a snap shot in time and in our quieter months or ranking will drop down. However i’m totally energized to think in such a small space of time, without huge funding and being 100% an Irish business we had the ability to use our skills to completely dominate a market.
With a brand new online store launching at the end of November there’s a new spring in my step and i’m ready to have fun learning from and taking on a whole new industry.
In general i don’t like writing about scams and giving attention to evil companies tricking people out of their hard earned cash but this particular scam is really really annoying me. Storm Media and several other incarnations of the same scam (such as a company called Matchmaker) have been tricking upstarts out of money in Ireland for the last few month. This is a SCAM and absolutely no one can sell you a No1. Position on Google. It can’t be bought, it must be earned, no exceptions.
The Following companies are Scams, listed here are some of the Aliases they go under:
Top Spot Marketing Storm Media PolePosition Media Match Maker Zenith Marketing Sphere Marketing First Search Consultancy Apex Media Lime Media Media Mountain
If something sounds too good to be true it nearly always is – €149 to be on top top of Google organic search? Get real! On the phone they claim to be “from Google”, they most definitely are not and yes I have reported this scam to Google who are dealing with it, however the companies change names so often its hard to keep up.
First off organic search cannot be switched on and off like PPC (price per click campaigns). Second if there was a trick to getting to the top of Google they would be out selling it for millions, this is preying on the week and is the lowest of the low. If you happen to coincidentally have some success during the period of your campaign you might correlate it to the scam and they will suck on you until eventually they put you out of business after all they can threaten to turnoff your success if you don’t keep paying a monthly fee.
As i have several businesses i’ve received it several times and also we receive regular calls, it’s always the same. Usually in a well spoken British voice. I can only assume the increase in the calls is due to the scam working on some people. Here’s what the email looks like:
> Hello Ronan >> >> >> Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal. >> >> Over the last few years, the internet has grown to such an extent that >> no >> matter what industry you are involved in or what your demographic is, it >> is >> vital to have an online presence. As a company that has invested time >> and >> resources into creating an online presence, I am sure you are aware of >> the >> importance of gaining exposure for your website. >> >> There are many routes your potential client base could use to find a >> product >> or service, however it is statistically proven that the vast majority of >> all >> online searches and therefore all online business is directed through >> Google >> and more specifically the 1st page of Google. >> >> Most people are aware of the power Google holds although very few people >> know how to take advantage of Google’s search volume. >> >> You have probably been approached with, or possibly even tried a variety >> of >> methods to obtain high positions, for example ‘search engine >> optimization’ >> or ‘directory listings’. Although these methods can have some level of >> success, there is only one way to obtain GUARANTEED Google Pole >> positions. The >> answer is very simple, GO TO GOOGLE ! ! >> >> As a licensed Google retailer, we are able to offer a package that is >> unsurpassed within the marketplace. The offer is as follows; >> >> ALL PACKAGES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: >> >> -GUARANTEED 1ST PAGE GOOGLE POLE POSITIONS WITHIN 48 HOURS >> -5 SEARCH PHRASES IE: THAT ARE THE MOST LUCRATIVE TO YOUR BUSINESS, >> COVERING THE AREA? OR REGIONS REQUIRED. >> -NO LONG TERM CONTRACT >> -FULL SUPPORT FROM A DEDICATED CAMPAIGN MANAGER >> -MONTHLY REPORTS >> -FREE UNLIMITED SEARCH PHRASE CHANGES >> -FREE GOOGLE MAP >> -EXCELLENT VALUE FOR MONEY: 196,04euro >> .IF YOUR VAT REG” 169,00euro >> >> -STORM MEDIA WILL BUILD YOU A TWO PAGE WEBSITE” FOR 99EURO, >> >> If you would like me to do a preview” its not a problem. >> If there is any question you can contact me by phone or e-mail using >> my contact details below. >> >> >> >> >> Kind Regards >> >> Patricia Buckley >> Senior Sales Advisor >> email:[email protected] >> Tel:0034 951311935 0871 9711142
I will continue to update this post with the latest name of the business everytime they call or email, but please post if you have received similar scams under one of their business names. If you have been unfortunate enough to be caught out remember you can reverse the payment on your credit card by VISA and Mastercard.
If you are listed on any Irish directory service you can expect a call from someone trying to sell you a Number One Spot on Google. It’s a scam, tell them nicely you hope Karma sees them soon and hang up. I really do feel awful for start ups that have fallen prey at a time where every marketing Euro means so much to them.
_________Update of Alias Names____________
Thanks to Sian at Whatswhat.ie who’s directory was used (without permission) at one stage to targeted Irish companies other Alias’s of the company Storm Media are:
Top Spot Marketing Zenith Marketing
These have been added to the list above on the page.
Geraldine of Eonish Lodge brought to our attention a new name they are using which is now added to the list – First Search Consultancy
Also got an email back from the company reacting to my somewhat frank and direct reply saying “one thing I found that sceptics have in comman over the years is that they’re all broke.”
I wonder when they read this blog post if their gonna tell their mummy on me too, grow up and stop trying to earn a living from other peoples misfortune and lack of knowledge.
_________Update____________
Apex Media is another new name for this scam. They also seem to be getting much bolder judging from the comments below. Expect them to seem to know details about your business and claim the knowledge is because you confided it in Google.
This Scam has spread across Europe and the USA now, new front lines are Spain, France and Germany. WhatsWhat.ie has a blog about how a customer that was scammed is having awful problem with them – apparently they used the card details (given for a trial version) to make “4 unauthorised debit card transactions” when they tried to cancel their campaign!
_________Update____________
Should also point out if storm media were infact in any way competent at SEO or being at the top of Google organic SERPs then the current search for their own business name would have them ranked higher. After all I have done zero SEO work on this post. So its only a geo-targeted PPC ad that they are shilling as an organic listing.
_________Update____________
Lots of comments suggesting the name for the company doing this scam is now Lime Media
