Marketer Alert: The Un-Coupon Campaign

by Jayme Soulati on 11/15/2011 in Advertising/Selling, Marketing

What’s in your mail every day? If you’re like me at this time of year, you’re (not your) being inundated with coupons — lots and lots of coupons. Every retailer is gearing up for Black Friday and the big box brick and mortars are even fighting about it with employees up in arms about having to report to work at 3 a.m. or stay until midnight.

The offers are amazing — free panties from Victoria Secret; 40% off at The Gap and its sisters; 20% off all weekend at Kohls and $5 off at Target if I buy its toys; LL Bean; JC Penney, Sears, Eddie Bauer, Fannie May, and the list goes on and on.

Exasperated

I am overwhelmed. Are you? As a consumer, I’m saturated with coupons, discounts and BOGO offers. I can’t even look at a catalog without wondering about which deal is best; heck, at the checkout, it’s the battle for the best deal, and you better hope the sales clerk knows how to navigate splitting your order so you can get the lowest price. The coupons I do bring in often don’t work because there’s a cheaper deal in the store. It’s astonishing, and I’m wondering how these companies will make revenue numbers?

I’m sick of discounts! And now consumers won’t shop without them, but I’m ready for a change — something like deleting all your Twitter followers, and it goes like this…

Marketer Alert

Here’s what I propose — the un-coupon campaign. Tell me, marketers and advertisers, that your retail and consumer products company:

>>Has no coupons

>>Has no deals

>>Has products of only the highest quality

>>Your customer service is off the chain

>>You value my business and appreciate me

    I cannot spend enough money to take advantage of all the deals walking through my door. In fact, because I’m drowning in coupons, I keep them and never use them. They  get lost on my cluttered table; I forget them on the counter, and then they expire. My over stimulation for deals means I don’t care any more.

    I’m ready to pay full price if you just guarantee the quality of your product and the customer service that goes along with it. Anyone else feeling a bit of coupon malaise?

    { 13 Comments }

    Nine Social Marketing Tools From Inc. Magazine

    by Jayme Soulati on 11/14/2011 in Advertising/Selling, Marketing

    Two of my favorite magazines for blog fodder (and learning, of course) are Fast Company (hands down) and Inc. I read the latter less, but it offers more small-business tips and case studies about entrepreneurs.

    I’m  using the November 2011 issue of Inc. to provide you with this expansive list of social marketing tactics by six companies. After reading the six case studies (Inc. always has amazing business case studies), it became apparent that marketers need to be thinking creatively to reach goals. This material comes from the article called Social Smarts with several links from it provided below.

    >>Celebrity Tweets. We all know celebrities get paid to tweet, and there is a platform called Sponsored Tweets “that connects advertisers with celebrities and offers online analytic tools for gauging the success of campaigns,” according to Inc.

    CampusLive is a website that lets college students earn rewards by playing online games. It used Lindsay Lohan and rapper Jim Jones in two campaigns. The company checked Klout scores (boo) before deciding to hire Lohan.

    It paid her $3,530 to publish a tweet, and the rapper earned $1,950 for his tweet.

    >>Wildfire. This is a DIY app “that lets you create interactive campaigns, publish them on social networks and view real-time results and analytics. Savored, an online reservation service in New York offering restaurant discounts, chose the Wildfire program costing $3,500 per month. The internal team created a sweepstakes promotion tying in with Facebook. The campaign goal was to sign on new members and gather emails for direct marketing.

    >>Offerpop. Birchbox used this platform to help companies create and run promotions including quizzes and photo contests on Twitter and Facebook. There is an unlimited monthly plan which costs $750 for companies with 10K to 25K Facebook fans. Important to mention, Birchbox uses its customer service reps to comb social media for discontent among customers (i.e. product shipping delays) and respond to them immediately.

    >>Foursquare. Many of us already sign in to location-based services with friends, but Luke’s Lobster wanted to launch its new location with Foursquare users. It created a Loyalty Special with Foursquare to give repeat customers a change to attend an exclusive launch party the day before the restaurant opening, according to Inc.

    >>Twitter Followers. Recently, my friend Robert Dempsey ran an article on Tweet Adder. He provided a tutorial on how to automatically increase Twitter followers. In comments, I shared my disagreement with this tool, yet many bloggers are all about it.

    >>eBay. The Inc. editorial team wanted to know how easy it was to buy Twitter followers, so it headed over to eBay and searched for a package. They got into a bidding war with someone else for 11,000 followers for $80. Instead, the research team “settled on a  Buy It Now option promising 1,000 followers for $20.”

    (Goes without saying, I’m against this practice; hands down. This, however, is what some businesses are relegated to if they’re late to the party. Probably some similar tactics happening over at Facebook, too.)

    >>YouTube. I’m not going to share the merits of this channel. We all know the advantages of a video going viral. Probably about 90 percent of the time, though, the viral video campaigns with more than 1 million views are often produced by creative shops and more than just a flip cam.

    >> Traditional PR. EZ Grill launched a media relations blitz using public relations agency services; however, the results (appearances on national media) didn’t garner the ROI in sales the company wanted. (And, nor should it have…my $.02 coming from a PR perspective.) Instead, the company engaged in a video (using some smart creative) coupled with press release that went viral. Alas, sales did not impress.

    I have to wonder…how many people need a disposable charcoal grill? Especially when the small metal ones are very portable? Maybe it’s a niche audience of campers these guys should market to?

    >>Blue Calypso. To secure paid referrals, The Sweet Spot in Dallas wanted new customers in its hair removal salon specializing in sugaring (what’s that?). It used the mobile marketing platform that rewards people for sharing ads via Twitter, Facebook or texting.

    The Sweet Spot owner paid $2,500 per month to get 230,000 impressions. Blue Calypso helped her design an ad offering a discount on treatment. When a member posted the ads on social media channels or texted it, Blue Calypso paid them up to $.30 onto a Visa debit card. The campaign included coupons (a LivingSocial deal went sour),  complimentary services, and rewards to first-time customers.

    Conclusion

    PR and marketing teams need to be highly creative with clients’ and companies budgets. There are so many tactics and tools to meet objectives in social marketing, but  sometimes it takes trial and error to find the best strategy.

    You can be sure, no campaign will succeed without a solid creative foundation. When this kind of money is involved (note the costs detailed by these companies in the case studies) to work with these social apps and platforms, there should be money in the budget for experimentation. Or, have a thick skin when the first attempt fails to reach goals and money goes down the drain.

     

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    C-to-B Marketing & Social Media Tips to Buy Vacuum

    by Jayme Soulati on 08/16/2011 in Advertising/Selling

    I thought myself very clever over at Queen D’s blog yesterday where she had crowd sourced whether to buy an iPhone 4 of wait for 5 and all we spoke about was the iPad2. I shared in comments I was going to implement a little C-to-B marketing to crowd source and social media my need for a new vacuum.

    You know how I love to coin words; I went to look and saw two previous mentions of C-to-B marketing (yet it’s not a trendy term). And, so, this effort is to replace my 10-year-old Kenmore canister which finally burned its motor (great hardworking machine).

    I’m researching as a consumer using other consumers and asking businesses for their recommendations. I’m using social media only as my due diligence channel, and trying to avoid websites in the beginning. So, to recap, the purchase decision includes a consumer-to-business strategy, a consumer-to-consumer strategy, identifying Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for vacuum products, while absorbing word-of-mouth-tips from total strangers. (This is more fun than buying a car last year.)

    My Expectation

    • Want direct interaction with a vacuum manufacturer to give me its sales spiel.
    • Want consumer recommendations for what they’re using today and why they’re happy with product.
    • Want to see social media engagement with the products I’m researching.

    The Research

    Step 1: Crowd Source

    Twitter. I posted a question on two Twitter accounts about brand, quality, price, and longevity. The tweeps responded well – six votes for Dyson,  two for Kirby and thumbs down for Hoover and Eureka.

    I looked for Twitter accounts for Dyson, Hoover, Kirby, and Miele, a German brand. Only @MieleUSA has a Twitter account! I posed a question this evening (“why should I buy”), and may not get a response as it’s after business hours.

    Facebook

    ** I posted a question to my personal and business pages. On the personal page, I got 7 replies (mostly for Dyson) and one response on the business page. People are loving the Dyson Animal. One peep said she loves her Miele (and I’d never heard of that German brand before!).

    ** I did a search for company Facebook pages for Kirby, Hoover, Dyson, and Miele USA. I found nothing!!

    Google+

    ** I posted a question to all circles on this channel. I got back a glowing recommendation for Miele with a link to its site and a second comment that this peep has had a Miele for 10 years and loves it for its great quality and high-end manufacturing.

    Websites

    ** I finally succumbed to one website review with all the vacuums in one place. I learned that upright vacuums are perfect for wall-to-wall carpeting while canister vacuums are best for hardwood floors, ceilings, walls, stairs, and furniture.  (I didn’t know that.)

    Conclusions

    ** Crowd sourcing in advance of a purchase decision is the way to go for something as expensive as a vacuum. I learned I’m going to spend $300 to $500 to get a high-quality machine that lasts 10 years or I’ll suffer like one peep did with three less-than-quality models (Hoover and Eureka) in five years.

    ** The vacuum product makers are absolutely nowhere on social media! This is astonishing to me! There is ample opportunity for companies to engage with consumers on Facebook, especially, with something that is a staple for every household in the world. Where are the marketing departments? Where is the PR team to advise these companies they ought to engage with consumers?

    ** I learned enough from consumer-to-consumer marketing within two hours to direct my buy decision. I also got sound advice about using coupons at Bed, Bath & Beyond and shopping online (after I went to a physical store to touch and feel the product).

    I’m disappointed with the businesses; appreciative of those peeps who took their time to provide opinions and point me to the store.  (Any last-minute recommendations before I shop?)

    { 28 Comments }

    Heavy Metal, Teens & Marketing

    by Jayme Soulati on 06/13/2011 in Advertising/Selling, Marketing

    You know that jingle you’ll never get out of your head? Mine is “588-2300…EMPIRE!” It’s ingrained in my brain cells from years of waking up to WBBM-AM in Chicago after college. I know you have one, too, and so do your teenage kids.

    Apparently, there’s a new study by Emory University scientists and neuro-economists (have you ever heard of a professional with these creds before?) showing the correlation to new music (read that metal) and brain response. Teen brains react positively to various tunes they hear, and according to the study, the popularity and commercial success of a song can be predicted. The study story appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Songs Stick in Teens’ Heads; Research Shows Hit Songs Activate Pleasure, Reward Centers in Adolescent Brains.”

    Get this:

    * “The researchers usually could tell from the strength of brain activity alone which songs would later sell at least 20,000 copies.

    * Five songs in the teens’ neural top 10 sold more than 50,000 copies each.

    * Three songs that were not among the top 10 eventually became gold records selling more than 500,000  copies.”

    Apparently, there’s a burgeoning field “in which psychologists and economists are using fMRI medical scanners and EEG brain-wave monitors to probe the automatic judgments people make below the surface of awareness that help shape decisions including purchasing and political choices.”

    OK, WOW!

    Not so sure this research is akin to why the Empire carpet jingle will forever be engraved in my brain; however, it certainly gives one pause when you associate the ability to predict commercial popularity with the synapse of a teen’s brain.

    • As parents, we ought to be careful about how our kids are used as guinea pigs in science projects, especially if your kid’s brain becomes tapped as a major predictor of product success.
    • As marketers of music (could the science of scent be that far behind?), run to Emory University and engage their team of neuro-economists (how do you earn that title, anyway) to learn how you can predict the next gold record.
    • As advertisers, get the list of top 10 new bands and songs that elicit the strongest brain response (here are five) and get those tunes incorporated into all the interactive ads you can produce:
    1. Job for a Cowboy, “Knee Deep” (metal)
    2. Lucky Boys Confusion “Atari” (alternative)
    3. Underminded, “Bring on the Flood” (metal)
    4. Tricosta/Fat Joe, “Make it Rain”  (hip hop/rap)
    5. Locash Cowboys, “Boom Boom” (country)
    • As public relations professionals, can’t you just see the possibilities with this? The marriage of technology and science is producing a scourge of opportunity for everyone in our profession. The only way you can ignore it is to unplug, and that still means making music.

    Whaddya think?

    (image: zazzle)

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    Corporations Do Not Understand Social Media

    by Jayme Soulati on 10/13/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Branding, Social Media Strategy

    I just wrote last week about the Frito-Lay Sun Chips packaging debacle here. I was aghast then, and I’m even more agog today about the Gap logo debacle that has made these two Fortune companies laughing stock.

    What is happening to corporate America that permits their caving to public social media outcry about a green potato chip bag or a new corporate identity?

    After four days of online whipping about its brand identity developed by an agency, Gap has pulled its brand new logo in favor of the old, archaic logo we’ve seen for decades. Blog posts, Facebook and Twitter accounts have been in an uproar about Gap’s newly designed logo. I just saw a post saying proudly, “Twitter responsible for Gap logo demise!”

    I’m not doing my research to provide you with all the wonderful statistics on how long the Gap logo has been around, how much money people are wasting, what the comments have been and how many in social media circles, etc. because I don’t care, and I didn’t read the four days worth of posts on this topic. It wasn’t my business to tell Gap its new logo was ugly and stood for nothing.

    Where I will spend some time making it my business is these two corporations on the heels of one another making jokes out of themselves while taking social networks for a free ride. The publicity each has garnered, while not positive, could not have been bought by advertisers. Our valuable time thinking about these mistakes was wasted, too.

    What’s more shocking, is that it appears RESEARCH IS DEAD. It’s not public relations that’s dead; it’s not customer service that’s dead; it is truly research that’s dead.

    Had Gap and Frito-Lay done its research in more than just the typical traditional way (focus groups?) and launched social media contests to vote on the bag or logo Facebookers liked best, then they would be assured of no backlash.

    You know the People’s Choice Awards? You know American Idol and how they select the winner? Consumers VOTE – that’s the American way. We vote to garner popular consensus (although the winner doesn’t always win in politics).

    So, don’t cry, corporate America, over your lost dollars to develop stupid packaging and branding campaigns if you’re not going to take your stupid packaging and branding campaigns to social media prior to going to market. It’s clear you don’t understand social media; otherwise, you would not be in this predicament, Frito-Lay and Gap, with egg on your faces.

    This is an astonishing fail and does not reflect well on any of us in the world of marketing, public relations, advertising, or social media. The dynamic has shifted? Indeed.

    { 13 Comments }

    Marketing Fair-Trade Quinoa

    by Jayme Soulati on 08/31/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Branding

    (Note to readers: Today’s post is a rambling observation with a nit while sharing and pushing a dotted line to marketing and social media; blink and you might miss the latter!)

    Fair Trade Quinoa Farmers in Ecuador (Wikimedia Commons)

    I eat quinoa (keen-wah) every day mixed with steel cut oats, ground flax, walnuts and fresh fruit with a dash of almond milk. This fuels my body until well after noon; however, I try to eat before I get hungry to maintain metabolism. (You can learn more about clean eating from my favorite cookbook author Tosca Reno.)

    Quinoa is a complete protein grown in the Andes since 3000 B.C. It’s not always easy to find at the grocer, although I buy from Trader Joe’s and recently at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. As a buyer of quinoa for more than a year now, I’m dismayed its price has skyrocketed nearly 50 percent since January.

    What’s happening? The classic demand and supply along with Fair Trade and good, solid marketing.

    There are now quinoa products coming to our shelves straight from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru; priced higher to accommodate the world’s farmers in developing nations. The word “organic” is included on the packaging, too.

    Remember the acai berry (true or not true?) and the recent pomegranate craze? These high anti-oxidant berries (blueberries, too) raised consumers’ consciousness about free radicals and anti-oxidants in our diets. How did this happen? With good, solid marketing!

    I support fair trade, and I also support our need to eat healthier foods without worry from salmonella, pesticide, and other illness resulting from chemical additives. While I’m not a worrier warrior about this, it nags at the back of my head when thinking of food prep for my family.

    Glance back above and note the date I shared with you…3000 B.C. That’s when quinoa began its production as “gold of the Incas” and a sacred food. Why has it taken so long to grace our tables in the North? We can thank fair-trade programs that bring more coffee, cocoa, quinoa and other products to consumers across the globe. We can thank social media and the Internet for making the world smaller to inform us about these products.

    While that’s all well and good, it also means we pay more for health-oriented items while junk food costs less. Perhaps, there’s more work to be done by good, solid marketing to switch the balance of the previous statement.

    What began here as the germ of a quinoa seed, sprouted into more on fair trade, marketing and price. Interesting to me, and perhaps to you, as well. Thanks for stopping by.

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    The Last PR Frontier — Sales

    by Jayme Soulati on 07/14/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Public Relations

    There’s not too many departments within an org chart that public relations hasn’t already touched. Methinks sales is the last frontier for public relations to influence, and it’s going to take some serious work.

    My day-to-day with several clients is as a strategically aligned member of the marketing team where I blend public relations squarely into the marketing mix. The offering is much like content development, event strategy, creative brainstorming to influence lead generation and, in turn, the support of sales teams who bring in the bacon.

    While logically explained, there’s no simple logic behind this mash up (PR and sales). In essence, public relations has swung so far from the sales team that we’re essentially non-existent to frontline sales. Here’s how:

    • PR has no standing among sales.
    • Sales depends on marketing.
    • Marketing beats to its leadership drum.
    • PR aligns communications strategy to business goals (which are sales goals, too).

    In a perfect world, here’s what I envision a highly successful business model to look like:

    • Public relations and marketing form a cohesive team with PR feeding program strategy, content, event strategy, social media, media relations, and sales collateral into the team.
    • This marketing/PR team meets regularly with sales, and PR gets a chance to educate sales about its contribution to ROI, results.
    • Public relations attends sales meetings and even conducts trainings on what PR needs from sales to do its job.
    • Sales slowly begins to understand how PR works, and when marketing asks for customers to interview, sales will open InterAction CRM and allow PR to speak with customers for a story.
    • Sales is equipped with a message map completed by public relations so everyone says the same thing to key audiences.
    • Public relations is regarded as high value to the integrated team, and everyone wins.

    Is this reality or un-reality to you?

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    First Social Media, Then a Buy

    by Jayme Soulati on 06/28/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Social Media Strategy

    There are companies not engaging in social media. There are consumers not engaging in social media. There are marketing public relations practitioners not engaging in social media. But that window is closing fast. For those who believe social media and networking are not our future, just look around you.

    According to Website Magazine in its Feb. 2010 issue, it says your “social graph” is the most important asset in business. A social graph is a collection of online connections.

    In the magazine’s article, 50 Top Social Media Resources, they provided some data (from February):

    • Facebook is the most popular social networking site for business owners.
    • Of B2C organizations, 83 percent have Facebook profiles.
    • Only 45 percent of B2C organizations have a Twitter account
    • B2B companies have profiles on both sites in more or less equal proportion — 77 percent on Facebook and 73 percent on Twitter.
    • Participants using social media day-to-day visit company or brand profiles on social sites 62 percent of the time and 55 percent of them search for business information on the social sites.

    Before many a consumer makes a buy decision, they comb the search engines for buyer reviews, perhaps on Yelp or Complaints.com, and make an informed decision whether or not to make a purchase.  In addition, consumers seek a company’s Facebook profile to see how they engage, what news is available, how fans are responding, and how the company is replying. Perhaps there is a select group of people using these tools to inform a buy decision; and, this will be common practice as the months go by.

    Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are for sure the most well known and used by a plethora of people world-wide; however, they’re not the only players. Ever heard of Revver.com, diigo.com, blackplanet.com, hi5.com, or yuku.com? (Me, neither!) I don’t believe any company is solidly engaging with a majority of the top 50 social media resources listed by Website magazine. 

    I’m going to make it my mission to share in my sleuthing. What’s your mission in the six months remaining in 2010? (Tick-tock…time’s up!

     ENGAGE!

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    Spanning the Divide: 10 Tips for Public Relations/Sales Synergy

    by Jayme Soulati on 06/21/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Planning & Strategy, Public Relations

    I’m still absolutely appalled at the lackluster effort by the two sales people at Toyota and Ford dealerships within the last two weeks. If you’ve been following me on occasion, you will know that I’ve been recording the steps by a consumer (me) to purchase a vehicle.

    With all the chaos in the automotive industry in the last 18 months, I had assumed/expected better effort by the sales people (one female, one a senior citizen) to earn my business.

    The last frontier for public relations must be SALES. I cannot speak for all industries. The TV salesman at H.H. Gregg over the weekend in Indianapolis convinced my aunt to purchase several luxury items; he did a great job. Is it just auto sales we’re talking about, then?

    Here are a few tips for public relations practitioners to infiltrate some expertise into the sales mechanism of any company:

    1. Messaging. Marketing typically provides product background to sales, but is there a message map developed for the sales team? Message maps are valuable for any spokesperson on the frontlines; sales teams are tier one spokespeople for a company.

    2. Training. With a completed message map in hand, train the sales team to use it. Role play and you be the potential customer. Let the sales team get comfortable with the map so everyone uses the same powerful and approved messages.

    3. Secret shopping. There’s no better way than to ask a “spy”  to launch the buying process for a product and see how the sales team is performing. Take what’s gleaned from that experience and return to the salespeople with more tips on how to interact with customers.

    4. Respect. Everyone in the organization must respect the sales team for its position and role for the company. Ask marketing and sales what tools can be created to assist with this effort.

    5. Attend sales meetings. Salespeople have the pulse of the industry and customers at their fingertips. What a treasure of information for public relations. When a PR person attends (you need to get invited), you can identify case study prospects, news hooks, regional news fodder and develop a variety of communications as a result.

    6. Sales communications. Treat sales as a tier one target audience. They need to know what’s happening within the company and when public relations learns critical industry information, sales should be informed. Write a newsletter, e-blast, intranet site for sales, or other non-tech method of communication (some salespeople don’t have access to the Internet).

    7. Blend with marketing. As the marketing team is oriented to sales quotas, ROI and lead generation, listen to their needs and complement the mix with on-point public relations strategy.

    8. Ask the sales team. Communicate. Be a team. Be inclusive. Regard sales as a critical component of the marketing public relations mix.

    9. Build trust. For years, sales and public relations has been miles apart with marketing smack in the middle. Until results happen, sales will not regard public relations in the right light. In fact, public relations is likely to be little understood in the sales organization.

    10. Try, try again. Try for what works. Synergy does not happen over night, but shame on sales and public relations for not putting forth a consistent effort to make it so.

    What other thoughts can you offer?

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    Car Buying, Word of Mouth & Sales

    by Jayme Soulati on 06/16/2010 in Advertising/Selling, Public Relations, Word of Mouth

    Buying a car is a lot like eating a poison apple. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last eight weeks, and anyone who’s been following the blog has read of my research and self-study.  It all began when Toyota ticked off its loyal followers with a massive recall. So, I began to look around.

    What’s below is the pathway to a near-final decision, and I offer this to you marketers and public relations peers to consider the immense number of touches possible in advance of a customer’s major purchase decision. At the end of the day, it all boils down to sales. Read what’s below, add yours, and then think about how you influence sales.

    Car-Buying Touches, Word of Mouth & Sales Pathway

    • Toyota screws up with a massive recall that has America and drivers reeling.
    • Begin to search outside the brand reluctantly; use Twitter to query the Twitterverse, and the Ford Flex is recommended.
    • Poke around at manufacturer Web sites for articles and other options because I’m NOT a Ford girl.
    • Read Fast Company article about Ford’s in-vehicle technology that is heads and shoulders above other auto manufacturers; intrigued. The PR for Ford kicks! (Point for Ford.)
    • Toyota ticks me off by not sending my bill on time two months in a row; purposeful?  Could be, lease ending soon. (Point for Ford.)
    • Test drive Ford Flex; what a hummer of a vehicle. I like it; it comes in candy apple red; has more gizmos and gadgets than needed: refrigerator, 120 amp three-prong plug, five moon/sun roofs. The grampa car salesman (~ 74-years-old) snoozed through the two-hour touch. He didn’t sell me, didn’t review other models, didn’t push hard, but he did bring over the manager who did his best to get me to buy that day. (Not too impressed.)
    • Emailed preferred Toyota dealer and got a woman who was not interested in selling. She said the car I wanted only came with an auxiliary jack for iPod. As I wanted too many things she wasn’t sure she could find that car within a 200 mile radius. She sent me a general email response. I waited a day and emailed her back asking for more information; I never heard from her. (Point for Ford.)
    • Read story in Wall Street Journal with Ford CEO Alan Mullaly again about the hot technology that is selling many cars for Ford right now. (Point for Ford.)
    • Saw a Ford Flex being driven on the street, pulled alongside in adjacent lane and asked him how he liked the Flex. He said it was “the best road vehicle” he’s ever driven. After that word-of-mouth marketing touch, I had decided to buy a Ford.
    • A call from another Toyota dealer where I wrote my Highlander lease. I told him flat out I’m looking at Ford Flex. I did not want to give him my business due to the mechanic shop; it sucks! He agreed and begged for a chance to show me the features of the Highlander.  I could not deny him.
    • I saw the 2010 Highlander; was impressed with all the features (nearly the same as Ford Flex), and gave him the specs I wanted.
    • He began to work on the deal; emailed me within two days to say he was working with his manager and would have numbers shortly. (Point for Toyota)
    • It’s been 10 days since I saw the Ford salesman. Guess what? He NEVER followed up! (Major point for Toyota.)

    As of today, Toyota is leading in spite of all the points for Ford. The salesman there is earning my business; he’s eager to make a sale, and he’s communicating with me frequently about where he’s at with pricing. Speaking of which, the Ford Flex is ~$8,000 more than the Toyota Highlander all tricked out.  Point for Toyota? You bet.

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