Simple Marketing Now Update - 11/9/11

It's true! I've been terribly delinquent... Blame it on the freak 16 inches of snow during Halloween weekend which led to no power/Internet for a few days. And the intensity of Bathroom Blogfest 2012...

In any case, I need to update you on blogging goings on and Simple Marketing Now. Note that I am gradually shifting publication of major articles onto the Simple Marketing Now website. [In fact, you'll notice that, in addition to Content Talks Business blog articles, the Social Flooring Index and Flooring The Consumer articles I describe below all appear on SimpleMarketingNow.com.] I would love for you to follow me there when you are ready.

I mentioned Bathroom Blogfest 2012. Did you follow all of the activity? Here is the link to the final Bathroom Blogfest 2012 recap:  ~ 45 fantastic blog articles published. I hope you get to check them out if you haven't already.

In big news, I have updated the Social Flooring Index [last update was in April 2011]. One more article analyzing conversations will be ready tomorrow or so. In the meantime, check out the following:

• Social Flooring Index: Flooring Blogs November 2011
• Networked Blogs: Social Flooring Index November 2011
• Geography: Social Flooring Index November 2011

On the Content Talks Business Blog [I invite you to subscribe!], I've recently published the following articles you might be interested in:

• Sharing Online Marketing Advice with Columbia Business School
• How To Use LinkedIn: Backing Up Contacts
• Online Marketing Advice: How Not To Build Trust
• Bathroom Blogfest Twitter Chat: #kbtribechat
• Switch, Climbing Out, Social Media and Change: Bathroom Blogfest 2011

On Flooring The Consumer, the latest articles include:

• Hospitality, Trust and the Retail Experience
• Wow Your Customers, Starting with The Zappos Retail Experience
• Disney Times Square Retail Experience Reflects Modern Brand

That should definitely keep you busy!

As always, I welcome your feedback.

Press Release: Nufloors Turns Flooring Customers Into Advocates

For Immediate Release: September 21, 2010

Canada Nufloors Group Focuses on ‘Turning Flooring Customers Into Advocates’
Keynote highlights importance of customer service “Before, During and After the Sale”

Kinnelon, NJ – Canada Nufloors Group Inc., an organization that includes leading Canadian floor covering retailers with locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, held its annual meeting in Kelowna, British Columbia on September 11 & 12, 2010. The theme of the meeting was ‘Turning Flooring Customers Into Advocates’ and featured Christine B. Whittemore, chief simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, as keynote speaker. She discussed the customer retail experience in a presentation titled “Retail Hospitality or Customer Service Before, During and After the Sale”.

Whittemore’s presentation to Nufloors retailers addressed marketing to women consumers, the in-store and online retail experience and the importance of building strong relationships with customers. “Customer service – or ‘retail hospitality’ – is the ultimate means for a retailer to differentiate his or her retail experience in the marketplace,” said Whittemore. “As in the US, Canadian women shoppers have high expectations for quality of service and consistency of experience when making any kind of purchase decision - particularly complex, high involvement ones like flooring. Those retailers able to deliver high levels of satisfaction will be rewarded with customer loyalty and advocacy.”

“Nufloors retailers have built their reputations on great value and solid customer service,” says Barr Hall, Canada Nufloors Group General Manager. “They are relentless about consistently delivering memorable customer service to their customers and implementing state-of-the-art customer service tools. Christine’s presentation reinforced the importance of finding solutions for the female consumer and staying in touch with that consumer long after the installation is finished.”

Nufloors store owners and managers reacted enthusiastically to Whittemore’s presentation. Also presenting were Nufloors Coquitlam General Manager, Cynthia Dean, Rock Solid Business Coaching CEO, John Cameron, Spring Advertising account services director, Richard Bergin and Barr Hall.

For more information about Canada Nufloors Group Inc., contact Barr Hall via email at barr@nufloors.ca

For more information about Simple Marketing Now LLC, contact chief simplifier Whittemore at CBWhittemore@SimpleMarketingNow.com or visit the Simple Marketing Now website and companion weblog & newsroom – Simple Marketing Blog. 

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About Simple Marketing Now LLC

Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy, helps organizations integrate social media and content marketing with traditional marketing to better connect with customers and improve business profitability. For more information, visit http://SimpleMarketingNow.com.


About Canada Nufloors Group Inc.

For more information about Canada Nufloors Group Inc., visit http://www.nufloors.ca/.

Women, Flooring & The Retail Experience On FloorDaily

Many home focused industries share interesting dynamics. They sell predominantly to women, yet manufacturing and retailing is mostly done by men. You can imagine the friction inherent to the resulting retail experience -- as is often true in flooring.

On January 23, 2010, I had the opportunity to touch on the very subject of women, flooring and the retail experience at the Big Bob's Flooring Outlet Annual Meeting in my presentation titled Flooring The Consumer: In-Store and Online.

Thanks to Kemp Harr from FloorDaily.net, here are some highlights to share with you from 1/29/10.

Christine Whittemore Discusses the Proper Way to Position Flooring To Women at Retail

Here's how Kemp describes the interview:

Christine Whittemore, with Simple Marketing Now, and Kemp Harr discuss the nuances of selling flooring to women. Listen to the interview to hear some statistics about women and to hear what their hot buttons are when it comes to buying flooring.

Listen at FloorDaily.net -- The interview lasts approximately 8 minutes and touches on:

Some of the stats from my presentation. More specifically:

66% of all personal computer purchases
67% of financial services
80% of home-improvement
83% of all consumer purchases
88% of retail customers in the U.S.
91% of home sales
94% of home furnishings

The importance of product quality [i.e., 'value' does not necessarily mean cheap].

The layout of a retail store

Banishing the hard sell [i.e., do more listening, ask questions, be a consultant/interpreter]

Women pay attention to details, so be sure to have a consistent in-store and online experience.

For additional perspective on the event itself, I also include a link to the interview Kemp had with Big Bob's leaders. They explain how my presentation helped them tell the story about the importance of service, how to take care of customers and 'crowning the customer.'

Big Bob Leaders Discuss Selling To Women and 2010 Outlook

Kemp's description of the interview: David Elyachar and Scott Perron discuss the highlights of their 17th Annual Convention. Listen to the interview to hear about how this year's convention focused on selling to women and also what their outlook is for 2010.

As I detailed in Women: Separate, Equal & Consumers Worth Appealing To, there's definitely opportunity associated with focusing on women and improving the retail experience in flooring and other home related categories.

I'd love to hear your reactions.

Thank you, Kemp!

Press Release: Whittemore Keynotes Big Bob's Flooring Annual Convention

For immediate release: January 14, 2010

WHITTEMORE TO KEYNOTE BIG BOB’S FLOORING ANNUAL CONVENTION

Focuses on Delighting Women Customers with Consistent, Integrated Retail Experience

Kinnelon, NJ – Christine Whittemore, chief simplifier of Simple Marketing Now LLC, will keynote Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet Annual Convention taking place in Chattanooga, TN from January 21st through 23rd, 2010, at the Chattanoogan Hotel. The convention’s theme is “Think Pink and Best Practices” in recognition of the importance of the industry’s highly coveted female consumer.

“Women make or influence over 80% of the purchase decisions,” says Whittemore. “Smart flooring retailers such as Big Bob’s recognize the importance of women consumers and offer their dealers opportunities to learn from industry experts as well as exchange best practices.”

Whittemore’s presentation, titled “Flooring The Consumer: In-Store and Online” will not only address marketing to women, but also the criticality of delivering a memorable and consistent customer retail experience in-store and digitally. “Women consumers pay close attention to details. Inconsistencies between how a woman experiences a retailer online and offline will affect her willingness to do business,” adds Whittemore.

“Our members are the best, the brightest and most dedicated retailers in the industry,” says David Elyachar, aka Big Bob. “They recognize the opportunities associated with making the Big Bob’s Flooring Outlets retail experience more female focused. Christine’s knowledge and expertise are renowned in the industry. She will enhance our overall program and provide a fresh, inspiring format for all of our business owners.”

Joining Whittemore are professional flooring industry speaker and motivator Warren Tyler and Kansas City publisher Ann Butenas from ANZ Publications who will address networking, and, to discuss digital technology, Damien Patton from FindAnyFloor.com and Jay Flynn and Shannon Bilby from Creating Your Space.

Owners and managers from all 45 Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet franchises around the country attend the annual event.

For information about Simple Marketing Now, visit http://SimpleMarketingNow.com or simply contact Whittemore at cbwhittemore@SimpleMarketingNow.com.

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About Simple Marketing Now LLC
Simple Marketing Now is a marketing communications consultancy that provides organizations with the right combination of traditional marketing and social media marketing to improve the customer experience and build brand. Simple Marketing Now issues the Social Flooring Index - http://SocialFlooringIndex.com - which monitors the social state of the Flooring Industry. For more information, visit http://SimpleMarketingNow.com.

About Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet of America, Inc.
For more information about Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet of America, Inc., please visit http://www.bigbobsflooring.com/about_us.html.

Whittemore On Bizzuka's User Friendly Thinking With Munsell & Chaney

I had a blast last Friday, November 6, 2009 on User Friendly Thinking BlogTalkRadio with Bizzuka CEO John Munsell and my friend Paul Chaney. The topic was 'flooring' the consumer!

Paul and John promoted the BlogTalkRadio program as follows:

On the Friday, November 6, episode of User Friendly Thinking radio, our guest is C. B. Whittemore, marketing consultant with Simple Marketing Now LLC. We're going to be discussing flooring the consumer. Of course, there is more to the term "flooring" than meets the eye. C.B. was formerly Director, In-Store Innovation for Solutia's Wear-Dated carpet fiber. We will be talking about ways to improve the customer retail experience and about businesses, both digital and brick/mortar, who are passionate about meeting the needs of their consumers and who successfully bridge traditional marketing with social marketing. C. B. is also the editor of Flooring the Consumer, a blog about improving customer experience. Join us Friday, November 6, at noon central for another edition of User Friendly Thinking radio.

After we got through the basics [i.e., my background and Simple Marketing Now] and discussed whether shag carpet was coming back, John asked me to discuss in more detail 'flooring' the consumer and how that notion led to starting Flooring The Consumer, my blog about the retail experience and marketing to women.

From there, we explored my philosophy of 'simple marketing,' bridging new and traditional forms of marketing, how social media aids in improving the customer experience and how offline customer service relates to the online equivalent.

We touched on websites and how to ensure that they look 'alive' - BTW, do check out Bizzuka's recently launched social site for their client Dr. Dale Archer, which we talked about - and the Bathroom Blogfest [lucky Paul and John visited both Flooring The Consumer and Simple Marketing Blog right smack in the middle of all of the Bathroom Blogfest excitement! Can you imagine?]. Finally, we exchanged perspectives on where advertising and marketing are headed.

Here's a link to the full one hour interview: Flooring The Consumer with C.B. Whittemore.

And, here's the lineup for the next few interviews on User Friendly Thinking on BlogTalkRadio:

11/13/09: Melissa Ward, will discuss using Facebook for business @ 1pm EST

11/20/09: Dan Kehrer - Business.com

12/4/09: Shannon Lane - travel blogger/writer @cajun_mama on Twitter

12/11/09: Gary Vaynerchuk

I also recommend that you check out past episodes of User Friendly Thinking, all of which include amazing insights from the most User Friendly Thinkers around.

Thank you, John and Paul, for a wonderful and lively opportunity to discuss a subject that I feel so passionately about! And, John, I look forward to meeting you in person soon so we can continue the conversation.


Technorati Tags: Bizzuka User Friendly Thinking BlogTalkRadio Paul Chaney John Munsell flooring the consumer customer experience social media digital marketing CB Whittemore Del.icio.us Tags: Bizzuka User Friendly Thinking BlogTalkRadio Paul Chaney John Munsell flooring the consumer customer experience social media digital marketing CB Whittemore

Whittemore On Customers Rock! Radio

Becky Carroll from Customers Rock! has launched Customers Rock! Radio. It's a weekly hour-long radio program focused on growing customer relationships and creating WOW customer experiences - something that Becky is passionate about and celebrates on her blog.

Becky invited me to take part in her Customers Rock! Radio program on Monday, October 19th, 2009 to discuss marketing to women, the customer experience, the retail experience and the 4th annual Bathroom Blogfest. We had a blast.

You can experience the program for yourselves via these links to the MP3 audio:

Part I: Meeting Women's Expectations on the Sales Floor - C.B Whittemore
Becky and C.B Whittemore, Chief Simplifer, Simple Marketing Now, discuss women's expectations of the retail shopping experience, why it is important to consider the customer experience, as well as experience considerations in retail and online.

Part II: Bathroom Blogfest: Overlook Aspects of the Customer Experience - C.B Whittemore
Becky and C.B Whittemore talk about how even “forgotten spaces” such as bathrooms impact a customer’s perception of our company. Brands mentioned include ABC Carpet (in New York).

Part III: Leveraging Social Media - C.B Whittemore
Becky and C.B Whittemore talk about social media and the customer experience, the importance of listening to chatter via social media, and how it relates to traditional marketing tools. Brands mentioned include Fiskars and Zappos.

Part IV: Tips for Being More Customer-Focused
Becky wraps up the program with the Tips segment of the show. This week, Becky discusses tips for incorporating customer service with social media, along with a few examples of companies doing it well. Brands mentioned include Comcast, Zappos, and BestBuy.

Becky has also invited Jeanne Bliss, Esteban Kolsky, and Michael Brito onto Customers Rock! Radio.

By the way, Becky Carroll participated in my Bridging New & Old social media series, sharing valuable insights.

Thank you, Becky, for a lively Customers Rock! conversation and for including me in your program!


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Floor Covering Weekly Columnist Christine B. Whittemore Articles

Since early 2006, I have been a columnist for Floor Covering Weekly, the premiere flooring industry trade publication.

Floor Covering Weekly Columnist Christine Whittemore

Flooring the consumer column about the customer retail experience

It all began when Kim Gavin, now Executive Editor, interviewed me in 2005 about marketing to women and the retail experience, two topics at the heart of Flooring The Consumer, my personal business blog. Part of that interview was published on 6/20/2005 in the 6/20-6/27/2005 issue of Floor Covering Weekly Online [registration nec.] in an article titled "Christine Whittemore on Marketing to Women" by Kimberly Gavin [see Marketing To Women]. The next part appeared in the 10/3-10/2005 print version of FCW in an article titled Marketing To Women - It's a Business Thing!

I started contributing articles in early 2006, and have them listed here. As new ones are published, I will add them to this list:

2006
+ Welcome To My Home! published 3/7/2006
+ How to Achieve an Inspired Environment published 5/1-6/2006
+ Women Hold The Power of The Sale published 8/21-28/2006

2007
+ Walk In Her Shoes published 3/26/2007
+ Feasting The Senses published 7/23-30/2007
+ A Consumer's Tale published 9/24/2007
+ In Search Of An Experience published 11/12/2007

2008
+ Buying Decisions: From the Heart or the Mind? published 5/12/2008
+ Integrate Your Retail Experience published 9/15/2008
+ The Meaning Of Green... To Me published 11/3-10/2008

2009
+ The Retail Experience Roadmap published 2/9-16/2009
+ Hide, seek, be found and connect published 5/18-25/2009
+ Ten tips to be found and connect published 10/5-12/2009
+ The greater green: How does it fit into your customers' lives? published 11/23-20/2009

2010
+ Have you adapted your retail experience? published 1/25-2/1/2010 [The Surfaces Edition]
+ "Powered by service" published 2/25/2010
+ "Are you different (& better) enough to make people care? published 5/17-31/2010
+ "Women call the retail shots... Is your store woman friendly?" published 5/7-14/2010
+ "Be social in-store and online" published August 23/30, 2010
+ "Customers want solutions" published October 4/11, 2010

2011
+ How to make 'social' meaningful in flooring, published January 3/10, 2011
+ Green should feel good, published January 2011
+ Surfaces 2011: Connecting with customers, published 2/21-28, 2011
+ Your marketplace: is it designed for experts or for consumers?, published July 4/11, 2011
+ Reenergize your store with digital, published October 3/10, 2011

2012
+ Facebook, Twitter and Trivers, published March 19/26, 2012
+ The Green Retailer-Consumer Dilemma: It's About Trust!

As you read these articles, please let me know if they inspire other topics of interest to you.

Thanks for reading!



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