DW's Blog

Take A Walk

by DW Green — June 19, 2019

And solve your problems along the way.

Throughout the ages, philosophers, writers, poets, and thinkers have found that walking offers an additional benefit—time and space for better work. So today, make sure you take a walk. And in the future, when you get stressed or overwhelmed, take a walk. When you have a tough problem to solve or a decision to make, take a walk. When you want to be creative, take a walk. When you have a phone call to make, take a walk. When you need some exercise, take a long walk. When you have a meeting or a friend over, take a walk together.Nourish yourself and your mind and solve your problems along the way. Take a walk.

Read More – Chip You

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by DW Green — June 12, 2019

If teams follow The Process, they tend to win.

I’m reading The Daily Stoic: 322 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, by Ryan Holiday. A wonderful book!The June 8^th reading is worth sharing. “Elite athletes in collegiate and professional sports increasingly follow a philosophy known as “The Process.” It’s a philosophy created by University of Alabama coach Nick Saban, who taught his players to ignore the big picture—important games, winning championships, the opponent’s enormous leads—and focus instead on doing the absolutely smallest things well—practicing with full effort, finishing a specific play, converting on a single possession. A season lasts months, a game lasts hours, catching up might be four touchdowns away, but a single play is only a few seconds. And games and seasons are constituted by seconds.If teams follow The Process, they tend to win. They overcome obstacles and eventually make their way to the top without ever having focused on the obstacles directly. If you follow the Process in your life—assembling the right actions in the right order, one right after another—you too will do well. Not only that, you will be better equipped to make quick work of the obstacles al...

by DW Green — June 5, 2019

There is a fine line between reducing costs and maintaining or increasing sales.

A client is considering switching from a weekly ad to a biweekly ad. What effect will reducing print advertising in half do to sales? I don’t know the answer. In the short term maybe not so much. But long term, it could be a different story. Controlling/reducing expenses is a good thing. But there is a fine line between reducing costs and maintaining or increasing sales. Reducing labor expense too much will result in reduced sales. Reducing product purchasing will also reduce sales. And on and on.To me advertising frequency is about brand exposure and having an ad presence on a competitive basis. Though biweekly ads will reduce ad expense, what it will do to sales long term is unknown. To me, any activity that contributes to sales and brand awareness is a prudent expense.

Served

by DW Green — May 22, 2019

Happy Memorial Day.

One of our clients offered a 10% Off Military Discount to all veterans, active duty military and family members for Memorial Day. The only purchase exclusion, gift cards. Many retailers offer similar promotions for Memorial Day. I think this is a great promotion. I especially like the minimum purchase exclusion. It’s important to honor our servicemen and women and their families. They willingly volunteer to protect our freedom, our way of life and our country. My dad served in WWII and my good friends Ron Short and John Jella served in Vietnam. All brave, selfless men. The word served is huge. It describes what our military does. To serve their country. Thank you.I will add this to my promotion list for next year.

Read More – Help!

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by DW Green — May 15, 2019

What the mind expects, it finds.

As a kid, I remember The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I never read his book, but the notion of positive thinking seemed to make sense. I’m not sure how aware we are of our own thinking processes but witnessing negative thinking by others can be annoying/challenging! The power of awareness shows up again. For me, self-awareness is a big deal!I read an interesting article, entitled The Power of Staying Positive, by Madisyn Taylor. Here’s a portion of her article…“The words and ideas that we think can shape our lives and drive us toward success and happiness or failure and distress. How you think and feel can have a profound effect on your ability to recognize opportunity, how well you perform, and the outcome of the goals that you’ve set for yourself. When you maintain an optimistic outlook and make an effort to harbor only positive thoughts, you begin to create the circumstances conducive to you achieving what you desire. You feel in control and few of life’s challenges seem truly overwhelming because it is in your nature to expect a positive conclusion. An optimistic mind is also an honest one. Staying positive does not mean that you ignore difficulties or disregard...

by DW Green — May 8, 2019

Marketing Chops!

I received a Hot email blast from Dorothy Lane Market last week. “Hot Sauce Hurrah”, 20% Off all hot sauces! Plus, they told a brief story on eight different hot sauces on their website, two of which are manufactured in Ohio. Sure, last Sunday was Cinco de Mayo, but Dorothy Lane had the marketing chops to highlight a smoking category while promoting their fantastic product variety! I think it’s wise to promote product categories. Consumers have many product choices. It’s great when retailers present them in a single event. Categories like mustard, BBQ sauce, salsa, soup, olive oil, salad dressing, root beer, even oatmeal and more! Variety is a competitive advantage. Show what you got and tell their story! Well done Dorothy Lane Market!

Read More – The Arrogant Bastard

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by DW Green — April 24, 2019

People are emotionally connected to grocers

I’ve been an advocate of emotional branding for more than twenty years. A company’s ability to connect emotionally with their customers is a huge, huge benefit and competitive advantage. But it doesn’t happen on its own. Emotional branding needs to be a cornerstone of a company’s brand. It needs to be stated and implemented in every daily activity performed.I read an interesting article by Amit Sharma, in the April 18, 2019 Harvard Business Review, entitled What the Grocery Stores Holding Their Own Against Amazon Are Doing Right. The following is an excerpt from the article.“Emotional connection is another driver of loyalty; our survey found that 50% of consumers are more likely to buy again from a brand that connects with them emotionally or reflects their values. People are emotionally connected to grocers, as utilitarian as grocery shopping may seem. For example, Trader Joe’s, which ranked highly in the C Space study, inspires loyalty by creating an enjoyable shopping atmosphere. A 2018 Forrester survey of 287 brands rated T...

by DW Green — April 17, 2019

The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity.

“To thine own self be true” writes William Shakespeare in Hamlet. “Let your conscience be your guide” the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio and then asks Jiminy Cricket to serve as Pinocchio’s conscience.Integrity is an important and powerful quality. To be referred to as a person of integrity is the ultimate compliment. I have come to realize that my life experience is about the journey toward wholeness, and to seek wholeness, is to live from a place of integrity. Conscience is the alarm that goes off when integrity is at risk, when wholeness is splintered.“The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity, and the health of our integrity often determines our inner strength and resilience in meeting the outer world. This is the purpose of integrity, to balance the outer forces of existence with the inner forces of spirit,” Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk. One of the most useful definitions of integrity comes from Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man: Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change.So living from integrity is when our actions, our outer life are in sync with our inner...