DW's Blog

Out Locally-ing the Real Locals!

by DW Green — March 4, 2015

It’s well documented that consumers prefer shopping a locally owned retail store to a national or regional chain store. But being locally owned, in and of itself, is not reason enough to maintain a long-term business relationship with consumers. A local retailer needs to minimally match the national or regional retailer in terms of its product offering, quality, customer service, store cleanliness and other operational considerations like product presentation, signage, stock conditions and so forth. From my perspective, the local company should strive to exceed operational standards of its larger size retail brethren.Aside from the many “financial benefits” of supporting a local business, as described in Adam Zack’s “In Support of REAL Local” blog, the underlying benefit or “reason to believe” in local businesses is the deeper emotional connection that consumers hold for their local community. This emotionality is enhanced by the authenticity of the local retailer. Authenticity is expressed through merchandising and messagi...

by DW Green — February 25, 2015

In the spirit of high school mathematics and National Pi day lets look at another mathematical concept, the “addition by subtraction” theory! Can a successful retail brand appeal to everybody? Nope. No one brand can possibly have a universal appeal. Since you can’t be everything to all people successfully, you must purposefully limit what you offer and to whom. When you are identifying your strategic initiatives, choices about what not to do (subtraction) are just as important as choices about what to do (addition). Your success depends on the trade-offs you are willing to make. Simply put, a trade-off means that more of one thing necessitates less of another. A supermarket can choose to offer more service departments, adding labor costs and higher retails, or it can choose not to, offering less service and lower retails, but it cannot do both without bearing major inefficiencies.In a recent conversation with a high profile and successful Northwest retailer, I learned about their thoughtful and discriminating approach to creating their retail brand product assortment. The retailer understood that to be brand successful they needed to limit their retail brand prod...

by DW Green — February 18, 2015

The ole maxim “Signs Sell” is true! But then I guess that’s what a maxim is, an expression of a general truth or principle. In truth, however, the maxim should read “A well-designed sign with thoughtful and intentional copy sell a lot!” Aside from the obvious sign ingredients like product description, price point, accurate spelling, product benefits and so worth, the sign design itself should reflect the purpose, meaning and personality of the store brand itself. Otherwise you are missing a tremendous opportunity to reinforce the unique benefit of your store to your customers. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-designed sign is worth a thousand sales....

by DW Green — February 10, 2015

In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters’ famous book first published in 1982, describes eight basic principles of management that made forty-three of America’s best-run companies successful. One of the principles was “Stick to the netting.” Stay with the business you know and outsource the rest! Retail grocery is about selling and merchandising. Not advertising and marketing design.On the surface in-house ad departments can seem more efficient and cost effective. However, if you look deeper into the actual cost of maintaining a highly professional advertising design team those cost can be much more than what you thought. Often times in-house ad departments become a source of overhead that limit or reduce resources needed to improve retail activities that directly improve sales and customer experience. Not to mention the negative impact poorly designed materials can have on your company’s brand.The added cost of office space, computer hardware and software and their ongoing maintenance, as well as photo libraries, insurance, and labor benefit packages can make the benefits of an in-house department much less attractive. Even the rate of pay necessary to a...

by DW Green — February 2, 2015

With love we are heartfelt, generous, nurturing, affectionate, steadfast, and forgiving. Love is protective, collaborative, uplifting, holistic, and gracious. Love is characterized by warmth, gratitude, appreciation, humility, completion, vision, and purity of motive. Love is a way of being.Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the beauty and harmony of the world by showing kindness to all living things and, thereby, supporting the human spirit. That which we freely give to life flows back to us because we are equally part of that life. Like ripples on the water, every gift returns to the giver. What we affirm in others, we actually affirm in ourselves.Love is a core value of DW Green Co. We try....

by DW Green — January 19, 2015

Responsive design takes into consideration the multitude of various devices that people use to access the Web. It’s no longer good enough to design a website solely for a desktop or laptop monitor. With millions of people accessing the Web through smart phones, tablets, and TV’s, websites need to be designed in a way they can easily be viewed on multiple devices. Experts project that by this year, mobile search will surpass desktop searching. Because of this, it’s vital that your website design lends itself to increasing the user experience on these portals.Furthermore, it’s important that your website content is shareable. The rapid rise of social media shows no sign of slowing down. Businesses that use social media platforms as a way for potential customers to not only identify their business, but identify, learn from and eventually buy from will reap the rewards....

by DW Green — June 19, 2014

We have a new client in Utah. After three weeks of new ad layouts I asked the client how the new designs were working out. He said “I think they look good…hoping they don’t look too good. They are sharp ads and the printed copies come out great.”*There seems to be an unfounded notion that well designed and store/product benefit driven ads communicate high prices. Wal Mart and Publix are two price leaders who maintain high advertising standards without sacrificing price image.Good ad design, like good merchandising, sells more product. And good design is essential to expressing a brand’s position and store benefits.Check out the Publix ad. >*Since this blog post almost one year ago, the Utah client sales continue to grow even after a new Wal Mart opened across the street....

by DW Green — March 27, 2014

I received an email from a client yesterday. It’s a great story and a wonderful example of customer service. The value of impeccable attention and commitment to customer service is immeasurable. Marketing is truly a company-wide activity. If you can make consumers desire a partnership with your brand, you have created an emotional connection that spells long-term success.The following story is courtesy of Think Patented, a marketing execution company in Miamisburg Ohio. It was printed in their March e-noodle newsletter.Do Things Worth Talking About“Scott Stratten, author of “Unmarketing” and “QR Codes Kill Kittens,” recently spoke about what real marketing really looks like. His message included a wonderful story about a stuffed giraffe named Joshie and his stay at the Ritz-Carlton.When we think of the Ritz, a certain persona emerges. A high-end hotel with a sophisticated appeal probably comes to mind. However, the following story tells us so much more.A father calls the Ritz that he and his family recently visited to let them know that he had an issue. His young daughter had left her cherished stuffed giraffe, Joshie, at the hotel. He asks them to do their best to find it but assumes it was gone forever. Meanwhile, he tells his little girl that Joshie has gone on a vacation and that he simply needed a little R&R.While most hotels wo...

by DW Green — March 11, 2014

There’s an outstanding independent retailer in the Midwest. They are superb operators. They opened two new stores and a new retail support center in 2012 and acquired three additional locations last year. They’ve added a store loyalty program, hired dieticians to their staff, developed gasoline partnerships and continue to expand their private label product portfolio. Their commitment of time, management and resources is remarkable. And their growth is impressive. So what is missing from this success story? Often times as companies grow, add stores and new product and service offerings they neglect to integrate those offerings in a cohesive, holistic manner that enhance and embrace the overall store brand. It’s like adding a freestanding GPS unit to the dashboard of your car. The standalone unit gets the job done, but it pales in comparison to a system tailored to your car. A well-designed system is a pleasure to use and often disappears from notice entirely, as it seamlessly integrates with the car’s driving experience.It can be a worthwhile project to get an outside perspective on the interconnectedness of your brand activities. A brand is more powerful and more difficult to compete against when the activities are tightly linked and carefully integrated.Contact DW Green Company for a free brand assessment today.

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by DW Green — February 12, 2014

Last May Supermarket News ran an excellent story about Wegmans. In the article entitled Wegmans 101, Robert Wegman was quoted from his “I Am a Merchant’ Speech.”“I am a merchant, and I have therefore my own philosophy about merchandising: That is, to do something that no one else is doing, and to be able to offer the customer a choice she doesn’t have at the moment. This is the only reason for being in business. To my own way of thinking, this is the only way it should be. “I think that uniqueness gives one an opportunity to profit. If you are doing the same thing that everyone else is doing, your opportunity for a substantial profit is materially reduced because of the price ceiling your competition will impose. Thus, good merchandising resolves itself into rendering a service in such a way as to be difficult for your competitors to emulate. This is the basic premise of the way we at Wegmans operate.”Mr. Wegman’s words represent a brilliant and well-expressed business creed. I believe there is a powerful distinction between being a merchant and being a retailer. A merchant mindset goes beyond selling products to consumers for a profit. The merchant mentality involves the totality of the consumer shopping experience. From product merchandising to signage, story telling, product assortment, service and services…all store activities presented within a cohesive brand style.Merchants merchandise to stimulate interest and entice c...