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Business SMART: |
Why
SMART Ideas Work |
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By:
Dennis A. Conforto
A-Z Media Group |
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One of the best ideas to come from
a SMART Co-op Marketing Team came from the Canadian Team in
Ontario led by Lisa Fedele.
This team has worked long and hard to move on the question of
how to get more newbies into their retail scrapbooking stores
and how to do that together as a group of independent retailers.
They found within the Toronto marketplace that there are 55
independent scrapbooking stores. In addition, there are 14
Michael’s Stores within the same market area. Of the 55
independent stores 15 of them are members of the SMART Group.
They used to see each other as competitors but that is no longer
the case ever since they have been meeting and working together
for the common good of the industry and the category. Prior to
that everyone was full of distrust, not to say that still isn’t
the case, it is just that there is now more trust because they
are learning that if they don’t work together it will only cost
them more in the way of market growth and awareness of the
category to the general consumer.
It’s hard at first to get people to cooperate. This is because
most have been taught that anyone who is in the same market and
category as you is your competitor. However, it is funny that
other industries know better.
For example, McDonalds always wants Burger King kitty corner,
Mobile wants to be by Chevron, and Bank of America wants to be
close to Chase Bank. Whether it’s a bank, a fast food chain or a
gas station they know that market growth comes from working
together. Maybe this is one reason that the scrapbooking
marketplace is only 4.5 percent of women between the ages of 16
and 64.
The real question for everyone is, “How do we grow the market?”
because sales volume or lack thereof is our number one problem
today.
So, this particular group of scrapbook retailers noticed that
every week Michael’s was running an insert in the newspaper full
of products on sale. And then it hit them! What if they combined
their efforts into a flyer and printed one million of them
targeted at women 29 to 54, the primary target for the
scrapbooking female! The idea caught on like wildfire with the
Southern California SMART Co-op team wanting in and then of
course the British Columbia team wanted to join.
With seven regional SMART Teams in place it is now possible for
the SMART Group to produce as many as 7 million flyers per month
to raise awareness of the category and cut cost. The idea was
tested with manufacturers who, for the first time allocated real
advertising budgets for independent retailers.
The goal is to have 20 regional SMART Co-op Marketing teams all
across North America. In doing so we can cut everyone’s cost
down to reach the newbie that the industry needs so badly.
What will throw it off track? Only one word, mistrust! As we
travel from marketplace to marketplace we can see and feel the
mistrust that many retailers have for each other and for
manufacturers. Everyone is wondering what is in it for the other
person for cooperating. Once mistrust starts and has been left
unchecked for years it’s hard to break it down. Some retailers
when invited to a SMART meeting at another retailer’s place
wonder what inside track that retailer has. The answer is, no
one has an inside track; everyone within the SMART Group has had
to break down the walls of mistrust and so must be the case if
the scrapbooking industry wants to grow both in sales and in
profits.
The SMART Group is a non-profit group. No one will be stealing
your profits working within the SMART Group structure. The only
way we make any money is by working together for the common good
of the industry and then turning that common good into making
our own business profitable.
The question is this, “What good will come from everyone working
together?” The answer is growth and profits. By working together
we can create better working relationships with manufacturers
that will result in better turns, terms and earns. We can create
20 million monthly flyers where everyone spends a small amount
to cover the need within their marketplace. We can, with the
manufacturers, do a better job of promoting their brands; we can
improve the look and feel of each and every independent
scrapbook store. We can reduce labor costs and streamline the
whole buying and selling process. We can introduce new products
for the instant non-crafting scrapbooker and work towards
getting market presence in building B2B practices that help us
go after the corporate scrapbook market.
There is much work that needs to be done but it will only get
done when trust is implemented across the entire industry and we
streamline all the processes to cut down on duplicate work and
increase productivity. For too long we have continued to do the
same thing over and over again hoping for different results only
to find that slowly we are losing market share.
How long will we sit by and watch retailer after retailer fail
and continue to stay the course? How long will manufacturers
continue to consolidate mixing in duplicate products they
already had?
Here is my newest warning to the industry. The big boxes are
just now feeling the slow down in the scrapbooking marketplace.
As a result, they will shorten the line up they already have in
scrapbooking. This will result in many manufacturers taking a
huge hit. Any manufacturer who is doing more than 15% of their
annual volume with one retailer is in jeopardy. Just like in
investments, you need diversity to decrease the risk. If you are
a manufacturer the health of your business is tied to the health
of the independent retailer. If you ignore them today, tomorrow
you might find it impossible to work your way back into their
businesses.
The SMART Group has created a SMART Vision for the scrapbooking
industry, however, the sand is draining quickly in the hour
glass and time will run out unless we act right now to change
and to change not for the sake of changing but change with real
purpose. That is what being business SMART is all about. |
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