Have a Nice Day

That’s what the cashier said to me at the end of my purchase.

I said nothing back. Why? Because I felt that her statement was insincere. From what I saw, her well-meaning statement was delivered because the company instructed her to deliver it at the end of every transaction. She really didn’t mean it and she didn’t understand why she was saying it.

She didn't care about my day and she didn't care if I "had a nice day".

The strange thing is that the cashier probably thought that I was rude for not responding.

I had three choices.

1. I could have mumbled something back with the same lack of conviction just to appease her.
2. I could have pointed out the lack of sincerity in her statement and actions. That could have led into a rant about poor customer service in general and her specific mistreatment of me as a customer.
3. Instead I said nothing because I felt that my words would be wasted.

I’m only guessing that the words she said were mandated by the company because they were totally out of sync with her actions.

She never looked at me. Not once. Not even for a few seconds. She clearly did not respect nor appreciate me as a customer.

When I approached the counter she took my product, scanned it and typed on the cash. Then she stated with disgust, “My computer has been acting up all day.” She did not apologize. She simply expressed her disgust at her computer. It was making her life difficult – and I assumed so was I.

I attempted some levity with, “With all these computer experts around there must be a way to fix it.” It was an office products store. She called for help. When another staff member approached, she demonstrated the problem as she repeatedly stabbed the keys angrily. He politely asked her to stop. He directed her, then me to a different cash register. He even spoke to the couple behind me in line to allow me to be processed before them.

She did not apologize for my inconvenience – perhaps because she was so wrapped up in her own inconvenience. She did not thank me for my business. She never looked at me. I’m baffled at how she accomplished that total lack of eye contact.

And then she had the gall to say “Have a nice day.” Instead of making me feel good with that statement she conveyed the message that here was a very unhappy employee who clearly hated her job and the customers she served.

If she is getting minimum wage – she is overpaid.

Have a nice day?

Customer service is the front line of marketing.

Before you spend any momey on advertising or promotion - train your staff!

George Torok

Marketing Speaker

Marketing Definitions in the Raw

Marketing has become a cult. It is rife with mysterious terms, magic powder and self-anointed gurus.

Use this list of definitions to better understand the terminology and refute some of the ridiculous statements of the high priests.

Warning: some of these definitions might offend some people. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Marketing
Marketing is about sending messages. Everything you do or don’t do sends a marketing message. The purpose of marketing is to help you sell more.

Permission Marketing
This term was made famous by Seth Godin. The opposite of permission marketing is interruption marketing – which according to Seth has been the standard marketing practice of the past century. Permission marketing simply means asking if your audience is interested before you speak.

Social Marketing
Social marketing (also called cause marketing) has been around for decades. It breaks down into two versions: business marketing that piggy backs on a social issue, and marketing to promote a social issue. Examples of the issues include the environment, equal rights, poverty, animal rights, community, children, health…

Network Marketing
Network marketing was the renaming of multi-level marketing made famous by Amway. What was once called multi-level marketing became network marketing. It has little to do with networking. And they keep changing the term to ward off the stigma that seems to quickly attach itself. It is probably called something else now.

Marketing Research
Marketing research is the high-priced label given to the task of finding out what people really want and what do about it. It means asking good questions, listening and taking accurate notes.

Marketing Guru
Someone who wrote a book or several articles about marketing and charges you a lot of money to tell you what to do with your marketing. If you invested enough time and thought, you would probably figure it out on your own.

Marketing Company
Often just an advertising agency. They used to proudly call themselves ad agencies. Maybe they want to feel and project more value with the marketing label. They still create and sell you ads. Some of them help you get media exposure. Those are usually called PR firms. (Public relations)

Viral Marketing
Cool name. Like a virus – it has a life of its own. It means marketing that others do for you. It means “other people talking about you.”

Guerilla Marketing
A term made famous by Jay Conrad Levinson. The idea is based on guerilla warfare – when a force that is inferior in size and resources can beat a vastly superior opponent with the use of creativity, flexibility and focus.

Monkey Marketing
If gorillas can market then why not monkeys? Some folks market like monkeys – just screeching, eating bananas and moving on when they get bored.

Amoeba Marketing
Strip away the nonsense and follow the simple basics. What could be simpler than an amoeba? More business owners need to simplify their marketing process.

Online Marketing
Any marketing that you do on the Internet.

Offline Marketing
Offline marketing is everything else. Do you remember before the Internet? The offline world is still around and very important.

Offside Marketing
Happens when the marketing department gets out of control and chases marketing awards instead of focusing on the business needs. Maybe this should be a firing offense. Just ask Donald Trump.

Marketing Department
In many corporations they are composed of graphic designers who create and/or buy ads.

Marketing Budget
Often a number you are too embarrassed to reveal. (Unless you are Coke or Nike)

Marketing Degree
It might just be a worthless piece of paper, unless you want to work in a corporate marketing department or a marketing company. (See above definitions) Also valuable to help you become a marketing professor – so you can teach the same useless textbook lies to others.

Learn those definitions and study for the exam.


© George Torok is the co-author of the bestselling, Secrets of Power Marketing. It is the first guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer. Get your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” at http://powermarketing.ca/ Arrange for a marketing speech, executive briefing or training program at http://www.torok.com/ For media interviews call 905-335-1997
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Marketing Definitions in the Raw

More Marketing Articles from George Torok

Marketing Tips on Twitter

Coke and the Power of Perception

Marketing lesson on the power of perception from a live presentation from George Torok to a group of buisness owners.

Enjoy this video.

George Torok is a marketing expert who speaks to conferences, conventions, corporate meetings and executive retreats.

This is a good message and a sample of his presentation style.

Learn more at www.Torok.com

Call 905-335-1995

3 Myths about the Media

Working with the media is a powerful way to promote your business. Some business owners are missing big opportunities to promote their business because they believe some common myths about the media. Recognize and dispel these three media myths.


Media Myth 1: The job of the media is to report the facts

The former editor in chief of a big city paper and former news director at a national TV station cleared up this myth.

He stated that many people believe that the job of the media is to report the facts. He clarified, “The job of the media is to report the facts – as we see it.”

That is an important distinction. Facts are not relevant or valuable without perspective. The media reports the facts that they chose and with the perspective that they select. Anyone can report facts. The distinguishing factor of a media outlet is the perspective that they offer on those facts. Opinion.


Media Myth 2: The Media hates business

I’ve heard this accusation from many small and medium sized business owners. Perhaps they run into challenges dealing with big banks and government. Then they read about business getting trashed in the newspapers or watch it on “60 Minutes”.

The media doesn’t hate business. The media is business – big, medium and small business. The media needs business – to advertise. Yes, some individuals in the media might rant about a particular business or industry because that attracts readers, listeners and viewers – customers.


Media Myth 3: The Media is in the information business

That is an easy assumption because the media needs information as its raw material. But the media isn’t in the information business – even though they might convey information. Similarly they aren’t in the entertainment business even though they need to be entertaining. Just watch the 6:00 TV news and notice the entertainment.

The media is in the advertising business.

That is how they make money. They sell advertising and when they don’t sell enough advertising, they cut production, jobs and eventually close down. Every media service that died did so because they did not sell enough advertisements.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

Marketing Articles

Why Talk to the Media?

Three situations to talk to the media:

• Crisis
• Change
• Marketing

Why talk to the media?

Three purposes:

In a crisis you want to defend or mitigate.

During change you want to lead or manage the change.

When marketing, you want to promote your value or sell your products.


George Torok

What is Strategic Positioning

And how does it impact the rest of the business?

• Do you see business making this conscious decision?
• What benefits come from this?
• What is the cost or loss?
• Examples welcomed.

While researching the topic of Strategic Positioning I surveyed people in my Linkedin Network. I found it helpful to learn how other experts perceived this topic. My thanks to all of them for their thoughtful replies. Here are a few of those replies.

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Robert "Alan" Black
NSA, CSP Prof Member, speaker/consultant/trainer/author
Athens, Georgia Area

When I taught Fundamentals of Marketing courses for the American Management Association around the US at various AMA centers from 1984 to 1986 the book POSITIONING by Al Ries and Jack Trout had already been a best seller and Strategic Planning was also a popular selling topic; first to business and industry and then to governments and agencies.

You are asking about STRATEGIC POSITIONING in the era of BRANDING.

hmmmm?!

Strategic thinking....chosen thinking, deliberately chosen planning

Positioning....getting the mindset you want into the minds of your customers/clients/patients that you want them to have.

One of the problems of becoming too STRATEGIC and too specific about a POSITION is what do you do when the situation changes such as the past couple years with the international global financial disasters.

Do you change your strategy(ies)?

Do you change your position?

One of the lessons, I believe, I got from Ries & Trout is often POSITIONS or POSITIONING happens in the mind/s of customers/clients/patients even when you are trying to establish or create other Positions.

Then the question becomes HOW TO UN-POSITION OR RE-POSITION you, your products, your company or FINDING NEW CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS/PATIENTS OR NEW MARKETS.

hmmm?!

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Paul Weber
CEO Entrepreneur Advertising Group
Kansas City, Missouri Area


There is no better case study than Southwest Airlines. Both in strategic positioning and in brand positioning, they have been the only airline in 25 years that created a recognizable differentiation based on consumer preferences. Fast, friendly, fun, low fares....

These are always the words that describe consumers' experience with the airline. No other airline has ever had a recognizable position that was identifiable to the general public.

I am speaking from more of a marketing and brand perspective but I'm sure that their operational strategies ran similar. Southwest, without a doubt, one of the better examples of positive positioning against the competition.


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Arun Prakash Maruthavanan
Principal Consultant at GETCXO
Chennai Area, India

Strategic positioning is the way you position your company, business model and offerings by analyzing your marketplace, rapidly changing environment, futuristic trends, competition, consumers and leveraging it to your advantage.

The strategic position of a business is its perceptual location relative to others. Awesome benefits like competitive edge,overall efficiency, early entry advantage, huge sales,brand loyalty and positioning; shall be reaped resulting in excellent growth of the business.

Unfortunately the majority of business are not making this conscious decision due to the lack of leadership, vision, market intelligence, professional support and their inability to accept, implement "Change".

The cost is directly proportional to the size of the business and the domain/marketplace in which it operates. A loss shall happen if this type of positioning is implemented in a wrong way resulting in a disaster.

I believe that the decision making capabilities of the business leadership plays a crucial role in the outcome of Strategic positioning.
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George Torok

Marketing Expert & Speaker

Executive Briefing for your Management Team

Strategic Positioning: What is it?

My new presentation on Strategic Positioning went very well. It was a workshop format for about 20 owners of medium sized businesses.


This was less about me speaking and teaching then it was about asking probing and disturbing questions. That type of presentation is always a little scary for me because I don't have the answers - only the questions.


The business owners realized that they must find the answers. That was an "ah-ha" moment.

Some of the issues and questions that we explored:

How to recognize the difference between acute and chronic problems and the connection to changing strategy or tactics.

Where are you now in terms of current strategy whether on purpose or by circumstance?

Five competitive forces that play with your strategy.

Identify your resources and how to leverage them.

How can you quickly generate a lot of creative ideas on demand?

What can you do in each of the four quadrants to develop new markets and products?

Some marketing strategies and tactics to consider.

This was a serious group of business owners yet we still had some laughs. I was impressed at the depth of discussion and exploration that we accomplished in this session. Of course no one-day workshop fixes anything, especially on the topic of Strategic Positioning - so everyone left with plenty of take-aways and homework for their business.

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Comments from the business owners about this program on Strategic Positioning

"George takes complex business challenges and provides simple actionable tips to tackle them."

Kevin Hiebert, President, Cell-A-Net Printer Services

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"Invaluable perspective on leveraging business through effective marketing."

Bob Alsip, President, Convenience Group Inc.

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"Clear route map to establish a realistic strategy."

Paul Herman, President, Firwin

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"I enjoyed the presentation because it forced me to think of my business from a 10,000 foot view. I will use this opportunity to build a stronger company."

Chris Giles, President, Dyamic Connections

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George Torok

Strategic Positioning

Executive Briefing for Business Owners