The Wall Street Journal Effect:
Talking about
good news in your local economy can get YOUR business going.
-- By Ann Siegle
I've read the Wall Street Journal daily for about fifteen years.
Every so often we note that when a favorable article appears about
the economy, the next day, the stock market goes up. Or conversely,
when news in the paper is consistently bad, the market goes the
down. Or if an obscure stock has a story, it goes up (or down)
the day it appears. When my husband was getting his MBA he informally
tracked this, and had he gotten his PhD, he'd have written his
thesis on 'The Wall Street Journal Effect.'
You've heard
the old adage about the guy who owns a lunch cart he parks near
downtown? His business-school son comes home on vacation one semester.
Son says "Dad, haven't you heard? The economy's bad! You
should start conserving cash." So Dad lays off the the student
he hired to wear a sandwich board to promote his lunch cart business.
To conserve cash, he stops printing and distributing flyers. Soon,
business drops off. He says to his friends "See how smart
my son was? The economy IS bad".
Fact is, the
economy is poised (according to Alan Greenspan's latest report
to Congress) for a 'sustained period of economic growth.' Yet
I'll bet few of us are prepared for it. When business gets going
full speed, you're going to have to compete with your competitors
for ad space and marketing eyeballs in a crowded direct-mail marketplace.
Plus, with the 'National Do Not Call List' taking hold in October,
direct mail is going to explode, since this avenue for advertising
is being increasingly cut off. Do you want your message clogged
in with the rest of your competitors?
No!
What you want
is a nice clear window in which to market with few distractions.
That window is now. Southern Michigan is doing pretty well --housing
prices are still accelerating, the "Greater Lansing Business
Monthly" reported that the outlook for the local economy
is good. Two neighbors on my block sold their houses in four days
and five hours respectively, and got the price they were asking.
Both new owners hired painters and immediately bought a lot of
landscaping.
The headlines
typically report bad news because good news is boring! For instance,
would you read a headline that says "Everything going well.
Local businesses booming," or "Economic woes hit local
firms. Layoffs continue." Well, maybe now you would, but
most people want to know about who's getting the ax next -- not
that everything's going swimmingly.
In any day,
there are equally as many good news items as there are bad news
items. For instance, the RV index (yes, the index of how many
recreational vehicles are being sold) has been way up -- sales
of recreational vehicles jumped 16 percent in April
from a year earlier, after an increase of only 2 percent in 2001,
according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association; and
the Recession Watch Index is showing only 11% probability
of economic decline, which is at it's best point since
1993. Yet, the news reported that the unemployment rate in Michigan
is 7.2% -- higher than the national average. You'd have to dig
deep to find the first two good-news numbers, but the unemployment
figure was top-headline news. (Sources: CNN.Money.com and Comerica
Bank)
The "Wall
Street Journal Effect" in practice is about reporting good
news so people feel better about the economy. Consumer spending
isn't the whole chain. If consumers spend, and retailers buy from
wholesalers, and invest and upgrade their buildings and systems,
B2B (business-to-business) outfits, like ours (and yours) benefit
because their customers are our customers. But so far, retailers
are sitting still and so it goes down the food chain.
So, here's all
of our Good News Indices for southern Michigan for this summer:
some are observational (and those are the 'feel good' consumer
sentiment things you hear about), and some are hard numbers. Both
are important.
o Good weather -- we've had a nice, mild summer, consumers haven't
had to fork out tons of money keeping their A/C running.
o You can't find a hotel room within twenty miles of Lake Michigan
this weekend, and campgrounds are jammed.
o If you have been on I-75 or US-127 going north on a Friday night,
you know you can kiss your evening in front of a campfire good-bye
if you leave after 4 pm. You'll still be near Clare along with
every RV that was sold (see RVI below) this year.
o The RWI is
is showing only 11% probability of economic decline
o The RVI is up 16
percent in April from a year earlier, after an increase
of only 2 percent in 2001
o The local economic news is: In May, the Greater Lansing Business
Index finished the month at a level of 114.4, which is
slightly higher than the 112 index level that prevailed
in February. (Source: "Greater Lansing Business Monthly"
at lansingbusinessmonthly.com)
So when you speak
to customers share the good news:
o Business is picking up
o You're getting your sales phone calls returned
o Clients are calling you
o You're really busy
o and there's never been a better time to get your business marketing
message out -- your competitors are sitting on their budgets right
now.
Here are three quick things you can do right now to get a quality
word out when it's all quiet on the marketing front. This is our:
"I don't have time, it's late August" version of marketing:
1. Write three
tips on how your business product or service can solve a problem
your clients have.
2. Put the three tips on a postcard e-mail or letter. If you're
mailing it, pick a cool paper (nothing neon, please). Ask us about
paper recommendations.
3. Mail it! (If the postcard is under 6" wide and 4 1/4"
tall, you can use a 23 cent postcard stamp.)
You can do this
in a couple of hours using PowerPoint or Word. (If you do your
own layout here, but keep it simple; a strong typeface, your logo
and corporate colors are sufficient. And selecting a nice paper
can make all the difference.)
If you use a
database (here, we use FileMaker Pro) you can format using your
database program; put the four postcards on one sheet of 8.5"
x 11" paper, complete with 'mail merge' for your customer's
addresses.
Of course, if
you REALLY don't have time, give Tria a call, and we can do it
for you. Think of all the great, late-summer things you can do
with that free time, and still enjoy the fruits of a stepped-up
marketing effort.
***
This month's marketing links:
How to Get 100% of
Hot Prospects to Download a White Paper: Trade Show Follow-up
E-mail Tips: http://library.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.cfm?CID=2398
Mid-LIfe Cyclist:
How peak performance out of the office can fuel your work at the
office. Training for a grueling bike race, a hard-charging banker
learns to shift gears.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/73/cyclist.html
***
Quick Tip to Remember:
All marketing and advertising expenses are 100% tax deductible,
AND they help you sell more to your existing and future customers.
And, this time of year, you know this well, hiring an outside
firm means you don't have to do the work! So, stop giving valuable
profits to Uncle Sam to spend foolishly, and instead, use them
to build your business this year.
***
If you like this newsletter and think a colleague or friend would like it, just use the "send to a friend" button at the bottom.
Don’t
forget, every month we give you great downloadable resources,
like "Why Hire a Creative Supplier," "How
to get Great Work out of your Creative Supplier," and our
famous "Planning Marketing Projects Guide" which
plans print and web projects from the date you need them done
to the date we need to meet with you to get the project rolling.
The first two are from an independent Boston advisory company.
The third we've developed over a decade or more of working on
projects with clients.
Thinking of design & marketing night & day,
Your friends at Tria Design,
Linda, Ann and Tina
If you want more information on these articles or anything else
related to design or marketing, please e-mail us at info@triadesignfirm.com
