If you were at DIMA 2008, you're ahead of national retail shopping malls that spend gazillions in research last year to hear exactly what you heard at the 2008 DIMA Idea Exchange!

What you heard is that women with kids actually base their shopping patterns around clean family friendly restrooms.

Thousands of women told researchers that they frequently cut their shopping short and left without buying their intended purchases. This lost revenue was caused when their kids needed a trip to the potty and mom felt the potty wasn't clean enough.

We heard this first hand last January from Linda Wright, author of Skip To The Loo. Linda spoke at the DIMA Marketing Idea Exchange and we saw pictures of how successful imaging retailers improved their bathrooms to entice female shoppers to linger longer. So, if you attended DIMA you already knew this. (for more cutting edge info, mark your calendars for DIMA 2009, March 1 and 2). If you didn't know it, start fixing up the ole outhouse.

Those who attended PMA Canada Expo heard the same message from Anthony Stokan, Ministry of First Impression, and Saturday's keynote speaker. "We're really in the quality bathroom experience business."

Anthony told the audience that restrooms are now the number one remodeling priority of regional malls around North America. Think of the millions they could have saved if they'd been listening at DIMA . . . or even done something as archaic (granted less flashy) as listening to their customers or thinking like a customer. How often do we see things from our own biased perspective and not consider the viewpoint of others?

If you think this is just some theory de jour, look at Costco. Nobody pinches pennies like they do, and they are making their bathrooms the most luxurious place in their store. Of course ambiance hasn't been Costco's draw. Ambiance and Costco don't belong in the same sentence. It is a sales motivator - they want their customers to spend more time in the store. When nature calls, they want their customers to be able to answer without leaving the store. If you have kiosks and expect your customers to hang around, you gotta take care of their needs. End of discussion.

More about Stokann:

Random Thoughts Spurred by Anthony Stokan

Anthony says the reason Apple can sell their products through vending machines at Macy's (takes up 32 square feet and does over $100,000 a month) is because Apple has gotten the trust of their consumer. They are positioned as cool, "above the rest". Apple products are beautiful. (there's no social risk with Apple - see above risk comments)
• If you want to have a customer experience, you need a "sense of arrival". What do your customers see when they approach your store by car? On foot? Is it "Wow"? What do they feel when they walk in? (Yes, that is "feel" . . . way beyond what they see.)
• The pet economy is $1 billion a week . . . Are we merchandising pet images on our customized products?
• Do It Yourself (DIY) is sliding. Do It For Me (DIFM) is growing faster than any other segment in all product categories. Should we be offering "We will build your photo album for you?" - "We will design your Christmas Cards for you?" Hand addressing of Christmas Cards for customers is a lucrative business for some labs and printers.
• Zappos.com - makes themselves easy to do business with - phone number on the top of every single webpage.
• Zappos also does a 30 day employee review. They put $1,000 cash on the table and ask the employee if they want to help build Zappos into the powerhouse it's becoming or do they want $1,000 bonus to quit now? They believe it weeds out the "losers" and those that won't help build the future. It also reduces future training costs and turnover issues. Gets rid of those who aren't committed to the cause before they infect those who are passionate. Gutsy. Would a photo retailer do that?
• Word of mouth is now word of mouse - 67% of consumers do research on-line before they visit the retailer. Consumer reviews (yes, anonymous reviews) hold most sway. Smart to monitor those posts. Some companies have employees masquerading as customers to make postings. Some distrust of anonymous postings starting to pop up. Consumers still trust anonymous postings over the salesperson standing in front of them.
• facebook has "Addicted to Tim Horton's" (it's the symbol of Canadian donuts and coffee - a national treasure). There are 9,065 members in this group which fits the marketing message Tim Horton's wants out there. There is another group, "Tim Horton's screws up my order every time" which has 174 members already. I don't think that's "on message" for the corporate marketing gurus.
• Only stores like Costco or Wal-Mart will be able to rely on the 80/20 rule. (Again, DIMA attendees heard about The Long Tail a couple of years ago). Retailers will not be able to have the "stack it high, watch it fly" mentality anymore. They will have to be much more flexible with a wider variety of products and services. The new mantra for specialty stores may be, "Get it quick! Now you see it, now you don't!"
• It's not about "satisfied" customers. Who wants to be "satisfied"? It's about Wow! It's also not about demographics; it's about the tribe that thinks you are part of them. Consumer loyalty is just the absence of something better.
• The best things in life aren't things.

Long ago I was told by a professional speaker, "If you hear a speaker you like, always try to meet them and see if they are available for dinner, lunch, breakfast, whatever. You think the professional speaker always has their calendar fully booked, not so. Many times at conventions they have no prearranged meal plans. It never hurts to ask you can be surprised at the answer."

Friday night Michael St. Germain and I followed this great advice and had the honor of breaking bread with a genius in our industry, Guy Frenette. Guy's been around the imaging industry about as long as I have but he's much smarter.

Speaking of seeing things from your customers' perspective, Guy told his audiences they need to be in the business of managing risk for their customers. Guy says there are four types of risk, broken into two categories that you must manage if you're to sell to your customers:

A. Rational Risk

So in addition to learning lots more about customers we had a fantastic dinner at a place we never would have found on our own. Montreal's roots are clearly French, and if you ever doubted it, just eat in their restaurants.

Even the convention center had superb food. The morning croissants the convention center served were equal to any good restaurant and better than any convention center I've ever been in. (Note to PMA Vegas: Let's import the Montreal croissants for PMA 09 - The Montreal folks could teach our friends in Vegas a lot!)

Did you see the bonus tag lines for the PMA New England Division 2008 Annual Meeting?

Giveaways

To help defray the cost of black gold, we have a few more surprises:

■ Five $50 gas cards will be given away to the five attendees traveling the furthest!

■ Ten $25 gas cards will be given away to the next ten attendees traveling the furthest!

They're building on the gas price craziness to entice "customers" and so can you.

For example, we know at least one dealer who is hyping his instant prints (no, not Polaroid - dry lab) to save the cost of a second trip to the store.

September 23-29, 2008 - Photokina Koln (Cologne) Germany

October 3-4, 2008 PMA North Central Division Annual Meeting Riverwood Inn, Otsego, MN

October 10-11, 2008 PMA Pacific Northwest Division Annual Meeting Seattle, WA

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - PMA New England Division 2008 Annual Meeting 5:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Holiday Inn Select Boston-Woburn - Woburn, Massachusetts

October 23-25, 2008 PDN PhotoPlus Expo Jacob Javits Center, New York, NY - website

November 22, 2008 - PMA New York/New Jersey Metro Division Inc. 2008 Holiday Tailgate Party Fort Lee, NJ. For further information contact Alan Niederman at 732-308-0915.

March 1 - March 4, 2009 - DIMA 2009 Las Vegas, NV, USA

March 3 - March 5, 2009 - PMA 2009 Las Vegas, NV, USA

Did you know that every single issue of the McCurry Marketing Idea Exchange is archived on line - going all the way back to Issue 1?