 |
directories | store design | education | calendar |
| articles | resources | mccurry | contact us |
|
|
McCurry Associates Marketing Idea Exchange ArchivesVolume 70 - January 28, 2004
Idea #1 –Up On A Roof for
Charity . . . Weird Allen Showalter,
Showalter Imaging Group/King Photo,
We have done a promotion annually for 8 years now called "Up On a
Roof." A local radio personality and I spend 4 days and 3 nights camping on
the roof of one of our stores to raise money for a local charity. We hang
buckets from the side of the roof and encourage listeners to stop by and make
donations. We broadcast live on 5 local stations throughout the day.
We designate some processing item in every King
Photo store as a special. When that item is purchased, we donate $1.00 to the
charity ourselves. This year we received excellent free PR from this including 2
TV news stories, a story in the local paper with a color photo. The radio
station works with local restaurants to cater our meals in exchange for
promotional mentions, the same for camping supplies. Sales for that store in
June were up over 36%. Idea #2
– Elizabeth
Macy, Image Photo & Digital Lab, If
you have a portrait studio... you must have a baby photo contest! we had our 1st
this past February, which was extremely successful. We didn't do any paid
advertising, just press releases, flyers at nursery schools, doctors offices
etc., and a mailing to our portrait customers. The
entry fee was $19.95, which included the sitting and an 8x10 enlargement to
enter into the contest, (which they got to keep after contest) We posted the
photos in our store window, and around the store, and the public was invited to
vote in 3 age categories. I love the idea of having the public vote...as it
increased the traffic in the store during a usual slow month of February . . .
when people sent their family and friends in to vote for their baby. A
lot of the entrants were new customers, which have since booked family sittings,
as well as ordering packages from the baby contest sitting. For prizes we
offered packages, free sittings, and gift certificates from local toy stores,
baby stores. Idea # 3
– We Interrupt This Program To Bring You This Special Announcement. . . .
Editor’s
Note – we are now up to 38 emails received in the last 48 hours @mccurryassoc.com
that are worm related. The following is from our techno guru David McVey who
sees you get your newsletter each week. He writes . . . The
name of the worm it is W32/Mydoom@MM or the "My Doom" worm. Note that
it is a worm and not a virus. A worm does not actually damage computer files
like a virus does. Instead it spread its self around the Internet through email,
plugging up resources. Here
is how it works: When a computer is infected with the worm, it grabs all the
email address on that computer. It picks an address to send its self to, but it
does not use the computer owner's address for the "From". Instead, it
picks another address from the address book and puts it in the "From"
field. Example: +
Joe has the worm on his computer. +
Joe has Bill and David in his address book. The
worm uses Joe's computer to send itself to Bill and makes the email show that it
came from David (even though it really came from Joe). - 1 of 78 it sent to
different emails. David
gets a nasty email from Bill wanting to know why he is sending virused emails. David
spends the next 96 hours running every brand of antivirus known on his computer. Joe
never knows anything is wrong. In the mean time, another 78 copies of the worm
go out. As
you can see, the cleverness is that nobody knows where the worm actually came
from. The
frustration is that you may start receiving return emails saying you sent an
infected email when in fact you didn't send it and don't know the person the
original infected email went to (they're not even in your address book). The
infected email will always have an attached file (containing the worm). It will
usually be named such that you would automatically open it - SOMWTHING.DOC or
SOMETHING.ZIP or SOMETHING.XLS or others (a common one is Document.doc). If you
open it, you’re infected. Norton
and McAfee antivirus software can rid a computer of this worm. If properly
configured, it should detect infected emails as they arrive. The antivirus
software must be up to date. Thought
this might help you and/or others if you choose to pass it along. David McVey - McVey Associates - dmcvey@mcveyassoc.com Upcoming
Industry Speaking Events with Bill McCurry – +
Wednesday, February 11 – +
Wednesday, Feb 11 – +
Thursday, February 12 - +
Thursday, February 12 - + Friday,
February 13 – 7:00pm – 9:50pm (PMA – Las Vegas) Night School –
“Marketing That Makes You Money” – A concentrated look at your marketing
dollars and how to wring more sales from them.
If you’ve read this far down . . . God Bless You!
It means you’re serious about your business and see something of value
in these newsletters . . . Bill is working with Harold Lloyd to help craft the
best Sunday Breakfast session PMA has ever seen. Harold will be speaking on
“Am I The Leader I Need To Be?” . . . . If you own or manager (or ever want
to effectively manage) a business you need to be in Harold’s Session Sunday
morning February 15 . . . You’ll discover ways to increase your effectiveness
and your team’s performance. No excuses - - - you better show up!
|
