March 21, 2016 Marketers have long relied on the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers. The theory is tempered by the fact that museums rely less on a local customer base than conventional retail locations do; many of us draw a lot […]
March 14, 2016 I’m not ashamed to admit it, but I hate marketing. On the surface, marketing sounds like it should be fun. You know, coming up with fun slogans or filling balloons with helium and tying them to the front door, or maybe creating a cool sign with some flashy graphics. You know, […]
March 7, 2016 Have you ever noticed how many people walk by your store and don’t come in? Does it bother you? Of course it does. No one who has ever managed a retail operation is comfortable with traffic that passes them by. It’s like having a party and no one comes. For stores that […]
February 29, 2016 For any potential employee, the hiring process can be long, slow, frustrating, and somewhat painful. On the other hand, the person doing the hiring needs to be methodical and strategic. Unfortunately, there’s no simple way of ensuring that the hiring process is both effective and fair – much less painless. Over the […]
February 22, 2016 It’s been said that you should write about what you know. Occasionally, I have been accused that I don’t know what I am talking about, but in truth all of us are experts in some way or another. If you do your job well, you’re probably an expert. If you’ve been doing […]
February 15, 2016 Not long ago, I had the opportunity to visit the great Musical Instrument Museum on the outskirts of Phoenix. This is a fabulous museum and well worth your time if you happen to be visiting Phoenix. For me it was a total surprise. One of the other museum stores I visited recommended […]
February 8, 2016 A while back, I came across an image that went viral that explained social media using donuts. Naturally, the use of donuts caught my attention since donuts are at the top of my nutritional tree… and social media seemed kind of important, too. As it turns out, the social media explanation, ala […]
With both Apple and Google each offering more than 1.5 million apps a piece, chances are you might have missed one or two that could come in handy. A smartphone in your pocket is an amazing tool, made even more powerful when equipped with the right apps. Better yet, most of the basic apps are […]
January 25, 2016 In 1970, the King of the counterculture, Abbie Hoffman, wrote, Steal This Book. It was a guide to survival in time of change. It’s now 2016 and times are a changing. It’s time to steal some ideas. Every industry has unique ways of doing business. Many of these ideas translate well to […]
I recently ordered some coffee from the Death Wish Coffee Company. I’m not kidding. This new company is quickly establishing itself in the market, particularly among younger buyers including the fast-growing Millennial generation. Death Wish is a long way from the Folgers that Mrs. Olson pitched on TV back in the 1970s. Like many companies, […]
