3 5 7What’s In It For Me?Tell customers what they want to hear, namely how they will benefit from doing business with you. Page 7

Never Never Here’s a rule for protection against scam artists: never wire money to someone as part of a retail transaction. Page 5

Sales ReboundMore Michigan retailers rang up better sales in April, but they remain concerned about higher gasoline prices. Page 3

Main Street Fairness new top goaltage over Michigan stores has moved to the top of Michigan Retailers As-sociation’s legislative agenda.

MRA offers newguide to startinga retail business

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 4

Better retail marketingusing mobile barcodes

Closing the sales and use tax loop-hole that gives many out-of-state, online retailers a competitive advan-

MRA is talking with Gov. Snyder’s administrat ion and key state lawmakers in an attempt to get the legislature to enact “Main Street Fairness” legislation, said MRA President and CEO James P. Hallan.

“Following the successful com-pletion of item pricing reform and elimination of the Michigan Business Tax in the first six months of this year, Main Street Fairness has risen to our number one issue,” Hallan said.

“There are steps state government can take right now to make Michigan retailers more competitive and im-prove Michigan’s economy. This issue has dragged on far too long.”

To move the issue forward, MRA plans to borrow a page from its suc-cessful strategy to secure passage of the item pricing reforms signed into law by Gov. Snyder on March 29. MRA will again lead a large coalition of retailers and other busi-nesses, this time to push hard for Main Street Fairness.

LoopholeWhen someone buys merchan-

dise online, he or she must pay the

®

June 2011 Vol. 36 No. 3 The official publication of the Michigan Retailers Association www.retailers.com

Michigan Retailers Association has produced a new booklet to help reignite Michigan’s entrepreneurial spirit by assisting would-be retailers in starting their own businesses.

Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Retail Business is available to any-one interested in learning the basics of opening a store or e-commerce website.

“Our organization has been helping retailers for more than 71 years, so who better than MRA to encourage and assist new retail startups?” said James P. Hallan, president and CEO.

“There’s strong agreement that we need to help spark an explosion of startup businesses in this state to ultimately create hundreds of thou-sands of new, good jobs. We’re doing our part to assist Gov. Snyder and others in their efforts to reinvent Michigan’s economy.”

The guide brings together infor-mation from many sources to help entrepreneurs navigate the steps they’ll need to take in preparation for their first retail sale. It walks them through the important details of planning, setting up and registering their businesses, navigating tax ob-ligations, planning store operations, protecting assets and more.

“While the booklet serves chiefly as an overview of these topics, the material and resources included can get would-be retailers started in the right direction,” Hallan said.

The new booklet is being released in connection with MRA’s 2010 An-nual Report, which focuses on the importance of entrepreneurial spirit in rebuilding Michigan’s economy.

To request a copy of the guide, contact MRA at mra@retailers.com or 800.366.3699.

Prepare for Sept. 1start of pricing law

MRA is helping retailers understand the new shopping reform and pricing law changes that take effect for stores on September 1.

The Association commissioned a le-gal analysis of the Shopping Reform and Modernization Act and what it means to store operations. To down-load a free copy of the analysis, along with a copy of the actual legislation, visit www.retai lers.com/mra/ItemPricingReport.html

The new law sought by MRA elimi-nates the mandate that all items in a store have a price sticker or tag. In doing so, it provides retailers with new flexibility in communicating prices of merchandise.

The law also continues many con-sumer protections that were in place under the old item pricing law that was enacted in 1976 and took effect in 1978.

To the naked eye they’re incom-prehensible — strange little boxes filled with a seemingly random pattern of either color triangles or black and white squares that could be a crossword puzzle on steroids — but they are showing up with in-creasing frequency in magazine ads, on bill-boards, on soup mix packages or anywhere products are being advertised or sold.

That’s because when con-sumers scan the squares with

app-equipped smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone or Google’s Android OS, they’re transported to

a world of information and salesmanship that could never fit on even the best-designed prod-uct label.

Known as mobile or 2D barcodes, they’re the latest version of the ver-tical line codes (known

as 1D barcodes or UPC codes) that have been familiar to shoppers for decades. The newer codes contain a link that jumps a smartphone to a website, where the consumer can learn far more about a product or company.

It’s also an effective way for a static marketing piece, such as a postcard, sign or magazine ad, to “come to life” through video on the website.

Item Pricing Reform. Gov. Rick Snyder (seated) signed into law the MRA-backed Shopping Reform and Modernization Act on March 29. Standing (from left): Sen. Mike Kowall (R-White Lake), MRA VP Eric Rule, MRA President and CEO James P. Hallan, MRA Sr. VP Tom Scott, and bill sponsor Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R- Alto).

2

After eight years of playing mostly defense against the Granholm admin-istration’s legislative agenda, it has been a real thrill — and of enormous value to Michigan’s retail industry and our state’s economy — for Michi-gan Retailers Association to be able to go on offense in 2011.

And what an offense it has been so far!

During the first five months of Gov. Rick Snyder’s leadership — and the solid performance of the new leg-islature — Michigan Retailers has already achieved two major, long-time legislative goals to improve the business climate in this state.

These two accomplishments are: 1) Reform of Michigan’s antiquated item-pricing law; and 2) Repeal of the jobs-killing Michigan Business Tax surcharge (along with the rest of that complicated, confusing and un-fair business levy).

Gov. Snyder signed into law the MRA-initiated Shopping Reform and Modernization Act on March 29, and then put pen to paper on May 25 to wipe out the MBT, a move strongly backed by MRA.

Achieving only one of these goals would have been a big accomplish-ment. But two…in less than a year?

Michigan Retailer www.retailers.com

Retail By Norm Feuti

Unprecedented. A third major, long-term retail busi-

ness issue we are pursuing right now is Main Street Fairness.

We’re talking with the governor, his administration and key lawmak-ers to try to close the loophole that currently gives giant, online-only retailers outside Michigan an unfair price advantage over our in-state retailers, especially Main Street brick-and-mortar businesses.

These online-only retailers refuse to collect state tax on the merchan-dise they sell to Michigan residents, despite the legal obligation of their customers to pay the tax (and who are generally unaware of the require-ment to pay a “use” tax that equals a sales tax).

Michigan Retailers has been ham-mering on this issue of fundamental fairness for decades. In fact, we started educating lawmakers and pushing them for a solution long before there was an Internet, when the problem started with out-of-state catalog and drop-ship (mostly furniture) retailers.

Our core position is that a level playing field means all retail sales should be treated/taxed equally, regardless of the sales channel. Oth-erwise, government is in the position

of picking winners and losers by giv-ing some channels more favorable treatment.

We have made some progress on this issue in recent years through the multi-state Streamlined Sales Tax Project, which has made it easier for some of these large on-line-only retailers to voluntarily collect the state taxes owed by their shoppers.

The ultimate solution, however, will come when the U.S. Congress finally decides to make collection mandatory.

But faced with the reality that Congress won’t act any time soon, some states are taking actions on their own to compel more of these online-only retailers to comply. We want Michigan lawmakers to take similar actions to close the large and growing loophole that hurts Michi-gan Main Street businesses and adds to our state deficit.

The retail industry really came together under the coalition put together by Michigan Retailers to achieve item pricing reform this spring. We plan to use a similar strategy to achieve Main Street Fair-ness. Which is why many of you are being approached to provide pub-lic support for this effort by adding your name to those who “Stand with Main Street.”

Winning this fight won’t be easy, but we fully expect to be successful before the end of the year.

I can’t begin to put into words the importance of winning not just one, not just two, but possibly three huge legislative victories in one year. Call it a three-peat, a trifecta, a triple play, a triple crown or whatever else you like. We call it tremendous progress for Michigan.

MichiganRetailersAssociation

by James P. Hallan, MRA President and Chief Executive Officer

Triple Progress Board of Directors:

Barb SteinChairGreat Northern Trading Co., Rockford

James P. HallanPresident and CEOMichigan Retailers Association

Thomas UngrodtVice Chair Ideation, Ann Arbor

Peter R. SobeltonTreasurerSundries Plus, Birmingham

Jean SarasinSecretaryMichigan Retailers Association

Joe SwansonPast ChairTarget Corp.

Dan MarshallMarshall Music Company, Lansing

Orin Mazzoni, Jr.Orin Jewelers, Garden City

Joseph McCurryDovetail Alliance

Larry MullinsBrandon Tire & Battery, Ortonville

R.D. (Dan) Musser IIIGrand Hotel, Mackinac Island

D. Larry ShermanSherman Investments, Birmingham

John SmytheLansing

James WalshMeijer, Inc., Grand Rapids

Michigan Retailers Services, Inc.Board of Directors:

Becky BeauchineBecky Beauchine Kulka Diamonds and Fine Jewelry, Okemos

Brian DucharmeAT&T

James P. Hallan Thomas B. ScottPublisher Editor

Pat KerwinDesign Manager

Publication Office:603 South Washington AvenueLansing, MI 48933517.372.5656 or 800.366.3699Fax: 517.372.1303www.retailers.comwww.mallofmichigan.com

Subscriptions:Michigan Retailer (USPS 345-780, ISSN 0889-0439)is published in February, April, June, August, October and December for $20 per year by Michigan Retailers Association, 603 South Washington Ave., Lansing, MI 48933. Subscription fees are automatically included in the Michigan Retailers Asociation membership dues. Periodical postage paid at Lansing, Michigan. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 603 South Washington Ave., Lansing, MI 48933. The Michigan Retailer may be recycled with other white office paper.

Hallan elected national vice chairMRA’s James P. Hallan has been

elected to a two-year term as vice-chair of the national Council of State Retail Associations (CSRA).

The MRA president and CEO has served on the board of directors of CSRA the past four years and moves up to vice-chair from board secretary-treasurer.

CSRA, based in Charlotte, North

Carolina, is the national organiza-tion dedicated to building strong state retail associations by facili-tating communications and idea exchanges.

CSRA members work together to track state legislative trends and combine forces to react to federal congressional proposals.

June 2011 3

Michigan retailers rang up better sales in April, although they remain concerned about high gasoline prices and unemployment, according to the latest Michigan Retail Index survey conducted by Michigan Retailers As-sociation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

“A late Easter and resilient con-sumers helped overall retail sales rebound in April,” said MRA’s James P. Hallan, MRA president and chief executive officer.

“However, retailers’ short-term sales projections dipped for the third month in a row, indicating continued concern about the economy. The re-cent easing of gas prices — after this survey was completed — should help soften some of those fears as we head into summer.”

Retail sales dipped sharply in March as a combination of rising prices at the pump, a late Easter and cold weather hit the industry. But that same late Easter helped pull up April sales, and enough consumers shrugged off $4-a-gallon gasoline to move the Index back into positive territory.

The Michigan Retail Index for April found that 45 percent of retailers in-creased sales over the same month

last year, while 32 percent recorded declines and 23 percent saw no change. The results create a season-ally adjusted performance index of 53.1, up from 42.9 in March.

Index values above 50 generally indi-cate an increase in overall retail activity.

Looking forward, 48 percent of re-tailers expect sales during May-July to increase over the same period last year, while 16 percent project a de-

Seasonally adjusted diffusion index, calculated by adding the percent of respondents indicating increased sales and half the percent indicating no change, and then seasonally adjusting the result using the U.S. Census Bureau’s X-11 Seasonal Adjustment procedure. Index values above 50 generally indicate an increase in activity, while values below 50 indicate a decrease.

3-Month Outlook Index

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10-11

09-10

MAY

JUL

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Current Performance Index

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Retail sales rebound in April, but retailers waryHOW’S BUSINESS

700

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2010 2011

431 447

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Be sure to complete youronline survey each month!

crease and 36 percent no change. That puts the seasonally adjusted outlook index at 60.9, down from 63.8 in March and 72.3 in both February and January.

Department stores, gift retailers and automotive service shops posted the best performance in April. Cen-tral and Southeast Michigan were the strongest regions.

State sales tax receipts totaled $496.8 million in April, down 1.7

percent from the year-ago level. Year-to-date sales tax collections are up 5.5 percent. March was up 3.7 percent from the year-ago level.

Complete results of this month’s Michigan Retail Index—including data on sales, inventory, prices, promotions and hiring—are available at www.retailers.com/news/retailindex.html. The website includes figures dating back to July 1994.

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64 Michigan Retailer www.retailers.com

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1

Endless possibilities“The possibilities are endless,” said

David Custer, marketing executive with food producer Country Home Creations in Goodrich, which recent-ly began using the codes. “We can’t fit everything we want to fit on our labels. [But with mobile barcodes] we can supply as much information as possible, from recipes to reviews. I can link [shoppers] immediately to what other people are saying about our product. Testimony is the best marketing.”

Custer has been putting the bar-codes on Country Home Creations labels since the beginning of the year in an effort to better get the word out about the company’s dip mixes, soup mixes and gourmet food. The company sells the products to con-sumers via its website and ships them wholesale to more than 1,000 stores nationwide.

Custer said he first learned of the codes while visiting his brother in Washington, D.C., and immediately realized their usefulness.

“I thought, ‘How cool would it be if somebody could scan our product with their phone and see the things that we can’t fit on our product la-bel?’” he said.

AT&T, which provides smartphone users with one type of free code scan-ner at http://scan.mobi, suggests several ways retailers can use mobile barcodes:

• A shelf card beneath an espresso maker could link to a 90-second digitalvideo demo;

• A billboard for a new urban clothing outlet could link to a GPS-enabled map, directing pedestrians to the location;

• A magazine ad for a new organic frozen entree could allow for the load-ing of an electronic coupon, plus a

pass-along text for friends.

Creating codeReminiscent of the old competing

Beta and VHS videotape formats, there are two formats of mobile bar-codes: QR codes and Microsoft tags. QR codes use the black and white squares, and Microsoft tags use col-or triangles. To create codes or tags, retailers can use free programs avail-able online.

Custer said consumers, especially the tech-savvy younger generation, are becoming more and more aware of them.

“People who use an iPhone are very familiar with what these are,” he said.

Doing price comparisons, check-ing for product reviews and receiving special offers are the three biggest reasons consumers use their phones to check barcodes, according to a survey by New York-based Scanbuy, which provides technology to read the codes.

Eighty-one percent of respondents said they used the technology to check prices, while 63 percent re-ported they searched for reviews and 63 percent said they looked for special offers.

According to Scanbuy’s survey, re-leased last December, an estimated 30 to 40 percent of smartphone users have downloaded a barcode scanning application. Ninety-seven percent of barcode users reported finding mo-bile barcodes useful.

On average, each user scans two to three barcodes a month, Scanbuy found.

The age group doing the most scan-ning is the 35 to 44 demographic, which accounts for 30 percent of us-ers, followed by the 25 to 34 group, which includes 25 percent of users. Men currently make up 70 percent of the scanning population.

Better retail marketing using mobile barcodes

same 6 percent tax as if buying the product in person at a store. The loophole occurs because online re-tailers without a physical presence in Michigan are not required to col-lec t the tax, explained Eric R u l e , M R A vice president of government affairs.

“That loophole puts our in-state retailers at a price disadvantage, be-cause they must collect the 6 percent tax,” Rule said.

“Legislation closing the loophole would level the playing field and treat all sales the same. Government should stop picking winners and los-

ers by allowing some businesses to avoid collecting sales and use taxes.”

Rule said that currently, these online businesses are passing the responsibility for paying these taxes

onto their cus-tomers. Most consumers are not aware it is their respon-sibility to pay

the use tax when they file their state income tax. As a result, they are at risk of being audited or penalized for unmet tax obligations.

Hallan emphasized that Michi-gan businesses that do business online would not be adversely af-fected by the legislation.

Main Street Fairness new top goal

RETAIL TECHNOLOGY NEWS

“ N e v e r s a y never” usually ho lds t r ue in life, but in the case of handling a MOTO (mail order/telephone order) transac-tion as a retailer, you should never

wire money to someone.Let me repeat, because it ’s

that important. Never wire mon-ey to someone as part of a retail transaction.

With the Great Recession of 2009-10 has come a marked increase in the number of merchants who are being taken advantage of by fast-talking scam artists who want something for nothing.

The scam usually starts inno-cently enough. You get a nice size order for products or services from an unexpected source. The story seems legitimate and fits your busi-ness model.

After the bad guy has set the hook, he suddenly “discovers” a problem that can be “solved” with the help of you, the merchant. Usu-ally it is for shipping or for other services; the problem has even been to help the “customer” with customs (for an international or-der) or tax reporting.

The “solution” to the customer’s problem is for you to run another transaction and wire the money to another person or company.

These scams are limited only by the imagination of the scam artist and the gullibility of the merchant. Here are some real-life examples:

• A jewelry store customer requests a custom diamond ring, but needs part of the purchase price rebated to cover shipping and/or duty; • A car dealer customer is inter-ested in purchasing a unique used car, but needs part of the purchase price rebated to handle the shipping of the car; • A granite memorial customer is interested in purchasing a custom headstone for a dead relative, but needs a portion of the purchase price rebated to facilitate delivery and installation; • A tire dealer customer wants to purchase four racing tires, but wants them shipped to the rac-ing event and requires a special

John Mayleben, MRA’s senior vice president, technology and product development, writes a regular column on retail technology. Contact jmayleben@retailers.com.

Never wire money as partof retail sales transaction

shipping method; • A B&B owner receives a request to “rent” the entire facility for execu-tive meetings, but requires the use of an interpreter and needs the separate services to appear as one transaction for tax reasons. As you might expect, the person or company receiving the wired funds is a partner in the crime being commit-ted. The scam artist has no interest in the actual item or the service, just the wired money.

If you receive an order that fol-lows this track, do not wire money. Ever. Once you wire the money (via Western Union or similar ser-vice) it is gone forever, because there is almost no way to get it back. The bad guy has your mon-ey, and the credit card transaction will become a chargeback with you holding the bag.

If you ever have doubts about a transaction, call your help desk. They have probably seen or heard of the scam before and can offer sound advice.

Remember, a sale that turns into bad debt is not a sale, it is just bad debt.

5

Looking forthe best way to reach retailersin Michigan?

Advertise in theMichigan Retailer.

Rates as low as$35 per issue.

Call 800.366.3699for more information.

June 2011

Offer Gift Cards,

800.366.3699www.retailers.com

Increase Sales.

For the second year in a row, dental plan rates for MRA subscribers will remain at current levels on July 1.

Board members approved the rate freeze for the 2011-12 fiscal year fol-lowing Delta Dental’s annual review of claims utilization.

Although the review suggested small rate increases were in order, board members chose to use a small surplus from last year instead of raising rates.

MRA’s self-insured dental plan is administered by Delta Dental of Mich-

Dental Insurance ratesto stay at current level

igan and is open to groups as small as two subscribers. Two coverage op-tions are available.

Plan A has no deductibles and provides 100-percent coverage of diagnostic and preventive services, such as oral examinations. Plan B, a

less expensive option, has a small yearly deductible and provides 80 percent coverage of preventive ser-

vices, including x-rays.Members not currently subscribed

in the program can obtain more in-formation and a no-obligation quote by contacting MRA at 800.366.3699 or mra@retailers.com.

LOTTERY

by M. Scott Bowen, Commissioner

Lottery visits local events

6 Michigan Retailer www.retailers.com

B e o n t h e lookout for the Michigan Lot -tery at Michigan events this sum-mer.

Again this year the Lottery’s Mo-bile Retail Outlet (MRO) will travel

across the state to fairs, festivals, Michigan International Speedway racing events and concerts to allow players the opportunity to play their favorite Lottery games while enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of summer.

Events the MRO will be at include:• Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn – June 17-19• Detroit River Days, Detroit – June 23-26• Muskegon Summer Celebration, Muskegon – July 1-9• Common Ground, Lansing – July 11-17• Ionia Free Fair, Ionia – July 21-30• Coast Guard Festival, Grand Haven – August 2-6• Rock the Rapids, Grand Rapids – August 8-13• Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn – August 19-21• Warren Birthday Bash, Warren – August 25-28• Arts, Beats & Eats, Royal Oak – September 2-5

Lottery AppIf they haven’t already done so,

Lottery players can download the free Michigan Lottery app to Apple and Android devices.

The app features many of the same services as the Lottery’s Player’s Club website, www.michi-ganlottery.com. It provides Lottery players the ability to watch Club Keno drawings, view jackpots and winning numbers, search past numbers, and view prize tables — all at the touch of a finger.

For Club Keno players, it offers a new way to experience the game. Once they’ve purchased their tick-et, players can watch the drawings from their personal devices.

For players who buy instant tick-ets and participate in the numerous second chance contests the Lottery of-fers, the mobile app allows players to enter their non-winning instant tickets into the Player’s Club to earn points and Instant Replay entries.

The app is just another way the Lottery has made its services more accessible to players. In addition

to the app, players can go to www.michiganlottery.com, the Lottery’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/michiganlottery, or have the winning numbers and Lottery up-dates emailed and texted directly to them.

MonopolyMonopoly™, with three instant

game tickets with price points of $2, $5 and $10, was launched on May 25 and offers a combined $26 million in total prizes. In addition, players can enter their non-winning Monopoly™ tickets on the Player’s Club website, for a chance to win $1 million!

Every dollar in non-winning Monop-oly™ tickets submitted is one entry into the contest. Also, with each ticket entry players will gain access to a bonus Monopoly™ interactive game to play for up to 100 additional entries.

Three drawings will be conducted on June 21, July 19 and August 23 and will award three finalists a $10,000 prize and an entry into the grand prize drawing for $1 million during the fall episode of the Lottery’s game show, Make Me Rich!

New Instants New instant tickets scheduled to go

on sale June 20 include: Cash 2 Go™ ($1), Ultimate 7s Bingo™ ($2), Red Hot & Blue 7s™ ($5), and Tax Free Cash™ ($20). The release date for these tick-ets is subject to change.

Over 94 cents of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets is returned to the state in the form of contributions to the state School Aid Fund, prizes to players and commissions to retailers. In fiscal year 2010, the contribution to schools was $701.3 million. Since its inception in 1972, the Lottery has contributed more than $15 billion to education in Michigan.

7

Tell your customers what they’ll want to hearNinth in a series on “Managed Common Sense” by Steve Flaster

I n o u r l a s t column we em-phasized that retai lers must c o m m u n i c a t e with customers, and they have a myriad of oppor-tunities for doing so. The obvious

next question to ask ourselves is, what kind of messages should we send to our customers?

Let’s face the fact that customers, like everyone else, want to know what’s in it for them. They don’t nec-essarily care about our success as retailers and are not searching for ex-amples of our artistry and creativity.

Instead, they want to hear how they will benefit from doing business with us and why they should pay atten-tion to our offers. Therefore, when we communicate with customers, we should be speaking to them about customer benefits and why doing business with us is worth their while. Anything else can be superfluous and confusing.

Creativity should be used judicious-ly and with a clear focus on achieving the purpose of all retailing communica-

tion. And that is to motivate customers to buy something and build customer loyalty to the store. Keep things simple for customers and make sure you are speaking their language.

Claim to Fame

Every retailer should have unique qualities, abilities and competitive strengths that constitute a claim to fame with customers. In order to be more than an ego trip, a retailer’s claim to fame must be meaningful and motivating to customers.

In essence, your communications should be based on your claim to fame, and your claim to fame should be based on what is important to your customers.

Let me explain by showing how a recent nationwide promotion could have been better focused to get bet-ter results.

Last November 18, a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal proclaimed November 27 to be Small Business Saturday…a day for customers to shop local businesses because they are the backbone of the American economy. While it’s questionable that the day after black Friday was a good choice for such an event, it’s

even more questionable that just be-ing small and local would be a huge draw.

In reality, just being small and lo-cal generally is not that meaningful to customers. What is meaningful is that because they are small and local, such retailers have a better chance of knowing, understanding and serving their customers.

Many times, such retailers are like extended family. Their true claim to fame is not their size or location but how those qualities enable them to do more for customers. That is what customers want to hear, that is what should be communicated, and that is what will bring custom-ers to their stores.

One AspirinOn New York City’s upscale Madi-

son Avenue there is a posh drugstore named Zitomer’s. It is really more than a drugstore, and it proudly tells customers that it will even deliver one aspirin. Now that’s a powerful claim to fame!

It is powerful because it means something to Zitomer’s target mar-ket of neighborhood executives, who might want just one aspirin before

starting a stressful meeting. Tell-ing customers you can “deliver the goods” is a strong communications platform and claim to fame for this particular store.

Because different target markets are motivated in different ways, dif-ferent stores must find their own powerful claim to fame and use it. Zi-tomer’s claim to fame is powerful for its rarefied target market, but prob-ably wouldn’t work for a Walgreens.

As you should do in many situa-tions, find your own claim to fame by asking your customers. Ask them what they like about you, why they come to your store, and what would be valuable to them in your ads and other forms of communication.

By taking this common sense ap-proach, you will find your true claim to fame — “true” because it is mean-ingful to your customers. Only then will you be able to tell your customers what they want to hear and what will motivate their patronage and loyalty.

Steve Flaster is a retailer, instructor of retailing and marketing at Michigan State University, speaker and consul-tant. To reach him at Yes For Success Retail Consulting, call 517.655.6979 or e-mail srflaster@gmail.com.

June 2011

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