9. “Be fair to our customers and our employees,
promote literacy, be kind to the environment
and remain financially viable so that we may
continue.”
– Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson, 1978
10. “The cost of being green can be great, but
the cost of not being green is greater.”
– Sharon Anderson Wright, 2008
36. “Being green is just what we all want to be!”
– Kermit the Frog, 1970
37.
38. In the 2007/2008 Fiscal year, HPB sales
$182,208,232 (+14.4%) in total sales,
$167,756,751 (+7.7%) comparative sales
NE REGION 2007/2008 Fiscal year
$40,696,117 (+19.0%) total
$34,138,892 (+6.2%) comparative
2007/2008 Fiscal Year
39. The NE REGION sales account
for just over 22% of Half Price
Books total sales last fiscal
year!
40. 2008 Promotions
• 20% Sales
• Mailers
• Gift Card Promotions
• Special promotions
– Black Friday
– T-shirt Promotion
– Book Lovers’ Weekend
41. Viral Marketing: Promotions
• Black Friday
– Chain-wide sales up 56% over 2007 Black
Friday
– A lot of online “buzz”
• Book Lovers’ Weekend
– Email list
42. Email List Numbers At-A-
Glance
District Total Sign ups Avg per store
• Indianapolis 1,771 443
• Cincinnati 1,262 316
• Dayton 311
• Columbus 1,440 288
• Cleveland 410 103
• Pittsburgh 882 221
• Louisville 1,005 503
• Lexington 471
43. Indiana 25.2%
Kentucky 36.7%
Cleveland 13.0%
Columbus 14.6%
Southern Ohio 36.3%
Pittsburgh 11.5%
Book Lovers' Weekend Email Promotion:
2nd weekend in February
Chain wide sales up 30.1% over previous year
44. Upcoming Promotions
• Spring 2009 mailer: GOING ON NOW!
• Earth Day
• Mother’s Day gift card promotion
• Memorial Day Sale
47. 2008-2009 PR Placements
• More than 50 stories about Half Price Books
were in major broadcast and print media in your
region. 41 were placed by Half Price Books.
• Last 12 months of PR placements totaled more
than $70,000 in equivalent advertising dollars!
• Our stories netted more than 4,000,000
impressions.
50. Employees are the Voice of HPB
• In many instances media want to talk to
employees on the front lines as well as
customers in the store.
• Facts are needed quickly by media, and often
need to talk to employees within hours of
contacting us.
• Why should talking with media be a priority?
• Your PR team will prepare you!
51. What does your store gain from
media exposure?
• Thousands of dollars of advertising value
at no cost.
• Stories on our cause-related campaigns
build customer loyalty and confidence.
• Reinforces trust in our brand as
consumers know information wasn’t paid
to be placed.
52.
53. How budgets are created
• Based on percentage of sales from previous
fiscal year
• Multi vs. Single Store Markets
• IT’S WHY SELF-MARKETING IS SO
IMPORTANT
54.
55. Radio Advertising
Media Market Weekly Impressions
Cincinnati 17,589,000
Cleveland 22,356,000
Columbus 14,749,000
Dayton 6,002,000
Fort Wayne 1,289,000
Indianapolis 3,918,000
Lexington-Fayette 6,063,000
Louisville 8,056,000
Pittsburgh 16,457,000
66. Internally
• Marketing on Open Book
– Familiarize yourself with who does what, check out the
updated Marketing Calendar, Current and Upcoming
promotions, and more!
• The Marketing Forum
– An open discussion forum and marketing idea-share
• Halfpricebooks.com
– Encourage your staff to browse our website, it helps
you to know what the customer is seeing about HPB
happenings
67. External
• Halfpricebooks.com
– The first stop for our browsing customers!
• b(eco)megreen.info
– The HPB environmental initiative goes global
• deletecensorship.org
– Half Price Books takes a stand with our web-based
anti-censorship/freedom-to-read initiative
• The Texas Bookman
• Facebook
– A social networking tool. Half Price Books has almost
8,000 fans!
68.
69. • Great customer experiences count
– Where experience is concerned, cheap doesn’t mean
that much
• 58% of customers said they would always or often pay
more for a better customer experience during a down
economy
– They talk: 58% of consumers say they will
recommend a company to someone else, based on a
positive experience. This is up from 51% in 2007
• Service outplays both low price(44%) AND quality
products (43%)
70. What do our customers say?
compliments 2%
product question 32%store location 9%
opt out 7%
info change 14%
buy questions 9%
gift card questions 7%
complaints 20%
complaints
compliments
product question
store location
opt out
info change
buy questions
gift card questions
71. • Bad customer experiences can affect the
bottom line
– More than ever, customers will stop doing business
with a company because of a negative experience
• In 2008, 87% said they would stop doing business with
a company because of a bad experience, up from 68%
in 2006
– Word of mouth works both ways
• Consumers are twice as likely to tell about poor
treatment
– 84% of consumers said they would tell about a poor
experience, up from 67% in 2006
– Women and consumers ages 35-44 are most likely to
tell others about a poor experience
72. What do our customers say?
• Product requests. “Do you have this book?”
• “Please change my information on the mailing list.”
• Top complaints center on lack of service, unfriendly
employees and buying policies or offers.
• For every compliant, numerous compliments about
you are received as well.
• What can you do to proactively reduce complaints
on a corporate level?
73. The Future of Customer Care
• New and improved online FAQs.
• Online form to collect data and more
efficiently measure our customer
feedback.
• New ways to obtain and use customer
purchasing information for mailing,
marketing, etc.
161. Local Store Marketing
• Tools
– Promotion approval form
– Promo gift cards
– Balloons, stickers, pencils
– Educator discount information
– Brochures and bookmarks
– Generic 15% off coupons
– In-store “sales”: Vinyl night, clearance
– KEEPING MARKETING INFORMED:
• Store webpage, signage
162. Author signings Special guests City festivals
Other ideas on-site and off: Girl scout/Boys scout troupes, local parks and
recreation, little league clubs, local libraries, book clubs, senior citizen
centers, high school poetry/drama clubs…
Idea Brain Storm