Low Tech, High Touch Marketing

13

I’m often in meetings with CEO’s and business leaders looking for cutting edge ways to reach their customers. I must confess that I love technology–almost as Kip in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” for those of you who saw it–but technology can be a trap. Today I was reminded that it’s not technology that sells, but creative, self-motivated people behind technology that make the sale.

Yesterday I got an email from Courtney Ivey. Courtney works for a men’s store, John Craig, in Orlando, Florida. Earlier this year, I bought a shirt from her during one of my speaking engagements at the Shingle Creek Rosen Resort where her store is located. Yesterday, I got an email from Courtney with 5 pictures she took of her new shipment of Robert Graham shirts. I have gotten more compliments on my Robert Graham shirt than anything else I’ve bought lately and have wanted to buy another one for quite some time; however, I have been too busy to loook for it. The email was just the reminder I needed. I just got off the phone with her after buying my new shirt.

What Courtney did was simple, but it was the most effective marketing tool possible. She found the most direct way to reach out to an audience she knew was predisposed to buy her product. She didn’t need a powerful email marketing tool or a fancy html editor to create a dazzling eblast. That’s corporate’s job. And frankly, most of the time they will screw it up anyway. She knows that Orlando is a tourist town and that her customers might never come back to her store, so she takes their email address at every purchase. With each new shipment, Courtney takes pictures of the merchandise and sends them to those on her list who, based on their previous purchases, might be interested.

So simple and yet so effective. She got me, and I’m sure others who are either too busy or who cannot buy these shirts locally. She probably did it all in a couple of hours of effort and at no extra cost. Like most retail managers, Courtney could be on the phone complaining of a recession. Today, however, she is on the phone taking orders.

Way to go Courtney.

  • Wow, now that's a retailer who understands her customers and takes care of them. Bravo Courtney!

  • those shirts are AWESOME!!! I want one too!

  • Those are great shirts…I can see why you liked them. Do they come in men's styles also?

  • @billywilliams, if that's your real name. These shirts are not for the faint of heart nor for people who live in their moms' basement and write anonymous comments on blogs.

  • Mighty expensive shirts Maurilio – $300 and up? Wow, that's a lot of money for shirts. If I were buying shirts, and my clients were churches made up of people who sacrificially give to the Lord, I sure wouldn't be blogging or twittering about buying $300 shirts. Marketing 101 – know your clients, and don't give them a reason to think you're getting paid too much (unless your pastor clients are like you, and they too enjoy such expensive tastes and will be happy to know Maurilio too can afford really expensive clothes). I know the intent of your post is to teach about "low tech high touch" marketing, and you have an excellent point there…but I'm just curious – doesn't your desire to be "modest" trump your desire to teach using your $300 shirts as an example? I don't buy $300 shirts, and I don't think poorly of anyone who chooses to buy them. But if I had even one inkling that my clients might raise an eyebrow over the price of my shirts, I just wouldn't mention them.

  • @maurilio, I can see how something like one of those shirts would be a little overwhelming to the average, basement living, anonymous blog-poster. Luckily, I have a profile and an unassumed – assumed hidden identity as your alter ego…if you really are Maurilio Amorim. And on that note, it is so good to see "The Skipper" is still alive and totally out of touch with reality. I guess living all those years in a tropic island nest has taken taken it's toll.

  • I tried to post on the "dawgs" blob…but I guess he won't let me. So here is what I was going to post there – Ahem @"dawg" It is remarkable how bitter you are and how bent you are on criticizing Maurilio's every move. Seriously, you need a hobby. An interesting note about the "$300.00" shirt is that Maurilio did not post how much he paid for the shirt. You had to take time and effort to look for the shirt and get a price – which by the way is not correct.You seem intelligent, but your bitterness and absolutely asinine preoccupation with Maurilio's (and Pastor Mac's)income, spending and life is a little scary.Why don't you put that billion $$$ brain of yours to good use instead of this trivial crap.

  • Very cute Billy. Maurilio's the one twittering about every detail of his charmed life. I don't much care that you think me to be something I'm not, and I don't care that Maurilio gets bitter when someone blogs about his twittering of his lifestyle. But his bitter, lying post directed toward me assuming things about me that aren't true, and your very immature attitude towards me…it all tells us at FBC Jax what we need to know of Maurilio and his friends….and of Mac who brought him into our church.

  • Billy,You are more than welcome to comment on my blog.-CC

  • @CC – Thanks for the invite to post at your blog. I will stay tuned to your future posts.

  • @ “THE DAWG” Blah, blah, blah, or should it be yap, yap, yap – I mean, you are “the dog – defender of his own opinion, hater of those who buy nice shirts, slanderer of his fellow brother.” I am having trouble defining your breed…Are you a Shitzu? Lots of fluff and noise but very little substance to back it up, or are you a Bulldog? Big, dumb and don’t know when to let go. I think maybe you are a hybrid of the two – a Bull-shitz.

    Here is the deal. You call into question the spiritual, personal and financial integrity of Maurilio and the others at the A-Group based on shirts, showers and a business lunch at a country club. (Remember the “lifestyles of the rich and famous” post on the dawg blob?) You have no idea who Maurilio is, much less the people at the A-Group. I see them serve, I see their hearts and I know the depth of their integrity. In my own personal life I know that if it weren’t for God using Maurilio and his beautiful wife to speak into my marriage, I would have lost all.

    I can see in your blog posts that the disdain and bitterness toward anyone who disagrees with you is staggering; you are so narrow-minded you could see through a keyhole with both eyes. And let’s talk hermeneutics for a moment. Your interpretation and use of scripture to backup your opinion and dislike for those who you think have gone to Dark Side with Darth Warren as their leader is quite creative. It makes me wonder what actually drives you, Christian love or unrighteous anger. Based on what I see I would choose the latter.

    I really have enjoyed pushing your buttons, but I cannot continue to have a battle of wits with the unarmed. The sad thing is your blog and your preoccupation with Maurilio and Pastor Mac will eventually, if it hasn’t already, be your undoing… It shows you for what you are. Your blog is nothing more than a feast for maggots – ungodly gossip and backbiting, rotting in public view.
    If you really want to exact change at FBC why do you not go directly to the source of what you feel is the problem? Scripturally, you should have spoken to your brother (Pastor Mac) in private. Instead you crucify him in the court of public forum on your blog where you choose to remain anonymous. This show an incredible lack of integrity.

    I will pray for you.

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  • Yikes this definitely takes me back, where is your contact details though?

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