Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I'd love to help with a few quick suggestions, but as Randall has pointed out, there probably are no quick-fix answers to this one.

I'd start by talking to some of his customers. Why do they buy from him? What makes him different from, and better than, the alternatives? What other suppliers do they like/not like? Why? How do they decide which suppliers to use? Etc. Etc. It's really a market research project. And you might want to include a few former customers as well. Why did they defect? Was it just price, or were there other factors?

If you do this well, and don't bias, or lead, your interview subjects, you will get some great direction from them that will lead to strategies and plans that will work for the client/butcher.

And if it's really worth something to the butcher to address this problem, the cost of the research and the planning will be a very cheap price to pay. It should be possible to increase business by enough to payout the project in less than 6-12 months.

Agree with the above and would add these thoughts:

1. The holidays are an obvious time for increased business at a butcher shop, so get him teed up to begin his promotional spending for/in advance of that season. It may be counter-intuitive to the butcher, but the best time for a retailer to increase his business is during the high-demand season when there are more fish in the water, not during the slow season when the lake is low. Don’t let him dawdle and miss the opportunity.

2. Help him identify a marketing pro who understands retail merchants and appreciates the strain on small business cash flow in the present economy. The butcher most likely needs to work with someone who can roll out a plan in affordable stages rather than have to pay a big lump up front. For this reason you might have to help him find an independent marketing consultant or tiny firm, rather than a retainer-driven firm.

3. Whatever the ultimate plan, it’s never too early to start collecting email addresses. Give away a pair of pork chops (whatever) in a weekly drawing limited to those who add their email address to a list on a clipboard. You can start that now without much cost and whomever the butcher hires will want those addresses. Invite other local merchants to participate; butcher provides the same weekly prize, but all the businesses collect and share the email addresses.

4. There are numerous tactics he can employ but they should be driven by what you learn in customer and potential-customer interviews. One note I’ll add that may not come up while talking to existing customers is, many younger people don’t know how to use a butcher. (If their parents didn’t routinely patronize a butcher shop, there’s a good chance they do not.) So, here’s one quick and inexpensive way to invite them in, until a marketing pro is onboard:
Put a sign in the window that says, “New York Steaks, $XX. Text your order to 555-5555.” Or, if he has a website that displays well on iPhones, then “Fresh, local chickens on your iPhone” with a web address.

5. What’s your role? Be his mentor-buddy as he’s working with the hired marketing pro. Help translate, encourage, etc., and let him pay you in spare ribs (whatever). In these economic times, small business owners can use a cup of kindness; so don’t let him feel like he’s wandering in the expensive marketing desert without a friend.

Thank you for your recommendations. My wheels are spinning with new ideas.

I am a customer of the butcher and we became friends over the years. I also travel 15 miles each way to buy from him.

I agree that polling specials, and hiring a marketing profession is the best solution.

Thank you

Tom

Wanted to pick up on Peg's last comment, "the expensive marketing desert" with some points.

1) The pro: what you need is not a "retail" expert, or "supermarket" expert. You want someone who actually has a track record in the meat industry, ideally one who has helped butchers before.

Perhaps finding that individual is a no-brainer through an Internet search of contacts (trade associations, etc.) the butcher already knows about. If the search is not so easy, consider delegating it.

This kind of search makes for a good student project, perhaps set up as a competition. Students would extend the traditional Internet search to the social media to track down the right expert.

Alternatively, one can consider outsourcing it to a data-mining company or individual, getting quotes for the task from places like www.elance.com

2) One can consider upgrading the student option to an MBA (case study) project, especially if the butcher lives someplace close to a universty with a decent business school - so that for students to visit his premises is practical. An MBA student team for a course on marketing or entrepreneurship would be likely choices.
One makes contact with the revelant professors and finds out what the parameters are to design an interesting project for such a student team.

3) If one has the time, one would first see what the student team comes up with. One then hires the pro (with the meat industry track record). The student project helps you ask the pro the right questions to get maximum benefit from his input.

4) Try to negotiate with the pro performance based (i.e. on results) billing. Pay a committment fee up front to prove you are serious, milestone fees along the way as goals are reached, and the serious money at the back-end of the project as a functioin of how effective it really is proving to be.

5) Lastly, are there any professional or university teams in the area? Could the butcher offer some kind of special service (delivery, prime quality) to the athletes on the teams?

Regards,
JH