First of all Barbara and I would like to say a big thank you to all of you who read this newsletter every week. Your comments and encouragement are what keeps us going.
We certainly “live in interesting times” and hopefully you fell into the positive side of the Chinese “curse” and business has
been good for you.
I’m writing this looking out on a snow covered landscape, a magical fairyland.
It’s a few days to Christmas. The days (here in Interlaken, Switzerland) are short and the temperature outside is a chilly minus 4 degrees C.
Barbara and I are spending time with family and friends as well as taking time out for reflection and renewal, (there’s nothing quite like sitting in a warm house with a roaring fire) while it snows outside. (I couldn’t resist putting in a couple of snow snaps!)
A friend of ours asked me how we could do a series of newsletters from a White Christmas perspective, and the difference between European and Australian marketing.
Not sure about the White Christmas bit, but here’s my take on what we can learn from living in a small village with a permanent population of around 6,000 (which swells to over 60,000 in the summer tourist season and even hit 200,000 with the International Yodelling Festival in 2011).
The hotels and most businesses cater to the tourists. The only problem being business can drop dramatically in winter, so you have to make all your money during the summer months.
Unless you’re smart and learned you need to cater to the locals, who are permanently there and who need your services on an ongoing basis.
A great example of which is a local Italian restaurant which learned to do just that. Rather be dependent on the fickle tourist trade, they built up a reputation for quality and value and deliberately targeted the local population and surrounds (about 25,000 people).
We were there the other night and they had 2 groups of locals booked in – about 25 people. And while things have slowed down due to the economic uncertainty in Europe, they are still going strong.
They know their regular customers by name and while everyone else at our table got German language menus, they remembered to give me an English one. That’s attention to detail.
And here’s an example from this afternoon. Barbara was looking for a gift for her Father’s partner. The shop owner knows both Barbara and her Father’s partner, so gave suggestions as to what she’d like.
Nothing quite like knowing your customers.
And this owner beats the competition by running sales before anyone else in the area does, writes to all her clients informing them the sale will be on – before it happens, giving them first dib’s on what’s going to be on special.
It’s all about looking after your clients and nurturing your relationships.
Remember, Interlaken’s a small place. Wherever you go you’re likely to meet someone you know. Someone you or one of your family members went to school with. Someone you’ve worked with before, knows your parents etc. You can run, but you can’t hide.
You can’t afford to burn bridges and piss off the local population if you need them to survive.
And it’s the same with your market.
To be successful you need to develop and nurture long term relationships and be recognised for consistently delivering quality and value.
If you sell in a small market segment (think specific industry like mining, financial planning etc.), chances are everyone will know everyone else. And nothing travels faster than a bad rap.
It takes time and consistent effort to build up trust and credibility. But the rewards are absolutely worth it – and frankly if that wasn’t your aim, why would you be in business anyway?
And last but certainly not least, may we wish you the compliments of the season – no matter whether you personally celebrate Christmas or not. If you are having a break – stay safe, and we’ll see you next year.
All the very best,
Barbara & Rashid.
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