Targeted Marketing Services Leeds

(First appeared in Second Opinion Marketing e-bulletin September 2010 - Subscribe to the e-bulletin here )

What have wood burning stoves got to do with marketing?

Over the last month or so I’ve been shopping around for a wood burning stove. My experience has really made me think about the advice I give to clients and how important it is that any business presents a united front when it comes to marketing.

With winter approaching we’ve decided to do away with the open fire in our lounge which most of the year sits empty and merely creates a draft. Lured by thoughts of cosy, draft free winter evenings, we started to think about whether a wood burning stove would work for us. I remembered a shop in a little market town a few miles away so we set out one Saturday morning to take a look.

First impressions

The shop was in a state of chaos, I’d say it was more a working base for the fitters than a welcoming venue for customers, but we went in any way. There were a few stoves on display but no signs, prices or descriptions anywhere to be seen. The assistant however was helpful, asking us what kind of thing we were looking for, explaining how the stoves worked, the options of dual and single fuel and so on.

We were offered brochures and as a bit of an afterthought they asked if we’d be interested in getting someone out to give us a quote. Having done a bit of research I knew that this was the norm, so I agreed and left a phone number for the surveyor to book an appointment.

Advertising and offers

A few days later I spotted an advert in our local paper for a fire and stove showroom the other side of town. Their ad looked very professional, and they were offering a free load of logs with all orders for a stove in September. As I still hadn’t heard from the first company I decided to pay them a visit in between client meetings.

In contrast to the first company their showroom was very smart, they had about 10 or 15 different stoves on display, and one roaring away in the fireplace. The staff were very attentive and helpful. The different sizes and styles were explained. I was given a demonstration of how easy the stoves were to operate, the stove prices were shown on each product and I was provided with guideline prices for complete fitting.

This time they got the diary out and asked when it would be convenient to come around to do a survey and provide a quote. They were very flexible and agreed to come out at 8am a few days later so as not to interrupt my working day.

Sales and service

Obviously in the showroom we’d been speaking to the sales team. The fella that came out to provide us with a quote was a fitter. The great thing was although he was dressed differently (I’d been told he would be calling in on his way to another job so overalls were the order of the day) the message and service were exactly the same. He reinforced all the messages we’d had ab...