Great Consumer Research

Last Friday I attended the monthly meeting of the Media Association of Pittsburgh. This month's program covered the "Mindful Consumer." The presenter had collected a large quantity of research from a number of sources into one concise presentation. This is good material to use in your planning and to share with your advertisers. You can download the presentation at www.mediapittsburgh.com I suggest you look at this information and use it on sales calls. Keep Smiling, Keep Selling! Thanks Jim Busch

Spread the Good News

Bad news always travels faster than good news, so we need to help it along. The Commerce Department just announced that consumer sales rose again in February. This means that the retail economy has increased steadily for the last 5 months. Auto sales are also on the rise. We need to read the business pages and websites to familiarize ourselves with the positive statistics. I make a point of sharing this information with every advertiser and prospect. Some people are still a bit shell-shocked from the recent recession and this stops them from advertising and taking part in the recovery. We all need to convey the message that things are looking up and that if they don't go after the business they competitors will.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Shoppers are on the move

The respected research firm Accenture Global Services recently released a report that details consumer shopping trends in the post recession period. The report titled "The Road to Recovery, Consumer Behavior in the New Economy" found that:

• 48% of consumers were more likely to be shopping for better deals as a result of the recession.
• Only 23% of consumers plan to remain loyal to their current providers
• Nearly 70% of consumers have changed a provider in at least one category in the last 6 to 12 months

What does this mean for businesses? There are many potential customers shopping for new places to satisfy their needs and wants. These shoppers will have to turn to advertising to find new suppliers. The businesses who advertise aggressively can tap into this consumer discontent to build their account base. It is up to us to help them get the word out.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch