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October 19, 2010 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Quasi-socialist France is going broke. The public trough is empty and I'm nervous.
Prior to the strike mayhem (see IN THE NEWS to the right), we bought and paid for airline tickets from Paris to Philadelphia in mid-December. How long will pandemonium prevail? Will we get home on time or, like France, will we go broke being stuck in Paris with the euro on the rise?
For generations, the French have considered it to be their God-given right to retire at age 60. In order to stay afloat, the Sarkozy government has upped the retirement age to 62.
That's not all. When a woman friend in Paris lost her job, she was eligible to receive the equivalent of 57.4 percent of her salary for up to three years, courtesy of the state. She had a job offer, but opted to double-dip—take freelance work while collecting unemployment. Plus, of course, she has universal health care, as do all French.
The only solution is for the government to legislate some major changes in its business model, and the citizenry is up in arms. It's a mini-revolution.
The point is when upheaval is necessary—in business, health, education or government—it is imperative to alert in advance those who are affected and make a powerful and persuasive argument for the change.
In the case France, the message to workers is simple:
France is running out of money. If you don't go along with this change, your pension will be pennies on the euro. What's more, your grandchildren will be forced to work until they are 75 and will hate you forever.
April 27, 2010 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Our local convenience store a block away has a loopy name that took some getting used to: Wawa.
Started as a dairy in 1902 in Wawa, Pa., the company has nearly 600 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, with a total of 17,000 employees.
Our Wawa is open all the time, spotless, stocked with basic foodstuffs you need when you need them and manned by incredibly nice people. In addition, 157 of the stores sell gasoline.
We recently returned from 12 days in Italy, and the bankers nicked us for an international transaction fee on top of every credit card charge, even though everything is electronic and automatic. The financial services industry is basically a business of sharks eating its customers alive any way it can.
Wawa is not in the financial services business. It is a world-class retailer. If a customer uses one of its ATM machines, chances are some of the cash will be used for an in-store purchase. So in 1996 management opted to charge no fees on Automatic Teller Machine usage by customers. The result:
- 1 billion ATM transactions in 14 years
- $1.3 billion in ancillary income forfeited
- Happy Wawa customers spent $4.7 billion in 2007
I also call it CRM—customer relationship magic.
Are you doing anything to make your customers feel real good about doing business with you?
If not, why not?
March 11, 2009 From Tipline
Once you have built an opt-in e-mail subscriber database, the next steps are where the work really begins. First, you must ensure a steady flow of additional valid e-mail addresses to make up for those that dissolve over time. Second, you need to communicate frequently with customers in relevant ways in order to build long-term relationships. But how do you measure the value of your opt-in e-mail addresses and ensure that you deliver relevant communications?
24 Hours to Paris
May 2008 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Can you imagine being a Napa Valley resident and winning USA Today’s “Pick a Trip Sweepstakes”—a two-night/three-day vacation to New York—and spending 24 hours in transit from San Francisco to New York, the result of a busted temperature gauge in the left engine? Gaga with jet lag, your three halcyon days in the Sour Apple would be two dismal daze before boarding a big jet for the return three-hour assault on your internal clock. Thank goodness my wife, Peggy, and I had planned 10 days in France, not just three or four. I applaud the safety consciousness of US Airways, but what a horrendous
May 2008 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Can you imagine being a Napa Valley resident and winning USA Today’s “Pick a Trip Sweepstakes”—a two-night/three-day vacation to New York—and spending 24 hours in transit from San Francisco to New York, the result of a busted temperature gauge in the left engine? Gaga with jet lag, your three halcyon days in the Sour Apple would be two dismal daze before boarding a big jet for the return three-hour assault on your internal clock. Thank goodness my wife, Peggy, and I had planned 10 days in France, not just three or four. I applaud the safety consciousness of US Airways, but what a horrendous
May 2008 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
It’s been a tough month for airlines. The following went bust (in alphabetical order): Aloha, ATA, Eos, Frontier and Skybus. In addition, the following airlines announced first-quarter losses: Alaska (-$35.9 million), American (-$328 million), Delta (-$6.4 billion), Northwest (-$4.1 billion), United (-$537 million) and US Airways (-$236 million). Meanwhile, on April 29, Royal Dutch Shell and BP announced quarterly profits of $14.4 billion for the first quarter of 2008. Consumers are screaming bloody murder about the cost of gas and double-digit increases in food prices. Retailers are whining that sales are way off and the cost of goods sold is higher. The culprit: $115+
January 2008 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
What triggered this column was a letter to this publication from Anthony Greene in London on my musings last week about how to gussy up important e-mails in order to give them gravitas. In our exchange, he wrote: Thank you, Denny. A nice and utterly relevant piece. Your story about the Ticketmaster e-mail, and how much you appreciated their thoughtfulness, has reminded me of what I regard as one of the greatest missed opportunities in the history of marketing. Every time I use my American Express Centurion Card I cannot help but notice the following words printed on the front, “MEMBER SINCE 82”. So,
December 2007 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
I guess in terms of the country—and the balance of trade—a crashing dollar is a good thing. For my balance of trade, it stinks. We flew into London last Saturday and went out for dinner. A bowl of soup for lunch was £8.50, which translates to $17.00. A £4.00 ride on the Underground for 10 blocks to get out of a rainstorm was $8.00 ($16 for two)—not a lot of fun. Dinner for two was at least $100 pretty much anywhere. An exception was the Albert Pub. The bad news: the food was so-so. The good news: dinner was relatively inexpensive. The best
17 Hours in the Real America
October 2007 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
On Friday, October 12 my wife, Peggy, and I took the overnight train out of Washington’s Union Station bound for Chicago and the Direct Marketing Association conference and exhibition. The following Wednesday, we flew home: Up at 5:30 a.m.; traffic jam during the taxi ride to O’Hare; hefting our bags to check-in at US Airways; being treated like terrorists by screeners; calorie-laden breakfast at Chili’s with plastic eating utensils; two hours in the crowded waiting room amidst loud cell phone yappers; middle seats in a sealed aluminum tube and hurled at 500 mph across the country for two hours; exit madness with apprehension over the
October 2007 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
On Friday, October 12 my wife, Peggy, and I took the overnight train out of Washington’s Union Station bound for Chicago and the Direct Marketing Association conference and exhibition. The following Wednesday, we flew home: Up at 5:30 a.m.; traffic jam during the taxi ride to O’Hare; hefting our bags to check-in at US Airways; being treated like terrorists by screeners; calorie-laden breakfast at Chili’s with plastic eating utensils; two hours in the crowded waiting room amidst loud cell phone yappers; middle seats in a sealed aluminum tube and hurled at 500 mph across the country for two hours; exit madness with apprehension over the
June 2007 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
On Monday of this week, The New York Times launched a delicious, old-fashioned hatchet job on Australian/UK/U.S. media lord Rupert Murdoch, whose bid for The Wall Street Journal is a threat to the Pinch Sulzberger’s flagging advertising. The gist of the Times’ Monday story is that Murdoch uses his newspapers and TV networks to further his own agenda. In addition, reports the Times, he has built his $68 billion empire by bribing important politicians with campaign contributions and juicy book contracts and they, in turn, pass legislation that bends the rules to his News Corporation’s advantage. Tuesday’s story in the Times was all about
February 2007 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Last week’s story of the great American chocolate company streamlining its operations and laying off 1,500 workers, brought back memories of an extraordinary day 30 years ago that I spent in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Joe Eby was a thin, taciturn guy who owned a real estate business in Hershey and was married to a peppy, delightful little blonde named Muriel. The Ebys loved the game of curling and always received a private invitation to our Nutmeg Curling Club’s annual bonspiel (curling tournament), the Golden Handle, which was held every year at the Darien Country Club in Connecticut. The Ebys would drive up from Hershey with
What are Airlines Doing Wrong?
December 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Merger talks—United and Continental and US Airways, with its $8.65 billion hostile bid for bankrupt Delta—have the investment community a-twitter. When AirTran made a hostile bid for Midwest Air Group, its stock jumped 4.1 percent while Midwest’s skyrocketed to 22 percent. The first commercial airline—the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line— was founded in 1914. The line carried a total of 1,205 passengers without a single accident. It never made money. Call the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line a harbinger. Since its beginnings, 92 years ago, the airline industry cumulatively has never made money. The idea that “investors” are seriously looking at airline stocks is a
December 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Merger talks—United and Continental and US Airways, with its $8.65 billion hostile bid for bankrupt Delta—have the investment community a-twitter. When AirTran made a hostile bid for Midwest Air Group, its stock jumped 4.1 percent while Midwest’s skyrocketed to 22 percent. The first commercial airline—the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line— was founded in 1914. The line carried a total of 1,205 passengers without a single accident. It never made money. Call the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line a harbinger. Since its beginnings, 92 years ago, the airline industry cumulatively has never made money. The idea that “investors” are seriously looking at airline stocks is a
Making the News Work for You
September 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
That a passenger went ballistic after waiting an hour-and-a-half for his luggage and wound up in police custody was unfortunate, but not surprising. Much is happening in the world to give us all angst—tight security and long lines at airports, the high price of oil and natural disasters. All can interrupt the normal patterns of our lives. Marketers have two choices: (1) Business as usual or (2) use news to enhance your business by scoring Brownie points with your customers and prospects (and perhaps making extra sales). This is old-fashioned PR, salesmanship and customer retention management. Savvy Hotel and Rental-car Marketers Last month when arrests were make in the
September 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
That a passenger went ballistic after waiting an hour-and-a-half for his luggage and wound up in police custody was unfortunate, but not surprising. Much is happening in the world to give us all angst—tight security and long lines at airports, the high price of oil and natural disasters. All can interrupt the normal patterns of our lives. Marketers have two choices: (1) Business as usual or (2) use news to enhance your business by scoring Brownie points with your customers and prospects (and perhaps making extra sales). This is old-fashioned PR, salesmanship and customer retention management. Savvy Hotel and Rental-car Marketers Last month when arrests were make in the
Making a Complex Business Consumer Friendly
May 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Looking at the New Breed of Bankers May 25, 2006: Vol. 2, Issue No. 41 IN THE NEWS Internet banks draw raves Many like the convenience and higher interest rates, but it's not for everyone. NEW YORK--Higher interest rates initially drove Nick Sayers to the Bank of Internet. But he soon realized it's more convenient, too. Sayers, 26, a private-equity investor in Chicago, is one of a growing number of Americans ditching their neighborhood brick-and-mortar accounts. Others are moving the bulk of their money to virtual banks like Bank of Internet, which can offer better rates because they don't have to
May 2006 From Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense
Looking at the New Breed of Bankers May 25, 2006: Vol. 2, Issue No. 41 IN THE NEWS Internet banks draw raves Many like the convenience and higher interest rates, but it's not for everyone. NEW YORK--Higher interest rates initially drove Nick Sayers to the Bank of Internet. But he soon realized it's more convenient, too. Sayers, 26, a private-equity investor in Chicago, is one of a growing number of Americans ditching their neighborhood brick-and-mortar accounts. Others are moving the bulk of their money to virtual banks like Bank of Internet, which can offer better rates because they don't have to
The Ascendancy of Bean Counters
April 2003 From Target Marketing
By Denny Hatch In the first week of February, I received a cheap double postcard from First Union Bank addressed to Denny Hatch Associates, Inc. The message: NOTICE OF OVERDRAWN ACCOUNT Our records as of 01/24/2003 show an overdraft of $5.00 remains on your account 2********4903. Please make a deposit right away to avoid possible collection activity and account closing. You can obtain statement information at most First Union ATMs, or contact your financial center, Commercial Relationships Manager or Private Client Group officer. I freaked out and checked Quicken. We had plenty of money in the corporate, personal and savings accounts at First
April 2003 From Target Marketing
By Denny Hatch In the first week of February, I received a cheap double postcard from First Union Bank addressed to Denny Hatch Associates, Inc. The message: NOTICE OF OVERDRAWN ACCOUNT Our records as of 01/24/2003 show an overdraft of $5.00 remains on your account 2********4903. Please make a deposit right away to avoid possible collection activity and account closing. You can obtain statement information at most First Union ATMs, or contact your financial center, Commercial Relationships Manager or Private Client Group officer. I freaked out and checked Quicken. We had plenty of money in the corporate, personal and savings accounts at First
Why I Canceled ?
March 2002 From Target Marketing
By Denny Hatch This column is written for the 50 or more people whom I stood up at a private corporate conference near San Francisco on six days notice, as well as thousands of meeting planners everywhere. My e-mail to the host is reproduced below. I have not named the company, but anyone with a knowledge of the corporate culture of Bay Area high-tech companies and an ounce of intuition should be able to figure it out. Bill: I got back from New York City late yesterday and was too wiped to return your call. So you understand what went on, when your [person's
March 2002 From Target Marketing
By Denny Hatch This column is written for the 50 or more people whom I stood up at a private corporate conference near San Francisco on six days notice, as well as thousands of meeting planners everywhere. My e-mail to the host is reproduced below. I have not named the company, but anyone with a knowledge of the corporate culture of Bay Area high-tech companies and an ounce of intuition should be able to figure it out. Bill: I got back from New York City late yesterday and was too wiped to return your call. So you understand what went on, when your [person's
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