NE Region Mktg Summit Presentation

Established 1972

Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson

“Books should fill our lives, not our land.”

– Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson, 1972

778 RDC Dallas, Texas

“Be fair to our customers and our employees, promote literacy, be kind to the environment and remain financially viable so that we may

continue.”

– Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson, 1978

“The cost of being green can be great, but the cost of not being green is greater.”

– Sharon Anderson Wright, 2008

043 Garland, Texas

090 Bloomingdale, Illinois

001 Dallas, Texas

062 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“Being green is just what we all want to be!”– Kermit the Frog, 1970

In the 2007/2008 Fiscal year, HPB sales $182,208,232 (+14.4%) in total sales, $167,756,751 (+7.7%) comparative sales

NE REGION 2007/2008 Fiscal year $40,696,117 (+19.0%) total $34,138,892 (+6.2%) comparative

2007/2008 Fiscal Year

The NE REGION sales account for just over 22% of Half Price Books total sales last fiscal year!

2008 Promotions• 20% Sales• Mailers• Gift Card Promotions• Special promotions

– Black Friday– T-shirt Promotion– Book Lovers’ Weekend

Viral Marketing: Promotions

• Black Friday– Chain-wide sales up 56% over 2007 Black

Friday– A lot of online “buzz”

• Book Lovers’ Weekend– Email list

Email List Numbers At-A-Glance

District Total Sign ups Avg per store• Indianapolis 1,771 443• Cincinnati 1,262 316• Dayton 311• Columbus 1,440 288• Cleveland 410 103• Pittsburgh 882 221• Louisville 1,005 503• Lexington 471

Indiana 25.2%

Kentucky 36.7%

Cleveland 13.0%

Columbus 14.6%

Southern Ohio 36.3%

Pittsburgh 11.5%

Book Lovers' Weekend Email Promotion: 2nd weekend in February

Chain wide sales up 30.1% over previous year

Upcoming Promotions• Spring 2009 mailer: GOING ON NOW!• Earth Day • Mother’s Day gift card promotion• Memorial Day Sale

2008/2009 Press Review: Northeast Region

2008-2009 PR Placements

• More than 50 stories about Half Price Books were in major broadcast and print media in your region. 41 were placed by Half Price Books.

• Last 12 months of PR placements totaled more than $70,000 in equivalent advertising dollars!

• Our stories netted more than 4,000,000 impressions.

Cause-related PR-generated Press

Employees are the Voice of HPB

• In many instances media want to talk to employees on the front lines as well as customers in the store.

• Facts are needed quickly by media, and often need to talk to employees within hours of contacting us.

• Why should talking with media be a priority?• Your PR team will prepare you!

What does your store gain from media exposure?

• Thousands of dollars of advertising value at no cost.

• Stories on our cause-related campaigns build customer loyalty and confidence.

• Reinforces trust in our brand as consumers know information wasn’t paid to be placed.

How budgets are created

• Based on percentage of sales from previous fiscal year

• Multi vs. Single Store Markets• IT’S WHY SELF-MARKETING IS SO

IMPORTANT

Radio Advertising Media Market Weekly Impressions

Cincinnati 17,589,000

Cleveland 22,356,000

Columbus 14,749,000

Dayton 6,002,000

Fort Wayne 1,289,000

Indianapolis 3,918,000

Lexington-Fayette 6,063,000

Louisville 8,056,000

Pittsburgh 16,457,000

Half Price Bookstotal weekly impressions in the

NE REGION

Radio Advertising: New Jim Swayze Spots

New 20% Off sale spots

Mail list sign ups are IMPORTANT

because they target our best customers

Converting customers to our

email list allows us to contact them

even more

Internally• Marketing on Open Book

– Familiarize yourself with who does what, check out the updated Marketing Calendar, Current and Upcoming promotions, and more!

• The Marketing Forum– An open discussion forum and marketing idea-share

• Halfpricebooks.com– Encourage your staff to browse our website, it helps

you to know what the customer is seeing about HPB happenings

External• Halfpricebooks.com

– The first stop for our browsing customers!• b(eco)megreen.info

– The HPB environmental initiative goes global• deletecensorship.org

– Half Price Books takes a stand with our web-based anti-censorship/freedom-to-read initiative

• The Texas Bookman• Facebook

– A social networking tool. Half Price Books has almost 8,000 fans!

• Great customer experiences count– Where experience is concerned, cheap doesn’t mean

that much• 58% of customers said they would always or often pay

more for a better customer experience during a down economy

– They talk: 58% of consumers say they will recommend a company to someone else, based on a positive experience. This is up from 51% in 2007

• Service outplays both low price(44%) AND quality products (43%)

What do our customers say?

compliments 2%

product question 32%store location 9%

opt out 7%

info change 14%

buy questions 9%

gift card questions 7%complaints 20%

complaints

compliments

product question

store location

opt out

info change

buy questions

gift card questions

• Bad customer experiences can affect the bottom line

– More than ever, customers will stop doing business with a company because of a negative experience

• In 2008, 87% said they would stop doing business with a company because of a bad experience, up from 68% in 2006

– Word of mouth works both ways• Consumers are twice as likely to tell about poor

treatment– 84% of consumers said they would tell about a poor

experience, up from 67% in 2006– Women and consumers ages 35-44 are most likely to

tell others about a poor experience

What do our customers say?• Product requests. “Do you have this book?” • “Please change my information on the mailing list.”• Top complaints center on lack of service, unfriendly

employees and buying policies or offers.• For every compliant, numerous compliments about

you are received as well.• What can you do to proactively reduce complaints

on a corporate level?

The Future of Customer Care• New and improved online FAQs.• Online form to collect data and more

efficiently measure our customer feedback.

• New ways to obtain and use customer purchasing information for mailing, marketing, etc.

In-Store IdeasHPB bright ideas from

across the country

Store Created Signage

Displays

Merchandising Aids

Directionals

Cross Merchandisin

g

Custom Signage

Local Store Marketing• Tools

– Promotion approval form– Promo gift cards– Balloons, stickers, pencils– Educator discount information– Brochures and bookmarks– Generic 15% off coupons– In-store “sales”: Vinyl night, clearance– KEEPING MARKETING INFORMED:

• Store webpage, signage

Author signings Special guests City festivals

Other ideas on-site and off: Girl scout/Boys scout troupes, local parks and recreation, little league clubs, local libraries, book clubs, senior citizen centers, high school poetry/drama clubs…

Idea Brain Storm