2008 Q2 PDF File

Download the PDF file 2008 Q2

Your Networking Superpower

It seems every year the NARMS office gets one or two phone calls from members asking why they should renew their membership because after all their NARMS involvement hasn’t directly resulted in any new business. Thank goodness this is not the attitude of 99 per cent of the membership.
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Spring Conference Keynote Speaker Highlights

Monday keynote speaker, Harry Paul, and his co-authors rocketed to the top of business best-seller lists with “FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results”. With millions of copies in 36 countries and 34 languages, the book captures the uniqueness and the key lessons to be learned from the raucous group of fishmongers at Pike Place Fish market in Seattle.
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Spring Conference Keynote Speaker Highlights

The final general session speaker, John Moore, is a “Word of Mouth Marketing” guru, calling it – the most trusted medium. “We trust what our friends and family say more than all we hear from other traditional marketing mediums.”

“In our businesses, getting customers talking about us doesn’t have to happen serendipitously; it can happen strategically!” related Moore. He shared examples of real life marketing exploits that give people reasons to talk; including Voodoo Doughnuts where the “magic is in the hole”; Pizza Patrón, Charmin restrooms in NYC, Scion automobiles; elaborating further with tales of Fiskars Craft Ambassadors and Dell’s IdeaStorm as a contrast to “Dell Hell” blog experiences.
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This Summer’s Board Meeting is Certainly No Boondoggle!

Historically the NARMS Board of Directors gathers each summer for a working strategic planning meeting and this year is no exception. The NARMS Leadership is scheduled for a two-day meeting in July to discuss the future of not only the association but the industry as a whole. With the ever-changing environment that the retail community finds itself in right now, it is imperative that we investigate all aspects of the industry and the services available to it. Ginger Nichols of the Gincomm Group will facilitate the board member gathering, as she did two years ago for NARMS while Phil Lauria of Pelco Advisors, LLC will present an Opportunity Assessment and a Strategic Plan Foundation as a basis for our intense discussion scheduled in Minneapolis.
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Spring Conference Keynote Speaker Highlights

At the opening general session, kicking off the 13th annual NARMS Spring Conference, guest keynoter Scott Deming shared his outlook on life in simple terms that center on ‘emotional branding’. “Your ability to succeed in life; in effect your formula for success; both personally and professionally, lies within your ability to create the most powerful, emotional, memorable and unexpected brand!” related Deming.
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It Is the Best of Times, It is the Worst of Times…

(Remarks delivered by NARMS President & CEO at NARMS Spring Conference Annual Business Meeting, April 15, 2008 in Williamsburg, VA)

In 1859 Charles Dickens of The Christmas Carol fame authored his second historical novel, The Tale of Two Cities. It is a story of London and Paris during the French Revolution. The story opens with one of the most famous and quoted lines in literature ‚ “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times.” In many ways that 150-year old phrase describes what many of our members are experiencing today. Our current economic downturn offers many challenges but it also positions many of the membership with numerous opportunities for new business and different business. Our present times offer a new mindset and it can be an exciting time if we can just get past the shock of what is happening out there. For our international friends, we are happy to offer remarkable savings with the weak dollar but for the rest of us we just need to be more efficient and cost-conscious.
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Making the Most of Loose Change

Change is more than something more than what jingles when loose in your pocket or collects in the bottom of your purse! It is something looked forward to for more than to fill a piggy bank!

But change has also become a word of choice. Much has been written about “change” and speakers, authors and column writers (like me) seem insistent on keeping this rather simple word alive and well-oiled as we make commentary on events of the day. Clearly, we Americans will have it funneled at us from political candidates and pundits alike; making it an everyday word we can expect to hear daily at least until November 4!
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NARMS Recruiter Adds Text/Voice Services

An added feature to The Recruiter should be operational by early July that will offer text/voice services to position offerings. Partnering with One Call Now™, the NARMS Recruiter allows for the more timely notification and quicker response traffic from reps.

Here’s how it works. NARMS members with Expanded Listings search the Recruiter and check to send field position offerings in their normal way into rep home pages and as a digest e-mail daily. If they want to contact them faster, they check to send the message that gets translated as a text-to-speech to a phone number the rep has chosen. NARMS sends One Call Now the message to translate and the list of reps that gets the message. One Call Now then picks up the two files and their phones start calling the reps with the job at a cost of 12 cents for each call to the member.
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Polk Majestic Offers Travel Services

Denver-based, Polk Majestic Travel Group is the newest in the list of service providers for NARMS members. A full-service, independent travel agency, Polk Majestic offers comprehensive travel programs with dedicated travel agents that can also offer assistance with on-line bookings, an easy on-line booking tool, behind-the-scenes magic that can make travel planning easier and bottom line savings are all reasons to explore for potential benefits.
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