Learning
How Not To Market From the Big Guys

By
Carolyn Howard-Johnson

It
seems, Abercrombie and Fitch . . . .mmmm, borrowed the name
“Hollister” from a California town for one of its lines of clothing.

Seems
after they did, they wouldn’t even put an outlet in the town to help the
Hollister folk with their economy (the economy being another story entirely!).

Seems
a local woman decided to use her own town’s name on a small line of her own
jeans.

Seems
A&F didn’t like that.

Now
it seems that the whole town is up in arms. They want to reclaim their name and
they’re publicizing the injustice done them everywhere!

Seems
to me that A&F made a whole string of public relations booboos here. Seems
to me that A&F should backtrack. Say, “I’m sorry.” Hire the
Hollister woman to design jeans for them. When the economy does an upturn, put
in an outlet and use that magnanimous gesture to glean all kinds of counter
publicity. Ahem!

Marketers–that
means anyone who has anything to sell from retailers to authors–can learn from
the mistakes made by the big guys. Keep a pulse on when your name is being
praised and/or taken in vain by using Alerts from Google and others. Have a
considered plan before catastrophe strikes. Admit your wrong-doing (if any)
immediately and apologize. Fight back immediately when necessary but don’t
blame others for your booboos.

—–

This
post is based on information from the LA Times, an article written for the
business section by Hugo Martin. The blogger is Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author
of A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits
and Spit in Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques
(www.budurl.com/RetailersGuide)
and the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books including The
Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) and The
Frugal Editor (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor. All are
also available on Kindle.

Carolyn
Howard-Johnson
Website:
http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com
E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com