Convenience Marketing Group with Tim Lazor

Tim Lazor
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Tim Lazor's Unique Retail Marketing Firm Specializing In Growing The Convenience Store Sales by focussing on Customers. We help: Convenience Store Retailers…Convenience Distributors…Convenience Manufacturers & Suppliers……Grow their sales and margins with differentiated, disruptive, and value–creating marketing programs.

Episodes

  1. FEB 12

    Grow C-Store Sales & Foot Traffic Faster With SMPs (Strategic Marketing Promotions)

    Send us a text What’s the fastest and easiest way to grow your convenience store sales without breaking budgets?  Answer: SMPs---Strategic Marketing Promotions.  SMPs create and communicate your convenience value to customers, then differentiate your stores to beat out competitors for sales, time after time. It’s awesome.  But here’s a secret…successful SMPs must be built strategically…from your retail vision and business ideology to work. That’s what makes them unique and irresistible to customers. (Most retailers miss this secret.)  SMPs are the best marketing tool to get customers to act, buy and return. They make your store a destination.  Since 2002, we’ve been helping retailers create and fully implement monthly SMP’s that grow sales. And I wanted to see if we can help make growing your sales easier. I built my SMP Marketing Framework and Process during a seven-year period working for the Sheetz Chain, and it tripled sales and doubled store counts. I’m proud to say it helped catapult Sheetz into the juggernaut it is today.  Our SMPs will work for any size retailer because they are rooted in today’s most effective retail marketing fundamentals. And they are almost impossible to copy. Our framework combines the best of CPG strategy, creative retail marketing, direct marketing tactics, LTO’s urgency, irresistible customer value, digital & media targeting, and food service offers when needed.  No other firm does what we do, the way we do it.  A little curious?  Listen up. The SMP Framework: Convenience Store Marketing Group 1: How To Find Your Starting Point: The Business Review-Where are we? Where should we go? How? 2: How To Create A Value Wheel-Why do you matter? 3. How To Create Your Competition’s Value Wheels-Why do they matter? 4: How To Place Value Wheels On A Map:  Set Up Your Store’s Winning Move (Or Position) 5: How To Make Your ONE Winning Move-Check & Checkmate 6: How To Create A Promotional Plan To Communicate Your Move 7: How To Use Your Retail Ideology In Your Promotions 8: How To Create Your Media Plan That Reaches Customers  9. How To Share Your Plan With The Store Operations Team: Retail Jihad 10: How To Measure Results: Your Future Is Born Here - Learning, Rinse, Repeat BONUS: How To Get Faster Results-One Hack http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    33 min

  2. JAN 27

    5 Mistakes That Sabotage Your Convenience Store Marketing & Sales Success.

    Send us a text When you learn to see... •The convenience industry and its' customers DIFFERENTLY,  •Your store model and retail marketing DIFFERENTLY... ...ONLY THEN can you create new sales and growth opportunities. Let's explore:   Why doesn't the convenience store industry grow commensurate with the growing importance of convenience in every other business category? Are industry profits healthy or not? Are you creating new customer value or just looking for the next Magical Product at NACS? Are you a PASSIVE retailer and marketer? Hint: That's the root of your problems...not competitors. (They're passive too) Are you advocating for your customers FIRST in your company...or yourself? (Amazon's Jeff Bezos advocates for customers first.) Are you investing time and dollars into creating and marketing new customer value? How? Why does the convenience industry RANK LAST when it comes to investing a portion of its sales into marketing? And why do industry leaders like Sheetz do the OPPOSITE? Where do you start to create a better marketing budget? Ideas for the industry to get itself unstuck. And much more! http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    37 min

  3. 11/26/2024

    Retail Media Networks In Convenience Stores: A Good Marketing Idea? For Who? My Hot Take.

    Send us a text Is putting a radio station that YOU OPERATE inside your convenience store a good retail marketing idea? Is operating a radio station and selling RMN ads on it in your "retail wheelhouse?" Prove it to me. What do your customers say about this? You didn't ask them....?  Uh oh. Notes: So here's the one question of the day for the convenience store CEOs and owners. The question is this: retail media networks, what are they? Are they a good marketing idea? Let's dive into it. I was recently reading the convenience store dive newsletter, which I love and which I would highly suggest that everybody who listens to this podcast sign up and subscribe to. It's tremendous. It's very, very good. It's called C store dive and you can find it online. Okay. So I've been reading about retail media networks, which are also known as radio stations inside the convenience store. They're not just a radio station, but a lot of it I think depends on audio and additional digital ads and things like that that are inside display that's inside a convenience store, and the C store dive newsletter goes into this. And there's three big chains recently that are looking at this: Casey's - their radio network is called Casey's access. Wawa - their network is called the Wawa media network. 7-Eleven - they're doing it with gulp radio and gulp media. Love the name, by the way. So how it works is this. You can either do it yourself, a radio station inside your store, or you can hire a third party to do this for you. And C store dive covers this, uh, talk about some of the vendors out there that do it. And so once you have your radio station as a retailer, you then charge the consumer package goods company for airtime on your radio station or display your digital ads at the point of sale. Cool. Got all that? So basically you're getting into, if you're a retailer, you're getting into the radio station business and you're going to run radio stations. The idea there is to sell your ad time and have your ads running at point of sale to drive impulse purchases. Okay. So that's the, in a nutshell, that's what we're talking about here is the retailer getting into the radio station business. Now part of this deal is that the retailer will turn over the first party data to the consumer package goods company. Uh, this is information that's collected at store level, I assume by loyalty cards, just as an example. So the central question I have on retail media networks or being in the radio business for retailers is, is this a good idea? Is it a good idea? And for who?  So let's discuss that. Um, and again, the question is, who's it a good deal for? Well,  number one, it's certainly good for the consumer package goods company, especially when it comes to collecting first party data. Um, it's a very, I guess it's an efficient way to get that data and have access to it. So then you can turn around and use that first party data, uh, as even as you walk away from, uh, the retail media network. So the, the consumer package goods company, the CPG company has it, they use it as they see fit. So it's, it's good deal for them. That's number one. Number two, it's certainly good for the retailers because this is new revenue for the retailer, even if they don't sell a single product out of this radio station that's inside their store. So it's just basically, uh, found money and it's extra revenue, uh, to them if they actually sell products as well. So at the point of impulse purchasing, that's, that's, it's kind of a win- http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    11 min

  4. 10/09/2023

    Unconventional C-Store Marketing Proclamations: 1-5 (Out of 25)

    Send us a text YOUTUBE  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNAm9Xn7U3A In 1517 Martin Luther was so disgruntled with the Church that he wrote and  nailed  95 proclamations of reform  to the church door in Germany. He was eventually excommunicated by the Pope for heresy. While I don't think the Pope will view  my 25 Convenience Store Marketing Proclamations with such disdain, they might make some retailers a little squeamish. Why? Because "convenience" in the eyes and demands of customers is growing, but the retail convenience category is not keeping pace with this demand. The 25 Proclamations are my way of addressing both the mistakes being made, and the new opportunities for growth that flow out of them. If you're only looking for the next shiny magical product to save your bacon, these ideas are not for you. If you want to create more value for your customers and differentiate your store, products and services, we might be able to help challenge your thinking and make you more  competitive and profitable than ever. Here we go... 1. We will acknowledge the ONLY purpose of our marketing is to engage customers in new ways with our retail locations; to grow our sales, margins and profits.  2. We will recognize that convenience stores, convenience, and saving time, are more relevant than ever.  3. We will acknowledge that value creation and differentiated marketing is a key reason for the growth of industry leaders like Sheetz, and that we can do this too.  4. We will work 24/7 to methodically listen and understand our changing CUSTOMERS and their changing convenience needs.  5. We will make the time to MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATE our brand, stores, products, services and people, and the value we deliver over OUR COMPETITORS. http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    9 min

  5. 10/05/2023

    Create & Market Unbelievably UNIQUE Food Offers For Convenience Customers

    Send us a text Learn the secrets and tactics to creating, positioning  and marketing convenience store food programs that are different, unique, drive foot traffic and deliver high profits. These are the retail marketing tactics I developed for retailers like Sheetz, Uni Marts, and others. You Tube link     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxvD0kYphI http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    37 min

  6. 09/28/2023

    7 Marketing Secrets I Created For Sheetz (From My Book)

    Send us a text Content from my upcoming book: The Perfect Storm How I Reinvented Convenience Store Marketing At Sheetz by Tim Lazor YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphbBVHw0C8&t=14s Principle 1. Decide On—Then Protect --Your ‘Proactive’ Marketing Mindset Only you can do this. You must decide to always have a proactive marketing-first mindset, then protect your decision from the forces of entropy. Constantly making decisions that move marketing initiative forward creates work, disruption, problems, risk—and success and rewards.  YOUR People will fight you, not follow up, slow walk. And wear your down. Resist these forces and insist your company is embracing a marketing mindset forever.   Principle 2. Uncover How You Create Value & Why You Are Different Retail marketing succeeds when you’ve taken time to create real and new value for customers, and differentiated it in the marketplace to customers. The ultimate secret is this: You are the difference. You are the storm.   Principle 3. Create & Execute Your Marketing Plan From Value & Differentiation Your marketing or promotional plan doesn’t have to be long…it has to be strategic, powerful and simple to execute under pressure and chaos. And it has to be written (even six pages) so it can be shared, communicated and committed to by your team. No exceptions.   Principle 4. Build A Marketing Team With Your Ideology, Not Paper 4. Implementing Your Convenience Store Retail Marketing Plan is a team sport. Be precise in picking your team, and what each teammate will specifically do for the company. (Not themselves. Not their portfolio. Not their Linkedin page)   Principle 5. Love Your Money Machine (Oil The Gears) Your store is a value-creating & money-making machine. Maintain it. Love it. Improve it. Most important, use your marketing machine to communicate and sell to customers moving through it. And clean your fucking bathrooms.   Principle 6. Measure Your Marketing Budget & Its Sales Results Be precise and exact in what you decide to measure from your marketing program and budget: It eliminates opinions, delays and chaos, and delivers helpful data for future decisions.   Principle 7. Keep Innovating & Creating More Problem-Solving Value For Customers. The closer you are (and stay close) to hearing your customers’ needs and opinions, the more innovative your company and its marketing will be in the future. You’ll be un-copyable, un-stoppable and extremely profitable. http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    8 min

  7. 01/26/2022

    Digital Marketing Ideas To Grow C-Store Customer Counts & Sales.

    Send us a text In this episode, Convenience Marketing Group President Tim Lazor interviews Luke Maurer.  Luke is CEO  of Digital Marketing firm Ad Giraffe AND owner of BJ Maurer Ford Dealership. He brings a 1-2 marketing punch and perspective to the C-Store Industry when he discusses: The essential, but sometimes taken-for-granted role cars play in the convenience industry (How else do most customers get on the lot?) EV vs Gas cars. Implications for C-stores.The dramatic beginnings of the family business during the Great Depression.How to use digital and social media to reach c-store customers in real time and engage with them.The robust c-store capabilities Facebook brings to the marketplace.Thinking about C-store Customer Lifetime Value.Questions C-STORES Must Answer How to get out of the “2 items for a low price” rut.Where should you start digital marketing to reach more customers and get more foot traffic on lot and inside your store?New thinking about How to promote the FOOD category within a convenience store. Where would we start?DIGITAL DILEMA: How do we find potential convenient store customers through digital platforms?From beginning to end, what does customer engagement look like step-by-step?What are some common mistakes people make when trying to promote their business digitally and socially? Is there a difference between digital marketing and social marketing?What is “content creation” and “brand story?”How do you budget for and measure your digital and social marketing initiatives? Are they measurable?You are a single location? How can digital and social marketing apply here?What are some resources our listeners should check out?Pricing and cost considerations?Tim Lazor, The Convenience Marketing Group 412-423-0044 412-400-3144 http://www.conveniencemarketing.net http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    53 min

  8. 04/14/2021

    4 Steps To Drive New Retail Sales: Guaranteed!

    Send us a text SHOW NOTES: How Your Retail Marketing Should Be Driving Sales…  Step #1 Uncover The New Value Your Company Creates. You might be surprised Not features and benefits, old school. Situations. Value feels like something specific Around a problem define it. Specific and innovative program of solutions that make problem go away   Step #2  Then, Creatively Differentiate That Value. HOW? Look at you and competitors, sharks and cage match Competitors are not passive or static Take into account 4 Forces affecting you and competitors Threat of new competitors esp non-traditional Power of your customers Power of your suppliers Threat of substitues Electric for gas?   GO VERY DEEP? Who do you want to challenge? What do you BELIEVE. Your ideology? Some other questions to consider:  What is my unique point of view toward customers and why we serve them? Why do we do this?  Why does our company matter?  If we went out of business today, would people miss us?  How do we do what we do better?  What specifically do we do better?   Boil down to a statement: We are the only _________ that creates value to make ________ go away for ________________. Marketing Magic happens focus and sacrifice What you say vs. where and how.   Step #3 Tell Your Target. Complete marketing and creative and media and digital plan Implement Engage     Step #4 Drive Sales.  Learn as you go, re apply Marketing strategy is never static Fun Tim Lazor www.conveniencemarketing.net timlazor@comcast.net 412-423-0044 http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    15 min

  9. 02/06/2021

    Create Retail POS Campaigns That CRUSH IT!

    Send us a text How To Create C-Store Point-Of-Sale Campaigns That Crush It & Grow Sales In 9 Steps.  The Three FOUNDATIONAL Questions  1. What do you believe about your convenience stores that make them unique and different from competitors? And what is your specific point of view about the convenience store industry and its customers today?  2. What is the new value you are creating for customers this month? What is the new value you are creating in your stores to get new customers onto your lot and into your stores buying more stuff?  3. Before you create a new point-of-sale marketing campaign, what specific competitors do you want to challenge with it? Who will you take business from? Point Of Sale How To's: 1. Create your point-of-sale campaign for a specific target audience 2. Demand a bigger idea or a “hook” in your point-of-sale campaign 3. Attach sales goals to your point-of-sale campaign 4. Create point-for-sale for the medium that carries the message 5. Point of sale campaigns must communicate first; be creative second. 6. Consider the "tone" of your point-of-sale campaign 7. Minimize words 8. Know what specific action you want the customer to take 9. Have Fun & Never Be Ignored! Tim Lazor, President. 412-423-0044 timlazor@comcast.net WEB: www.conveniencemarketing.net PODCAST: https://www.buzzsprout.com/189695 BLOG: http://blog.lazoryost.com/ YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/TIMLAZOR1/featured http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    18 min

  10. 02/03/2021

    17 Reasons You Don't Use Modern Retail Marketing To Grow Your Convenience Store Sales & Margins (ALL Are Mistakes)

    Send us a text 17 Reasons You Don’t Use Marketing To Grow Your Convenience Store Sales &  Customer Counts.   (All Are Mistakes) 1. You don’t know how to begin. 2. You don’t understand modern retail marketing concepts and tactics. 3. You don’t want to. 4. You don’t think it’s needed. 5. You think it’s a waste of money. 6. You think it’s an expense. 7. You think it cannot be measured. ROI. 8. You have nothing to market. 9. Your stores are not different than your competitors. 10. Your stores are worse than your competitors. 11. You are waiting for the next Magical Product to be available to save you 12. You don’t think you are creative. 13. You don’t have anyone to help you do it. 14. You think your competitors’ marketing is way ahead of you, so you think ‘what’s the use?’ 15. You’ve never held a basic marketing plan in your hands. 16. You believe cokes and smokes will still get customers in your store. 17. You think Amazon, AmazonGo, and Dollar stores selling gas are a passing fad. Here’s the truth. Some of the most successful retailers today started as one store many years ago. What they initiated that you haven’t YET is they worked EVERY DAY to create new value for customers, differentiated that new value, and THEN communicated it to customers with marketing. Then customers responded by trying out this new value. They came to the stores and bought stuff. They loved it, and did I again and again. Even in the convenience store space, the big players of today were ALL smaller players years ago. The one theme you’ll see time and time again is the work they did to create new value, differentiate it, then market it. It works every time it’s honestly tried. And you can do it too. You simply have to start, today. And do it with the resources you have at hand and can afford. As your marketing gains traction and sales success, you’ll gather more steam and resources and momentum. That’s when it gets fun, you start to really compete (even against the big boys) and even start to kick a little convenience store ass. When I wrote the marketing and promotional plans for Sheetz when I worked at an ad agency for them, (1993-2000) I created and implemented my own set of 25 marketing tactics that helped catapult their growth. In my recently published Marketing Manifesto For Convenience Stores, I outline them for any convenience store retailer to use, whether you have 5 stores, or 155. Email for a FREE copy. It’ll change your business life. I guarantee it. And one final thought for those of you non-believers who think it’s still too late to begin your own marketing program: Q: ”When is the best time to plant at tree?” A: “20 years ago…and today” Start now. Create new value now. Market now. Plant your tree. Light your fuse. Tim Lazor, President. 412-423-0044 timlazor@comcast.net WEB: www.conveniencemarketing.net PODCAST: https://www.buzzsprout.com/189695 BLOG: http://blog.lazoryost.com/ http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    18 min

  11. 05/12/2020

    What's The VALUE Of A Marketing Podcast For The Convenience Industry? 10 Questions For Tim Lazor.

    Send us a text 10 Questions with Tim Lazor, President of The Convenience Marketing Group Tim Lazor, along with host Joan Zaczyk, discuss the value of a creating a Podcast focussed on marketing in the convenience industry. They cover the need for Retailers, Distributors and Suppliers to differentiate their companies, products and services, and how this can grow sales and margins. Tim answers these questions: 1. Why are you creating a marketing podcast for the Convenience Industry? What's the value? 2. What drives you nuts about the current state of marketing in the Convenience Industry? 3. What value should convenience leaders expect from a marketing-focused podcast? 4. What is the Convenience Store Marketing Manifesto? What does Redefining The Future Of Convenience Store Marketing, Communications & SALES SUCCESS involve? 5. What is the thinking behind it? What is your vision of marketing in the Convenience Industry's future? 6. Talk about your approach to creating meaningful marketing differentiation as it applies to the Convenience Industry? 7. Why is marketing differentiation important in the Convenience Industry category today? 8. How and Where do leaders in the Convenience Industry start this differentiation? 9. Give me an example? What and where are the points a Convenience Industry leader can use marketing differentiation? 10. Where can folks in the convenience industry learn more? http://conveniencemarketing.net/ http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    32 min

  12. 04/09/2020

    New Ideas To COMMUNICATE How You're Minimizing COVID-19 Risks In Your Store.

    Send us a text The Coronavirus Crisis Continues... New protocols are being implemented by states... And it's wreaking havoc on convenience stores, convenience distributors and suppliers/manufacturers supplying the channel. It's also reconfiguring the industry and how it operates. Employees are concerned. Convenience Stores are at risk of closing if an employee tests positive. And Distributors are working around the clock to make deliveries. Ditto for Manufacturers. What you need right now are more insights and ideas to minimize your risk, stay open and operating, and ultimately, survive the crisis. You can. In this new podcast, Tim Lazor of the Convenience Marketing Group discusses a new approach and new ideas to assure you and your team have thought through every possible way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while serving customers and taking care of employees. You'll Learn: •What specific type of crisis this is, and how to manage it. •How To Asses Your Stores, Gain Trust, Communicate Your Crisis Story. •Think OCD About The Virus. •Customers Approaching Your Store: Risks & Expectations •Gas Pump Ideas •Entering The Store: What The Customer Feels & Sees TODAY •The New Foodservice Expectation •Must Have Products & Pricing •Hidden Opportunities & The Future Of A RECONFIGURED Category. And much more! Tim Lazor, President http://conveniencemarketing.net/ http://conveniencemarketing.net/

    52 min
  • 12 Episodes

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Tim Lazor's Unique Retail Marketing Firm Specializing In Growing The Convenience Store Sales by focussing on Customers. We help: Convenience Store Retailers…Convenience Distributors…Convenience Manufacturers & Suppliers……Grow their sales and margins with differentiated, disruptive, and value–creating marketing programs.

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