Operating System: Windows

Sometimes our clients asks us computer related questions. I will try to answer some of those questions here. One question is, ‘how can I take a screenshot of my website?’. Here’s a simple tip on how to take screenshots on any Windows computer, even if you don’t have Photoshop.

1. If you want to capture the entire screen, press the “Print Screen” button on the upper right corner of your keyboard. Mine says, “PrtSc”. If you want to capture only a specific window, click on the window to select it. Then press Alt+Print Screen. The Alt button can be found on either side of the space bar.
2. Open the Paint program. By default, it should be located in Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories.
3. In Paint, go to the Edit menu and select Paste.
4. If you are happy with your screenshot, go to step 9. If you want to crop your screenshot, select the crop tool and select the area you want to crop.
5. Go to the Edit menu and select Copy.
6. Go to the File menu and select New. It will ask if you want to save your changes. Select No.
7. Go to the Edit menu and select Paste.
8. If your selection is smaller than the page, you can resize the page by pointing your mouse on the bottom right corner of the canvas area and drag it to the size you want.
9. Select the File menu and select Save. Change the “Save As Type” drop down to JPEG.

How to Capture a Screenshot from Windows Media Player

To capture a screenshot from Windows Media Player, just follow the instructions above. The only thing to note is that you need to change the Video Acceleration setting.

To change the Video Acceleration setting, right-click on the top bar in Windows Media Player. That will bring up the popup menu shown below.

Select Tools > Options. Then, select the Performances tab. Slide the Video Acceleration setting to half way, if it isn’t there already. Decreasing the Video Acceleration will decrease the quality of your video playback. It may also cause occassional freezing during playback, so it is recommended that you change the setting back to Full once you are done making your screenshots.

I bet this happens to me almost every day. Someone starts to tell me a story and I have to fill in the information.

You have probably experienced it too. It goes like this:

“I have to tell you about that this TV show I was watching, you know, the one with that woman from Seinfeld, what’s her name, she’s on this new show… what’s it called?”

And I start thinking, who is telling this story? Me or the other person.

This is shrombarding. Where you have the all information, but someone else is taking credit for telling the story.

Now that I know what it is called, I notice it happening all the time to me. People start to tell me something and I am the one who has to supply the information. In my brain the alarm goes off, “Oh-oh, I am being shrombarded.”

I think it has to do with the overall A.D.D. that our society has. No one has concentration anymore. We all expect we can cripple through relying on others to fill in our inadequacies.

We even see it in commercials.  For example, we saw one recently with a dumb guy having a technician set up his internet connection. The guy sounds like he had never heard of any elementary internet terms. He shrombards the tech to show his wife that he knows about what he doesn’t know about. It is transparent and obnoxious. And, it is yet another commercial playing off the “dumb man” with the “smart wife” cliche.

On one hand, I want to forgive people from shrombarding me. After all, there are so many bits of extraneous information barraging in on us.

I mean who can remember so much stuff, particularly in an age when people are expected to remember Madonna’s second child’s name, or who Angelina Jolie’s uncle is.

That is why we need Google. Now we don’t have to remember facts, the internet does it for us. And Wikipedia always tells the truth, even if CNN doesn’t.

But advertising should never resort to shrombarding its viewers. Advertising should be clear and communicate its message in a thorough and provocative way.  We only get 30 or 15 seconds.

It might be okay for police to drag information out by shrombarding when they are interrogating suspects, just like Columbo always did.  But advertising generally does not engage its target so completely that the target will do all the work.  The result for advertising is that the message can be completely lost.

So here is a trivia question for you, you know that guy who wrote all those plays, what’s his name, the English guy, the one who did Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet and all those others, what the heck was his second child’s name?

.

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* Answers: Rocco, Chip Taylor, twins Hamnet and Judith (but who really cares outside Wikipedia).  So now, wild thing, what was Chip Taylor famous for?

Let’s avoid textbook definitions of GRPs, reach and frequency, CPP and CPM and get to the point.

The vast majority of retailers do not have a clue when it comes to buying media.

They often assume that because they listen to a particular radio station or read a newspaper that everyone else does.

In larger metro areas, the media choices are extensive so the retailer who makes this kind of media choice better be prepared when results suck.

From car dealers to fast food operators, clothes stores to services, almost every one we’ve ever dealt with (literally hundreds) thinks media buying is about how many spots or insertions you can get for a given price.

Hold on there bucko, we can buy one radio spot that reaches a larger audience than your ten or twenty spots.

And that brings me to the whole point about media. Buying media is about buying audience. It is not about seeing how many spots you can get.

Stations sell announcements; you are buying audience. Newspapers sell space; you are buying audience.

The reason some papers or radio stations or TV stations cost much more than others is because of audience – much, much more audience. It’s the same reason you pay much more rent for a store on Main Street than Mud Street – audience. A spot is not a spot. It is about the quality of it. Like location for a retail store, buying media is audience, audience, audience.

The principle of buying audience should be easy enough to understand even for the more blunt of us.

Now here’s the part that not a single retailer we’ve ever dealt with here at Calexis really comprehends. Advertising agencies have studied the science of audiences since Madison Avenue was invented. We study studies, do surveys, examine the human brain, observe peoples’ habits and then fashion brilliant strategies from all this human data just so we can tell you who is going to want your product. And where you can reach them.

Media buying is pure science with a dose of judgment and gut feel. That is why Calexis employs media experts whose sole job is to buy media for our clients. These are experts who do this for a living.

Before concluding this little blog, it behoves us to bring up another observation we make time, after time, after time. Retailers love perks. Media salespeople know this very well.

Listen again if you are a retailer. You do not have to give up the trips, golf games and dinners. We may actually be able to get better perks for you if you want them. But ask yourself whether your personal enjoyment is more important than your business benefit. And see Part II of this series.

If you want to squeeze absolutely everything you can from your budget, professional media buyers perform miraculous feats negotiating added media value you couldn’t dream of and do a great job finding and reaching your audience.

John Luciani
Calexis

PART II: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make

Recently I had a meeting with an accountant who does turnarounds. He attempts to save companies that are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy by nursing them back to health.

I asked him whether some company owners put their ego ahead of the survival of their company. He said that was usually his biggest problem. Funny, I said, that is also a huge problem we encounter when we are doing advertising for retailers.

Even though some can barely speak clearly, retailers take to the airwaves to hock their wares. Do they do it because they think they can deliver the message better than any other form of advertising?

We have a saying in advertising,

If you haven’t got anything to say, sing it. If you can’t sing it, get the client to say it.

We do this to cater to the client’s ego. Why, because sometimes the client’s ego is more important than business results.

Of course there are exceptions to this, it isn’t a rule, more like a guideline. I remember when Wendy’s had an advertising problem. We had just hit a home run with the “Where’s the beef” old lady. Nothing the agency, DFS, in New York could do could test anything near it. The Agency was fired. The Marketing guy at Wendy’s was gone. As a short term fall back, Dave Thomas was recruited to do some promotional commercials. Twenty years later he was still doing them.

How was he successful? He had personality. He reminded everyone of a favourite uncle, not someone hawking his own wares. He was committed in a non-authorative way. His credibility came from his commitment and ownership. As time went on we learned more about him and got to like him as his public personality developed.

That’s a far cry from retailers screaming out about some deal that they are offering.

The best way to build a retail business is to understand your competitive set; understand your business’s advantage and develop intrusive, provocative and clear advertising that communicates that strategy. What agency is going to tell the owner, their client,  to get off the air? That’s the hard part.

Retailers may know too much about their businesses to understand what is really compelling to their customers.  Glimpses can be deceiving.  We like to speak with customers for a fairer assessment of strengths and weaknesses.  That takes some work.

And we also believe that a customer saying how great a retailer is provides a much stronger message than the retailer saying it themselves.  Think of it.  If I tell you how great I am, you are skeptical (although I have no idea why).  Whereas if a disinterested third party says I am great, maybe even my wife will believe it.

But for most retailers, getting out there and telling the prospects yourself is not only the lazy, cheap way to do it. It is also one of the weakest. The retailer should ask themselves – what’s more important, you being recognized or your sales and revenue going up?

Unless the retailer has a particular talent or uniqueness. Stay away! This can only lead to problems. And it is the second common mistake retailers make.

PART I: 5 Advertising Mistakes Retailers Make

We have been creating advertising for retailers for years. But we have always wondered why so many retailers insist on repeating someone else’s job.

Imagine, people who are notoriously careful with their funds – car dealers who haggle with their manufacturers in a tooth and nail duel, then turn around and think the only thing they have to say about their dealership in their advertising is information about that same manufacturer’s vehicles.

We have seen dealers insist time after time: “Let’s tell everyone about the new adjustable frammis on the brand new 2010 model.”

We say – NO! That’s redundant! If you run redundant advertising, your dealership may become redundant.

Like many industries, car advertising is neatly structured.

The manufacturer spends their time speaking about product. Food service is the same.

Let the national advertising component sing the praises of the product. That’s their job. Let them promote the brand and all it stands for. After all, they own it.

Then let the dealer associations or franchisee co-ops talk about the shorter term group promotions: The BOGOs. The 0% financing. The employee pricing. These things benefit a group of the retailers. No need for individual retailers to repeat these things since they all have the same offer.  Reassure, yes.  But feature, no.

Retailers should be advertising what makes their specific operation superb. Why service and deals at their dealership are the best. What their location can do for their customers.

For car dealers, we recommend creating a personality for their dealership. This is no easy proposition. You need the kind of personality that appeals to their potential customers and is believable for that dealership. A personality lets customers feel they know that dealership and what that it stands for. Sometimes it is the dealer principal. But not always. Even though they are franchisees, car dealerships are big businesses and can afford to have different personalities under their manufacturer signs.  Not so for other types of franchisees.

Retailers should locally brand their store or dealership with store-specific ads. Running ads from the franchisor helps build brands collectively but doesn’t do much for the local store. But the art work is cheap.

Dealers and other retailer are not getting the most from their money unless they have something that adds uniqueness about their location – and we are not talking about their address. It could be a special offer, promotion, event, or limited edition model. Even if the company ad they get for free has to be adapted for this to make it their own. Why would you run someone else’s ad for your business?

For food service, we recommend franchisees invest their own money in local store marketing. Heck, Calexis even wrote them a book on it.

There is so much they can do to drive their own sales by connecting to and becoming involved in their communities. And it pays off.

For all retailers, presenting a personality and connecting to their community is more effective than repeating whatever the national brand has to say.

Let them do their job. You do yours — and build on what they can do for you.

I like to explain brand definition by relating brands to products. If you wonder about brand offerings, and are considering extending a brand read on and then ask yourself the hard question about whether extending the brand will help or hurt the brand.

Consider the Mustang car. It has enjoyed a long term success. Maybe not as successful in these difficult days for US car makers, but still a long serving, successful brand. It has been a sporty two door small but powerful car. A plaything for the driver.

Let’s say you were charged with creating added volume and you were in charge of the Mustang brand.  You would have to ask yourself  how can you increase sales. Let’s say your bonus depends on it.

Clearly the Mustang is a limited brand. In a world where the vast majority of passenger cars have four doors, the Mustang is playing in a small sub-set by having only two doors.

Think of the volume potential of being able to compete in the huge majority market that features four doors.

Why not introduce a “four-door-Mustang” to provide an option to the vast majority of buyers who are looking for a four door vehicle?

The answer is that the two-door nature of the Mustang is an inherent requirement of the brand’s sporty personality. Once it is a four door, practical car it is no longer a Mustang. And it undermines the two door version of the brand. Why? Because it becomes a practical sedan which is not consistent with a sporty, plaything.

Same would be true of other cars that owe their identity to being a two door, performance vehicle – like the Camaro.  Or to products or retailers where a product feature both limits and defines the brand.  Break the limit and you “undefine” the brand.

That’s what happened to the Thunderbird years ago. It started life as a two door luxury sporty vehicle. By the time it went to four doors it had lost its zest. It was no longer sporty; it was just another family car and eventually it died. When it was reborn a few years ago, it was reborn as a two door.

What I am saying is not that cars should be two doors only. But that there are some aspects of a brand that are inherent to its identity. That define it.

Once you cross those lines, the brand becomes diluted and starts to be eroded. It might be possible to increase sales by exploiting the brand into new areas, but be careful that the exploitation is not the undoing of the brand. Like a four door Mustang would be.

We have worked with scores of retailers and retail chains to create their advertising programs for them. While we are not always right, we are tried and true advertising professionals and have learned a lot about retailers and how they operate.

Here are five big mistakes that retailers make. And they make them time after time. We can see it in lots of retailers who are not our clients.

These are the big five.

1. Running redundant messages to the manufacturer or chain
2. Putting their Ego ahead of business results
3. Buying media by announcements instead of their target audience
4. Ads filled with tons of information but no message
5. Fear of professional help

There may be others, but we will be posting blogs on each of these topics and explaining what these mistakes are, with examples, and showing how retailers can learn to have more effective advertising. After all, advertising is our expertise.

Advertising should be something that drives people to the retailer. It doesn’t get retailers any customer satisfaction. That is the retailer’s job and one retailers are constantly struggling with.

Don’t know why they think they can do advertising, just serving customers is really a big enough job. Here’s a quote we heard from a franchisee of an international food service chain, “These people, they keep coming into my store asking me for this, asking about that. What’s the matter with them? Can’t they see I have a business I am trying to run!”

Advertising’s job is to herd people into the store. That is also challenging. It is surprising to hear all the advice we get from people who don’t know our job and have never even tried to do it. So this is our way of sharing back with some advice for retailers.

Come back over the coming weeks to see what we have to say.