In any line of business, though, one will come across a spectrum of activities that cast a pall over true professionals. This post tells a story about one set of questionable actions that came to my attention, quite by accident. I have taken some time to calmly consider the facts and report them. In the end, I will ask for YOUR opinion.

The Actions

Periodically, as part of routine, wedding industry research, I spot check national, regional, local, and company-specific websites. I’m looking for excellence, trends, foolishness, and any random thing that catches my eye.

In that mode, I was cruising through a number of national websites, when something caught my eye in the local wedding vendors of GetMarried.com.

I did a search for DJs in Las Vegas and found a couple of listings. I didn’t recognize either of the company names, so I thoroughly examined those listings and their websites.

One, in particular, caught my eye, AllStarDJsNow.com. The link to its site took me to a nicely designed, 2-screen WordPress-based site. The welcome page sported a logo-banner, a picture of a steak dinner, a photo of dance floor activity, a small amount of copy, and an inquiry form.

It also includes the statement: “Over 3,000 happy brides & grooms recommend All Star DJs!”

There is an offer stating: “No purchase necessary – Simply make an appointment, look at our DJ plans and pick up your free steak dinner certificate!”

Finally, it noted: “As seen in Las Vegas Bride Magazine.” and showed a badge from a local wedding networking company, WPLV (Wedding Professionals of Las Vegas).

On the About screen, there was some upbeat sell copy describing why the bride should consider All Star DJs Now.

Red Flags

There were several:

• The author for the site is shown as: Posted on December 1, 2010 by Boom Marketing
• Boom Marketing is the company that owns both Las Vegas Bride Magazine and WPLV. It also producers three bridal shows in the Las Vegas Valley: Las Vegas Bridal Expo, Summerlin Bridal Show, and Green Valley Bridal Show.
• DJ’s are an outgoing bunch, generally. And this site didn’t offer the name or photo any owner or DJ. That seemed odd.
• The site was very brief. No testimonials on the site. Three text-testimonials were offered on the GetMarried.com listing.
• When one looks up site ownership of the domain name, using WHOIS, it shows Big Dream Marketing is the owner, and the registration of the domain name was done on December 4, 2010. As a separate item, Big Dream Marketing has changed its name to Boom Marketing. The owner, address, phone, etc.,. are the same.

You might ask…

• How could a company touting 3000 happy brides and grooms only have created a website four months ago? – Probable answer… In the 21st century it would seem highly unlikely that such a prolific company, with more than 3000 weddings under its belt, is just recently offering a website. Hard to fathom that a business with a website could rack up such a tremendous number of successful bookings.
• Since the AllStarDJsNow.com site showed a WPLV badge, it should be a member of that organization, shouldn’t it? A quick trip to the WPLV membership directory showed 13 companies listed in Music and Entertainment area. All Star DJs Now was not one of them. In a recent issue of Las Vegas Bride Magazine, All Star DJs Now sported a full-page ad on the right hand side of the publication, at the gateway to the disc jockey entertainment section.
• Where is All Star DJs Now located? There is no address given on its website; however, on the Get Married lsting, it shows 3320 N. Buffalo Dr. Ste 102 – Las Vegas, NV 89129. That would be the same address as Boom Marketing, Las Vegas Bride Magazine and WPLV.
• Where is the site hosted? It’s a free, WordPress.com site.

So, what does this likely mean?

• What is this site, really? It appears to be an ersatz website representing a fictitious company. Online inquiries to the company resulted in no emails or call backs. Phone inquiries were answered by a voice mail box, with a female voice representing the company.
• Why would this alleged fictitious company take out an ad in a national wedding directory? Often, national organizations will not allow advertising from local wedding marketing companies (publications, shows or directories). They will, from time to time, partner or collaborate on cross-promotions. For example, a national publisher may provide magazines to a local bridal show producer to give out at the show. For that added distribution, the publisher might provide banner ads or email blasts on their website. These arrangements are usually made on a ‘per-show’ basis. It would seem that the listing, in question, was placed to gather leads of local Las Vegas brides for purposes other than the DJ services of All Star DJs.
• Why would local leads be important? Bridal show producers spend a lot of media dollars to attract traffic to their websites and shows. This was be a relatively inexpensive ‘back door’ method to garner bride information, without having a show listing.

In all cases, I’m for fair, if sometimes fierce, competition. This one made me jump back.

For you, does the scenario described pass the smell test?

SUGGESTION: Visit the original post on The Wedding Marketing Blog and read from comments that have come in from across North America, and all the way to Australia.

FEEDBACK PLEASE: Your comments, opinions, and perspective are highly encouraged. Please take a couple of minutes to evaluate what has been presented and offer your views. As a DJ, specifically, if this were happening to you, in your market, how would you react?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

FYI: FULL DISCLOSURE: I co-founded, and assist with, another local networking group, Las Vegas Wedding Network.

Having exhibited at close to 100 bridal shows, during my life as a DJ, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In the end, here’s what I believe one should expect from a bridal show producer.

“They should do what they say they are going to do, to promote the show. Their promotion to the bride and to the exhibitor should be ethical, accurate, and not deceptive. The show environment should be easy to navigate, have aisles that are consistent with its expected traffic, have a floor plan (including handouts), clear signage, and have reasonable limits on noise from competitive booths”

Is this an all-inclusive list? No, not really. There are other, lesser issues, but I think these are the big ones.

Ultimately, exhibitors are simply looking for the producer to deliver an audience of brides and their entourage to an event space, filled with booths, for a face-to-face experience.

My perspective on show turnout is that exhibitors focus too much on measuring exactly how many brides attend. One can have too many brides for a time frame or a space, and have a tougher selling situation. This exhibitor angst can psychologically trap bridal show producers into a game of attendance projections.

Bridal Show attendance predictions are an exercise in crystal ball gazing. As is they say in the investment business, ‘Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.’

In my opinion, the accountability is in the marketing and promotion of the show. Did a producer do what they said they would do? Nothing more.

The One Bad Apple Problem: What taints ethical bridal show producers, and creates reasonable skepticism and paranoia among exhibitors is blatant unethical behavior.

During a show earlier this year, a bridal show producer (NOT a BSPI member) tried to mask a lower-than-expected (aka predicted) turnout by playing a shell game with bride badges.

Essentially, the producer had the staff put bride badges on all women in the wedding party… brides, wedding party, friends. Vendors can be fooled for a little time, but it didn’t take them long to figure out they were being bamboozled by the producer.

At a more recent show, the same producer was selling 10′ x 10′ booths. That’s a common configuration. Problem was, when exhibitors arrived for the show, their spaces were only 8′ x 8′.

Dance Floor Math: You don’t have to be a math major to know you’re getting cheated in a big way. As a former DJ, I simply do the small math of multiplying 10 x 10 and 8 x 8. The promised booth layout was 100 square feet. The actual booth space was 64 square feet. That’s a deficiency of 36%.

In the words of Chef Emeril LaGasse, “This is not rocket science, folks!”

Here’s My Logic: As an exhibitor, one can expect a larger turnout or a smaller one. And one can be pleased or disappointed at the actual traffic flow. But that is purely from individual perspective. I can elect not to participate in the next show, if I choose, because I think a promoter has been ineffective in delivering a result, but being ineffective is not being unethical or deceptive.

However, when it comes to delivering a booth space that 36% smaller than offered and agreed to, that’s another story. I would be demanding 36% of booth fee be refunded. And then, I wouldn’t do business with that show producer, again.

In my view, the first scenario about badges is primarily an ethical issue (deception). The second one (booth space) is both a business and ethical issue. Exhibitors who have their act together, arrive with a plan for their 10′ x 10′ space. To suddenly have to function in an 8′ x 8′ is unacceptable at many levels.

The BIG Question: What Would You Do???

• Are these scenarios as clear cut for you as they are for me?
• Are there more issues and other perspectives?
• Under what conditions would you continue to business with this bridal show producer?

Please get involved in the conversation by contributing your comments and perspective.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Ten Business Building Strategies To Start The New Year: Tip #5

‘My way or the highway,’ as a manner of doing business, no longer cuts it.

• Don’t make it difficult for people to buy from you. If you don’t offer complete credit card acceptance (yes, that means American Express, too), for example, you are probably losing business.
• If wedding prospects require evening and Saturday hours for appointments at your office, you lose out if you are not accommodating them. Yes, I said Saturday hours.
• If your competition offers customers special accommodations or service that you don’t, you have a void in your marketing plan. For example, do you have a telephone hotline for brides, during the week leading up to their wedding?
• Are you using text messaging to confirm appointments?
• Does your website contain answers to frequently asked questions such that prospects and clients can find forms and details even when you, or your sales staff, are not available?
• Have you acknowledged the reality that email and texting ARE, in fact, a conversation for today’s bride?

Make yourself easy to do business with…. to communicate with……

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority ]]> http://www.mobilebeat.com/sell-and-communicate-the-way-your-prospects-customers-prefer/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilebeat.com/the-unique-selling-proposition-is-still-king/ http://www.mobilebeat.com/the-unique-selling-proposition-is-still-king/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:59:05 +0000 Andy Ebon http://www.mobilebeat.com/?p=2618

Ten Business Building Strategies To Start The New Year: Tip #4

Advertising education has always focused on the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition. The element that makes your business different or better than its competition.

It’s helpful to be aware of your competition; however, all too often we react to what our competition is doing and how it affects us. The goal should be to turn it around and get out in front of the competition.

Marketing Guru, Seth Godin, has redefined the Unique Selling Propositionin new terms: the Purple Cow. A Purple Cow is a business, so remarkable, that it clearly stands apart from its competition. It’s clarity of purpose, identity, and execution are focused, clear, and perceived as superior by the marketplace.

Defining your business superiority with descriptors such as: great customer service, is a muddy differentiation, at best. Being the biggest, in business the longest, and other such claims sound good, but don’t truly carry much weight with the marketplace.

Strive to be THE benchmark in your field and market.

Your company’s identity and Unique Selling Proposition should be clear, obvious, and memorable in your business community and to your peers.

Your company should be the standard by which other competing businesses in your market are measured.

What you doing to absolutely put your business in its own league?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority ]]> http://www.mobilebeat.com/the-unique-selling-proposition-is-still-king/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilebeat.com/strive-for-continual-incremental-improvement/ http://www.mobilebeat.com/strive-for-continual-incremental-improvement/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:55:37 +0000 Andy Ebon http://www.mobilebeat.com/?p=2610

Ten Business Building  Strategies To Start The New Year: Tip #2

Nothing covers up bad decisions like a good economy. When sales are plentiful, profits will always cover any poor judgment. The same poor decisions will bury you in a tough economy or more competitive environment.

It’s easy to rationalize one’s own situation when your competitor is struggling. You begin to believe that your performance may just be part of a larger trend.

We complain about ‘price competition’ eroding mark ups.

The Net Effect: We make failure too easy to accept. Do not justify weak performance. Do not allow your business or employees to be comfortable with the status quo.

It’s all hands on deck for quality control, process improvement, and person-to-person public relations. That means everybody.

Make incremental improvement a cornerstone element of your business culture and wedding marketing plan for the coming year. Preach it, coach it, and get everyone’s buy in. Acknowledge exceptional effort, problem solving, and taking initiative.

Excellence will not be accomplished every time, but with the appropriate individual and team results, you won’t have to demand results. The results will be there.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority ]]> http://www.mobilebeat.com/strive-for-continual-incremental-improvement/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilebeat.com/maintain-and-build-on-existing-business-relationships/ http://www.mobilebeat.com/maintain-and-build-on-existing-business-relationships/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:55:48 +0000 Andy Ebon http://www.mobilebeat.com/?p=2613

Ten Business Building Strategies To Start The New Year: Tip #3

The reality of selling-to-the-bride is the you don’t do it in a vacuum. More often than not, the bride’s awareness of your business is fueled in a variety of ways; many of them indirect.

She sees your ads, website, see you at a wedding showcase, to name a few. However, there are two ways she is moved toward you, or away from you, more than direct contact.

The Gatekeepers

A Gatekeeper is a business contact who stands between you and the bride or between you and yet another contact, connected to the bride.

For a vendor, she most obvious gatekeepers are people in positions such as catering sales manager or private event manager. For a catering sales manager, private event manager, AND a vendor, a wedding consultant is a gatekeeper. People in these position control both the path of communication to brides (which may be their prospects or clients, at a given time) and they provide positive or negative opinion and influence on the bride.

It is essential that you maintain, and build on, existing relationships with gatekeepers to gain additional access to the bride.

It is necessary and important to build new gatekeeper relationships, as there will always be attrition. However, your primary job is to maintain and build your present contacts.

• Does your company have a specific Social Media Strategy? A strategy that keeps your name and business activities ‘top of mind’ with the gatekeepers.
• Do you belong to local trade associations and networking groups?
• Are you active in those groups, with your presence, participation, and thoughtful donations?
• Do you meet one-to-one with gatekeepers on a regular basis.

By systematically redefining and fortifying key relationships,  you can assure an ongoing flow of wedding leads and bookings.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority ]]> http://www.mobilebeat.com/maintain-and-build-on-existing-business-relationships/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilebeat.com/be-wary-of-economic-forecasts-particularly-the-optimistic-ones/ http://www.mobilebeat.com/be-wary-of-economic-forecasts-particularly-the-optimistic-ones/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:38:46 +0000 Andy Ebon http://www.mobilebeat.com/?p=2597

With Halloween now behind us, can Christmas be nearer than you think? Indeed it can be, and is.

When acknowledging your customers and industry contacts, it’s not necessarily bad manners having two or more tiers of communication and appreciation.

• Lowest Level: Ecards – Send to casual friends or business acquaintances (perhaps people you know, but have no actual business relationship with, as yet).
• Highest Level: Gifts – Long standing customers and industry contacts who refer you, or hire your company, regularly. (Note: This will be a special focus in a future blog).
• Medium Level: Holiday Cards – Send to those people who fall in the middle, such as: Annual customers, fellow members in trade associations, your accountant, and the like.

Notice, I said holiday cards, not Christmas cards. No it’s not a religious issue, really.

It’s a timing and attention thing.

My experience says, the best strategy is to send Thanksgiving cards. Yes, Thanksgiving cards!

“Why?” you ask. Here’s the logic… Many companies are deferring their decisions about holiday parties (yes, no, how opulent, how understated) as long as they can. Their final plans may be influenced my sales, profits, layoffs, the presidential election, or any number of factors you’re unaware of.

Rather than wait until December, if your product or service is tied to a holiday party or December business (such as gift baskets, balloons, or stationery), then get out in front with a Thanksgiving card. Send a card that is received between Wednesday, November 19th, and Monday, November 24th.

Your holiday wishes will be among the first received, and you will be top-of-mind with people who know you, like you, and are in a position to rehire you or refer you business.

And, by the way, it’s OK to put ONE business card in each envelope. Final thing, make sure the card is signed by ALL your office staff, if possible. Not just you.

Looking for a marketing edge to trump your competitors? Stand out from the crowd by sending Thanksgiving Cards. Then listen for the phone to ring.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority ]]> http://www.mobilebeat.com/its-november-whats-your-plan-for-holiday-cards/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilebeat.com/connecting-face-to-face-through-coffee-and-conversation/ http://www.mobilebeat.com/connecting-face-to-face-through-coffee-and-conversation/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:12:14 +0000 Andy Ebon http://www.mobilebeat.com/?p=2264

Coffee connections

One thing that amazes me, on a continual basis, is how people will blame their lack of networking success on other people and special circumstances. In the words of Emeril LaGasse, “This is not rocket science, folks.”

On an annual basis, business owners consider their ROI from various associations, networking groups and chambers of commerce. These have paid their dues, and perhaps more, but still don’t see a clear and definitive (measured in $$$) Return On Investment.This a big issue, but I’m only going to address a slice of it, via this post.

REALITY CHECK: Membership in any trade group or association gives you opportunity or access. You can leverage the situation by:

• Showing up to every meeting or almost every meeting.
• Making sensible donations: Those that benefit the organization AND showcase your company, effectively.
• Serving on a committee.
• Participating in a project.
• Serving on a Board of Directors

Here is the trick. Connections do not magically occur during a 3-hour event, once a month. That event and membership are simply the launching pad.

I know: “People are busy, companies are dealing with reduced staff, blah, blah, blah.”

They still have breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best way to leverage your organization membership is to get face-to-face with people. A solid 30-40 minutes before work, or at any mutually convenient time, is a solid way to develop a personal and business relationship.

If you call and are told, “Gee, I’m busy until the second week of November,” that’s OK, make a coffee date for the Tuesday or Wednesday in November. Figure it out. Get on their agenda, at their convenience.

Your ‘coffee date’ should not be a selling situation. It should be a get-to-know-you-and-your-business meeting; a stepping stone other avenues for referrals and more.

Vendors often feel that Directors of Catering and other venue contacts condescend to them. The reality on this one is that they have their hands full just trying to meet their own sales numbers, and are often annoyed by what they perceive as business owners with their hands out.

This is a complex discussion, but suffice to say, if you use the coffee connection to help determine how you can make your catering/venue/planner’s life easier, you are far likelier to have success in building a referral relationship.

Here is your assignment:

• Make a list of the top 25 people you would like to do business with (Start with professionals who you have a commonality with, through membership in an association or networking group).
• Planning through January 2010, schedule at least one coffee connection meeting a week.
• Research in advance: Use Facebook or LinkedIn to survey the person’s interests, work history, education background, etc., and use it softly in discussion.
• Figure out your follow up: Take notes on anything you promised to do or look into, during that meeting, and get it done.
• Acknowledge: With a quickie handwritten note. That trumps an email or anything else, six-ways-to-Sunday.

Being on a referral list is overrated. You want to be top of mind, and on people’s lips, when they talk with clients and peers.

If you are just paying your dues, you are likely underachieving.

Please share your own strategies that work, and post about your coffee connections.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

DJ Satistfaction, one of the attendees at the Orange, CA stop of the Mobile Beat Pioneer ProDJ Tour posted a video summary of the evening’s education and festivities.

This highlight reel will give you a the flavor and energy of the seminars, exhibits, and networking hosted by Mobile Beat Magazine. Next Stop: Chicago, Sunday Night – August 16th

Andy Ebon

The Wedding Marketing Authority