HPB NE Region Summit

3. Established 1972

5. Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson

6. “Books should fill our lives,
not our land.”
– Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson, 1972

7. 778 RDC Dallas, Texas

9. “Be fair to our customers and our employees,
promote literacy, be kind to the environment
and remain financially viable so that we may
continue.”
– Ken Gjemre & Pat Anderson, 1978

10. “The cost of being green can be great, but
the cost of not being green is greater.”
– Sharon Anderson Wright, 2008

14. 043 Garland, Texas

15. 090 Bloomingdale, Illinois

16. 001 Dallas, Texas

20. 062 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

36. “Being green is just what we all want to be!”
– Kermit the Frog, 1970

38. In the 2007/2008 Fiscal year, HPB sales
$182,208,232 (+14.4%) in total sales,
$167,756,751 (+7.7%) comparative sales
NE REGION 2007/2008 Fiscal year
$40,696,117 (+19.0%) total
$34,138,892 (+6.2%) comparative
2007/2008 Fiscal Year

39. The NE REGION sales account
for just over 22% of Half Price
Books total sales last fiscal
year!

40. 2008 Promotions
• 20% Sales
• Mailers
• Gift Card Promotions
• Special promotions
– Black Friday
– T-shirt Promotion
– Book Lovers’ Weekend

41. Viral Marketing: Promotions
• Black Friday
– Chain-wide sales up 56% over 2007 Black
Friday
– A lot of online “buzz”
• Book Lovers’ Weekend
– Email list

42. Email List Numbers At-A-
Glance
District Total Sign ups Avg per store
• Indianapolis 1,771 443
• Cincinnati 1,262 316
• Dayton 311
• Columbus 1,440 288
• Cleveland 410 103
• Pittsburgh 882 221
• Louisville 1,005 503
• Lexington 471

43. Indiana 25.2%
Kentucky 36.7%
Cleveland 13.0%
Columbus 14.6%
Southern Ohio 36.3%
Pittsburgh 11.5%
Book Lovers' Weekend Email Promotion:
2nd weekend in February
Chain wide sales up 30.1% over previous year

44. Upcoming Promotions
• Spring 2009 mailer: GOING ON NOW!
• Earth Day
• Mother’s Day gift card promotion
• Memorial Day Sale

46. 2008/2009 Press Review: Northeast Region

47. 2008-2009 PR Placements
• More than 50 stories about Half Price Books
were in major broadcast and print media in your
region. 41 were placed by Half Price Books.
• Last 12 months of PR placements totaled more
than $70,000 in equivalent advertising dollars!
• Our stories netted more than 4,000,000
impressions.

49. Cause-related PR-generated Press

50. Employees are the Voice of HPB
• In many instances media want to talk to
employees on the front lines as well as
customers in the store.
• Facts are needed quickly by media, and often
need to talk to employees within hours of
contacting us.
• Why should talking with media be a priority?
• Your PR team will prepare you!

51. What does your store gain from
media exposure?
• Thousands of dollars of advertising value
at no cost.
• Stories on our cause-related campaigns
build customer loyalty and confidence.
• Reinforces trust in our brand as
consumers know information wasn’t paid
to be placed.

53. How budgets are created
• Based on percentage of sales from previous
fiscal year
• Multi vs. Single Store Markets
• IT’S WHY SELF-MARKETING IS SO
IMPORTANT

55. Radio Advertising
Media Market Weekly Impressions
Cincinnati 17,589,000
Cleveland 22,356,000
Columbus 14,749,000
Dayton 6,002,000
Fort Wayne 1,289,000
Indianapolis 3,918,000
Lexington-Fayette 6,063,000
Louisville 8,056,000
Pittsburgh 16,457,000

56. Half Price Books
total weekly impressions in the
NE REGION

58. Radio Advertising:
New Jim Swayze Spots

59. New 20% Off sale spots

61. Mail list sign ups are
IMPORTANT
because they target
our best customers

62. Converting
customers to our
email list allows us
to contact them
even more

66. Internally
• Marketing on Open Book
– Familiarize yourself with who does what, check out the
updated Marketing Calendar, Current and Upcoming
promotions, and more!
• The Marketing Forum
– An open discussion forum and marketing idea-share
• Halfpricebooks.com
– Encourage your staff to browse our website, it helps
you to know what the customer is seeing about HPB
happenings

67. External
• Halfpricebooks.com
– The first stop for our browsing customers!
• b(eco)megreen.info
– The HPB environmental initiative goes global
• deletecensorship.org
– Half Price Books takes a stand with our web-based
anti-censorship/freedom-to-read initiative
• The Texas Bookman
• Facebook
– A social networking tool. Half Price Books has almost
8,000 fans!

69. • Great customer experiences count
– Where experience is concerned, cheap doesn’t mean
that much
• 58% of customers said they would always or often pay
more for a better customer experience during a down
economy
– They talk: 58% of consumers say they will
recommend a company to someone else, based on a
positive experience. This is up from 51% in 2007
• Service outplays both low price(44%) AND quality
products (43%)

70. What do our customers say?
compliments 2%
product question 32%store location 9%
opt out 7%
info change 14%
buy questions 9%
gift card questions 7%
complaints 20%
complaints
compliments
product question
store location
opt out
info change
buy questions
gift card questions

71. • Bad customer experiences can affect the
bottom line
– More than ever, customers will stop doing business
with a company because of a negative experience
• In 2008, 87% said they would stop doing business with
a company because of a bad experience, up from 68%
in 2006
– Word of mouth works both ways
• Consumers are twice as likely to tell about poor
treatment
– 84% of consumers said they would tell about a poor
experience, up from 67% in 2006
– Women and consumers ages 35-44 are most likely to
tell others about a poor experience

72. What do our customers say?
• Product requests. “Do you have this book?”
• “Please change my information on the mailing list.”
• Top complaints center on lack of service, unfriendly
employees and buying policies or offers.
• For every compliant, numerous compliments about
you are received as well.
• What can you do to proactively reduce complaints
on a corporate level?

73. The Future of Customer Care
• New and improved online FAQs.
• Online form to collect data and more
efficiently measure our customer
feedback.
• New ways to obtain and use customer
purchasing information for mailing,
marketing, etc.

74. In-Store Ideas
HPB bright ideas from
across the country

75. Store Created
Signage

92. Displays

114. Merchandising
Aids

129. Directionals

135. Cross
Merchandising

140. Custom
Signage

161. Local Store Marketing
• Tools
– Promotion approval form
– Promo gift cards
– Balloons, stickers, pencils
– Educator discount information
– Brochures and bookmarks
– Generic 15% off coupons
– In-store “sales”: Vinyl night, clearance
– KEEPING MARKETING INFORMED:
• Store webpage, signage

162. Author signings Special guests City festivals
Other ideas on-site and off: Girl scout/Boys scout troupes, local parks and
recreation, little league clubs, local libraries, book clubs, senior citizen
centers, high school poetry/drama clubs…
Idea Brain Storm