In this instalment of his monthly column, “Diary of an SME Owner”, Michael Taggart continues to tell all about the highs and lows of relaunching and running a tea company, MDTea, alongside his wife, Helen. 

This month, Michael gets hooked on a new tea, lands a big client and wears out some shoe leather on a day of face-to-face sales. 

February 3rd 

Part of the joy of running a tea company is getting high on your own supply. So enamoured have I become with one of our Japanese senchas, I’ve consumed far more of it than we’ve sold.

It’s a variety called ‘gyokuro’ and is grown in the shade, making its leaves thirst for light. As a result, those little guys pile on the chlorophyll, like a weightlifter loading on carbs, the better to grease the cogs of photosynthesis in their twilight world.  

The result is a vivid green leaf (‘gyokuro’ is Japanese for ‘jade dew’) and an exquisite seaweedy taste. And there’s more – this magic brew seems to have seen off my lifelong need for midmorning snacks (I did not choose tight trousers; they chose me), making it much easier to swerve Greggs on my regular trips to the Post Office. 
 
The icing on the cake? We’re buying our gyokuro for only £14 per kilo, softening the commercial hit my habit inflicts on MDTea. Therefore, anyone hoping to catch this diarist in a good mood, should seek me at 9.30 on weekday mornings. That’s when I have my gyokuro in hand. 

February 7th 

Up here in the rarefied air of the management suite, Helen and I have always divided our roles so that she is in charge of ‘product’, while I direct MDTea’s sales and marketing efforts. So Helen and I have responsibility for devising, respectively, product innovations and client acquisition strategies that can be tested down there on the factory floor (yes, that’s also us). 

Accordingly, I’ve come up with the idea of abandoning our phones and laptops for a day and doing some face-to-face sales. As any musician knows, there’s only so much you can learn from jamming in a garage. If you want to improve your technique and learn what your fans love, you gotta hit the road. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re going on tour. 

While we’ve had reasonable success so far in prospecting with emails, calls, and online marketing, we’re changing tack for a day. To be precise, we’re going to a neighbouring town, Eastbourne, to drop off samples of tea. We want to see if we can catch senior managers and owners of hotels and entertainment venues at a good moment and charm them in person. The date we’ve set is February 28th, giving ourselves three weeks to contact prospects ahead of time so they’re already warm when we arrive. 

February 12th 

Woop! Pop open the corks, dance the jig, ring the New Client Bell and feel free to generally act like a dick for a few minutes! As I’m sure I’ve said before, there’s a gargantuan hunk of luck behind business success but you still have to ride it.

Which is exactly what Helen did when she called the catering manager of a major new tourist venue that’s opening fully in spring – an art deco lido with various restaurants and airstreams.

It turned out she’d caught him at the perfect moment and within hours, and a bit of negotiation, we had secured the business. They’re a famous venue here on the south coast and should be a fabulous client.  

February 17th 

Business leaders say there’s “smart wrong” and “stupid wrong”. An example of the former might be to make a considered decision to ignore a consumer trend, thinking it won’t catch on, only for your competitors to make a prolonged profit from that same trend.

Stupid wrong, on the other hand, might be failing to understand features of your own products. Turns out the gyokuro I’ve been selfishly quaffing is costing us £140 per kilo, not the £14 per kilo described above. I read it wrong. It also turns out that any fool would know that gyokuro is expensive.

That’s why Helen does product and I do sales & marketing.

We are at the frosty peak of Mount Stupid here, having vacated the balmy shores of Smart Bay a long, long time ago. My dreams have unravelled, like cheap twine.  

February 28nd 

To Eastbourne for our day of sales! We put Brighton in the wing mirrors of our VW campervan at 8am, giving us time to call in at our new client’s venue on the way to drop off their first order.

We ended up meeting the entire serving team and delivered an impromptu training session in a sparkling new commercial kitchen. My god, it was beautiful! And the enthusiasm in the room was even more impressive.

I’ve been a marketeer in local authority services, finance and tech and it’s liberating finally to be selling a product that people are genuinely interested in – that they can touch, taste and sniff. My cup runneth over!  

By midday, we were in Eastbourne hoping to ride more luck. Predictably, we hadn’t done the pre-contacting phase of Operation Tea On Tour. So no-one knew we were coming. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans, etc. No matter! 

Over three hours, we spoke to nine managers and owners and dropped off as many sample boxes. Everyone we spoke to was friendly and interested and I’d say we have at least three very good leads to follow up.  

I wrote earlier this month (and have long believed) that the road to business success is paved with luck – but is there even such a destination as ‘success’? People who believe it lies at the end of a business journey often find that, when they get there, they’re in a Potemkin village of possessions and property they never really wanted. 

Maybe success is like a walk to the horizon – you never get there. I prefer a third idea: that if you travel with a smile and a song, the success begins as soon as you set out. Helen and I are building something together and that’s the destination; we’re already there.  

At one moment today, we were in the rain-lashed VW, doing silly voices and laughing about the pleasant absurdity of our day and, in fact, of our lives. Fate may laugh at our schemes – but the striving together is its own reward.  

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The most depressing day of the year has arrived and dear readers I’m sad to report that its today.

For those who don’t know, a methodology supposedly developed by Dr Cliff Arnall back in 2004, deemed the third Monday in January as the day on the year we are most likely to feel down in the dumps.

In 2024 that makes the 15^th January ‘Blue Monday.’

Dr Arnall considered several factors to arrive at this conclusion. His hypothesis included the average temperatures at this time of year, the number of days since most of us had a payday, the time we must wait until the next bank holiday, the average hours of daylight and the number of nights in the month.

By crunching these numbers, you seemingly have formula that supports why so many people find January, and this particular Monday, such a slog. But one crucial data point is missing.

It’s a data point that probably has a greater bearing on why Dr Arnall drew these conclusions in the first place. That is – why was Dr Arnall was trying to calculate the most depressing day of the year in the first place?

Alas, dear reader, Dr Arnall was not engaged in this (questionable) calculation to help humanity better understand issues around mental health or to offer any other psychological, sociological or scientific purposes.

He was supporting a PR campaign by travel company Sky Travel to try and get us to consider booking a holiday to cheer ourselves up.

I know, shocking.

Actually, it isn’t shocking at all. As a veteran comms professional, I have not only used ‘awareness days’ to draw attention to issues that my client may have a solution or product for, but I have also looked on in grudging admiration when others have developed similar stories to make a point.

Blue Monday: PR spin or meaningful reminder? MRM’s Chris Tuite chats to Mouthy Money editor Edmund Greaves to dig into the truth behind the marketing – listen to the podcast now

A taxi firm that took test tube samples of all the nasty germs that exist on London Underground trains and tried to get us to forego tube travel as a result is one such example of a creative approach I begrudgingly admired.

There is no doubt that peddling pseudo-scientific calculations as fact could be dangerous. Discussing issues such as people’s mental health or creating unnecessary germ related scares on transport networks are not to be taken lightly if they are taken completely seriously.

However, I think that the public deserve more credit, as do the journalists that are the gatekeepers to these stories in the medias. We know that in all likelihood travelling on the tube isn’t going to give us E. Coli and most consumers are savvy enough to know a holiday firm sponsoring research about our health and well-being should be taken with a heavy pinch of salt despite their being grains of truth in what they say.

That said though, it’s interesting that Blue Monday in particular has stood the test of time. Whilst scientifically unsound, I think Cliff Arnall may have been on to something.

For many people this point in January can feel tough and if nothing else the Blue Monday phenomena has sparked numerous conversations and elicited impassioned responses in a debate that has lasted even longer than the company the concept was created to promote.

In short it speaks to a mood that you do hear around the water coolers or on your Zoom calls at this time of year. It’s not a ridiculous premise, far from it.

It should be remembered that other organisations have used that premise for more laudable reasons too. It has helped the likes of The Samaritans to start better informed conversations about serious issues like mental health.

Even in the process of debunking Blue Monday they have referenced it to get important information out into the world with campaigns such as #BrewMonday.

Mouthy Money readers are no fools. You will know the tactics used by companies to get your attention and its worth repeating your attention is very valuable.

Provided firms broadly stick to their knitting, don’t mis-sell and don’t start making bold pronouncements on issues they aren’t qualified to talk about then I think finding ways to engage in self-referential conversations with savvy consumers is harmless enough.

They aren’t telling you how to feel, they are finding ways to start a conversation with you. Feel free to ignore them or book yourself a holiday if you want one!

Photo Credits: Pexels

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Have you ever gone into a store for a specific item and come out with a basket-full?

Do you head off to the supermarket armed with your shopping list but end up impulse buying loads of stuff you hadn’t planned to purchase?

Yes, it happens to the best of us. There are a ton of marketing tricks retailers use to make you spend more money. 

Being aware of clever marketing ploys is half the battle to beating them. Knowledge is power, and understanding how retailers use psychology in their bid to get our money is the key to helping us resist and spend our hard-earned cash more mindfully.

Let’s have a look at some retail tricks and how to get wise to them.

Clever store layouts

Have you ever got lost in an Ikea store? You are lead around in a particular direction, taking you all around the shop. Even if you are initially heading for a certain product you can’t help but see as many other products as possible on your journey.

Your senses are overloaded by beautiful room layouts so you can imagine the furniture and furnishings in your own home, as well as bargain bins full of low-priced items and piles of tempting products you suddenly feel you need. It is hard to resist! 

Ikea, like other retailers, has fully embraced a marketing concept known as the Gruen Transfer. Stores are laid out to take you in a particular direction, keep you there as long as possible and, therefore, encourage you to spend more.

Another trick retailers use is to change their layout to expose customers to different items on their journey to locate the toilet paper and toothpaste that they actually need. I find this really irritating when I just want to whizz around and do the weekly shop.

Sensory enticements are also part of the in-store experience designed to make you spend. Pleasant smells of food cooking, items to taste, perfumes and cosmetics to test can all entice you to splash the cash.

Premium products at eye level

Premium products are generally placed at eye level on the shelves in supermarkets. Own and value brands are usually on the bottom shelves, or high up. Savvy shoppers will make the effort to find them, though!

BOGOFs, special offers and bundle deals

BOGOFs or BTGOF (buy one get one free or buy two get one free) deals are placed so you can’t miss them. They generally consist of higher-priced branded products.

Before you give into temptation, ask yourself if you really need two or three of the same product. And does it work out cheaper than buying the same quantity of the retailer’s own brand?

I tend to be sceptical about any type of special offer; they are almost always pushing more expensive premium brands that don’t necessarily offer the best value. 

Watch out for the end-of-aisle deals too; they are full of perfect impulse purchases. Not to mention the treats by the tills to tempt you as you queue.

Bundle deals are another trick retailers use to get us to buy more. You go to buy a phone and it is offered as a bundle with earbuds, for example, so you end up spending more than you intended.

RRP scams

RRP – Recommended Retail Price – is pretty meaningless when you think about it. The manufacturer is not likely to recommend a price to best suit the consumer, after all. 

I am convinced these are artificially inflated in some cases so that retailers can offer the item much cheaper, making you think you have a huge bargain. You might, for example, see a shelf price of 50% less than the RRP, which looks like a great buy, but it’s always best to shop around and do some research before rushing to purchase.

Price matching

Since the advent of discount supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl, the bigger supermarkets have started to price match the low prices offered by their cheaper rivals.

However, although they may offer price matching on a small selection, don’t forget that most of their prices will still be higher, so you are likely to pay more for a family shop. 

For example, Sainsbury’s is currently boasting that they have 150 products matched to Aldi prices. However, this only applies in larger stores and 150 is a very small percentage of products when you consider the thousands of items they stock.

Simple pricing 

Sofa manufacturers are masters of the simple pricing strategy, paring down a large figure so that it sounds small. For example, they will advertise a product at 559, rather than £559.00, as it sounds cheaper. It’s still almost 600 big ones, folks!

Adding a sense of urgency

Another marketing trick that retailers use is to create the illusion of scarcity. An online listing may tell you that there is only one item left to make you rush to buy it. 

Limited edition runs also create a sense of urgency. If you don’t buy it now, you might miss out, and we all suffer from FOMO from time to time.

Reductions for a limited time can lead to impulse purchases too and aren’t necessarily good value. This is especially true of Black Friday sales. The consumer organisation Which? found that in 2022 98% of so-called deals were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.

Celebrity and ‘expert’ endorsements

It’s easy to be swayed into a purchase by a celebrity endorsement. Remember, that celebrities are being paid to advertise products and may never even use them. 

Do we know for sure that Johnny Depp looks moodily into his mirror each morning as he applies his Sauvage aftershave or that Claudia Winkleman keeps her dandruff at bay with Head & Shoulders?

Recommendations by professionals such as dentists, doctors or vets can also be taken with a pinch of salt. 

Introductory offers

Store assistants will often try to encourage you to sign up to store cards with an introductory offer or money off. It may be tempting to save 10 or 20% on your purchase, but be aware that interest rates on store cards are usually around 25-30%. The product will actually cost you more if you don’t pay the balance quickly. 

You are also usually offered a discount when you sign up for online newsletters. If you take advantage, make sure you unsubscribe immediately. Otherwise, you are likely to be deluged with offers, and do you really need that temptation in your inbox? 

Conclusion

These are just some of the marketing tricks retailers use to make you spend more. They have many others! Once you begin to get wise to them, you will begin to discover what really constitutes a bargain and what is just hype. 

Photo Credits: Pexels

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