Playing the Grants Game For Art and Preservation
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This article was prepared for the November 21, 2001 edition of
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Retailers Need All the Channels They Can Get
Christmas — the shopping event that begins before
Halloween — is upon us, and all eyes are on cash registers. Our
economy, indeed our entire way of life, we are told, hangs on the
degree to which shoppers get out there and snap up clothes, home
furnishings,
and electronic goodies in the coming weeks.
So buy we must. But among the questions consumers face is — where?
Retailers hang on the answer.
For as vital as mass year-end shopping may be to the economy at large,
it is life or death for individual retailers already confused about
where to put their resources. Another storefront? A better Internet
site? A catalog?
Bernadette Tiernan suggests that savvy retailers use all three
to lure shoppers to their wares. She wrote her new book, The Hybrid
Company, before September 11. Subsequent events only add urgency to
her prescription for achieving better results through multiple selling
channels.
“If people have fears in the channel that is your only channel,
what do you do?” she asks. Internet warnings about mall attacks
have scared away shoppers — even though they turned out to be
hoaxes. Anthrax fears are causing some to poke catalogs into the dust
bin with a long stick. And concern over credit card safety on the
Internet lingers.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Tiernan points out that many
potential
shoppers are exhausted this year. “With the downsizings, everyone
has more to do,” she comments. “Sometime you just feel like
lying around with a catalog.”
All of this means that retailers — now more than ever — need
all the selling channels they can get. Forget the debate about which
is better — an Internet site or a storefront. Businesses need
both, and they should have catalogs too.
Tiernan founded Tiernan Associates, a Ridgewood-based consultant firm
for small businesses, in 1986. Over the past 10 years, one of her
clients was the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers. In
January, she will become associate director of the state-wide SBDC
(www.yourbizpartner.com). She is now director of E-Business Education
for the SBDC at the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. She also
teaches Rutgers undergraduate courses in E-business.
In this excerpt from The Hybrid Company (Dearborn Trade Publishing,
$27), she explains what a hybrid company is and why its multiple
channels
provide stability in any sales environment:
The hybrid company. Hybrid, according to the Random HouseDictionary, describes anything derived from heterogeneous sourcesor composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds. Hybridcompanies are a synergistic combination of E-commerce, a physicalpresence (such as a storefront, a kiosk, or an open office), and someform of print (such as catalogs of all shapes, sizes, and quality).Corporations with a hybrid structure in both their physical form andtheir marketing endeavors have the highest profitability and longevityrates.Main Street lives. A bold Going Out of Business signcoveredthe storefront window of a boarded-up shop in a full-page New YorkTimes ad that accused E-commerce of the demise of community. “Whythis crusade against small business, while we subsidize trendy titansof E-commerce?” the ad questioned, addressing the tax moratoriumfor online sales.Can’t these poor dot-coms get a break? First, we unilaterally andcollectively blamed them for the demise of our retirement fundingwhen their stock values plummeted. Then they were accused of attackingAmerica’s heartland in an assault on human contact and theproliferationof a culture of isolation. Many of these dot-coms weren’t titans;some weren’t even trendy.Statistics failed to support prophesies of doom and destruction formalls and Main Street. In fact, for several consecutive holidayseasons,consumer sales figures soared exponentially for all of retail, onlineand offline. In addition, both business-to-business E-commerce andtraditional sales experienced dramatic growth. The predictedcannibalismof traditional sales venues by competitive dot-coms never occurred.If anything, the dot-coms influenced the extension of the holidayshopping season into one big bonanza of event after event. SeasonalDecember peaks were repeated in the first quarter for several years.Online merchant promotions of all holidays from Valentine’s DaythroughThanksgiving influenced sales in traditional stores too. No monthpassed without a hyped-up holiday, and both online and offline saleschannels benefited.Combined channels. Online “hot-coms” and offlinetraditional companies have realized a synergistic effect by leveraginga multiple-channel approach to their business. Aspiring to new IPOheights by adding “.com” to the corporate logo is no longerenough to inflate stock value. Our infatuation with dot-coms is over,and we’re back to a competition of survival of the fittest. Survivorsof the Internet community challenge include tribal members of theB2B (business-to-business) and the B2C (business-to-consumer) markets,all advancing toward their billion dollar prizes. A new breed ofhybridcompanies have emerged as the healthiest survivors.A hybrid company is a business that reaches its customers throughmultiple channels of clicks, bricks, and catalogs in a seamless,integratedentity. Hybrid companies assimilate E-commerce websites, a physicalpresence, and catalogs; each channel promotes and reinforces everyother channel. Although some hybrid companies can operate successfullywith two out of three channels, the E-commerce channel is imperativein every hybrid model.Options. Clicks. Bricks. Catalogs. The most profitablehybrid companies demonstrate a deliberate, step-by-step expansionfrom channel to channel, mastering one mode and rapidly expandingto additional channels. Two channels constitute a hybrid company;however, the most successful hybrid companies operate with all threechannels. Not two or three separate businesses under one name, buta unified front. Some may accomplish their mission by strategicalliancesof separate companies, but these alliances are invisible to customersor clients. Customers always see an integrated entity and alwaysassumethey are dealing with one company.Extinction. Incentives to move quickly to a hybrid companymodel are strong. Some experts predict that 80 percent of E-tailerswho do not partner with a traditional retail company face extinction.Retailers with a combination of physical stores, catalogs, and Websites tend to do more business than companies with just one channel,according to a study for the National Retail Federation (NRF).Cross-channelintegration provides a competitive advantage, according to this study.Online shoppers tend to cross-shop frequently. And online shoppinghas injected energy into shopping in general, building brand andcustomerloyalty in multiple channels. A report by Jupiter Communications (nowJupiter Media Metrix) revealed that multi-channel shoppers purchase30 percent more than those who use only one channel.B-to-B and B-to-C. Hybrid companies thrive in both thebusiness-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors. Thebusiness-to-businesspotential for hybrid companies is the most dramatic. Businesses areexpected to purchase almost 30 percent of their productselectronicallyby 2004, and transactions from E-marketplaces will produce nearly33 percent of the $2.78 trillion B2B E-commerce total, according tothe Yankee Group. Forrester Research predicts that E-marketplaceswill produce 53 percent of these transactions. The impact of theInternetis expected to generate more than $6 trillion in trade by 2005,accordingto Jupiter Communications.More channels, more spending. Consumer online spendingis expected to reach almost $184 billion by 2004, or about 7 percentof all retail sales, according to Forrester Research. JupiterCommunicationshas predicted that by 2005 consumers’ online research will resultin at least $632 billion in sales at traditional storefronts and fromcatalogs. Consumer spending for online and Web-influenced offlinepurchases, reflecting the momentum of hybrid companies, will exceed$831 billion in 2005, according to Jupiter.Traditional storefront and catalog retailers have taken the holidayonline shopping lead over Internet pure-play E-tailers for severalconsecutive years, by over 29 percent according to research byBizRate.com. The bricks channel, for example, has provided anadvantage inthe sale of more expensive items, like computers and home videoequipment,according to a study by San Francisco market research firm King, Brownand Partners.The appeal of physical shopping as a form of entertainment,socializing,and exercise has its own time and place, whether one is hunting fora personal or a business product. And the catalog convenience ofcirclingfavorite items, marking special pages by folding the corners,reviewingwish lists with kids or coworkers, browsing poolside or on a commuterbus, also serves its unique purpose.For regions without mall density, catalogs are more than a convenience— they’re a lifeline. Will either the store or catalog purchasingchannel be superseded by E-commerce? It no longer appears likely,and the prophets of gloom are quieting down. Whether buying businessequipment or vacation sportswear, the Internet presents a convenienttool for comparative shopping through price and product research,even if the final purchase is sometimes transacted at a company’sstorefront or through a catalog. The companies that take maximumadvantageof multi-channel selling and marketing stand to reap the greatestrewards, directing customers to their clicks, bricks, and catalogswhile offering specialty items at each venue to keep every componentfresh.Top Of PagePlaying the Grants Game For Art and PreservationNew Jersey’s Department of Cultural Affairs is holdinga free day-long event to describe the support that the state givesto artists, art groups, art educators, and those involved in historicrestorations. “On the Road — A Constituent OutreachProgram”takes place on Tuesday, November 27, beginning at 9 a.m. at theCollingswoodSenior Center. Call 609-292-4485.At the event the NJ Historical Commission describes its $4.7 millionannual grants program. Grants range in size from under $500 to over$600,000. and can be used to fund general operating support,exhibitions,public programs, fellowships, educational initiatives, conservationof historical materials, media projects, research, publication, andother activities.The NJ Historic Trust also has grant money available. It providesgrants of up to $750,000, loans up to $425,000, and planning grantsof up to $50,000 toward the preservation, restoration, rehabilitation,and adaptive use of historic buildings, structures, and landscapes.The New Jersey State Council on the Arts’ grants include program andproject grants, community collaboration grants, and artists’ servicegrants. Council representatives explain how to apply for these grants,and also speak on how to locate artists and arts groups for programs.Speaking to another resource, this constituent outreach programcontainsa presentation on using New Jersey’s public records and archives.This session introduces the rich holdings and history researchservicesof the New Jersey State Archives, and the public records technicalservices of the Division of Archives and Records Management.Other sessions on this Constituent Outreach Day include informationon volunteerism, youth and the arts, the New Jersey Museum, and theNew Jersey Commission on American Indian Affairs. The latter ensuresthat American Indian communities within New Jersey have fullopportunitiesto develop and preserve their own cultural, educational, social, andeconomic welfare as well as contributing to and participating in theongoing life and development of the state.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
