Moving Customer Feedback

It's great when we hear good things about the products we bring to America. Even better when the customers who like them go to great lengths to tell others about their finds. Today, one of our customers let us know that he'd made a special YouTube video of how to use the Owon PDS5022S oscilloscope we sell, with a nice recommendation for Saelig at the end. Take a look:

http://www.afrotechmods.com/groovy/oscilloscope_tutorial/oscilloscope_tutorial.htm

Unrelated benefits

Dave Wilson, Editor of ElectronicsTalk (UK - www.electronicstalk.com) wrote an article about using unrelated events for marketing purposes:

"A UK Managing Director was unhappy about the recent slowdown in sales at his company, so he decided to do something rather radical about it. As an avid TV viewer, he had recently become aware of the phenomenal success of the Scottish singer Susan Boyle on a British talent show. He heard that after appearing on the show, her video on Youtube had been viewed over one hundred million times. In fact, her career from a church volunteer to a worldwide superstar appeared to be going from strength to strength. She was an internet sensation and the Managing Director decided to take advantage of the fact.

So, days after the show aired, he sat down at his trusty PC and wrote his own blog comments about the performance.

The result was that Internet traffic to the site of the electronics manufacturer is now booming. Of course, not everyone is looking to buy some of his products, but some of them are.

All thanks and praise then to Susan Boyle, Britain's Got Talent, and welcome to the brave new world of the Internet.

I don't know about you, but I can feel a song coming on....

But wait - there's more!

Our suppliers often have additional products that we haven't had the opportunity to make available to our customer base, but one came across my path that I thought was worth importing. With the switch to digital TV upon us, I have searched long and hard for a reasonably-priced small TV for my kitchen, where there is no cable outlet. One that I could also take with me on trips. I found one of our Far East suppliers had exactly that; and no-one else here seems to have anything as good economically. AT-70T is a 7" portable LCD Digital TV (yes - digital!) that gives me (and now you) the ability to enjoy my favorite television programs anywhere, anytime - home or away - great for my kitchen where there's no cable access (or - sshhh - on my desk at work!) This handy little portable TV has a bright 7-inch LCD screen with a built-in ATSC/NTSC tuner with detachable antenna, giving crisp reception of publically-broadcast digital and analog channels – so it's fine either before and after the digital-to-analog switch in June 2009. It features a built-in twin speaker system - or I can plug my headphones into the audio jack and watch news or sports without disturbing those around me. The rechargeable Li-polymer battery offers up to 2.5-hours of life between charges -- enough time to watch an entire movie or several episodes of a favorite show without a recharge. It includes an AC power adapter, a car adapter and a remote control. Only $129.00 More at www.saelig.com

ESC 2009 San Jose

It was good to meet many existing and new customers on the WIZnet stand at ESC 2009 in San Jose last week. We also assisted on Byte Paradigm’s stand (another of our suppliers). Lots of people took advantage of our freshly minted “$100” gifts – we gave out mints wrapped in miniature $100 bill wrappers – part of our stimulus package! Let me know if you’d like one sent to you!

As WIZnet’s USA distributor, we provide our customers with excellent pre- and post-sales support for their hard-wired TCP/IP ICs, but for all the ESC passers-by who did not have network needs, we handed our brochure describing all of the other unique products we sell, ranging from test equipment, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and components. All of our offerings have to pass our rigorous criteria filters to enter our portfolio – and WIZnet products certainly meet our standards!

WIZnet is a unique, fully hard-wired Internet connectivity solution provider. WIZnet core technology – TCP/IP Offload (TOP) – is a market-proven, stable IC , in use by leading companies around the world. It suits applications with low-cost microcontrollers, where you want to eliminate any connectivity headaches, while offering optimum network performance. You can even network-enable OS-less devices!

Doing the impossible

Sometimes we need to think differently about the challenges we face. And we needn't be intimidated by the enormity of them. As an example, take a look at this amazing video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0

Now what was that problem you faced??

The poultry industry's secret ingredient

The March 16th edition of FORTUNE Magazine has a suggestion for coping with the recession:

"Sanderson Farms had to make a crucial decision last year about corn feed, one of the poultry seller's major costs. Chairman and CEO Joe Sanderson looked at several metrics, then had "a big prayer meeting" about whether or not to lock in feed prices, which had then skyrocketed to $8 a bushel.

Sanderson decided not to lock in prices - and now corn is $3.50 a bushel.

That decision, along with a $300 million credit line the Laurel, Miss.-based company took out last May, helped it avoid the fate of its more secular competitor, Pilgrim's Pride, which filed for Chapter 11 last fall.

Fittingly, Sanderson (SAFM) president and COO Lampkin Butts opened the company's annual meeting in February with a prayer, a long-standing tradition. "Thank you, Father, for this company and the many lives affected by the operations of Sanderson Farms," he said.

Of course, Sanderson is also running a good business - but it's not the only faith-filled poultry purveyor doing well. Chick-fil-A, a chain known to many a Southerner as "God's chicken" because it's closed on Sundays, reported that "God has blessed our results," in the words of President Dan Cathy.

Same-store sales for 2008 rose 4.6%, and the chain grew by 83 stores, including one in New Jersey, where many of the chain's disciples camped out all night before it opened. The camp-out is a tradition for all Chick-fil-A openings - Cathy typically camps with them, too - and the first hundred in line get all the chicken-biscuit sandwiches they can eat for a year. Turns out it's good to have religious customers, too."

Maybe a recipe for success .........

Make a Referral ...

Did you know that "Make a Referral Week 2009" is March 9-13? This is an attempt by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing to make a dent in this recession by encouraging small business owners to help each other.

Details at http://cts.vresp.com/c/?DuctTapeMarketing/a08acad9f3/4f887459b5/25fe77f214
- and it sounds like a good idea. Maybe there are folks in your office park whose business you could encourage. Or your local store on your way to work ...

Let us know if, as a Saelig customer, you have a product we can recommend and refer others to. In turn, if you would be so kind as to refer others to our products (http://www.saelig.com/miva/merchant.mvc) we'd be most grateful!