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OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS . . . AND UNDER THE SEA New Company Dives Into Greeting Card Market, with a Scuba Diving Santa Claus!

By Anonymous

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Beth Hurley
Home Town Greetings By Hurley
1422 Great Oak Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
1-800-606-8839
http://www.hometowngreetings.com/
beth.hurley@hometowngreetings.com

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS . . . AND UNDER THE SEA
New Company Dives Into Greeting Card Market


PITTSBURGH, PA – A new company is diving to new depths to break into the holiday greeting card market.
   
Home Town Greetings By Hurley, a family start-up from Pittsburgh, is channeling its collective love for scuba diving into a new holiday greeting card business. The company has created a series of cards that features “ScubaClaus™” – Santa Claus submerged underwater in scuba diving gear. The cards will be available for Christmas 2002. Home Town Greetings is expecting to expand into other greeting card categories in the future.

Beth Hurley, President and Creative Director, first conceived the idea for Christmas cards with a scuba diving Santa Claus while talking with some fellow diving diehards.

“Many dive shop owners send their customers a traditional Christmas card as a way to thank them for their patronage throughout the year, but I thought it would be fun to receive a special card just for divers,” Hurley said. “And the more I talked to other divers about it, the more I found they thought it was a great idea. I also discovered that very few diving specific cards exist; I found none that utilize photography.”

Hurley solicited opinions from divers across the country and found that a significant demand existed for such a unique greeting card. So after establishing a target market of dive shops and individual divers, Hurley set out to create the images for the cards.

After a photo shoot on Grand Cayman Island, she returned with the images that would comprise Home Town Greetings’ product. The photos depict Santa Claus, with full scuba gear strapped to his red suit, diving around colorful corals and fish in picturesque blue water. The company has created seven different versions of the cards, each with a different photo of ScubaClaus™ spreading holiday cheer.

Home Town Greetings is a family affair made up of Hurley’s brothers and sisters: Kathi is Vice President and Creative Director; Bill is Chief Financial Officer, Jim and his wife, Lucy, and Mary Anne and her husband, Allen, are General Partners. Hurley’s friend, Ian Phillips, a scuba instructor who currently lives in Germany, took on the challenge of modeling as ScubaClaus, while Dave Read, a scuba instructor from Austin, Texas, proved to be a very patient photographer.

“We think divers will enjoy these truly unique holiday cards,” Hurley said. “It’s something special that divers can send each other and share with their families and friends.”

In addition to direct marketing, Home Town Greetings will sell cards via its Web site, www.hometowngreetings.com. Interested parties also can purchase Home Town Greetings cards by calling 1-800-606-8839.



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Bodyguards, Health Consultants Help Stressed-Out Professionals Take A Break At The Caribbean’s Premier Spa Adventure Resorts

By Anonymous

Long before guests arrive at The BodyHoliday, the exclusive spa at the four-star LeSPORT destination resort on the island of St. Lucia, they have already scheduled their daily program of yoga, scuba, skiing, forest hiking, and massage therapy over the Internet with the resort’s ‘BodyHoliday Specialist.’

“Our ‘BodyGuards’ don’t carry guns,” laughs Kevin Snaggs, The BodyHoliday, LeSPORT’s House and Administrative Leader. “We call them BodyGuards because they are staff specialists that look after our guests’ bodies, their health and well being. We are the only resort in the Caribbean that combines the pleasures of a full-service beach resort with the benefits of an active spa vacation. When guests come to The BodyHoliday at LeSPORT, most have already planned their daily activities and treatments through our Web site so they can begin their vacation immediately.” European readers of Condé Nast Traveller recently named SunSwept Resorts’ BodyHoliday the Number One Destination Spa in the world and one of the 100 Best Of The Best in Travel. The BodyHoliday is one of three SunSwept Resorts spa properties that include LaSource in Grenada and the couples-only Rendezvous resort, on the island of St. Lucia in the Blue Caribbean

SunSwept’s three properties are not simply hotels, but true resorts with over 750 employees that focus on the guest experience. SunSwept’s clients are mostly professionals who want to de-stress in a dynamic recreational setting offering a variety of unique activities and comforts in exotic surroundings. “Our guests come here to be pampered,” said Snaggs. “They are experienced travelers who value and can afford exceptional service; we offer them a personalized vacation. The first thing guests do when they arrive at The BodyHoliday is meet with a BodyGuard who is already familiar with their activity schedule. I conduct a manager’s meeting each morning where we discuss arriving guests’ activities and expectations. We print out guests’ schedules four days before their arrival in preparation for their visit. We use NORTHWIND’s Maestro enterprise resort system at all three of our properties to manage our guests’ experiences. The Maestro system enhances our focus on service because it links our guests’ activity schedules, spa treatment program appointments, guest history, and amenity requests all on the guest’s record, forever. The new technology has made it easier for our staff to ensure guests are receiving the services they expect, which is mission critical. SunSwept evaluated many systems and we installed Maestro because it is by far the strongest in guest management, guest service, and spa scheduling.”

The Oasis, the BodyHoliday’s spa, is a luxurious state-of-the-art wellness center staffed by trained professionals who use the newest health technology to help guests achieve their well- being goals. “Our ‘BodyGuards’ consult with guests early in their stay, and conduct a ‘body stat’ analysis that measures muscle mass, fat mass, water requirements, and other physiological indicators; then they work with the guest throughout their stay to recommend activities and treatments to achieve those goals. If weight loss is their goal, our BodyGuards might suggest the guest have stretching treatments, take tennis lessons, join a group aerobic class, or simply kayak and scuba dive. SunSwept Resorts collaborated in the development of the comprehensive Maestro Spa System, which we use for all guest activity planning and treatment scheduling. Our wide range of activities and schedules, and the caliber of our guests, require a system tied to all the property’s other systems and guest records so guest preferences are known before hand. We have world-class standards, and the Maestro Spa system module handles them very well.”


To drive better guest communication with its resorts, The BodyHoliday launched a new interactive Web site that allows guests to communicate with the property for personalized pre-arrival service. The site also features an on-line reservation-booking engine that enables resort managers to control special packages and rate plans. The BodyHoliday’s food and beverage leader, Andrew Barnard explained, “The Internet is how many of our guests want to book their reservations, and our new site gives them that ability. We installed NORTHWIND’s ResEze Web booking engine that links directly to our Maestro property management system so availability is always current. The site uses Maestro’s yield management system to ensure our rates are maximized, and it lets us look into the future to see slow periods and openings, and offer specials during those dates. When occupancy comes up, the system automatically cuts off the special rates and sells only higher priced packages. The ResEze booking engine works so well we will be directing travel agents to book their clients’ vacations on our Web site to reduce GDS booking fees.”





Many of SunSwept’s managers take spa treatments and attend fitness classes alongside guests. Snaggs said, “Our guests arrive as strangers, experience all we can provide them, and go home as friends. Since 25 percent of SunSwept’s winter clients are return guests, it is critical that every member of our staff be familiar with our guests, so we wanted the best CRM technology we could buy. The CRM functionality of NORTHWIND’s Maestro system, how it tracks guest preferences and past stay information, is the best we evaluated; as soon as it was installed it became an asset to our operation.”


To deliver the three SunSwept Resorts systems as efficiently as possible, NORTHWIND pre-configured all applications at their corporate offices, then flew the software and a team of installers to the Caribbean to train the resort user teams, and install the systems one after the other at each of the properties in only six weeks. “SunSwept set up an installation group to assist NORTHWIND in the islands, and their project management team was superb; all our data was in the systems on schedule, ready to go live when training was completed. The system has proven very stable and, on a remote island, stability is key,” said Snaggs.

“We are hoteliers first and foremost. At SunSwept we measure all decisions against two questions: Will it benefit the guest, and, is there an ROI? The Maestro systems measure up in both areas,” Snaggs concluded.

About SunSwept Resorts
European readers of Condé Nast Traveller recently named SunSwept Resorts’ (www.sunsweptresorts.com) The BodyHoliday at LeSPORT the Number One Destination Spa in the world and one of the 100 Best Of The Best in Travel. As flattering as that may be, guests say it is more than a spa. SunSwept’s, LeSPORT, home of the BodyHoliday, is a lot more fun than a dedicated spa, and combines the appeal of a four-star resort with a unique combination of pursuits that go beyond the narrow confines of a pure health orientation. The BodyHoliday at LeSPORT, as well as SunSwept Resorts’ LaSource, and Rendezvous impose nothing on guests. It’s about a guest’s choice of pleasure in the here and now and how far they want to go to acquire the kinds of benefits that last a lot longer than a nice tan.

About NORTHWIND
NORTHWIND (www.maestropms.com), known in the hospitality industry for its service and state-of-the-art technology, is widely respected for providing hotels, guests, and corporate management companies with flexible software solutions.

Based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with a network of dealers and offices worldwide, NORTHWIND is a leading supplier of software for hotel owners and operators who need to manage their enterprise in a real time environment for maximum operational control and profitability. Designed to handle any size hotel, resort, meeting/conference center, multi-property and for the enterprise, NORTHWIND's Maestro solution offers the most productive working environment, which includes the following suite of products: PMS, Sales & Catering, Club/Spa Management, Corporate Reservations Office, Multi-Property Management, Condo/Owner Management, Yield Management, GDS Connectivity and ResEze (Internet Reservations). This comprehensive multi-platform (Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP, Unix/Linux, Terminal Server & Web Enabled) suite is recognized as the solution of choice for progressive and demanding organizations. NORTHWIND is a total solution provider that offers leading-edge technologies, and unparalleled training and support. NORTHWIND will be demonstrating its systems at the HITEC Show in New Orleans, LA - June 24th-26th, 2003 at Booth #520.

CONTACT: Northwind Eleonora Di Blasi, Sales & Marketing Specialist 905-940-1923 x-229



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How To Sell Anything To Your Prospect List On The Internet

By Eo Lim

Do you like fishing?

I'm going to tell you a fisherman's secret.

Every time a fisherman went to a secluded river or uncharted sea, he knew what kind of bait to throw in. If he wasn't familiar with the hunting ground, he always did scuba diving first. He also used underwater camera to survey the deep waters. The objective was to find out which bait the fish bite.

As a result, he got the specific fish that he wanted. There was rarely crab, shellfish, squid or other species in the net. This helped to keep the balance of Mother Nature.

My friend, this is the jealously guarded secret of the wealthiest fishermen. They don't throw in dragnet carelessly. They obey the law of fishery industry by catching the right ones.

What is the moral of story?

Sending sales letters to your prospects aimlessly is virtually the same as giving unsolicited junk mails! No doubt it is legally moral. But, most prospects hate these.

What should you do?

You must obey the law of proper direct mailing. Don't play the number game. Never waste your resource in this myth. A huge database of prospects doesn't mean you get lots of sales.

Some businesspeople may disagree to this. They argue that prospects are given a chance to remove their names from the mailing list.

But, why waste your time and money? Don't throw these leads away. Instead, you should sort out your prospects according to their needs.

There's a surefire way to do it. And, it won't cost you extra dime. However, it is hard work. You must spend most of your time sorting and splitting your list.

There's no trick in it. You just need to squeeze every single dime out from your prospects.

How?

You should conduct frequent survey to your prospects. I don't mean simple survey with multiple choice answers. Such survey rarely gets honest replies from your prospects unless you've very close relationship with them. That doesn't happen in real life.

Your goal is to find the specific prospects who will buy one specific product from you.

The only way is by using hidden survey technique.

Let me give you an example.

Imagine you've a list of car owners.

As we know, there're many different needs of car owners. Some have engine problems, bad tires, steering problem etc. Inexperience drivers may even want to know how to prevent or handle road accident.

Their problems are your opportunities to sell them the solutions. The business potential is unlimited.

Let say you spot one problem car owners may encounter.

Next, prepare a series of articles in auto responder for each problem.

In these articles, write up solution to the problem. Don't just write a sales message. You should provide good content that makes you look like a savior to your prospects' problem. Give them exactly what they need. Then, they will give you what you need in exchange.

At the end of the series of articles, provide a recommendation to products that solve their problem. That will be your goldmine.

When you've done with all articles, load up into your auto responder.

Now, you're ready to get into the most important part.

Your most important goal here is to ask them to get solution for their problem through auto responder.

Don't show the benefits of your solution. Instead, tell them a story showing the frustration of having this problem. If prospect genuinely has the need for a solution, she'll unknowingly get trap into auto responder deeper and deeper.

Does it work? Yes!

Remember a time when you read an article that made you say this "Ah Ha! That's how you do that". How would you feel towards the author?

Did you even end up buying something from that author?

I know your answer is yes.

Can you see now?

The article hides your intention to close sales. When a prospect wants more information in the auto responder, you hook her in the mood to buy from you. She'll follow your lead consistently in order to know how to solve her specific problem. She'll listen to your suggestion to buy.

This is the vital use of auto responder as hidden survey. It seems that many people don't realize this technique.

The fun part is that your auto responder system does all the sorting and splitting of your main list without lifting your fingers. Imagine you've 10 solutions to 10 problems. You'll have 10 tireless machines promoting 10 products and closing sales for you even on Sunday.

Another advantage is that you could even test out whether your prospects want to buy unrelated products.

For examples,

Some car owners may have bad smell on the seats. Can you sell expensive perfume to them?

Would car owners have mood to decorate their cars for festive seasons?

How do you know people will buy?

Throw in some surveys. Create the fear of loss mentality to your prospects. If the need hits straight into their heads, they'll follow your cloaked sales messages in your auto responder. You'll have no problem selling to them.

By now you should be able to see the benefits of using this technique.

This is how you sell anything to your prospects. No more wild goose chase. No more pushing your sales pitch wildly.

About the Author

Eo Lim has helped many businesspeople succeed online using the revolutionary P.E.R.F.E.C.T. writing formula. Visit his site to find out how you can get a free consultation: http://www.EoLim.com

This article courtesy of http://www.scubaequipmentstore.com/.
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your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author
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