Comments on: Brand Marketing Channel Business Budgeting Strategy Misfortune : Porters of Racine

By: spondylolisthesis

spondylolisthesis — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:59:00 +0000

Thank you for sharing this case study. In SEO if you dont do keyword research correctly. All your efforts are of no use. I know several people who did same mistake. Its really hard to convince your client to target a broad keyword. I’ve one client who was into landscaping business he forced us to get his website ranked for the broad term landscaping, although he is getting good traffic but none of them are converting.

By: TopContent Marketing » Blog Archive » Content Strategie Ontwikkeling Voor Ondernemers

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:01:05 +0000

[...] en zoekwoorden hangen nauw met elkaar samen, zoals ook blijkt uit het verhaal van David Dalka. Hij vertelt over de meubelzaak Porters of Racine in de buurt van Milwaukee die begin 2010, na 153 jaar, [...]

By: Effective Search Marketing Strategy Determines Fate of Organizations | gpkendall.com

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:42:22 +0000

[...] of Racine search marketing strategy issues raced through my mind, I sat down and wrote “Brand Marketing Channel Business Budgeting Strategy Misfortune: Porters of Racine.” I asserted, backed by extensive keyword research, my strong belief that Porters [...]

By: Tia

Tia — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:37:20 +0000

The one takeback that I think is essential is what you said about the other furniture store ranking for broader, more relevant terms. Everyone is always focused on just seeing their site come up at the top of search results, no matter what the term is.

It’s so crucial to do keyword research.

Great post.

Tia

By: Business Budgeting – Three Important Tips to Keep in Mind | Complete Online Information

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:54:03 +0000

[...] Brand Marketing Channel Business Budgeting Strategy Misfortune … – Porters of Racine was founded in 1857 providing furniture of distinction well before Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States. My understanding of the history is that fine furniture was brought into port of Racine, Wiscon… [...]

By: Rafael Montilla

Rafael Montilla — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:13:28 +0000

Great post, David. I have been doing SEO work, for the furniture industry, for the past three years. In my opinion, furniture stores on the Internet represent a rapidly developing niche. In essence, this is where the customers are. As you’ve said, “Effective search rankings can contribute to business success or business failure.” I began SEO work for KMPfurniture.com in late 2007. Back then, it was just a budding online furniture store with a small warehouse. When they started ranking on the two first positions in Google results (for highly competitive keywords like “Modern Furniture”), the cash flow significantly increased. As a result, they were able to open a 14,000 sq. ft. store, here, in Miami.
In 2010, I moved on to Modani.com (another furniture store). They also had a small 2,000 sq. ft. store, here, in Miami. Since then, they’ve been able to open two new stores in New York and Los Angeles, while building a second store in Miami. The growth rate is phenomenal, thanks to their successful Internet marketing through professional SEO assistance. Older, established businesses will also need to look to the Internet, if they want to maintain good business volume. But they need to realize that it’s going to take more than just having a website. Obviously, even if you have an expensive site, if it isn’t ranking in the top 20 in search engine results, it may as well not even exist!

By: Mark K

Mark K — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:50:44 +0000

Thanks for making such a compelling case study for the need for SEO. Too bad they didn’t hire you. Sad to see such an iconic retailer fall by the wayside.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:43:12 +0000

You highlight a problem that is more common that it should be. I agree, if C level executives can understand the impact that can be made with a relatively easy online marketing strategy, I think there are some business failures that could be averted. Thanks for the detail.

By: SEM Sensei

SEM Sensei — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:20:14 +0000

Bookmark this story as a classic cautionary tale. I see numerous examples every day of such head-in-the-sand business management from even large, successful companies who could and should be increasing their market share and revenue, but are unaware that their web strategy is hurting their business.

I also see a lot of instances of poor or even nonexistent web analytics, with key marketing decisions made using guesswork or intuition. My response is always “if you haven’t looked at the stats, then you don’t really know.” It’s amazing how many managers simply don’t understand that simple concept.

SEM Sensei.

By: David Dalka

David Dalka — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:20:08 +0000

Totally agree with you, though that’s a little too much detail for a high level business audience. The point of the post is to quantify the complete and total loss of exposure due to a lack of an effective search marketing strategy and that this can contribute to business failure. The majority of c-level executives currently do not understand the opportunity discussed here.

By: Deadhedge

Deadhedge — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:16:26 +0000

This is a good start but I would like to see you take your funnel a little further to give a more complete picture. You made the case for a potential 10,000 impressions/month with good seo.

How many click through’s would result (leads), how many calls or store visits, and how many purchases?
If there was a 10% lead conversion (1000 leads), 33% calls or store visits (333) and 25% purchased (84). Throw in cost/lead and $ purchased and you would have a very compelling story.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:39:16 +0000

This is really sad news and to think that they missed the chance of getting big sales just because they didn’t know how to use keywords. There is a great lesson to be learned here. Thanks for sharing.

By: Think Tank Live! Addresses Web Marketing Trends — TECH cocktail

Think Tank Live! Addresses Web Marketing Trends — TECH cocktail — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:23:51 +0000

[...] Potential for Periodic to Become Real Time Management of Marketing Channels and Related Budgets – To outperform your industry peers companies must make continuous, customer driven, incremental changes while performing competitive intelligence. Back when I was at BlackRock during the 80 to 800 employee hyper-growth phase, this was a critical driver to our success. The alternative is to not navigate necessary marketing channel changes, which can lead to business failure which was recently discussed in “Brand Marketing Channel Business Budgeting Strategy Misfortune : Porters of Racine.” [...]

By: It’s Marketing Channels AND The Economy Stupid!!! | Think Tank Live

It’s Marketing Channels AND The Economy Stupid!!! | Think Tank Live — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:20:46 +0000

[...] other day I wrote a post, Brand Marketing Channel Business Budgeting Strategy Misfortune : Porters of Racine about a tale of two furniture related companies Porters of Racine and Weber Furniture Service, a [...]

By: David Dalka

David Dalka — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:59:26 +0000

Hi Pam – I look forward to your post with a different case study. I’m sure that people in that legacy industry space who haven’t adapted their ways to the Internet business revolution will say the same thing because they don’t want to change either.

Porters was chosen because the opportunity size is clear cut based on the keyword volume and it is clearly a factor in it’s lack of floor traffic and awareness.

Your point about Porters always being known about the region for their excellent reputation as a retailer of fine furniture also needs clarification. My informal research showed 100% recall in senior citizens and older baby boomers in Chicago. However, there was virtually no awareness of Porters among Gen X or Gen Y. Like zero.

The simple fact is that according to previous articles Porters was having troubles long before the current economic downturn. The problem was awareness and floor traffic among those with relevancy. Lack of an appropriate marketing channel shift is clearly a major cause in their demise.

As for the interior design angle, the Internet is consistently removing middlemen from transactions. All I can say is this, if interior designers loved Porters and if they are so important to the equation, we wouldn’t be having this conversation about Porters closing.

By: Pam Silverman

Pam Silverman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:51:15 +0000

I think your points are well taken, but you might have selected a better case study. Porters has always been know throughout the region for their excellent reputation as a retailer of fine furniture. Most consumers purchase this type of furniture through their interior designer and most of these folks have an ongoing relationship with a designer. They aren’t usually looking for a single piece of furniture on their own. They don’t search for a furniture store online. Porter’s demise is likely due to stronger forces at work that lack of Internet marketing.

By: Jim Sterne

Jim Sterne — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Case studies on failed businesses – now there’s a new twist. Humans have a wonderful capacity to learn from other’s mistakes. Thanks for finding a real-life, bad expample and comparing it to successes. Love to see more.

By: Randy Pickard

Randy Pickard — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:53:33 +0000

David,

Thanks for making such a compelling case study for the need for SEO. Too bad they didn’t hire you. Sad to see such an iconic retailer fall by the wayside.

Randy

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:54:48 +0000

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