Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Alliance hopes everyone has a very fun, spooky, and safe Halloween!

We hope everyone is safe after Hurricane Sandy, and to those who have been affected by the storm, our thoughts are with you. 

Gather some friends and family members this Halloween to play your favorite game.  Leave a comment below and let us know what you are playing, we’d love to hear about it!

(Source: Wizards.com)

(Source: Tanay Nestico via Catan Facebook)

Happy Halloween!

- Emily 

Unique Selling Propositions: Does your retail store have one?

If you haven’t heard of guerrilla marketing, you’re missing out on some awesome opportunities. The father of Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, has an excellent site and daily marketing tips that could really create some buzz around your retail store. This weekend Jay’s marketing tip was about unique selling proposition, or USP, founded by the advertising legend Rosser Reeves in 1961.

Here is Levinson’s take on USP's in order to grab the attention of customers, and keep it.

"A USP is a unique selling proposition. Your USP is your proprietary competitive edge stated in clear, concise terms. Every business must have one to succeed. But most businesses don't. Not surprisingly, most businesses fail. Your USP needs three traits to be effective:

1. It should make a specific promise to customers. Example: "Buy this product and you will get this clear benefit."

2. It should be one your competitors cannot or will not match. It must be unique. Your customers should not be able to get the benefit anywhere else.

3. It should be so strong that it can create a crowd of eager buyers. Ideally, only a lunatic would refuse to buy from you.

Reeves goes on to say that 80% of all ads do not have a USP. If you look through your local paper or Yellow Pages, I think you'll find this percentage may be even higher. Keep your ideal prospect in mind when creating your USP. There's a big difference between affluent customers and bargain hunters who look only at price. Which group do you want buying from you?"

The USP technique might be just what your retail store could use. Brainstorm some ideas, and implement the one that will generate the most hype and increase sales.  More detailed information about the USP technique can be found in this article by Levinson.

To learn more about Jay Conrad Levinson check out his Guerrilla Marketing website here.

Does your store have a tagline or a unique selling proposition worth sharing? If you do, we want to hear it. Please leave it in our comment sections below!

- Emily

Worldwide Catan Championship 2012

In mid-September, Alliance had the privilege to send a half-dozen retail stores to the Worldwide Catan Championship hosted in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.  Alliance held a contest through Game Trade Magazine earlier in the year; as a result, the lucky winners got an expenses-paid weekend vacation at the historical Normandy Farms. That’s not even the best part! They got to witness all of the excitement and action of the BEST Catan players in the WORLD.

The 2012 World’s Best Settlers of Catan Player went to Herbert Schager of Austria! He’s a Catan celebrity these days!

Check out these awesome insider images Alliance brought home from the championship. Enjoy!

-Emily

*Photos courtesy of Marc Aquino

For more images view Mayfair Games Facebook

New Website Feature: The Cool Stuff

If the new chat feature wasn't cool enough on its own…here are a couple more features that make our site top of the line.

Preorders – On the new webpage, customers are able to preview what products they have preordered along with the quantity. (As of October 2012: customers are not able to edit their preorders online, and should still contact their Sales Rep in regards to all preorders until notified otherwise.)

Searches – The search bars allow customers to search for any product in our database. Don’t you just get annoyed when you can’t remember the whole title of a product? Well, there is no need to fuss! The search bars are able to search by partial words. If “Zombie” is the only word you know in the title, put it in and see all titles that include “Zombie”.

Invoices – Customers can view past invoices online. Handy, right?

Employee Logins – Say the boss isn't in, and you need to add a few products to an order before you forget... Owners, or those who have administrative privileges, can add sub logins for employees. These sub logins are given limited access to the website. They are able to add products to “Potential Orders” for Owners to review, but are not able to place actual orders for billing.

Potential Orders – This gives the sub login employee the ability to add products needed in order for Owners and website administrators to review for purchase. Think of it as a “Wish List”.

Want to know about other specific features on our new website? Leave us a comment!

- Emily

New Website Feature: Want to Chat with your Alliance Sales Rep?

Have a question about your order or certain product? Don’t know your Sales Rep's email or phone number?

Don’t worry, the website has you covered! We've got great news, your Sales Representative is only a click away. Included on the new Alliance website is an interactive chat feature. Located in the top right corner of the site, you can view your personal Sales Reps contact information, and have the ability to chat with them online.

After your chat session is over, you have the ability to save what you discussed with your Sale Rep to review later or add to your records. The prompt will display as, “Thank you for chatting with us today. If you would like a transcript of this chat emailed to you, please enter your email address and click the Send button.”

Extra Highlighted Features:

Have a question for your Sales Rep after hours? Click the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page to send an email to your Sales Rep without even leaving the Alliance site! Customers can also use the built in email to contact Technical Support. Contact Support for help with technical issues, suggest web features you would like added to the site, and general feedback. Your feedback is important to us; with your collaboration we can make the website the gateway to your success!

- Troy

Hello there!

Welcome to the Alliance Game Distributors Blog! We are so excited to be using a blog interface to connect on a more direct level with our customers. Our goals for this site are to increase interaction with customers, while providing them with detailed product information and personal insight. We would like to include guest blog posts from big name manufacturers, and retail stores.

If you would like to submit a post, please email the Direct Marketing Representative, Emily Eickhoff at eme@alliance-games.com for review; subject title "Alliance Blog Submission".

We hope you enjoy our blog! Please feel free to leave any comments you might have!

- Mike Webb