#110 Blog Post – Thursday, October 1, 2020
Posted by Denny Hatch
Roaring New Business—Amidst Covid-19—Created
In Just Six Weeks by Neophyte Direct Marketer!
Robert Amar, Founder and Proprietor of SmallWorldSeafood.com
One day in late March our friend Marjory on the 29th floor alerted Peggy that a guy was selling superb seafood that we could order by email (or phone) and pick it up the next day across the street.
Really?
We signed on, ordered mussels and salmon on Thursday, picked up the order from the truck on Friday afternoon and had two marvelous meals:
• Mussels in white wine and garlic on Friday.
• Glorious grilled salmon on Sunday.
We quickly became regular customers.
A Business Built by Word-of-Mouth
Robert Amar spent 25 years in the restaurant business. As a former restaurateur and savvy entrepreneur, he had done everything—owned eateries and worked with fledgling and experienced restaurateurs on wine tasting programs, staffing, menus, kitchen design, recipes, writing ads—the works.
Four years ago he launched a thriving wholesale business selling the world’s freshest, finest seafood to top tier Philadelphia restaurants from his warehouse in the massive Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
As Robert tells it, his world—Small World Seafood—was turned topsy-turvy one day in early March. He had amassed a large inventory of fresh fish ordered by his clients who were expecting to feed the usual crowds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Suddenly the Coronavirus-19 catastrophe hit that Monday and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney ordered the closing of all restaurants, leaving Robert high and dry.
Not willing to simply throw out his stores of splendid seafood, Robert went to his block captain’s email list of Fairmount area neighbors and described his predicament.
His offer: Don’t let my wonderful fresh mussels, scallops and salmon go to waste. Take them FREE! He couldn’t deliver house-to-house, but his truck would be parked on the corner of Woodstock Street from 2:00 to 3:30 where they could pick up their free fish.
Robert not only got a bunch of takers, but also email requests and phone calls asking if they could buy other fish—say swordfish or shrimp. The available swordfish was not top quality that week, but he could get great shrimp, frozen cod and marvelous canned crabmeat from East Coast waters. Plus branzino from Greece. He got 28 customers for free fish; and a number of folks ordered other selections and paid online by credit card.
A Funny Thing Happened…
The following day the Amar truck arrived on time and the masked customers formed a (socially distanced) line to pick up their orders.
Andy Farrell presents an order from the truck.
Behind him is direct marketer Robert Amar.
Neighbors in the next block noticed the ado on Woodstock Street and beetled over to see what was going on. When they heard the story, they not only phoned and emailed orders for free fish, but also asked if they could tell their friends and family. Sure. Why not? One member of the crowd that day was Robert’s long-time buddy, Andy Farrell, who had just been laid off from the popular City Tap House which was suddenly out of business. The following week, with Andy helping, Amar had 150 orders.
The Word-of-Mouth Miracle.
Over the next few weeks people all over center city heard about the new service—absolutely fresh seafood available for pick-up right in their neighborhood. They tried it, loved it and not only became regulars but told their friends and family around town. In the next few weeks the email list expanded exponentially. Robert and Andy hit the jackpot when condo owners at the Philadelphian—the massive luxury building across from the Philadelphia Museum of art with 753 housing units—learned of the new business
A week later the customer base had expanded across town to our 44-story St. James Tower. Our friend Marjory told us and Peggy immediately emailed the residents on the building e-bulletin board.
Today Robert and Andy have an email list of 3,000 customers that generates roughly 300 orders a day.
How Robert Amar Created a Brand New
Direct-to-Consumer Business in 6 Weeks
In the world of marketing, a supplier of seafood to restaurants would be pigeon-holed as a b2b—business-to-business—operation. This means large orders of seafood delivered to relatively few high-rollers. Overnight Amar became b2c—busines-to-consumers—direct selling small orders to many individual households.
A Changed—and Far More Complex—Business Model
Here are the new elements:
• Big Customer List. As new orders came in, names, addresses, emails and telephone numbers must be recorded in a format for emailing offers.
• Preparation. Every family knows how to cook beef, bacon, chicken, hot dogs and ribs. Seafood is different. Early on Robert found many needed guidance on how to cook the many varieties of seafood. On his website is an extensive repertoire of world-class, easy-to-prepare recipes including YouTube links, so nothing is left to chance.
• Delivery. Obviously Robert can’t deliver orders to hundreds of individual households, apartments and condos. So his instructions for pick-up are absolutely precise and easy-to-understand.
DIRECT TO CONSUMER RITTENHOUSE/FITLER/WASHINGTON SQUARES FRIDAY PICK UPS-SIGN UP HERE
CRAZY TIMES CALL FOR CRAZY MEASURES. WE HAVE STARTED BRINGING SEAFOOD DIRECTLY TO YOU. WE HAVE A SIGN UP FORM BELOW FOR RITT/FITLER. WE EMAIL ORDER FORMS ONCE A WEEK ON THURSDAYS AT 9AM FOR PICK UPS ON FRIDAYS. THREE PICK UP LOCATIONS FROM 11AM TO 3PM INCLUDE AT THE CORNER OF TANEY ST AND PINE ST FROM 11AM TO 11:55AM, IN FRONT OF THE ETHICAL SOCIETY FROM 12PM TO 1:30PM AS WELL AS WASHINGTON SQUARE FROM 2PM-3PM. I CURATE THE SEAFOOD SELECTION TO BRING YOU THE FRESHEST THE SEA HAS TO OFFER.
• The Weekly Newsletter. I asked Robert if he had a professional copywriter. His response, “Nah. I do it all myself.” His copy is fun and upbeat—a delight to read.
After all, these are his kind of people. He has known them for 25 years—how they think and what they feel. They are literate—as is Robert Amar. He emphatically does not need a hired copywriter to talk to them!
(Dare I call them a-fish-cianados?)
A Dramatic Expansion!
Here's the October 13th Email.
Small World Seafood
Update – October 13, 2020
From: SMALL WORLD
SEAFOOD <smallworldseafood@gmail.com>
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!
• But what of this retail business? Quite simply Robert loves it! “I’m meeting and talking to all kinds of people,” he gushes. “I listen. They tell me what I’m doing right and doing wrong. In this business, you have to listen.”
• Small World Seafood is not scalable, according to Robert. He does not have infrastructure and staff to take it throughout America’s sixth largest city with its 5.7 million population spread out over 141.7 miles. He’s pretty much maxed out.
Don't lose your confidence if you slip,
Be grateful for a pleasant trip,
And pick yourself up,
Dust yourself off,
Start all over again.
###
Word Count: 2235
A great success story!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to pass this on to several of my friends who are struggling with the lockdown.
For me, this is a powerful "possibility idea"... I'm wondering how I might extrapolate to a non-product business. e.g. Information
AND... what such a business might look like at -40 C [F as well, I guess] and a huge snow storm.
Garry,
DeleteThanks for taking the time to comment. Great hearing from you.
Robert Amar basically stumbled into his happy situation. He got hints the moment he started offering free fish to neighbors. Said yes, no and maybe to myriad requests about his seafood. Replied to all comers.
Now let’s face it: he had a lot going for himself, starting with an active business. (1) Knowing the restaurant business cold. (2) Knowing the seafood world cold—where to find it, how to buy it, store it, how to get it into customers’ hands so fresh it “slept in the Atlantic last night” (or in the Mediterranean this past week-end). (3) He did what he had to do to keep potential customers happy. In doing so, now has a new business (actually a variation of his existing business).
Starting from scratch is something else. Basically you come up with an idea for a product, create a dry test (offer a product or service that does not exist and see if you get any response). The dry test is everything! Email marketing is a helluva lot cheaper than direct mail or off-the-page advertising. And you know your results a helluva lot quicker. Good hunting!
I was most impressed this merchant chats with and listens to his customers! This is the key to retail success. I learned this early on from older, savvy merchants at Sears back in our heyday.
ReplyDeleteYou get it, Reg! It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense, knowing the market, knowing how to delight customers and prospects. Jumping on opportunities. And working like hell. Do keep in touch!
DeleteDavid L. Amkraut sent me a long, very informative email regard this post and gave me the okay to share it with you. To David, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteTo readers, do be in touch. I'll do my best to answer every message.
NOW HERE IS DAVID'S FASCINATING COMMENT:
What a great and inspiring story! Simultaneously highlighting all sorts of things: the power of word of mouth and good customer service, the advantages of keeping a company local, the classic technique of recipe booklets as the first step in two-step marketing, the speed with which an ongoing business can change its business model, the power of “Free,” the fact that one need not be a “marketing expert” to succeed, and much more.
It rang a bell, reminding me of a famous predecessor, the Frank E Davis Fish Company, aka “the Gloucester Fisherman.” It was noted for its direct mail, written directly and in plain language from the Gloucester Fisherman , depicted in working garb of Sou’ester and etc., to the consumer. Its direct mail shows up as illustration in a number of direct marketing books and articles. The Gloucester Fisherman also used recipe booklets, a classic way of selling food.
Another success story was profiled years ago in Direct Marketing magazine with an interview by the founder. As I recall, it sold Louisiana seafood, and its main technique was a booklet of recipes.
In fact, one could say that the classic business model for many types of fresh food sales was recipe booklets, which have a greater perceived value than their trivial cost, and may be kept forever. Each time they are opened, there’s a chance of another sale.
A quick look online led me to this brief article, which includes a copy of one of the Gloucester Fisherman’s direct mail letters.
http://foodcompanycookbooks.blogspot.com/2009/03/gloucester-fisherman.html
Regards,
Your fan and reader
Andrew Holland gave me the okay to share his email to me about this posts. My thanks to Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI saw your blog post that Drayton Bird shared on Twitter.
It is one of the best posts on marketing I have read in a while, absolutely loved it and will be devouring your other content all weekend.
And what a guy, giving away his fish actually helped him to grow a business. I also loved his passionate email style too.
Anyway, the reason for the email is that I'd really appreciate a copy of your PDF marketing checklist.
I am sure it will help me on my copywriting and business journey.
Thanks in advance.
Andrew
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