Guest Editor: Rex Solomon of Houston Jewelry

Recession: Time to Increase Market Share

by Rex Solomon

Most business experts would agree that a recession is the perfect time to expand and increase market share. Of course, that is counterintuitive, as most people’s instincts are to cut back on operations and marketing. We tried the opposite and found that the business experts are right.

In December 2008, our store was up 23.56 percent over December 2007. Our overall sales for calendar year 2008 were down 1 percent but the decrease is due entirely to the effects of Hurricane Ike in Houston. We were closed for almost two weeks and had a month of reconstruction while only operating at a quarter speed.

After November 19, when we finished our reconstruction, through December 2008, we increased our marketing budget by about 15 percent and hired staff to increase from six full and part-time salespeople to 10 full and part-time salespeople.

The increase in sales infrastructure allowed us to be able to more effectively close sales when the traffic peaked during the crush periods. We also increased our periods of operations by staying open later. In order to draw attention to the fact that we were open in the evenings we used search lights and theatrical lighting to draw attention from the street. This is the first year in 15 years at this location that we have had traffic and sales in the evenings when we have stayed open late.

In addition to increasing our sales staff, we split the cost of decorating our shopping center with Christmas lights, which the landlord was not willing to pay for, with the other anchor in the center. The rest of the tenants did not want to chip in, but they benefited as well from the increased attention that a festively decorated shopping center created.

We have also entered into strategic alliances with some key suppliers who have stocked the store with far more product than we would ever want or need to carry. As a result the consumer has found an extremely large selection of product, including hundreds of loose diamonds from 1/4 to 7 carats. When someone wants to see a 1-1/4 carat pear shape diamond and you are able to immediately show them six or seven diamonds, and then if you can get more into the store in a matter of an hour or the next day, that shows the consumer that you are a serious player in loose diamonds.

To increase the impact of our advertising, we created a synchronized marketing plan around a theme and used that theme in all our customer communications, from our web site and print ads to our grass roots marketing on Facebook and YouTube.

In fact, the real secret of our success, not only this year but the last three holiday seasons, may be the viral videos we created with our “Team Santa.” You can see them on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Houston-TX/Houston-Jewelry/24161053263. We’ve been using our Santa Team for the last three seasons with tremendous results. This year, to combat the recession, I doubled the size of our Santa Team and started them earlier than in previous years.

Our general manager, Janet Schoppe, spent a significant amount of time finding Santas, as many of these guys are not the most reliable, and coordinating a signage campaign that tied into our pediment signage that was changed daily, which was then coordinated with our print campaign. She then in the late afternoon would put on a suit, too, and gather the Santas out by the pediment sign and get them to cheer and wave at cars, that evolved into a ritual 5:00 p.m. can-can line of dancing Santas on Westheimer. Cars would pull over into the parking lot and just watch the crazy people from Houston Jewelry. Parents began to bring their kids, and get pictures taken with the Santas. We continued to spread the good cheer, and it kept coming back to us. In fact, it still is, and January 2009 has been great!

Treat people fairly and they will reward you with their patronage. This philosophy is rooted in the oldest remaining ad for our family business, which was in the Houston City Directory in 1866. We just received the “Texas Treasure” award from the Texas Historical Commission, presented to a business that has been around more than 50 years and has contributed to the economic health of Texas for generations.

I plan to continue to invest in my five-generation business to make the future as bright as the past.

Rex Solomon
Houston Jewelry, Houston, Texas

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