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Meltzer Media Productions’ Jeff Meltzer jams out with Lockard & Wechsler Direct’s Dick Wechsler. Jeff and Dick will be performing live along with other industry musicians during ERA’s Opening Reception at the D2C Convention in Las Vegas. For more information on the D2C Convention, click here!
ERA’s Public Relations Committee Chairman Jeff Meltzer interviewed on CNBC.
The Electronic Retailing Association is proud to announce that for the first time ever, its own members will perform as a rock band during the 2009 ERA D2C Opening Reception Sunday, September 13, outside on the pool deck of the Paris Hotel from 6:00 -7:30 p.m. All performers in the D2C Live Stage will have their names and pictures printed in ads promoting the event in Electronic Retailer magazine, on the ERA website, as well as separate ERA e-mail blasts. This will be a “pay for play†event that will require each performer to help sponsor this event. (Sponsorship contributions will be determined by ability to pay and the amount you play.)
What Kind of Talent Are We Looking For?
•   Guitar Players
•   Bass Players
•   Drummers
•   Keyboard Players
•   Singers
•   Horn (sax, trumpet, etc.)
•   Percussionists (wood block, maracas, tambourine, etc.)
Guitar and Bass players will be required to bring their instruments. A drum set, keyboards, amps, etc. will be rented for this event.
PLEASE NOTE: We will be playing very simple blues and pop progression songs so there’s no need to worry about being good enough to play. Everyone has full-time day jobs, after all! The chosen players can submit song choices that they’d like to perform or, choose from a list of approved songs. Once accepted as a band member, each player will be provided sheet music (notation, tablature, chords and words). There will be one rehearsal on Sunday prior to the Opening Reception. Please contact Jeff Meltzer at jeffmeltzer@earthlink.net or (212) 868-4600 no later than July 7th, so we can start practicing now!
In what has to be a first, the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) was mentioned in a blissful wedding ceremony this past Saturday night as ERA’s 2008 Volunteer of the Year, Jeff Meltzer wed Barbara Kaufman at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall. During the ceremony, the reverend noted that the night of last year’s ERA awards gala, amid the hoopla of Jeff’s perfect night, he proposed to Barbara. As this accompanying photo attests, for at least one DRTV practitioner par excellence, “Wait! There really is more!” And to think, it didn’t even take three easy payments to make Barbara this radiant— just a simple dose of the Monsieur Meltzer magic!
Rick Petry is a freelance writer who specializes in direct marketing. He can be reached at rick.petry@me.com.
The ERA Minute is a new feature where ERA members can film marketing tips that will be distributed throughout all of ERA’s channels and social networking outlets. If you’re interested in making the next ERA Minute, contact Tom Quash at tquash@retailing.org.
Fellow electronic retailers, direct marketers, distributors, inventors, entrepreneurs, brick-and-mortar retailers and, last but now not least, online retailers: People of all selling platitudes lend me your ears and your wisdom. Let me share something that I have noticed happening over the past year. It has to do with the way consumers are buying the stuff that we sell. It has everything to do with the way we “tell†or “convince†them to buy something. I know what I’m saying is true, because it has been backed up with research results I have received from focus groups that have seen two variations using different selling methods of a campaign I created.
OK, enough suspense. Here’s the observation: Since the beginning of the modern day infomercial, consumers have been yelled at, told what to buy and forced to act quickly to get a great deal. Well folks, for the most part, the suspense and excitement of missing out on something extraordinary is wearing off. However, it’s not wearing off because the products aren’t great or the offer isn’t enticing. The motivation to buy is not wearing off because of a lack of trust, market saturation or boredom either. The number one reason why consumers are not buying now is because they do not like being told what to do! The intent to buy has never been stronger. Consumers are smarter than ever and are more educated. They’re not as gullible as they used to be. What I have found is that consumers are more than willing to buy your product and even replace the same categorical products they already own if you can convince them that your product is better; not tell them that it is. It’s so very subtle. Anybody else see this happening?
Jeff Meltzer, president of Meltzer Media Production
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