Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO, Sets The Record Straight

A few years ago, when Meg Whitman began expanding eBay internationally, many questioned her strategy. In fact, more than a few thought eBay was a uniquely American concept—that it worked only in an optimistic culture and that people really had to trust each other.

Whitman was convinced otherwise, saying “the urge to trade is human nature.” Today Germany is the best eBay franchise worldwide with per capita annual trading volume the highest in the world—more than $100 for every German man, woman, and child.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.

China Working On Huge Oil & Natural Gas Exchange With Iran

Today, China burns coal for most of its power needs and imports 40% of its crude. However, under a memorandum of understanding just signed with Iran, China will secure oil and natural gas valued at tens-of-billions of dollars.

The deal sees China’s Sinopec Group developing Iran’s Yadavaran oil field in exchange for agreeing to buy 10 million tons of Iranian liquefied natural gas annually for 25 years.

Japan Worked On Similar Exchange Earlier This Year

Japan signed a $3 billion deal that gave Tokyo the right to develop Iran’s massive Azadegan oil field in exchange for oil. Japanese officials said they had little choice in doing the exchange given their country’s heavy reliance on energy imports.

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From the BarterNews Archives...

Part 3: How To Use Radio To Increase Company Sales

Call-in commercials can be terrific. . .

If you have a relationship with a local radio station and you can get them to allow you to “call your commercial in” and have an ad lib discussion with the personality/disk jockey, you can get great results.

If you and the host hit it off, you can become a regular character on his show. Listeners will automatically perk up their attention when they hear the lead in:

Announcer: Well, it’s time to talk to old Joe at the Bargain Barn and find out what kinda do-dad or whirly-gig he has come up with as the value of the day. What have you got this time? I hope it’s not another square wheeled bicycle.

Old Joe: No, that was a one of a kind. Seriously, today we have a fruit dryer that you can use to dry all kinds of fruits.

Announcer: What if I don’t know any wet fruits.

Old Joe: This allows you to slice and dry peaches, pears, and apples so you can save them as long as you want. Just think how good they’ll taste in your lunch box...and it’s good for the kids to snack on.

Announcer: How big is it?

Old Joe: I’d say it’s about four feet high...etc.

The conversation tone of the call sets the potential customer at ease, and the description will cause the listener to visualize what you are talking about. (The same thing works for restaurants regarding lunch specials, and in many other applications as well.)

Ad Lib Fact Sheet. . .

If your station has live personalities, try to talk the station into letting you give the announcers fact sheets so they can ad lib your commercial in conversation manner. This makes the commercial sound like a personal endorsement, and every commercial will be different.

Try to get the announcer to drop by your place of business. If you run a restaurant, insist they come by and have lunch or dinner. If you have a video store, give them a free pass so they can review videos as part of your commercial.

Sometimes you will have to pay a premium, but don’t gripe. The spots usually run longer than you paid for and the impact is tremendous. Be prepared for some of the spots to go sour, and don’t be afraid of getting kidded a little. The technique works. (Remember Arthur Godfrey?)

Once I worked at a station where every commercial was live and 95% were fact sheet spots. Most of the time we were told to “kid around” with the sponsor a little bit, such as: Those chili dogs are so sloppy you have to eat them in the bath tub, but are they good! Or, I can’t figure out what that laundry does with the buttons on my shirt...they always keep one as a souvenir...but that Ethel and Bob at Cleanway Cleaners are such nice folks, and the prices are so low, I don’t care what they do with my buttons.

That station had nearly every business in town. Listeners were always going into an establishment and saying...”Did you hear what they said about you on that crazy station?”

Image Campaigns. . .

For the past few years I have been privileged to write and voice-in commercials for a major drug store chain. Before I wrote a word of copy, I went to a couple of locations and talked with customers and employees to get a handle on the typical customers and how they viewed the store. We learned that price was not the motivation that brought people to the store.

We found that among the primary concerns were a no-hassle refund policy, short check-out lines, and selection.

I was allowed to create “heart sell” commercials, which talked about the company’s roots as a corner drug store that opened the same year Judy Garland first sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and Ty Cobb said farewell to baseball.

The president of the company approved a commercial which described him burning the company policy manual and replacing 1400 rules with the statement, “Use common sense and good judgment, and treat people the way you would like to be treated yourself.” (This literally became the standard of operating the business.)

We also found out that one concern of people with young children was that there were no public rest rooms. The president of this Fortune 500 Company allowed me to go on the radio and say, “...and if the occasion arises you can even use the employee rest rooms.” (How basic can you get?)

The advertising was geared to distance the chain, in the mind of the customer, from the mass merchandisers. We even said, “We were nearly caught up in the mass merchandising syndrome, like the others, but we have vowed to get back to the basics”...etc.

To that end about one third of the radio advertising was geared to the company’s own employees! This campaign paid excellent dividends in long term business increases and improved perception by the public and the chains own employees.

(To be continued next week...)

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Barter Fairs & Holiday Expo's. . .

November:

Continental Trade Exchange (Milwaukee, WI) Holiday Expo will be held Saturday, November 6 at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex, 6000 W. Ryan Road, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call (262) 780-3640.

BXI Ventura-Santa Barbara & BXI West Valley have scheduled their Holiday Trade Fair on Sunday, November 7 at the Oxnard Courtyard by Marriott, 600 East Esplanade Drive, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (805) 376-9466 or (818) 758-2929.

American Commerce Exchange (ACX) will hold their Annual Trade Fair on Sunday, November 7 at the Glendale Community Center, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (323) 259-2340.

Continental Trade Exchange (Modesto, CA) Holiday Expo will be held Sunday, November 7 at the Modesto Centre Plaza, 1000 L Street, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information call (209) 543-9229.

BXI Inland Valley Fair will take place Sunday, November 14 at the Elks Lodge in West Covina, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (909) 592-7727.

Continental Trade Exchange (Columbus, OH) Holiday Expo is scheduled for Tuesday, November 16 at The Hoop, 4185 E. 5th Avenue, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information call (740) 201-0201.

Continental Trade Exchange (Pleasanton, CA) Holiday Expo will take place Saturday, November 20 at the Crown Plaza Suites Hotel, 11950 Dublin Canyon Rd., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information call (925) 516-5600.

BXI Nevada Holiday Trade Fair will be held Sunday, November 21 at the Speakeasy Convention Center, 200 E. 6th Street in Reno, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. For more information e-mail linda@bxinevada.com or phone (755) 829-2990.

December:

New England Trade will hold their 8th Annual Barter Expo on Wednesday, December 1 at the Danversport Yacht Club at 6:00 p.m. For more information call (781) 388-9200.

The Barter Company’s Annual Trade Show will be held on Saturday, December 4 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta from 12 noon to 5 p.m.. Over 36,000 sq. feet will be dedicated to the trade show. For more information call (770) 591-4343.

The oldest and largest BXI fair is the Orange County Holiday Fair at the Costa Mesa Orange County Fairgrounds in Bldg. 10 (same location for 24 years). Scheduled for Sunday, December 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (714) 847-5477.

Continental Trade Exchange (Santa Rosa, CA) Holiday Expo will take place Sunday, December 5 at Santa Rosa Veterans’ Memorial Building, 1351 Maple Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (707) 585-7722.

Trade Atlanta, Premier Barter, and Barter For Less are cooperatively staging a Holiday Festival on Tuesday, December 7 in Gwinnett, Georgia, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call (678) 793-9463.

TradeAmericanCard 2004 Barter & Business Expo on Sunday, December 12 at The Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Avenue, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information call (714) 532-1610.

BXI Northern California/Nevada’s Holiday Trade Fair will be held on Sunday, December 12 at the Clarion Hotel at the San Jose Airport, 12 noon to 4 p.m. For more information e-mail ron@bxinorcal.com or phone (650) 592-2929.

BXI Southern Arizona’s Tradefair is scheduled for December 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (520) 325-2929.

(Barter companies: Send your holiday trade fair information to: bmeyer@barternews.com.)

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

Here & There...

• The world’s largest alternative currency is frequent-flier miles. Over 10 trillion are now in existence, valued at 2-cents each, for a $200 billion private currency. It’s a currency used in various ways by many different companies and industries. Noteworthy is the fact that major corporations routinely pay cash to acquire this alternative currency because of its perceived (greater) value in the marketplace.

  The most recent example of such a purchase was American Express fronting $500 million to financially strapped Delta Airlines, to purchase SkyMiles points. American Express will use the miles as incentive give-aways for their customers.
  

• Jacqui Macy, President of TeleTrade International, announced the company had a 141% increase in transactional volume for its three online service centers: eValues.net, thebanc.com and intercambialo.cc. Total combined transactional volume for the first three quarters of the year totaled $51,151,789. (Last year’s totals were $36,214,674 for the same time frame.)

  Macy also reported that TeleTrade saw a 194% increase in activity on eValue.net—TeleTrade’s site for independent trade exchanges—on a total volume of $31,257,736 for the first three-quarters of 2004. For more information go to: www.eValues.net.
  

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!
  

• Look who’s making a comeback... Over the past decade, membership in the Direct Selling Association has jumped 89%, to 227 companies hawking everything from tools and golf clubs to legal services and utilities. U.S. direct sales reached $30 billion last year, close to 1% of all U.S. sales.
  

• ARTrade (www.artrade.ca) based in Hamilton, Ontario, has been busy promoting its high quality art to the barter industry. Brian Owen, president of ARTrade, attended the annual conventions this past September of both NATE and IRTA. His latest move is to form a strategic alliance with Bentley Commerce promoting their art reproductions on Bentley’s hospitality exchange (www.hospitalityexchange.vbarter.com) which has some 200 resorts, hotels, motels, and B&B’s as members.

  • With stock prices sagging many online investors are making fewer trades, while others have stopped trading altogether. Just 5.9% of U.S. households will trade online this year, according to Forrester Research, down from 7.2% in 2000. To boost trades discount brokers are busy bartering with their clients, providing various incentives including golf and ski promotions to win back or retain their business.

  • The Internet’s “big three” (eBay, Google, Yahoo) are showing surprising earnings and it now is obvious that not only has the Internet changed everyone’s lives, but it has finally arrived as a profit engine. And the potential is dramatic, given that internet advertising still accounts for roughly $5 billion of the $500 billion world-wide advertising market.