Okayama Maruzen: Genki Teleshopping!

Had a great workshop and superpack signing in the Okayama Maruzen today.Β  Thank you to everyone who came and of course everyone who bought Superpacks!

Many of you were with me in turning down the Italain Terrorist role last week, but I really do need to find a way to get the word out more about Genki English to the average person on the street.

How does this help you?

Well because with the business model at the moment you guys (very kindly!) buy the Teacher’s Sets onceΒ and then dont to pay anything else if you don’t want.Β Β  I don’t really want to go down the franchise or license model, as this current one works out cool for everyone. But it also means we’re dependant on always getting new people buying the products if we want to pay for developing new things.

Today would have been a great chance to get even more people turned on to Genki English if I had been on the first floor of the store, but the management won’t allow it because they’re not teachers and hence don’t know about Genki English.Β  A sort of Catch 22!Β Β  Even when they see the freak sales increase, they don’t realise where it comes from!

It’s the same with teleshopping, I’m sure we could sell a ton of superpacks on there, which would then bring in lots more revenue for new projects (did someone say cartoon versions of the picture books?) but they won’t have me on until GE is better known amongst the average person on the street.
So….Β  how do we do it?Β  And how do you think you could help get the word out there?Β  I’m sure with all your talents and connections we could make everyone turn on to GE. Just imagine what cool stuff we could make then!

P.S. very cool new video coming tomorrow!

Richard Graham

Hello, I'm Richard Graham. When I was a kid I found school to be sooooo boring... So I transformed my way of teaching. I listened to what the kids were really wanting to say and taught it in ways they really wanted to learn. The results were magical. Now I help teachers just like you teach amazing lessons and double your incomes!

12 Responses to “Okayama Maruzen: Genki Teleshopping!”

  1. Carol

    Hi Richard,

    How did you set up your promo? Was the store management aware of the sales potential? Did you have any figures to show them how well GE does?

    Now that it is over, can you talk to the manager/director of the store where you were and get the sales figures? (If yo ucan show that it brings in the money, sotres will be more agreeable to do more!) DO you know how many people came up to the 4th floor even so? WHat kind of signs or invitations/incentives did you have on the first floor to attract people upstairs? It sounds like even though GE is successful with teachers, you need to bring more parents on board. What about in the pre-event ‘advertising’ you invite kids to come like libraries do for storytime to have a lesson? it must be then during hours the kids can come… Have a poster size Baby Monkey that invites kids to come play in English with him/her…
    You could also see about installing computers for kids to play on.

    What is the Japanese equivalent of FNAC? Ask them to install GE on the demo computers…

    I’m sure there are other ideas, this is just off the top of my head…

  2. Julian-k

    Maybe you could try busking? ;D

    On a more serious note though, i’ve always wondered – why do i never see GE in bookshops?

  3. richard

    @Carol: Those are all great ideas, unfortunately most of them are too time inefficient. To reach a large populous it would take ages, at least judging by previous experience! This is the real problem as I’m spending more time doing more productive things abroad, I don’t have as much time for PR work in Japan.

    @Juian-K & Carol: It’s because we’re an independant publisher. We don’t have the sales staff and “hospitality budget” to take out the bookstore management to golf games and drinking parties every month. If we did invest the money we don’t have enough “repeat purchase” products to make it work out. Hence GE materials get pushed to the back into “yousho” foreign books instead of the English section! Hence something other than bookstores is probably what we need, I think…

  4. Julian-k

    Wow, I never knew it was so much hassle to get stuff into the bookshops. I almost never look in them for teach materials anymore anyway though. I found that invariably what I was looking for just wasn’t there, and what was didn’t cut it.

    Maybe established (or establishing!) schools is your best bet? Some kind of poster to go in the window, or offers available to parents of kids who attend the school? Of course I think the homework project will help with that, and you already have the student CD’s. What if you had some kind of incentive to get teachers to β€œsell” those a little more? Not that you don’t offer more than enough incentive to help out with everything you put up on this page anyway though!

  5. richard

    Julian- K wrote:”Maybe established (or establishing!) schools is your best bet?”

    Yep ,that might be the best option!

    “What if you had some kind of incentive to get teachers to β€œsell” those a little more?”

    That would be the holy grail as it were, from a financial, marketing and most importantly educational standpoint.

    What extra incentives would you all need to be able to sell the student CDs or online homework to all your students? I’m open to any and all ideas!

  6. KobeKid

    get Koyuki-san to sing “Hello how are you?” in her next Bravia (Panasonic) commercial!

  7. Margit

    I always in a while gather orders from my private students to get the 15 CDs for the student pack. The reaction from all mothers is:
    If there are not going to be enough orders it is too expensive for me, but for 1980 Yen I’ll join.

    Do you sell lots of CDs for the original price? If not it might be worth a try to sell them for the students pack price even if it’s a single order.

    I think for private lessons it’s best to work through the teachers. This year I’ve told my students to buy at least one CD with the next order, and it was no problem. I noticed that in Japan you have to say:”this is what we need, so please join and get it” and nobody will doubt or hesitate. Whereas if my offer is less forward and “I leave it up to you”, half of the people won’t get it.

    Elementary school in most cases can get the set for the school, but they can’t tell the kids/families to buy some. They are having a hard time to get the money for Kyushoku and PTA together.

    I think if we try to involve elementary schools more , at this point that might close all doors.
    I want to show them first how good GE is, and have them know they better forget to Use the Note as teaching material.

    Maybe there not enough ALTs knowing about GE? The ones I’ve asked, didn’t…

    Anyway, what I did this year is, I have recommended the site for summer vacation homework . Gave them the links to free sites of GEgames and picture books, that we’ve covered.
    There is always a hand out n of Computer work for vacation , so it will be added in there.
    so maybe to make it more catchy, you could change the Japanese site, (home), a bit, ??!

    One more (maybe crazy idea) I had the other day was: How about doing some cooperation work with Baskin Robins? When teaching the favorit flavour song I went and get their pamphlet for each kids, and everybody was so excited, that I thought: Oh my god, what a promotional lesson..?!

  8. Yumiko

    I agree with Margit. If we try to involve elementary schools more , at this point that might close all doors.

    I managed to open the door two years ago. I got approval to sell CDs at school from parents at the general PTA meeting two years ago. Classroom teachers distributed Student Pack CD order forms to all the kids. Last year, we did the same without any problems.

    But this year, new head teacher came and he started to say it’s no good. I had to explain from scratch why I started to take orders from parents; the effect of listening to Genki English CDs everyday at home and the parents’ approval.

    I had a talk with the head teacher on this matter yesterday, and at last I got permission from school. But I’m so tired, and my head and stomach ache today.

    To involve elementary schools is really a tough job.
    Each time head teachers change, their policy change too.
    I’m sorry, I don’t sound genki today.

  9. richard

    Yeah, if we’re talking about improving education it has to be outside the public school system. Just like in other countries the system isn’t set up to educate kids for the 21st century, the private sector is the way to go. You should see tomorrow’s blog post!

  10. richard

    @Margit: We used to sell lots of CDs the regular price, but now just about everyone buys the packs as they are much cheaper. The CDs wouldn’t pay for themselves though if we sold them individually at the price, hence the 15 minimum and selling them through teachers.

    How would you like me to change the Japanese homepage?

  11. gumby

    Richard, where do you consider your best market? Internationally or in certain countries? If you are targeting the private sector with eikaiwas and the like I can see how more marketing on the various ELT listserves etc will help. If you are targeting the public schools, right now can be prime time. However you would have to market to the school boards or Kochokais. With Eigo Note out now, schools are hesitant to act alone. Or are you talking about marketing to parents and students?

  12. richard

    Good questions Gumby! Internationally I’m quite happy with because education is treated a lot more seriously there so GE naturally gets promoted.

    It’s Japan I’m thinking about at the moment, because it’s basically my country now having spent 10 years doing this here. Whilst all help is much appreciated in primary schools, we seem to have that quite under control at the moment.

    It’s the private sector that I need to break more into, not eikaiwa but your average person on the street. This is where the revolution will come from!

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