The AAPHI Blog

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an interim report to
Congress on its investigation into Midwest gas price increases
that was cited at the reasons that the FTC launched the
investigation. It also provides a status report on the
continuing investigation, including progress and a description
of the work not yet done. The report details the history of the
price spikes of reformulated gasoline (RFG) in the Midwestern
part of the country and how these increases caused Commission
staff to initiate a preliminary investigation in June and
prompted the Commission to begin a formal investigation during
the latter part of July.

The report analyzes many conditions reported as potential causes
of the gas price spikes -
ranging from higher than normal crude oil prices, to the
expectation of compliance with EPA Phase II regulations for
summer-blend reformulated gasoline in high-ozone urban areas, to
the damage to the critically important Explorer pipeline during
March. However, the report says that “although it is likely that
each of these supply factors contributed to the dramatic recent
price spikes in the Midwest, no single factor appears from
staff’s preliminary investigation to be likely to provide a full
explanation, and staff does not yet have sufficient information
to assess the impact of these factors in combination.”

In accordance with the report, Commission staff is investigating
“the possibility of collusion or tacit coordination, conduct
that could be illegal under Section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act.” Due to the abundance of potential interwoven
causes as well as the monstrous amount of evidential information
being collected for the course of the investigation, the report
also states that “this investigation is likely to consume, at a
minimum, another three or four months.”

The report shows that on June 29, Commission staff issued the
first round of subpoenas to the nine refiners that currently
supply the Midwestern markets and that within the month, staff
has accepted and logged approximately 200 boxes of
documentation. Around mid August, most documents requested from
the first round of subpoenas will be delivered to the Commission
offices. The Commission also issued a second round of subpoenas
to other refiners last week, and has issued Civil Investigative
Demands (CIDs) to the refiners recently, requesting that the
refiners compile data and answers to all of the Commissions
written questions. Commission staff issued another set of
subpoenas on July 25 to the entities that own or control the gas
transportation pipelines serving the Midwest markets of the
United States. Documents from that set of subpoenas are expected
to begin arriving shortly at Commission offices. The report
further details the Commission’s plan to conduct a series of in
depth interviews as part of the investigation. Staff has already
conducted nearly 15 interviews with market participants,
consumers, corporate consumers and many others with knowledge of
investigation relevant information, and continues the process of
capturing pertinent industry-wide data from the Oil Price
Information Service (OPIS). After the documentary evidence has
been reviewed and analyzed, staff will take depositions under
oath of key participating personnel throughout the gasoline
distribution chain in the Midwest United States.

Federal Trade Commission staff will also coordinate all of the
investigative efforts with the Attorney General of Michigan,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kentucky, South
Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, and West Virginia.

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Human beings share six tendencies that allow us to be persuaded.

None of us is immune to these tendencies, which is what makes them so useful to those of us who want to sell products over the Internet. These six tendencies are…

1. Scarcity
2. Authority
3. Reciprocation
4. Social validation
5. Friendship
6. Consistency

This article takes a brief look at each of these six tendencies, and discusses how to use them in your online business.

For a more in-depth discussion see Dr. Robert Cialdini’s brilliant book Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion.

Scarcity

We tend to want something more if it’s hard to get. This tendency harks back to a time when everything worth having (food, clothing, shelter) was in short supply.

Most people in the western world no longer have to struggle to provide food, clothing, and shelter so our focus has shifted toward luxury items. And our tendency to place value on scarce items has shifted with it. That’s why people are prepared to pay huge sums of money for the works of dead painters. After all, once an artist is dead there will be no new works.

You can take advantage of this tendency in your advertising. The easiest way to impose scarcity is to make a special offer, and then place a time limit on it.

A time-limited offer not only forces the prospect to make an immediate decision, but has the additional bonus (for you) of punishing procrastination.

Authority

Authority is an increasingly important tool to advertisers.

Anyone who lives in a modern western country is bombarded with information, and tends to rely on 3rd party experts when forming opinions about matters outside his or her immediate area of knowledge.

Popular methods of utilizing authority in advertising include…

• Quoting the results of scientific studies
• Printing testimonials from qualified scientists
• Printing celebrity endorsements

Essentially, the advertiser is borrowing authority from a 3rd party. While you can borrow authority to promote any product, you must ensure that your 3rd party is a credible source of information in the mind of your prospect.

Reciprocation

Most people are more likely to comply with a request when…

• The person making the request has already given us something (i.e. free gift)
• The person making the request has promised to give us something

Reciprocation works because most of use feel the need to pay our own way, and are uncomfortable accepting something for nothing. Reciprocation may also reinforce the power of friendship and consistency.

Most advertisers use reciprocation by giving out a free sample, hoping to demonstrate the usefulness of their product. Unfortunately, this technique is so common on the Internet that it has lost some of its power.

As people get used to receiving free samples, and realize that this is merely part of the marketing for that product, the less inclined they feel to reciprocate (that’s why I don’t offer free samples).

Social validation

Sheep tend follow the leader. People aren’t unlike sheep, in that we tend to do what other people do.

We’re influenced by the television we watch, the results of opinion polls, and the opinions of the people we meet every day.

Even better, from an advertiser’s perspective, is the fact that most people are completely unaware of this tendency. That makes social validation a very powerful tool.

Common ways to use social validation in advertising include…

• Testimonials
• Published sales results (e.g. One thousand people can’t be wrong)
• Being #1 in the category (e.g. Number one selling vitamin)
• Personal referrals

If your best friend raves about how great a product is, chances are it will carry more weight than it does when the advertiser tells you.

Friendship

The more you like someone, the more likely you are to comply with a request they make of you. In fact, you may even feel honored by such a request.

Friendship isn’t an easy tendency to apply on the web, because you’re essentially selling to complete strangers. This tendency requires that you establish a personal relationship with the prospect. Chances are, if you’re selling a $20 product on behalf of someone else, there’s no direct relationship at all.

Of course, you can still make your website as friendly to the visitor as possible. You’ll help the process of winning over new friends if you supply a lot of useful information for free (reciprocation) on your website, and answer queries quickly and efficiently.

Consistency

A person is more likely to take a specific action if he or she has already made a public commitment to do so. That’s because we tend to want to demonstrate consistency in our lives.

Your use of this tendency can be as simple as getting your prospect to complete a short survey.

For example, a person selling banner advertising might ask 3 yes/no questions in a survey…

Do you use online advertising?
Do you pay for online advertising?
Do you buy banner advertising?

Elsewhere on the page, the person conducting the survey may run an ad that promotes banner advertising. Not only is the advertiser more likely to get a visit, they’re also more likely to get the sale.

Of course, you need to find a way to get the prospect to take the survey in the first place. And the survey needs to have a credible purpose.

In the above example the advertiser might explain the need to understand what buyers of banner advertising want, and offer 100 free banner ads as a reward for taking the survey. This achieves the following…

• It specifically targets people who buy banner advertising
• By taking the survey, the prospect is immediately identifying himself as a ‘buyer’ of banner advertising (consistency)
• The answer to question 2 and 3 reinforce this tendency
• The 100 free banner gift for taking the survey introduces the power of reciprocation

The final page of the survey should thank the prospect for his or her answers (friendship), and immediately collect the necessary information required to display the prospect’s banner.

Once that information is collected (giving you contact information and strengthening the relationship), the advertiser can present a one-off special offer (scarcity) that allows the prospect to add more banner advertising to his or her account at a special low price.

Chances are, the advertiser will get the sale!

Even if the sale is refused, the advertiser can still go back to the prospect with another offer when the 100 banners have been delivered.

The big challenge

None of us is immune to the six tendencies, and they can easily be incorporated into your sales approach.

One excellent method for coming up with unique ways of developing a new sales approach is to take this challenge. Give yourself one day to find five different ways to sell your product.

Each sales approach you develop should include a minimum of three of the tendencies discussed in this article.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds! By forcing yourself to find five different ways to sell your product, you’ll come up with at least one that is very effective. You can then try all five and see which one produces the most sales.

You’ll find more articles by Wayne Davies on The Internet Marketing Ezine: http://blog.mailyourad.com

Al Galbraith and Associates, a real estate marketer who turns
dying industry towns into thriving recreational and retirement
communities, commissioned a promotional video as an added
feature for his company’s website. The video has been down
loaded 30,000 times by Internet users. In fact, Galbraith’s
Internet campaigns to sell homes from Tumbler Ridge, British
Columbia to Plattsburgh, New York are so successful, the company
has cut back its traditional advertising. Here’s how streaming
video promotes your organization online.

IT IS A GREAT USE OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY. Greater numbers of web
users have the capability of downloading video and find it a
novelty. Short videos of less than five minutes can be
downloaded in a short time, depending on bandwidth.

YOU CAN TRANSPORT POTENTIAL CLIENTS TO YOUR PRODUCT. As a
customers, you don’t need to fly across the country to see real
estate when you can get a 3-D perspective on the homes, the
community and the geography as well as meeting residents and
buyers from an online video.

VIDEO IS PERSUASIVE. Because video can incorporate the spoken
word, music, maps, digital effects and moving images, the user
experience is much more intense and when, well designed, very
compelling. Testimonials have more punch when spoken by the
happy customers.

THE COST OF DISTRIBUTION IS NEGLIGIBLE. In contrast, imagine the
cost of producing and delivering 30,000 videotapes around the
world.

STREAMING VIDEO POSITIONS YOU AS LEADING EDGE. Many customers
see a company’s innovation as evidence of its ability to be
creative and effective. Taking the technological lead in your
sector may give a lead in sales.

>From a public relations perspective, however, there are a few
things to remember to ensure your video does what you want it to.

THE HEAVY SELL MUST BE KEPT TO A MINIMUM. Despite appearances,
your streaming video is not a commercial. At least it shouldn’t
be a hard- selling pitch for business. The Internet is still an
environment where overt commercialism is frowned upon. Take a
journalistic approach and create a video in the style of a news
or documentary item that might play on the six o’clock news.
Users want information and won’t take kindly to downloading hype.

THE PRODUCTION QUALITY MUST BE HIGH. This not the time to bring
out the family video cam and become a filmmaker. Hire video
producers who know what they are doing. And a word about budget.
You need not spend tens of thousands of dollars for the finished
product especially if you take the journalistic approach
mentioned above.

Through streaming video, Galbraith reaches customers he might
not through traditional advertising and he touches them in ways
a brochure could never do. His streaming videos do all the
talking and, for the price of a single full-page ad in the local
daily paper, he has produced a tool that can close the sale all
by itself.

If you want to see it in action, check out
http://www.selectpropertygroup.com.

When choosing a humidor, make sure to buy one that’s somewhat larger than what you expect to need, or you’ll run out of space quick when cigar fever hits or that special box goes on sale unexpectedly. The typical humidor will hold around 100 loose cigars and will generally cost somewhere between $50-$100, depending on the manufacturer and materials used. Humidors that store thousands of cigars are readily available, but don’t forget your visa card, they are very expensive, usually in the $1,500-$3,000 range.

Once you determine the capacity of the humidor you’ll need, you can then begin to choose a model that appeals to you. From experience, most people know what they want in a humidor, be it glass top, dome, a table design, or a plain old milano, when it comes to the outward appearance the sky is the limit. The humidors appearance should match and add to the decor of the room it will reside in, but also match the person that it belongs to.

Setting up a humidor isn’t as simple as filling the humidifier with water and tossing in your cigars. You’ll need a solution of Propylene Glycol and distilled water, mixed at a ratio of 50%/50%. The prop-glycol solution is readily available at most cigar shops. Apply this solution to the element of your new humidor just once to start, all subsequent recharges should be pure distilled water only. You should re-up the prop-glycol/distilled water solution once every couple of years. Never use tap water. The minerals will clog your element and render the device useless. If the humidor is constructed of solid spanish cedar you can use a damp cloth to lightly moisten the inside surfaces, giving you a substantial head start in preparing the box for cigar occupants which are anxious to get in and relax. If your box is lined, I don’t suggest this method, it could cause damage to the wood if it is thin. Watch the humidity inside the humidor. If it refuses to rise, place a small saucer of distilled water in the bottom of the box and close the lid. Leave this in until the humidity builds and reaches 70% or greater. Remove the saucer and watch the hygrometer.

Once it pegs 70% and sustains this reading for 2 days you can slowly begin to add your cigars keeping a close eye on the humidity. If you suspect a faulty hygrometer test it. Place the hygrometer in a zip lock type bag large enough to accommodate the gauge and a small container of salt and water, heavy on the salt. Heavy so much that it makes a sort of paste. Close the bag and leave it for 6 hours. The humidity reading should be a perfect 75%. If it isn’t then throw the culprit hygrometer into the floor and smash it with your boot, or take it outside and blow it to smitharines with a gun, or melt it in a blast furnace. The most annoying thing on this earth is a faulty gauge. Do the right thing and make sure no one else could ever wind up with this demonic barometer. A trip to the vise, perhaps. The best hygrometers are digital models, because they are always accurate, never needing calibration. A wise $20 investment in the future comfort of your prized puros.

Once your new humidor is fully loaded with cigars you will need to keep a close eye on your perfectly calibrated hygrometer. The first weeks and even months of the new humidors life can be a thirsty time. The inner surfaces are all absorbing moisture and it takes from the element, which means it will need to be refilled more frequently in it’s infancy, less as it matures and begins to soak in the sweet smell of it’s guests.

Ed Brown owns and operates Tarheel Cigars Discount Cigar Shop located at http://www.tarheelcigars.com and can be contacted at admin@tarheelcigars.com

This is Volume 1 in a series that discusses issues of interest to Internet buyers of Cedar Patio Furniture. In this first installment, we discuss how to ensure that your purchase is safe and secure and your information is protected.

When purchasing patio furniture online, you generally have 2 payment options: 1) Purchasing directly from the webstore or, 2) using PayPal (or other third party payment processor). Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

Buying directly from the webstore is generally faster and easier if do not already have a PayPal account. Here are 2 tips to ensure that your Visa or Mastercard purchase is stress free:

1) Make sure that the Patio Furniture Retailer uses SSL Technology (or something comparable) - this provides a secure platform for your credit card purchase and,

2) Look for a written guarantee from the retailer that your Patio Furniture purchase is 100% secure. The “About Us” or “FAQ” page on most legitimate Patio Furniture websites will provide this information. If you are not sure, contact the Patio Furniture retailer and ask.

It is important to realize when purchasing Patio Furniture using your Visa or Mastercard directly from a Webstore that most credit card companies offer automatic “protection” (at no cost to you) if a credit charge in fact has not been authorized by you. Call your Credit Card Company and get the facts.

In addition, it is a myth that all webstores from whom you have purchased store your credit card information in their database and are able to use it at will. For example, my Patio Furniture site, http://www.GoCedar.com has absolutely no access to your credit card information even when you purchase directly from us. Your credit card information is transmitted over a secure platform directly to the merchant bank and is stored ONLY on their servers. We cannot access it even if we tried.

For additional protection when purchasing Patio Furniture online, you could use a third party “payment processor” like PayPal. Paypal enables you to keep your financial information private from a Patio Furniture retailer but still make a purchase from their site (of course, the Retailer must offer PayPal as an option). The only downside with PayPal is that you must first set up an account with them in order to use their service. It is relatively painless but it does take a day or so for the account to be approved. For more information, visit www.PayPal.com

K. Snook is the owner and founder of Patio Furniture Internet Retail Site http://www.GoCedar.com