Times Are Tough, But So Are We

As the economic news gets even gloomier – gas prices at a ridiculous level, grocery prices that make you want to start your own crop, a real estate market bordering on disaster, and mighty, mighty banking institutions being bailed out by the government – who wouldn’t want to hide their money in a mattress?

So, how are mom and pop going to keep open the shop?

This is the question being posed to us at Zazu, a locally owned gift and stationery store in Ashburn, Virginia. Opened in 2004, we had hoped that this would be the year to see some benefit of all the hard work we put into establishing ourselves as the most fabulous shopping experience in the community. All the books we read told us that’s what would happen if we followed all the rules: develop a kick-butt brand, offer unparalleled customer service, fabulous and trend-setting products, and a moderate pricing structure. That’s when we got hit by 2008. Ouch!

So, being the creative and stick-to-it types, we needed an extension to our plan. As luck would have it, our CEO and Chief Decision Maker, Caroline Haddad, recently learned of a new marketing tool called, “the Internet”. What a fabulous invention!

When sales are down, marketing and prospecting at every opportunity is critical to get more feet pounding your carpet. On the horizon, we at Zazu see social networking and blogs as becoming the channels to shamelessly self-promote and widen brand awareness. Being creative-types (and soon to be techno-types) we have decided to embrace and conquer this new media.

On Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Zazu published its very first blog, “The Little Blog that Could”. We invite you to join our adventure as we explore this brave new world.

Cheers!