The vacant building stands prominently on what was once prime real estate on the outskirts of downtown. The stuccoed storefront and ill-fitted metal awning are precariously out of place beneath the dentil roofline. Its painted brick is peeling, but you can still read the “King’s Furniture” sign on the side. Its demise began long before […]

The Renaissance was an exciting time of progress in every area of society: business, government, education, families, media, religion and, especially, arts and entertainment. Minds were reawakened, cultures reborn. Ms. Jones is shopping for her own little bit of renaissance. She’s not shopping for what you’re selling. She never simply buys a product. She only […]

Have you noticed the voyeurism on television lately? On one show, they put you in a glass box and have people guess your age. “Why have you let yourself go?” the host sympathetically pries. Another show rewards contestants for answering questions no one should be asking, like: “Would you cheat on your wife if you […]

It’s been said that “life is 90% what happens to you and 10% how you react to it,” and that attitude is more important than facts. It’s true, your attitude can compensate for a lot of lousy circumstances. A positive attitude can see you through when things are happening to you that are out of […]

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 8, 1895 – Mrs. Clara McArthur of 167 [sic] East One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street, the young woman who attempted to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge ten days ago, but was prevented from doing so by the police, dropped off quietly in the darkness at 3:30 o’clock yesterday morning, and […]

THE NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 31, 1895 – Mrs. Clara McArthur of 162 East One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street attempted to jump  off the Brooklyn Bridge at 5:30 o’clock yesterday morning, but was prevented by the bridge policemen… “I made up my mind long ago to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. My husband read to […]

When you move, you send a change of address postcard and the Post Office takes care of the rest. Anyone you would want to come to your new home probably helped you move, so they already know where you are. It’s a hard thing to move a store, much harder than it is to move […]

In the Jungian world of psychology (don’t worry, you don’t need to know what that means), a persona is the face you show the world. In your store, a persona is a fictional customer based non-fictional data (yes, you do need to know what this means). At R&A Marketing, we’ve named this persona “Ms. Jones,” […]

The headlines soured my morning coffee with gloomy news of “bleak economic reports,” “signals of recession” and a “housing slump.” Hmmm. Not good. Then a builder friend of mine mentioned that his remodeling business is picking up, while his new home construction is slowing down. Hmmm, again. Money’s tight. The economy’s uncertain. It’s even an […]

You studied civics in high school. You did your civic duty on the jury. You went to a game at the Civic Center. Get used to the word, because you’re going to be hearing a lot more of it from Ms. Jones. Even if she doesn’t call it by its Latin derivative, Ms. Jones is […]