You've seen the commercial. It goes vaguely like this: a group of Japanese executives are closing the contract bids when they announce the bid winner: Fred's Auto Parts from Texas. Fade to Fred, sitting solo in a small home office. "Arigato," he says to the computer screen, as he secures the overseas contract. Small town boy undercuts the big dogs. It's a brave new e-world out there. Are you in on it?
You hear about e-millionaires, incredibly successful entrepreneurs who strike it rich mining the 'Net. Internet marketing books are flying off the shelves as companies scramble to make it happen for them. With so many web sites out there, marketers are beating their brains to find out why one company succeeds while their 'Net neighbor fails.
Marketing is a mixture of a cool product on a hot web site
At an obscure, aging blue storefront on Kent Road in Stow, U.S. Wings operates live part time. But their web presence is all-time, accounting for 99 percent of their business. Last year the company grossed more than $3.7 million in sales. Today they receive about 25 orders a day scarcely lifting a finger. Sure, they've got a classic, alluring product. That helps a lot. U.S. Wings sells government-issue Top Gun-style leather jackets and aviation accessories: flight jackets, bomber jackets, alligator belts, Indiana Jones-style hats and the like. Wear them and be authoritative, proud... John Travolta cool... (yes, Travolta is a customer.) Top brass military and airline executives order them in multiples. Their client list reads like a jet-set party - Hollywood luminaries, international dignitaries, politicians from presidents on down, and corporate aviation CEOs the world over. U.S. Wings is a classic study in how an unassuming Summit County storefront can take on world commerce - and win.
The E-Rush is On
Sergeant David Hack, a retired U.S. Army man is CEO of U.S. Wings. He was Web-borne back when webs weren't yet cool. Hack bought U.S. Wings in 1986 as a mail order business, marketed as a paper catalog. Five years ago, back when the web was a toddling babe, Hack alleges he became the first business in Ohio to go on the Internet. "We just took it to the next level. Everybody, even my attorney, said don't do it. It's a fad; a fluke, a passing thing. Save your money. By the way, our attorney is now on the Internet, too," he said, laughing. Within six months he had ditched the catalog after doing the math. Printing and postage cost for the catalogs was about $90,000 and reached only 50,000 people. For much less he could reach millions of people around the world at any time of the day or night. And he could provide all the necessary information, advertise his product and clinch the sale all at once.
"By 2003 half the world's purchasing power will be through the Internet. Sure, our customers walk through the door. They drive from Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Cleveland, all over to get here. But mostly our clients are the Who's Who in aviation. They're airline CEO's, attorneys, actors from all over the nation. We ship to Denmark, UK, the Isle of Man. Today our client is the whole entire world" he said.
Hack believes a decent product with a waiting target market is a success story waiting to happen. His jackets are the real military issue,"down to the last stitch," he says. "The A-2 jacket is as classic a fashion piece today as it was 50 years ago. These guys are very serious about their jackets. They may not talk outwardly about fashion like women do, but they have very deep convictions about what they like and what makes them feel good. They suit up in the same jacket a fighter pilot wore and it's no different than when a woman puts on a Marilyn Monroe style dress. A bit of fantasy, a little pride. They see another guy walking down the shopping mall in a cheap imitation and they'll stone snub him." Connecting a pricey product (between $100 and $700) and a commodity-hungry public is a matter of old fashioned common sense and new fangled technology, he maintains.
A dynamite combo:
Point everything back to your web site. Not long after Hack jettisoned the catalogs, he ditched another staple marketing tool: print advertising. Instead, he swears by direct mail. He uses simple post cards with his most popular jackets pictured, along with the product number, color choices and price, a 1-800 phone number... and of course, the ubiquitous web site address: www.uswings.com.
"It can work for anyone. The web is nothing but a big telephone business," he said. His 1-800 number operates 24-7, with a few dozen employees answering the phones. U.S. Wings' web site receives more than 250,000 hits per week. Hack registers his site on the search engines, and links to aviation and military sites.
Along with his wife, Lani, President of U.S. Wings, Hack developed the site and has become somewhat of an Internet guru. The couple spends a lot of time tweaking their site to keep it fresh, easily understood and navigable. Hack considers himself a pioneer in e-commerce. Always one step ahead of the rest, Hack recently initiated a new marketing trick on the labels sewn into his jackets. One guess as to what's printed there. (His web site, of course.) He expects his latest light bulb will be quickly copied. "What's the first thing they see as they unzip their jacket? The label. My prediction is that every clothing manufacturer in the world will be doing the same thing within six months."
This year U.S. Wings is featured in a new book, "StrikingItRich.com: Profiles of 23 Incredibly Successful Websites You've Probably Never Heard Of," by Jaclyn Easton, columnist for the Los Angeles Times. U.S. Wings jackets will be worn on a new HBO film, The Tuskegee Airmen. The film producers ordered more than 50 jackets the new-fashioned way - via the U.S. Wings web site.
Web Marketing The Sergeant's Way...
• Give something away — Hack began giving away a white silk aviation scarf and their signature U.S. Wings baseball hat with every flight jacket purchased. When customers saw the quality, they ordered more and the word spread. Guess what the company's second and third biggest sellers are today?
• Be better than someone else — U.S. Wings jackets market themselves as the only official licensee for Flying Tigers brand apparel. Their jackets are official government issue, making them closest to the real thing. And they claim to sell at the best prices anywhere in the world, though we have no way of verifying that information.
• Web-shop to get ideas — What do you like and what don't you like on a web site? What irritates you that you can avoid on your site? What makes web shopping easier? What is your competition doing on the web?
• Know your web master — "Not everyone on the Internet is a crook, but all the crooks are on the Internet. People who charge big bucks aren't necessarily the best." Hack says if you can do it yourself, do it, and bring friends and family in to get the heartbeat of your business. "Outside consultants will often tell you what you want to hear."
• Less is more — Build pages that load quickly. Focus more on quick, easy navigation than on fancy graphic complexity. Provide photos that illustrate your product's quality. Include your phone number, address, fax line on every page.
• Get outside opinions — Ask a few friends or clients to "test drive" your site first to gauge maneuverability, clarity of message, ease and usefulness.
• Advertise on everything — Purchase marketing lists to locate your target market and mail them post cards, sales letters, catalogs or brochures — everything with your web site address on it, of course.
• Keep your site fresh — The Internet changes constantly, so should your site. The Hacks spend between 4 and 16 hours a week updating.
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