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I was very uncomfortable about doing up an issues-and-answers crib sheet for radio, TV and press interviewers, considering my own journalistic past. When I worked as a rock critic I used to feel insulted when the record companies would send me others' reviews or an in-house review as a way of "prompting" me for what I should write.
What I discovered on tour was that many interviewers lifted my phrasing almost word-for-word from these sheets, particularly when I was getting interviewed by busy hosts or newspeople who hadn't had time to read the book. After my thirtieth interview I was adept enough to be able to piece together the most common questions and answers on the spot, and I was often asked to do that into a tape recorder for smaller radio stations, in effect interviewing myself! I didn't get that kind of control over the situation very often, but the crib sheets were used in a good fifty percent of my interviews, and having that crib sheet was a way of helping me prepare and refine my spiel for whoever I might be speaking with. In fact, I often wonder if it might not have been worth my while to hire a stand-up comic for a day to help me write a few jokes I could pull out on demand. I know I could have used them dozens of times without boring people, particularly in the smaller markets.
This sheet is deliberately divided into three sections to fit the journalistic requirements of the markets I was approaching. The first section is the news hook for the interviewer, the second is the personality, and the book, as "product", is third. The product itself is almost never news; the issues it deals with are what the media usually wants.
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW: Steve Winter
- Expert bargain hunter
- Consumer technician
- Author of "The Ultimate Shopper"DATES: April 15-May 15
CONTACT: Robert Sxxxxx at Living Skill Media, 555-5555About Consumer Technique and Consumer Values:
-Two-income households increase as standard of living declines
-Increase in stores advertising "guaranteed lowest price" demonstrates consumer demand for value
-Time pressures on shoppers evident as malls, one-stop shopping and convenience stores continue to flourish
-Consumers increasingly demanding time savings and convenience; said to be major factors in continued health of direct-mail and telemarketing
-Publisher's survey shows vast majority of shoppers believe they have neared or reached the limits of budget efficiency
-food chains recognize changing consumer values by offering increased variety of gourmet convenience foods, bulk foods, generic products and 24-hour shopping
-rate of technological advance outstrips most consumers' ability to stay informedAbout Steve Winter:
-Five years spent researching and refining consumer techniques and spending strategies
-Contributor to "The Canadian MoneySaver"
-advertising copywriter and marketing consultant
-reporter/photographer with several Canadian community newspapers from 1976-82
-author of six books, author-narrator of two cassettes under his own Winter Northwest imprint
-Advocate and expert in second-hand buying, negotiating in the retail marketplace, formulating priorities for value factorsAbout "The Ultimate Shopper":
-Accents moneysaving techniques requiring equal or less effort than consumers currently expend to maximize dollar value
-Offers an overall program of strategy and tactics for maximizing value with minimum hassle in virtually every spending situation
-expected by the publishers to be the first in a wave of "new age" consumer handbooks; follows similar approaches taken with housecleaning, time managementREVIEW COPY AVAILABLE: Write Living Skill Books c/o the address below
EXCERPTS, COPY TAILORED FOR SPECIALIZED MARKETS: Available free of charge for certain markets; nominal fee for others; mention of book, author and book's availability requested in exchange for use. Contact: Steve Winter c/o Living Skill Books.
This second fact sheet was created several months after the first once I began to get a better feel for what the media, and was intended for a second wave of Canadian promo in advance of the US assault, a campaign which disintegrated along with the thousands of sales I had expected from prior campaigns.
ABOUT CONSUMER TECHNIQUE AND CONSUMER VALUES
-North America is perhaps the only continent where haggling with retailers is not an established custom. Steve Winter claims that Canadians are very poor negotiators, especially as consumers, and as a result many of our opportunities to negotiate in the marketplace are evaporating.
-Second-hand shopping for most consumer goods is considered by most Canadians a poor substitute for buying new. Winter sees this attitude as bound to change if the standard of living continues to decline, and consumers will require a new set of shopping skills to adapt to this changing attitude.
-The author has discovered while meeting with shoppers across Canada that the stereotypical image of the super-shopper who spends hours every week clipping coupons and preparing for shopping to be false. In contrast, skilled shoppers as a rule have developed organized systems that actually allow them to spend less time shopping than most people.
-A small survey taken by the publisher in Toronto revealed that most shoppers believe they have approached their limit of budget efficiency. Winter believes this is a complacent attitude resulting from a lack of challenge to their shopping skills. He claims basic retail strategy hasn't really changed since the consumer movement of the 1960s and therefore consumers have not been required to adjust.
-Most consumers receive the bulk of their practical consumer education in high school or early adulthood. Most of what they receive from then on constitutes what Winter calls "handy hints" and specialized information on certain products. While he believes this is valuable, he maintains that it cannot produce the kinds of gains in purchasing power achievable with an overall program of general strategies and tactics.
ABOUT STEVE WINTER
-Five years spent researching and refining consumer techniques and spending strategies
-Contributor to "Canadian MoneySaver" magazine
-80+ media appearances in 1987 discussing consumer technique
-Reporter-photographer from 1974-82
-Author of six books and two self-improvement cassettes under his own Winter Northwest imprint in 1985-86
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