Speech by Robert J. DiNicola, President/COO ‘;,        The Bon Marche

FDS Principals Meeting August  11, 1992

BON MARCHE MARKETING STRATEGY

During Allen ‘s and Jim’s last visit to The Bon Marche in March, Allen mentioned it might be a good idea if we shared our ideas on the marketing programs we employ here at The Bon.  Natu rally, I agreed, although reluctantly.  Be that as it may, I’ m sure most everyone uses many of the same techniques.

Having said that, I would like to show you a three-minute film exemplif ying how we put together key events for the store.  This tape illustrates the interaction between myself and the .Marketing Director for the store, John Buller, and I’m sure it is not much different from the way all of you put together events in your own stores.

John, let’s go to the video tape!  (Show Bon Days Video)

“I’ve been to a lot of ad meetings during my career, and that sounds pretty familiar.”

We feel that we have put together a comprehensive  presentation,  but I’m sure that you will have some questions.   Please be kind enough to jot them down and we’ll get to all of them at the close.

At the Bon, we believe that a well thought out, well balanced, even and consistent marketing  approach  is essential to both the short and long-term  objectives of any company.   The images we project continually through the course of a season or a year have a cumulative effect on how the consumer views our store.  This fact is the driving force behind  the long-term  objective of  our promotional  plan.   Naturally,  short-term financial objectives constantly affect the decision making process.   What we would like to illustrate this morning  is our strategy on how we achieve both short-term financial goals while ensuring that the long-term integrity of the store is not compromised,  but is

ho pefully enhanced.

At the Bon, the process of planning a marketing strategy begins with the promotional calendar.   It is the “road map” of all the store activities which we choose to show the consumer.   It is our vision of the store and how we want our customer to view us.  This calendar, as we said before,  needs to be balanced,  consistent,  and comprehensive.   It also needs to be focused,  pruned, and edited constantly, just  like ou r merchandise  content.

And, it undrl”i”P.: them      needs to continuously reinforce the message of fashion, value, and the traditional qualuies of the department store which have somehow been

tem porarily lost over the past few years but now must be reca ptured.

Here in Seattle, ou r goal is to ensu re that The Bon Marche is the M erchandise Headquart; r Store for the.North west.   w.e have embarked  on a long-term strategy to achieve thJS goal by focusmg on fou r major a reas:

1.         Merchandising,

1. Store Presentation,
2. Customer Service, and
3. Marketing.

Naturally,  we are all involved in these fou r areas.  However, when it comes to the messages,  images, and impressions that The Bon Marche transmits thousands of times a season to our vast audience (friends and foe alike), you can be sure that the entire operating committee is intimately involved in all the marketing aspects of the store.

Nothing  happens by accident.   Nothing happens by chance, particularly  when we’ re dealing with a                          million  annual expenditu re to boot!

Although the Bon has, like most other department stores, succumbed in the recent past to more and more short-term promotions, one of ou r long-term objectives is to bring the promotional calendar back to a balanced, and eventually more normal level.  One method we have chosen to take, bas been to bold the line on net advertising spent annually. This approach will not only help us to achieve our expense objectives, but it will also ensu re that a more qualitative approach is applied to the planning process  rather than the more q ua ntitative one that we have grown accustomed to.

The risk, obviously,  is on the volume side.  Our challenge is to make fewer promotions work more effectively for us while eliminating promotions  with little long-term, “real” value.  For example, this season alone we have eliminated a One Day Sale, a Night and Day Sale, a five day Coupon Sale, and we moved two Saturday One Day Sales to Wednesday ‘s.  Yes, there was a volume cost to these moves, but we were able to strengthen other events that we felt were more important in helping to build our long­ term f ranchise as a fashion and value leader in our markets.   Those enhanced events were really enlarged and improved  “campaigns” revolving around key events like Mother ‘s Day,  Father’s Day, Home Show, and Anniversary  Sale.  Events that we will ALWA YS  want to stand for.

This Headquarter Store approach (as I shall refer to it) ensures that key events are identified and fu nded first and foremost before positioning less meaningful, short-term, volatile events.  We believe that we will not win in the long run on price alone.

Therefore, it is imperative that the customer trust in the integrity of ou r big events.  Our hope and our goal is to make this Merchandise Headquarter theme the domina nt message that our customer base constantly receives and remembers, as we shift the focus to more long-term, image enhancing, prod uctive “campaigns” and rely less and less on the short­ tenn, quick fix.  Just think for11 ;serond of what we have all experienced:

*       How many of us have attended marketing/ planning meetings that allowed the addition  of One Day Sales because there was room on the calendar?

How many of us have added short-term,  quick-hit, volume-producing  events because it was financially expedient to do so?

*             How many of us have placed the merchants on an extremely tight recei pt and stock leash and then choked t he calen dar full of events and expect them to be filled and  produce?

How many of us are then amazed to learn that certain items have been advertised over and over and over again, and the legal department is in a frenzy!

*                      How many of us have looked at ou r mark-down budget recently only to recognize that 70% is spent on promoting and 30% is used for clearance?

*                      And finally, with the promotion-a-minute  principle, how many of us really think that t he customer believes us any more?

We’ ve all done it, but now we need to ask ou rselves, how do we change it?  How do we make it better?  What kind of store would we like to be running 3, 5, 10 years from now?

Though  we all would  like to see a kinder, gentler department store, the reality is that the five year volume and EBITDA plans are locked in and are not apt to cha nge.  Therefore, it is essential that a well coordinated and well thought out marketing campaign that balances short-term financial goals with long-term viability and credibility need now be orchestrated.

Ou r intention this morning is to generate ideas that get us back on-track in the “eyes” of the customer,  our long-term  “lifeblood.”

I would like to begin by reviewing the media which we use here at The Bon Marche.  I’ m sure that we all employ these tools to varying degrees, but I wanted to show you the balance of the mix which we use here in Seattle.

We use:

Direct mail to ou r quality charge card holders;

*       Pre-prints as a consistent u pper moderate communication to the general public;

*                      ROP for consistent communication  of strong item price;

*                      Radio for high awareness of on-going store events;

*                      TV for its ability to reach massive audiences with strong value statements;

*                      Special events to enhance important store promotions and differentiate the store from other merchandisers, clearly defining The Bon Marche as the M erchandise

Headquarter  Store ;

*                      Customer service that allows highly paid and professional sales associates to sell, versus merely ringing the register;

A nd a credit program aggressively utilizing the marketing calendar to bring new customers to The Bon Marche.

This multi-media approach is designed to heighten customer awareness with the

appropriate sense of u rgency, thus evoking a continuing message that something BIG is happening  at ou r store.

The ca lendar is constructed on the premise that all families of business have natu ral peaks and valley ‘s.  The peaks last about four weeks, from start to finish.  Each of these

four weeks has a consistent rhythm and generally, a common formu la that can be applied.  Our intention is to build or create major, four week type campaigns anchored around  natural holidays  or seasonal starts.

These campaigns begin by introducing a direct  mail  piece to our best customers with fu ll assortments of fashion and value.  The widest assortments are offered to our best customers first before we start offering value to the general population.   As the campaign progresses, the objective of both merchandising and marketing is to continue to focus on key classifications and items.  Maj or storewide events are used to enhance the overall campaign.  Balanced. item and classification ROP is positioned around the stores’ events to ensu re the customer is constantly reminded that The Bon Marche is the Headquarter Store for this seasons best merchandise.   And finally, each major campaign ends with a clearance that requires an inunediate POS or a hard-mark to ensure that troubled merchandise is cleared in a timely manner.  Broadcast supports the campaign  throughout.

The first step in building The Bon Marche promotional calendar is to identif y those  major campaigns that should be planned first.  These campaigns require as much of the store’ s resources as needed to ensure that we are the l’vferchandise  Headquarter Store in the customers’ eye.  These major campaigns are the long-term promotions that we had in the past and will always want in our futu re.

THE MAJOR CAMPAIGNS

The base of the store’s non-holiday marketing calendar starts with Anniversary Sale, Bon Days, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Back-To-School, and our two major Home Show and Sales.  These are the key storewide campaigns and each is placed on the calendar based

u pon the flow of merchandise and customers needs.  We accept the challenge that these campaigns are the lifeblood of the entire organization.  The customer must be offered the store’s best assortments and values during these campaigns, and each yea r, they must grow in volume.

Anniversary Sale and Bon Days are positioned in the critical part of ou r fall and spring seasons.  They are each a week-long event positioned when the customer has the greatest transitional merchandising  needs.  The merchants should have their best seasonal assortments available.  I take personal ownership in reviewing all merchandising offers to ensure that our customers receive the best in assortments and value.  Sales goal contests are created to reward the DMM’s and Store Managers who have the best performance.

Each season, we enhance the promotion by improving the content, customer service, operations, and eff ectiveness of the marketing.  These campaigns must become bigger and more important  in our customers’   minds year after year.

Mother’ s Day and Father’s Day are positioned  in late spring and are the building blocks for the store’ s long-term gift strategy.  Each starts with a direct mail catalog to ou r best customers and continues with an integrated storewide approach that ensures The Bon Marche is at the top of the customers ‘ mind for the fou r weeks in which we focus on the campaign.   Back-To-School,  like Mother’s Day and Father’ s Day, starts with targeted direct mail and continues to focus using the Headquarter’ s mentality for the entire period. The Home Show and Sale events are positioned at the first of February and August to help get the entire store off to a fast seasonal start.

In each of thei r campaigns, the GMM’s takes personal ow nership.  They ensu re a well orga nized and integrated approach is taken at all levels.  Stretch goals are established and contests are developed to reward the bu vers and the department  mana gers who lead

the company.  These events also help to create health y inter-divisional rivalry as each major area of the store (under each GMJ\1) has the opportunity to carry the baton during their particular leg of the race.  Everyone recognizes the extreme importa nce of these events, and each would not want to be the one to let the team down.  All support areas also do everything possible to ensu re the continued growth of these campaigns.

KEY  HOLIDAYS

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day President’s Day

Memorial Day Independence Day Labor Day

Election Day · Veterans  Day Thanksgiving  Day Christmas  Day New  Year’s Day

Holidays offer the stores a natural opportunity to attract customers using a variety of merchandising concepts.  Generally, the customer is not working or going to school, and depending upon weather, is prone to visit our stores.  Holidays also offer a great opportunity to exploit key items and classifications, as well as address slow selling and old age merchandise with a well-targeted markdowns.  For each holiday, a consistent ROP and broadcast package is employed to maximize the event.  There are three exceptions to this approach:   Labor Day, Thanksgiving,  and holiday.

Labor Day bas become the final piece in our Back-To-School and Home Show and Sale strategy, as well as our final major effort to clear summer merchandise.   Because of the timing and breadth of this holiday opportunity, we now have enlarged Labor Day from a One Day Sale promotion to a four day multi-media event.

Needless to say, the Thanksgiving to Christmas period is of vital importance.   I’m sure each of you have already developed your own  holiday strategy.  To us the Christmas season is when our year-long Merchandising Headquarter strategy pays off.  The traditional department store historically  holds a great customer franchise during this time of year.  Focused key items, intensified classifications, special shopping environments, quality customer service, and exciting special events are all assets that our competitors cannot du plicate or compete against.  Our ability to employ qualitative merchandising techniques (and not rely simply on a price message) is the most powerf ul differentiator we have during this important merchandising season.  The holiday season  is the best time to gain market share, solidif y relationships with inf requent consumers, and continue to reinf orce relationships with our most loyal customers.

Our Christmas season starts with our Thanksgiving Day multi-media promotion. The Thanksgiving promotion is very similar to Anniversary Sale and Bon Days in that I review·allmerdlandise offerings-to ensure·ooc-customers receive the best values and assortments to start the all importa nt holiday season. This year, we will be introducing a new Premier Card Courtesy Shopping Day. We feel this will enhance this years’ event,

as well as solidif y a strong relationship to the top one third of our proprietary credit customers.  Like all of our previous merchandising campaigns, we start the holiday season with our best values and best assortments to our best customers.  That’ s why this year we are eliminating a Coupon Sale to the general public the week before Thanksgiving.   And, we are adding the Premier Card cou rtesy day on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week to enhance our volume, and hopef ully, our “customer loyalty” as well.

The continuation of our Christmas campaign is a combination  of quality pre-prints; well positioned,  short-tenn events; powerf ul gift-focused item and classification ROP; effective TV; and finally, strong post-holiday  clearances.

Pre-prints – After using our Choices pre-prints all yea r long, the Holiday Choices pre-prints ta ke on special importance.   They serve as a quality gift-giving communication to our entire region, focusing on our best classifications and items. These pre-prints also allow the merchants to offer customers q uality, value, and selection with a reach of 1.8 million households in ou r trading areas.

Historically,  there have been two One Day Sales in the Christmas period.  These two events allow the merchants to re-price poor perf orming merchandise and  move large quantities of items and classifications to maintain the sales momentum required to accomplish our December sales goals.  Our objective is to hold the line on these two events this year-not grow them.  Hopef ully, we will eventually be able to wean ou rselves off one of them.  Last year, we were able to eliminate a 10% Cou pon Sale right before Christmas, so anything’s possible!

ROP  & TV – Are used to reinforce The Bon Marche as a Gift Headquarters, primarily focused at this time of year on items for our customers’ gift-giving needs.

To this promotional package, we add another level of events and services that specifically target The Bon Marche as the seasons Gift Headquarters.             We offer gift outposts, pre­ wrap, box stations, special wrap programs, and ou r Christmas elf program.   This season, we will be adding two exclusive University of Washington gift wra ps, availa ble only at The Bon Marche.

Our goal is to ensure The Bon Marche holiday packages are dominant under every Christmas tree in our market area.  Our stores are dedicated to making sure The Bon Marche is a key part of our customers holiday tradition, and ou r Christmas star has become Seattle’s holiday symbol.

THE SPECIALTY AREAS

Though no individual business is more important than ou r major storewide events, it is very  important that the calendar have enough space to allow for special classification advertising.   Part of our overall strategy is to allow specialty areas to merchandise their own messages to a selected customer audience.  Ou r credit files are full of excellent information about customers who are loyal to particular  parts of our overall merchandise mix.  Our associates must be able to identif y a quality personal trade customer and build u pon ex·isting relatfooships,.utilizing.j)llr  special events calendar, w hich is full of events that  enhance specific merchandising  needs.

Some individual families of business that relate to specific customer needs are: Special Sizes

Special Age Grou ps

Intimate A pparel Fit Events Cosmetics

Customer Wardrobe Needs

Bridal

And of cou rse, Big Ticket Home

In each case, merchandising periods are identified.

Each of these periods start with a targeted direct mail vehicle.  It specifically talks to The Bon Marche customer who has shown an affinity to that classification.   We offer our most loyal customers our best assortments and best values.  This allows our associates to focus on personal trade and appointment selling at the appropriate time.  As the promotion progresses, the storewide events are used to drive key, pre-selected

classifications and items.  Finally, as the promotion ends, a clearance event takes place to force liquidation of non-perf orming merchandise.

A special conversation needs to take place regarding our big-ticket (fu rnitu re) Home Stores.  Because this category of merchandise is not in all stores, it poses a distinct marketing challenge.   How do we incorporate furniture into our major storewide campaigns?  Our solution was to repaginate our major promotions with the homeworld business in the middle of our direct mail pieces.  We then created a special four to eight page stitch-in that focused on our free-standing Home Stores.  This allowed us to maximize the Home Store business by inserting these stitch-ins into the appro priate markets.  This also enhanced the total storewide event by bringing all families of business into the promotion in a meaningf ul way, once again reinforcing the differentiating factor of the home, while adding a·huge volume plus to each event.

One of the key objectives of The Bon Marche marketing strategy is to change the focus of short-term volatile events from a primarv  focus to that of a supportive  role.  These  short­ du ration events help to drive key businesses during crucial customer times, hel p to start the liquidation or repricing of merchandise not performing to expectations, or help to promote overall store key classifications and items that sell regardless of season.

However, the most important reason to place these events on the calendar is that they should enhance the total strategy, not just fill an empty space or become the driving force of the entire marketing program.

We have also taken the position that these events will start on Wednesdays.  This allows us to use Sunday and our weekends in many flexible ways to help maintain the rhythm of a multi-faceted media and print promotional package.  We believe in Wednesday start dates for these promotions because:

1. This frees-up our weekends for a qualitative business approach while forcing quantitative, volatile events to the middle of the week when the PON is the greatest.

1. It helps to maximize our investment in our sales force on the weekend when our customer is more receptive to, and in greater need of, a higher level of service.

1. And, it ensures ou r customers are not trained to wait until the weekend for ou r best values and offerings, i.e. the lowest price.

CLEARANCE

New importance has been placed u pon keeping fresh and cu rrent inventories.  La rger amounts of ou r mark-down bu dgets must be dedicated to the in-season liquidation of poor-perf orming merchandise.  The key to minimizing the expense of clearance is early i dentification and the strategic repricing and promoting of these items early enough in the season.  The Bon Marche’s clearance strategy is integrated into our storewide promotional calendar.  Holidays, for example, offer a perfect opportunity to remove

under-perf orming merchandise before it becomes a problem.  In the soft areas of the business, seasonal clearances, specifically targeted toward end of season repricing, are scheduled either within our holiday structure or on specific break dates established by our needs and the needs of our customers. In the home store, we eliminated six monthly mini-dock sales and established two large semi-annual warehouse sales. These two Big Ticket type clearance events are used to focus the home store organization on the liquidation of large dollar amounts of clearance once a season.

And, finally, during the months of January and July, a specil total storewide emphasis is placed upon the final removal of seasonal merchandise. A six-day total storewide

Cou pon  Sale has been positioned during these months in order to allow for an aggressive posture toward final seasonal clearance in all categories of goods.

CREDIT

We have always had a strong credit culture.  Our associates are aware of the importance of The Bon Marche proprietary  credit program.   Our Credit Achiever Program,  which rewards associates who activate 100; 250,_ and 500 new credit accounts per year, is a reward system with a long history.  The objective is to leverage our most important events with a major credit promotion.  Home Show and Sale, Anniversary Sale, Bon Days, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day will now include an external credit acquisition program,  an internal associate blitz program,  or a non-active  customer re-activation program.

The major external credit acquisition program will now be tied to the February break of our Horne Show.  Pre-selected customer lists will be identified and our Home Sale book will be used to drive solicitation; follow-up letters will be sent to customers who don ‘t respond in the April period; and a final blitz is packaged  with our Mother’s Day promotion.

Our internal associate credit blitz is now planned for ou r major spring sale, Bon Days, as well as our fall Anniversary Sale.  Major re-activation programs will be positioned with Father’s Day and ou r August Home Sale kick-off.

This fall we will introduce our new Premium Credit Card program.   We have identified the best third of our credit card holders who are responsible for 80% of our proprietary credit business.   In the next 18 months, we will be layering on three premium card holder courtesy day promotions tied to Thanksgiving, Anniversary Sale, and Bon Days.  The  card itself will include additional soft benefits that add to its prestige but will not cost a lot of money while helping to build customer loyalty and, of course, additional sales.

SPECIAL EVENT.S

In order for The Bon Marche to secure our position as the M erchandising Headquarter Store , it is essential to provide an exciting shopping environment for ou r customers. We recognize that we can ‘t dominate the market by focusing on price alone. We must enhance The Bon Marche’s image as the place to not only find great fashion, value, and service, but also provide the best overall shopping experience. Ou r goal is to leverage our marketing calendar by layering an effective special events campaign that enha nces and differentiates The Bon Marche from its retailing com petitors.

Each major promotion has incorporated a package of events that elevates the event itself to a higher level.  For Bon Days and Anniversary Sale, consumer contests are used to enha nce ou r customer traffic.  For Mother’ s Da y and Father ‘s Day, we tie into charitable

concepts that enhance our commu nity leadership positioning.  For Back-To-School,  we use radio remotes to help kick off key promotional days.  And for our Home Show and Sale, we dramatically  increase our demonstrations and our personal appearance schedule to enhance the theater aspect of the store.  In Seattle, The Bon Marcbe is also blessed  with a viable retail shopping core downtown that allows the establishment of a Downtown Headquaners Department  Store that greets the customers with a never-ending and always­ interesting shopping experience.   We also package additional contests, personal appearances, fashion shows, seminars, lectures, cosmetic events, mini borne events, cooking events, and on and on, to as many classifications of merchandise as possible.  All of these events are positioned to fit within the f ramework of our major promotional calendar.

SALES ASSOCIATE  PROGRAMS

The calendar bas a special relationship to our associate training programs.   The Bon Marcbe’s objective is to employ a highly infonned, highly motivated sales associate who can use quality selling techniques to enhance a customer’s level of satisfaction.  The calen dar is not only used to help build long-tenn qualitative events which put ou r

talented selling associates to the best possible use, but it also signals our ability to position product knowledge seminars  just  prior to the important campaigns.   For exam ple:

>       Major Home Store and Back-To-School seminars are scheduled just prior to our August kick-off. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day each have meetings to focus on key trends, items, and classifications. And for holiday, we have a total storewide holiday seminar and rally.

>       Personal Trade and Appointment  Selling are intensified during the start of appropriate campaigns when we are sending our best customers infonnation  on ou r best assortments and values.

>       Our Pre-sell program is then utilized to help drive all of our core events.

>               And finally, associate contests are implemented to help reward meeting sales goals for Anniversary Sale, Bon Days, Mother’ s Day, Father’s Day, Back-To-School. and our two Home Show and Sales to ensure we maximize the entire organization’s  effort toward  these major  campaigns.

MEDIA  AND CREATIVE

The overall approach of our creative and media is to provide a highly consistent, yet diverse, message that reinforces the HeadquaTter Store positioning to each of ou r individual ·commu nities. i3ur goal is ta haviV-each package.he consistently focused to ensu re we do not present too many messages in the market at any one time.  The critical element to accomplishing these focused messages is the marketing calendar.  By

identif ying what each week’s messages are, and by focusing on key customer pu rchasing periods, a consistent visual approach can be accomplished, from advertising in all media, back to point of sale.

It is very important that when we are involved in a major campaign such as Back-To­ Scbool, all appropriate families of business, from watches in our accessories division to electronics in ou r home division, become part of the overall storewide campaign.  Though other advertising may be ru nning du ring these campaigns, the overall creative approach ca nnot allow any one classification of business to detract from the major storewide campaign  eff ort.

CONTINGENCY

In every season, no matter how well we plan it, things will happen that we must react to. Our ability to achieve all of our merchandising and financial goals requires that we prepare contingency plans to react to the season ‘s u nknown factors.  The key to this pragmatic planning  lies in second and fourth quarters.  Dollars must be set aside to  ensure that we have the funds to enhance or create a promotion during down-business climates.  Space is identified on the calendar during our pre-season planning where a contingency promotion could  be created if the business so dictated.  This year, we have a contingency promotion ready for the weekend before Christmas that will be decided upon after we review the results of our Thanksgiving weekeQd.  The goal is to be ready for the unexpected and hopef ully not use it.  But if we have to, we must be sure that we do not destroy our image, integrity, margins, or profitability  in the process.

BUDGETS

Now that we have looked at the strategic .plan of what we wish to accomplish and what we would like the customer to see, we need to now discuss our bu dget planning process. Budget planning starts by looking at last seasons sales and advertising expenditures by family of business.  Sales opportunities are identified by family of business as well as by month.  John and I review last years calendar and make a preliminary version of the

season being planned.   Once the preliminary plan is created, the G.Ml\i’s and the director of stores are included to ensure that a well balanced and thoughtf ul discussion take place. Advertising divides the allotted budget dollars into store controlled and merchant controlled budgets.  The store controlled budgets ensure ou r major campaigns, holidays, special events, short-term events, back-up media, and clea rance events are sufficiently fmanced.  The remainder of the money is given to the G.Ml\i’s to allocate toward the support of their events and to build opportunities within individual families of business.

Once advertising has collected the plans, a fmal sales and budget analysis takes place to ensure the advertising programs are balanced,  focused, and edited.  Our goal is to complete our advertising planning at the same time we complete our stock and sales planning to ensu re we have a well coordinated and thoughtful merchandising and marketing  plan.

WHY IT WORKS

The first step in making an aggressive merchandising and marketing calendar work starts with the concept of focusing and editing.  It is crucial that we do not allow anything to be added onto the calendar that does not fit our long range plans.  We also realize that we don ‘t have enough money to do everything.

Therefore, we must thuose th-ose-things that need to be done and do them right. It is imperative that all the company ‘ s assets are focused in an organized and directed way.  We recognize that a lot of individual messages are not as powerf ul as a focused,  pointed, and directed marketing effort.

*       The second step is the concept of accountability.  I take personal accountability for ensu ring the merchants provide the best assortments and values for Anniversary Sale, Bon Days, and Thanksgiving Day Sale.  This sets the tone for the GM1\1’s who must now deliver their own individual core events.  The two Home Shows are particularly  important in that they set the stage for the entire season.  Mother’ s Day , Father’s Day, Back-To-School, and holiday ‘s must require the GM1\1’s complete u nderstanding and involvement in every detail of the business.  Then,

the D.Ml\1’ s are held accou ntable to ensu re that their individual classification