Being a keen musician I am a regular visitor to the family run music retailer close by. I had been fascinated to listen to the owner chat about the challenges faced by local retailers and how he faced those challenges.
The owner has run this business for over 15 years and, like many other folks in his position, he likes to believe that there's not many (if any) new methods that he could possibly be taught which may substantially enhance his business.
ENTERPRISE RENTAL COUPONS
Until now he'd always relied on an excellent location and a devoted (and well-heeled) client-base to provide a solid grounding for the business to flourish - the few marketing and advertising promotions that he had got involved with (e.g. leafleting & local media advertising) have turned out to be very unsatisfactory and downright costly. However, he pointed out how he was recently offered some temporary space in one of the most important shopping malls in his community which adjoins his business, and decided to set up a 2 day display and advertising event manned by himself and another other staff member.
They constructed an eye-catching, appealing exhibit (fairly straight-forward in their business!) and used a free winning prize-draw competition (acoustic guitar and accessories) to aid preliminary contact with passing customers. Additionally they concentrated on marketing the many services that they offered (instrument rental, instrument repairs, recording studio, guitar tuition, website with local links etc.) by making several A5 sized leaflets which passers-by could grab.
The promotion happened on a Friday and Saturday and, since they were exhibiting lots of electric guitars, keyboards and so on at heavily discounted prices, he mentioned that he definitely predicted a lot better than average sales and profits for those 2 days.
As expected, their yield was superb - three times the average for the 2 days - which, while very welcome, would in itself have been no greater than a useful strategy to clear some surplus stock at very low profit margins. What he did not anticipate (and here is the real bonus ) was that they would secure so many new customers because of this event - despite the fact that their promotional event happened no more 20 metres from their retail outlet. He was amazed by how many people they spoke to who had not a clue that they existed and have since been in to see us and make purchases!
So, what did they learn from this?
What this happy experience has really driven home is that:
1) No matter how long your company has been running and how excellent your location might be, the numbers of long-term nearby residents who are entirely ignorant of your existence is undoubtedly way higher than you think!
2) Standard promotional techniques such as paper advertising and leafleting are nowhere near as valuable as 'coming out from behind the counter' and taking your business directly to the shopper. These days Town Centre Managers will bend over backwards to support single (or groups of) small enterprises set up promotional days much like the one they did, and very often it will not cost a penny!
A Successful Tale From A Local Retailer
The author works in the website design industry and is a keen guitar player. He lives in Surrey, England and is a regular visitor to the excellent independent music store Ritz Music. Ritz Music have expanded and currently have a music shop in Putney and a Richmond music shop.
ENTERPRISE RENTAL COUPONS
0 comments:
Post a Comment