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| Mar 07, 2009 1:36 pm |
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The Sky is Falling! |
Kathy Buck
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It seems any place you turn your reading, watching or hearing about the bad economy from some bobble head. Indeed and sadly, there are growing numbers enduring job losses. Is the Sky really Falling though?
The doom and gloom media and political narrators seem to promote the "chicken little theory" - if you buy into this why not look at a solution VS flapping your arms around with the growing numbers?
Case in Point - Showing the Love
I serve as part of a steering committee for marketing and promotions w/ my local city. One of the main tasks is promoting the downtown as a destination. I've mentioned the city as being accepted into the national Main Street program. This organization put a hearty task of launching our event calendar in Feb 09.
An event was planned and laid out, then presented to merchants. The response? "Kathy, are you nuts?" Why? I proposed a ladies evening out on weekday in February ( a very cold month in my neck of the woods.) Committee members jumped on board with the event and got 42 merchants on board with; "Kiss of Indulgence - Ladies Evening Out"
The jest of the event:
-Free to attend
-Merchants provide an Indulgence to entice attendees
-Free Shuttles
-Over 700.00 in prizes awarded to drawn submitted Indulgence Checklists.
The objective: Get a female demographic into downtown shops. "Fem Fatale" marketing: Women like to be pampered and then refer. The most fierce of loyalty referrals come from ladies to other ladies and those families as well as co-workers! Shop owners could indulge ladies and personalize themselves and their offerings.
Take a Lesson from the Big Boys
You may notice in your areas larger shopping centers offering free samples. Locally several grocery stores have displays w/ product samples. This is a great way to learn more about a product, and if your like some a great way to get a free lunch! HA HA.
How does this benefit a business?
I'll agree, these are tough times and wallets are pinched tight. Disposable funds for non-essential items from the "normal" target hard to get too. As I always say though, just because someone can't afford it now, does not mean they are not craving it. Give a reason to be remembered when that wallet does open!
The end result of the "Kiss of Indulgence" event? Well - remember I mentioned the event on a weekday in the chilly throes of Wisconsin winter? The event (first of it's kind locally) was projected to draw only 100. We out did ourselves - 627 women registered. Many were seen with no checklists, it was estimated that over 700 filled the downtown streets. While surveying attendees, my favorite comments (besides what a fun night) was: "I never knew that shop existed or what they had...." Merchants reported despite not being ready for the high numbers, sales were good and several reporting event attendees stopping back to make purchases already :)
The Sky is falling here locally, with some 700 new prospective customers and a ton of post event PR!
So how could you apply this method to boost your sales prospect base?
Cheers~
KB
PS: Ya, this is why I have been MIA! :-)
Private Reply to Kathy Buck (new win) |
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