Some time ago my brother visited a shop which used a marketing product that my company then published called Magazine Guide, which helped independent retailers to promote their shops as destinations for magazine buyers. When he called me to tell me about it, he remarked that he almost missed it because the last thing he expected a local shop to do was to market to him.
A little later that year I was in a chemist shop and it had a big stack of shampoo on a gondola end and what looked like a side of a cardboard box sitting behind it. Looking closer at the brown cardboard, the retailer had written details of his special offer on it in faint blue ballpoint pen. It was not easy to read and the overall impact it made was poor.
As it was a Saturday morning, I took the time to walk to a multiple retailer four units down the high street to check its price for the shampoo. The local retailer was cheaper and ever since I have wondered why the sign was so poor when the deal was so good.
There are two points I want to make.
Firstly, local retailers should not assume that shoppers see their marketing. If you are going to market to shoppers, you need to commit time and effort to it and to communicate your belief that you are making a good offer.
Secondly, your marketing needs to be integrated. You need to ensure that people who see the marketing are impressed by it, even if they do not buy then and there. It needs to say something about your shop that will make it stand out and encourage them to return.
The owner of the local chemist could easily have walked by the multiple to compare prices and then communicate that he was cheaper. Or he could have said that next week there would be another great deal in his shop. For me he is memorable only for poor marketing.
A little later that year I was in a chemist shop and it had a big stack of shampoo on a gondola end and what looked like a side of a cardboard box sitting behind it. Looking closer at the brown cardboard, the retailer had written details of his special offer on it in faint blue ballpoint pen. It was not easy to read and the overall impact it made was poor.
As it was a Saturday morning, I took the time to walk to a multiple retailer four units down the high street to check its price for the shampoo. The local retailer was cheaper and ever since I have wondered why the sign was so poor when the deal was so good.
There are two points I want to make.
Firstly, local retailers should not assume that shoppers see their marketing. If you are going to market to shoppers, you need to commit time and effort to it and to communicate your belief that you are making a good offer.
Secondly, your marketing needs to be integrated. You need to ensure that people who see the marketing are impressed by it, even if they do not buy then and there. It needs to say something about your shop that will make it stand out and encourage them to return.
The owner of the local chemist could easily have walked by the multiple to compare prices and then communicate that he was cheaper. Or he could have said that next week there would be another great deal in his shop. For me he is memorable only for poor marketing.
Comments
Post a Comment