Help for Retailers It didn't used to be so difficult getting your message across. Just call the newspaper and radio station you listened to and they took care of it. Today, even though there are twice as many customers in town, there are also twice as many competitors - many with lots of experience expanding into new markets and gobbling up customers faster than the local establishments can say "what happened?" You DO have one advantage. This is YOUR market, and with local professional help from one of the area's most respected marketing & advertising agencies, you can capitalize on your strengths as the local business that really DOES care about the needs and desires of the people who live and shop here - and is willing to do what it takes to satisfy them. It takes a plan Whether you are re-directing your company, adding a product or service, experiencing increased competition or just trying to improve customer satisfaction, having a plan forces you to write your ideas down on paper. Once you've done that, and objectively included any external factors that could influence your ideas - you essentially have a basic marketing plan. A strategic or formal marketing plan is one that helps you identify your business strengths and weaknesses, determines where you want to be in the next five years and what it will take to get there, then maps the steps backwards to where you are right now. We develop plans for clients of all sizes. A simple local retailer's plan costs about $1,500. It takes persistance If you don't have a huge marketing and advertising bugdet - or even if you do - it's important to realize that your customers and prospects take in 3000 advertising messages each day. By simply adding one more -yours - how long do you think it will take before people are even aware that you're talking to them? Deciding on a strong, simple message that distinguishes your business and speaks to your customers' self-interest, and using a mix of at least two different medias to communicate the same message consistently, you can expect to cut through the clutter after perhaps a few weeks. That should be your beginning. Stay with it, changing only details, not the overall theme or identity of the message, and you will slowly start increasing traffic into your business as a direct result. To really have success, budget that kind of exposure for an entire year, either continuously or using alternating months of exposure, and people will begin to follow your advertising, especially if they've stopped in and found that the experience met the expectation you created. Then, you can change the message or theme regularly, and your customers will respond. This is the approach we take with our small, local retail clients, and it works. It takes understanding your customer if you're paying attention to your customers, not only while they're in your store, but also around town, at work and in the media, you know that there are actually many small segments which make up your customer base. To grow, you must either sell them more of your goods and services, or find more people to become your customers. The least expensive option is to sell your current customers something else. That's called cross-selling. They are already loyal, so why not encourage them to add something else "to the shopping basket?" New customers are just like your current customers, except not yet in the building. Choose a mixture of advertising media that reaches your customers, and you'll reach the prospects, too. Add, change or revise your inventory, merchandising, and decor to re-excite your current customers, and those same adjustments will bring in new people just like them. Most business owners know segments of their customers pretty well, but don't be fooled by who you see in the store. Men typically don't shop, but they pick up a lot of stuff for their wives. If you see more men in your business than women, don't assume they are making any buying decisions. You could end up advertising to the messenger, and miss your decision-making customer altogether. A little overwhelming? Contact Gould. We can help.