I am looking for tips on Advertising and Marketing
I have been in business for four years. I am not looking for more people to contact me for soliciting to advertise with them. What I am looking for is constructive ideas and criticism in my Marketing and Advertising strategy. We have NEW items we deal in Overstocks and Shelf pulls. For some reason we keep getting pegged as a resale store. We are very comparable to a Kohls or Tj Max. We have run commercials and tried 14 different advertising strategies . Our number one seller is our Medical Scrubs They are ONLY $9.99 each. We also offer LAYAWAY. I have recently decided instead of promoting the fact we are 50-75% below retail. I have been spelling it out that our items are NEW, and we have LAYAWAY . We sell items like Clothing, Medical Scrubs , Tiffany Style Lighting, Small Decorative Furniture, Tools , Purses and many other items. The only thing I have noticed we don't do is the circular because we are family owned and not a franchise this is not cost effective. The larger stores do have there own circular. We are going to be in Dollars and Sense , Town Money Saver and Jb Dollar. Please look for these adds and Send me your honest first reaction to these advertising tragedies and what may be a better choice for us. Thank You, Sharrie, Downriver Clearance. 16146 Eureka Rd, Southgate MI 48195 734-281-1240, Mon-Sat 11-7
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Sharrie,
First, if you've been in business for four years, presumably making money, you're doing well. I'd recommend first taking an honest assessment of who your customers are. Who is buying the Medical Scrubs? Why did they choose you? Who are the customers for your other products? What do they WANT and how do you uniquely satisfy that want? The beauty of retail is that you get to talk to the customer directly. For most businesses, paid advertising, especially commercials (TV or Radio?) are a waste of money. Also, you need to take an honest assessment of why you keep getting pegged as a resale shop. Perception is reality. Despite what you know, what the customer/potential customer believes is what matters.
That's a start at least off the top of my head. Good luck!
Keith
Hi Keith, Thank you for your honest opinion. LOL To start where were you four years ago??? I did do the Commercial I was to small, and got jokes like I am going through the kitchen area it was to small. You are correct small business and commercials are a waist of money, and it is very costly. 99.9% of our customers are very good customers. The problem as you no is getting new customers through the door. The old customers are still there they are just not spending what they did spend. The getting pegged as a Resale store is something they come up with driving by, or seeing our add in paper. We have moved, we have expanded, and we are in a GREAT location. I spent $3000 just for signage to make it look good and to explain to people what we do. This is why they say they thought We were a resale store" Clearance " the word clearance is what makes people think that ironically it is the same reason they stop. people by our scrubs over a national chain because our scrubs are affordable yet still have quality. that campaign of the scrubs has been very successful. Our target market is Women between 18-50. I look forward to hearing some more insight on this topic. Thanks Sharrie, Downriver clearance
Editorials garner a greater response for me than ads. How much media have you gotten? How often are you writing press releases?
Wow, congratulations on the 4 years and yes, we have been in business 10 years and its a bigger struggle now than it used to be. My suggestion is that you first make the assessment of who your customer base is and then make a chart of where you find these customers. Once this is done, you move to step 2, arranging to make presentations to these people in group format.
Your best audience is going to be a captive audience and your best customer is going to be a referral.
As for the commercials, no they are not a waste of money, the waste comes in when you place them in the wrong spot. For example, you know that you have an excellent deal on scrubs, students in vocational classes in school districts need and purchase scrubs. (big market, we have tons of districts in arms length and quite a few trade schools) My neice is purchasing what she needs right now for her Fall vocational classes, you need to get into the community, get to the parent groups and make some presentations. This costs you nothing. Take samples, take a model if you need one, maybe a few refreshments, but get out there.
Please send me the url to your website so I can check it out. Unfortunately, I have never heard of your store and would like to see what you have. Good luck and get busy.
Hi Lynell, It is always nice to hear other people's ideas. I agree word of mouth is the the best advertising and has helped a lot. I also belong to business organization with over 400 members and has really helped. With the new location our sales figures are going up . We also started advertizing in our local paper. The windows are big we also put up displays and verbiage to attract new customers. The big sign in our new location CLEARANCE is attracting people. We also offer LAYAWAY. Where are you out of and what do you do??? here is our link http://www.downriverclearance.net/
Hi Lisa, I have not wrote any press releases. It is something to think about. What do you do for a living? Thanks Sharrie, Downriver Clearance http://www.downriverclearance.net/
I own a day spa. I write some of my articles, but I have great PR support from Walker Professional Writing Services. Here's just a few pieces that were picked up by the papers:
http://walkerpws.com/womenintuition.pdf
http://walkerpws.com/NewYou.OP.1108.pdf
http://walkerpws.com/OaklandPress-TODAY.pdf
I've had articles in the OP, Macomb Daily, Free Press, Suburban Lifestyles, Rochester Observer, Advisor/Source, Six Degrees.... and the articles always garner more business than ads. It takes a lot of time and it pays to have a rapport with the editors. What I pay Walker PWS is more than worth it -- she has the connections and I just don't have the time to polish all these press releases. Consider hiring someone like Andrea. Good luck.
Dear Sharrie:
I have been trying to send you a private message and I am unable to. Can you email me?
Sharrie,
Here is a slightly different take on your posting. I believe that it all starts with branding. In thinking about your perception issue, you should address why people think of you the way they do. A good way of doing that is to simply ask the people that come into the store! A basic survey of a few questions will go along way in solving the problem. Once you can define your strengths and weaknesses you can move forward in developing your brand in the direction that you want it to move towards.
With a small business such as yours, I think that you should have a major part of your marketing effort include a social networking component in addition to email marketing campaign that you can monitor. You can do this by having signs in your store that mention email only deals. This is a great way of giving someone something of value in trade for their email address. You will be amazed how many pass along referrals you can get with out spending any money at all to capture them.
Hopefully this is helpful,
Bob