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McCurry Associates Marketing Idea Exchange ArchivesVolume 68 - January 15, 2004
Idea #1 – Big Events Bring In Big Bucks Mike
LaMotte, National Camera Exchange,
In June of 2002, we inaugurated our 1st Annual
Summer Celebration Sale. We wanted to see what we could do differently to market
a sale, as well as photography, at the same time. This sale runs the second week
of June, and lasts 10 days.
We run a four color, full page ad on the first
Friday and Sunday of the sale, and a full page color ad on the second Friday. We
run full page ads not only for their impact, but because of all the information
we need to inform the customer about.
We hold a Summer Celebration drawing at each of
our five locations, with prizes including Twins baseball tickets, Bushnell
binoculars, Minnesota Zoo passes, county park passes, and a grand prize of $300
National Camera Shopping Spree.
We offer free giveaways to the first 50
customers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday on both sale weekends. These are small
gifts, which might include a 4x6 photo album, a brushed metal magnetic frame or
a free processing coupon.
We also offer a free seminar class on "Is
a Digital Camera Right for You?" on both weekends at each store. These
classes average ten customers per store per class, and are well received by
customers who are confused about what type of camera to buy.
We emphasize selling digital products in our
ads, and have manufacturers "digital demos" from Canon and
For the kids, we give away free balloons on
both weekends, and hold a special "Kids Wildlife Photo Contest" for
children 12 and under. Winners receive single use cameras and passes to the
Minnesota Zoo. We then display the winners at all our stores.
For the adults, we hold a "Minnesota
Best" photo contest in which the photographers try to show what they like
best about Minnesota Summers. Prizes include a Nikon Coolpix 3100, a Bushnell
Natureview Binocular and a $50 Photofinishing Certificate from National Camera.
So was all the work worth the effort? I
asked that same question as we planned the 2003 event, and I had my doubts. But
in our first two years of the event, sales increased for the 10 day period by an
average of 15%. And this in one of our busiest times outside of the holiday
season. In fact, this year, on our
opening Friday, we had an all time record sales day (outside of December), and
increased sales by 37%! In addition, we sold over 200 digital cameras and 16
digital SLR's on our opening weekend this year.
The bottom line---------customers still
respond to event marketing, and the sizzle is still just as important as the
steak. If anyone has any further questions about this sale, feel free to e-mail
me at mikel@natcam.com. Idea #2
– Picture Your Store . . . Through Your Customers’ Perspective Rich
Reed, Reed’s Camera & Video,
In a non- specific time and or date we
photograph the inside of the store starting from the customer entrance we shoot
the whole store including the displays and behind the counters then the lab
prints all of the images this lets us "see" the store as a customer we
can study the "look" and overall appearance.
It also gives us a chance to use an "in
stock lens" to better understand the products we sell. We used the
Promaster 19-35 wide zoom which was perfect for this task. This exercise also
allows us to check lab quality. You will be surprised to see what you find when you look at your store on paper. Idea #3
– Drive Thru Drives Dollars – Goodies Garner Gratitude - Allen
Showalter, Showalter Imaging Group/King Photo,
Not so easy to implement in all stores but, a drive thru window is a
great marketing tool. We have them in 3 of 4 stores and customers love them.
Busy moms with kids in the car and pet owners are the most common users (two
very popular subjects for photographs by the way). We give out a free dog
biscuit or a wrapped piece of candy to those customers and for 3 cents we look
like heroes. Idea # 4
– Further discussion on displaying comparison prints of your competitors >>>
Editor’s Note – We can’t explain why, but this message dated July 28, 2003
just surfaced in our email box – we apologize to Kurt for the delay in posting
his insights to this ongoing discussion. <<<
Not a day goes by now, that a customer will
bring in prints done at a large chain lab and ask us to redo them (and pay
reprint price) to have their photos "on the board".
Once they really are aware of the difference
they become customers, and even better they become our positive word of mouth
advertisers. We are now working on one exclusively for digital files - lots of
material there. Idea # 5
– Further discussion on displaying comparison prints of your competitors Ken
Sutton, K-Ellis PHOTOCENTER, klsphoto@aol.com
The comparison idea is a 2 edged sword. We felt confident enough to
purchase test rolls and bring them to our local competitors. We were
flabbergasted to learn that of our 4 major competitors, 3 were nearly as good as
ours!
We will run additional tests later to see if
our competitors are really that good or they just got lucky. If they really are
that good, we now know to stress service and consistency. Upcoming
Industry Speaking Events with Bill McCurry –
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