Download The New Retail Advertising

The New Retail Advertising
By Gary A. Wright
“The traffic generated by the advertising was unbelievable. It was very effective in
that it brought new customers into the store as well as the ‘regulars’ and… quickly
improved our cash flow.”
G.A. Wright Clients --- James and Karen Myers
This Special Report will provide you with some valuable information about advertising your retail business that
comes from extensive research and years of experience producing advertising results for hundreds of retail businesses.
Included are specific recommendations you can employ immediately to increase your customer traffic and sales volume.
My company is an international management consulting firm specializing in retail sales promotion. Our clients
are retail businesses of all sizes that merchandise almost every type of product purchased by consumers.
Retail sales promotion is the business of attracting customers and producing sales. To accomplish our goals of
generating big increases in our client’s sales volumes, we become involved in all aspects of a retail business that affect the
sale of products to consumers. Advertising is certainly an important part of this process.
Competitor Proof Marketing
“My major chain store competition? I really don’t even spend much time thinking
about them. They are no longer a problem.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Gordon L. King
Since the early 70’s, there has been a huge proliferation in the number of retail competitors. Shopping center
space has grown, during this period, from about 7 square feet to 19 square feet per capita. This is up almost 300%, during
a period when the population has only grown 29%. Additionally, the productivity of selling space, measured in constant
dollars per square foot of selling space, is declining. This has led to intense price competition and the growth of larger
discounters and category killers.
There is no room in the marketplace for another competitor, whose unique selling proposition is, “The lowest
prices, guaranteed.” There is, however, great opportunity for retailers who can provide high quality products and a very
high level of service or market to a unique niche. There are strategies that will allow good retailers to create a competitor
proof business where a lower price will not cause wholesale customer defections.
Developing the store as a brand, is a strategy that can be very effective at insulating a store from competitors, and
pulling together merchandising and marketing tactics that will allow a store to dominate its competitors.
A successful store brand can allow premium pricing, help block competitors, lower marketing costs, and increase
customer visits. It is a means of separating a retail business from its competition.
Brand identity can be created through the following:
* Store Name
* Logo
* Advertising jingle
* Private label products
* Signs on buildings and vehicles * Point-of-purchase materials
* Special events
* Publicity
* Celebrity endorsements
* Business philosophy
* Slogan
* Logo bags, boxes, and wrapping paper
* Credit cards or frequent shopper cards
* Service
A store brand is the intangible quality a store possesses that will attract customers and allow it to charge a
premium price. In the case of Tiffany & Co., it is the benefit realized by a customer, when a gift is delivered in the
unmistakable blue Tiffany’s box. For the Body Shop, it is shopping with a company that shares the values of its
customers. For Nike it is the prestige customers feel when wearing Nike logo sportswear.
These types of intangible benefits can be developed by any size company in its individual market area. The key is
deciding what a store brand name should represent in the mind of the consumer and then reinforcing that message in
every possible way. Branding most often provides the benefit of exclusivity. A small retailer can generally provide
this benefit more easily than can a larger retailer. It is desirable to have your customers purchase a product from you
because that product comes from your store, rather than because of price, product brand, or convenience alone. If you
can build this intangible value into your store brand, you will take a major leap in insulating yourself from your
competitors.
Since most other advertising decisions will be affected by the issue of brand identity, it is important to have a
clear vision of the brand message, before proceeding with the development of an advertising program.
Your Market Area
“It [the G.A. Wright promotion] has proven to me the type of advertising that has
the most impact in this area. This turns out to be entirely different than the
advertising we have been using in the past.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Joe Wheatley
One of the first most important considerations, when discussing advertising, is the store market area. When your
purchase advertising, you must buy media that will deliver your message to your market in cost-effective way.
In most cases, the primary market area of a store can be defined as the geographic area extending between 2 and 5
miles in radius from the store. Although there are some exceptions to this, it’s true for the vast majority of retail
businesses I’ve seen.
If you’d like a better way to define your market area than this 2 to 5 mile rule, I’d suggest that you start taking the
name and address of every customer who shops at your store. You’ll need about 400 addresses to obtain a good
sample. Then, on a large map of your area, you can plot the addresses of each customer. After plotting all 400
addresses, you should then be able to draw boundaries around the highest concentration of customers to include threefourths (300) of all customers. The concentration and general location of these boundaries should be obvious. This
will constitute your primary market area.
You should evaluate any media you buy only in terms of its penetration in this primary market area. You should
consider any money you spend outside of this area as money wasted.
For example, if you’re an independent retail store in a suburban shopping center of a large metropolitan area, and
you choose to advertise in a large metropolitan paper with a paid circulation of say, 400,000 newspapers, the majority
of the money you spend is probably reaching readers outside your market area. Therefore, you’re wasting most of the
money you spend on advertising in that newspaper.
If you want to further refine your market area analysis, you could then plot the location of your competitors on the
map. Looking at the competitions’ locations and the concentration of customers’ addresses will give you’re an idea of
how each competitor is affecting your business and your market area.
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Finding Your Best Customers
“Your marketing techniques drastically increased our customer base. Your consultant
devised a new marketing approach for us that should enable us to get better results,
and better market penetration, from our advertising budget, at half the previous cost.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Susan Simpson
Demographics are socioeconomic characteristics pertaining to a geographic area, such as a county, city, or zip
code. For example, the average income of all people living in a county is a demographic characteristic of that county.
An analysis of the demographic characteristics of your market area may be an important consideration when
making advertising decisions, depending on your store and product mix. If you sell merchandise that everyone buys
like soap and toothpaste, then demographics play a less important role. If you sell fur coats or Rolex watches, then
demographics are probably more important, because they help you identify your target market – the people most
likely to shop in your store.
Demographic analysis is surprisingly easy if you have access to a large national database that compiles this
information from phone books, census data, real estate records, auto registrations, and other such data sources. Since
my company uses this information all the time, we have access to online databases that enable us to do detailed
analysis for our clients.
To briefly explain the way it works, we enter the address of a store location. Then, the computer scans the area
around that location using a radius we specify, generally between 2 and 5 miles, and accumulates all of the demographic information in the database for the relevant geographic area. We can then print out the information in a
report, as well as generate a map that allows us to locate the store and neighborhoods surrounding the store.
We can look at 41 different demographic characteristics down to the carrier route level. A carrier route encompasses the addresses where mail is delivered by one mail carrier. The characteristics include percentage breakdowns –
medians or averages for: age, income, home value, length of residence at a specific address, car value, years of
education, ethnic grouping and many more selections.
People living in a neighborhood tend to have similar income levels and similar buying habits. Therefore, if you
can map the area surrounding a store and then geographically determine which areas are more or less likely to contain
your customers, it makes decisions about advertising much easier to make. Direct mail, newspaper, flyer distribution,
and outdoor advertising can all benefit from demographic information.
Which Media to Use
“I found it interesting how the use of different media would create customer traffic
that would stretch our capacity to the maximum to handle them.”
G.A. Wright Client --- David F. Boseman
Once you’ve established your Primary Market Area, the next step is choosing media that are most likely to deliver
your advertising message to that market in a cost-effective way. An easy and straightforward way to do this is to take
the cost of an advertisement and divide by the number of people within the primary market area who are receiving the
message to obtain a cost per person reached. This gives you a way to compare different advertising media and draw
some conclusions concerning your chances of successfully reaching likely customers at a given price.
Although it may sound complicated, most advertising media representatives can provide you with information
from independent rating services that give your characteristics of the audience they reach and the geographic
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distribution of the audience. For example, a newspaper salesperson can tell you the number of people who subscribe
to his paper in various parts of town, sometimes by zip code area or some other geographic designation. The key here
is to consider only those newspapers delivered within your market area. Disregard anything delivered outside your
primary market area. The characteristics of the audience vary in importance with the product you sell. If your
product appeals to families with children, you may be able to obtain information indicating that 30% of the
households reached have children. You then multiply the number of subscriptions in your market area by 30% and
divide cost by that number to obtain a cost person reached. You obviously want to use media that will reach the
largest number of likely customers at the lowest price.
You might be surprised at how much information is available about your market area, most of which you can get
from media salespeople.
Newspaper Advertising that Works
“We felt that our past efforts to advertise, in the newspaper especially, were of little
worth. Your consultant used newspaper in a way that in produced results.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Shelly Gunderson
Newspaper is one of the most used advertising media for retail businesses. It’s well suited to the visual nature of
retailing and the necessity for local targeting. It must be effective or it wouldn’t be used so extensively by retailers.
However, I talk to many retailers who don’t believe it works for them. …There’s almost always a good reason it’s not
producing results. … Usually, it’s not being used correctly.
In this special report, I’ll provide you with tried and tested techniques for using newspaper that will make it work
for you.
My consulting company uses newspaper to produce results for our clients in all 50 states and several other
countries. I’m providing you with lessons we’ve learned about newspaper for almost every type of retail and
conceivable market environment. If you use the techniques and rules discussed here, you’ll start seeing increased
traffic and sales results from your newspaper advertising.
How to Pick a Newspaper
“Educationally, we have learned more than we can begin to digest in the short period
of time we have had. We learned about advertising and how to analyze where we’re
spending money and how to track the results the advertising brings.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Billy Birthrong
Once you’ve defined your primary market area, you should choose advertising media that gets you the most
exposure at the lowest price within that area. Disregard any advertising that reaches outside your defined primary
market area. Consider it money completely wasted.
For example, if an ad costs $500 and 50% of your readers are outside your primary market area, you’ve just
wasted $250 of your ad budget.
The key then is to choose newspaper that has the highest circulation within your primary market area at the lowest
price.
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Newspapers have a variety of different characteristics that will help you determine which is best for your business,
such as those listed below:
Local --- usually a small community paper
Metropolitan --- published and circulated in large city
Ads only --- published and circulated in a large city
Editorial --- uses the appeal of stories to sell papers
Free --- is circulated without charge; frequently, delivered to every house in a neighborhood
Paid --- is only delivered to paid subscribers
Weekly --- is delivered once a week, usually Wednesday night or Thursday morning
Daily --- is delivered every day
When evaluating newspapers, here’s how to make the best choice:
Pick the one that delivers the most papers in your primary market area at the lowest cost. For an independent
retailer, this is usually a small local newspaper with a 10,000 to 15,000 circulation within a five-mile radius of the
store.
If you pick a local paper, ideally, it should be a weekly. People who read daily paper, usually read a large
metropolitan daily, but still want the local news and will pick up a community paper once a week.
If your market is best covered by a large metropolitan paper, then always use a daily.
Never advertise in an ads only paper. Display advertising, that attempts to draw traffic and sell your products at a
profit, won’t work in a shopper. If you are willing to take a substantial loss on a product, you might try a shopper for
classified advertising.
Don’t use free papers if you can avoid them. The sales pitch always sounds attractive because they usually
circulate a large number of papers in your market at a low price. The problem is … you can’t depend on the
circulation figures. People consider those papers to be throw-aways and a nuisance.
If subscribers pay to have a paper delivered, then the circulation figure within your primary market area and the
cost is all you need to know. If they pay for it, chances are, they read it.
After going through the above characteristics, you can hopefully find a local weekly with editorial copy and a
paid circulation. You should then take a look at the cost per ad delivered in your primary market area to make the
final decision.
How Much to Spend
“I was seriously concerned about spending that much money in such a short period of
time in advertising… Actually we found that we came in significantly under budget…
Our percentage of advertising dollars spent against sales were less than what we’d
normally spend because of our sales volume increasing so tremendously…”
G.A. Wright Client --- Steve Stebbins
Most retailers spend 2% to 3% of gross sales on advertising. However, advertising expenditures vary from
nothing to about 10%.
Many small stores in regional malls don’t spend anything for advertising. Actually, they do, but it’s included in
the rent. The large anchor stores pull the traffic that keeps the smaller stores alive.
A store in an isolated location obviously must spend more. Advertising also varies by type of merchandise.
Furniture retailers, for example, spend about 5% on average.
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To give you a more generalized view about advertising expenditures, let me discuss a hypothetical independent
specialty store, in a suburban strip center, where there’s a good local newspaper.
During the first two months of this store’s existence, the advertising budget should be about 10% of projected
sales. After that, I’d back advertising down to about 5%. Once the store was established and profitable, I would try to
hold advertising at about 3% most of the year, with one or two high impact advertising campaigns that might rise to
about 8%.
I would spend 40% of the advertising budget on direct mail. I’d also run some yellow pages advertising and have
a web page and spend the rest on newspaper advertising.
Although there are a number of circumstances that might dictate the use of other advertising media, the vast
majority of retailers can do quite well with these.
When to Advertise
“I was just amazed at how… such an integral part of the whole program was
advertising in the newspaper during the middle of the week… I had always advertised
on Sunday in our local paper.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Steve Stebbins
The best days for newspaper advertising are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. These days have the highest
readership and the lowest level of other activity competing for the consumer’s attention.
If I were to pick one day a week to advertise, it would be Thursday. Wednesday competes with grocery advertising in many areas and Thursday is closest to the weekend, when many consumers shop.
If I had a large enough budget to advertise in every issue, I would. If not, I’d advertise Tuesday through
Thursday. At a minimum, I would recommend advertising at least once each week on a Thursday.
Newspaper advertising benefits from repetition. You want to be in the same paper, on the same day, in the same
section, every week. A lone ad is a waste of money.
Although you want to be consistent and repetitive with newspaper advertising, your expenditures should track
sales. When sales are higher than normal, you should spend more for advertising. If you budget a fixed percentage of
sales for advertising, then your expenditures will naturally correspond to sales.
It’s also important to take holidays, paydays, and other special event into consideration. As the old saying goes
… you should go hunting when the geese are flying.
I recommend sales promotion advertising to coincide with month end paydays. Sales promotion is designed to
produce an immediate response. You want the first shot at that paycheck.
What to Advertise
“We learned that the goal of advertising is to create traffic and the result of
increased traffic is that it generates sales.”
G.A. Wright, Inc. Client --- Billy Birthrong
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The objective of advertising is to draw customer traffic into your store. Advertising should not be designed to sell
the product. Your merchandising, pricing and salespeople sell the product.
Many retailers make the mistake of advertising items they don’t stock in sufficient quantities or are having
difficulty selling. If you don’t have an advertised item in stock you will disappoint customers and could be accused of
unethical advertising. If you advertise items that are not attractive to your customers, you won’t draw traffic to your store.
Neither of these approaches will work.
You must pick items to advertise, which you have in quantity, and which your customers want to buy. This is the
only effective way to consistently draw customer traffic.
Your most important choice of an item to advertise is an item that is attractive to the greatest number of customers
right now. It should be universally attractive, in season, and priced to sell.
If you have a sporting goods store, for example, the best item to advertise is not baseball gloves. Why? Not
everyone plays baseball. How about athletic shoes? Who doesn’t have a pair in the closet? A sale on athletic shoes is
one of the best traffic draws for most sporting goods retailers.
However, it is important to let your customers know the breadth of merchandise you carry. I would advertise
items from the various departments in your store even though those items might not be the best universal draw in the ad.
So… in picking items for an ad, try to find at least one item that is universally attractive to your customers, in
season, and in stock in sufficient quantity. Pick additional items that will educate your customers concerning your
inventory or highlights the various departments in your store.
Remember that the only purpose of an ad is to draw traffic to your store. Wait until you get the customer in the
store before you sell the product.
Where in the Paper to Place the Ad
“Whenever we were doing any display ads, we’d always placed them in the sports
section figuring that’s where people were most likely to be interested in our products
would be looking. Based on G.A. Wright’s past history of successful advertising, we
went with the consultant’s recommendation and found it to be very successful. We had
people actually cutting the ad out of the paper to bring it in to the store, which really
just amazed me.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Steve Stebbins
Newspaper salespeople will come to you with endless reasons to place ads in special sections, ranging from Style,
to Sports, to Neighborhood. That’s because they don’t have any problem selling space in the section that produces the
best results. The first section, General News, has a greater readership than any other section. Some research indicates
that the general news section has a 92% readership as compared to the 70% to 80% range for most other sections.
Regardless of your product, I’d recommend placing an ad in the first section (General News). Then I’d try to get
the top right hand corner of pages three, five, seven, or nine of this section.
Although page and placement are usually hard to get, it is worth asking for. There is nothing more negotiable
than advertising. Push for everything you can get.
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The Best Ad Size
You want to dominate the page with your ad. You can always dominate with a full page but you can usually
dominate with something less than a full page.
Generally, I would not recommend a two-page ad. Although readership will go up somewhat, it won’t come close
to doubling. If I had the budget for two pages, I would run another day or different paper.
With the right ad, you can dominate with a ½ page and sometimes a 1/3 page. I would not recommend going less
than a ¼ page.
If you use a vertical rectangular format, you will generally get the best placement on the page. This means a
rectangle that is higher than it is wide. Horizontal ads go to the bottom. Editorial copy goes to the top left and vertical
ads usually go to the top right.
If you have good page placement and an attractive ad, you don’t need as big an ad to dominate.
The Case for Color
I believe in using black and white in newspaper advertising. The introduction of color will raise readership, but it
won’t raise it enough to compensate for the additional cost.
Two colors can make an ad look worse, unless they are used very skillfully. The best increase in readership you
might expect is about 20%. The cost of adding a color is usually much more than 20%.
Most research concerning color is done with four color, which is even more expensive. Research indicates about
a 38% lift with four color. Printing four color requires four color separations, four sets of plates, and four runs through
most newspaper presses. Four color is only cost-effective if the newspaper is running four color anyway and you can run
on the same sheet for a substantial discount.
Most retailers are best advised to stick with black and white.
How to Lay Out an Ad
To keep from writing a book I’ve narrowed down the information to give you a list of rules to follow concerning
ad content and layout. If you follow these rules, your ads will pull traffic to your store.
1.
Use a bold headline. The headline for the ad is very important and should get your central message across in a
sentence.
2.
Use a consistent type style. Don’t mix type styles. Stick with one style and maybe three sizes, one for the headline,
one for subheads, and one for the body copy. Don’t use all capitals. A combination of upper and lower case letters
is easiest to read.
3.
Enhance credibility. Consumers are skeptical. Anything that enhances the credibility of your advertising will
increase the pull. Use a reason in your ad for a sale or event. Use guarantees where appropriate. Publish your
terms and quantities in stock, etc.
4.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Use pictures liberally. When you feature an item, use a picture of the item, a
short description, and price.
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5.
A photograph is the best way to attract attention to an ad. An attractive central photograph is the best way to get
the reader’s eye to look at your ad. Research indicates photographs of people and animals are most attractive in
that order. Generally, people tend to relate best to their own sex. So you should use a female picture if you are
tying to attract female shoppers. Women are most attracted to pictures of children, especially with products related
to families or children. The photograph should relate to your store or merchandise. Don’t use line drawings for
your central picture, which is used to attract attention.
6.
Picking items of merchandise to feature in an ad is critical to the success of your advertising. You should choose
an item that satisfies one or more of the following requirements:
a.
It is attractive to the greatest possible number of potential customers right now.
b.
It identifies a category of merchandise you carry.
c.
You can advertise a large markdown or a very attractive price.
7.
The best discounts to use in an ad are 20%, 1/2, and 75% off. They are discounts to which consumers relate. They
are easy to calculate. 30% off doesn’t usually have any more selling impact than 20% off …so why waste the extra
10%.
8.
Use specific prices for commodity type items. People are aware of prices only if they buy an item frequently. For
these commodity items an advertised price below the price they usually pay is attractive. If a consumer does not
buy an item frequently and, therefore, doesn’t know what price it should sell for, then an advertised discount is
usually more attractive.
9.
The store name, logo, and address should be placed at the bottom of your add. If the consumer is interested in your
offer, they’ll search the ad until they figure out who you are where to find your store.
10.
Store hours and times should be placed in the ad toward the bottom.
11.
Put positive copy to the top right and negative copy to the bottom left. You should evaluate every element of an ad
with respect to its potential to attract attention and motivate a reader to visit your store. Then put the best drawing
items in the best location within the ad apace.
12.
Distinctive borders, solid black backgrounds, or half tones can increase the visibility of ads. However, body copy
type should always be set against a white background. Reversed type is difficult to read.
13.
Use consistent style that can be easily recognized, over time, by your customers.
14.
A balanced layout, consistent type style, and simplicity should be emphasized.
15.
Don’t use laundry lists. Some retailers want to list every item in the store. Remember … the objective of the ad is
to draw traffic – not to sell specific items.
16.
Proof, proof, proof. Whether you do the ad layout yourself, use a graphic artist, or depend on the newspaper layout
department, mistakes are common. Only extensive proofing and correction will ensure that a good ad will run.
Making Direct Mail Pay
“I had heard all the stories and I had listened to the tape and I just did not believe
that people were going to be waiting outside. We had a snowstorm the day before and
I said oh no – forget it; they’re just not going to wait outside. We opened the doors at
9:31 and there were people waiting outside. And it just didn’t stop. It was the most
intense thing we’ve ever seen. We literally couldn’t take the money in fast enough.
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And, the people were buying. They were buying piles of things. It really has created a
lot of goodwill. I mean the people have enjoyed it and it’s changing the direction of
the store. The use of the direct mail that is, is different and impressive and that’s the
area that I felt as if I… learned the most. If I had known you a few years ago… I
could have been a hundred thousand dollars wealthier today at least.”
This is a quotation from Rick Segel talking about the results achieved with direct mail advertising designed for his
store by G.A. Wright, Inc.
Without a doubt, direct mail is the most powerful advertising available to retailers. Many sophisticated retailers
are now spending 40% to 50% of their advertising budgets on direct mail and some spend more.
Why does direct mail work for retailers?
Retail businesses operate in a market area that can be defined with geographic boundaries. Their customers tend
to have specific characteristics. For example: they’re golfers or women over 30 or they have single family homes.
Because a retailer’s potential customers are usually easy to identify, direct mail offers a very efficient means of
reaching those customers.
“In the past, I had always considered direct mail almost a taboo; I didn’t believe one
could accomplish results using such advertising. However, at this time, I must say my
opinions with respect to direct mail have changed drastically. During his tenure at our
stores, the consultant showed and proved to me that direct mail is by far the most
effective and most efficient advertising media to use, if one knows the secret of how to
develop it properly.”
G.A. Wright Client --- J. Gallegos
The large variety of products and complexity of the retail business necessitates a complicated advertising
message. The advantages of a single product can sometimes be highlighted in a 60 second radio or television spot. It
tastes better; it lasts longer; it cleans whiter. Retailers usually need to talk about a range of products, service, location,
price, and terms of sale. It can’t be done in 60 seconds. That’s why retailers use newspaper more extensively. However,
direct mail offers the best opportunity to communicate a complicated message to the most receptive consumer.
What kind of response is possible from direct mail? It can be measured several different ways. I’ll give you an
idea of the response I’ve been able to achieve for clients. When direct mail is used to advertise a special promotion and
the mailing goes to people who are not known customers of the store, I usually anticipate $1,000 in first day sales per
1,000 pieces of mail. A good response for a mailing of 10,000 letters would be $10,000 in sales on the first day of an
advertised promotion. If 2% of those receiving letters respond by coming into the store, I consider the traffic response to
be very good. For 10,000 letters, that’s 200 customers that responded, making store traffic greater since walk-in traffic
can be anticipated.
When you mail to a list of previous customers, your response per piece mailed will usually be much better. I
expect a sales response of $5 or $6 per piece mailed or about five times that of a mailing going to people who have never
been in the store.
Of course, there are many other elements that result in the response rates I’ve just discussed, to include
merchandising, the offer, point of purchase materials, etc. The response rates do vary from store to store, but I think you
can see from these figures how powerful mail can be.
Who should use direct mail? If you’re a traditional retailer who depends on customers walking through the front
door to buy a product that sits on your sales floor, you can’t get along without mail advertising. Almost every major
success in today’s retail environment uses some form of mail advertising.
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Okay – Hopefully, you’re convinced that you need to use direct mail. Now let’s talk about how to do it.
The first essential ingredient is a well-qualified mailing list. The list should target your primary market area and
the demographic characteristics of your customers.
Most companies that can provide a mailing list will be able to work with the area that you define by street
boundaries, 5 digit zip codes, postal carrier routes, or census tracks. If you send me a map with a circle defining the area
in which you want to mail, I would provide you a list of addresses within that approximate circled area.
Once the geographic area is defined, it’s necessary to settle on the demographic characteristics. Demographic
characteristics that can usually be helpful to select consumers to target are dwelling type – single or multifamily,
household income range, age, sex, marital status, presence of children, and lifestyle. Examples of lifestyle are golfers,
fishermen, foreign car owners, young urban professionals, blue-collar workers, etc.
You’d be surprised at how much information is available. Given the address of your store, I could give you a
mailing list of people who live within 5 miles, in a single family home, make more than $50,000 per year, are between 30
and 50 years old, are married with no children, own a Cadillac, and play golf.
Data processing obviously plays a key roll in the mailing list business and will play an increasingly important part
in marketing decisions made by retailers. Let me give you an example.
If you were to keep track of the type of customer that shops in your store and created a consumer profile of age,
sex, income, lifestyle, etc., I could access existing databases and give you a list of everyone in your area who fits that
profile. That list could then be merged with your existing mailing list and the computer would eliminate duplicates. You
could test offers by mailing different versions of an advertisement to segments of your list and keep track of the response
on the computer. It’s possible right now to track the sales of different items in a store by customer and then use statistical
analysis of this information to figure out which customers are likely to respond to specific offers. Cross-sell analysis can
tell you if a promotion in the cosmetics department is likely to produce sales in the handbag department and how much.
The computer can allow you to cut advertising costs and increase sales at the same time, by telling you who your best
customers will be and whom to avoid.
The most productive mailing list you can use is a list of your own customers. Someone who has been in your
store is much easier to attract with advertising than someone who hasn’t. Radio Shack is the best I’ve seen at acquiring
customer lists. With every purchase I’ve made there, the sales clerk always asks for my name and address. That’s a good
way to start accumulating a store mailing list. Remember that mailings to this customer list will probably produce 5 times
as much business as most other lists.
What should the mailing piece look like? It should be a letter typed on your business stationery, signed by you,
folded, and inserted in an envelope that is then sealed. It should be addressed to your customer by name with a first class
stamp affixed, no meter or bulk postage insignia, and no return address. Some of these elements may surprise you, but
they’re essential. I’ll discuss these in more detail.
The letter is the most important part of the mailing piece. It should look like a letter, not an advertisement. That’s
why you should type it instead of having it type set.
The letter should begin with a salutation line:
“Dear Preferred Customer”
“Dear Local Customer”
“Dear Neighbor,”etc.
It’s best to address the letter to your customer by name, if possible, but it’s important to use the salutation line,
even if you don’t have a name.
The first sentence should be a clear, direct, statement of your offer to your customer. Invitations are a very
effective offer vehicle. For example:
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Dear preferred Customer:
You are invited to –
A special preview of our spring fashions.
Or
You are invited to –
A store wide clearance sale beginning on Thursday.
Announcements also work well. For example:
Dear Local Customer:
We would like to announce the opening of our new store.
Or
We’re announcing the arrival of our new fall outerwear.
The body of the letter should provide the details. Paragraphs should be indented, single spaced, and not more
than six lines. Paragraphs should be separated by a space.
Use underlining, asterisks, indents, and capital letters to highlight key words or phrases. A liberal use of subheads
is important in a long letter, since many readers will skim the subheads and not read the whole letter.
If you have a long story to tell, don’t be afraid to use long copy. Tests have established the fact that long copy
can outsell short copy if you have something to say.
Always sign your letter. It adds a personal touch, let’s the customer know there’s someone standing behind the
offer, and adds credibility.
The signature should always be followed by a postscript. The P.S. will be the most read line in the letter.
Readers will open the letter, immediately look to see who signed it, read the P.S., and then read the letter, if they’re
interested. The P.S. is a good place to repeat the offer or provide a strong incentive to read the letter.
The letter should be folded and inserted in the envelope. The envelope should be sealed and a first class stamp
affixed. A commemorative stamp will work better than a regular first class stamp. The envelope should be addressed
with the name of the customer. Hand addressing is better than a typed address. No return address should be placed on the
envelope and no teasers or graphics should go on the envelope.
The most difficult part of getting your mail advertising read is getting your customer to open the envelope.
If you received a sealed, hand-addressed letter with a colorful commemorative stamp and no return address,
wouldn’t you open it? Anything that gives away the fact that advertising is enclosed will keep it from being opened and
read.
There are a number of ways that high volumes of mail can be handled, where hand-addressing and stamping is
impractical. We use an addressing system that can simulate hand addressing at the rate of about 20,000 pieces per hour.
This entire function of printing, inserting, sealing, addressing, and stamping can be accomplished by machine at a very
high speed and at a low cost.
There are also some effective ways to use bulk mail and receive substantial postal discounts. The best postal
discounts come from carrier route sorting. This is generally accomplished by a computer that sorts a list and then places it
on a magnetic tape. The tape drives the addressing equipment. Bulk postage will usually reduce response. However, the
postage savings will compensate for this reduction in most cases.
Let me make a few suggestions that will raise your response:
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1.
When you make a number of mailings, you should vary the size and color of stationary and envelope. This
makes your mailing piece look different each time and increases the chance that it will be opened and read.
2.
My tests have indicated that colored stock is frequently better than white.
3.
Use two colors of ink. Usually, black for the type and another color for the signature and letterhead. Warm
colors works best.
4.
If you insert a flyer, response card, or other item in the envelope, it should be another color. Never put in a
flyer and leave out the letter.
Radio Advertising
“The radio remote was a lot of fun, brought in traffic, generated sales, and really
enchanced our image.”
G.A. Wright, Inc. Client --- Mary Ann Porter
Radio reaches 96% of consumers each week. To reach your customers, it is necessary to advertise on the specific
radio stations they listen to, and do so with enough frequency that they hear your radio spot repeatedly.
Radio allows selective targeting. If all of your customers listen to a specific radio format, such as country and
western, rather than talk radio or classical music, then you can be selective with radio.
An advantage of radio is its flexibility. Spots advertising a snow shovel promotion can be on the shelf ready to
run when the first big snowstorm is forecasted.
Radio also reaches consumers just before a major purchase, when they’re in the car driving to the store. This
advantage is important to retailers who sell large or expensive items. An example is furniture or consumer electronics.
Whether or not radio makes sense for a retailer depends primarily on the availability of a station where the
broadcast range matches the market area of the retailer. In most cases, an independent retailer in a metropolitan market
area can’t use radio in a cost-effective way, because the majority of the consumers reached are outside the store’s primary
market area. Advertising rates are a function of the number of listeners reached. If most listeners are outside a store’s
market area, then most of the advertising dollars spent are wasted.
For a chain retailer with stores throughout a metropolitan area, where the market matches the broadcast range of
most stations, radio makes much more sense.
For independents, radio is very cost effective in some rural areas. There are usually fewer stations to choose
from. Selecting the station, most listened to by customers, is easier. The cost of a spot is less than in metro areas. It is
also much more likely that the broadcast range of the station matches the market area of the store.
How to Use Radio
The message most retailers must communicate is complicated and necessitates 60-second spots. Retailers want to
tell consumers who they are, where they are, what they’re selling, and why the consumer should come into the store
today. The message takes more than 30 seconds to communicate.
Find a station or stations your customers listen to every day and run 6-8 spots a day during prime listening times.
The days I like to run radio are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Remember that radio has the ability to reach consumers,
when they’re in their cars, on the way to the store.
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Radio works well when there’s a tie-in with news, weather, or local events. If you want to promote the sale of
raincoats, why not do it when it’s raining?
What to Advertise on the Radio
The purpose of advertising, for retailers, is to get the customer into the store. To do that, you have to advertise
items that have universal appeal. Items or offers that appeal to only a narrow group won’t create traffic. Retailers, too
often, advertise what they want to sell, rather than what the consumer wants to buy. Choose items and offers, very
carefully to create the broadest possible appeal
Special events are good subjects for radio. Advertise a tent sale or fashion show. I’ve used remote broadcasts
from the store during a special event and had great success.
Special services also lend themselves to promotion over the radio. Examples are holiday gift-wrap and late hours.
The Spot
Let me give you some pointers on how to create a radio spot.
The listener is not tuned into a station to hear your spot. They’re there to be entertained. There is generally
something else on their mind. That distracts their attention from anything you’re planning to tell them. For example,
they’re driving to work. When you begin a radio spot, you must do it strongly to get their attention.
Stress one idea. You don’t have time on the radio to tell a complicated story. You want to tell the listener about
an event or special offer. Don’t try to list a dozen items you’re running at special prices. Anything you mention should
be repeated three times if you want it to sink in. You have to mention the name of the store and probably the location.
You need to put the name and location up front, at the end, and somewhere in the middle. The offer that gets the customer
into the store must also be repeated, to have impact. It’s obvious that you can’t get too complicated in 60 seconds.
Create a picture in the mind of the listener. Get the imagination of the listener working for you. “You’re in your
car. It’s raining torrents. You need to park and walk two blocks for an important meeting and, you don’t have an
umbrella. But, Sam’s Umbrella Shop does and they’re on sale for the next 2 hours.”
You should try to create a sense of urgency and motivate action. After all, the objective of advertising is getting
the customer into your store, to buy something. Provide an enticing offer and set an expiration time. Tell the customer
what to do. “Come to the store right now and buy this product before our limited supply runs out.”
End the spot dramatically. You want to be remembered. “Don’t let your big deal get rained on.”
Radio Production
There are a number of ways to produce a radio spot. Many of the least expensive are just as effective as the big
budget productions.
You, as a store owner or manager, are probably the best personality to do the talking on a radio spot. People want
to know whom they are dealing with. Creating a connection between you and your customers can be done very
effectively, on the radio, if you produce your own spots.
If you are uncomfortable being a radio personality, find someone with a memorable sound to their voice. Often,
two voices are more memorable than one. The spot can be structured with two people talking about the store or the offer.
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Music helps with recall. Almost any production studio will have stock music that can be used in the production of
a radio spot. If you find music you like, and use it repeatedly in advertising, it will help connect your store and your
message in the minds of your customers.
Having a well-known radio personality in your store, to conduct a remote broadcast during a store promotional
event, can be very effective at drawing traffic to your store. In many areas, this can be much less expensive than your
might imagine. In other areas, it’s prohibitive. So check it out and see.
Remember that radio doesn’t make sense for many stores. You must look at it carefully and evaluate the potential
of radio against other available media.
Television and Cable
Although network television advertising usually isn’t cost effective for retailers there are some exceptions.
Again, rural areas are most likely to offer television advertising that is both reasonably priced, and has a broadcast range
that matches the market area of a single store. Cable television, on the other hand, can be very precisely targeted
geographically, and has potential even in metropolitan areas. Production costs can be high in either case.
Television advertising reaches consumer at home and is intrusive. If someone is watching television, they are
generally engrossed and are very likely to watch the commercial messages as intently as the program. Television reaches
a less educated segment of the population, is expensive, and isn’t flexible. You have to produce it well in advance and it
can’t be easily, at the last minute.
How to Use Television
Television should be used where the video image can dominate. Television is great for cars because it shows
color, styling, and motion. It should be used where its advantages are clear and very important to the success of the
message you are communicating.
Cost dictates the use of 30-second spots. A picture can tell a story, much faster than words, so 30 seconds is
usually enough. To reach your market, you’ll need 30 spots a week on stations that your customers watch.
Producing Television Spots
Probably the least expensive way for a retailer to produce a television spot, is bringing a video crew to the store.
The store owner or local personality can communicate the message to the camera, with the store and merchandise in the
background. This is a simple and inexpensive way of producing a spot. However, it can be just as effective for a retailer
as a spot where production costs are very high. If merchandise can be shown in action, you might contact vendors to see
if any action video is available that can be worked into the spot.
Keep it simple. As with all advertising, it’s important to create universal appeal and provide a call to action.
Powerful Point-of-Purchase Advertising
“I was flabbergasted that a response like this could ever be generated… IN MY
STORE! Obviously, you folks have well-researched techniques that
work incredibly well.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Bob Michek
Point-of-purchase advertising is often overlooked in the overall advertising plan. This is a mistake.
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Point-of purchase advertising is usually signage at the point-of-purchase. It motivates customers already in your
store to pick up the product and carry it to the register. Signs should provide customers with information that helps them
make the decision to buy.
Research conducted by the Skaggs Institute of Retail Management indicates that for products on sale, a sale price
sign resulted in a 24% increase in sales. By adding a benefit sign, sales went up 49% over having no sign. Using
descriptive signs raised sales by 26% over having no signs.
A study done by the Mueller Research Foundation recorded a sales increase of 540% where feature, benefit, and
price signs were used.
The LEK Partnership did a study that indicated a sales increase between 50% and 202% if signs were printed versus
written by hand. They also noted that sales increased with the size of the sign.
The case for point-of-purchase advertising, through signage, is obvious.
Exterior Signs and Outdoor Advertising
“The signage created fantastic awareness of the store…”
G.A. Wright Client --- Sean O’Flynn
Our research indicates that good exterior signs can attract as much as 20% or more of total store traffic. That
makes signs a very important part of the overall advertising plan.
Outdoor or billboard advertising can be very powerful and cost-effective sign advertising. We recently ran a
billboards advertising campaign for a client, where we were buying 12’ x 24’ billboards that included printing and
posting, for less than $600 for a 5-week run. On a busy road near the store, cost per impression beats almost anything else
you can do.
The message, however, must be simple, easy to understand, and compelling. Seven words or less, with a picture
and/or graphics, need to tell the story.
Also, consider the fact that it’s easier to attract a customer who’s already in his car driving toward your store than
one who’s sitting at home.
The Internet
Does your business need to have a web site?
Yes, you do need to have a presence on the Internet. It is inexpensive, it will become at least as important to you as
a listing in the yellow pages, and it has the potential to become much more important. However, success for retailers will
result more from driving traffic to the store than from selling online.
More and more consumers are using the Internet as a primary source of information about the products and services
they want to buy. If they don’t know where to get it, they often go online as an easy first step in the process of finding it.
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Web sites can provide detailed information and services to consumers concerning retail businesses including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Company information
Store locations
Product information
Employment information
Links to and from other sites
Online selling
Generally, consumers will find a specific web site by logging onto the Internet through an ISP (Internet Service
Provider) and using a search engine or web browser. Browsers and search engines, although still not 100% accurate,
allow consumers to find a web site by entering a topic of interest and reviewing a number of links and web sites that cover
that topic. Web sites register with the major search engines and provide searchable key words that will allow consumers
to find their site. For example, a store might list its major categories of merchandise and its location, allowing those
interested in athletic shoes in a specific town to find the store. Key words are also embedded in the code used to build the
site’s home page.
Links are another valuable way to find a site. If a shopper were interested in a name-brand product, he or she
would do a search to find the manufacturer’s site, which usually provides product information, and a list of dealer
locations. If the shopper clicks on one of these dealer names, the “hot link” will move him into that local dealer’s web
site, which will provide all the information needed to find the store and go see the product.
Each year, I attend a number of retail conferences, including the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention in
New York. Not too long ago, these conferences were characterized by presentations that looked at prospects for
interactive home shopping. This year, the convention was dominated by sessions on Internet Shopping. Many large
retailers appear to be getting into the business of the Internet as fast as they can. However, there remain questions about
when and how such ventures will become profitable.
According to a recent Internet shipping study by Ernst & Young, the accounting and consulting firm, 34% of
households were online in 1999. 17% of those households purchased on the Internet in 1999, with 79% of non-buyers
expecting to make several online purchases within the next 12 months. The number of retailers selling online has more
than tripled in the last few years to more than 39%. In addition, some 15% or more of manufacturers indicated that they
sell online.
The top merchandise categories for online sales are computers, led by companies like Dell, and books, led by
Amazon and Barnes and Noble. However, a wide variety of products are finding their way to online sales such as apparel,
cars, furniture, consumer electronics, videos, CDs, artwork, gifts, and collectibles.
Price does seem to be a discriminator. Shipping and handling costs can be a high percentage of the total price for
less expensive items and can reach the point that it is very difficult to sell at prices that are competitive with traditional
retail.
Amazon.com is one of the most talked about sites on the web. It has never made a profit and indications are that
losses are growing with volume. Amazon exemplifies the problems of selling products online. It is very expensive to
stock, pick, package, address, and ship a product to a consumer.
Amazon and others offer a discount for buying a book online. But the cost of shipping raises the price to nearly the
same price the shopper would pay in retail store. Today there is no sales tax to customers who are not located in the state
of the online seller. However, the selling price, in the case of Amazon, is not covering the costs of handling the product.
The question is whether price increases and the efficiencies that come with volume can solve Amazon’s profit problem.
Traditional retail businesses offer many economies of scale, such as ordering products in large quantities, which are
shipped in bulk to the stores and displayed on shelves. Consumers drive to the store and shop, usually for a number of
different products, select items, carry them to the cash register, pay the salesperson, and probably leave the store with a
variety of products in hand. The shopper does a great deal of the work, which helps to hold the price down.
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There are some companies that are building businesses by offering new shopping services online. Online grocery
stores are one example in which a shopper can select items and place the order online, which is filled by a shopper and
delivered for a price in excess of the costs of the groceries. Here, there is compensation for the extra service. The
consumer must be willing to pay for the convenience of not having to go to the store to shop.
Products that require information and research to make an informed buying decision are most adaptable to the
Internet. The Internet was developed originally by a group of scientists that were trying to find a means of
communicating effectively in a war environment when many traditional lines of communication were destroyed. It was
then turned over to colleges and universities as a research too. One of its most viable functions today is that of research.
Books are ideal products for the Internet because the search for a specific book can be made very easily. Much
more so than driving to the bookstore, searching through the stacks, and hoping the book you’re looking for is in stock.
Pre-recorded music is another category being sold on retailer web sites, where you can sample the music over your
computer sound system before buying.
There are even apparel web sites where you can see clothing being modeled on a Paris fashion show runway.
Landsend.com allows a consumer to enter her measurements online and a representation of a model will take on her
proportions. Clothing can then be tried on the model where the customer can see how the clothing looks from different
angles. The appeal of this type of site for selling apparel is obvious.
Fear of placing a credit card number on the Internet has been a frequently cited obstacle to online shopping. This
fear is disappearing with each new safety measure entering the online marketplace. It is as safe now as giving a credit
card to a waiter in a restaurant. With enhanced security measures, being used by many service providers, it will become
even safer.
A new demand retailers will have of manufacturers they do business with, is the right to be listed as a dealer and
then to have a link on the manufacturer’s web site to the retailer’s web site. A good example of this is Hasbro Toys’ web
site, www.basbro.com. Shoppers can find a product they want, link to the site of a Hasbro partner retailer and obtain
information about a store in their area. This isn’t complicated or expensive to arrange. Almost any size retailer should be
able to negotiate for this type of link with a manufacturer. It will become more and more common as both retailers and
manufacturers establish web sites.
Certainly, there are applications of the Internet that will compete with retailers; however, there are limitations as well.
The Internet has some advantages over a catalogue. The Internet can be interactive. The user can see a picture of
the product, sometimes animated, or even a video. Although new technologies are helping make the online experience far
better, the current quality of pictures and the length of time it takes to download and view them are disadvantages
compared to taking a catalog on the commuter train and interacting via cellular phone.
Still, the retail store is the only place a shopper can touch, taste, smell, and try the product before buying. The store
also offers social interaction and entertainment provided by the environment. These are advantages the store has over the
computer screen and the catalog.
Many retailers have either established a web site, are in the development stages, or are considering a site. The
question is “how can a web site be productive.” Can it be best used to sell products, provide information, or for
advertising?
Retailing is a business that benefits from traffic. Consumers will not see a specific site unless they are searching for
the site, something the site offers, or they see an advertisement for the site. With the huge number of businesses on the
Internet, a site must be sought out. Shoppers probably will not stumble across a specific site the way they might find a
store that interests them on the way home from work.
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To buy a book online, you generally need to know what book you want to buy. If you walk into a Barnes and
Noble on a Saturday morning for a cup of Starbucks coffee, you are bombarded by thousands of point-of-sale messages
and book covers enticing you to buy things you probably weren’t thinking about. The store is a much more powerful
selling tool, if you can get the customer into the store.
What should you do to establish a web site?
There are many vendors of web services that can help you establish a site. You might start with trade
associations for recommendations. You will need someone to build the site, most likely a programmer, and a host with a
server, where the site software resides. PSI Net, for example, is a company that provides hosting and Internet connect
services. There will be a programming cost to build the site and a monthly charge to host the site and provide Internet
access.
A complicated site that takes custom programming can be expensive. However, there are many vendors
advertising basic web sites for as little as a few hundred dollars. Software stores also offer packaged software that will
allow you to do it yourself. Microsoft FrontPage is a program that is readily available.
Once you establish the site, be sure to advertise by putting the address on all stationery and business cards, and in
all advertisements. It is best to try to use a name that is connected with your business and easy to remember.
The initial purpose of the site should be to establish a presence that will allow prospective customers to find the
store. Then you should pursue links. Manufacturer links are the most obvious. A fishing store, for example, might want
to link to the site of a local resort and lake that offers fishing.
Once you establish a presence on the web, your site can begin to be used for advertising purposes. The essentials
are store name, location, types of merchandise, services, and employment information. You can also make special offers
to entice customers into the store. If the site features news, special discounts, or some other information relevant to your
customers, then there is a reason for the customer to visit on a repeat basis.
Eventually, you might experiment with selling online. The first step is advertising products online and allowing an
order to be placed by telephone. You can basically build the online equivalent of a catalogue. If that results in a good
response, then spend the money to allow online ordering and credit card processing.
A substantial competitive edge will be necessary for traditional retailers to have success selling online. Sales will
come from featuring products that are unique, hard to find, or are sold at an unbeatable price. The best advice for
traditional retailers is to look for ways the Internet can be used to strengthen business in the store. Pure Internet retailers,
companies that devote their businesses entirely to Internet sales, are the most likely to succeed in the online market.
The principle objective of a web site for the traditional retailer should be driving traffic to the store. The store is
still the place where the retail advantage exists over all other means of distributing consumer products and services. It is
the only place where you can have one-on-one human contact during the transaction. It’s the best place to be entertained
while you shop, engage in social interaction, get product serviced, or return it. It is, arguably, the most efficient place to
purchase many products. The retailer still has many advantages and the use of those advantages is a key to success.
The G.A. Wright Web Site
You can look through our web site, www.gawrightsales.com, to gain valuable information about topics relevant to
the retail business and about the sales promotion and direct marketing services we provide. Notice our links to sites like
those of the National Retail Federation. Our bookshelf features good books on retailing and marketing. If you click on a
title of interest, you will be linked to Amazon.com, where you can purchase the book and have it shipped to you
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overnight. Also, please click on, “Contact Us” and use e-mail to let me know what you think of this report and tell me
what other issues you would like covered in a future report. Please our e-mail address: [email protected].
Sales Promotion vs. Traditional Advertising
It was incredible. We did as much business in a day as we thought we were going
to do in almost a month.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Anne Van Ness
My next comments depend on an understanding of the difference between traditional or image-building advertising
and sales promotion advertising. Traditional advertising is designed to build the image of a store. It emphasizes
selection, quality, new merchandise, service, store ambiance, and characteristics other than price, in which your customer
may have an interest. Generally, traditional advertising is hard to measure because it results in long-term benefits. It
doesn’t bring the customer in today. It implants an image of the store in the customer’s mind and will result in a longterm increase in business. You should include the price of any merchandise featured in this type of advertisement. That
price should usually be the normal selling price.
Sales promotion advertising is different. Its action oriented and is designed to obtain an immediate result.
Consequently, this type of advertising is much easier to measure. You spend money today and customers show up
tomorrow. Sales promotion advertising offers an incentive to act. Usually, part of this incentive is a price discount.
However, there are many incentives other than price that will motivate action. A gift or drawing is an example, as is a
visit by a well-known celebrity or local personality.
“The advertising and promotions certainly peak volume consistently on targeted
days, and without actually revealing our prices. The dynamic, aggressive, and
innovative marketing approach taken in your program certainly increased market awareness
and traffic to our store and our regular customers loyalty has been enhanced.”
G.A. Wright Clients --- Gary & Donna Brandshaw
Sales promotion advertising is good at getting customers into a store, obtaining visibility, expanding a market,
producing cash flow, and eliminating slow-moving inventory. I believe that it’s not only a valuable part of retail
advertising but also an essential part. However, every long-term advertising program should consist of a mix of
traditional image-building and sales promotion advertising.
Whether you’re using traditional or sales promotion advertising you should ensure that everything you
communicate in advertising will meet the expectation of the customer who ultimately shops in your store.
Special Events That Attract Crowds
“In my wildest dreams I could never have imagined that this sales event
would be so successful.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Richard M. Gringer
Special events are a very important type of sales promotion and depend on sales promotion advertising. They can
be trunk shows, tent sales, product demonstrations, a discount brunch, or a wine and cheese party. They tie together
advertising, merchandising, and sales, with a theme that attracts customers to the store for some special reason.
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Special events allow an integration of all of the means used by retailers to attract crowds and generate sales.
Because of this integration and the reinforcement of the message in a variety of ways, special events can be very powerful
means of attracting customers.
A special even should be planned to appeal to customers in as many ways as possible. I think the best way to look
at a store is using what I call, “the five sense approach.” What you want to do is see how your store appeals to the
customer using all five customers.
A retail store is the only place you can appeal to a customer using all five senses in the pursuit of selling
merchandise. You can’t do it in a catalog, and you certainly can’t do it, “online”. So… why not use the retail
environment to its full potential.
When you’re planning a special event, figure out how you will appeal to every sense. Have something to eat, a
pleasant aroma in the air, upbeat music in the background, something interesting to see and do. A good deal of research
has been done on the introduction of sensory stimuli to the retail environment and its impact on sales. It is possible to
increase sales significantly using this approach.
Don’t underestimate the social aspects of an event that attracts lots of people. People enjoy being with other people
and a store can become an appealing social environment.
“Our store truly became the social spot to be in our town.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Tommy Diehl
Special events can be a very powerful means of attracting new customers to a store. They can be used to create a
splash in the marketplace and get noticed. They can be used to expose customers to changes in merchandise, décor, or
location. And, they can be used to make the store an attractive, exciting place to be.
Integrated Advertising
“I have come to realize that the entire G.A. Wright promotional package really
works. It is not just one single thing that makes them successful, but a combination of
all aspects of your philosophy.”
GA. Wright Client --- Louise Afolter
Integrated advertising is advertising that ties together the theme of the store or an event in the store with all
advertising used to promote the store or event. A well-integrated advertising program allows all messages to reinforce
each other.
If the theme is Christmas, the advertising copy looks like Christmas, the store looks like Christmas, music in the
store and in broadcast media advertising is Christmas music, there’s a Santa Claus on the sales floor, gift wrap is in
Christmas colors, sales people are wearing holiday clothing, and merchandising features gift packs, then every message
reinforces the theme of Christmas.
It’s easy to see how this works with Christmas. However, this same approach will create powerful results at many
other times of the year. Try to get all of your messages to reinforce a central theme, whether it happens to be business as
usual or a special event.
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A Recommended Advertising Program
“While your consultant was here, he set up a one year promotional and advertising
calendar for me to use, and has broken down the cost for newspaper, radio, and direct
mail. This will help me to us my advertising dollars more effectively and keep
my advertising cost within the 4% to 5% we’ve targeted.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Jeff Grimes
I would now like to make some very specific proposals concerning a basic advertising program that will get results
for most typical retail businesses.
1.
The store sign should be large and visible. It should identify clearly the type of business. For example:
“Sporting Goods, Toys or Department Store”
I also think that it is very important for the owner or key figure to be identified with the store by name whenever
possible. For example:
“Anderson’s Department Store”
2.
Every store should have at least a Yellow Pages listing. If your store is one where people go for a specific
product, that is hard to find and is purchased infrequently, then Yellow Pages advertising makes more sense. If
you’re located in a mall, and depend on heavy traffic to precipitate impulse sales, then it’s less important.
3.
A web page is becoming essential for many stores, as more people use their computers and the Internet when
looking for a store. Your web page should include your name and logo, location, categories of merchandise, main
brand names, services provided, and hours of operation. Directions and a map might be important if your location
is hard to find. Include ways your customer con contact you by phone, fax, e-mail, and letter. A picture of the
store may help a potential customer decide to make a visit. Obtain links from manufacturer sites, where possible,
and be sure to register with the browsers. A scan of the newspaper advertisement of the week, and any other
incentives that will draw customers to the store, should be considered
4.
A newspaper advertisement should be placed in a local paper every Thursday, as a minimum. An annual contract
with the paper can usually be negotiated to hold down advertising costs. Newspaper advertising must be
repetitive to be effective.
5.
The first three newspaper ads run each month should, be traditional image-building ads, that contain prices, but
are not sale ads, featuring big discounts. These ads should stress selection, quality, service, fashion, etc.
6.
A comprehensive point-of-purchase sign program should be developed.
7.
Each clerk should be trained to obtain the name, address, and phone number of every customer, and management
should ensure this list is kept up-to-date.
8.
Once a month, a month-end clearance should be conducted. A special letter should be mailed to the customer list,
offering an early chance to buy selected merchandise at a discount, during a Wednesday pre-showing for
preferred customers. This should be followed by a sale advertisement in the newspaper on Thursday, making this
offer to the general public. The purpose of this month-end promotion is to introduce new merchandise, or more
often, to clear out selected items by featuring discounts and providing an incentive to act.
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“Our sales volume compared with the same period last year nearly tripled. We saw
hundreds of new faces in our store… We learned how to better place our advertising,
concentrate buying on certain days, move ‘dead-wood’
without taking a big loss on it, and much more.”
G.A. Wright Client --- Chuck Bisbee
9.
Then once or twice a year, you should plan a high-impact sale designed to make a major impact on your market,
create visibility, and enhance your customer base. A Spring and/or Fall sale might be appropriate. For the best
impact, these sales should be held on the front-end of a major season up-trend in sales but before sales normally
peak. Often, special merchandise buys can be made to enhance the profitability of these high-impact sales.
You should normally spend about 3% sales volume on advertising. However, I recommend that you check
industry norms for the average amount spent by your type of store and then adjust this based upon your market,
competitors, and location. If you’re a new store, you’ll probably need more advertising, maybe as much as 5% or 6%.
Furniture stores normally use more advertising and often spend 5% or more. If you’re located in a high-traffic mall, you
may spend a lot less than average.
“In the past, we have never utilized our co-op advertising dollars, but with effective
placement, we were able to stretch our advertising budget and virtually dominate the
market in this category of merchandise”
G.A Wright, Inc. Client --- Victor Korajian
Advertising costs can frequently be defrayed with co-op money from our vendors. If you agree to advertise a
vendor’s product in your ads, the vendor will often agree to pay part of the cost. A buyer should always ask for co-op
money, as part of negotiating process, before major orders are placed.
You want to “go hunting when the geese are flying,” which means you should spend more money when you
anticipate more volume. Reserve some extra money for your one or two annual sales, which, as I said, should usually be
on the front-end of your best selling seasons.
Obviously, there are many circumstances that might dictate a different formula or approach than the one I’ve just
outlined. This is also a basic program and a number of enhancements might be in order, depending on the store and the
available budget. However, the program described can be very successful for the vast majority of retail businesses.
Of course, the success of any marketing program depends upon more than good advertising. Its one thing to line up
customers at the front door and another to move them through the store, put merchandise in their hands, and ring up the
sales on the cash register.
“We went into this with the attitude that we might get a quick college education of
new marketing and sales techniques, but we came out with a PhD.”
G.A. Wright Clients --- George and Cathy Kay
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G.A. Wright, Inc.
My company gets involved in every aspect of a retail business that affects its ability to produce increases in sales
volume.
The consulting services that I provide can be very valuable to your business, as they have been to the retailers
quoted above. We’d like the opportunity to talk to you about your business and see if we can deliver similar benefits to
you.
If you’d like to talk about any of the ideas in this report or would like to discuss your business with one of my
Senior Consultants, please call my office at 303-333-4453. We’ll talk to you over the phone at absolutely no cost or
obligation. If there is an opportunity for us to provide some benefit to your business, we should then set an appointment
to meet and see your business.
Thank you for your interest,
Gary A. Wright
CEO
G.A.Wright
MARKETING
INC
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