Community Marketing - Finale!

First off, I would like to apologize for not blogging during the past few months. The real world caught up to me in terms of a back injury and workload at the office.

That being said, Here is the third and last part of the community marketing blog I started way-back when.
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So let's answer the question then, "What am I selling?"

Every campaign you create will be lacking if you don't know what you're selling. No I'm not talking about the product itself. You need to know a few things about why people buy. What will make a person choose your store over the competition? What makes a person spend a bit more at a competitors store over yours?

So take a moment and look at the product. Figure out it's benefits and then figure out its EMOTIONAL benefit. You should push these in your next marketing venture.

Lets pick something common as an example: Let's use a pet store for this treatment.

Pet stores sell pets! That in itself isn't a selling point. They also sell pet supplies, pet food, pet toys and - in some cases - pet meds, among other pet-related articles. Again, none of these are selling points. So why would a person pick one store over another?

I looked at several recent ads for Pet-stores and was shocked at how bland they were. They looked like a supermarket ad with the pet-store name across the top, several specials for pricing and a location. How boring, how bland, how anti-profit. Good way of throwing money at a publication, with no expected result!!!

I saw no reason to shop there! I saw no campaign, no events, no emotion, nothing saying "get out of your chair and come see us", no reason to respond at all. Very forgetful ads and a big waste of cash!

In my hometown, there are no national-chain pet stores. There are however, 3 independent, privately owned stores. There were 4 at one point, but one closed up - and I won't read anything into that, but it is worth mentioning. The three remaining seem to be doing well. Since I haven't actually asked them directly how well their business is doing, I'll make the assumption that they are all doing reasonably well.

So how can one store gain a foothold on the local market when their products and services are all fairly similar?

The answer is marketing? First lets quickly examine the product and benefits: The main product is a pet. Benefits would include, but are not limited to: happiness, companionship, exercise and safety. Lets limit the benefits to these for the sake of space. Now based on these benefits, lets look at some emotions they elicit.

No negative emotions should come into play when brain-storming... aim your campaign at positive emotions or results from positive emotions.

Pets elicit emotions of joy, security and safety, companionship, love and warmth, dedication, caring, playfulness and many more.

So now, simply put how can you set up a marketing campaign using these emotions? I'm staying very simple in these examples, - I'm using love and caring - which are very easy to promote.

The ad I mentioned earlier - they could have appealed to emotions. Put a huge picture of a puppy, head cocked slightly, floppy ears, sort of a 'come-pet-me' look. Maybe have the pet with a happy pet-owner. Then some simple text saying "come visit me I'm lonely" (elicit an emotional reaction). At the bottom of the ad, offer a lost-leader. "Special this week... Pet treats only 1$ a bag". Now this ad would generate business!!!

But ads themselves are only part of a campaign. Have some sort of event to promote the store, and time it to be on an anniversary, or use a holiday weekend as an excuse.

Here's a sample campaign:
"Pet's love their owners - Labour day Pet event"
"We're raising money for people who can't afford pets", come to xxx location and bring a can of human food - all donations go to the local food bank. Woot - and bring your pet - we're having a cutest pet contest... all entries will be published in the local paper. Winners will receive ... from our store. event at... time from .... to.... Entry fee - 1 can of human food ...

This type of event will bring goodwill to your store, introduce you to hundreds of new clients, and open doors for your store you never thought could exist. You made inroads with the food bank, community services groups, pet owners, and of course the local citizens.

Sure, it's a bit of organization, and you will need someone to stay on top of it until it's done - but it is worth it!!! Couple this with some local publicity and ads, send press releases to the newspapers, radios, put it on your stores face-book page and twitter feeds, print up some professionally designed flyers and have them both in your store windows, place one in each bag on every sale, and put them where people tend to visit a lot... coffee shops, gas stations, grocery stores.

Now - seriously - all this is based on emotion. Notice very little pricing, selling, products are actually involved in this campaign. The selling of products happens in the store, but you need people to be there, or visit (online, in person) your business.

You can have a catalogue or online catalogue available when people come to the event. Give out business cards, a brochure ... anything to keep them linked to your business.

So thats a sample of how emotions can generate business. Of course this isn't an instant process... You need to brainstorm and find proper adjectives to describe your product, then move on to emotions that are related to those descriptors. There is an entire process required to do it properly and get the most effective campaign for the least outlay. But it's worth it!!!

I hope these three small blogs are helpful for any local business-people who want to get away from boring and mundane publicity and into something exciting and revenue generating!

If you want more details, please fire me off an email or leave me a message on the blog here.