It amazes me how quickly December has come upon us. Soon, the holidays will be here, and all of us will be preparing our resolutions for the next year. Even though time flies, business owners cannot overlook the opportunity to take advantage of piggybacking on holidays.
When I bought into my local Marietta, GA location, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to test out marketing initiatives that I could then share with our franchisees. This year, during my first holiday, we decided to tap into a jolly old man to help increase local brand awareness and offer support to the community we represent – thus we have ‘ol St. Nick, Santa Claus, to spend time in our store and take photos with our customers. Thus far, it has been a hit.
This holiday promotional event has allowed us to do several things. It gave us a reason to email our customer database with portrait opportunities. It gave the manager of the property group we lease from an opportunity to email and newspaper advertise their mailing list. It gave the stores around us a reason to promote us to their customers. And most importantly, it created a buzz at a very minimal cost. The ROI is impressive. During a four hour window last Friday evening we photographed nearly 80 families with Santa.
While Santa may not be the right fit for all concept types, he worked for us. All concepts and businesses should look at the holiday season as an opportunity to create a spike in sales – especially in a down economy. Businesses that stand out in these tough times are going to be the ones that earn the most consumer respect. We encourage our franchisees to follow in our marketing footsteps.
Now visit my new website: http://www.davidasarnow.com/
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1 comments:
I think you are doing a great job!! I am glad you used Santa in your store just as all the malls across the country are doing. The difference is you are a year round studio that can build customer loyalty. The mall Santas are a once a year concept.
Keep up the good work.
Jeff in Orlando
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