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Tips for Promoting Your Store; Setting an Advertising Budget and How to Stage a Successful Sale Talk to retail experts about how stores should set advertising plans and you'll hear a long sigh. According to many of them, a new retailer will often plan each detail of her business down to the tissue paper that will be used to wrap customers' purchases. But much to the professionals' chagrin, creating an advertising budget is often low on a new retailer's priority list - if it's factored in at all. This article addresses the importance of advertising, direct marketing, and public relations when it comes to your new store and the specific costs involved in promoting it effectively. Robyn Iannone, who contributed valuable advice for our article on in-store markdowns, owned Robyn's Nest, a children's boutique in Savannah, Georgia. Iannone is a CPA who now works as a financial consultant for retailers. Roberta Orell, who advises new retail startups on budgeting and buying, contributed her wisdom too - along with several store owners and managers.
SETTING AN ADVERTISING BUDGET Orell advises new clients to establish an advertising budget before opening their stores. "It's important to make potential customers aware of your shop," she says, "so you create buzz about your business, before the doors open." A week before the shop's premiere, she recommends sending fliers to the surrounding community. To source potential customers, Orell suggests contacting the business office of the local Yellow Pages. They will supply you with a phone directory with the names and addresses of the residents surrounding the store. That information will run approximately $50. "A directory will get you started. After that, it's imperative that a shopkeeper maintains a guest book in the store so that she can do direct marketing throughout the year. Ask customers to include their contact information, especially e-mail addresses." Both consultants and store managers stressed the importance of diligently updating your mailing lists and e-mail addresses. "Building relationships with customers is as important as the merchandise you stock - maybe more so - and you can't stay in touch with them if you don't have their current information," Orell says. Once you're in business, you'll need to do some paid advertising on a steady basis. As you know, competition is fierce so you can't afford to let shoppers forget you. Iannone recommends running an ongoing ad in local papers or parenting magazines, and to keep a steady flow of fliers circulating with coupons that offer store discounts. "I put ads in the local parenting magazines. They're great because they're so widely distributed. Sometimes I'd add a 'bring-in-this-coupon-for-$5-off' offer so I could see how much interest it generated," she says. Iannone, who sold her shop in 2004, budgeted $500 to $600 a month for her advertising costs. She estimates that she paid $200 for a quarter page ad each month in her local parenting magazine. Celia Weintrob, publisher and advertising manager for The Brooklyn Papers, a weekly newspaper available to 12 of the borough's neighborhoods, says, "I tell businesses not to go big and flashy with full page, four-color ad placements. Small black-and-white ads are fine, just be consistent." The fee for placing a small ad that will run in all 12 local editions consecutively for four to six months is $500-$600 a month. The Brooklyn Parent, a monthly publication, charges $255 to $350 for 1/8- to 1/6-of-a-page placement that appears three times - one after the other or spread over 12 months. In Ohio, the tab for an ad in The Sun, depends on how many of its 26 papers you advertise in. An all-out media blitz which includes a 1/6-of-a-page placement that runs for four consecutive weeks in all 26 publications will cost a total of $3,974.80, or approximately $153 per ad. Whatever your budget, our experts suggest that stores should mix up their paid advertising outlets throughout the year - always looking to maximize dollars through new, affordable advertising vehicles. Gena Gerbier, who co-owns two New York City boutiques: Yoya, which stocks better children's apparel, and Yoya Mart which carries clothing and design related toys, keeps her promotion budget to under $1,000 a year. Editor's note: With so many media outlets available in New York City, many stores here are able to focus primarily on developing a good public relations strategy which can pay off with regular editorial mentions in national and local media - at no cost. "We've been really lucky," says Gerbier. "When we first opened, we were noticed by the New York press, and the shop was featured in lots of magazines and newspapers. That has kept a steady stream of customers coming in." Gerbier doesn't advertise in magazines or newspapers. Instead, she's found two ingenious ways of marketing and promotion: one is to post notices on parent related message boards. "It doesn't cost us anything, it keeps our customers notified of sales and events, and attracts new customers," Gerbier says. Another way of drawing attention to the shop is through donations. During local school fundraisers she offers either a gift certificate for $50 to the shop, or a jacket that is handcrafted and exclusive to her store. "With a gift certificate, we may have someone who may not be familiar with the store come in and discover us. And the jacket costs us $95. It's beautiful and helps gets us noticed by area parents." Gerbier has discovered what any savvy business person knows: the media is always your friend. One way to reach out to them is to treat editors as you would potential customers: send a postcard or a press release to the style and fashion editors at magazines and newspapers. Don't ignore smaller weeklies either. Fashion editors at newspapers are always looking for new products to feature. Follow up a mailing a few days later with a friendly phone call. Being included in a fashion editorial, or any article that discusses you and your shop, validates you in the eyes of potential customers as an expert and gives a positive nod to whatever children's merchandise you stock. On a personal note: I taught a class at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, that helped entrepreneurs market their products to boutiques. (James and I taught a similar course on marketing to the kids' wear industry.) One assignment for students was to write a press release announcing their collections. All the students completed the assignment, but only a few were brave enough to mail them. One participant, a jewelry designer, sent her release to the fashion editor of The New York Sun, which resulted in a half-page story about the designer and her collection with terrific photos. After that, her pieces caught the attention of an editor at Women's Wear Daily and several magazines - including the style pages of garden and shelter publications - which featured her jewelry. A bit of pluck on her part and my student's business was born. Moral of the story: You can promote your shop and the designers you carry by contacting editors. You can't afford to be shy. You need the editorial support - and the editors need your fashion expertise to help fill their pages!
SETTING UP YOUR FIRST SALE Your boutique is open. You have a steady stream of customers who bring their friends. You've diligently maintained a guest book that includes e-mail addresses. Now you're ready for your first sale. To advertise your sale, you can run a one-time ad in local newspapers and parenting magazines as I discussed above. Iannone found that including a $5-off coupon for the sale brought customers in. If you do choose to run a paid advertisement in a publication, one way to keep costs down is to share the price of the ad with a manufacturer whose items will be included in the sale. Laurie Blank, the manager of Dottie Doolittle, a better children's boutique in San Francisco, says, "One season we did a co-op ad with Susanne Lively Designs for a discount on her special occasion dresses. That was a win-win for everyone - us, Susanne and the customers!" (For more information on how co-op advertising works, click here for this article from Entrepreneur.) Like Gerbier, you can post your sale on parenting message boards or craigslist.org, a website with a readership in the millions that lists everything from apartment rentals to jobs. Lisa Hawn, who manages Just for Tykes, an upscale children's apparel and furniture boutique in New York City's SoHo area, has put sale announcements in entertainment and shopping magazines. For her, a magazine such as Time Out Kids New York works well. It costs nothing and, like message boards, is widely read. The experts and store managers suggested passing out fliers on the day of the sale to draw people in. It will cost around 5 cents per flier for printing. Iannone paid minimum wage (rates begin at approximately $5.15 in Texas and increase to $7 in New York City, with most hourly rates in the $6.25 to $6.75 range) to a high school student to hand them out. One way to promote your shop is to sponsor special activities during sales, especially during the Christmas season. Two weeks before the holiday, during Saturday shopping hours, Blank hired a Santa to entertain the kids. "The parents brought their children in to visit Santa, and did some of their holiday buying here, too. We handed out candy canes; took Polaroids," she says. (It will set you back $60-$150 an hour with a two hour minimum to rent a Santa in New York. In Florida, Santa's lap will cost $175 for the first hour, $75 each half hour after that, or $325 for two hours.) Hiring a clown may seem cheesy, but several store proprietors have tried it during non-holiday events with some success. A clown in the New York area who will create balloon animals, do magic tricks, and paint children's faces, will run $250 for two hours. If you have someone on staff who is comfortable entertaining children, you can rent a costume - not necessarily a clown - and have that person dress up. (Barney costumes and other cartoon critters run in the neighborhood of $75-$150 for the entire day.) If bringing Santa or a clown into the store isn't imaginative enough, consider two successful events that Iannone staged - each for no more than $350, not including fliers. "My first year, I had an after-hours wine-and-cheese party in the store from six to nine. We played taped music and served hors de oeuvres. People loved it. After that we held the parties during the day, so customers could enjoy the festivities and the sale during regular shopping hours," she says. She served a small selection of cheese, cookies and nuts, and poured wine and soda. Iannone estimates that her costs ran no more than $200 for refreshments. To serve, she hired three college students who worked for three hours passing food and serving drinks. Iannone paid them each $50. Another activity that reaped excellent sales was a fashion show. "We sponsored an in-store fashion show at Christmastime that our customers enjoyed. Their kids modeled the clothes. It was lots of fun, and brought in plenty of sales, too," she says. She didn't serve food, which kept her cash outlay to a minimum. Each of the 10 "models" was presented with a $25 store gift certificate.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO UNLOAD THE REST You've had a successful sale and you're still left with some unsold merchandise at the conclusion of the season. What do you do with the merchandise? Hawn, says, "Old goods are not like wine; they don't improve with age, so unload them!" One option for ridding your shop of unsold stock is to sell end-of-season wear to a designer discounter like Daffy's. According to their vice president and general merchandise manager, Chris Friedlander, the store will purchase end-of-season items at 60 to 80 percent off the original wholesale price. So a garment bought by the retailer at a wholesale price of $20 will sell to Daffy's for $4 to $8. If you'd prefer to do a good deed - and get a tax write-off - donate your items to a charity. Hawn gives her merchandise to Room to Grow, an organization in New York City that helps underprivileged mothers acquire clothing, furniture and toys for their children up to age 4 - and sometimes older. Laurie Blank sends end-of-season items to Rafael House, a not-for-profit that helps needy families in the San Francisco area. Veteran shop owners stress the importance of providing excellent year-round service. If you acquire a reputation for flaky salespeople or an unorganized display floor, no amount of advertising will bring shoppers into your store. -Tina Barry
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