The whole concept of adding revenue by tapping into the local business community is certainly not a new one but at least one photo retailer we know of has taken the idea quite seriously and with amazing results.
We examined this category up close in last month’s Picture Business but felt this story out of Allentown, Pa. deserved to be told as well as you simply won’t find a better example of how to approach the local business community than what you’ll read below.
Nobody in this business sniffs out a good story at retail like Bill McCurry and we’d like to thank him for first bringing this one to our attention. We’ll let Lauren Oujiri of Dan’s Camera City tell the story here, as she first did with McCurry last year.
We decided to host a mixer as a very inexpensive and very effective way to get business people into our store to promote to them - our store and our staff are the best marketing tools we have! Most Chamber of Commerce Mixers are pretty dry affairs, in my experience, and it’s clear some people just go for the alcohol. So often at these mixers, people are just crammed into a small room or foyer with cheap crackers and a cheese tray, and the host business truly doesn’t get a return on their investment.
We designed an interactive mixer plan instead: Chamber guests received a “Passport to Dan’s” at the registration desk, and were directed to six areas of our operation we wanted them to experience. Our six areas of promotion were:
• DigiPrint Lounge and HP Studio
• The Studio at Dan’s
• Dan’s Photo University
• The Photo Lab
• Custom Framing
• Business Products Center
Once they got their passport filled out, visitors were eligible for over $1000 worth of prizes, for which they had to be present to win.
We worked with our vendors and received a free DSLR (thanks, Olympus) to give away, and the money to bring in upscale refreshments from a popular local microbrewery and restaurant, the Fegley Brew Works. We spent staff meeting time preparing staff members for the evening, and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned - guests would be in most areas of the store, not just the retail floor, so it had to sparkle.
