‘Will flyers help my business fly?’

Q: “Hello, I’m Gladis, I work at a jewelry retail company as a marketing staff. We only have nine branches all over the country and my boss is planning to close down one branch located at SM Baguio. Since the lease is good for one year, my boss is just waiting for the end of its term. But I persuaded her that we can do something to increase the store’s foot traffic. I have (an) idea in my mind and I think distributing flyers will do the work, but what I have read from the Net was eight out of ten wrote that flyers don’t work. Can you help me think of something we can do to attract other customers who do not know about us to come and visit our store at minimal cost or no cost at all?

A: Hi, Gladis! For your question, we asked our friend and licensed Guerrilla Marketing trainer, Emi Pascual for his advice:

I will answer the letter-sender’s concern in two parts: the first would be about the store’s location and the opportunities that one can tap, and the other is about the effectiveness of distributing flyers.

Location

The letter-sender didn’t indicate exactly where in SM Baguio the store is located, as a store’s foot traffic could be affected by its location in the retail environment, in this instance, SM Baguio. If the store is located near kid-centered outlets, then a jewelry store’s foot traffic could suffer. On the other hand, if the jewelry store is located near fashion-oriented retail outlets, then there is a greater chance of a higher foot traffic. Not to mention, a tremendous opportunity to cross-sell or implement, what Guerrilla Marketing founder, Jay Levinson, calls “fusion marketing, with the fashion stores and promote the jewelry store’s pieces as perfect fashion accessories.

Fusion marketing is a great tool for promoting your product at the least cost—both stores—the fashion store and the jewelry store—share the cost of promoting each other. For example, the fashion store can direct its buyers to go to the jewelry store for accessories or jewelry that match their clothes, and vice versa. Another fusion marketing idea is to tie up with numerous wedding coverage outfits, or wedding planners.

I would imagine that SM Baguio has strict zoning policies, but if the letter sender’s jewelry store’s location in the mall does not attract the expected foot traffic, I suggest that the letter sender’s boss consider requesting the mall’s leasing people to have their store relocated.

Customer’s retail journey

You may also want to study your potential customer’s malling habits. Where do they drop off to get to the mall? What’s their primary purpose for going to the mall? To dine, to see a movie? The whole idea is to identify various consumer touch points, and plan to promote your store along those points, subtly directing them to your store. This could be achieved via a number of mediums allowed by the mall. One guerrilla marketing case study I’ve seen is the use of transparent decals placed on the mirrors inside the bathrooms. The decals feature a necklace, illustrated as if it were dangling around a person’s neck. So when the person looks into the mirror, she positions herself in front of the decal and sees for herself whether the necklace fits her or not.

How effective are flyers?

If executed properly, flyers can be effective guerrilla marketing tools for promoting your store. There are two parts to this: content and distribution. First the content: limit it to five key things: 1.) A compelling offer (“Get a free surprise gift for every purchase!”), 2.) The featured product (“this elegant necklace”), 3.) A sense of urgency (“Hurry, offer good only for this weekend”), 4.) Action point (“Just present this flyer to the store clerk to get your gift”) and 5.) Your store’s identity and location (include a map on how to get to your store, including store hours).

Second is the distribution: Do not limit your distribution to a specific location. Best to identify a number of touch points and see which of these generate the most number of responses. You could be distributing near the fashion stores in the mall, or dropping them off mailboxes, or inserting them in newspapers. Just be sure to include a code in those flyers so that you have a way of knowing which ones came from which touch point.

Guerrilla ‘Glee’ marketing

Or you can create a novel way of handing out your flyer, so that it generates attention. Such as creating a dramatic scene in the middle of a busy mall crowd, when a man and a woman start shouting at each other, and security guards coming around to pacify the couple, and the man bursting into a song, who then gets down on his knees to propose to the girl and gives her a ring. Then you end this with a 60-second sales pitch about your store and where it is located.

Guerrilla Marketing is all about attaining your goals, at the least cost. All you need is time, energy, information and creativity. The above solutions, I hope can help inspire you to push yourself and think up of ideas to generate traffic to your store. God bless!—Emi Pascual. For Guerrilla Marketing consultancy or training please contact Emi through [email protected].

Send your questions or comments to [email protected].