Thursday, February 28, 2013

Maximize Business Opportunities

Many companies try to get more attention and sales for their products and services. This is doable if they offer a well-designed promotional event.

Brother Love DIY this marketing and sales function lasted for three days in a famous shopping mall. I will use this event as a case study to illustrate how a company can maximize the business opportunities in a limited time and space. I took all the photos in this article.

Sugarcoated theme

Don't hard sell. Pick an appealing theme and relate it to your product. Brothers used arts and crafts, and DIY as the main themes, which attracted media counting the event as a cultural activity and so, the organizer enjoyed free promotion, for example, event information appeared in the newspaper weekend recommendation column.

Good location

A small open area in a famous shopping mall with high stream of people guaranteed is good enough to hold a promotional event. Book the site in the midst of the mall, at the ground floor, with all four sides accessible. The busy sight can attract the curious shoppers at all floors to squeeze in and learn more.

Adopt square or rectangular layout, and divide the area into different blocks for various activities. The longer boundary, in comparison to the circular layout, maximizes the first-sight exposure. The block-setting creates a rich impression that favors longer span of attention and deeper penetration to the guests.

Attractive Display

Arrange a corner to have a pleasant display. The organizer used big bears in a home-like setting to generate a lovely and warm feeling. The charming display soothed the resistance to the business elements involved.


The displays should have some relations with the products, be eye-catching and appealing enough to lure visitors take photos and spend time within the promotional area. Well-chosen size, color and layout of the displays can enrich the small area and beget a favorable impression.

Appealing varieties

Brothers didn't display its sewing machines solely, but arranged joint promotion with other non-competitive parties to offer a wide variety of DIY products to maximize interests. This could avoid being too hard sell and visitors won't get bored quickly.

Competition

Companies should encourage interactions with all visitors to leave a positive impact. One strategy is to arrange a competition that allows easy participation and legal personal data collection of name and email address, etc.


Brothers invited visitors to be the judge and voted for the most likable DIY clothes. Filled in a simple form, participants gave their vote and got a chance in the lucky draw.

Gifts

Everyone welcomes freebies. To be selective and justify the cost, Brothers set a criterion: only visitors who gave the company a “Like” in Facebook could receive the bag of gifts. Response was good. A laptop computer was standby to help people get the gifts. Some people simply used their cell phone to meet the requirement. A large audience base was built in Facebook within a short period, ideal for future promotions.

Workshop


Using the DIY theme, Brothers arranged two workshops in the middle: one was about using the company's product to make a bag; the other one was about making a map-pattern pendant. The activities produced energetic feel and promoted DIY concept that could boost the sales of Brother's sewing machine.


Demonstrations and sales

Show visitors how powerful your product is. Brothers accepted orders and payments from anyone interested in having a DIY bag with one’s own words sewed on it. The orders kept the machine running, a perfect demo to promote sales of the sewing machines and generate income to offset the cost of the event.



There was another counter allowing customers to decorate their DIY bags by stamping. This free value-added service didn't cost Brothers much, but it made use of customer's creativity to highlight the potential of DIY, and the process was appealing to other visitors.

Pack your promotional event with an appealing theme, well-designed layout, interesting combinations, and a lot of fun activities that provoke guests taking actions. Let everyone who enters your area feel ease and spellbound. The reception of your marketing message, sales generation and future promotions will be made easier.

Author's note:

Picking a special theme for your product may attract so many attentions that you could have free promotions, reaching a large number of potential consumers within a short period of time due to the popularity of social network. Look at the restaurant discussed in the following article see if you would like to give it a try.

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With the advanced development of Internet, barter trade is feasible not only to save money but also get to know more people who may suggest a keen demand on a particular product. It's an economic way to build the customer base and good reputation within a community for the startup of a local business.

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