I recently completed a marketing consulting project for a new restaurant. The owner wanted ideas on how to best utilize marketing dollars to drive traffic to the restaurant. Instead of automatically investing money in print advertising, I decided to observe the area around the restaurant.
Sitting in the coffee shop located across the street from the restaurant, I observed a very important piece of information:
Herds of kids wearing soccer jerseys being dragged around the shopping center by their parents
After taking additional notes about the type of people walking around the shopping center, I determined the most useful way to invest marketing dollars would be to promote 10% off a meal if a child shows up wearing his or her soccer jersey. Also, if a child scored a goal, the restaurant would put his or her name on the chalkboard that’s visible to the patrons of this small town.
Instead of wasting large sums of marketing dollars on a print ad that MIGHT run one or two times in the local paper, this restaurant takes advantage of its surroundings and generates word-of-mouth advertising for one segment of its customers. It also promotes community involvement and is a fun place for families to visit after sporting events.
How can your business take advantage of its surroundings and create low cost, high return on investment marketing campaigns?
Happy Marketing!
Kurt
Kurt Hunter 
This is a great bit of advice that can be applied to most organisations. What a refreshing idea as well! People put so much effort into social media nowadays that these simple yet effective offline techniques seem to be neglected.
Thank you for the comment! There are a host of businesses that don’t have the resources to run an effective social media campaign (heck, most big businesses struggle to update a blog or Facebook or Twitter). It’s true that a social media presence is crucial to long-term success, but it’s an absolute mistake to neglect offline techniques. After all, marketing is about engagement and relationships–both can be accomplished offline the last time I checked. Thanks again for the comment–I appreciate it!
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