What do all you independents feel like is your best advertising methods? I know some people don't like to give away all their secrets, but I was just curious on how you guys try to compete with the chain stores advertising budget and what has worked well for you.
Convinceing the few ophthalmologist in the area ethical enough to let the patient leave thier office with a precription that you are competent and ethical. Can't do this in the news paper. You either have to have your stuff together or be very good a fakeing it.
Well in the small town where i live there are 3 optical shops within 10 yards of each other 1 is a chain and the other 2 are optican/owner type. The chain advertises in the local rag every week, 1 of the other runs small promotions every so often in the local rag (you know the 25% off type) the other dont advertise at all and his prices ouch :D makes you cry just looking at the frames in the window. and well we under cut them all by a big % but they all make a living. So i think you dont need to advertise so long as you have got a good client base and someone to test on site.
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Every day a grind
Every week a bind
www.iooi.co.uk
John - which chain do you have there?
And where is there?
Maria (eternally nosy)
For all we like to blow it off, the most important place you will ever advertise in is:
THE PHONE BOOK!!!!!!!!
More people read that than anything else. And if you are not in it in a big way, you don't get notice.
With all the TV, radio and newspaper we do, most people tell us they found us in the PHONE BOOK !
never known a female who aintOriginally posted by Maria:
John - which chain do you have there?
And where is there?
Maria (eternally nosy)
Vision Value
Otley, the best town in the uk more pubs per inch than anywhere else :D :D
a question for you now Maria i'm nosy too
Are you in the Trafford Center or in Manchester it self?
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Every day a grind
Every week a bind
www.iooi.co.uk
[This message has been edited by john r (edited 09-23-2000).]
Well technically, I'm in Bury, but I normally say Manchester over the internet, 'cos no-one's heard of Bury. (Or Rochdale, where I live)
Then i guess you will know Dale coxon think thats how you spell it.
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Every day a grind
Every week a bind
www.iooi.co.uk
Vicki,
I have done some successful and unsucessful advertising. However, I don't believe there is an across the board answer for the method of advertising since everyones demographic market is different.
"Word of mouth" is always the most valuable but longest to realize. This can be executed with help of all of your patients as they tell someone who may visit you in 3weeks or 3years. Bottom line with word of mouth advertising is to make sure you express your appreciation to the responsible patients. Perhaps a professional discount on an add on such as AR or just an accessory such as a bottle of lens cleaner next time they come in. The recognition goes a long way in the long run.
"Radio and TV" captures the teen and baby boomer crowds the most. These folks usually are the ones spending the most for their fashion eyewear and enable you to recognize great profitability. However, this is the most expensive type of advertising. If you don't have the appropriate budget for this type of media advertising it can be a failure if you only commit to a week or two of ads. Consistency and repetition is necessary to recognize the best results of this type of advertising.
"Newspaper" is very effective for the mid and retired aged consumers. They have the most time to sit down and read the paper on a daily basis. When developing a newspaper ad make sure you adress three things in your advertisement; Who, What, and Where you are. Too many words and or graphics will make your advertisement too busy for the person casually scanning the newspaper. I would encourage you NOT to use coupons since they put both you and the consumer in a box with limited expectations for their eyewear value.
Finally, once you start advertising it is important that you do it on a regular basis. Otherwise folks may assume you are no longer in business. Also contact your frame and lens reps. Many companies have co-op advertising packages which help you pay for your advertising bills.
Didn't mean to be so long but I've been there, done that, and have the t-shirt to prove it. Hope I've helped in some way.
Kevin
Chip is the exception, not the rule, probably 99.5% of my account do some type of advertising. As Kevin said, there is no "magic" formula per se, you need to take into account your target demographic.. i.e. if your standard customer base is in the upper baby boomer age group then an ad in a daily or circular would work better then an ad in the local College paper :)
Identify your market base then just gear your advertising to where their interest are.
Phone book is always a must, and better to go with a slightly smaller DISPLAY ad if you can get a two or three color ad (grabs attention more even if it is slightly smaller then an B&W ad)It may be less costly to just get listed, but display ad's get more attention .. try to get them to give you a preferred page location if it is available.. upper right hand page is best if possible.
Next decide on you advertising and get the best bang for your buck.. In my area we found we had a better result using circulars then the daily paper.. we could target certian geographical locations and print more for the same price we paid for a wide area ad that was smaller and was wasted on people 15 or 20 miles away that were not going to come to you anyway..
Your best bet is to run some type of coupon as you experiment with the print area, this way you can keep a tabulation on what ones work and do not work.. another advantage is papers tend to put coupons on the upper out edges so if people cut them out it has less complications on the news area :)...
Personally I used a weekly (PennySaver), yellow pages and circulars.. circulars seemed to work the best(for me)..Radio just didn't work at all.. the commercials are fast and "jumbled" and chances are if people are driving,, phone numbers go in one ear & out the other :)
Your best bet is use common sense.. and if at all possible once you find an arena that works sign up for multiple runs (you usually get a col. inch discout)
Only you know your area and what age target group would give you the most business, then gear your advertising to reach that group...
Oh one other thing I use to do is have a "bonus" club.. handed out business cards to all the customers with a number on it and then kept a list of people the referred back to me and let them get "bonus points", you would be surprised how "giving" somebody a free tint and or free UV etc. etc. .. got them to push word of mouth even harder for you :).. ones that really got the business in I would give them a polarized next time they came in at no xtra cost instead of "tinted" sunglass..what the heck, they sent me 8 or 10 customers who bought and it cost me only $20 or so more to up grade them.. you do the math on if it was worth it :)
These were some of the things I did that worked.. you might also rotate ad designs.. keep it fresh..and check into what Kevin mentioned BTW it's called co-op advertising. :)
Jeff "I knew I got that A.S. degree in marketing and advertisng for a reason" Trail
[This message has been edited by Jeff Trail (edited 09-24-2000).]
Thanks to everyone who gave me some feedback on advertising ideas. Our shop has been open for over a year and I still think advertising is a tough one! We recently brought in an O.D., so we've had to restructure our way of advertising so to promote that we are now doing exams, etc. I agree that the phone book is 100% worth every penny. I also found that newspaper has been a waste of time but we do not promote sales or "buy one get one" either.
Thanks again, I appreciate all your ideas!! Have a good week!
Vicki, interesting comments; we started out in '77 with the good will relationships of the three MD's in our market at the time. the area wasn't overrun with optical retail sales clerks 25 years ago. We were always independent, a patient advocate. we discovered that direct mail, newspaper ads, yellow page display ads, and radio/tv ads were like throwing $50 bills on the sidewalk! Our best and highly successful thing was marketing to our existing patients. eyecom2 office computer system was a major help in our growth. your very best advertising is really "internal" marketing, the quality of your product, your attitudes toward your clientele, your professional knowledge and skills in problem solving and your willingness to do what you say, standing behind your word! people mistrust bogo's and 'free' stuff. well, smarter ones do. there are a lot of naive folks out there. anyway, look to the long term, repeat and referral business is what keeps you going. Al.
I most certainly do! In fact, I'm beginning to think everyone in optics knows Dale Coxon!Originally posted by john r:
Then i guess you will know Dale coxon
Who else do you know in Bury?
[This message has been edited by Maria (edited 09-25-2000).]
Vicki,
I feel like I'm going against the grain a little here (oh well, situation normal ;) ), but my experience (and numerous studies) has/have shown that advertising in the yellow pages is one of the least effective methods of marketing. Lots of people read the yellow pages. However, over 80% of them are looking up a number for a specific business. In other words, they already know who they are looking for, they just need the phone number. Therefore, we run a yellow page ad that is only slightly larger than a regular listing.
As Al mentioned, selling to your own customers is by far the most effective (and hopefully easiest) way to increase business. As the CEO of KMart once said, "its 10 times cheaper to sell something to an existing customer than it is to attract a new one" (of course, the arrival of WalMart has decimated KMart, so I guess that is a questionable quote).
Other than internal marketing, I have found the newspaper to be a good outlet. Whatever method of marketing you decide upon, invest all your money in that one method. Why? Because any marketing medium is going to reach enough potential customers to easily meet your desires.
For example, we see a little over 3,000 patients per year at our practice. If we want to increase our patient load by 10%, we only need to attract an additional 300 people per year. No matter what forum we choose, there are going to be literally 1,000s of people reached. Our goal is to get 300 of them to decide to spend money with us. The best way to do that is repetition.
Optical has about a 2 year buying cycle. That means that an ad that runs for one month will only reach a little over 4% of the people during their buying period. Run the ad for a year, and you hit around 50%. The thing is, you can't count on running the ad once and having a potential patient suddenly decide to shop with you. They need to have seen the ad over and over again. They need to be walked through the "why," "what," "where," and "when" of your operation. Then they can decide to come to you.
Most people have a list of about 5 restaurants they like to frequent. Restaurant advertising tries to place the establishment in "the list." Only then can they count on getting business.
Sorry for the rambling response. To sum, pick a message, pick a media, then stick to it for the long haul (and mail internal advertisements 3-4 times per year).
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Vicki,
Advertising a new business and an established business can very different. When you are new you just want them to know you are there.
What worked best for me is a "$" off coupon on the back of the register receipt at the grocery store across the street. Every customer there was a possible customer for me due to location.
The other great tool was the phone book. I've found most new people look in the book and they are interested in LOCATION.
Since you now will be accepting insurance because you have an OD, you must mark up everything so you can mark it down. In this area most of the insurances expect you to give their patients a discount (even though they pay you nothing). Patients expect that you will be happy to see their insurance.
So, they either get the insurance discount or the coupon on the back of the register receipt.
Glasses are jewelry. Everybody expects some sort of discount on the marked price.
Harry
DISCOUNTS DISCOUNTS DISCOUNTS
DONT YOU HATE THAT?
Just my .50D worth, but try word of mouth.
Most of you know who I have decided to work with.
Our advertising/ marketing budget??
$0.00
We do not advertise.
Word of mouth only. Honest.
Still grossed over a mill last year...
(and netted over 100k...) one location of 30some...
Shwing;-}
I've seen a few responses indicating the use of coupons as a form of advertising. Although this is a proven strategy for some retailers, this structure can greatly limit your sales potential.
I've worked for a certain retailer that regularly used coupon advertising for a complete pair of eyeglasses. The problem was that folks only wanted to spend the $99 for a complete pair. Getting them to go for add ons such as AR, Transition, High Index, etc was like trying to get them to go to the moon. Furthermore, if they did go for add ons, their anticipation of value had not been met. If they didn't go for appropriate add ons, they were unable to recognize maximum visual performance from their eyewear investment.
Now I sell from the top down and recognize a much higher avg sale without the use of coupons. In addition, almost 75 percent of my sales include add ons or multiple pairs. Best of all, the consumer feels good about their purchase because the more they spend the more flexible I can be with my pricing as they develop a cognitave feeling of having the bargaining leverage. Finally, the consumers know they can make a quality purchase at a good value without having "some restrictions" that apply in the coupons.
If you do decide to use coupons, a specific approach such as free tint, or 50% off AR, etc may be a better approach than a generic structured coupon which leaves room for problems.
Kevin
I use coupons to buy tomato soup but haven't found any to buy a new car.
T.
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