SMALL BUSINESS PROMOTER ================================================================ Volume 1 Issue 2 March 1992 ================================================================ This newsletter attempts to provide a steady stream of promotional ideas for small businesses, usually at low cost. They're designed to make money and get public attention for your business. SPECIAL MONTHS AND WEEKS IN MARCH (numbers indicate day of the month event starts). American Red Cross National Frozen Food Month National Nutrition Month National Pancake Week (1) Return The Borrowed Book Week (1) National "Talk With Your Teen About Sex" Month Great American Meatout National Procrastination Week (2) National School Breakfast Week (2) Girl Scout Week (6) National Poision Prevention Week (15) Art Week (22) SPECIAL DAYS IN MARCH Mardi Gras-New Orleans and other cities Super Tuesday (March 10) 12 states have primaries or caucuses. Friday the 13th St. Patrick's Day (17) Spring arrives (20) National Teenagers Day (21) National Goof Off Day (22) National Organize Your Home Office Day (24) GIVE YOUR PROFITS TO A CHARITY Restaurants know that tieing in with a charity is just good business. They give up some money which is tax deductible but they gain much in community good will. This will pay off in future business. Pick some occasion, get a good worthy charity involved and you'll see. But you shouldn't have to do it all. Some restaurants donate everything, food and drink with the charity providing for it's incidentials, such as printing. Some also require that all the money go to the charity, with no deductions for staff or incidentials. This sounds like good policy. You can also tie in events with beer and liquor reps. Many restaurants and clubs to 4-8 major events a year where various brands are featured. Yaigermeister liquor has gained much popularity with bar specials. This gives you a chance to invite various volunteer groups involved in your promotions to build additional good will. Don't hold this event on your best nights. In fact, make it one of your worst. Members of the volunteer organization spread the word to family and friends to attend. STUNTS CAN BACKFIRE Stunts can be fun but they can also quickly go awry. To promote the premier of the 30's Gangster movie, an Arlington Texas AMC theater manager decided to fake a shootout in front of the theater. High school drama students posed as gunmen with phony machine guns. It was too good. People ran for cover. Arllington police received six frantic phone calls. The press played the story up. People might have been more skittish than normal because of the recent mass murder at the Luby's in Kileen, Texas. A REWARD FOR CHURCH Talk about a low cost promotion that promotes good will and convinces people to stop in after church. I saw a Taco Bueno with a sign that said 10% discount to those with church bulletin. CUT THE CABLE Several times a year, Pidgons Furniture in Dallas/Ft. Worth holds a promotion to sell it's satellites. Besides havin many satellite representatives there, they also offer a pocket knife so people can "cut the cable". This is a good stab at cable companies. GET NAKED AND LISTEN TO MUSIC This made the news a few months back. A Califonria music store held its First Annual Nude Day by giving away a free CD to the first 300 people to strip naked. They had more than enou#h takers. HOWL LIKE A WOLF In Truckee, Califonria....a female goldminer won the "howl-like-a-wolf" contest. That's how she and her husband communicate when they're outdoors, she says. This disproves what a lot of people think, that you can't keep in touch without a cellular phone. AN UGLY DOG CONTEST This is a great summertime promotion. You can make it part of an existing event or a "stand alone" promotion. A possible problems here.....the cleanup. You might make provisions to have someone clean up afterwards. PROMOTING EXOTIC FOODS Restaurants often don't know how to promote exotic foods, such as alligator meat. One way of course is to buy big billboards, radio or tv spots or newspaper ads. But for most restaurants, unless it's a chain like Bennigan's, that's out. The cost return just isn't sufficient. But there's another way which is talking up the product. At a Florida retaurant, they give people who try the alligator a badge. It says "Official gator taster- Al E. Gator's, Orlando, Florida". Waiters wear the badges and only give the badges to those who actually order the alligator. FREE FOOD AND A BEER TOO How does a bar on a limited budget increase business? A lot of are turning to free food for their customers. It does work if done correctly. A bar inside a surbuban Holiday Inn serves free shrimp on Friday night from 6 to 7:30 pm. They have a good crowd then. By 9 p.m., the place is dead. There are other factors than the food being removed that accounts for the fall off, of course. Many topless bars advertise free food in newspaper ads, usually from 11 to 2. On Thanksiving day, some topless bars advertise free turkey dinner. CAR KISSING In Santa Fe, New Mexico, a woman kissed a car for 34 hours to win it. Ten people started in the contest. The car dealers sales manager said "She really wanted the car and hung on for deal life." Rebecca Archuleta said she could have gone on much longer. Car kissers got a 10 minute break each hour. The winner said her plan was to use plenty of lip gloss and imagine she was kissing her husband. BRANDSTANDING A lot of brands have been able to tie in with an annual event. Gaines sponsors canine frisbee catching events around the country. This event gets media attention and is a people event. People love their dogs. Events like that also promotes good will for the product. Gaines goes after people who are fitness conscious. They hold 130 state and local contests and seven regional finals. The finals of the Gaines Cycle Ashley Whippet Invitational finals are held in Washington. There is little here that can't be adapted to other products. The basics are the same. The product's name should be prominently displayed with the event. Events like this are lots of fun and they build good will for all involved. WAYNE'S WORLD A lot of rock oriented businesses might be able to tie into this. The plot is about two #uys from with a local cable access show. Both still live at home. There are a lot of good promotional ideas to tie in. The stars of the movie appeared Mike Meyers (Wayne) and Dana Carvey (Garth) on MTV for an hour special. The special featured the pair's top 10 video babes, top ten bands who sounded like diseases and top 10 male musicians who look like women. Paramount ran a crossword puzzle. The answers were at the bottom of the puzzle. First 36 to redeem at the newspaper won Wayne's World drumstick or other pries. TAX TERROR TIME Many businesses take part in April 15th promotions. If you make aspirin, Pepto Bismol or some similar stress oriented product, you are a natural. Nihtclubs could throw a tax party. Have a bonded carrier pickup the tax forms and take them to the post office. THEY LOOK LIKE CREDIT CARDS Many businesses can use the plastic cards that look like credit cards for promotional purposes. Many radio stations The idea is that the user shows it and gets a discount on services. It is even more impressive if the person's name is embossed on the card. The Hard Rock Cafe recently send out cards that resembled American Express Gold Card. Only this was labeled Hard Rock Express. It's purpose, telling the receiver they are a special friend of the Hard Rock and wouldn't have to stand in line with the masses. PARTY GAMES These games can be used at parties or appearances to liven things up. Some may work well in nightclubs where kids are not around. Blind Man's Poker: Hilarious nightclub stunt. Girls are given rolls of toilet paper to hold between their knees, guys brooms or pool cues to hold between their knees. Then the guys are blindfolded and are supposed to get the pole in the toilet paper. Girls can shout things like lower, higher. Best Bumper Sticker: a simple sexist game. Bumper stickers are put on the rear ends of attractive young women. They bounce across the floor and the crowd applauds as to the young lady with the "best bumper." The music is started and stopped. The Scavenger Hunt: asking people in the bar for things that they have on them that are suggestive and fun. For example, the first man with cotton balls receives a prize. Or ask for drivers licensees of nearby towns. Or who has a tooth brush, an ID of a nearby college, a ticket stub to a certain football game? Musical Chairs: Put a number of people out on the dance floor and a fewer number of chairs...the music keeps stopping and each time, a chair is withdrawn, everybody tries to sit down and the person left...is out. Finally, there are only two people left and one chair. Wheel Of Cologne: You could have a wheel you spin and have good perfume and cheap stuff. You could have some in a bottle marked "PU Plano" or a name to take off on a local town. Pass The Cucumber: Have two lines of people. They attempt to hold the cucumber between their knees and pass it to the next person in line. If they drop the cucumber, they have to start all over again. YOUR OWN HALL OF FAME Think up a name, print some certificates, possible get a prize that makes it meaningful and you are in business. Tie in with a supermarket and they can put the winners name in their ads. SALUTE A TEACHER Minyard Supermarkets in Dallas/Ft. Worth sponsors the "outstanding teacher of the week" in association with KPLX-FM (country). The teacher and their school each win a thousand dollars and the kids win a pizza party. The supermarket features a picture of the teacher at the top of it's full page ads and the station includes the teacher's name in promos. ELVIS Elvis is alive. We hear it over and over. So many promotions and yet, apparently room for one more. A minor league soccer team, the Tulsa Ambush offered a million dollars to Elvis if he showed up. They also promised fans $500 each and free jelly donuts for all. At half-time, they had an Elvis look-alike contest. ATTENTION DICKIE WEARERS Dickies has hired Charlie Daniels as it's spokeman. It's offerin# a seven thousand dollar check for the "American Worker Of the Year". The company is holding an essay contest. The forms are attached to Dickie's clothes. A LOW COST ART FAIR Have an art festival. The Book stop had an art festival for small children. Esentially this is a low cost promotion, just displaying the prints throughout the store. Prints all in one section of the store or throughout the store. This works because it involves the kids parents. SAMPLE OUR FOOD Promoting different foods in a restaurant can keep people comin# back and there are several techniques for doing this. Excotic foods are a good example. In Orlando, Florida, at Al E. Gator's, they promote the alligator vigorously. Waiters wear buttons that say "official gator taster". People only get the buttons if they taste the alligator. WACKY PROMOS The right arm tanning contest in Ocean City New Jersey. The contest included best freckles, best identical twins, and "count dracula" contest to find the palest person. In Logan Utah a few years ago, one man ate a snake in an attempt to win a motorcycle. But the winner was a woman who doused herself in liquid cow manure and rolled in cornflakes. DO SOMETHIN WITH GOLD Gold continues to be popular. A few years ago, a "Great Gold Rush Matching Game" gave away a gold jeep, gold inots and cross pens. Suggestions of promotions, and clippings are welcome. The Small Business Promotor. Copyright 1992 Paul Bottoms. Compuserve ID 76107,215. Genie P.BOTTOMS. Published monthly. $50.00 yearly. Individual issues $5.00: printed or 5 1/4 floppy ASCII format. P.O. Box 24297, Fort Worth, TX 76124. Please feel free to transfer to other bulletin board systems.