PR, as a technique for promotion, is the biggest bargain a service type business can get; becoming acquainted with worth while activities for promotion, and shunning time killers.
It is not necessary to know the trade definitions of the several techniques to self stimulate a business depending on its neighborhood. But, because the group of marketing modes converge in large retailing advertising, promotion, publicity, display it will save time and suggest techniques to label each even if only to avoid them. The definitions here are not necessarily those used by the big people, but because each refers to a function, they should be known to small shop or service retailers.
Low Cost PR
We all know that one gets little or nothing for nothing. PR does not come free. It may be defined as a family of promotional, attention- and friend-getting services that are self-executed. As the boss in the chain store tells the stock boy: "Do it on your own time." The most dramatic aspect of big operation PR is publicity, meaning write-ups. For the service business that is closer to the bottom of the list. The best bargain in PR services is the personal letter to one's market.
To make PR work for a small enterprise, you must first sit down with a map of your neighborhood and select your market as your intuition and experience suggest it might be. Conventionally, for most stores, it is a circle of residences represented by a crisscrossing of streets, with attention to a major street or highway tending to induce those families in the direction of your location when they leave home or are returning there. That is not meant as a tip of site-selection: you already are located. All good rules of thumb are as good as they look after you have applied all the exceptions. Remember that. For example, if you are a highly talented woman who knows a great deal about dress design and other attributes of women's fashion, no matter where you locate the map is only remotely a marketing tool. On the other hand, if you are a gas station you should know the map by heart.
Those are two extremes of retail services-one in which the owner is everything except a conventional or sparkling personality; and the other where the owner's personality is paramount. Both types, and all of those in between, require smart and aggressive attitudes and behavior, whether they show or not.
Know Your Market
Using the term PR to apply to all promotion is a very practical approach because in our context it means self-planned and -executed activities. The term activity should become familiar at the outset, in preference to terms implying that verbal/graphic communications are primary elements when you sit down after the business day to think about your business.
A company's market means its logical prospects and customers in relation to factors that apply to their buying actions. This is very important to understand as the basis for your PR, so we will augment the above statement by saying that you should first think about why your expected market is the one you should court or entice. If you own a gas station it may be that they live nearby and pass your corner often. If you are a fashion designer your market is only remotely geographic: your customers are motivated by a need for what you provide-some degree of exclusivity.
A new retail enterprise is most likely to deal in food: as an independent and for off-premises grocery products it is most likely to offer lots of prepared, ready-to-eat items, and gourmet or other low-volume packages; if it is a cafe it probably features fast foods: cooked while they look. Using this as our center, or average type business for which most PR rules have applications for the most businesses, we shall amplify briefly the "market" expectations where obvious situations-such as being adjacent to a factory operating three shifts do not tend to distort such businesses that conventionally operate from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.
Forget the highway or street unless your location is in moderately open country. High rate of use of services such as foods depends upon people living and working nearby.
When people deal with an owner they are more suspicious of his legitimacy than they are of chains. Although chains report employee thefts as their greatest drain, women do not often count their change even though a sign warns them. In a store depending upon confidence, the owner must prove it: until they know him they count the change twice. What does that tell you? It tells you what people think about when they decide where to shop.
You have your personal name on the store identification sign: "John Jones, Fine Foods: We Deliver."
Whether it is delivery service or another added service, all retailers should have a brief statement of something not offered by everybody. When a customer buys, the owner behind the counter should ask: "Are you from this end of town?"
That is how he starts a mailing list. He adds: "When I get a special price or quantity of items not often asked for, I drop cards to people before I put it on display. That is our way of attracting customers. If you do not mind, I would like to have your name."
You should have a daily journal, out of sight until you open it showing some names: place it before your customer with a ball point pen. Say no more. Some just look at it and exit. A test of this technique over a period of ninety days in Stamford, Conn., showed that one half wrote their names; one half did not. Observation showed that both returned about equally often.
Seasonal PR
A check list of gourmet or highly seasonal foods, especially imported items, should be enclosed with the above letter. It costs only a first class postage stamp for each letter if you use a post office permit. The printer who makes your list will lay out the reverse side to fold, showing your address and postage paid permit.
While we are suggesting only PR promotional projects, such as the letter above, the example is a well qualified specimen of PR. The major element is the season. Oysters have no market price that need concern a specialized store. Chains seldom offer fresh oysters because they cannot be handled in volume. But the season is the strong element. Here is the anatomy of the letter.
- It states the proposition in the first sentence. All business letters must do that.
- Its second paragraph justifies the purchase. Do not enlarge on the offer in the second paragraph; compose it to conclude the reasons for ordering now. At the end of paragraph you have said all you have to say on oysters.
- Once the reader knows your major proposition, it is probable that it jogged her memory on an item she had difficulty on earlier. Paragraphs 3 and 4 tell her of your other hard to find items. Phrases such as "in keeping with our business practice . ." pay their way by suggesting your type of store: it works for you all year.
Before broadening" PR discussion, it should be suggested that cleanliness and neatness are what gladden the hearts of customers more than any other attribute (unless yours is a garden and nursery business). If it is food (store or cafe) the clean apron and clean person are the other factors. Their value simply cannot be overstated: that is real PR.
Low Profile on "Snob Appeal"
The PR approach to "snob appeal" services is to hide the snob appeal and emphasize the fit, or the fashion authenticity. But building a mailing list (the letter is always the best way to reach small business markets) is not nearly as simple as it is for frequent purchases. However, customers cross state lines and drive long distances to fashion stores. There are three rules for specialized, infrequently used, high priced items:
- Distance is no factor.
- Price is no factor, but regardless of value, items for which people travel long distances must be in a range above $100.
- Letters should be personalized: using the same typewriter to fill in the person's name, but not the address. You have that on the envelope.
The petroleum industry may not do the best possible PR job for itself, but its profit formula for dealers is one of the best ever devised. Unlike those of conventional franchised retail businesses, the earnings of gas station operators vary widely not by areas nor by brands represented but by the amount of PR type promote on and personal effort they deliver.
In most essentials the petroleum industry dealership is a franchise operation, but it resembles the automobile dealer type more than the fast food dealer operation. Its sharp difference from all others is that the manufacturer provides the costly real estate. But the dealer provides more of himself than any of his American contemporary retailers. When a customer drives in he is usually on deck to greet him.
The gas station has become as much of an American institution taken for granted as the stately American elm once was. It has in common with most service and individually or family owned businesses that it can afford little if any off the premises advertising. The distributor who supplies and services the station supplies most of the point of purchase display materials to stimulate buying by visitors and they often have cooperative deals for a variety of mailing uses. These are not to be scoffed at, but many dealers contend that their use does not pay its way.
When you order these cards made up by your printer, ask him to print your name and address, and your postal permit, on the reverse side. The cost of mailing is the same, with or without the permit. The proper custom is to have them marked "postage paid."
The corner gas station answers more questions than the telephone company's "Directory Assistance" girls do every clay and week. But those who get that service seldom remember even the brand of gas sold by the station. In fact, a survey conducted in a Michigan suburban city of 50,000 in 1968 showed that only 45 per cent of women in homes within a two mile circle of a super station could name the brand of gas, although nine of every ten asked recalled that the station was on the downtown corner.
Getting Local Publicity
In its most common context PR is usually meant to identify publicity in the newspaper or on radio. There is no doubt that it pays well for big stores or anyone else who gets some business from a substantial number of the media's readers or listeners. For businesses whose major trade comes from neighbors and transients, the PR should be planned to increase the visual impact of the property for the passers by, and to reach families in their homes.
Participation in local athletic leagues baseball, bowling or softball may be good according to its cost it is wonderful exposure.
Budget a PR Commitment
It is next to impossible for a one man or family type of service retailer to realistically budget what he should invest in PR promotion. Because it is difficult to estimate realistically, it is suggested that you determine what you would like to do, estimate the number of times it should be repeated yearly, then put a cost on it. If you have secured cost estimates from the printer or letter shop, the figure should be accurate. Now, estimate your net profit. The PR figure should be not more than 10 per cent of your net profit.
Personal Touch Important
In businesses where nationally advertised service/products are offered, the message sent to the home with its personal message is what makes the impact. If you were taken to a strange city and another owner transferred from his city to your station, both of you would starve. That is the answer to those who think it makes no difference who serves national brands. It makes all the difference. The only way you could prove that would be to switch cities.
In writing sales letters (not more than four a year) you should keep these rules in mind:
- Every letter must have a proposition that represents a bargain.
- Your entire proposition must be disclosed in the first paragraph.
- The second paragraph must offer reasons for doing it now. That is the justification.
- Any further explanation, such as facts about the return card (always include a return card) may be put in a short paragraph after you have explained why he should respond now.
- The close should be only one line. Thank you . . .
SUMMARY
Public Relations for the small independent retail shop, service or industry is best done by acquiring a local mailing list and sending letters with enclosed postage paid return cards at peak seasons.
Highly important PR for these small independents is personal cleanliness and neat appearance of premises as well as good and attractive visibility for the shop.
QUESTIONS
What are the three rules for the specialty shop selling high priced items?
What does the first paragraph of a good sales letter say?
