Retailers, Tap your 'publicity sweet spot'

Business consultant Jon Schallert gave an informative and lively seminar presentation at last month's American Lighting Association Conference in which he shared stories and advice from years of teaching retailers and entrepreneurs how to turn their businesses into "dominant consumer destinations."

His "14 Destination Business Principles," shared via seminars, online training and a two-and-a-half-day Boot Camp in Colorado, are rooted in the idea that consumers decide whether or not they're going to come to your store based on two things: The time they think it's going to take them to get to you, and what they're going to get in return for making the trip. And, as he pointed out, it's a program that can be applied across just about all retail categories.

Schallert began with a target diagram of a business's geographic market and noted that most retailers view their market as those who live close by, within a 15-minute-or-less drive. He suggests, however, paying more attention to those who live within a one- to two-hour driving radius, an area he calls "your publicity sweet spot."

"Differentiate your business beyond your local marketplace," he said. "How different do I have to be to pull from two, three hours away? Start thinking like that and everything falls into place." Develop a unique position - so that you become a "story." Product spotlighting can help you do it in one (or all, depending on your resources) of three ways:

1. Create a microniche product line. Take a product category, narrow it down, then explode it in breadth and depth. The idea is to convince customers that even though your product is identical to, and maybe priced higher than, the competition, they absolutely need to buy it from you. Jon Schallert presenting at the American Lighting Association Conference, The Breakers, Palm Beach (September 2011). See HAT's October issue for more ALA Conference coverage.

Schallert illustrated with an Indiana children's retailer, one of his Boot Camp graduates, who expanded her collection of piggy banks and moved all of them onto the shop's dominant wall. "So, a customer walks through the door, glances to the right and within seconds, says ‘Wow, look at all the piggy banks you have.'" To which, he says, the retailer may reply (until formally challenged, anyway), "We have the largest selection of piggy banks in the state/country/world!"

When an upholsterer in Kansas asked for Schallert's help in driving more traffic to his shop, he suggested rethinking the fabric display. Instead of a 4-foot display of fabrics on hangers, they installed horizontal racks along the dominant wall and hung the fabrics side by side.

"We won't say we have the largest selection, we'll say we have the longest selection of upholstery products, and we'll show the picture on television of 40 feet of upholstery fabrics," Schallert told him. "We're not lying, we're just positioning it differently!"

2. Create a signature item. For this one, Schallert gave an example of a Georgia retailer that sells women's apparel, gifts and home décor. "You walk in and the first thing you see are these huge furniture pieces and you go, ‘Man look at those big beds!' Well, those big beds were actually made from old front porches. She had a furniture maker make them, then added a tag with a story about how this porch came from Old Sam's house - Old Sam who looked like Boo Radley and used to scare all the kids, and so on..."

3. Create a monument. Literally. Like the "World's Largest Teapot" built by the owner of a 40-acre nursery, home and garden center in Texas who wanted to make his operation, which has a café and tea room on the property, "famous" and easier for people to find. So he built a giant teapot out of a grain bin and put it at the front of the property. People began stopping to have their picture made in front of the teapot. Southern Living called and did a story.

"NOW, IF YOU ARE A GIFT STORE AND you ask a newspaper reporter in the next town ‘We're a gift store, and we're really cute, would you do a story about us?' Nope. But if you tell them you have the largest selection of piggy banks, or the world's largest teapot or a one-of-a-kind bed made from the porch of this old guy who looks like Boo Radley, they'll write about you.

"The media - after the deadline - they're worried about their next story. Go to them with stories like this. They fill empty space. The newspapers and media outlets in those outlying areas will be the easiest place to tell your story and get the most press. Why? You're far enough away that you're not in their (advertising) marketplace, you're different enough that you can be a story for them, and you're close enough that consumers look at you and say, ‘Now, that's a different place, I've gotta go there.'"

Schallert's presentation at the conference was limited to a couple hours, during which he presented enough fresh ideas, insight and practical advice to suggest his program would be well worth the time. If nothing else, he's a great storyteller and fun to listen to.

Visit jonschallert.com for more info. And look for more coverage of last month's American Lighting AssociationConference in the October issue of Home Accents Today.