Sept 20-26 2009 is TV Turnoff Week. How could you use this to make an event to be proud of, an opportunity to expand your customers’ horizons and (coincidentally but importantly) garner a little PR for your business?
What can you do?
An aside: Your target demographic is not families with school-age children. Try Digital Detox Week… if you dare!
You could plan some after school into early evening activities for families, such as
- Board game tourneys. Borrow some games and some tweens/teens to oversee several tables of games. Include a range of skill levels.
- Borrow some seniors to teach kids how to play jacks or marbles or flip cards. Skip the mumbly-peg though.
- Karaoke for Kids? Could you stand it?
- What do you do when you’re not watching TV? You walk a dog: Will the Humane Society come by with some adoptables?
- Someone to teach kids magic tricks? How to weave a potholder? Story-telling?
- If you have outdoor space, how about hosting a bike clinic? The local bike shop will probably appreciate the added publicity and the line will be long enough that Mom will shop while she waits.
- Simplest of all. Have the kids create portraits of your shop. Provide washable markers and paper pre-printed with I made this picture of [name of your shop]. Signed _____________ While the kids create, the moms shop. Have plenty of foil star stickers or blue ribbons to “award” each participant.
September’s pretty busy, though, and you might not have the time to plan, promote, and hold an event. Well, then, how about offering , Courtesy of MyShop, the Ultimate TV Turnoff Week Packet for free to anyone who stops in… bet you can get radio, TV news, and newspaper mention if you move fast. Include, in a nice envelope, coloring pages, puzzles and word games, and so on. Loads of usable stuff on the web (but be sure to observe the creator’s intellectual property rights: most sites will have “permitted use” info.) Start, for example, on Family Education. This is a great way to give your littlest customers something that has your shop info on every page to remind parents, grandparents, and refrigerator repairmen about your shop.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 