It’s Wacky Wednesday once again. A free giveaway for consignment, resale, and thrift shop owners/ managers.
You want your shop’s name (and tag line, if all goes well) to STICK in people’s minds whether they’re looking for something specific, gathering up friends for a Browse and B**ch Girls’ Day Out, or recommending you to their office mates. But so many of us have similar names and are even in the same neighborhood (I had 6-8 shops grow up like toxic toadstools around mine!) that you want to be sure they remember YOU.
So how do you make your shop name STICK in the minds of people who visit, see your ads, hear about you?
We’d all love to tattoo our names on their bodies, but barring that (which I assume is illegal), what do you, can you, will you, dream you of doing to make sure they remember YOUR shop and not the competition?
And speaking of tattooing: Our prize this week is courtesy of RJF Software, makers of Consignment Till , who are sponsoring a $50 Gift Certificate for temporary tattoos from Fun Novelties. Many of these come as multiple sheets so $50 worth is enough for several weekends of giveaways in your shop…how FUN is that?
So tell us your thoughts on how to make your shop name STICK in the minds of your marketplace. You become eligible for the drawing simply by commenting here, and it’s no harder than putting your 2-cents’ worth over at Sharing on the Premiere Site for Professional Resalers, Too Good to be Threw.
Remember, at least 20 responses are necessary before the drawing’s a go, so clue your resale buddies into this too!
Read the rules for our giveaway.
See the Wacky Wednesday Giveaways so far.
Update 2-1-10: No prize awarded this week because we did not receive the minimum responses. My thanks to Marriette, Jan, Laura, Jill, Donna, Fashion Safari, Debbie, Jaime, Julie@repeatstreet.com, Elizabeth, Molly, sheila, Rachel@2nd Time Around who did participate. I think we can all agree that Julie@repeatstreet.com, whose name (and URL!) are STICKY because she uses it in her comments, deserves a little something…so I’m sending her a couple of TGtbT Products for the Professional Resaler for that idea we all can benefit from!
My store is on Summer Avenue in Memphis and the name of the store is Summer Kids. Helps answer that question, “where are you guys located”. My logo is a sunflower and we use it in everything. Really play on the summer theme. Even my 2 year old starts yelling mama everytime he spots a sunflower.
This is repetitious of earlier posts, but we also use our logo on everything from consignor agreements to bag stuffers and use our name repeatedly when communicating with customers and consignors. It also helps to have a name & tagline that are memorable & well suited to your store…(unlike 2nd Time Around, the name I “inherited” when I bought my store 16 years ago & wish that I had changed, lol)
Our local NBC affiliate does a “Business Spotlight” to highlight local businesses. It is a professionally produced ad by the TV station that gives you the opportunity to “sell” your shop with an actual visual tour of the shop.
I run this ad 2-3 times a month and I always see in increase in phone calls (people wanting to consign) and foot traffic when the spot runs. Customers come into the shop and say “I say you on TV!”
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I am still working daily to get my brand just right. I use a lot of pink in my decorating and in my cards etc.
I had ordered some pink TShirt bags a while back and was not overly thrilled with the crinkled look of them, but I liked the color and the weight. I decided that for the month of February we will be using these bags but I handwrote on each of them Once Again <3's our customers. It is pretty cute, I hope it will be memorable for the customers.
MollyB!
We just make sure we repeat our store name in every craigslist posting, facebook, myspace, email, etc. I try to avoid the I’s and We’s and use our store name as much as possible(unlike what I’m doing on here). We also make sure business cards go out the door all day long with our store name.
I recomment using your logo on everything that could pass through your customers and consignors hands – whether it’s a consignment agreement, business card, how to consign handout – whatever you hand them. I also answer the phone – “Thank you for calling Repeat Street, this is Julie.” You want every encounter to be consistent.
Off subject but I am LOVING the name Hello Gorgeous!
A tagline will only stick if it is used alot. You have to use it on EVERYTHING (signage, ads, business cards, brochures, website..)
and I think it also might help to have a logo to go with it. Some people will remember by hearing the tagline but others need to see something to correspond with it.
Also, mean what you say! If your tagline says “pay less for more” you better make sure customers WILL get more for less 🙂
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OMG!! I absolutely love the give local idea and I plan to starting using it immediately! Thanks Donna! That is an AWESOME idea! And it makes my idea sort of pale in comparison but here goes anyway…
I invested in calendar refrigerator magnets for 2010 and gave out tons of them. People love them and see them frequently – also I encourage all shopowners to make a facebook page for free advertising and getting your shop on the “in thing” radar.
The logo is everything! I can’t believe how many shops are out there without a logo. Invest the time and money into having a professional logo designed for your store and then put that logo on everything you print, send out, advertise in, etc.
I am preparing for the Grand Opening of Hello Gorgeous Consignment Boutique on Feb 13 in Camp Hill, PA. Two comments on this “sticky” concept.
One is the name of the store- when someone walks in the door or the phone is answered, the staff and or myself greet the customer with “Hello Gorgeous!” It makes people feel great – even the husbands who are helping to drop off merchandise always ask. ” Am I gorgeous too?” Of Course you are!
Second is our tag line – Earn Local, Shop Local, Give Local- Earn and shop are self explanatory (although part of shop local is that customers get an extra 10% if they use their proceeds as store credit.)
The Give Local is what I want to set my shop apart. Some people perceive that the items they own, but no nonger need, have a value that is too high to be donated to a thrift shop. With the Give Local concept, Customers can consign items under a charitable organization such as their school PTO or local symphony and the proceeds from the sale go to the local organization they support. This gives people who normally don’t consign, possibly because they don’t need or want the mone, to direct that value to an organization they feel passionate about.
We use our name all the time on everything we do and say but one of my favorite ways we keep boomerang in the brain is our logo – it is actually people made out of boomerangs so it is very subtle but people remember! I use this logo on everything including advertisements, business cards, my frequent shopper card and all over the front glass of my shop.
I use our store name again and again in conversation, it’s on our tags and we’re looking into shirts! We also have a sign on the side of the building not just the front!
I am not sure this is unique, however I took the advice from Kate’s book:
First of all found a cool font to use for the word DITTO.
Ordered a stencil and much vinyl lettering in a variety of sizes (and colors of our shop – white, fuchsia, purple, lime and plastered the name DITTO all over the shop, signs in front, rear, sides, door glass, and windows. (stenciled the checkout counter front). Every document, handout, or information sheet has a DITTO headline and I use the word in the text often, in place of ‘I’ or ‘we’.
Whenever I meet anyone in the small village we are located in (quite NEW to!) and mention I have a new little shop in town, people exclaim: “OH, DITTO!!!”. So I think the effort paid off!
When ever we do print advertsing, we have a picture of the store in the ad. The name of our store is also on our computer printed tags, on our receipts, bags and anything else we can slap a sticker on.