Archive of tag "Ikea"
The family restroom at IKEA is quite cozy:
It shows off their products nicely. And it can turn a 2-kids-crapping-and-screaming-at-the-same-time experience into a calm surprise.
Every person who walks into that bathroom tells someone. 50 people a day, 18,000 people a year.
Homework: Find one simple thing at your company that you can make surprisingly nice.
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Sometimes, the best way to your customers’ hearts is through their stomachs. A few ideas on how to do it:
1> At your store
2> In the cafe
3> On the highway
4> Check it out: First-Person Tetris
1> At your store
You don’t have to be a restaurant to attract hungry customers. IKEA, for example, regularly hosts free open-house breakfast events at its stores. Customers fill up on eggs and bacon — served on IKEA dinnerware — before exploring the store for their next Karlstad sofa or Poang chair. Even if you don’t have the resources to put on a big meal, a few handy snacks and refreshments might be just the energy boost your customers need to keep shopping.
The Lesson: Try offering to fill their stomachs before asking them to open their wallets.
Learn More: WalletPop.com
2> In the cafe
If hosting dinner at your place isn’t an option, try partnering with a great local restaurant to fill their stomachs. Sitting down a bunch of 20-somethings to talk about retirement isn’t easy, but Ameriprise Financial in Chicago teamed up with Dapper’s East to award free breakfast retirement planning meetings. Participants simply dropped in a business card to enter, and winners could bring up to 15 friends to hear a 5-minute presentation from a rep before enjoying a meal with friends.
The Lesson: Inviting prospects to sit down to a meal with their friends is a great way to start conversations about how your business can help them.
3> On the highway
A hot meal isn’t the only way to win the hearts of new fans — sometimes a clever voucher for one can do it. The South Carolina Highway Patrol teamed up with local Chick-fil-A franchisees to offer drivers a coupon for a free sandwich if they were found wearing their seatbelts when pulled over. The program not only increases seatbelt use, but it also gives officers something positive to share beyond the typical traffic fine.
The Lesson: Look for opportunities where you can use a tasty treat to thank and reward your best customers.
Learn More: GreenvilleOnline.com
4> Check it out: First-Person Tetris
This is Tetris like you’ve never experienced it before. (But fair warning: You probably shouldn’t play it after a night on the town.)
Check it out: FirstPersonTetris.com
Will I forward this email ad from Ikea? Probably not.
If you want your email forwarded to a lot of people, you need to add something more than a sales offer.
Give them a reason to forward: Something wacky, something funny, or an amazing coupon that readers can't help but share with their friends.
Will I forward the free breakfast coupon? Yes – because it's fun, and it's fun to talk about eating a good meal in a furniture store.
Ikea knows their word of mouth marketing.
{Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email
Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email
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Making kids happy usually makes parents happy. Think of the kids and you'll
bring in the parents.
1> Give the kids something to take home
2> Let the kids play
3> Make it a family event
4> Check it out: Things My Beard Can Lift
1. Give the kids something to take home
Kids love a nice takeaway from a store, and it also offers the parents some
leverage in keeping their children from misbehaving. How many times did your
mother warn that you wouldn't be getting a sucker on the way out of the store if
you didn't shape up? Trader Joe's gives kids something to look forward to with
their free balloons near the door that are both a fun toy for the kids as well
as a nice piece of word of mouth that tell everyone the family sees that they've
been to Trader Joe's.
The Lesson: Have something fun that kids can take home and parents can use to
reward good behavior.
2. Let the kids play
Offer something fun for the kids to do in your store and you'll take some
stress off of the shopping parents. Ikea does this with a supervised play area
for kids in each of their stores, which allows the parents to browse longer than
many of them probably could with their kids. You could do a simpler version of
this by having a "kid kit" on hand with toys and books that can help keep a bored
kid entertained.
The Lesson: Entertaining the kids helps parents spend more time in your
store.
3. Make it a family event
Give families a reason to bring in everyone. Tillman's Roadhouse in Dallas,
Texas turned otherwise slow Tuesdays into game night, where customers play games
like Scrabble and dominoes and order from a finger-food menu. Since starting
game night, Tuesday sales for the restaurant have been up 30 percent and the
evening is so popular they had to buy more games.
The Lesson: When it's fun for the whole family, kids and parents alike will
look forward to coming to your restaurant or store.
4. Check it out: Things My Beard Can Lift
Here's something the whole family can enjoy: Check out Eamon Daly, who
started growing his beard in August 2008 and recently came to appreciate its
power to lift heavy objects (and the human spirit). For every dollar supporters
donate through his site for Chicago's Off the Street Club, Eamon increases the
weight of his weekly lift. In addition to seeing his impressive lifts, you can
also go to his site to download your very own beard, some heavy things, print
them, and take a picture of yourself showing off what your beard can lift!
Check it out: Things My Beard Can Lift
You can have amazing word of mouth.
Word of mouth marketing is something you can do very well. My company GasPedal will help you get started quickly, with simple-but-intense training, honest answers, and eye-opening ideas. GasPedal's fast, how-to marketing strategies are affordable, easy to execute, and deliver measurable ROI in 60 days.
Learn more: http://gaspedal.com
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