In this day and age in the highly competitive retail and restaurant industries, engaging the customer is more difficult (and important) than ever. Attracting new customers and keeping existing customers coming through your doors are the only ways to ensure that sales and profits remain high and that loyalty is not lost to your competitors. So how, you ask, is the best or easiest way to do this?
Simply put, there are many different methods of getting a theme or message across that your store or restaurant is the place to be. Brands need to work with their marketing managers to understand what will work best for their customer demographic and cater to their wants and needs. This can include customized direct mail, flyers in the weekly newspaper, advertisements in magazines your customers read, etc. All these are great, but how can you really scream at your customer at the store level?
If your walls, windows, mirrors, and floors could talk do you know what they would say about you? Would they praise how you decorated them beautifully, complimenting you on your creativity? Or would they state that they desire to be made to look more relevant, exciting, and glamorous? These empty spaces in your brick and mortar location are prime assets for you to market to your demographic base.
In some cases, you might have a large window bank facing a main road that can be the perfect blank canvas for you to advertise on. What a great opportunity for customers driving (and walking) by to notice that your location is relevant, exciting, and glamorous! If they love that pair of pants depicted in your window or think that sandwich looks mouthwatering they are going to be more inclined to enter your store, purchase your product, and (if impressed) become a loyal customer.
In other cases, you might have your big ticket items located towards the back of the store. This area normally doesn’t get a lot of traffic. You can eliminate this problem by providing a roadmap of sorts with floor graphic advertising that lets your customers know that the cool stuff they are going to be interested is located at the back of the store. Who doesn’t become curious when a follow-the-yellow-brick-road concept is presented?
All in all, the investment you make detailing your store or restaurant can pay big dividends in the long run. With the right creative minds and print partner, amazing advertisements and promotions can be placed virtually anywhere you can imagine, targeting your customers at every stage of their buying cycles.
