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Stretching a marketing budget |
The Challenge:Computer software that allows hair stylists to show customers what they might look like with different hairstyles is occasionally used by upscale salons. Two smart stylists in Madison pooled their resources to take this technology into a new channel -- home and office parties. They both had full-time salon jobs and limited time and resources to build awareness in the market. Insights:When nobody else in your market area does what you do, that's news. If what you do is unusual, fun, and photogenic, that's a potential slam-dunk. The key to getting the word out about our client's unique business was to provide the right information to the right news media, and let them tell the story. Remedies:We identified key reporters and editors to target in Madison with a press release, inviting to demo our client's service at a private sitting. The response from the media was gratifying: our client was interviewed by one of the network-affiliated television stations for its evening news program and later featured on the station's web site. On Good Friday -- a great day for press coverage because so many businesses are closed and more people have leisure to read the newspaper -- Madison's afternoon paper featured our client's business in a full-page story on the front page of the Arts & Leisure section with two full-color photos. In addition, the story was announced in a color banner on the front page of the paper. If our client had tried to buy a newspaper ad that size, it would have cost her well over $4,500 -- although that banner on the front page is not for sale at any price. As it was, all she paid for was a good press release and our advice about whom to send it to. Her phone has not stopped ringing. |
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Copyright 2001, Victoria Lynn Jones
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