Marketing In A Bucket

Marketing In A Bucket Can Offer Some Healthy Creativity

Let your mind go crazy for a little bit.  Your business needs to temporarily slide out of its normal pattern.  Even though "consistency" has been linked to being one of the key components for producing genius work, every once in awhile you can permit yourself to slip into some creative "off-thinking."  Get some outside-of-the-box thinking going on right now.  For the time being let's move a little bit away from consistency.  We need to relax our minds and move away from trying to become a genius marketer.  What's more, we need to add a promotion that will not chew up our budget.  We need to generate some new idea which can help to generate cash sales.  We also need to create a promotion that is worth viral attention.  We need to "Market in a Bucket."
When you are in the middle of all the energy and rush of holiday marketing and sales efforts you can decide to slip in a little splash of bucket marketing.

Marketing In A Bucket

The only pain you will suffer is the pain of trying out something off the beat and path.  You have already spent a good deal of money and energy promoting this holiday season.  You have placed big dollars on inventory additions, maybe you have increased your staffing, added more seasonal advertising expenses and overall you have exhausted your holiday mind.  Perfect.  You are behaving just like every other holiday retailer.  Every customer identifies with how normal your stores have become.  You are accepted as being just like every other retailer.  Isn't that wonderful?  You are normal in the minds of your customers.  Yuk!  Who wants to be like that?

There is no reason for customers to promote you and your marketing efforts in their viral abilities.  You are not using your customers skills, tools and abilities right now.  Shame on you.  You watch others pull off interesting viral attention and you still sit idly by waiting to read about the next viral discovery on You Tube.  Maybe that discovery should be your store?  Why not?

What about trying something off the cuff?  What about calling it "Marketing in a Bucket?"

These are your thirteen steps to develop "Marketing in a Bucket."

1. Let us see...take an item you own and turn it into a short pedestal.  If you do not own a small pedestal you can get a short box and place a drop cloth over it.  Make a short pedestal that will hold an average bucket.  If you have the ability, aim some bullet lighting to feature the pedestal.  If you have a web page, center a single photo on your site of a simple pedestal.  Place the pedestal in the center area of your store entryway or website.  The pedestal needs to be the center of attention.
2. Once you make a pedestal on your website or in the front of your store, find a bucket somewhere and place it on the top of the pedestal.  Make sure the bucket can be reached by your customers.  If it is a website, the bucket needs to be able to be clicked to lead them to where you want them to go.
3. Make a very nice sign that offers your customers some instructions as to what they may do with the bucket.  Place the nice sign next to the pedestal and bucket display.  If you have a website, give instructions as to why the visitor on your site needs to click the bucket on the pedestal display.
4. Station an employee next to the bucket to assist and monitor customer activity and questions.  You need to provide this service.  They need to know they have a friendly link to help them with their questions and directions.  Assist them.  If this gets out of hand, you need someone who possesses strong personal skills to help monitor the developments.  Place a very skilled employee at this station.
5. Print as many as you may need 10% Off Coupons to be placed and slightly hidden throughout your store or website.  Design the coupons to be unique to this event.  Make sure you do not offend your customers in the "hunting-for-additional-coupons" process.  Do not hide the coupons so they cannot find them.  Make the hunting procedure an "easy-for-them-to-do" process.
6. Design this bucket promotion offer as a two day limited event!  No advertising.  Give a specific ending to this event.  Print it as such on your coupons.
7. The bucket on the pedestal will hold "Drawing Tabs" that give instructions as to where a 10% Off Coupon may be located in the store.  You can print hundreds of "Drawing Tabs."  Make sure they are simple and able to be understood by all your customers.  These "Drawing Tabs" are designed to direct your customers to the selected hidden coupon locations.  Each customer is allowed to draw one tab each.
8. Select a few prime product locations in your store or website to hide the 10% Off Coupons.  Be strategic about where you place the hidden coupons.  Use popular products and great point of purchase displays as prime locations to hide the coupons.  You might find three or four store locations to provide the spot.  Do not make this effort too difficult for your customer to participate.  You want them to participate.
9. Every so often, add a 50% Off Coupon to the ones hidden around your store locations.  The 50% Coupons will be all by themselves, away from the 10% Off Coupons.  The "Drawing Tabs" will not tell the customer what percentage they will find at the locations they are given.  The "Drawing Tabs" only describe where a coupon is hidden, not the value the coupon carries.  Most customers will find a 10% Off Coupon.  Some selected few will draw out of the bucket a location where a 50% Off Coupon is hidden.  Be smart and clean in how you print and promote these coupons.
10. Make sure you have great and simple instructions posted on how the customer may participate.
11. Make sure you have a smart employee standing by to handle the questions and confusion all creative promotions carry.
12. For those who find the 10% Off Coupons; when they go to check out, print additional instructions on their coupons that allow them an additional 10% off if they use their cell phones to call a friend and let them know about this two-day promotion they just discovered.  They must call or text the friend at the register for proof.  Make sure you have extra phones available to every customer.  Every customer needs to be given the same promotional opportunity.  No exceptions.  No unfair favors.  When they complete that step, they get an additional 10% off at the register. 
13. If it works well, get prepared.  If it does not, you tried a two day event that flopped.  Work on the next one.  So be it.  Who cares.  This is lucky step #13...try something else if this does not work!

Mix Viral Traffic With Coupons For Added Volume

You are in the busiest retail season, get busier.  We need to shoot when the ducks are flying.  You already have customers coming in, now permit them to benefit by driving more traffic to your site or store.  Deeper cuts in product pricing should be the only concern you have this holiday season.  Many other retailers still suffer from recession levels of low volume activity.  You need to remove yourself from being one of those low volume retailers.

Who knows?  Until next time....