It falls to us as retailers to remind shoppers what we sell, even everyday items that we think people would come to us for first. We need to do this in our front windows, in advertising and using social media. We need to attract shopper traffic by pitching items so when they do need them they think of shopping with us.
Take the old HB pencil. It is easy to think people will think of shopping in a newsagency ahead of every other retailer if they want a HB pencil. That might have been true years ago but I doubt it is true today. Today, I think the HB pencil shopper would think of checking out a newsagency down on the list of shops they would consider.
Officeworks, supermarkets, discount variety and online would be high on the list of possible sources for a HB pencil. I say this partly because we have tended to stop promoting everyday stationery, partly because stationery is a poor cousin on the shop floor and partly because there are other outlets that are top of mind for stationery.
One way we can counter this is by promoting stationery ourselves. I have been doing this for one of my shops with a series of posts for everyday stationery department times, including the old HB pencil. I do this reasonably regularly to remind shoppers we have everyday stationery products they may need. Most recently, I did a week of posts about stationery items: HB pencils, NO JUNK MAIL signs, L and P plates, playing cards and more.
On social media it is free to pitch these items. There is no downside as long as the posts are interesting.
Every day we need to be pitching our businesses outside the business. These pitches need to include in their mix core items for which we were the destination retailer users ago.
Mark, Yesterday I had a customer who purchased a Mathomat she wanted to give me a kiss, apparently been everywhere and no one had one or knew what it was. She said I know I should have started here being local. Unfortunately in my situation they all go to Officeworks with blinkers on and when I asked themwhy they say because they advertise all the time.I find ever since GNS stopped advertising people no longer relate to Newsagents as Stationery retailers. My problem is that I am too small to spend money on advertising we need a group marketing bode like GNS used to be.
Colin you can advertise locally. It is cost effective and easily targeted based on what you pitch.