Update – Feb. 19, 2010: Apparently Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey has focused their marketing plan based on this old LSM tactic (originally posted 1/28/08). . . only they used a zebra in downtown Atlanta.

Local Store Marketing has always been part science, part P.T. Barnum. I thought it appropriate to share this analogy by an unknown author:

When a circus comes to town, and you put up a sign, that’s advertising.

If you parade an elephant through town, that’s promotion.

If the elephant knocks down the mayor’s fence, it’s publicity. If you can get the mayor to laugh about it, it’s public relations.

If the town’s citizens come to the circus, and you show them all of the entertaining booths, show them how much fun they will have when they spend their money at the booths, answer their questions and, ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.

So how are you using social media to market your restaurant? Seems like asking for advice on the matter is like asking 10 economists for their opinion on any subject: you get 12 different answers.

- Carefully plan out your branding message, or shoot from the hip?
- Engage customers and develop a relationship, or shotgun a message to drive trial?
- Social media will bring me hundreds of customers, just because they can find me on their iPhones!
- My Facebook page has lots of pictures and my menu.

Maybe a social media strategy isn’t the pinnacle of success. Maybe social media are simply one more way to increase your frequency of message. Maybe these tools are just one more channel through which to promote your marketing strategy.

There’s a lot of advice out there, but most of it makes social media seem like just today’s version of a radio commercial: it reaches a lot of people, but the clutter nullifies the message.

A social media strategy is important. But it’s only one leg of an overall marketing strategy. After all, the goal isn’t to create awareness. It’s to create sales.

It’s National Doughnut Day, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ are celebrating.

Which one will get a higher one day spike?
Which one will get a higher long range return?

To get your freebee at Dunkin’ Donuts, you’ll need to buy a drink. But there are no strings attached at Krispy Kreme.

My money is on Krispy Kreme. People will buy the coffee anyway, and the goodwill is better.

I’ve worked a lot of retail. Every place I have ever worked we’ve always played the same game: who can get the highest sale today/this shift/this week. We’d create friendly competition between ourselves to see who could get folks to add more to their purchase.

Here are some of the ways we’d outdo each other:
- Cross-sell, upsell. Kind of an obvious one, but we were pretty damn good at it. Belt to go with pants (and then the shoes). Not THAT belt, this belt. I found I get better at these things when there was a reason to be good (ie: bragging rights or lunch from the manager).

- Variable offers. Back in the days before scanners we put stickers on everything. Stickers fall off or they’re taken off or they don’t get marked-down in a timely manner. It was a crappy system, but it offered the ice-breaking question: “How much is this?”

The answer to that often depended on how much was in their basket. I might be willing to give 10% off the item just to get it out of my store, but we could get more out of each customer if we got creative:

*It’s $25, and I’ll throw in [fill in something you've been trying to clear out] for free.
*I’ll give you 10% off if you get the blank that goes with it. (Smart shoppers would ask for 10% off both the item AND the blanket. The answer is YES.)
*If your total is more than $50 I’ll give you $5 off of that; if it’s more than $65 I’ll give you $10 off.
*For you? 25% off, but don’t tell anyone.

The trick was to get more from someone. We knew we were making money off of the customer, so percentage after their initial purchase wasn’t as important. Now it’s about contribution to the bottom line.

In a retail environment this is not just good for the sale, it’s great for building a relationship. “For you it’s 15% off”, “it’s free if you’ll buy one of these”, “I throw in another one at half price just for you”.

In a restaurant, the tactics change a bit but the concept is the same. Sample desserts at dinner, other food in line. Comp the coffee if they’ll get the dessert. Whatever. There are as many ways to do it as their are consumer tastes. That’s what makes it so easy to do.

This is where the art of retail / restaurant comes in. Awaken the PT Barnum in you.

Apparently it’s catching on. In our little in-town neighborhood, restaurants giving to charities and organizations is pretty much par for the course. It’s how things were when I was growing up (1970s), too.

But bigger and better were all the rage. “I’ll just advertise and then BAM! I’ll be printing money!”

OK, so it didn’t work out so well, and the industry is headed for a shake-out, but there are some folks who are a) making a difference in their communities and b) reaping the rewards from the exposure they get from making a difference (novel concept, eh?).

Over the next few days we’ll give a shout out to Rubio’s, Dakota Blue, Grand Traverse, Six Feet Under, Boudin, and Applebee’s.

It’s what I’ve been sayin’ for years (to anyone who would listen, really): when you care about the things that your community cares about, they’ll care about you. Being a good neighbor is good business.