The market area for
your pet grooming business must be defined right from the start of
developing a marketing program for either a new business, or
expanding an existing one. Perhaps you live in an isolated, more
rural area. It's easy then to say that the town is your market
area, and a few very loyal clients will travel from the next town
away for your expert care. In a major metropolitan area, the city
in which you reside may be surrounded on all sides by other towns
and cities to the point where it's hard to say just what the are
the actual street boundaries from one to the other. In such a
case, your business is likely to draw a percentage of pet owners
from adjacent towns and cities. One thing is for certain based on
our 36 years of field experience, pet owners will travel to
adjacent areas for better pet care and client services, and that
is especially true in all of the major metropolitan areas of the
U.S. Just as most parents are highly discriminating when choosing
a babysitter or daycare center, so are most pet owners that use
professional pet grooming services.
We highly-suggest you
purchase a copy of pet grooming business manual, From
Problems to Profits. Chapter 12 contains Madson's People and
Pet Marketing Program. This chapter alone makes the purchase a
wise investment. Using a wall-mounted street map of your
"market area", you will learn how to create a dynamic
marketing tool. On the map you will indicate competitors, housing
developments, and much more.
Many of the marketing
methods in the book are free! You don't always have to spend money
on advertising business to grow. Your only investment will be your
time. As your business matures, you should at least once a year
review your client files and take a survey of the areas from which
you are drawing pet owners. Again, the wall map you create will be
of great assistance. Most likely the majority are from your
resident location, but you may be surprised that a larger than
expected percentage of pet owners are traveling from one area or
another. Use your survey results to help you to decide where to
more effectively place advertising drawing more pet owners from
popular client areas perhaps outside your resident city.
Marketing
With Your Building Sign
This topic was
suggested by several site visitors. It's a great idea, and it just
so happens that Stephen our Webmaster designs road signs for pet
care businesses. In 1997 he assisted Madeline's Institute of Pet Grooming to redesign an
economical but effective road sign. New acrylic signs were created
to fit the
existing sign hardware. Since the existing light box was two-sided
Stephen had to design two panels which worked well for traffic
going either direction to view the same sign.
Pictured above is on the
left is Maddie Ogle, author of From Problems to Profits. In yellow
is Aleyn, a student of grooming attending the Becoming the
Business Person That Grooms Workshop. In the back, that's Stephen,
Webmaster and designer of the sign.
We don't have a picture
of the sign taken at night, but it's a TRAFFIC STOPPER!
Fluorescent bulbs are mounted behind the white Lexan panel, a
light box in other words. "Lonnie" the mixed breed
fluffy pet you see is actually a "half-tone" photograph
printed on clear acetate and pasted onto the white Lexan panel.
The fluorescent light filtering through the half-tone is most
dramatic photo-realistic effect, and many customers driving by a
night say it looks like Lonnie is going to jump off the sign.
Michelle Higbee collects new customer source information and
discovered that in her first year at the new location this sign
attracted over 1,000 first-time customers driving by. If those
customers became clients having their pets groomed an average of 6 times a year,
the sign alone would be
responsible for annual gross
revenue exceeding $180,000. The
power of a great location and
sign works everywhere, and not
just for Madeline's.
The lettering on the
sign was kept to available stock from the sign maker to maintain
the budget for the sign. Cost of the sign? Each panel was $600.00
(there's another one on the opposite side shown). Based on our
experience we prefer "light box" style road signs versus
hand-painted signs with flood lighting. We also prefer
photo-realism as mentioned above. If your location does not have a
light box style sign you can expect to easily spend another $2,000
or more for one, including installation, electrical and permits.
In our opinion it is almost always worth it, and your landlord may
share the cost with you as it is a leasehold improvement for their
property.
Compared to the next
most popular method of marketing, advertising in Buyer's Guide
telephone books, road signs almost always attract the most
business. A recent Workshop attendee, Ed Carlson who you
participates on this site's BBS, conducted an interesting study of
new customer sources. Ed discovered that new clients developed
from road signs tend to be more loyal clients compared to new
clients developed from Buyer's Guide advertising. Could it be that
clients developed from the Buyer's Guide "shop around
more?" Could be. Excellent deduction Ed!
Your sign should have
your company logo prominently displayed on it. The net worth of
your business is greatly increased by a well-known and copyrighted
or registered service mark. Use your logo on all promotions,
including your building sign. The "Lonnie" logo in the
picture above has been promoted for nearly 4 decades and is worth
tens of thousands when appraising the market value of the
business.
We have a bit more
market information on the
next
page.
