advertising a coin-op Ideas?

[kwikrp]

I was wondering how some of yous advertise a coin-op ?
Do you do direct mail if so how can you utilize a coupon for a coin-op which has pt attendants?
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Anonymous]

advertising, best is W.O.M. like in anything

Direct mail has been a disaster for me in the past. I won't do it again.

back of grociery receipts have worked well though. I'd do that again.

I suppose you have to put your attended hours on the coupon for it to work for you. Or maybe just a Sunday coupon or something like that.

[Andy]

Super,
What did you pay for the back of the receipt coupon?

[Anonymous]

Hi Andy,

I worked with 3 different grociery stores and 3 different grociery coupon companies. Each was priced differently. Each came down substantially from their "sticker price" once i found that they didn't regularly fill all their open spaces. It's been about a year since I did it, but i think i paid about $200-250 for a 3-4 month advertisement for each store. I did it for 6-9 months. I gave away a free 18# front load wash on the coupon. I really did get gobs of these things back and my overall gross did go up during this time. It was a good experience for me.

Anyone do punch cards anymore ? You know, get the 12th punch free type of thing ?

[laundryBoy]

I'm in the acquisition stage of an existing laundry and have been thinking of direct mail with ValPak. The laundry is in the center of one of there mailing zones (10000 mailers). Currently planning on four consecutive months with an "Under new Management" theme.

I am still working on promotional materials. Plan a drawing for the middle of December for a Game Console or something along that line. Also, trying to work with a local Supermarket for discounted Gift Certificates to give out between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I would really like to hear what others are doing, especially to bring in new customers and build loyalty.

[anonymous]

kwikrp --

Before I bought my mat, I managed 2 mats and a drycleaners. The owner tried direct mail which worked well for the drycleaners, but poorly for the laundries. (I remember in college management class that direct mail was supposed to be very low on the "return" list..... they called it the "scatter-gun approach" to marketing).

He tried the supermarket tape idea, which worked well for the drycleaners, but not too well for the laundries. Oh, we got a lot of laundry coupons, but they were all from existing customers that we recognized right away.

I prefer a good Yellow Pages ad in the local phone-book that people use the most (we have several). People who use the Yellow Pages are ready to spend their money NOW, they are just deciding where to spend it.

I also joined the local Chamber of Commerce. I am the only laundry in the area that is a member. If a potential customer who is new to the area calls the Chamber or accesses the Chamber website, they are immediately directed to me. I have had some good returns on this, and affilliation with the Chamber makes me appear to be a cut-above the rest (I'd like to think so).

But NOTHING beats word-of-mouth. I keep trying to do things that keep my customers talking about my facility to their friends. Upgrades, specials, etc. It Works!!!!!!!!

[Beverly]

I concur with several of you regarding advertising. Since we opened last year, I have spent $$$$ on advertising and it has produced very poor results. As I have stated before, people are creatures of habit. It matters not that we have the best store within several miles (clean, excellent NEW equipment, terrific customer service, etc.) and yet many walk right past our 'mat to go to the DUMP around the corner! However, they are customers I do NOT want to have because they do not perceive all the benefits we have to offer. Therefore, my focus is to go outside the box and supplement our income by focusing on the drop-off service and the commercial accounts which are quite
profitable. Our customer base has more disposable income and
many come from quite a distance (3 miles away....remember, we're in densely-populated Los Angeles); consequently, it will take longer to get where I want to be financially. The bottom line for us is word-of-mouth advertising. When our customers refer another customer, we put a dollar on their card as a way of saying thank you. They are always pleasantly surprised even with this modest token of our appreciation!

[Howard]

I've posted this before, but some things are worth repeating. If you are a new store or have something special to offer and you want good coverage, advertise on shopping carts at the local grocery store.

Use an Asian grocery store, a Mexican grocery store, or the nearest grocery store to you, as appropriate. It is very effective and is seen by almost everyone, especially women putting their kids into the "baby seat" of the cart. You must use effective graphics, preferably a color photo.

It isn't cheap, but it produces.

I have never had any significant success with radio, cable tv, coupons of any sort (even college freshman introductory books) or yellow pages.

[Fred50]

Beverly,

Do you advertise the friend referral? How do you know that someone has referred and how do you get the person's card#?

Thanks!

[Fred50]

Howard,

Have you tried putting coupons on the back of grocery receipts?

The largest grocery in the area is in my strip and I was thinking of giving that a shot. I was also thinking about other groceries in the area as well.

[Howard]

Never tried the back of recipts. My feeling was that you had to have a coupon there to tmake sense and get attention. Since I dropped all wdf early in my "carreer", and am unattended, I had nothing to offer.

It doesn't feel like a good idea to me anyway. Probably based on my own use of recipts (crumpled immediately and tossed).

Good luck.

[kwikrp]

Well I know of direct mail or grocery reciepts . But like it was mentioned how can you make a coupon for a coin op? How can a coupon give a discount on a self serve machine? Unless you have attendants and do a coupon say with every 3 loads of wash recieve free dry time, but your attendants have to be on the ball.
Anyother ideas?

[Fred50]

For the coupon thing you can give X$ off WDF or DC or you can give a free wash (up to a specific $ amt). If you are attended and either card or coin this works. The customers hands the attendant the coupon and they either drop the coins or sweep the attendant's card.

The attendant has to hand in the coupon to you to track the free washes. You can also make it a stipulation of free wash that they fill in a "customer card" with personal info. This adds to your customer database and hopefully helps to keep your attendant honest.

I agree that it would be tough to do in an unattended mat unless you did some kind of mail-in card that they could pick up at the mat. I don't know if folks would be willing to wait for the $$.

[Andy]

We have seen little return on our money spent on advertising except for commercial customers responding to our yellow page ad. I have tried radio, newspaper, coupons, and large window signs and banners-to no avail. I should have bought myself a new pair of shoes some such thing.

[anonymous]

The only advertising I use is the local church bulletin. Have never heard once from any regular customer that they saw the ad. I have signs in the windows advertising the free wash that my horizons give every 50 turns.