how important is advertising to a 12 month old retail business?

Question

started a traditional sweet shop 12 months ago, with front page newspaper advert. did quite well but trade dropped off in the summer and is not as good as this time last year. Could advertising turn this around or was novelty value a key factor when the business was new?

Answer 1

Advertising is important- whether you are a 12 months old business or a 10 year business.

You should constantly be looking to increase your profit and getting the word out about you. Even mircosoft advertise and look how long they have been going for.

Answer 2

If you've got a local free paper do a promotion in there (it's cheaper than a paying newspaper usually), something along the lines of a free goodie bag if they spend over x amount or bring in voucher for free item (specified selection). That'll get em in. You just need to make sure that once they're in they want to spend. Exterior of the shop needs to draw people in. Once inside you need to have a good selection to give people choice and lots of offers. If you give good value or have something unique people will spend and they'll come back and they'll also do your promotion for you by telling people - word of mouth is crucial to any business.
There's loads of stuff you can do but without knowing all the facts I can't help that much.

Answer 3

Retail operations usually do 2/3s of their business in the last quarter. Now is the time to advertise.Things will slow down again in mid January. You have to. The reason business is not as good as this time last year is because you are not advertising.

Answer 4

oh yeah, always important, could also do some gimmics like go out into the streets with your company name on a t-shirt / coat, dressed up all olde fashioned and offer your wares to the public as a little taster. look into doing roast chestnuts outside again dressed up in olde attire to get your public rushing to you, erm do special gift boxies for christmas and do it in the style that the era that your shop is from. a little research on the tinternet can bring a load of things about how the sweets were wrapped up etc. and do that as a novelty as young will think it's brilliant and the older will think that they a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane

Answer 5

Now is a good time to advertise again. I know I sometimes forget about certain businesses, especially those I don't patronize often. Put the word out and business is sure to pick up, especially this time of year.

Answer 6

Sweet shop.. is a sweet shop..just like any other .unless you got more to offer ..it is pointless to advertise..your type of business can't rely on locals alone..you also need a lot of passing trade..

Answer 7

Have a look at some of the articles in the advertising section of http://www.hammocksurvivalguide.com/

Answer 8

while i became into little we had a sort of completely 70's automobiles with carpet and drapes... We used to take street journeys and that i undergo in recommendations my dad asking me to hold him up beers from the returned cooler as he became into utilizing, with sons and daughters contained in the motor vehicle and staying up for over 40 8 hours on end to get the place we've been occurring time! dazzling! incredibly dazzling!

Answer 9

Reminding people of your service is extremely important. You have to let people know you have something to offer and that if they want sweets, yours is the shop to visit.

How can they know without advertising?

Answer 10

Advertising is crucial, there's no reason why your business should not do well but people have to know you're there.