Your NARTS Network

How Your Peers Spend Their Advertising Money

Last November, NARTS did a Cyber Survey on Advertising. They sent out duplicate surveys—one went to For Profit members and the other to the Not For Profits—in order for the results to be more pertinent.

Here are a few interesting results from the For Profit survey which had 154 respondents.

► 68.2% of the respondents used display newspaper ads and yellow page/phone book ads. That was followed by direct mail, used by 63.6% of respondents.

► Television advertising took the largest percentage of the advertising budget at 40.53%.

Other questions covered advertising budgets, frequency, measurement of success, use of coupons, plus much more.

Advertising is a combination of radio, TV, newspaper, billboard, direct mail, etc. Seldom does one ad make people respond unless it is an unprecedented sale of some kind or perhaps a grand opening.

An ad is supposed to make a person take action. That is why it should contain words such as ‘hurry," "almost gone," 50% off," "get here now," etc. Ads should spur people into doing something they weren’t going to do.

Mostly advertising plants seeds. I sell furniture and many of my ads talk about selling, consigning, and buying furniture. Maybe someone has no need for furniture this month or has any they want to remove from their home. But six months from now, their needs change and they think of MY STORE. The same is true of prom dresses, baby clothes, party outfits, maternity wear and much more. That is why we continue to keep our name in front of their eyes as much as possible.

We use a combination of media such as; radio, newspaper, direct mail and on and on. They hear our name on the radio, see a quick commercial on TV, get a postcard in the mail, read our big sign on the front of our building and then they run into us at the grocery store. Suddenly they have a need for our service and, if we have done our job right, they think of us. They pick up the newspaper and it says "cash for good furniture" or "consign that gorgeous prom dress" and here they come.

Do not be discouraged because hordes of people didn’t rush your store after your display ad or your postcard in the mail. First of all, make sure your ad is clean, eye catching with lots of white space, and delivers a direct message. Don’t try to tell them everything in that ad. The busier the ad, the less chance they will read it.

Never drop your advertising because business is down. That is the exact time to keep it going. Think you can’t afford it? You can’t afford NOT to. You must keep your name out there in front of people as much as possible.

A good commercial on TV or the radio, nice clean ads in the newspaper, friendly reminders in the mail, eye-catching signage—they all add up to bring in those shoppers and consignors.

It takes a combination of things to get the results you need. Keep those ads out there. They will pay for themselves.


Contact Us	© 2008 National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops, All Rights Reserved \| Phone:800.544.0751 \| Fax:586.294.6776