New Ideas In Advertising Reach Customers Away From Home

Traditional media advertising still has plenty of clout. Why else would the top 100 advertisers in the US spend over $100 billion a year on it? Still, most marketers agree that the advertising formulas that worked so well in the past can no longer be counted on to deliver a mass audience.

Newspapers have suffered through a sharp and steady decline in circulation for more than 50 years; radio has lost ground to satellite stations and iPods; and television is only a flickering shadow of its former self. In 1960, when there were fewer than six TV channels available to the average US household, 37.3% of viewers watched the top-rated program, Gunsmoke. In 2003, the average American had over 100 stations to choose from, and Nielsen ratings leader ER managed to grab only 11.5% of viewers.

No longer able to reach large numbers of consumers consistently at home, marketers have been actively seeking new and innovative ways to connect with them when they're out of the house engaged in activities like shopping. The efforts of these big marketers offer valuable lessons for carwashers who are looking to go beyond traditional newspaper coupon ads.

Out-Of-Home Advertising

The search for alternative advertising led Dunkin' Donuts to experiment with putting coupons on the clothes hangers used by dry cleaners in suburban New York. Revlon has also used clothes hanger ads to tout its new Mitchum Smart Solid Deodorant. Marketers at both companies believe that, since it's impossible not to see the side of a hanger when you pick up your clothes from the dry cleaners, an advertisement on them is certain to be read by customers.

Although the jury is still out as far as the effectiveness of clothes hanger advertising is concerned, the interest it's drawing from major companies shows just how far marketers are willing to go to explore new alternatives to traditional media. "The male consumer is very difficult to connect with," a Revlon vice president told The Wall Street Journal. "It's hard to reach them because there are so many messages out there and media for men is so fragmented."

"Eye focus" is a key factor in evaluating the potential of an out-of-home advertising concept. Areas like the side of a clothes hanger or top of a turnstile that attract a lot of eyeballs have become coveted platforms for commercial messages. For example, Microsoft recently promoted a new software package by running an ad on the tops of airplane food trays. Who doesn't look at the tray surface when eating on a plane? A British company recently introduced restroom hand dryers with small videos on their facing, so consumers can be exposed to short commercials when they dry their hands.

Carwashes, which handle a large volume of traffic in a relatively narrow area, offer a high degree of eye focus for out-of-home advertising. For example, every customer who goes through your self-pay station must look at your Xpress Pay Terminal. Placing an ad that promotes an extra service package or one your other profit centers on the XPT is certain to be noticed by almost all of your customers. Click here to learn more about the SiteWatch Xpress Pay Terminal.

By focusing the customer's attention, a well-placed out-of-home ad will help a marketing message stand out in today's sea of advertising clutter. According to the highly respected Yankelovich Market Research group, the average person living in a large metropolitan area today encounters about 5,000 commercial messages a day. This is more than double the 2,000 or so ads that floated across that person's brain waves 30 years ago. The desire to stand out in this flood of commercial messages has driven marketers to companies like Floorgraphics, a New Jersey firm that creates vinyl commercial graphics to put on store floors near product displays.

Watch Your Step

Floorgraphics, which leases space from supermarkets and other retailers for its "billboards on the floor," has seen its revenues skyrocket from $2 million in 1998 to $25 million in 1999, to $52.4 million in 2005 on the strength of its out-of-home advertising concept. Its success appears to be well-deserved. Joseph Martino, an analyst with Roper ASW, says that placing ads on the floor next to merchandise displays can boost sales of consumer products by 25%.

A study conducted at 20 Acme Supermarkets in Pennsylvania yielded even more impressive results. "Decorating" the floor next to its displays of Raid with a graphic of bugs being exterminated, the grocer boosted its sales of the insecticide by 90%.

The effectiveness of floor graphics can be explained by something your grandmother always told you, "Watch where you're going." People naturally tend to glance down when they walk up to an object like a merchandise display, so they can't help but see the advertising message on a floor graphic. Unlike a TV ad, a graphic beneath your feet can't be skipped over with a TiVo like device.

A carwash has several areas that lend themselves to catching customers' attention as they look down: the pavement by exterior-wash vacuums and vending machines, and the floor near the register counter at a full-service are two that come to mind. Placing an ad in these spots is likely to have a measurable effect on your sales of a new extra service option. Click here to learn how SiteWatch can help you measure the effect that advertising has on different extra services and profit centers.

Reach Them When They Shop

Aside from benefiting from our natural tendency to look down, floor graphics work because they're positioned close to the products or services that they are promoting. Being able to communicate with the customer right at the point of sale, where research suggests that most purchase decisions are made, may well be the most effective form of advertising. This realization has prompted leading marketers from McDonald's to Coca-Cola to invest heavily in high-tech digital signs to advertise their products in stores.

In a recent study conducted by Arbitron and Edison Media Research, sales of Father's Day gift items in a department store chain were 37% higher at sites that advertised this merchandise by positioning digital signs near displays. In another study at 22 Harkin Theaters in Arizona, sales of popcorn, nachos and other munchies jumped by over 30% when digital signs were used to promote items at the concession stands.

According to Arbitron, digital signs with moving images increase product recall by 18% over static signs when placed in shopping malls. However, even the tried-and-true static sign will attract attention and drum up business when placed in a mall, carwash or quick-serve restaurant. A study commissioned by Burger King found that the addition of one on-premise static sign increased store revenues by 4.75% and traffic by 3.93% over the course of a year.

In-Store Television

Taking the digital in-store marketing concept a step further, Wal-Mart has actively expanded its in-store television network. The giant discounter now has over 125,000 TV screens in its US locations, each being fed live programming centered on products sold at its stores. An estimated 127 million viewers a week watch Wal-Mart's in-store television, making it the fifth biggest network in the country, behind, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

In 2007, Wal-Mart switched from satellite to Internet feeds for its TV network. This allows the discounter to run different programs in different aisles of its stores, so the outdoor section can have programming on camping gear, while the cookware section highlights healthy cuisine.

By featuring program content that closely relates to the merchandise on display, an in-store television network achieves a greater sense of immediacy, increasing its already-formidable power to influence shoppers. According to an ACNielsen study, Wal-Mart TV has almost twice the "brand recall" of network television, 57% vs. 24%. Another study, this one by Arbitron, found that about three in 10 consumers make unplanned purchases after seeing an in-store video.

Given the power of in-store videos, carwash operators may well want to consider customizing the audio-visual interface on their Xpress Pay Terminal to deliver special messages about their services and options.

Can We Talk Now?

An in-store video, whether in the form of a television ad or an XPT interface, creates a stronger and more memorable impression on customers, because it reaches people when their attention is focused on buying. Confronted with thousands of commercial messages a day, presented with a choice of over 100,000 items every time they visit a hypermarket; and able to cruise over 100 million websites (compared to only 18,000 sites in 1995); today's consumers have learned to tune out unwanted information.

Busier and more media savvy than earlier generations, these consumers have become very adept at budgeting their attention span, so their energy and focus aren't wasted on irrelevant chatter. Accustomed to being in control of the music they hear, the programs and movies they watch and the news they receive on their laptops every morning, they'll never hesitate to skip over a commercial message or any other information that doesn't pertain to the task at hand at any given moment.

For example, a message about polish wax isn't likely to receive much attention from these empowered consumers when they're relaxing after dinner, but reach out to them when they're about to get their vehicles cleaned, and they're all eyes and ears.

The fact that consumers are so busy today makes them even more receptive to in-store marketing messages than they were in the past. Dual income families that are busy with soccer practice, dance lessons and charitable activities simply don't have the time to plan their everyday purchases the way stay-at-home-moms did a generation ago. More than 60% of all in-store purchases are unplanned, according to market researcher James Maskulka of Lehigh University. Maskulka theorizes that consumers are relying on in-store marketing to help shape their buying decisions because they “simply don't have the time to study (mass media) ad messages.”

Many consumers are even too busy to take advantage of savings offered away from the store. Price Chopper, a 115-store supermarket chain in the Northeast, saw its coupon redemption rate jump 50% when it moved away from mailing special offers to customers, and started dispensing them at in-store kiosks. Click here to learn how SiteWatch Intelligent Receipt Messaging allows you to dispense special offers and selling messages on-site.

Advertise Yourself and Others

Most in-store marketing efforts are focused on building a business from within by encouraging the sale of more products or better services to existing customers. However, this concept can also be used to attract new customers by working with other retailers. McDonald's, for example, expanded its advertising recently to include ads on Footlocker's in-house TV. The quick-serve restaurant chain did this after cutting its network TV ad budget by 50%.

As a carwash operator, you have a great deal to offer any partnering business interested in trading in-store advertising with you. After all, a carwash draws a large number of affluent customers with a clear shared interest (the appearance of their vehicles). Plus, the configuration of a carwash ensures that most people who visit your business are going to be focusing their eyes on a limited number of spots.

Imagine how attractive an ad at your Xpress Pay Station or at your tunnel entrance would be for a local luxury car dealership or restaurant chain. Having these businesses reciprocate and promote your carwash at their establishments will give you a greater return on your advertising investment than you are likely to see from a radio, TV or newspaper ad.