Fall is also the time for warm, rich colors, clearly seen with all the leaves changing. From cinnamon red to chocolatey brown, here are the autumn hues and their associated emotions that retailers need to know.

Red

[Source: etsy.com]

Red is an emotionally intense color. It evokes feelings of passion and desire and stimulates people to make quick decisions, which is why it’s the perfect color for retail sale signs.

Reddish-brown is the shade most often associated with the fall season.

Orange

[Source: birdsnestbites.com]

A bright and warm color, orange represents positive emotions, such as joy and happiness, as it combines the stimulation of red and the cheerfulness of yellow.

A dark, rich shade of orange is considered the color of fall and harvest (which we can probably thank pumpkins for).

Yellow

[Source: pinterest.com]

Yellow is most often associated with happiness. The color of the sun is used to evoke pleasant, cheerful and optimistic feelings.

Royal yellow, as it’s a rich shade, and golden yellow, a warm and bright shade, are the most fitting shades of yellow to use during autumn.

Brown

[Source: pinterest.com]

Brown is a natural, bring-you-down-to-earth kind of color. It’s also one that gives people a strong sense of comfort and calmness. In color psychology, brown is known as an honest, sincere and healthy color, so when used in retail it can give off those same vibes.

All shades of brown, from light to dark, are associated with this time of year.

Black

[Source: Hannah Troupe on Unsplash]

The boldest and strongest of all colors, black adds a tone of elegance and sophistication when used in design. But, more often it’s associated with negative emotions, like fear, unhappiness, sadness and anger.

Black is also linked to death, which is why the darkest of all colors is so popularly used during Halloween.

Color is one of the few mediums that affects human emotion and mood as well as consumer thinking and rational. When used with your window displays and in-store signage, the right fall color scheme has the power to make your customers feel just as warm and cozy as their favorite sweater and trigger a purchase. To learn more about the different colors and their associated emotions as well as their connection to certain holidays and which colors are the best for specific industries to use, check out our color guide post.

Fall Colors & Their Associated Emotions

Foot traffic: not just the pedestrian equivalent of rush hour, but the presence of customers in and around your business.  Having customers physically in your store is, obviously, key to the success of your business.  Higher foot traffic usually means higher sales.  But what if your business seems to keep getting passed by?  Here are some helpful suggestions to increase foot traffic in your store.

Traditional Signage Still Stands Out

We’re not saying you should go out and hire a sign spinning expert and get your name and image out that way. Although, now that we think about it some of those guys have serious moves. But in all seriousness you need to put up signage that really stands out. While standing out on the corner does get noticed, half the time it’s hard for the consumer to read what the sign says and what the company is selling , especially with awesome dancing as a distraction.

When creating signage, you want to make sure your customer can do three things: See it,

Read it, Do it.

See it: In order for your signage to do any good it needs to stand out. Look for obvious placement and bright colors.

Read it: Your sign needs to be large and legible enough to read in a matter of seconds while driving by. Use easy-to-read fonts and avoid using too many words.

Do it: Your message needs to be convincing enough to get those people to turn their cars into your parking lot and walk into your store. Or at the very least, remember you for next time.

Follow these steps and your signage should help bring people in and give you a chance to bring in additional revenue.

Do Something That Will Attract The News

If you really want to see results in your traffic you need the press to be on your side. This means you have to do something that will pique their interest and get them curious or excited about your business. Here’s a small list of ideas to get your brainstorming what your store can do to get some needed attention:

– Grand Re-Opening

– Interactive Contests

– The Store Is a Game

– Conferences/Workshops in-store

Grand Re-Openings Make a Big Impression

While it may sound wild and crazy there’s no better way to set up a new image and give a good impression on the community than re-opening your store. You’re sure to get an article or two written up about your store if you do, especially if you give the article writers plenty of notice. Go big and get yourself back on the map and in people’s minds.

Contest to Entice Customers to Create Eye-Catching Displays

What’s the first thing people see when they park in their parking lot? Your window displays! Sprucing them up can go a long way in bringing more consumers into your store. With the opportunity to create your window signage they will focus more on your store and what brings them in and what will bring future customers in as well. Customers feel more included and special if they can interact with your business somehow. Why not have them help you do your marketing?

Make Being in the Store a Game

Have you ever played monopoly at McDonald’s? It’s a little bit addicting when you get a piece for a winning fry, drink, burger, etc. Why not make your store more exciting by adding elements of a game similar to monopoly? When customers purchase an item in a certain price range they get a game piece. Game pieces either have free merchandise, gift cards or the possibility of combining pieces for even greater prizes. These are only a few ideas but as you can see, the press coverage and excitement this would bring could be huge.

Hold a Workshop or Conference

Let’s be honest. Your store isn’t just a place to put all your merchandise and hope people buy it. It’s a center where people come to decide what they want to wear and how they want to present themselves to the world. Why not use your real estate to its full potential and bring in speakers for conferences? People will come in to listen to the message and stay to purchase a few things they realized they needed while they were in the store.

Optimize Your Online Presence

You’re probably wondering how being online is going to help foot traffic. The answer is simple: people search online for retailers before they get in their car and make purchases.

Boosting your online presence will increase sales. Hiring an online marketing agency will give you the greatest chance for success.  However, here are a few quick tips to help you get started.

– Make your site user-friendly with clear, concise information.

– Focus on specific keywords and phrases you hope potential customers will use when searching online to find you.

– Use those focused keywords throughout your site to boost your relevance and ranking in applicable searches.

– Earn good customer reviews.  People take reviews to heart so invite customers to leave reviews and let others know about their positive experience with your business.

– Utilize local citations (such as Yellow Pages, Citysearch, etc.).  Having your business indexed in these various sites will help you rank higher in search engines.

If You Offer Deals and Discounts They Will Come

Another important tip to note, especially in terms of digital marketing, is offering deals and discounts.  It is no secret that customers want to get the most for their money and utilizing digital tools is a great way to advertise your specials.  It is common practice for individuals to “follow” companies on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, mainly for deals and discounts. Using social media is a great way to continually remind them what you offer, what’s on sale, and any special events you may be holding. With immediate access to your customer base, you have the ability to generate foot traffic with a few clicks.  For example, say it’s a slow day and foot traffic is low.  By offering a deal through your social channels, you can get a quick influx and increase the foot traffic.

Contact Your Contacts

With all the data you store on your computers and you gain from customers signing up for membership cards and online discounts you’ve got a great start on a mailing list of people to hit up during the slow times. They’ve bought from you once and are obviously interested in the types of products you sell. Take advantage of this list and make those people feel special and your traffic should increase because of it.

Incentives for Referrals

Lastly, show those in your store you value their opinion and treasure the business they are bringing you. Offer them incentives to give you referrals of friends and family who would also love to check out your store and your products. This way you’ll continually be getting new names and contacts and will have more opportunities to make money in different areas. Like the saying goes: “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” if you follow this advice with your retail store you’re more likely to succeed.

We know this is only a short list of simple ideas but we hope they will help to bring in more people to your store and money in your pocket!

If there are other things that have worked for you in the past, feel free to share them below.

Sources:

http://www.microsoftbusinesshub.com/News_and_Updates/7_ways_to_get_foot_traffic_to_your_retail_store

http://www.pbsmartessentials.com/get-customers/increase-foot-traffic-to-your-retail-store/

Ten Tips To Increase Foot Traffic To Your Local Store

The Holidays are Here

Walk into any Walmart at 11:59 pm on October 31st and what do you see? Pallets of Christmas products, decorations and other assorted holiday items. Employees hover around like a pack of ravenous wolves waiting for the OK to pounce. The clock strikes midnight and the walkie-talkies light up like a trucker convention. The holiday season has arrived. Let the madness begin.

Ok, so that might have been a little dramatic, but seriously, you can’t help but notice that the holidays are being forced upon us earlier and earlier each year. It’s not surprising given the economic juggernaut that is Christmas. It can all seem a little hectic, especially if you are a small business owner or local retail shop. How can you compete with the big boxes and their crazy discounts? As a marketer, who has worked in both retail and Fortune 500 companies, I have seen both sides, and I have a few suggestion.

Here are my three tips to a successful “selling” season:

1. Customer Service Trumps Everything

I know we harp on customer service a lot on the Signs.com blog and rightly so. In fact, we feel that is so important, it is part of our core values. Early on in my career I worked at two different retail stores primarily doing in-store merchandising and visual displays. One was a basic clothing store and one focused on outdoor/ski/snowboarding gear. Different products but very similar clientele.

What set the two stores apart was the level of service customers received. In the clothing store, associates were forced to attend training and to learn in-depth details about the materials used, the latest styles and how to track down merchandise that was out-of-stock. During the holidays, this level of knowledge and ability to help the customer find exactly what they were looking for was invaluable.

In the outdoor gear store, things were done differently . . . not different as in associates were rude or not helpful, there was just a different vibe. Associates had minimal training, couldn’t really tell the difference between similar products and had no way to order out-of-stock products. In the end, the outdoor gear store closed down. Of course there were other factors involved, but I couldn’t help but think more could be done to satisfy customers.

Your retail business or small business isn’t any different. You can’t usually win on price or volume, but you can win on service. Go to any big box store and you know what I am talking about. Good luck getting the help you need. So going into the Christmas season, focus on service and make sure your associates focus on it as well.  If you can, give your associates the leeway to go all out for customers. Besides, they are usually the ones interacting with customers anyway. Your customers will love you and you can bet they will come back to shop the other 10 months of the year!

2. Focus on What You Do Best

The stress of the holidays causes us all to go a bit crazy. Why else would we wait in long lines for toys that our kids look at once and then just play with the box it came in instead (yes, this has happened to me multiple times). As business owners and managers, the stress to drive revenue can cause us to get a bit crazy as well. We try to think of “creative” ways to increase sales but in doing so, many times we create campaigns or activities that actually draw our attention away from what we do best.

Case in point. Another company I worked for offered 2 products and 2 products only. And they did a heck of a job doing it. They were the leader (for sure in the top 2 or 3) in the industry at the time. Unfortunately, upper management was like a revolving door for the better part of a year. During that time, each new manager wanted to put his stamp on the company. Some had great ideas, some didn’t. The problem was not the ideas per se, it was that they were constantly forcing employees to switch focus mid-project. What happened? Contention and a lot of wasted time and money.

This season, identify what your business does really well and focus on that. If you need to add products, find ones that are complementary to what you already offer. For example, here at Signs.com we developed a lot of new holiday templates. We didn’t reinvent the wheel, we just offered a new version of what we already had. You will find that your customers will be happier, your employees will be more confident because they know what they need to work on, and come December 26th, you can call the Christmas season a success.

3. Give

I know you are probably saying, “wait I thought this post was about how to make money during the holiday season.” You’re right; it is. But let’s not forget what this season is really about. On the flip side, I will let you in on a little secret . . . use the holidays as a time to get your business and employees in on the giving back action and you just might earn some new customers in the process.

For one, volunteering or getting involved with local charities during the holidays gives you and your employees the chance to meet other businesses owners in the community. I mean, you are a local business right? Doesn’t it make sense that the same people you meet might be a  customer or maybe a future customer? Back in May, we posted about inexpensive marketing ideas to do in and around your communities. These same ideas can be used during the holidays too.

Not only do you get a chance to give back, getting involved can open doors to lots of new opportunities. At Signs.com, we just joined a local chamber of commerce and I have attended a few meetings and events recently. I am amazed that every time I go, I meet new business owners and managers who are excited that a sign company like ours is involved in the local community and they even expressed interest in going online and ordering a new sign or two from us. Giving back definitely pays.

The wrap (pun intended)

No matter your industry, the holidays are a great time to grow your business. Just don’t get too caught up in it all and forget that special gift for your special someone! Always take an angry customer over an angry wife.

Here Come The Holidays: 3 Tips to a Successful Season

Best. Cupcake. Ever. I just returned from a wonderful meeting with Allison Regan, owner of Sweet Cake Bake Shop and I’ve polished off the gluten-free German chocolate cake cupcake I brought home. To be honest, I don’t really know much about baking. I do know that cupcakes normally contain wheat flour, and that the heavenly cupcake I just enjoyed didn’t have a lick of wheat in it. But do I care? Let me just say it again: Best. Cupcake. Ever. 

I met with Allison because I wanted to highlight her adorable shop in our Small Business Success Stories series. From her energetic, bubbly, passionate personality, I never would have guessed that Allison had faced some serious, debilitating health issues before becoming the successful business owner she is today.  Most small businesses start with a “lightbulb moment”—a sudden inspiration that usually comes when someone wants something that she can’t find or that doesn’t exist. Allison’s lightbulb moment would come from after seven years of searching for answer to health problems.

Diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2002, she was told to “never eat wheat again.” Ever. Imagine not being able to eat anything with wheat in it… the ingredient is found in a huge percentage of the food we enjoy. And wheat? Is the main ingredient in cake. Cookies. Bread. Cupcakes. Brownies. All the yummy stuff.

According to Wikipedia, “gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.” So it sounds pretty important if you like to bake delicious goodies. And it’s easy to see why Allison would be so upset after finding out that she can never eat wheat again (I’d be obsessing about chocolate cake, too!) Allison had always enjoyed cooking and baking. And she wasn’t going to give up all the stuff she loved just because it made her sick. But it did make her sick (really, really sick). So she had to find another way— a way to have all the stuff she craved without having the wheat.

There are many gluten-free baking mixes on the market (and gluten-free baked goods at some grocery stores). So Allison tried them. And over several years she was able to find a few that weren’t too horrible. But she was left feeling… unsatisfied. And dreaming of the chocolate cake she used to bake—moist, chocolatey, light and flavorful.

Allison’s lightbulb moment came while she was dreaming of that cake. She decided that the baking mixes on the market were never going to satisfy her. So, she would develop her own! Literally hundreds of tries later, she had two mixes: Master Mix and Master Lite Mix. With these two mixes, dozens of delicious recipes would be created and Sweet Cake Bake Shop would be born.

In the beginning, Allison was simply milling and selling her baking mixes to other people who had to avoid wheat but wanted to convert their favorite recipes. Then she started taking requests for baked goods and baking them in her home kitchen. But eventually, the endeavor out-grew her home and Allison decided to open the first Sweet Cake Bake Shop in Kaysville, Utah in 2009.

“We were Utah’s first retail gluten-free bakery,” Allison told me, “It was scary at first because I didn’t know if we had a market. And I don’t do a lot of advertising about gluten free. I don’t want to limit my market.” But word got out that there were yummy new cupcakes in town. “The more people found out about it, it just kind of snowballed.” But Allison hasn’t forgotten about the many people who suffer from Celiac Disease, who inspired her to start the business. “The bakery isn’t marketed as solely gluten-free, and part of that is because I don’t want to make my customers with Celiac Disease to feel like they’re singled out. Children especially have a hard time with this diagnosis. I want them to feel like they can come in and get a treat and have it seem normal. I love having kids in the shop.”

Allison’s passion is creating delicious recipes. She listens to her customers and tries to cater to their wants and needs. She said, “I want to make people happy. Especially when it’s something that they’ve been told ‘No’ and they want to have the things they remember. I want them to leave satisfied and happy and content.” This sometimes leads to challenges—customers were asking for cinnamon rolls, so Allison finally decided to tackle the recipe. Three years later, she’d perfected the perfect cinnamon roll. That’s dedication to customer service!

One key to Allison’s success is that she let her business grow slowly. She wanted to avoid taking out loans to finance a business during a time of recession. The fiscally-conservative approach worked; three years after opening the Kaysville store, Sweet Cake Bake Shop opened a second shop in Salt Lake City earlier this year. The business is a family affair; her husband does most of the accounting and her children get in and help with baking.

Allison said, “My favorite thing is talking to customers. They come in and tell me their stories. I’m so grateful and thankful for this business. It’s fulfilled me in so many ways.”

The store takes special orders. Customers can call 24 hours in advance and the shop will have their treats ready the next day.

Sweet Cake Bake Shop also ships out of state from its website: www.sweetcakebakeshop.com .

So here’s all you need to know: if you have celiac disease and miss decadent treats like cupcakes, cookies, brownies and bread that doesn’t taste like sawdust, Sweet Cake Bake Shop is your place. But if you aren’t concerned about gluten and you can pretty much eat any cupcake you’d like… Sweet Cake Bake Shop is still your place. Because the cupcakes? Are amazing.

Success Stories: Sweet Cake Bake Shop

Of all the strategies you’re thinking of for your new business, pricing is the one that can truly make or break your business. Price too high and your competition will get all the business. Price too low and you won’t make enough money. Super-smart business economists have come up with dozens of pricing models – any of which can be used to help bump up your profit while keeping the customers happy.

Figure out your costs

You should have a very clear idea of how much your product actually costs. You’ll need to figure out the cost of goods which includes the amount paid for the product plus shipping expenses. You’ll also need to factor in operating expenses, which include everything from office supplies to marketing to labor. Obviously, your product should be priced high enough to cover all these things, plus include some profit.

When setting your prices, consider a few different pricing models:

1. Psychological Pricing

Studies have shown that consumers tend to round down instead of up when looking at prices. For instance, pricing an item at $9.97 instead of $10.00 encourages the customer to think of the item as $9.00 instead of $10.00.

2. Multiple Pricing

“Buy One Get One Half,” or Three for $1 are both examples of multiple pricing. Consumers purchase more than they originally intended with this pricing strategy. Think about the last time you saw a “Buy One Get One Half” sale at the shoe store. It’s pretty hard to pass up saving 50% on a second pair of shoes, even when you walked in the door intending to only buy one pair.

3. Loss Leader Pricing

Most common at the grocery store, loss leader pricing highlights one or two products that are priced so low that the store actually loses money on them. But they bring people in who will buy other things. So, if the canned soup is on sale for 25 cents a can, the store loses money. But it makes money on the full-priced items such as milk, crackers, bread and the box of donuts that the consumer buys when he comes in.

Even if you have a different kind of business, you can use loss leader pricing. For instance, a clothing store might offer graphic t-shirts at a loss, but sell jeans, shoes and accessories to people who come in for the advertised deal.

4. Premium Pricing

At the other end of the spectrum from the bargain pricing techniques is Premium Pricing. With this strategy, you price your goods at an inflated rate and tout your premium quality. You can sell fewer items in order to reach your profit goals, but you’d better be sure that your stuff is worth the extra money, though.

What do you offer that the competition doesn’t? Is your product better quality? Do you have better follow-up service? Apple is one of the most famous companies with this pricing strategy. Its laptops sell for several hundred dollars more than its competitors, but it offers stylish design and in-store customer support.

5. Freemium Pricing

The “Freemium” strategy combines the words “Free” and “Premium” because you’ll be offering both. You’ll give something away for free, then charge a premium price for a related product or service. For instance, HULU offers free viewing for many television shows and movies. But customers pay a monthly subscription fee for premium shows and movies.

Be careful of this kind of pricing. Sometimes consumers may see it as a bait and switch. Help your customers understand clearly what they are getting for free and what they must pay for . . . and why it’s worth it to upgrade!

6. Penetration Pricing

With this strategy, you enter the market with super-low pricing. The intent is to garner as many customers as you can and get them to move from your competition to your business. This works when you have a product with a lot of demand. But it can backfire, too.

It’s a common practice in my town for the Internet service providers to offer a super-low rate for the first year. But at the end of that contract, the rate doubles. The companies are counting on the fact that I don’t have the time or energy to find a new provider. But it makes me angry enough to see my bill double that I take the time to find someone else.

7. High-Low Pricing

This pricing strategy involves pricing your product higher than your competitor, but then offering discounts or coupons on some of your inventory with the idea that customers will still buy the higher priced items when they arrive at the store. It’s similar to loss leader pricing, except that your main product line will be priced higher than normal.

This can backfire in several ways. First, you’ll have to make sure that you’re clearing a profit on the low-priced items because people will be less likely to make compulsive purchases on high-priced items. Second, you’ll be targeting customers who might be able to afford your low-price discount item, but don’t fit the demographic for the higher priced items. For instance, if you sell expensive stereo systems, you might decide to offer steep discounts on a pair of headphones. But if you bring in customers who just want to pay $15 for headphones and then hope that they buy a $1800 stereo, you might be disappointed with sales.

The Last Word on Pricing

No matter which pricing strategies you choose for your business, know that they’re all flexible. Pricing is something that constantly changes (more so in some businesses than others, but to some extent with every business). Don’t just set up your pricing models and forget them. Keep track of sales and profit margins to make sure that your strategies are working. Test out new strategies every once in awhile.

*All Images courtesy of CBS and ThePriceisRight.com

7 Pricing Strategies Every Retailer Should Know

How important are first impressions? Everyone from your mom to your professors in business school told you that they’ll make or break you. If you’re getting ready to open the doors of your brand new business and introduce yourself to the public, you should be thinking about the first impression you’ll make. It’s difficult to offer perfect service during the first days of your fledgling business. But customers will give you a break that first week, right? Surely they’ll understand that you have new employees and that you’re still figuring out how to run your business. It will all work out – even if they have to wait a little longer for service or stand there while you try to figure out how to operate your cash register. Right? Um… nope.

Sadly, Joe customer doesn’t have warm, fuzzy feelings in his heart for your earnest (and failing) attempts at becoming a paragon of retail perfection. He just wants to buy a widget and be on his way. You opened yesterday? That’s nice. Now fork over the widget, ring it up and put it in a bag. Oh, and do it with a smile on your face. Or he won’t be back.

I know, it sounds harsh. But it’s reality and as a new business owner you’d better be living in the real world. Opening week is crucial to your success; you absolutely must do it right. Here are some reasons to delay your big grand opening event:

1. Your Employees Aren’t Thoroughly Trained

Your employees are the ambassadors of your business. Customers will expect them to know where product can be located and be able to extol the many features of the product. Customers want to be able to complete their transactions quickly and be on their way, so employees should be thoroughly trained on how to use the cash register.

I took my family to an amusement park during spring break. It had opened for the season just two days before we visited, so most of the employees were new. When we stopped for snacks, only two people were in line at the snack kiosk, so we figured we’d be able to grab some goodies fast. After ten minutes, the guy at the front still hadn’t received his order; the clerk was holding his $5 bill in her hand and frantically punching buttons on the register, which kept making a beeping noise. Apparently, the customer had tried to add an item onto his order after she had pushed the “Total” button. The cash register was having none of it. The guy finally told her, “Never mind. Don’t worry about the extra soda.” But it was too late. The register was hopelessly screwed up.

In the meantime, the line had backed up to about 10 people, all of whom were starting to get irritated. The customer at the front of the line requested that his order be cancelled, and the clerk gave him his money back. But the register couldn’t complete any transactions until a manager showed up. After another five minutes, everyone gave up, griping and complaining as they walked away, sans sugar and caffeine.

2. Your Signage is Insufficient

Customers can’t find your business unless you have plenty of signage to point the way; especially when your store is brand new. Make sure you have several signs placed right next to the road, pointing the way to your shop. A large banner on the exterior of the building will call attention to your business, too. Without some noticeable signage, it can be particularly difficult to find a new business—you won’t show up on GPS mapping programs for a few months, so your customers will need to know your exact address to find you. And if your shop is tucked away from the main street, it will still be hard to locate it in time to turn into the parking lot. Make it easy for customers to find you.

3.Your Store Isn’t Fully Stocked

You won’t make a very good first impression if customers show up to find your shelves half empty. If you don’t have anything to sell, it’s a given that your customers won’t be buying. Make sure that your product will arrive well before opening day, and get it stocked on the shelves before you open the door. You’d think this would be common knowledge, but I’ve visited several new stores that are unprepared.

At one store, the grand opening had been well-advertised and there were several coupons on the flyer that encouraged customers to stop in during the first four hours of business. A line at the door testified that the marketing campaign had been successful. Unfortunately, the product had arrived late. When the doors opened, employees were frantically trying to put product on the shelves and were telling customers, “Hang on a minute… I know we have that… Let me just look through this stack of boxes.” Needless to say, customers quickly became frustrated and many left without buying anything.

4. You Haven’t Figured Out Best Practices Yet

It can take awhile to figure out how best to run your business. But some general policies and procedures should be in place well before you open your doors. Set regular hours right from the beginning—having special Grand Opening hours will only confuse your customers when they try to return later. Make sure that all employees are aware of your policies regarding returns, price matching and rain checks.

4 Reasons to Delay Your Grand Opening

Think all signs are the same? Think again. In many cases, the effectiveness of a sign is determined by its use. Is it going outside on your storefront or hanging in window? Is it leading your customers to an event or simply helping them navigate to your store? When starting the design process, think of these 5 functions of a sign and get the most bang for your buck.

Recognition and Awareness (Outside Signs)

In the most basic sense, a sign on the outside of your store provides information. It makes people aware of your existence. It identifies the space as belonging to your business, and lets customers know that they’re in the right place.

Make sure that your signage is clearly visible from the street and that it is easily read. In a 2011 study by BrandSpark, 49.7 percent of people surveyed indicated that they had driven by and failed to find a business because the sign was either too small or unclear (1).

Complement Other Marketing Efforts (Inside and Outside Signs)

You’ve probably heard the term “branding.” Think about the McDonald’s golden arches. Studies have shown that even small children can connect the arches with McDonald’s. Your business might never become quite as globally famous, but it would be great if local consumers recognized your logo and connected it to your business. Your other marketing pieces, such as coupons and print ads, should feature your logo and business name. Your on-site signage should reinforces your “brand” to customers, in turn helping them begin to recognize it in other settings.

Entice Customers to Purchase (Outside signs)

Signs can be used to prompt consumers to make impulse purchases. Signs advertising big sales or discount days entice customers into your store for specific items. A customer driving down the street might not be thinking about buying a new pair of jeans, but if she sees a big sign in the window of a clothing store, advertising a sale on jeans, she might stop in to have a look.

For the greatest impact, these signs should be as large as possible, and displayed in a prominent spot.

Entice Customers to Purchase Something Else (Inside signs)

Once the customer is in your store with the intention to buy something, provide them with signs to point out other things they may find interesting. You might have a sign placed on an easel directly inside the doorway, announcing the sale of another item, or a table of merchandise with a sign displayed prominently.

Directional or Wayfinding (Outside signs)

Directional, sometimes called wayfinding, signage helps get your customer from the street to your store in the safest, most convenient way possible. These signs need to be well-placed and easily read so that drivers have time to change lanes, slow down and signal to turn into your parking lot. If your business is located in the back corner of a shopping center, or is difficult to see from the street, a directional sign not only lets customers know where to turn, it makes others aware that your business is there.

(1) Kellaris, James J. 100,000 Shoppers Can’t Be Wrong: Signage Communication Evidence from The BrandSpark/Better Homes and Gardens American Shopper Study. 2011.

5 Functions of a Sign

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to Mitch Monson, co-founder of The Toaster Oven, a small chain of sandwich shops in San Francisco and Berkeley, California, for our small business success stories series. He gave me some insights about how the company got started, what they do and how they have become one of our small business success stories!

The Planning Stage

In 2004, Mitch and his friend Cameron Wilkinson were both working in the corporate world and becoming financially successful in their careers, but they wanted more. Mitch told me, “A lot of entrepreneurs have a desire to be creative. They have the personality type where they want to have their own thing or they don’t necessarily fit into the corporate mold. From our college days, we had always talked about starting our own business.” He and Cameron found a silent partner, Todd Lloyd, who contributed some of the up-front capital. The introduction of a third partner, “forced us, from the beginning, to be really serious about the business plan, think about the business objectives and treat it like a big business, instead of just two college buddies cobbling together what we thought was best,” Mitch said. He attributes part of Toaster Oven’s success to the intensive planning that was done prior to opening the first shop. From start to finish, the planning phase took an entire year.

An Important Mentor 

Successful business owners often speak of mentors that changed their thinking and gave them valuable insights. Mitch credits a mentor from his pre-college days: former President of Oracle North America, Gary Kennedy. Gary taught Mitch that successful entrepreneurs do one of two things: they either invent something totally new, or they find a way to make the “mutually exclusive” co-exist.

The Cornerstone of The Toaster Oven

Mitch and Cameron weren’t planning on becoming inventors, so they recognized that they needed to find a business where they could differentiate themselves from competitors in order to be successful. Mitch noted, “When we’d talked about different concepts, I was always of the opinion that we needed to have a business that could make mutually exclusive things mutually agreeable.” Mitch, who was living back East at the time, noticed several eatery concepts that hadn’t yet made it to the western half of the U.S. He and Cameron decided something similar might work in San Francisco.

Overall, sandwich businesses seemed to have some mutually exclusive characteristics. Some offered fast service and low prices, but the product was typically low quality, served in a fast-food environment (with plastic booths, for instance). There were other eateries that offered high quality and a nice atmosphere, but at high prices and with slower service. Mitch and Cameron wanted The Toaster Oven to challenge the notion that patrons would have to shell out a lot of money and spend the majority of their lunch hour in order to enjoy a quality meal.

Changing The Game

To be successful, The Toaster Oven needed to make four components, which don’t normally co-exist, mutually agreeable: quality, speed, ambiance and price.

The menu at The Toaster Oven focuses on hot sandwiches typical of a sandwich shop: ham, turkey, tuna, meatball, etc. But there are some differences that give them an artisan flair. The shop orders only high-quality meats and cheeses and slices them on-site daily. The addition of a giardiniera pepper mix adds a unique flavor. And the bread (a major component of sandwiches, after all) is specially prepared. Mitch explained the process: “Normally at a cheap sandwich shop the bread is fully baked. When you re-heat it, it comes out burned on the edges. We can get a consistent, artisan-type taste by simply using par-baked bread that bakes up beautifully when we put it through our pizza ovens, at the moment it’s ordered.”

Getting customers through the line quickly took care of two of the components–speed and price. In the sandwich business, there is a small 2 1/2 to 3 hour window per day to make money. Mitch wondered, “How am I going to have the competitive advantage of being able to serve more people during those 2 1/2 hours than the competition?” The answer was in the layout of the sandwich line, which allows The Toaster Oven to ring through up to four customers every minute–much faster than the competition (other sandwich chains normally average one or two customers per minute). By putting customers through the line quickly and selling more sandwiches than competitors, The Toaster Oven can offer their product at a low price–right around $5 per sandwich.

Ambiance was the other important feature to distinguish The Toaster Oven from the low-price, cheap-quality competition. Each shop has some main design tenets: distressed millwork, warm colors, antiqued metals and a wall featuring vintage toasters. Soft lighting and familiar classic-rock tunes add to the inviting, comfortable atmosphere.

Marketing

I asked Mitch about the marketing strategy for The Toaster Oven. “We don’t do coupons. We don’t do a reward program. When a new store opens, we usually have a grand opening with a special like, ‘buy a sandwich, get a free drink.’ After that, our business lives and dies by customer experience and word of mouth. We place a lot more focus on our employees’ attitudes and trying to foster an atmosphere of abundance and hospitality for our customers than we do on typical coupon marketing.”

Signage

In addition to word-of-mouth, The Toaster Oven utilizes signage to attract business. Since they are located in areas where there is mainly foot traffic, an A-frame sign placed on the sidewalk is highly visible. Keeping consistent with their branding, the signage maintains an informal tone. One design includes a product picture, the store logo and the words, “5 dollars can taste good. Let us show you how.”

Mistakes

Every small business owner makes a few mistakes and the owners of The Toaster Oven were no exception. Their business model relied on a heavy foot-traffic location where business people walked to lunch, which worked well for locations on busy San Francisco streets. They tried to open a fourth location in a suburban area and it failed. Mitch explained their mistake, “We took a step away from our main business model. We tried to push our concept to an environment where the population was retail driven instead of business driven.”

Then they made another typical mistake, “We tried to convince ourselves that we needed to spend more money. We spent more on marketing and diversified product offerings. We basically threw good money after bad. After eight months we shut it down.” Luckily, the other locations were doing well and they were able to harvest the equipment and open another San Francisco location, so not all was lost.

Success

The first Toaster Oven opened in 2005 in the financial district of San Francisco. The owners hoped that they could reach profitability within the first year–they reached that goal during their third month. Seven years later, The Toaster Oven boasts five locations, 48 employees and sales of $2.75 million per year.

Advice

When asked what advice he would give to potential new small business owners, Mitch told me, “Serve your customers well and find your competitive advantage. Ask yourself: What are you going to make mutually agreeable in your industry that’s normally mutually exclusive?”

Small Business Success Stories: The Toaster Oven