Sounds + Food 'n' Retail

Here's an idea on how to market an entirely new concept coming to a town near you. Let's say you rented a store-space in a shopping-street and you have to make modifications. Normally this would be dead time where you would just be spending money on construction.

Reserve a space of about 1-2 metres (3-5 feet) depth behind the shop-window. Make it so that people can't look at all the construction going on behind it, and have a little curtain that you can hang in front of it.

And everyday that you are building, create a different display. One day, you could display a series of pies, another, you could display some bridal dresses. Etc. etc. One day, you could even put some people there, having coffee and reading a book. All the while, keeping the passer-bys guessing at what this new store is about.

What this accomplishes is simple. In our transparent little world, what people love most, is things that stand out and things that are mysterious. And your ever-changing display will keep them wondering during the time where you really can't do much in the way of enchanting customers.

Another thing that you could do is actually use these displays to advertise shops in your street. "Buy pies at neighbour Joe's bakery!" "Get your coffee at Jane's delicious coffee-shop!" Not only does this increase your clout with your neighbours, it may make you some money, and more traffic to them automatically means more traffic to you too!

Of course, one of the dangers is that you're building your momentum up way high and like a pendulum, if you don't prepare for the automatically high expectations that follow, it might swing out of control. So you better end up delivering a nice end-product when your store actually opens!

The picture is courtesy of marwantaher.com