Dry Cleaning Gets a Personality

There was a time when  film labs and dry cleaners seemed very similar: smelly, devoid of retail experience, defined by pounds of wash and roll counts; customer satisfaction was only as good as your last stain free shirt or well developed print.

In those days customers were acquired, or lost,  when their commute intersected with your front door. 

I often make this comparison to illustrate just how far the business of pictures has come; the toolkit required for success today is so vastly different and contains customer experience,  merchandising, marketing (beyond coupons), and customer coaching.

Alas, it seems dry cleaners are about to enter a new era that will change their business for ever.  Read this story in the NY Times.  If you're an evolved retailer you know what's ahead for dry cleaners!

-Ravid

Tag Along Sale

Is it wise to run a sale on best selling products?  Such is the on-going debate within Cameo Style.

To promote a best selling product is to leave money on the table, so say some.

Yet, to others the practice of discounting strong sellers is a sure way to generate sales during slower periods.

We've decided to split the difference and go for a "little sale" on Tag Along books, just 15%.  And we're going to keep this sale very short, a week at most.

(by the way, we've been running a "private sale."  If a customer is excited about the Cameo products but isn't ready to place an order just yet, we send them off with the folded Cameo Menu stamped with a special 10 day savings voucher.)


Now is a good time for a little sale because:

• The weather in the northeast has impacted store traffic
• Mother's Day is a bit distant still, and Earth Day traditionally does not impact picture taking and memory keeping

Please review the pictures below for the ingredients: a chalk board; your entire inventory of books out as filler (we also really like the idea of "blank" book covers and frames out in the open because it seems to make the process more familiar for the customers); samples (always available from our sample library), and the Cameo Style product menu hand-out we created recently, (just ask us for the file and print on 8.5x11 on your laser printer).

 Good luck, and please share.