The Little Ice Cream Shop That Couldn’t
First, some tragic and distressing news. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have heard that I was bragging a few weeks back that SEO School hadn’t been returned once. Considering that some digital products have return rates of up to 80%, that’s quite impressive.
Well, it WAS quite impressive, back when it was true. I’m sad to say that SEO School had its first return today, from a nice gentleman I don’t know.
Ask me why he returned it. Go on, ask me. OK, fine. I’ll just tell you.
He returned it because it had too much swearing.
Now that we’ve got that sad news out of the way, we’ll get on with things, shall we?
Small Business Marketing for the Ice Cream Shop.
There was an ice cream shop around the corner from my house, and it was somewhat of a local institution. It seemed like people were there a lot, but especially on Tuesday nights in the summer. Tuesday was Cruise Night here in Wortley Village.
On Cruise Night, the local Small Business Association closes down our little main drag and turns it into a little festival of classic cars. A bunch of car nerds, or Petrol Heads, as I’m told they’re called in the UK (Hi Nick!) get together to show off their wheels, and people cruise the drag and listen to 50’s music and feed their kids overpriced ice cream.
As Wortley Village has been overrun by construction this year, and because construction is generally bad for expensive cars, they’ve moved Cruise Night to a parking lot several blocks away. Don’t know how many blocks, but too far for a kid to walk, that’s for sure. Local businesses are kind of up in arms about all this because for some, they made 80% of their weekly sales on Tuesday nights. Now the road stays open, and nobody buys ice cream — or anything else, for that matter — because nobody goes to Cruise Night anymore.
Long story short, the ice cream shop closed down because of this. No people equals no money and bye-bye ice cream shop.
Jamie and I were talking today about how sad it was that the ice cream shop went away. Not for them, I mean — I generally belong to the “adapt or die” school of thought when it comes to small business management — but for everyone else who could have really used some ice cream today.
We got to thinking, how could they have changed their fate? How could they have got asses in the seats and ice cream in the cones? What small business marketing ideas could have kept them open despite unfortunate circumstances?
Therefore, my challenge to you would-be marketers out there is to give me a creative marketing idea, something that they could’ve done to save themselves. Keep in mind, they probably had a budget that bordered on zero, and a part time staff of one.
You can answer in the comments. Give one idea or give 65. Doesn’t matter to me. Coolest/funniest/awesomest idea wins. For the winner, there’s fifty bucks (and a shameless plug) to their favorite charity. (Hint: Pick a small charity and there’ll be a hope in hell the money might actually make a difference.) You’ve got a week from today.
Ready? Go!
Next Post: Lemmings, Widgets and Why You Should Think Before You Get a Buzz Cut
Well, they could have invested in an ice cream cart. Our local ice cream shop (which sounds about the same as the one you described in terms of size and budget) bought an ice cream cart a while back, and it has easily paid for itself by now, they make a killing at every town festival because of it. Not exactly clever marketing, but a still an easy solution!
Let me get this, the guy returned the book not because it was a crock but because of language. A book he ordered from this site? What rock did he crawl out from under?
About the ice cream shop: was this the only business to go under or the only one you noticed because you were looking for ice cream? Yes it makes a difference.
Conner beat me to the cart thing. A good idea because it has other applications. The only other option I can think of is to replace car show with something not as finicky as shinny cars. This would be an opportunity for the local businesses to get together and a sidewalk sale and some other touches of festival like entertainment or kid activities to make it worth families coming.
@ Deb — Others too. Ice cream was just the only one I gave a shit about. A salon, a coffee shop and a ridiculously self-important cafe also kicked it.
Also, it had the lowest overhead and was therefore (presumably) the easiest to keep open with some crafty marketing methods. Easier to save that than the horrid cafe with 9 sullen employees to pay.
wells…. you do swear a lot….. I’m still awaiting your kidlet story when he busts out the F word in preschool. . . anyway I guess I was hoping this post was about Tequila, cause that Mexican beer discussion was fun and I am one sucker for anything MExican.
Naomi: Your intro made me laugh… Thing is, I refer people to your site in my day-to-day bloggy discussions. I like it here… Ya know, great information in a very laid back tone. It works for me. Life shouldn’t be too serious… Anyway, when I refer people here I do it with a disclaimer: “Naomi is awesome! But fair warning, she’s very, how should we say…let’s just say very ‘free’ in speech.
Aww, yeah!
As a hommage to the souped-up vintage cars, get one or two soupped-up “Dickie Dees” type of bikes (geez, those are probably vintage, too) and ride ‘em on over to the party.
The compartment would be filled with three buckets each of the top four flavours. The kids can’t carry ‘em all, right?
The paper that wraps the cones would have a simple advert with the ice cream shop’s URL. I smell contest here. Something that encourages folks to keep the sticky, cream soaked paper cone wrap as clean as possible (so as not to mess up the URL) until they get home.
Once there, they get to the URL to fill in a survey or a contest or some other brand-awareness promo that gets those folks loving the shop not only on Auto Hootenanny Day, but every day.
Because every day does, in fact, deserve ice cream dang it!
(Then off she went for a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream in a sugar cone…Yes, at 1:27 am. And?)
There’s only one viable marketing option, really, isn’t there?
Become an ice cream supervillain.
The moment I discovered that my biggest weekly business pull had been outsourced to a car park in West Wortley by a bunch of bureaucrats, I’d have been straight on the phone to Auntie Christie with her Sewmistress 5000 to whip up the meanest-looking supervillain outfit the world has seen, emblazoned with a crisp blue “I” for “Mr Ice Guy”, and finished with a delicate cape of dry ice that spills ominously from the neckline.
Next, I would steal the longest, meanest ’50’s vehicle of them all — the 1957 Cadillac Seville — and retrofit the tailgate with an ice cream cannon and refrigerated hopper containing 66 flavours of deadly but deliciously creamy ammo.
With a ride secured, I’d rename “Cruise Night” to “Dark Tuesday” and make the locals aware of the new convention with some clichéd but essential cut-and-stick ransom-style flyers. Next, I would discover the personal addresses of the board of the Small Business Association, and have my trusty sidekick (’Flake Girl’) do the driving while I pelted a ’sample’ of flavours through their windows with unholy precision.
By this time, of course, the spectacle of two leotarded villains in the Ice Cream Cadillac would have drawn such a crowd that Dark Tuesdays would become a local celebration — hailed as a day to exact revenge on unpopular politicians and other local unsavouries.
Weasels of Wortley would buy my ice cream for the sole purpose of pulling projectile-based pranks on their most-hated enemies once a week. The local kids and teenage miscreants would look forward to Dark Tuesday with such passion, that they’d frequently wind their living room clocks forward in an attempt to trick their often inebriated parents into believing that Monday had finished early that week. Sometimes this would actually work, resulting in a flurry of unexpected sales late on Monday nights.
Next, I would rename the Ice Cream shop to “Mr Ice Guy” to ensure that my overall marketing effort was in-sync, and that Seth Godin could write about my exploits in the second printing of “Meatball Sundae”. I would repaint the sign myself in a manner that belied deep psychological imbalance, and locals would later falsely interpret this as a sign of artistic genius.
Finally, I would have Flake Girl circulate fliers encouraging locals to save their favourite ice cream/ammo store. The campaign would prove so popular that I would later win a D&AD Gold Pencil for my effort, and be hailed as the world’s most unlikely guerilla marketeer. My “No more Mr Ice Guy?” fliers would be reproduced in many overpriced coffee table books. They would sit in the waiting rooms of every pretentious ad agency, where they’d delicately gather dust and come to smell mostly of steamed milk, but also of the type of perspiration that only those with a cupboard full of black polo necks and a vastly inflated opinion of themselves could hope to produce.
And yes, of course I’d keep the costume.
God I’ve missed this. :)
p.s.- Nick wins.
Totally. The Brit takes it away. (No more Mr Ice Guy? Ahahaha!)
Damn, this is a sad day when at least three shops close because they were depending on that street event. (At least that’s the impression I got.) I hate when anything goes out of business, but I think their mistake was not having enough of a foundation or something in the first place. Depending on the Cruise Night alone was dangerous to begin with. Giving up without a fight, though, is almost worse. Having no budget invites creativity, as Nick’s idea suggests. I’m sure there are plenty of fantastic save the store stories out there. Get the community involved, the patrons of the stores! Get the kids involved!
Aww. I hate that this is after the fact.
The cart seems like an obvious idea, but I suppose if they had zero budget and only one staff member it may have been difficult.
This is one of the problems with putting “all your eggs in one basket” though. You don’t want your business relying on events outside of your control. When the event moved, it was already too late to change the business to cope.
My first idea was the cart idea, but with added incentive. Assuming a cart could be present at the new Cruise Night location, hand out a menu with each ice cream purchase that contains a coupon good towards a visit at the main store. I’m assuming Cruise Night on the strip ended, but there are still crowds (some with their children) at the new location. Throw in one of those cheap helium balloon kits to tie a balloon to each ice cream treat sold and you’ve got instant marketing. Every kid will want a balloon…free with purchase! And people are incentivized to continue patronage at the main location. The main location could also run their own “Cruise Night” special sundae or something on the same night. It’s all about exposure!
How did you ever sell a book to a fella who didn’t know you had a potty mouth? There’s a marketing story we all need to hear.
Naomi,
Speaking as someone who has on occasion colored up quite nicely at your frank language, to the gent who returned the book: AH HAHAHAHA. IttyBiz gave warnings. Even affliates gave warnings. What on Earth did you expect?
Maybe he’ll become a reader and ease himself into it. I happen to know it can be done to great effect.
Nick,
Reading on a tiny screen today, I refused to scroll down and see whose winning entry I was reading. Yet I knew, I knew, twas yours. You, sir, rock. I can’t play when I am so clearly, plainly outclassed. What a fine riff. :)
Regards,
Kelly
1. The guy who returned your book because it had too much swearing? Fucking asshole.
2. Saving the ice cream place? Easy. Of course, we all know that we’re in a post-advertising world, so how ’bout a social media strategy where consumers can go online have a fucking cultural conversation about our ice cream? And, you know, we can like earn the right to be in consumers’ lives. And we can create like compelling content and be really nimble and deliver the compelling content to create engagement. And insert our brand in the conversation.
Yeah, yeah, that’ll do it.
If we’re going for humor and hilarity, Nick wins already.
Here’s my more serious answer, however, and I don’t expect it to win because I’m going to challenge some underlying assumptions the Ice Cream Store (hereafter referred to as the ICS) made from the get-go. Assumptions that cost them dearly.
And to further assure I won’t win, my charity of choice is Operation Rescue National (or Operation Save America as they call themselves these days) in Dallas, TX. No comments from the peanut gallery.
Okay, here goes.
The ICS having to close their doors due to lack of business on a Tuesday night is pure rubbish. They were “gifted” the stream of steady business from a weekly event, and apparently were just squeaking by even with that beautiful gift.
They obviously never invested well (or at all) into their own business. Like many small business owners, they were comfortable to scrape out a living just working for themselves. Selfishly, they had no desire to grow and prosper beyond their little strip in downtown Wortley Village. Shameful.
If the owners had children, this would even be worse since they should have been expanding and growing so that their children would have some kind of opportunity to take the reigns one day… the reigns of a sturdy, strong, horse, not a decrepit donkey.
This is typical behavior of well over half of small businesses in America. They point to giant corporations like Ben & Jerry’s and say, “I don’t want to be a huge corporation”, as if the only alternative option is to be a leaf on a pond and be content with their measily customer base. These are the same types of businesses in the restaurant world that make it onto “Kitchen Nightmares”… control-obsessed owners who invest so poorly and so unevenly into their business as to make it a virtual noose around their own necks, and that of their families too quite often.
I can almost see the owner’s sloughing off to work each Tuesday afternoon, delighted to be a part of something big, yip-yapping with customers and feeling oh-so-useful, taking in the receipts each Tuesday night, and thankful that the Car Show once again kept their business afloat. Very sad.
And instead of reacting proactively to the car show being moved, the ICS instead pouts and goes out of business! Huh? They couldn’t even get a measily bank loan for a stinkin’ cart (as many have suggested above)? Moreover, why the heck didn’t they have a cart years ago? Is their idea of being involved in a community to sit on their duffs and make customers come to them? They never went to carnivals, OctoberFests, Spring gardening shows, etc…?
I know I’m assuming a lot here and perhaps it’s a bit unfair since I only have the information given to me. Maybe the owner is near retirement or disabled and was just trying to stay afloat long enough to be buried with the ICS. Who knows? But assuming the ICS wasn’t a tragic story to begin with, these owners made horrific and unfortunately, all too common mistakes that led their business toward a path of doom - long before the stinkin’ car show even came to town.
I’m almost sure they were likely underpriced as well — probably half-convinced that they couldn’t raise their prices for fear of offending their all-too-familiar customers. Which is kind of nutty when it sounds like from your story that they were the only game in town. Don’t they know how to play Monopoly? Jack them hotel prices sky high, baby!
Nick’s idea is great - assuming these owners believe in marketing which it sounds like they surely did not. They had a cute little “sweet spot” (no pun intended) and just sat like toadies waiting for their ship to come in.
My passion is that small business owners would learn a thing or two about running a business, and not just “running” it, but growing it (i.e. being a capitalist. (gasp!) what a horrible word, right?).
These ICS owners probably knew more about ice cream than Ben and Jerry themselves, but like most business owners, they didn’t seem to know much about running a business. That’s okay, because most of us don’t either - we all learn as we go.
What sucks big time is that giant corporations take over small towns like that with their Cold Creamery’s (ahem!) and every stinkin’ town in America starts to look the same. Forget about Walmart being the giant evil in America, it’s the insipid desire of Americans who get all excited and babble to their neighbors saying, “Did you hear we’re gettin’ a Stah-bucks?”. Who the hell cares? They should be ashamed that their own populace is to dumb, tepid, or motivated to prevent those stores from moving in! The should be outraged!
The void of small businesses that don’t make it, assuming there truly is a market to begin with, will surely be filled by corporate monolithic machinery designed to wow and impress the dumb citizens of our country.
Sure, I can toot the horn of “support your local small business”, but if the small businesses aren’t going to make a concerted effort, then quite sadly, they perhaps deserve to die and be remembered no more. This sounds like the story of one business that committed suicide long before its heart stopped beating. RIP, ICS.
Go mobile. Go retro. Get one of those pedal carts, load it up with ice cream and head on out to where the action is. Cost? 1 bicycle with a cooler, one big-ass sign to set next to it at the best location possible and one guy to man the ice-cream scoop.
Bob Hoffman, Will you marry me?
I’m still waiting to win something for my Brandon and the Homeless Dude post. :-)
Ideas for the ice cream dudes and dudettes (having no time to read the other comments because I’m supposed to be on vacation but can’t help myself but check emails): they could brand themselves as the ‘ice cream nazi’s’ (aka the soup Naxi in NYC on the Seinfeld show). They could become famous for throwing ice cream in people’s faces and telling them they are getting too fat and shouldn’t be eating ice cream.
Hasta luego..
Woman to “man the ice cream scoop” Bet you’d get more sales…especially if she wore something interesting. No that would be wrong…and sexest. Do not ask the Pussy Cat Dolls to do retro on a bike. and sell scoops of ice cream on a cone.
Probably better would be this… a little tow-headed kid who gave extra big scoops ’cause that’s what would be be cool, endless yummy ice cream on a night filled with dreams of simpler times.
But maybe a split test, Pussy Cat dolls or the little kid.
And make sure the home base is ready to receive vistors who might want more, and on another night or during the day. Downtown in the CDB ( Central Business District, NOLA) they had brown bag lunch days with outdoor music during lunch. Split the costs between merchants/businesses.
And what they couldn’t sell to construction workers? That’s hot dusty work. Offering bottled water with a scoop or two wasn’t doable? Those workers could have brought their families back after hours. Or is the street totally closed?
I don’t do humour that well, at least not intentionally, so if you aren’t up for boring common sense skip to the next comment.
In my mind it always comes down to customers. Big business or small, your customers are your present and your future. In particular it’s your heavy users, the 20% of customers that contribute 80% of revenue. Or more simply stated, a minority of customers always generate the majority of revenue. The ice cream shop owner probably knew this and would give special attention to “regulars,” an extra scope for the kids, some additional toppings. This is the right thing to do but what if they stop coming? How can the shop owner get them there, get them to come back in the face of competition for their time and interest?
The shop owner needed to take the extra step and capture who they were. Then he could have done a few simple things to create reasons to visit beyond the functional benefits of ice cream, to give them more reason to come on down to the ice cream shop.
What could the shop owner have done?
Ask them to register for a monthly newsletter.
Use the newsletter to ask customers what else they would like to see and to tell them about special events.
Invite them to spend time in the store with special guests, Buffy the Clown for the kids (dad too but I will let IttyBiz explore this), or a magician.
Offer a seating area and provide free internet access to newsletter subscribers.
Introduce new flavors to subscribers at special tasting events.
The list of small things the shop owner could do can goes on. It is only limited by imagination. And it doesn’t need to be expensive. None of the above involves discounts on product. Most ideas require nothing more from the shop owner than a little time.
Find simple things that add value to your customers ice cream shop experience. Give them reasons to go out of their way to visit the shop. In short, make the ice cream shop a destination.
Or they can do what Bob Hoffman says.
Since the Cruse Night accounted for 80% of the business, it obviously had a following that should have cared about what happened. Didn’t anyone appeal to the customers for community support? Although it is a corny, old-fashioned kind of activity, it is one that can be enjoyed easily by the whole family and helps to bond a community together. As the world changes and the pace of life quickens, we become more and more isolated from each other. My thought is that they needed to capitalize on the corniness of it all and go all out to exploit it.
Since moving the cars effected not only the ice cream store but also the other businesses on the street should have really targeted the audience that the “small town” feeling was already attracting and done something to continue to use the area. Post an appeal in the local paper asking to keep street event happening and ask the consumers what they would have liked and if they would be willing to help support the event as a community sponsered activity.
They could have continued to close down the section of the street that was always closed on Tuesday and used it for a city sponsered movie night or a local band night or a farmer’s market, hog or husband calling competition (sorry, no comparrison intented there) or anything that would have still allowed them to use the space. With a farmer’s market, they might have had the possibility of horse drawn hay rides down the street. It might have been a nice contrast of 1 horse vs 200 horses. If an appeal had been made to the community, you might have found a private or commercial sponser who would have donated some kind of transportation between the two venues. Maybe a school bus that is sitting idle during the summer.
Sorry to see that the diversity of your community has been lost and will probably be replaced by a local mall.
Uh … I bought the ebook because I thought I’d learn some cool new ways to use the f-word in a sentence. Don’t get me wrong — the SEO stuff was nice and all …
I got nuttin on the ice cream deal. Except that I’d like to be Flake Girl.
1. While a cart might be too small to make up the business the shop lost, it certainly can provide free samples and coupons to encourage customers to go to the shop even if it’s on another day.
2. If local businesses and the city would support it, arrangements for tents, a la street fair, for those shops who used to get the Tuesday night traffic might be a fair way to compensate for lost business.
3. Aside from Tuesday, creating their own “happenings” might have helped, especially in the summer when people love a good excuse for ice cream. “Buy 2 get one free” Night “or discounts on the “Flavor of the Week,” an ongoing punch card for buy-10-get-a-free-big-one (I used to use one all the time at the local frozen yogurt place.) For events they could have really done it up with balloons and music and tables outdoors. And then advertise the hell out them with hand-outs and coupons at the Tuesday night crowd.
A prize to the best name for a new flavor that gets implemented … paper place mats and crayons to make it more kid-friendly while people hang out there … free stickers … mini-button day … a create-our-new-mascot contest …
So I see the big problem here was that their main business was based on an event someone else controlled… instead of being the event. It limited them to good business one night a week and totally destroyed them when the event moved.
I think they need a two part plan. First they need to work on the long term plan to turn their store from a place to buy ice cream to a DESTINATION. The type of place little kids beg their parents to go to all the time. The type of place older kids race too as soon as they have their allowance. We have an ice cream store in walking distance that does just that. Think old time ice cream / soda shop. Some of the many features they have to add “coolness” include:
- popcorn making cart with popcorn and caramel corn bags for sale
- rows of glass canisters full of overpriced candy that makes little kids drool
- display cases of chocolate (some with kid appeal like chocolate covered oreos and some with adult appeal like truffles.)
- kid high shelves with the most adorable stuffed animals
- an ice cream bar where you can watch all the treats being made while you wait / eat.
- In side and outside seating to encourage people to hang out and chat
I realize on a limited budget not all of this could be added at once but with that vision in mind and some frugal shopping of thrift stores and stuff they could start to build on it. Just a small candy display… a small animal display… then build up in layers over time until it’s a little kids idea of heaven. That way they also wouldn’t be limited to the ice cream months.
The second part deals with the immediate problem of needing business and money NOW. As part of their DESTINATION mind set they need to start having community events that draw people, especially people with kids, into the store. I’m thinking weekly events like:
- Ice Cream story time with books about ice cream (With money for inventory they could sell the books too.)
- Mad Scientist makes ice cream (Make ice cream by pouring liquid hydrogen over the bowl to cool it.)
- Make your own caramel apple
- Make your own chocolate dipped oreos, etc
Some could be free and other could have a small fee for the supplies. All aimed at getting people into the store and noticing the on going coolness/changes. Also, at the events advertise that they can be purchased as on site activities for birthday parties, etc.
To advertise the events get listed in all the local community listings (usually free), contact local mothers groups… they are usually looking for afternoon events for kids, contact the local paper and get a story on revitalizing the area with family events, etc.
Finally if construction is physically blocking people make sure to include in advertising instructions to parking, detours, etc and put up signs directing people to the location. Remove all road blocks, even literal ones.
Kelly,
Uh-oh. You’re not pregnant, are you…?
ROFLOL!!!
No, but I might have to break my engagement to Naomi. She wasn’t getting me pregnant either, so it’s probably just as well.
Tried to de-lurk over at Contrarian today, by the way, because you sounded like you were trying to draw longtime lurkers out with your post. Wrote a lovely comment, telling you that if I had a blogroll, you’d be on it, but I don’t do that kind of politics, so I just read and laugh and admire.
Then the ether ate it. Said you had server problems. Then I tried to redo it, but it didn’t come out quite as lovely because there may have been a tinge of annoyance in losing the first comment, and the second comment wouldn’t even go that far. It just got hung up. Your blog sneered at me.
Struck me as just about what I should have expected, so I gave up. ;)
Bob, someone who returns a book because of swearing is not a fucking asshole. Really, that’s rude. However, its’ quite likely that even Naomi’s brilliant exposition was over his poor head and the swearing was just an excuse.
See, in that case, he would be fucking lame-ass, not asshole.
Any business that operates with a sense of entitlement and no real strategy in the first place deserves to go out of business. A vintage ice cream truck hot rod funny car would’ve kicked serious ass.
Naomi,
I have been thinking about this a lot. Way too much really and not because of the charity gift or the moment of fame on IttyBiz. Here just off the rust belt I see whole blocks go under every month. Is the economy a factor? Of course. But something else is going on and your ice cream shop story illustrates it very well. Your story also illustrates that given the climate there was no way in Houston to save those shops. Why? Here’s my theory:
1) someone mentioned all the eggs were in one basket; as in the whole block not just the ice cream shop counted on the Tuesday deal to resuscitate their ongoing flagging bottom line. Sounds like black Friday in November in the US doesn’t it. And I wholeheartedly agree but that alone did not do in the shops it was a symptom of a bigger problem.
2) someone else mentioned that those shops counted on an event they had no control over. Those business people gave up the opportunity to control their destiny so they could blame someone else for the demise? In a manner of speaking yes. Again, I agree this was an issue but still a symptom of a bigger problem.
3) one of the things I see that has not been mentioned is there was a pandemic of sorts but everybody looked out for their own interests and hunkered down not to win but to avoid losing (forget who coined that)? Now we’re starting to get close to the problem.
4) the death stroke I think leaked out in your editorial remark about the “self important cafe” and its “9 sullen employees.” Employee attitude is a reflection of the owner’s or manager’s, that’s the bottom line. It appears (because I don’t live there or know any of these businesses or their owner/managers) that the block became infiltrated with business heads who a) don’t play well with others and b) preferred being right (broad application) over saving the business district. And likely that was compounded by a measure of seeing/whining about the unfairness of the problem rather than the possibilities. Now we’re getting really hot. (not that kind of hot)
Summary: While there may have been some businesses that survived and interviewing those owner/managers might give insight to how they did it, I don’t think it could have been possible to save the ice cream shop or any of the other shops that went under without a total personality and attitude correction for the entire district. And that’s what I think it would have taken to save the shop and the district.
Kelly:
Thanks for trying. The blog is back and fully operational. Remember, it’s never too late to leave a nice comment.
As far as entertainment value goes, I would have to agree with the super-villain comment.
However, when it comes to actual, viable ideas, here is my contribution.
You mentioned that the new cruise night was too far for kids to walk. And the cruise night was drawing more people than just the cruisers, so there was an audience.
Why not make your own “Cruise Night” for kids? If they can close the street like they once did, or otherwise just use the parking lot of the Ice Cream place, have a weekly “Cruise Night” where kids can bring remote controlled cars, bicycles, big-wheels, etc, and show how they are tricked out, have races, etc.
Plus, if there is a bicycle shop or maybe a hobby shop in town, have them co-sponsor it and help foot the bill for advertising the event.
Give people a reason to come back and hang out, and the cie cream shall flow!
Naomi
How’s this for a simple(?) solution.
Use the cart to sell the ice cream to the construction workers who are a there in abundance offering special (junior!!) deals to the vertically challenged worker who totally confused me by not being a “regular” sized guy working in a hole, especially when he walked away
It’s all about the sex appeal. Throw some half naked women up on the counter and they will…
I couldn’t finish it. My guess is they made a wise choice. If there is no foot traffic by your store, people aren’t going to come running. I wouldn’t want to turn my business into a ice cream cart. You could throw coupons and bring in clowns for the kids, but none of it would probably work.
I would suggest turning the ice cream shop into a coffee shop or if you love ice cream so much then move to a new location where people want to come and hang out.
Sorry to be such a downer, but it’s going to cost money to get people to talk about your ice cream, some crazy flavor that Ben and Jerry haven’t invented or some great band that families want to see every Tuesday. It’s about cutting your losses before you get too deep.
An ice cream cart is a good idea if you have the budget. You are talking refrigeration system, so even a used one probably isn’t cheap. How about hiring some teenagers, or getting that friend or relative that owes you for helping them move last year, to take over coupons (easily made on a home computer and some bright paper) to the parking lot where the Cruise Night is being held. These coupons are good for Tuesday night only and offer a 10-15% discount. Just something to get through construction. One thing I always tell people when it comes to advertising/marketing/PR. Save a good portion of your budget for hard times, that’s when you need it most!
Nick the Petrol Head - Man, that made me laugh. For those of you who don’t know, there is a lot of construction going on around our house. I don’t mean to be mean, but there is one “vertically challenged” individual who I think is actually shorter than my 9 year old step-son. He seems like a very nice guy, but I have to agree with Nick: the first time I saw him I also thought he was a “normal” sized man working in a hole in the ground.
Annie - I’ll fight you to be Flake Girl. It sounds like a fun position and Flake Girl shouldn’t just automatically go to a girl. That would be gender discrimination :)
@Jamie — Naturally, Mr Ice Guy Inc would champion equal opportunities for all. You’ll be pleased to hear that we recently employed a canine “toppings artist” — a labradoodle by the name of Captain Sprinkles.
For the post of Flake Girl, the opportunity would go to whoever looked best in spandex pants. Auditions are on Tuesday.
My guess is you’re in with a chance.
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