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Postcards Help Brand East Stroudsburg Store
04/03/09
Roger DeLarco, director, The University Store, East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA, is well aware the reputations of college bookstores across the nation have taken a beating over the cost of textbooks. A stroll through his local mall a few years back helped him come up with a plan to combat that.
A trip into an Abercrombie & Fitch store got DeLarco, the East representative on the NACS Board of Trustees, thinking about better ways to brand his store. That led to a postcard direct-marketing program that has students lining up to help, and a 20% increase in clothing sales.
"I was looking for another way to brand the store because students have that, for want of a better term, negative attitude about the stores based on being forced to buy textbooks," DeLarco said following his CAMEX 2009 educational session, Selling Fashion in Your College Store in Anaheim, CA. "I was trying to dispel that and saw Abercrombie. They were not selling product. They were creating an image.
"At the same time, I started noticing a lot of places using postcards as advertising, so I kind of combined the two efforts."
DeLarco went back to his store and developed a program that was able to make the store appear cool and trendy, counteracted those negative feelings he was seeing in his customers, and promoted other store departments all at the same time. The trip to the local A&F provided the look, while the postcards got to the word out and created a buzz around campus.
"The program is successful," DeLarco said. "People come into the store and the proof is the apparel we've been able to sell to them. My goal is to have an increase every year."
The store sets marketing themes for the entire year, with most of the postcards featuring ESU students as models. The yearlong campaign includes eight cards for apparel, two for buyback, and one each for faculty, convenience store items, supplies, the customer loyalty program, and alumni. There is also a complementary marketing campaign using point-of-purchase displays, five-foot in-store banners, e-mail blasts, the store's web site catalog, and television and print advertising.
Once the marketing themes have been planned, the store begins the model search with a one-day photo session scheduled for July. The store hires a professional photographer, along with hair and makeup stylists.
"The whole model search is a cool thing," DeLarco said. "We have close to 50 students who usually want to model. I like to think that's a reflection on the program because if it wasn't good, we wouldn't have 50 kids who want to do it."
Using students to model clothing for store advertisements is not necessarily a new idea, but the ESU postcard has produced something of a collectors' market for the students, their friends, and families. It also provides a way for DeLarco to brand his store at a relatively low cost and to track the campaign's progress as students bring in the cards to inquire about merchandise.
"There's a lot of positive PR from the model search and peer appeal in collecting the cards," he said. "Our clothing sales have been up over 20 percent since we started the postcards. And I get some good responses from tracking the cards."
The cost of the latest ESU marketing campaign for 15 postcard layouts, eight banner layouts, eight print advertising designs, and eight point-of-purchase displays came to $9,915.03. The amount for printing 35,250 cards was actually less than a penny apiece at $3,165.03. There is also $800 for the gift cards given to the models who participate. The total cost of the campaign doesn't include the $3,000 ESU will receive in co-op advertising funds.
DeLarco uses a minimum of broadcast and print advertising, and depends on the campus mail system to deliver the majority of the postcards. He uses the United States Postal Service to mail postcards to alumni.
"The cost may seem like a large number, but it's probably well below most stores' advertising," DeLarco said. "And this is our entire advertising budget."
DeLarco has also learned a few lessons along the way, such as that the campaign requires plenty of advance planning. The ESU model selection is done in April, and all the orders for clothing must be in place before the photo shoot. The shoot is scheduled for July so the program can be up and running for the start of school at ESU, which began the 2008-09 school year last Aug. 31.
Once the models have been selected, release forms must be signed and special requirements for athletes under NCAA rules must be followed. In addition, all the logistics of a photo shoot, including designer, photographer, hair and makeup artists, locations and back-updates, need to be reserved and in place.
Another lesson DeLarco has learned is there's a lifespan to every ad campaign.
"The traffic flow increased with the sales of general merchandise," he said. "The campaign improved the attitude of our customers, but the business model is always changing.
"Instead of giving up on the postcards, we're shifting it to more e-mails and web sites."
—Dan Angelo
Sound Off!
name (mail) 3/15/2010 5:53:22 PM
Edwin Santiago (esantiago@csupomona.edu) 4/3/2009 1:42:02 PM
We did that campaign- "I AM A BRONCO" campaign 3 years ago and it was a success on campus as well.
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