Originally posted – May 07, 2012
Those of you familiar with comedian Steven Wright have probably heard his hilarious one-liner about a man who asks a parachutist if he ever finds it frightening to jump out of airplanes – to which the parachutist deadpans: “I’m not afraid of heights, I’m afraid of widths.”
It’s not only a funny one-liner, but it applies nicely to marketing as well. Here’s how…
Most self-service laundry owners utilize what is technically referred to as a vertical marketing model. That is to say that the marketing strategy stays within the specific industry; it starts “at the top”with the laundry owner spending the money and is focused outward and downward, aimed directly at the obvious potential customers (market segments) with the hope of positively influencing their buying behavior and decisions. You, the laundry owner, choose the strategy, have the money, spend the money, and create the advertising copy and the method of distribution. You are in total control. Maybe it works often and maybe it doesn’t. Who knows?
Here is a typical example of a vertical marketing strategy: a laundry owner mails coupons for free washes using geographic criteria and hopes that the recipients will take advantage of the savings and come in to the laundry to use the coupons.
Another example of vertical marketing is running a television or radio commercial with the idea that the viewer or listener will like the TV or radio spots and the laundry, and will begin to patronize the establishment. There are many methods and, if you’ve seen a wash or two being done in your time, you are likely familiar with most of them.
The point is that you, as the business owner, are likely the self-designated sole marketer of your business. You assume that orientation, viewpoint and role logically and, hence, take responsibility for the effectiveness of the advertising programs, because that’s pretty much just how it’s always been done. So, you likely do your advertising in the traditional manner by simply targeting the local residents within a defined radius of your laundry.
But wait. As the infomercials often promise, there’s a better and more cost-efficient way. Like the Wright joke, you are probably not afraid of heights – just widths. Stay “with”me (pun absolutely intended) on this. It’s called horizontal marketing, and it is very broadly defined as when two non-competitive companies (or institutions) offering different products or services jointly market their products or services to common individuals.
It’s been suggested that most marketers instinctually want control. They want to do everything to create the campaign. They spend their time and money spreading the word about how great their product or service is, and the response is completely up to the marketplace. That’s becoming a very costly way to promote a business. Modern technology gives you several additional results-producing alternatives that you simply can’t afford to ignore.
With the horizontal approach, quite simply, you market indirectly to your prospective customers by reaching straight out (horizontally) to those institutions (businesses and others) where your customers go. In other words, market out to those places offering different products or services but sharing a similar clientele with you. It’s the ideal way to create “brand ambassadors”for your self-service laundry business.
For example, you can market to churches that your customers regularly attend or to social gathering spots where they regularly go, including sporting event venues, union halls and on and on. That list can be a long one; and, obviously, the longer the better.
In addition, you can market to your customers’ places of employment. For example, you can contact the human relations department at a local hospital about your pickup and delivery service, which is available to hospital personnel. In general, the folks in H.R. take a benevolent view of their employees, and if your promotions are attractive, they will often suggest or endorse them to their group, or maybe even offer it to their employees as a benefit.
The best way to locate horizontal “targets”is simply to become an amateur optometrist/podiatrist – in other words, watch your customers’ eyes and feet. The more you know about the total behaviors of your customers the more efficient marketer you will become – and, in turn, your marketing expenditures will produce a far better return.
You need to learn what interests your customers (other than the washers and dryers in your laundromat), as well as finding out where they go and what they do when they are not at your store.
A nuance of the horizontal approach is technically referred to as interactive or symbiotic marketing. This is where it gets real interesting. You can take advantage of the direct overlap of interest by a customer in your products and, simultaneously, in the products of others. Credit card companies and airlines do this all the time by offering free travel miles based on credit card purchases that can be redeemed for travel discounts or upgrades on airplane seating.
It’s called cross-endorsement. It can be extremely effective, and here’s how it works: basically, two or more related businesses promote their products or services jointly. This creates a synergistic (but not competitive) affiliation between companies with a similar target market. Like, for example, self-service laundries and local restaurants and local gas stations and local theaters and local food stores and local car washes, etc. Again, the list of possibilities is huge. And that’s a good thing.
Cross-endorsements can be structured in many ways. For instance, laundry owners can hook up with a local restaurant and arrange it so that, if an individual does a certain amount of laundry in their facility, then he or she will receive a discount at that restaurant. In turn, the restaurant might arrange a discount at your laundry if a customer spends a certain amount of money at the restaurant. The possibilities are as many and varied as you are creative. Of course, if you are located in or near a shopping center, some of your retail neighbors very well could be ideal horizontal partners.
The old, limited vertical marketing style traditionally used by most laundry owners is just that – old and limited. Time, technology and marketing techniques march on. Changing your marketing outlook and methods can be slightly uncomfortable at first, but it’s certainly not fatal. In fact, it’s potentially very rewarding.
The best marketing plan can – and should – include both vertical and horizontal approaches, as long as the cost outlay is within the bounds economic sanity.
Here’s a formula for business success: you simply have to stay perceptive in the promotional arena at all times and hungry for knowledge so that you are always in a position to be the beneficiary of marketing innovations as they come along.
Just like typical contest rules often require – “you must be present to win.”
The same holds true for marketing your laundry business.
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