Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
I got a call from a local radio station that wants us to do some spots for high school football games that they broadcast. If their broadcasts work out they will expand to basketball and so on.
They actually found us through an ad in a program book for one of the schools that we did last year.
Now, our products are mostly touch/feel/sell, not something that we can really convey over the air without pictures. We have been offered a location at the games with the radio station.
I think it would give us good exposure and the price is partly/fully in trade. We supply banners, shirts, hats, promo items in return for the radio spots and a place at the games.
Thoughts on the value of this? How much would you pay (in trade or dollars)?
I have heard radio doesn't work well. I know a couple printers back in the day that would trade shirts for radio spots and they never saw a return and the trade was better for the radio.
I had a trade deal with a radio (actually a 4 radio group).I would not have gone for it but the way a purchase was structured, it did not cost me BUT the results were -nada-zip-zilch-nothing!... I don't think what we do can be sold effectively on radio...I am sure someone, somewhere might have had a different experience. This was just me in one medium sized market
I have done radio and for printed garments or embroidered it never worked. TV also never worked. But I now handle Nascar products and the ads do work for that and then I get a spin of to my garments. I won't advertize printed garments any more.
While the radio ads might not be worth it. The spot at the games might be able to bring in some business.
I would also use the fact that the radio ads have generally not proven to be effective for your business as a negotiating chip. You may be able to get more on their end (like they use you for all of their printing needs)
Sorry to say, binki, I see it as a bad deal all the way around. As already mentioned, radio is not a good medium to sell tees, and if high school football is anything in your area like it is around here, people will not be interested in t-shirts while "life and death" is being played out on the football field (unless the tees are the school's colors of course.)
As radio is not a visual medium, all it can be used for here is raising brand awareness or promoting a specific offer. I struggle to recal hearing radio ads for any clothing company, even the large ones, so I guess this isn't quite suited for our needs. There are much better ways to spend your marketing budget.
Ya its not good for garments. I've tried something different and it worked pretty good. I took 50 shirts and put one of my prints on the front and my add print on the back the add print said when buying this shirt tell us how you found out about us and recieve 10% off the shirt. Then gave these shirts to people that go to all kinds of events and gave them b-card that they put their name on the back and for evey card turned in with thier name on it they got $1. It cost me money but only when I made money.
Ya its not good for garments. I've tried something different and it worked pretty good. I took 50 shirts and put one of my prints on the front and my add print on the back the add print said when buying this shirt tell us how you found out about us and recieve 10% off the shirt. Then gave these shirts to people that go to all kinds of events and gave them b-card that they put their name on the back and for evey card turned in with thier name on it they got $1. It cost me money but only when I made money.
kind of along the same lines....a jean store back home only did radio spots during the local hockey games. If you brought in your ticket stub you received the dollar amount off equal to the # goals scored. It brought me in....and all my uncles saving their stubs for my friends. So maybe if you can team it up with something like that, maybe a percentage off equal the the goals scored? It might bring you some nice new business. .......if I remember correctly they also had it announced during the game to keep your stubs, and explained why.
Other than that, I havent heard good feedback on radio. Think about it....which commercials do you remember? The irritating/obnoxious ones right? I have no desire to be obnoxious to gain business. Others are different tho. Obviously, because that kind of thing seems to work.
I really liked the idea of putting the add on the back of the shirts. I plan on doing that myself when we sponser DJs. Give them two sets of shirts. 1 set for thier personal use and the other for when they are hired to spin for the club.
We are negotiating appearances at events that the radio station is at so we can show off our product. This is what we feel will sell rather than trying to describe our product over the air.
Thanks for everyones opinions, we had the same feeling.
Well, we are going to go with this. We are doing 9 HS football games. We will have a booth next to the radio station van in the lot, get 2 radio spots per game, get an announcement on the PA system, get a location on the radio station van, get a link from their web site. The nine games includes the 4 playoff games including the finals.
In return we will give $XXXX +tax in retail in merchandise to the station plus give a prize at each game (one of our products).
We will be showcasing the photo balls that we do (Ballstars) as well as photo mugs and other such items.
Our primary objective is to get interest from the boosters for each school and get some type of deal going with them for sports keepsakes. The end game is to get all of the promotional and decorated garment business including uniforms, banners, etc.
Our primary objective is to get interest from the boosters for each school and get some type of deal going with them for sports keepsakes. The end game is to get all of the promotional and decorated garment business including uniforms, banners, etc.
Local Radio Spots? 
