Election time is filled with excitement centering around the promises of change and of better futures. What an opportunity to have a fun little promotion that is election themed and brings some excitement to our customers as well.
“Vote for Mr. Subb as your Subb Shop”.
Plus you get entered to win some fabulous prizes.
Politicians every term must face their constituents and re-apply for their position. New contenders are always out there with bigger and better promises and the voters have to decide which will provide the best service to them and their community. It all comes down to a vote on Election Day.
With some seriousness, Businesses do this too. Voting is not done at a polling place but by customers spending their hard earned dollars. Voting is done daily. Some new contenders come onto the market and some businesses find themselves voted out of their position. This promotion was meant not only to give some excitement to our customers but to remind everyone at Mr. Subb that we must seek the votes (sales) of our customers. We campaign (market) to our customers with campaign promises (marketing positions) and we must stand on our record (past performances) in delivering those campaign promises.
The promotion was simple. Place some yard signs among the politician signs asking our customers for votes, Include Webpage, Facebook, Twitter, In-Store POS and Email support telling our customers our campaign promises and having people vote online. The vote would have a brief survey that could help us determine what things customers liked and what we could do better.
Things started out great and signs were placed. I noticed some signs started disappearing. They were replaced. Was this a zoning issue? A competitor? Some kids wanting a souvenir? Part of campaigning I suppose but surprising. Mr. Subb has used these types of lawn signs before without having ANY disappear.
One of the signs was in Newton Plaza in Latham. We have a location in the plaza and the plaza never contacted us about any reason they would have removed it. We replaced it.
The night we replaced the sign, it disappeared again but this time there was a witness to the crime. I got a text from a friend who works at Computer Renaissance in the plaza.
“Hey just leaving the store and a guy pulled up and took the Mr Subb sign(voting one) that was by the plaza sign and put it in his trunk. My mom told me when I got in the car. Not sure if this means anything, Just wanted you to know”
I asked for a description and he responded;
“All she said was a dark car, white guy, looked like a white dress shirt. He opened trunk right when he got out of the car and out it in the trunk then left”
Well…
I’ve dealt with town zoning officers and they don’t work at 9pm at night. Plus in most cases they tell you about the sign and warn you that if you put it up again you’ll be fined. I don’t think this was any town official.
We have had to deal with kids too. The description doesn’t sound like it was a kid.
Makes me believe that we are dealing with our competition running a dirty campaign. Makes me wonder about their campaign promises. If they can steal I am sure that they can lie too.
Only two weeks into this “fun” campaign we have found that 40% of these campaign signs have been stolen. Some of these were placed directly in front of our stores.
Dirty Politics for sure.
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