Tom Ungrodt provides a detailed break down on what small retailers can expect to expend in marketing and how Ideation's services fit into this budget. A significant challenge small gift retailers face is in attracting customers outside of the major holidays. The PowerPass loyalty card is aimed at keeping those customers coming back throughout the year. Jay Upell ends the discussion by outlining his goal to double the number of retailers using PowerPass in the next 12 months.
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This is our final podcast in our series on Ideation's new PowerPass loyalty card. In this podcast (download iPod compatible, 47MB), Tom Ungrodt and I begin by discussing the economics of print advertising and loyalty cards for the small gift shop operators who are Ideation's customers. Then Jay Upell and I discuss where he would like to see Ideation's PowerPass loyalty card in a year and how he views the competition.
Tom's discussion of small gift retailer economics and advertising is quite informative. Here are the highlights:
- For gift shops, there are two major holidays per year large enough to support mailing Ideation's catalog, Christmas and Mother's day.
- The minimum catalog printing is $6300 for 10,000 catalogs plus approximately another $2000 for mailing them.
- Ideation's average customer does under $1M per year in revenues, suggesting an advertising budget of $35–$50K. Two catalog mailings eat up half this budget.
- Retailers wanting to get year round impact for their advertising budget might see loyalty cards as an option that keeps customers returning.