Some advise on promoting an event please.

[tammyc]

I am thinking about having a candle show. I live out in the boonies so I don't think an open house will work for me. I really don't want to rent hall because the cost. I was thinking about approaching a local business (probably a hair salon) and asking if I could set up a display for a day or a weekend. I would pay for all advertising for the event. The business would get the benefit of the advertising as well as a set amount of free candle product. I plan to start doing parties and I thought this might be a great way to get the ball rolling. I need some advise on a few things.

1) What would be fair to offer the business I approach?

2) Besides newpaper and local radio, can you think of any other promotional ideas? I am looking for a real creative idea; something that screams, come to this event.

3) My plan is to have a lot of cash and carry small items as well as a display only area of my novelty and larger pillars. I will have plenty of order forms and catalogs available for sales of these items. Does this sound like a good plan?

Any and all advise on this plan would be appreciated!!

Thanks,

Tammy

[sockmonkey]

You might be offering more than you need to in order to get your stuff in a salon (or wherever).

I would approach them with the idea of splitting the cost of advertising, and give them a 20% cut of your sales. That sounds like a fair deal to me. I would try to have the salon create a real "event" for their shop--they will need to do something regarding their services to generate increased traffic to their store, simply saying they will be selling candles for the weekend probably isn't going to be the ticket to do that (at least not the first time anyway).

You could use the help of the stylists in getting customers to buy your candles by having a contest. Maybe you could have the stylists fill out tickets with their names and the date of the event on them and and have them distribute the tickets to their clients in advance of the event. Clients could then redeem the tickets for a certain dollar amount off of candle purchases, or maybe just deposit it during the event for the chance to win a candle gift set. Then, review all of the tickets deposited and the stylist with the most tickets that were turned in would win a free candle, or maybe you give every stylist a free candle who had clients use their tickets.

It's a really good idea to generate as much pre-publicity for the event as you can, and with the ticket idea working 1 month to 2 weeks in advance, you are targeting people you KNOW already go there and are likely to return, vs. 10,000 strangers seeing an ad in the newspaper.

You might even be able to work out a deal with the salon and ask them if you could offer salon coupons to anyone who makes a purchase from you. That sort of creates a cycle--give a $5 off haircut coupon that expires in 6 weeks (a normal time in between haircuts), then you have another show there in 6 weeks. In the meantime, the stylists continue giving out the tickets.

As far as creating a real event, that would need to be worked out with the shop owner. Would they be willing to hold a 24-hour cut-a-thon and donate some of that money to a needy cause? That type of thing generates a lot of media attention. If they're in there late at night, what better time to be burning your candles in the window?

I would be careful about the outlay of cash for advertising, because frankly, the one who stands to make the most money is the salon.