Okay, you’ve got this wonderful idea for a retail store, and your first question is: “How do I make money?” You’ve spent hours agonizing over the best type of store for your community. You feel you’ve done everything right, even to the point of visiting similar stores in nearby towns. You’ve listened to the real estate gurus and worked on their three rules of success—location, location, and location; and you feel you’ve picked out the best location in town to get noticed … within your budget, of course. You’ve been told the signage will cost more than six times what you budgeted, but you want people to notice your store, so you’re considering the best. You know the merchandise you’ve selected is just what is needed in the area, and now you wonder “What next? What have I left out?”

I know you've spent a great deal of time and money planning your new business, probably at least half of it in selecting a location where you believe your future customers will see your store and it’s fantastic signage and hopefully shop; another half in identifying quality merchandise to stock your store, and you’re saving the other half to get your store noticed. (Yea, I know, that’s three halves, but that’s life!) Now that all this is under way, it's time to plan the actual start. So you look around and ask yourself the really tough question, "What can do to distinguish myself from all the others in my business and have customers come to me instead of them?"

GRAND OPENING VS. IMAGE
The traditional approach is to have a ‘Grand Opening’ where you cut your profits to zero in order to send a message to people that you are less expensive, faster, better, and more compassionate than your competition. Another traditional move is to use radio, TV, and newspaper ads to get the public to notice that you are an addition to the community and they should come by and see for themselves. These expensive ideas will certainly get your store noticed; but I suggest there’s another task yet undone. I call it the ‘Image Campaign’.

An Image Campaign is a process designed to send a high-intensity message directly to the group of people you wish to have as customers. Selecting store fixtures, signage, and store ambiance are probably of equal importance with your advertising program. Very few retail businesses can survive on one-shot customers, most depend on repeat business for success, so your task is not so much getting them to visit you once, it’s getting them to come back! An Image Campaign is the best way of accomplishing this task. Here are some tips you might use in setting your store image. You can use these ideas whether your store has been in existence for years or is just starting business next week.

DEFINE YOUR IMAGE
Begin by actually sitting down with knowledgeable people and selecting an image for your store. As in so many other tasks, a Focus Group is one of the best methods of accomplishing this. The task is to identify and answer questions such as, "What image do I want to convey to my customers when they walk into my store?" "Why will they think my store is different?" "What feelings do I want to invoke when present and future customers hear my store name?" "What's unique about my store, my service, my product, my method of presenting the product? “How will customers judge staff, attitude, and attention?" (Note: Send $4.95 to Paul Tulenko at 2320 LaVista Court NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120 for a micro-book on how to set-up and use a Focus Group.)

BUILD A PLAN
Using answers to the above questions (still using the Focus Group approach), select the store fixtures, carpets, wall decor, displays, signs, and other items that will enhance or reinforce the image you wish to project. Make decisions on how to train your new staff so they also project these desired images. Plan all of your advertising around your image, and make sure all of your ad copy reflects this image. Use target-marketing techniques to get your message to the customer group who will shop at your store, and then make sure the message they get while shopping reinforces your image.

REINFORCE YOUR PLAN
Never assume you know what your customers are thinking. You will be wrong most of the time! Let your customers know what it is you are trying to do by enlisting them in the task of establishing an image. Use micro-surveys and similar programs. If your customer is confused about your image, they will not take the time to understand it, they'll just shop elsewhere. Hand out pre-stamped reply postcards with every purchase telling your customer what it is you are trying to do, and then asking them how you're doing and how you can improve. This does two things, it helps you in establishing and maintaining an image, and it gives you a name for direct mail advertising purposes.

Will all this work? Is this truly the best way to get started? Is this all you have to do? Of course the answer is, “No”, but it’s a start, and it’s certainly better than hanging out a sign saying, “We’re the same as everyone else, we sell the same stuff, our clerks are as arrogant as others; but we want you to shop here anyway because we need to make some money.”

(NOTE TO EDITORS: PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING.) Paul Tulenko is a Small Business Success Consultant based in New Mexico. Additional tips and suggestions are available at www.tulenko.com or call (toll-free) 1-866-TULENKO.