ShopperLocal Review #1

We have been in the restaurant business for more than 20 years now.  Being the marketing graduate of the family, I am in charge of putting our name out there.  Things have changed a lot since the 80s and 90s.  I remember writing jingles with my dad that would later on be played in the local community radio station.  Everything used to move at a slower pace and looking back, I would’ve done a lot of things differently.

After seeing a couple of episodes of Extreme Couponing, I immediately regretted not getting in the game early.  It looks like the whole nation has caught on and left an old business like ours in the past. 

After some time researching, I’ve found ShopperLocal – a company that sells advertising space on the back of grocery receipts.  Being a skeptic, I checked out our local Harris Teeter’s and browsed through the coupons.  After looking at them closely, I found almost all of the community’s more successful family businesses in the roster.  This was enough testimony to indicate that coupons are indeed a viable advertising option.

So I got in touch with a sales rep and crossed my fingers as I signed up for 6 months.  This was their minimum and I thought that their explanation made a lot of sense – it takes at least 12 weeks to get  a response and once you start getting some, you need some sort of continuity to enjoy the maximum effect. 

At about my 5^th month, I was ready to pull the plug after getting just a couple back.  Surprisingly, the last 4 weeks after that month did well.  I have seen both my new customers and old patrons redeem the coupons that were distributed in our local supermarket.  Now, I am at the stage where I am comfortable playing with my offers and just having our name out there.

Sophia Wright