September 2009. A busy month for us as retail store owners. With our stores in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Michigan, we have been working like industrious little honey bees readying for winter.

In Battle Creek we have been revamping our online sales. This includes us getting our merchandise segregated by what sites it is listed on. (We don’t sell something we don’t actually have in stock.) With over 20,000 items listed on our various sites (including our own sales sites, eBay, and Amazon) we have to keep things straight. We also have brought on a new person to pull and pack orders – and training them has been a full time undertaking.

In Kalamazoo with the start of fall classes at Western Michigan University, we have had to really stay on track. We had Bronco-Bash to attend – the university orchestrated “meet your community” event for college freshmen (and others) where nearly 200 local vendors set up booths and introduced themselves to the local students. We also have had back to back home football games at WMU (Both Wins, go Broncos!) and all that this entails – extra security, people handing out our flyers, extra staff to handle the influx of customers, and more.

All of which combined to make my column for September 2009, more likely to see the light of day in October. I promise to try to write an additional column in October, before my November column is due.

I wanted to talk a bit this month about guerrilla marketing. That thing a small business owner does when money is tight, the advertising budget is eaten up by repairs to the building, and the need to reach new customers is never more important.

Guerilla 101

I began my guerilla marketing career in 1986 with my first store, First Empire Games, in Anchorage, Alaska. One of my key ideas here was to take my business cards to a competitors store, and insert them into RPG books on his shelf. Two weeks later I went back there – and got physically thrown out of the store. The store in question is Bosco’s in Anchorage. And they were a lot more polite to me back then than I would be to some (equally stupid) soul who tried that crap in my store. Bosco’s, if you ever read this, sorry dudes. I was a serious dumbass (and maybe still am, but not in that regard).

After being humiliated at their store, I obviously never went back. But, I did continue to own game stores, hobby stores and such for the next 23 years.

Guerilla 201

Okay, so being a dick is not the best way to make new customers (or friends) so now we do some things differently. Here, in no particular order, is what we do:

Sidewalk Sales: We started doing sidewalk sales a couple years ago, and had such success at it that we literally do them every Saturday all summer, unless it rains. I have specific part time help just for these events. We even buy merchandise specifically to sell in our sidewalk sales. Generally, we put out 2 or 3 folding tables, with drop cloths on them, and cover them with a little of everything from RPG books to Music CDs, from DVD movies to Board games – and all sorts of other merchandise – everything for $2 or less, per item. This brings in a lot of new customers every weekend we do it. We also make money at it, and have fun.

Sign Waving: A few times each year I have someone out on the corner waving a sign at traffic. Usually Free Comic Book Day, Free RPG Day, our semi-annual Free Hot Dog Day – maybe a total of 4 to 6 times a year at most. Since we don’t do it all the time, it does have a good response, and people do come in and check out the store.

Windshield Flyers: Don’t you hate to walk up to your car and see a windshield flyer? I do. But, we still put them on people’s cars. But, generally, we also offer a free soda or candy bar if you bring the flyer in within a week (no purchase necessary). This brings in new customers for a variety of reasons. First, because we always offer 4 coupons on the flyer – usually for things like Buy a DVD, get one free – or $3 off a board game. But, also because we talk about what we buy in our flyers. Since we deal in DVDs, CDs, Video Games – we are always buying, which is something good to advertise.

Magazine Drops: That’s what we call it when we take some magazines (Diamond Preview, GAME TRADE, White Dwarf) or comics and put our stickers on them, then leave them in doctor’s offices, dentists offices, laundry-mats and Cafés. We use new promotional magazines, and older comics for this purpose, which people mention as how they heard of us all the time.

Business Cards: I realize this should be obvious, but just carrying business cards and leaving them whenever possible works really well. I put them on bulletin boards, leave them with the tip after dinner, etc.

Promotional Flyers: We do these all the time, too. A flyer that has a small tear-off coupon at the bottom, with a 10% off offer, and our address. The body of the flyer usually talks about what we are buying, and what new arrivals just came in – and has a paragraph about what we are selling (every category). We put these up at grocery stores, laundry mats and anywhere with a bulletin board.

Event Flyers: Designed for colleges, bus stops and anywhere people congregate – the promotional flyer usually promotes 1 or 2 specific events, such as board game night, a video game tournament, or our Warhammer league. We put them up on campus, at bus stops, and where allowed – above urinals in bars. (crude, but effective).

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I am looking for ideas for an extra column this month, if you have suggestions please email me directly at:

Titan Games Ebay 4 u at aol dot com (no spaces)

See you at the game table!
Marcus King
owner
Titan Games & Music
1504 West Michigan - Kalamazoo, MI 49006
637 Capital Ave SW - Battle Creek, MI 49015

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