First off, we've gotten a very nice response from the PR firm press releases we sent out. 15 different magazines, news stations and newspapers across the country are interested in seeing samples.
Now, let me put this into a bit of perspective, because I think it's important.
The release we sent out, we were told to expect about .5 to 1% response. We got less than that.
BUT. Prior to our sending out the release, we had ZERO exposure to these venues. So, we're all very excited.
Getting the Soapier brand out is what's important. We have another release going out in two weeks... we feel things are moving in a great direction.
I also wanted to post some images of our store, so people can check out what we're trying to accomplish here in Tarpon Springs.
You can kind of get an idea of what the store looked like a few months ago, here. It was good for our soft opening, but it wasn't enough. Here are some more shots.
We had the back wall orange, the side walls a kind of light orange. Couple months later, my mom wasn't too pleased with the colors, she said they weren't inviting enough.
The right side of the shop, the shelves, while inventive, weren't economic enough when showing product. The left side, the stained wood shelves, we all liked those. We liked the height of them for customers, and how clean they looked.
So, we changed the paint, changed the center display, added some great signs, changed the back wall display and the right side displays to this:
If you look at this picture, the top right, you'll see that empty shelf on the top. I put some more product out, so that they were straight, and shot this.
Looks better, right? Isn't that crazy?
Here's the outside of our shop:
We're kind of tucked away in the corner, but we get some very decent traffic during the season.
This is just a little display sign outside we use to get people to come in. It's two sided. The other side says "SOAPIER - SALE"
Redesigning the store window is next. Right now it's kind of functional, but plain.
We recently hired someone to work Monday - Thursday at the store, to free up my time so I can help at the shop, which needs cleaning and organizing. Then I'll start to work on more PR, the website, our fledgling myspace page and more.
Thanks for visiting, let me know what you think of the new shop!
John
2 comments:
Your shop looks so great! I could spend hours in there looking around, and I would certainly get the hand spa treatment!
Congrats on the shop makeover and the PR - sounds like you'll be getting very busy! :)
You were so right about the colors! It looks much softer and more inviting now. I have a soap/bath store too, and have recently changed the color from a deep red to a light lilac. The customers love it and the store looks much bigger. And with the new open shelves you've made the products more visible. Looks great!
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