SUMMARY

Client: Every Thing Goes
Business Type: Three Thrift Stores (furniture, clothing, book café)
Location: St. George/Tompkinsville, Staten Island, NY
Assignment: Increase Retail Business
Budget: $2,000. per month

Arrived March 19, 2018, on Staten Island, and me from the (BinkNyc Team) was asked to consult for the three Thrift Store businesses. Assignment, accepted.

I took the remaining days of the month in March to do deep research on STATEN ISLAND, the stores, the local area (micro-market), NYC, New York State, the US (macro-economic) regarding the retail industry, locally and nationally.

How are thrift stores
perceived and why
do people shop them?

The focus was on the three Thrift Stores, which we started immediately because hemorrhaging $65K the first three months of the year, in the 1st Quarter (1Q) is definitely considered —an emergency situation.

We set up two Phases:
Phase 1: we nicknamed: “STOP THE HEMORRHAGING”
Phase 2: was called: “SUPERCHARGE THE BUSINESSES.”

During April (2018) I began feeding incoming market data to the managers who work(ed) at the stores. They listened and made immediate adjustments necessary. These adjustments worked in turning the businesses from, Stop The Hemorrhaging, to profiting again in a month. Yet it was too early for Phase 2.

This Phase 1 effort was measured in the stores’ profit and loss (see 2nd Quarter in their spreadsheet below):

Here are the numbers directly from their quarterly report.

Reading the charts above and MEASURING
the BinkNyc campaign’s performance.
The conclusion is inescapable:

1Q minus -$65K

2Q plus +$31K

[ 3Q will be addressed below ]

The three businesses were on a steep losing streak before. Apparently, the 3rd and 4th Quarter of 2017 (not indicated in the spreadsheet above) was just as bad.  We only received the 1Q 2018 loss. We fixed this $$$ leak ASAP. For this case study, we are only including the 2018 figures.

NOTE: Any pluses, gains or increases in income are attributed to our marketing effort and how the new campaign impacted the stores. Our technology and thorough market research and insight restored the 3 stores in just 90 days.

1Q : minus -$65K

(so, we add in the $65K which we saved them by Stopping The Hemorrhaging reflected in the 2Q numbers)

2Q : ADD the +$31K to NOT LOSING -$65K as was the case in the 1Q 

$31K + 65K = $96K.
Let’s also subtract the $6,000 cost for our fees (@$2,000 per month for 3 months).
We arrive at +$90,000 for the stores in one quarter.

That’s the $90,000 Increase in 90 Days.

🤖 : RESEARCH : : MARKET STRATEGY : : MARKETING PLAN

HOW WE DID IT:

Social Media and Instagram, mostly. 

1. We follow a process called: The Process.
2. The Research guided insight (ETG Research, Market Strategy and Marketing Plan).
3. During April 2018, I strongly recommended the managers shift their perception regarding their customers: “Treat them like humans and NOT like numbers.”
4. Aesthetics: The stores needed to be cleaned up. The merchandise needed to be dusted kept clean and displayed better for retail. The outdoors signs items in the stores and the smell was off-putting and unappealing.
5. And then, I ran their Instagram accounts as a sole method of public engagement and advertising to test the market.
6. We added monthly sales (with the exception of May 2018). May 2018 was the only month they declined doing a 50% off sale and the impact shows.

Instagram Charts and insights will be added here: (coming soon). 

Here are some of the ads we did for the stores:

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I stayed around not having the assurance nor the confidence that the ETG Stores will consistently keep up with the new campaign, factual data, the new design standards, new ads, the professional recommendations through consultation, and follow the facts and figures found in the research. The research, when followed verbatim, guides a clear path to a solid and sound thought process for marketing.

This 3Q problem:
1. The managers are NOT marketers,
2. The managers are still good people.

As suspected, the managers did resort back to their old approach—their comfort zone. This meant marketing the stores with logical, informational ad campaigns. Using older marketing tactics, tips, and tricks, and producing flyers and posters rather than using Instagram more frequently and effectively. The resorted to the same tactics that hadn’t worked before we arrived.

The -$26K loss in the 3Q certainly strongly suggests this fact.

The Process

Research: Study revealed: Amazon is killing retail. The St. George area is changing.
Planning: Lower the prices on the used and donated items. They were WAY TOO HIGH.
Creation: Create Word-of-Mouth and partnering with other Staten Island businesses through an IG campaign for the Spring of 2018.
Application: Keep Creative to the lowest cost possible. Thrift stores are cheap so cheap looking ads are advantageous. Used Instagram for advertising instead of traditional ads.
Measure: Return to the client at the end of the 3rd Quarter to see how everything is developing.

The numbers never lie. 

.

Research:

Our research study showed that while Amazon has made epic leaps in 2018, the retail industry in NY is either dead or dying… 

HOW AntiMarketing works

ANTIMARKETING is DISRUPTION. Disruption is how businesses stand out among the competition. The methods we use are a radical approach that shows measurable increases to any business when the right techniques are applied.

Usually, the client’s spirit, aesthetic and persona can and should be used to their advantage without changing too much of the day to day business operations. Small business owners are fiercely independent so we handle this, with all due respect.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

🤒 : Call
🤖 : (718) 578-6613
👹 : E-MAil
😍 : BinkNyc@gmail.com