With its promotion for The RoomPlace furniture stores in Illinois and Indiana-including its Morton Grove location--Robust Promotions is taking an inside-out approach to tackle an emerging marketing challenge.
The Villa Park-based company has created a campaign that will get The RoomPlace’s in-store customers to connect with it in the social media realm. At the same time, the initiative prods the furniture retailer’s Facebook fans to log off their laptops and go inside the store.
Along the way, The RoomPlace is eager to collect more detailed customer information that will help the company forge stronger and more relevant connections with its clientele.
Find out what's happening in Niles-Morton Grovefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Beginning on Tuesday, July 12, and through the close of business on Monday, July 18, everyone who visits The RoomPlace furniture stores will receive an instantly redeemable scratch-and-win card. The RoomPlace has 22 stores in all, including 17 in Chicagoland.
Two lucky individuals will win $1,500 worth of furniture redeemable immediately in-store during the promotional period. Every other card throughout the weeklong promotion is a winner, too, with immediate discounts from $50 to $300 taken off any purchase of $1,000 or more.
Find out what's happening in Niles-Morton Grovefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
And that’s only the start: another portion of the card directs customers to a customized “Second Chance Sweepstakes” website, where they will have another chance to win $1,500 worth of furniture by entering a special 16-digit pin code found on their game piece. From the pool of all who register on that site, one guaranteed winner will be selected at the conclusion of the week.
Customers that register online will be invited to share the offer with their friends through Facebook and Twitter. Their messages will invite others to visit the store during the promotional period for a chance to win as well.
After the promotion, Robust Promotions will parse all online entries by store location and present the database to The RoomPlace for future marketing campaigns. Robust Promotions will also perform a campaign analysis that reveals each store’s ranking and measures the ROI of the promotion based on the various prize discount levels.
“This promotion delivers a one-two punch, inside the store and online, that accelerates and multiplies the impact of The RoomPlace’s social media marketing efforts,” said Greg Seei, Robust Promotions CEO. “On one half of the card, they reach 100 percent of their customer base, and increase frequency and loyalty, by offering an immediate reward to drive in-store sales. The card’s other side spurs on Peer Marketing with “likes” and “shares,” plus it captures all the relevant customer data of online participants.”
Brian Wiborg, The RoomPlace’s Vice President of Marketing, has prior experience using in-store scratch-and-win promotions and wanted to expand its reach this time around.
“We want it to live beyond the store, use the campaign as a way to build our database of customers so we can continue marketing to them,” Wiborg said. “With furniture, we always have new things to talk about and we want to make sure that we can continually build a stronger database.”
Given enough incentive, customers are much more willing to share their contact information, and even other marketing-rich details such as their birthday, said Leslie Allison-Seei, Robust Promotions Partner.
“Companies might have thousands of fans, even tens of thousands or more, but it’s difficult to know who those people are,” Allison-Seei said. “With a Peer Marketing Promotion, as long as the offer is strong and there is a sense of urgency, people are more willing to surrender that information than if you just say, `Join our e-club.’”
The campaign, dubbed the “Scratch & Win $1,500 of Free Furniture” Instant Win Promotion, will be bolstered by radio and television commercials.
In Robust Promotions, said Wiborg, “we have a partner that’s been there and done that.”
“Robust Promotions has already worked out the kinks in terms of what to offer and covering all the legal requirements. There are so many different nuances with gaming and sweepstakes,” he continued. “We were looking for a partner who could take the process from idea to realization as quickly as possible.”
Seei is confident the promotion is “the start of something big.”
“It’s more powerful because of that element of chance,” he said. “Everybody likes to play and everybody likes to win.”
*******
To experience the wonderful selection of stylishly completed rooms, visit any one of the 22 RoomPlace furniture stores throughout the greater Chicagoland area and Rockford, Illinois as well as Indianapolis, Mishawaka and Merrillville, Indiana. Online: http://www.theroomplace.com and http://www.facebook.com/theroomplace.
Based in Villa Park, Robust Promotions was founded in 2006 after 18 months of collaboration between leading experts in all areas vital to the development, execution and implementation of promotional gaming and incentive marketing programs for small to large businesses.
Clients include Applebee’s,T.G.I. Fridays, Wendy’s Hamburgers, The Häagen-Dazs Shoppe Co, TA TravelCenters of America, The Tan Company and Troon Golf. Online: www.robustpromotions.com and www.facebook.com/robustpromotions.
