Thursday, October 9, 2008

Broaden Your Marketing Reach: Use Bumper Stickers

By Buck Thompson

Do you know about bumper stickers? It is actually a marketing tool that is easy as well as inexpensive. It is a perfect choice for you if you have target customers at a location, or your customer belongs to a particular category (like moms in the range 25-35). All it costs is about 25 cents per sticker but it gives you a huge amount of profit. Lets discuss it in more details.

First we must know what bumper stickers are. Bumper stickers are adhesive labels or stickers which have a message printed on them. You are supposed to stick it on the bumper of an automobile so that people sitting in other vehicles can read it ? some people do stick it on other objects too.

These stickers attract attention when people go to the parking lot, or when they are following another vehicle and even when they are on road and your car crosses them. They spread your word and create a 'touch point' with all these people and the best part is that you yourself don't even need to be there!

There are no set rules about how to get the stickers made. Get them made, as you like. But care should be taken to decide its size. A very small sticker will not get noticed easily and for a very large one, you will not find anyone willing to put it on his or her vehicle. Just remember these two points and the rest is all flexible.

However, in that flexibility lie pitfalls as well. If you design a bumper sticker with just your logo, with too much text or oversell your product, it may not have the desired impact. For it to generate sales for you, it has to connect with your audience. It must help them in someway, have some humor or connect with their ideas, or better still, help THEM express themselves.

Think about how your customers can feel that THEY are expressing themselves by putting YOUR sticker on their bumper. The more innovative you can get, the better it is. Your customers will consume your bumper stickers and viral goes your marketing message.

Bumper stickers can have some tips (maintenance of furniture, if you have a furniture store), or any other marketing message on it. Be trendy and imaginative! For example, make stickers to support any sports group or various sports groups or even for each of the rival sports group. You can use the same principle for politics too (like a presidential elections) but of course it is very risky.

You can follow some other rules to make your sticker more viral. Making it 'scarce', or making it a status symbol are some examples. People would love to have it then and would feel proud in showing it off. When other people notice it, even they would want it. Don't you think that's cool!

Be careful in using bumper sticker. Use it smartly and with responsibility. It will surely bring you lots of customers and plenty of profits. - 15359

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