Question

Topic: Strategy

Store Front Vs Advertising By A Court House Exit.

Posted by anthonymvtv on 3/29/2017 at 1:15 PM ET 500 Points
I am opening a discount mattress store and I am trying to decide where to put the store based on drive by traffic.


1) Retail location #1 will be on a main street in a small to medium town. The location has a reported 15,000 cars that pass the location daily.

2) location #2 will be directly across from the exit of a county courthouse (as you drive out of the courthouse, you will looking directly at the retail store before turning left or right in order to leave the courthouse). The courthouse is new and is not opening until May of this year (2017). The county it serves has a population of 186,000 and serves 27 cities. The court is closed on the weekend.


My question is what location will be better for drive by advertising? Both locations will have traffic but location #2 is literally in the line of sight when people are leaving the courthouse. Location #1 is a storefront that you will see if you look towards the store as you are driving but there 15,000 cars that drive by each day...

Thank you for your help.


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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/29/2017 at 1:25 PM Moderator
    What percentage of the population ever leaves the courthouse? Just based on the information you provided, I'd go with Location #1. Understand, though, that there are a number of factors to consider when selecting a location, and drive-by traffic is only one of them. Why are you limiting your criterion to just one factor? ("... I am trying to decide where to put the store based on drive by traffic.")
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/29/2017 at 5:13 PM Member
    Depending on the type of mattress you sell and your competition, both or neither of these locations may serve you well. It depends on the type of customer you're hoping to attract and how they determine where to purchase a mattress. It also depends on your signage, lighting, and how busy the roads are when people are driving.
  • Posted by anthonymvtv on 3/29/2017 at 5:52 PM Author
    In response to the first answer. 100% of the people going to the courthouse will be leaving the courthouse. There is only one way out.
    I am not basing it on one factor, but if every other factor was equal, what location would you pick? Please expand on your answer... Just saying i would pick location #1 in not much of a help unless you tell me your reasoning behind picking that location.

    In response to the second answer. Assume the signage is the same at both locations. I am trying to appeal to the type of customer who would buy a NEW name brand (Serta, Temperputic, etc) discounted mattress.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/29/2017 at 6:33 PM Accepted
    If the courthouse is likely to be used as a backdrop for television reporting, and the proposed store would likely be in that field of view, then choose the courthouse for the potential upside. However, given that both more and a wider cross section of people will be driving by location #1, I'd vote for that location - assuming everything is identical.
  • Posted by anthonymvtv on 3/30/2017 at 4:04 PM Author
    I would think a wider cross section of people would be seen coming out of the courthouse because it covers all 27 cities whereas the city street address will have mostly people from that city driving back and forth past it.
    I guess another way to ask/answer this question is where would you put a billboard advertising a business? Would you want it seen by people coming out of the courthouse or on a major city street?
  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/30/2017 at 4:30 PM Moderator
    What percentage of the population ever enters the courthouse? (I'll grant that 100% of those who enter will leave.) It has been more than 25 years since I have been in a courthouse, but I drive by a mattress store in a shopping center multiple times each week.

    Mattresses are infrequently purchased items, a considered purchase, and not much fun to shop for. (Consumers don't know what to look for. They are in the hands of the gatekeeper salesperson.) All you want to do is register that you are the dominant mattress retailer in the area. It's not like people are going to see your storefront and signage and say, "Good idea! I think I will buy a mattress today."

    And people who have been in the courthouse are no more likely to be in need of a mattress than those driving past location #1.
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 4/1/2017 at 10:43 AM Accepted
    Location 1 or 2. Is there a reason you believe your future customer will be 'anxious' to purchase in either location? Court house <> all they will be doing is being home. Main street <> does car count indicate sales?

    You may want to review your market research and ensure your location matches where THEY expect it to be?

    Unless this is your main or only touch point with your future customer (future customer = mattress sales are not impulse buy). I'm guessing sales are directed strictly by the female...and a decision to purchase is based on ???. Once you understand ???, you'll know where to locate.

    You may be surprised if a marketing campaign "price or luxury" will lead to an strip mall someplace
  • Posted by mgoodman on 4/2/2017 at 6:11 PM Accepted
    No matter which location you pick, I doubt you will ever know whether you made the right selection. Just pick one and go with it. If your business fails, you can list "location" as one of the possible reasons. If it succeeds, you can fantasize about how much better it might have been had you selected the other location.

    And, for the record, "all things being equal" is a cop-out. All things are never equal. For starters, the businesses next door or nearby are not the same. Neither are the residential neighborhoods.
  • Posted by Shelley Ryan on 4/19/2017 at 6:09 PM Moderator
    Hi Everyone,

    I am closing this question since there hasn't been much recent activity.

    Thanks for participating!

    Shelley
    MarketingProfs
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