By Karen Long MacLeod

When Mark and Caroline Janczak began thinking about the grand re-opening for their newly renovated store, they envisioned a weekend event involving inexpensive giveaways, demonstrations by manufacturers' representatives and music by a steel-drum band.

However, the owners of Critters Pet Shop in St. Charles, Ill., soon realized that a much larger event would be more likely to attract a better mix of current and potential customers and help the store build long-term business.

Over the past several months, Mark and Caroline have taken steps to upgrade their store--with the help of two well-known industry consultants, one prominent distributor/wholesaler, 20 leading pet supply manufacturers (and their sales representatives) and the staff of PET AGE magazine. They had a budget of $60,500, including their own minimum $10,000 contribution, and expect to receive products valued at more than $25,000.

In this segment of our year-long series about Critters' redesign, we'll see what it takes to stage a promotional event as well as what the Janczaks plan to do during their grand re-opening. (Although this series will continue until July 2000, the Janczaks completed the actual renovation and remerchandising of their store in less time.)

Timing Is Everything

There's good reason to call storewide promotional events "grand" openings: They are big.

"It's a big mistake to plan an event like this for a single weekend," said Charlie Lopp of Wilson Pet Supply (Hanover Park, Ill.), the sponsoring distributor for this project. "If you limit the duration of the event, you narrow your audience. You need to do an event for 10 to 15 days, because that opens up the opportunity for more people to come to your store. Take advantage of the opportunity. Play it out as far as you can."

In mid-April, when the Janczaks got serious about planning their grand re-opening, their challenge was finding an open two-week slot on the calendar. At that point, they didn't have enough time to organize and promote a big event in early May. Yet they encountered major schedule conflicts in late May and early June: Mother's Day (a bigger draw for Critters' family-oriented customers than any store event), the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association trade show (a show that manufacturers' salespeople and representatives couldn't miss), and graduation ceremonies (another important family activity). And they knew that many of their customers would go on vacation in July.

After considering their options, the Janczaks decided to hold their grand re-opening sale from June 16 through July 2--a total of 17 days spanning three weekends.

Elements of Excitement

A successful grand opening combines several elements: fun, fabulous deals and free stuff.

"The main thing is to create an air of excitement, with contests, giveaways, clowns, or whatever it takes," said Simon Handelsman of Out of Hand Inc. (Newburyport, Mass.), a consultant for the PET AGE Pet Store Make-over project. "Make the atmosphere fun."

"The key is to do something that appeals to kids," Charlie said. "That really draws crowds."

Options include appearances by local celebrities (with or without pets); demonstrations by local pet experts or hobbyists; adoption fund-raisers; contests for ugliest pets, best-dressed pets and so on; hamster races; and more.

Since Critters' grand re-opening will span three weekends, Mark decided that each weekend would have a different theme.

The first weekend, June 16-18, coincides with Father's Day. In addition to staging family-oriented activities, Mark intends to promote puppies, kittens and fish, along with selected products for these pets.

The second weekend, June 23-25, will focus on children. He will emphasize starter pets, particularly parakeets, hamsters and gerbils, along with related accessories.

The third weekend of the sale, June 30-July 2, leads into Independence Day. "In honor of the holiday, we're going to promote 'Bang-Up Savings Throughout the Store,'" Mark said. Customers will pop colorful balloons for extra discounts and prizes--while taking advantage of promotional prices on rabbits, guinea pigs and puppies, and popular products for these pets.

At press time, Mark and Caroline were lining up "entertainment." They planned to ask their cable TV advertising representative about upcoming celebrity promotions. (Customers mobbed Critters when Rugrats, from the popular animated TV series, visited the store last year.) They also hoped to schedule an appearance by the local police K9 team.

In addition, they planned to invite a local radio station to do a live broadcast from the store during the event.

"Make sure you offer enough activities and values to bring in new customers," Simon urged. "The main priority should be to get new people to come see the store ... and to give them a warm, fuzzy feeling that will make them want to come back.

"You probably can't do too much--unless you don't do it well," he added. "Doing 10 things poorly is not as good as doing five things well."

Special Deals

So what about those fabulous deals?

"You have to offer price reductions on some items during a grand opening or re-opening sale," Simon said. "It's better to offer deals on key items rather than across-the-board discounts. Never highlight things that don't sell."

Its a good idea to promote starter kits because they make it easier for customers to buy new pets, Simon said. It's also smart to offer some kind of special on pet food.

With these basic principles in mind, Mark planned promotions highlighting all six animal categories as well as selected items from each sponsor of the PET AGE Pet Store Make-Over project.

An Advertising Blitz

Deciding when and how to stage a promotional event is only half the battle. The other half is letting people know you're having an event.

Simon urged Critters to target existing customers by using bag stuffers for at least a month before the event, hanging signs in the front window, and sending fliers to all its customers. In addition, the store should target potential customers by advertising in local media--newspapers, coupon packs, radio and even cable TV.

"The real secret of events like this," Simon noted, "is talking the local media into supporting the event. Their support is invaluable in terms of free publicity."

The Janczaks will use several forms of advertising:

* Sale fliers used jointly by Wilson Pet Supply's "partnership customers," to be mailed to about 30,000 households in Critters' market area.

* Special mailers highlighting Critters' grand reopening promotions and activities.

* Advertisements in Thursday editions of the Kane County Chronicle (a daily local newspaper) and the St. Charles Republican (a weekly local newspaper) before the sale, and each Thursday during the sale.

* A new television commercial, to run on family-oriented cable channels, with scrolling text that highlights grand-opening activities.

"Ads should emphasize the excitement of the event, because they have to motive people to change their plans to come to the store at a certain time," Simon said. "Ads should combine information about special activities taking place during the sale, plus compelling value-pricing."

Charlie agreed that newspaper ads should tout the upcoming weekend's activities. "For example, 'This week at Critters, Bernie the talking bird,' he said. "Then Mark should list two or three items from our Five-Mile Marketing flier, or store-specific specials."

"I understand the need to create a sense of urgency with the sale, so people will come in right away," Mark said. "But when I run promotions, I always try to think beyond what happens that day to what will happen in the future. I want to create an awareness in the community, so people will think of us whenever they're ready to buy a new pet."

Avoiding Pitfalls

To stage a successful promotional event, you must commit a fair amount of time and energy to the project.

Start planning and organizing four to six weeks in advance of the event, Charlie suggested, and be sure to involve your distributor.

"We'll give [retailers] advice and ideas, and we'll help organize part of the event--especially anything that has to do with our relationship with vendors," he said. "But about 75 percent to 80 percent of this has to come from the store itself. What we do, as a distributor, depends on the store and its commitment to the project."

In the week preceding their event, Mark and Caroline may have to assign one full-time employee to coordinate last-minute preparations, setup and other details, Simon said.

It's easy to overlook important aspects of a promotional event.

The worst mistake, according to Charlie, is failing to follow through. If you ask manufacturers' representatives to work the event, make sure you advertise early enough and often enough to bring customers into the store. If you advertise a special, make sure you get the merchandise in time.

Think of everything that could go wrong, and figure out how you could deal with it. For example, make a contingency plan in case of bad weather. "Don't leave anything to guesswork," Charlie said.

Understaffing is another potential problem. "You have to have enough people working the event in case you get swamped," Simon said. You need people to control crowds around the various activities, explain products and move customers through checkout lines.

Staffing is easy if you have the right reps in the store, Charlie said. They'll work the departments for you so your employees can run the registers, assist customers with livestock, etc.

For bigger weekend events, you might get two or three manufacturers' reps and one distributor rep. At Critters, that would cover the whole dry-goods area.

A Revived Interest

When we visited the store in mid-April, the Janczaks still had some work to do to make their store sparkle for its grand re-opening--such as installing most of their in-store signage, rearranging a few displays and replenishing shelves.

"We've gotten a little complacent as to finishing the last few things," Mark admitted, "but now that most of the renovation is done, I'm finding more time to plan promotions, make signs and remerchandise areas."

He confesses that he feels "a more revived interest" after taking a much-needed family vacation this spring.

Leading up to the grand re-opening, however, Mark has one lingering concern: teaching staff members how to properly merchandise the store. Although he encourages them to read relevant articles and pay attention to merchandising techniques used in other stores, he still hasn't figured out how to help them grasp the important relationship between product display and profits. He realizes that this will be an ongoing process.

Now that the Janczaks have a basic outline for their grand re-opening promotion, how will they execute it? And will it entice customers as much as they--and our fearless consultants--hope?

Next month, we'll conclude this series with a recap of the renovation project and what impact it has had on Critters' business. PA

Karen Long MacLeod is editor in chief of PET AGE.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Making the commitment to spend money on a big promotion like a grand opening is "very difficult" for an independent retailer, acknowledged Simon Handelsman of Out of Hand Inc. (Newburyport, Mass.). "It's their money, so it's very personal."

When deciding what to do and how much to spend, it's important to think of the lifetime value of each customer.

"If regular customers come in three to 12 times a year and spend an average of $12 each time, then a new customer could be expected to spend $48 to $144," he explained. "What is it worth to you to get this person as a customer? Can you spend $5 to get someone who'll spend $50 to $150 in your store? Sure, that's a reasonable investment."

On the other hand, Simon said, it's easy to get carried away when planning activities, hiring entertainers, buying prizes and placing advertisements. Before you know it, you can spend $10,000 and end up in hock.

"It's good to be somewhat conservative and avoid spending money you don't have," Simon said. "That's how you stay in business."

--Karen Long MacLeod