Promotion ideas for land based business

I'm looking to open a franchise restaurant in my hometown. The product is similar to Marble Slab/Coldstone Creamery.

In 1 month I start construction on the building. I likely won't receive my certificate of occupancy until June 1st (best case scenario). In the meantime, I'm wanting to work on promoting and building consumer awareness of my product and new store location.

The road that my store is going to be build on was recently expanded (was a dead end street), so the car count is still rather low. The good news is I'm between the local High School and Wal Mart. A new hotel (La Quinta) will be building nearby. The intersection roughly 1000 yards away is the #2 car count intersection in the county (roughly 70k cars per day). They just need to look down the street and realize there's now a road there.

A key element to my business model is no inside dining. I have 2 drivethru windows. I believe this is what will set my business apart from other dine in establishments. I will have outside dining though.

I've got quite a few ideas on promoting the business, but I'm open to hearing any ideas you might have.

Some of my ideas:

• Reading bonuses for grade schools (read xx books, get a coupon for a free ice cream).
• Bring in competitor's yellow pages advertisement out of the book, and get a free ice cream.
• Participate in parades with a float (have penguin mascot) and have kids on back of float throwing candy and walkers giving coupons.
• Hold local event in parking lot, such as Rock-Scissors-Paper tournament.
• Allow day care centers to have field trips at the store. Give tours and free products.

Any thoughts?

Unfortunately, with my late start, I'll be missing out on the schools still being open.

 

Give away free icecream on the first day. A local chipotle recently gave away a free burrito on their opening day and:
1) Received major local news spots (day and evening news stories)
2) Had a 2 hour wait from 11am to 8pm
3) Had a major newspaper (top 100) write a large article about the store
4) Gave away 4,000 burritos
5) Everyone knows where it is and its always busy when I go

Here are some other unique ways of building your brand/store and random thoughts:
1) internet ordering
2) free delivery
3) (I like the rock paper scissors idea)
4) (Dont like the bring in a competitors ad)
5) (I like the parade float)
6) Discount on sports team parties (like little league baseball)
7) Birthday party room
8) Free game room with xbox 360s, ddr, etc (offer for free)

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

I will be having a VIP day prior to my grand opening. Will invite 100 or so friends/family and ask them to invite another family to come. Everything ordered is 100% free. This will serve two purposes.

1. Gives employees actual experience. Really good for a trial run.
2. Gives me additional exposure if they all bring someone I don't know. Gives them a taste of the product and hopefully they enjoy it enough to come back.

In response to your suggestions...

I might can do a free scoop giveaway on the grand opening. If you want a free scoop, its free, otherwise you have to pay for it. I've already estimated my VIP day is going to cost around 5k. Not sure I could afford to have a completely free day.

1. Internet ordering. Not sure this would work on general sales. Considering the product is made fresh hourly. Plus, it'll melt by the time they get there to pick it up.

2. Delivery. Same problem as #1. Unless I come up with a way to keep the product cold during delivery. I'd have to restrict delivery on orders over XX amount. Then the additional liability of driving a delivery vehicle.

3. Rock/scissors/paper. I heard that there's an actual group I could join. National conventions too. Be interesting to be an official sponsor.

4. Competitors ad. Any reasons why?

5. Float. Be fun for my kids to sit in the back of the float waving. They'd have a blast. Plus, they can get their friends back there too.

6. Parties. I know I'll be doing catering, but I'm not sure how parties at my store will work considering I won't have dine in. I'll have to play it by ear.

7. Birthday room. Same issue as above. I might have room in my parking lot for a bouncehouse or something in the greenspace. Might be an issue with it being so close to the road tho.

8. Game room. Not an option since I don't have interior dining.

Also thought of these ideas:

1. Sports team sponsorship

2. Balloon launch day. Work in tandem with a florist or some other store that sells helium balloons and have some sort of promotion between the two of us. Maybe have a day where we launch 1000 balloons or something.

3. I'll also be selling snow cones. So, I might can have a snow day where I have my kids and friends of theirs come out and build snow men. Might be a good opportunity to have the newspaper/tv come out and film it. Winter in the middle of July type of event.

 

Good ideas. Hope you can handle your business as good as it would be. Just have the following concepts for your business:
--tastes/aroma of foods and drinks (should have an impact to the public)
--accommodation by the staff should be the best for the customers
--advertisement should always be in mind
--discounts/promos should always be present
--place should be convenient enough for all the customers
--free deliveries/party offerings

Some sort of things you should consider..Hope you`ll gain something from this.

Good luck.

 

Just checked on pricing for a complete car wrap for my Tahoe. It'll be around 3k including the graphic design work.

So, add that to the list of things I'm considering for promotion.