This weekend the cause and event marketing team is launching a new program called Retail Therapy. It’s a spin-off on the South End Shop Walk we did last year. The difference is that Retail Therapy is all about shopping and nothing about walking. We’re also hoping to profit from a change in venue from Boston’s South End to Downtown Crossing, a destination for over 100,000 shoppers, visitors and passerbys each day. Here’s how the program will work.
For the past couple of months we’ve been recruiting businesses in Downtown Crossing. To date we have 40 stores and restaurants. They include the Body Shop, Borders, City Sports, Dunkin Donuts, Elizabeth Grady, Macy’s, Talbots, Starbucks and lots of local stores and restaurants like Felt and Vinalia. Most of these stores have agreed to sell a Retail Therapy mobile for a buck. Mobile sales raise money and are a great promotion for the event (as we learned from Halloween Town). Each mobile has a $5 off coupon for a passport shoppers can use during the event to receive special discounts. That’s the second thing each store agreed to do: shoppers that present a passport get a discount or a free item. Most stores are offering a percentage off purchases with nine "flagship" stores offering even deeper discounts and a special gift if shoppers visit all nine.
So Friday and Saturday we’ll be out in force in Downtown Crossing joining our retail partners in selling passports to shoppers for $15 ($10 if you have your $5 off coupon!). To spread the word we’ll have a main stage with live music, performances, games and giveaways courtesy of our media partners The Boston Globe and Kiss 108.
But we’re hoping this won’t be the first time shoppers are hearing about the event. We tapped our cadre of interns to deliver packets of information to large employers that border Downtown Crossing. We handed out fliers at several T-stations yesterday and tomorrow. Stores displayed our "Need Therapy?" signs with our web address. We even hung posters in the women’s bathrooms at our 1,200 person Gala this past weekend (hey, it’s a captive audience). We’re hoping all our grassroots marketing pays off.
Of course, like every program we run, the goal of Retail Therapy is to raise money and to build our brand. But as a cause marketing strategy we hope it will engage more small and stand-alone businesses. Right now most of our partners are large retailers with multiple locations (I’ve written about them before: Staples, iParty, Finagle A Bagel, Shaw’s). But Retail Therapy is about bringing together a lot of stand-alones to replicate the cause marketing muscle traditionally found in chains. The hospital profits, but so do the businesses. Like a large chain, they enhance customer loyalty and pick up some new clients. And all under the banner of charity and cross-promotion. Did I also mention that it costs them nothing? That’s how I got them to sign on in the first place.
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