Why do they fail? Typically it can be caused by what is referred to as “cost per acquisition.” If the small business is spending thousands of dollars on television, radio, yellow pages, and other print advertising, then the cost of creating a single new customer can often be more than the cost of the product or service that the consumer actually purchases. In some cases, the small local business would be better off just giving away their products and services. In fact, many businesses do just that. There has to be a better way.

Today local small businesses can leverage the power and popularity of the internet to help bring down the cost their local marketing campaign.

However, a common mistake that many local small business owners make is to dismiss the importance of local search marketing online because of the time, money and education required to do it properly. Likewise, many local business owners will assume that since they’ve been marketing the same way for the last 15 years, that consumers are still buying the same way. With the availability of broadband internet and wireless internet services, there has been a tremendous change in consumer behavior over just the last few years.

The Yellow Pages phone book directories and newspapers are often viewed as out of date by the time they litter the doorsteps. There are over 500 channels on television and hundreds of radio stations on satellite radio. Plus it takes weeks and months of saturating a market in order for consumers to remember you. But even when they do, where do they look?

Consumers today want instant information, reviews, store hours, online coupons and driving directions and they’re finding it online with broadband and WIFI Internet and Internet-enabled Mobile phones.

This is why a high local search conversion rate is extremely likely when it comes to local search marketing. Most people are not going to look for a local restaurant, plumber, attorney, accountant, or any other local service unless they have an immediate need for that service. However, if buyers do not see you, then your local small business isn’t an available option.

When people search for local business services, they are more than likely motivated to buy. The question again becomes, will they find you?

Local small businesses now have access to the same SEO tool that many SEO experts use. When you’re ready to ensure that your business is listed correctly with all major local search directories, including Google, Yahoo and Bing, then take a look at XLindex.com.

With XLindex.com a local business can add their vital business information to over 100 search engines and local directories by simply completing one simple form. The XLindex.com local search website submitter works behind the scenes to update all local search directories with information about each local business location.

In a recent press release we read about how easy it is to use XLindex.com. “Using XLindex.com is as simple as completing an online form. Plus, the time you save alone is worth several times our local search submission fee.” said Darin Brin, SEO Specialist and Managing Director of BizMash Inc. “We are extremely excited about the response we are receiving from all of our clients.”

Local small business owners and managers are invited to try XLindex.com today for less than the price of running a single classified display ad in a Sunday paper.

Getting started with local search marketing is now easy thanks to SEO specialists like Darin Brin who open up their SEO Tools for local businesses. Now it’s all about who will be the first to make the transition from local traditional media advertising to local search marketing, and the who will be left behind.

Granite Falls, WA, United States (AHN) – A mother and her adult son accused of starving to death 31 pets in their locked home made their first court appearance on Tuesday during a bail hearing.

Bail for Diane Cowling, 65, and Michael Cowling, 36, was set at $100,000 each. The two were charged with 34 counts each of animal cruelty after the bodies of dead pets were found in their home.

The Cowlings had moved out of their residence because the home was about to be foreclosed. A locksmith who went to the house last Friday contacted police.

A total of 28 dead cats and three dead dogs were found in the home. The bodies were on floors filled with layers of animal feces, urine and trash. Three animals, two cats and a puppy were found alive and are being rehabilitated by an animal welfare group, Pasado’s Safe Haven.

The Cowlings moved out of their home only last month. The pets are believed to have died even before the house was foreclosed.

According to KING 5 News, the younger Cowling told police he knew some of their pets were dead and had started dying but he did not know what to do. His mother told the television station she had been diagnosed with cancer and had asked an animal shelter to take their pets.

“I spent as much money as I could feeding them, taking care of them, but there wasn’t enough money to go around,” Diane Cowling said.

Pasado’s Safe Haven said in a statement the level of decomposition indicated some of the pets had died at least six months ago. The group gathered the bodies over the weekend upon the request of the city, which no longer has an animal control department due to budget cuts.

Necropsies will be performed on the dead pets to find out the cause of death. According to the Herald, Pasado’s will pay for the cost of the necropsies.

“We don’t have money for that,” Granite Falls police chief Dennis Taylor told the newspaper. “What do I do with the carcasses? How do I pay for the necropsies?”

Wearing hazmat suits, members of Pasado’s documented evidence in the home before collecting the dead pets. The group rallied outside Snohomish County Superior Court during the hearing for the Cowlings, asking that the mother and son be banned from owning animals and that the maximum penalty be imposed.

The Cowlings each face as much as a year in jail and a $5,000 fine for every count of animal cruelty charged against them.

“This is one of the most deplorable situations I have witnessed in my life and I have been in the Marines for 15 years,” the police chief said in a statement.”These animals basically just laid down and died.”

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Miami, Florida, United States (CNS) – Whoopi Goldberg has a lot of things bugging her these days, and she can’t wait to tell it to her fans when she hits the stage for a one-night performance in Miami.

“The View” co-host is in South Florida Saturday to rant about her pet peeves: awkward elevator rides, nosy neighbors and smelly airplane passengers, reports The Miami Herald.

When asked what her fans can expect from her show, the comedian and actress said, “I’ve never done stand-up, so I hope they aren’t expecting that. My shows are like snowflakes — no two are ever alike. I just talk about things that are bugging me or that I find odd, which is quite a lot these days.”

Goldberg, whose real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson, will also be signing her new book, “Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There?,” at a local bookstore before hitting the stage later at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

If television talk show host, author, actress and top-selling performer weren’t enough, the 55-year-old grandmother of three is adding Broadway producer to her repertoire, Goldberg has produced the London musical “Sister Act,” based on the 1992 film about a Las Vegas lounge singer who finds herself shaking up in a convent with nuns. She played the role of Mother Superior for several shows during its premiere last October.

The successful musical is coming to New York City in the Spring of this year, along with international productions in Australia, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Italy, France and Spain soon after.

So how does Goldberg juggle it all?

“Is there really a choice? You do what you need to do and keep it moving forward,” she told the newspaper. “Always forward.”

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New York, New York, United States (CNS) – Martha Stewart is recovering from a serious gash to her upper lip after she was bit by one of her beloved dogs.

The television host and businesswoman was rushed to the emergency room Tuesday night when her French bulldog, Francesca, snapped at her, reports TMZ.

“I must have startled her, because she bolted upright with such force that she hit me in the face like a boxing glove hitting an opponent’s face,” Stewart explained on her blog Thursday. “I was entirely startled and my neck snapped back. I felt a bit of whiplash as blood gushed forth from my split lip.”

TMZ reports that Stewart was about to leave her home in New York when she leaned over to “whisper goodbye” to Francesca. That’s when Francesca went for Stewart’s face.

Stewart, who launched in 2010 a pet care line that includes apparel, collars and leashes and grooming supplies, was driven to Northern Westchester Hospital, where she received nine stitches.

Pictures of a nervous but composed Stewart in a medical room was captured by her manager and posted online. In one photo, Stewart looks at the camera as she holds up an ice bag to her lip, and another shows a surgeon stitching up the open gash.

Reports say the domestic diva has since been back to work.

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Well, I’m sure there are any number of reasons why one bag of food is more expensive than another, but I’m going to suggest a few possibilities which might make a difference to the price you pay for pet food (and this is true both for cat and dog food because the brand owners are the same)

First and foremost, and this is putting my cynical hat on, you’re paying what you are because the brand owner has decided that this is what you are prepared to pay for their pet food. The marketing department have done their research, millions have been spent on advertising and creating the right image, they’ve built up a degree of trust in the eyes of the consumer and now you’ve got to pay for that!

Where’s my evidence you might ask? Well, let’s take a couple of examples and not from the extremes. Here’s two lists of ingredients:

Product 1

Cereals, meat and animal derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin, minerals, yeasts. Contains EEC permitted antioxidants, colourant and preservative.

Product 2

Wheat, Meat Meal, Maize, Oils & Fats, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Peas, Lucerne, Vitamins & Minerals. Added Citrus, Yeast and Yucca. Contains EEC permitted antioxidants, colourant and preservative.

Not a lot of difference in the ingredients, but Product 1 comes from a multinational with a marketing budget of millions to pay for, and it costs £25 for a 15kg bag. Product 2 costs £9.99 for 17kg. The brands are Pedigree and Wagg. I rest my case!

1) Do ingredients make a difference to cost?

Obviously there’s going to be a difference in ingredients used (or we would hope so!) but can this account for such a difference, and does it matter? Let’s look at a couple of examples. Firstly a typical bag of Eucanuba at £41.99 in the UK.

Ingredients

Chicken: (>20%), maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, animal fat, fish meal, dried beet pulp, poultry meal, dried whole egg, brewer’s dried yeast, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, linseed, DL-methionine, glucosamine HCl, chondroitin sulphate, salt, sodiumhexametaphosphate

Now let’s compare with Gilpa Kennel at £12.39

Ingredients

Wheat, poultry, maize, wheatfeed, poultry digest, poultry fat, whey powder, soya oil, yeast, mixed herbs, extract of New Zealand green-lipped mussel, yucca extract, minerals, trace elements and vitamins, including zinc chelate. With EEC permitted antioxidants.

Obviously the consumer has to make an informed opinion as to which is better for their pet, but essentially these are both wheat and maize based foods with chicken/poultry as the meat source. Both offer complete nutrition based upon current scientific knowledge with broadly similar analysis.

More ‘natural’ and often more expensive foods will tend to use cereals other than wheat (rice typically) and maybe a single source of meat protein (chicken, duck, fish or lamb are most common) added as meat meal, and may be naturally preserved with vitamin E or similar. These types of food, which can be broadly classified as more hypo-allergenic are important because some pets suffer from an intolerance to common pet food ingredients so that has to be taken into consideration.

It is a long forgotten fact however, that millions of pets have lived long and healthy lives on simple pet food with none of the fancy additives and supplements that manufacturers are luring us with now. Unfortunately, the trend is for manufacturers to try and get us to spend more by echoing the human food industry – with health claims and any number of ingredients which we wouldn’t normally associate with food.

2) All those fance advertisements: Some companies have amazing advertising budgets, and that spend has to be paid for in the price of the products (where else is it coming from?) 2006 saw the release of the world’s most expensive television pet food advertisement coming in at £1 million to support the Sheba cat food brand.

A Pet food company has broken the boundaries of TV advertising in the UK by becoming the first company ever to fully fund a television programme – on the terrestrial channel ITV. Content of the forthcoming ITV1 factual series Dog Rescue, scheduled to air early Sunday evenings, is to be fully funded by a single advertiser, the Mars, Masterfoods pet foods brand Pedigree.

The Dog Rescue series will cover the activities of two animal re-homing centres, Manchester Dogs Home and The Dogs Trust centre in Harefield, West London. Despite concerns about moving a step closer to product placement in TV programming, the Pedigree brand will not be advertised during the show but it will appear at the beginning and end of commercial breaks.

Sponsorship of premium events like Crufts cost brands such as Pedigree huge sums of money, which consumers are paying for in the price of the food.

3) Research and development: Familiar brands such as Purina, Pedigree, Iams, Hills and Eucanuba which are global brands spend $millions worldwide on research and development, employing hundreds of scientists and veterinarians. This has to be paid for!

4) The impact of the Distribution Chain: Some brand owners are also manufacturers (i.e. Gilpa) so it costs less to get the food to the shops. Others (Burns, Arden Grange etc) rely on a manufacturer making food for them, so already someone else wants a snip out of the profits. As well as the brand owner, there will be wholsalers and of course the retailer wanting their percentage. So it is that a bag of food that costs just a few £ to manufacture ends up costing around £40 in the shops!

5) We love our substitute children! : Yes, pet food manufacturers know that you treat your pet like a child – go on, admit it!

Euromonitor’s research has found that the pet food market has been experiencing a trend towards premium and super-premium products. This stems from the fact that pet owners are increasingly treating their companion as a member of the family (or even sometimes as a partner, in the case of single households) and as such, expenditure on pet food is rising. This trend towards premium products has also been the result of efficient marketing communication by manufacturers about the benefits of prepared pet food and this has contributed to the development of branded premium products first, with private label premium products following suit.

With the pet obesity rate reaching record levels, pet health and pet hygiene proved to be one of the biggest concerns of pet owners in 2006. This has resulted in a raft of new health focused multi-functional foods aimed at improving pet health, with product launches aimed at boosting pet paws, claws, eyes, coats, skin, teeth and even brain power. Key terms included omega 3 and 6, macro-nutrient profile, wheat and gluten-free and hypoallergenic. As pet owners became increasingly aware of the changing nutritional needs of their pets as they age, 2006 saw a great extension to life stage and lifestyle products, once the domain of premium and super-premium products. Even value manufacturers are cashing in on this trend.

At the end of the day of course, the consumer can always vote with their feet and move to a different brand if they feel that they are being ripped off!

The author, who originally trained as a food technologist has, in his time owned dogs, cats, hamsters and birds, sold pet food and spent the past decade marketing it. Now down to one cat, one dog and running Pet Food Choice, a website full of information on pet food choices, money-saving ideas and much more http://www.pet-food-choice.co.uk

Author: John Birch
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Retirement plan

Well, I’m sure there are any number of reasons why one bag of food is more expensive than another, but I’m going to suggest a few possibilities which might make a difference to the price you pay for pet food (and this is true both for cat and dog food because the brand owners are the same)

First and foremost, and this is putting my cynical hat on, you’re paying what you are because the brand owner has decided that this is what you are prepared to pay for their pet food. The marketing department have done their research, millions have been spent on advertising and creating the right image, they’ve built up a degree of trust in the eyes of the consumer and now you’ve got to pay for that!

Where’s my evidence you might ask? Well, let’s take a couple of examples and not from the extremes. Here’s two lists of ingredients:

Product 1

Cereals, meat and animal derivatives, vegetable protein extracts, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin, minerals, yeasts. Contains EEC permitted antioxidants, colourant and preservative.

Product 2

Wheat, Meat Meal, Maize, Oils & Fats, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Peas, Lucerne, Vitamins & Minerals. Added Citrus, Yeast and Yucca. Contains EEC permitted antioxidants, colourant and preservative.

Not a lot of difference in the ingredients, but Product 1 comes from a multinational with a marketing budget of millions to pay for, and it costs £25 for a 15kg bag. Product 2 costs £9.99 for 17kg. The brands are Pedigree and Wagg. I rest my case!

1) Do ingredients make a difference to cost?

Obviously there’s going to be a difference in ingredients used (or we would hope so!) but can this account for such a difference, and does it matter? Let’s look at a couple of examples. Firstly a typical bag of Eucanuba at £41.99 in the UK.

Ingredients

Chicken: (>20%), maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, animal fat, fish meal, dried beet pulp, poultry meal, dried whole egg, brewer’s dried yeast, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, linseed, DL-methionine, glucosamine HCl, chondroitin sulphate, salt, sodiumhexametaphosphate

Now let’s compare with Gilpa Kennel at £12.39

Ingredients

Wheat, poultry, maize, wheatfeed, poultry digest, poultry fat, whey powder, soya oil, yeast, mixed herbs, extract of New Zealand green-lipped mussel, yucca extract, minerals, trace elements and vitamins, including zinc chelate. With EEC permitted antioxidants.

Obviously the consumer has to make an informed opinion as to which is better for their pet, but essentially these are both wheat and maize based foods with chicken/poultry as the meat source. Both offer complete nutrition based upon current scientific knowledge with broadly similar analysis.

More ‘natural’ and often more expensive foods will tend to use cereals other than wheat (rice typically) and maybe a single source of meat protein (chicken, duck, fish or lamb are most common) added as meat meal, and may be naturally preserved with vitamin E or similar. These types of food, which can be broadly classified as more hypo-allergenic are important because some pets suffer from an intolerance to common pet food ingredients so that has to be taken into consideration.

It is a long forgotten fact however, that millions of pets have lived long and healthy lives on simple pet food with none of the fancy additives and supplements that manufacturers are luring us with now. Unfortunately, the trend is for manufacturers to try and get us to spend more by echoing the human food industry – with health claims and any number of ingredients which we wouldn’t normally associate with food.

2) All those fance advertisements: Some companies have amazing advertising budgets, and that spend has to be paid for in the price of the products (where else is it coming from?) 2006 saw the release of the world’s most expensive television pet food advertisement coming in at £1 million to support the Sheba cat food brand.

A Pet food company has broken the boundaries of TV advertising in the UK by becoming the first company ever to fully fund a television programme – on the terrestrial channel ITV. Content of the forthcoming ITV1 factual series Dog Rescue, scheduled to air early Sunday evenings, is to be fully funded by a single advertiser, the Mars, Masterfoods pet foods brand Pedigree.

The Dog Rescue series will cover the activities of two animal re-homing centres, Manchester Dogs Home and The Dogs Trust centre in Harefield, West London. Despite concerns about moving a step closer to product placement in TV programming, the Pedigree brand will not be advertised during the show but it will appear at the beginning and end of commercial breaks.

Sponsorship of premium events like Crufts cost brands such as Pedigree huge sums of money, which consumers are paying for in the price of the food.

3) Research and development: Familiar brands such as Purina, Pedigree, Iams, Hills and Eucanuba which are global brands spend $millions worldwide on research and development, employing hundreds of scientists and veterinarians. This has to be paid for!

4) The impact of the Distribution Chain: Some brand owners are also manufacturers (i.e. Gilpa) so it costs less to get the food to the shops. Others (Burns, Arden Grange etc) rely on a manufacturer making food for them, so already someone else wants a snip out of the profits. As well as the brand owner, there will be wholsalers and of course the retailer wanting their percentage. So it is that a bag of food that costs just a few £ to manufacture ends up costing around £40 in the shops!

5) We love our substitute children! : Yes, pet food manufacturers know that you treat your pet like a child – go on, admit it!

Euromonitor’s research has found that the pet food market has been experiencing a trend towards premium and super-premium products. This stems from the fact that pet owners are increasingly treating their companion as a member of the family (or even sometimes as a partner, in the case of single households) and as such, expenditure on pet food is rising. This trend towards premium products has also been the result of efficient marketing communication by manufacturers about the benefits of prepared pet food and this has contributed to the development of branded premium products first, with private label premium products following suit.

With the pet obesity rate reaching record levels, pet health and pet hygiene proved to be one of the biggest concerns of pet owners in 2006. This has resulted in a raft of new health focused multi-functional foods aimed at improving pet health, with product launches aimed at boosting pet paws, claws, eyes, coats, skin, teeth and even brain power. Key terms included omega 3 and 6, macro-nutrient profile, wheat and gluten-free and hypoallergenic. As pet owners became increasingly aware of the changing nutritional needs of their pets as they age, 2006 saw a great extension to life stage and lifestyle products, once the domain of premium and super-premium products. Even value manufacturers are cashing in on this trend.

At the end of the day of course, the consumer can always vote with their feet and move to a different brand if they feel that they are being ripped off!

The author, who originally trained as a food technologist has, in his time owned dogs, cats, hamsters and birds, sold pet food and spent the past decade marketing it. Now down to one cat, one dog and running Pet Food Choice, a website full of information on pet food choices, money-saving ideas and much more http://www.pet-food-choice.co.uk

Author: John Birch
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Hollywood siren Pamela Anderson appeared to have proved too saucy for India, said Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada on Thursday.

Zed, in a detailed email, noted that Anderson entered the House in India’s popular and controversial daily television reality show “Bigg Boss” in Lonawala (near Mumbai) on Wednesday night for a three-day cameo appearance and India Government issued an order earlier in the day to ban the show in prime time relegating it to slot between 11pm-5am.

The Hindu statesman, cited the official reason being that its content “offends against good taste and decency” and “objectionable and not suitable for children and unrestricted public exhibition.”

“Bigg Boss”, however, went ahead on Wednesday during its regular earlier time slot of nine pm. But Bombay High Court, being moved by show’s owner ‘Viacom 18′ on Thursday, stayed the India Government’s order to reschedule the time of broadcast till next hearing on November 22 on the issue.

Commenting on the censorship Zed called it “was not acceptable, but many times television producers crossed the line for mercantile greed without consideration to families and children. Their race to boost the ratings had frequently resulted in sensationalization of the content.”

“They should regulate themselves so that the freedom of expression was not jeopardized. Television producers needed to grow-up and show maturity to analyze themselves what was good for the Indian nation and the world,” Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, added.

Zed, however, welcomed Anderson to India and applauded her interest in Indian ethos and other things Indian.

Describing the Anderson saga, Zed said she entered the House, where she is Khaas Mehmaan (Special Guest), with a white chiffon sari, jhumkas (ear hangings), bangles, bindi, and “namaste”.

She cleaned the floor with a broom, gyrated to Bollywood number “Dhak dhak karne lagaa”, and ate paranthas (Indian stuffed bread).

It is her first visit to India and she has reportedly said that she was not a fan of reality shows. She has reportedly been paid $550,000 for this stint, Zed disclosed.

Zed also cited Television rating agency Audience Measurement and Analytics Limited as reportedly revealing that, “Bigg Boss” gained substantially from Pamela Anderson’s appearance.

“Big Boss”, in its fourth season, follows the “Big Brother” format. Filmfare winner Bollywood megastar Salman Khan (Tere Naam), 44, is the current presenter.

Anderson joined ten remaining housemates, who included Bollywood actors, models, singer, former dacoit, and wrestler. British celebrity Jade Goody appeared in this show in 2008.

Thrice divorced/annulled MTV nominated Pamela Anderson (Baywatch), 43, is a Canadian-American actress-model-author-producer-former Playboy Playmate.

She is vegetarian and an animal rights activist, Zed concluded in his long email release on the subject.

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Kelley, OR, United States (AHN) – The Coast Guard has ended its search for a father who fell from his boat while sailing with his family in the Columbia River.

Rescuers searched for the 46-year-old, whose identity has not been released, after he went overboard about 4 p.m. on Sunday near Kelley, OR. The man was on board his 65-foot vessel with three other people, who told authorities he was not wearing a life jacket when the accident took place.

KGW television reported that the man fell from the vessel after he leaned on his chair and the chair broke. One of his three teenage children on board the boat, named “Bad Dog,” steered the family back to the pier.

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Location, Location, Location:
An often overlooked aspect of marketing begins even before you open your doors. The most important element in real estate also pertains to the pet boutique retail business; location, location; location. Even with the most extensive marketing and advertising schedule, if the location is poor it will be difficult to succeed. Before choosing a location or relocation, establish your target market. Once you have established what type of clientele your store will cater to, choose a location that compliments the store. For example, if you are selling mostly food, choose a strip mall location next to a major grocery store with plenty of foot traffic. If you are a high end pet boutique, choose a city location with a large population or a high end tourist destination. Also make sure you are highly visible – in other words not around corner or up a lot of stairs. Trust us – we have made the mistake of having a few stairs leading to our store (in our old location; Tails by the Bay in Sausalito, CA) and lost about of the foot traffic due to stairs. These small obstacles can seem miniscule but can greatly affect your traffic flow so consider every little aspect of the location.

Advertising Mediums:
The various advertising mediums include newspaper, magazine, television, radio internet and phone book. Each avenue has advantages and disadvantages and what works for your store will depend on various issues but the best method to take is to try and see what works for your particular store. That being said, there are different aspects and important points for each medium you should consider. Newspaper advertising can be expensive but look into smaller local papers that have lower prices. These papers are generally read by most of the town and can be very effective with advertising sales, new items or just the store location and general product selection. For higher end boutiques, magazines are a great way to advertise a high end image with a classy high gloss ad. Radio can also be an effective medium as it has more of a personality then a print ad. The radio ad can tell a story about your store and include more information then a print ad. Radio is also very effective to advertise sales and events. Another extremely important advertising tactic is television. Don’t shy away from television due to high cost – in most instances, it’s less expensive then print. Local television commercials can be low as $1-2 an ad on stations such as Animal Planet, Comedy Central and MSN. Also, similar to radio, it’s more effective at showing the uniqueness of the store and will most likely intrigue the customer more then print. Finally, the internet can be an effective advertising tool – make sure you are in all the local “where to shop” listings including Yahoo Yellow Pages and look into websites such as http://www.shoplocal.com and http://www.yokel.com. Also, the internet can be an effective tool to advertise your store events; look into your local event websites in your area. Typically the event listings are free, especially if they are benefiting a local charity. Of course, if you also have an internet website as well as a retail location, internet advertising is the best avenue to advertise your website because the customer is already online shopping for pet items. Which advertising avenue works for you will depend on your specific store so don’t be afraid to try different mediums to see what works best for your unique retail shop. However, don’t switch haphazardly; make sure to give your chosen advertising a chance to work for you. Celia Sack & Paula Harris from Noe Valley Pet Co in San Francisco, CA recommend, “We like the regularity of advertising in the same places over the years, because we believe seeing an ad over time will stick in consumers’ minds. Businesses often make the mistake of offering coupons to see if their ads are working, and when they get no coupons back, they switch to a different medium for advertising. You rarely get coupons back, but that doesn’t mean your ad isn’t being seen.”

Budget:
An important consideration is your advertising & marketing budget. The standard rule for advertising expenditure nationally is 5-7% of sales but this doesn’t take into account your markup or your rent or type of store. A better rule of thumb for smaller retail stores such as ours is not to spend less then 3% of sales on advertising and marketing. Also, as mentioned previously expensive rent for a high-visibility location is often the best advertising as you will need to advertise significantly less then a similar business with an average location. Also, look into co-op advertising with vendors to keep advertising costs down. Or team up with local rescue organizations to host events at your store. Often the free press for helping a rescue group combined with the rescue groups advertising and client base will help with a significant amount of the advertising and marketing cost.

Events:
As just mentioned events can be a hugely successful way to advertise and market your store for little expense. The event itself may not yield huge sales, but the exposure and good will can benefit your store significantly. Try adoption days, holiday events such as Santa paws photos or a Halloween costume contest. Or create a truly unique event that will draw patrons from near and far. To counter act the cost of the event, you can co-op with vendors, event sponsors, rescue groups or other retail stores in the vicinity. Sponsoring local events in your community is another great way for exposure for little expenditure. Celia & Paula from Noe Valley Pet Co recommend, “The best advertising we do is sponsoring and donating to events, festivals, etc. Businesses often don’t see this as advertising, but it is the best kind, because you’re also doing something charitable, and consumers appreciate that you’re giving back to the community.”

Author: Lori Dotterweich
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rates

Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) – It is television premiere season and Nickelodeon is no exception. The next few weeks will see two new hour-long specials of preschool faves “Go Diego, Go!” and “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan” premiering on the top kids network.

After Dora took the spotlight with her 10th anniversary birthday celebration this summer, Diego returns with an all-new one hour special. In “Diego’s International Rescue League,” we find our hero on a big animal rescue mission where he and a team of rescuers have to return five eggs to their correct habitats in order to earn their World Rescuers’ Patch.

Then in the special hour-long episode “Princess Kai-lan,” actress Lucy Liu (“Charlie’s Angels,” “Kill Bill Vol. 1″) guests on “Ni Hao, Kai-lan.” Liu, who currently lends her voice talents to fairy Silvermist in the “Tinker Bell” series, will join Kai-Lan, Rintoo and the rest of the gang as the voice of the Bear Queen. The Bear Queen has to join forces with the Fox King have foxes and bears become friends and unite the kingdom.

The special episode of “Go Diego, Go!”, “Diego’s International Rescue League,” premieres Friday, September 24th, at 10am ET/PT on Nickelodeon. The “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” special “Princess Kai-lan” premieres Friday, October 8th at 1pm ET/PT on Nickelodeon. Both specials will be be available for viewing on Nick Mobile.

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