Take a Coffee Mug No Please Take Another
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure! In the collecting community Scouting coffee mugs are kinda a curse. Many of us have boxes of them through purchasing collections or just years spent in the program. Last night I discovered that at a round table meeting featuring dozens of Scouting volunteers mugs are a pretty cool giveaway item! I was there to promote the Charlotte TOR and at the end of the meeting everyone was asked to take home a flier and a mug that included a business card for the event tucked inside.
What does it take to get people to turn out to a Trade-O-Ree? If you look at the calendar included in today’s issue you can see between now and the summer I list over 20 shows scattered across the country. Covering your bases with the die hard collectors is not that hard. What I’m trying to do with the Charlotte TOR (an idea that others might want to consider) is taking my marketing to the real Scouts and Scouters in the local council.
Over the next two months I’ll continue to give up the 2nd Thursday or the month (yes including February 14th) to attend the remaining round tables in the council and put fliers in the hands of Pack and Troop leaders. Our show also gives free tables to the council Scout shop and OA lodge for them to make a profit. That in turn makes it easier for us to promote at the council office and lodge events.
The last piece of this marketing strategy is reaching out beyond the local folks that have an easy drive. Again this year I hope to find collectors in each of the surrounding dozen+ councils that will hand out fliers at a spring OA event. I’ve also got a separate email list built focused on eBay buyers in the southeastern USA that I send messages to when it’s closer to time for the TOR. It’s kinda the leave no stone unturned strategy. My philosophy is not everyone will come but at least everyone will know it’s happening.
I share all these points in order to suggest to everyone involved with a TOR that it’s no longer the case that if you build it they will come. With eBay and Facebook it’s way to easy for collectors to get their patch fix. So you have to make the TOR be a can’t miss event. I also think you need to try as hard as possible to draw in the regular Joe Scouter that has a mild interest in all this but hasn’t drank the Kool-Aid.
Sunday’s issue will feature the first episode of Thread Heads in about 4 years! Yes the video show that Brad England and I record is back and Episode #12 is already in the can ready to go!