COMPETITOR PASSING OUT FLYERS IN YOUR LAUNDROMAT PARKING LOT
By: “Laundromat 123”
It's a good idea to get to know the operators of neighboring stores, especially for new owners. New owners often have a lot to learn, including the unwritten rule of not advertising in, at, or around, a competitor's store. Stay out of their parking lots with your flyers. Some new owners just don't know the unwritten rules of Laundromat competition. Others believe it’s okay to directly promote to customers from neighboring stores. In time, you’ll discover there is no long-term benefit in doing an advertising blitz that intrudes on your neighbor’s space. Try to get along with your competition, if possible, and try not to turn them into long-term enemies.
If you’re an existing owner, and your new competitor believes you're weak and unable to respond, there are ways to stop the passing out of advertising in or outside your store, you can hire a minimum wage, personable and presentable young person to hand out your flyers outside their store. They should get the message.
If not, the second response I've used is parking a box van with my advertising on the sides outside their front door. "Free soda and candy for the kids with a clown and balloons on Saturdays and better washers and dryers just two blocks down the street. Make us your Laundromat. We appreciate your business." This usually results in a surrender. I advise calm conversation as your first choice. Nobody wants to bring unneeded stress to yourself and your workers; but you can't allow unfair and unreasonable tactics being used against you.
Sending out a post card (good idea by the way) or doing a distribution of flyers to an area is acceptable behavior. What is not acceptable is putting flyers on the windshields of cars parked in the lot of a competitor, or even worse handing out flyers or talking to their customers in or outside their Laundromat or in the surrounding parking lot.
Any attempt to overtly attract specific customers away from another's location is just plain unfair, unacceptable and worthy of anger and response. Your marketing area already knows about your Laundromat. If you’re a new store, a grand opening should be promoted and will usually be well attended. There are agencies that can mail out postcards to all housing units in a few selected four-digit zip codes for a very reasonable price. The creation of a Google map entry will reveal you to those folks who rely on their smart phones when the search “Laundromat near me.” In time, a small investment in a web page that shows pictures and services of your store can be useful. Outside signs notifying the neighborhood that you’re now open for business is great. Let your creative side flourish, just not in the parking lots of other owners.
Advertising, search lights, large inflated animals on your building's roof, grand openings, a clown outside your store twirling a sign, newspaper posts, radio/television spots, flyers and post cards are all fair play. Just not directly at, near, on or in other owners Laundromats. Period.