Reacting to Grocery Cart Ads

Last Friday at Transparent Real Estate, I discussed how real estate marketing is still done using the mass marketing approach - mass mailings, bus stop signage, etc. - even at the local level. There are more efficient ways to reach your potential customer...

Back to mass marketing... I've always been intrigued with the ultimate Realtor marketing vehicle - grocery shopping carts. You never see any other profession plastering their faces (usually with a pet in tow) on these utilitarian vehicles. Sometimes they make a subliminal impression, sometimes they provoke a "whoever thought this up?" reaction and point out that these carts and their ads fall into an image of disrepair as homeless luggage bins or just trashed in vacant lots.

Here's another grocery advertising idea that deserves criticism - plastering ads on those grocery conveyor belts. These belts always have wet spots that seems like pools of contaminants; I imagine leaking blood from those packaged steaks... so who would want to have their brand name faces associated with grocery detritus? And have your potential customer become dizzy and irritated trying to see your phone number after they've placed their milk carton on top of it?

--Pat Kitano, Transparent Real Estate

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