Ad Value : Creative Promotions Do the Job
Pattikay Gottlieb had an unusual idea for a business: decorating lawns with plastic flamingos, cows and other animals for special events. By trial and error, she learned some creative ways to advertise her unique services and decide how much to charge. Gottlieb was interviewed by Karen Kaplan.
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When I got married in my mother’s garden, my brother had it decorated with plastic pink flamingos as a joke. But everyone got such a kick out of them that I decided to quit my job in advertising and make a business out of lawn decorations.
Since I come from an advertising background, I am an absolute firm believer in advertising. I thought the best way to get my business off the ground would be to launch a print campaign in some of the community newspapers. But it didn’t work, because I was selling such an unusual service and people just didn’t get it. My ads had pictures of lawns decorated with plastic flamingos and cows, and people were calling up asking if they could buy a single cow.
I also bought an ad in the Yellow Pages my first year, and I think it has generated about 29 cents worth of business. The ad did nothing because people truly don’t know where to look for a service like mine. It’s listed under “party favors and decorations,” but that’s not really an accurate description.
I soon realized that I was getting far more calls from people who were driving by a decorated yard. I decided that the best way to build up my business was for people to see my product.
I drove all over looking for houses on high-traffic streets in residential neighborhoods. Then I did a mailing to those houses explaining my new business and offering to do a complimentary yard decoration setup.
When I decorated a yard, I would blanket a three-block radius with postcards and brochures describing my business. I used those postcards like confetti. I can buy about 2,000 four-color postcards for the price of a single quarter-page ad in a community newspaper. When I set up a yard decoration in a high-profile street, I would get anywhere from one dozen to three dozen phone calls by noon. Those calls allowed me to build up a really quality mailing list, which I’ve used to mail out brochures every six weeks or so.
Coming up with a price was also a bit tricky. I talked to a lot of people and asked them how much they would charge. I knew how much my supplies cost and what my operating expenses were, and I knew how much money I needed to bring in to meet my target profit margins. At a certain point I added it all up and divided by how many jobs I could do and came up with a base price of $79.
Over the last two years, prices have gone up and people have been saying they thought that price was cheap, so I raised the base price this year to $99. If a job is outside my normal delivery range or if it is customized in some way, the price is higher.
This business is really a hoot. It’s been a challenge, but fortunately people share my sense of humor.
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AT A GLANCE
Company name: Garden Greetings
Owner: Pattikay Gottlieb
Nature of business: Yard decoration rental company
Location: Los Angeles
Year founded: 1994
Number of employees: 1
Annual sales: Expecting $75,000 this year
