Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Next Trade Show Appearance - Doyle Show 2008

Look for the MN Chapter Table at the Doyle Trade Show on Saturday, September 20, 2008.

Second Annual Locksmith Swap Meet

EL Reinhardt hosted the Second Annual Minnesota Chapter of ALOA Swap Meet at their location on Saturday, August 16th.

ELR kept the big top over from their Customer Appreciation Day - it was a great venue and a great day and I can hardly think how to thank Ken and the rest of his staff who showed up to support us on such a beautiful Satuday.

Rosemarie went above and beyond with baked goods of exceedingly high quality and very reasonable price, we had an ALOA table with membership information and donated items for sale, and a great team of people who made set-up and take-down a breeze.

All proceeds from the ALOA table, bake sale and table fees went to the George Hall Scholarship fund and we raised nearly $400.

The only real hitch was, like last year, rather less total participation than we had hoped for. The participants we had were utterly first rate - but we could use a few more.

We're already thinking of next year so if you didn't come this year, we want to know why!

Please don't be shy about submitting suggestions via the comments below (you can do so anonymously) or by e-mailing Rebecca or Rosemarie (contact info at upper right).

EL Reinhardt Customer Appreciation Day

On August 14th EL Reinhardt hosted their Annual Customer Appreciation Day and Trade Show!

There was a Big Top tent in the parking lot, great BBQ, a good crowd and - right in the middle of everything - the Minnesota Chapter of ALOA booth.

That's two trade shows in a row and, folks, I think we're on a roll!

We had a nice selection of literature including Learning Curve Brochures, membership applications and Keys to Hiring a Locksmith marketing mock ups.

What's that last thing, you say? Well, it's deceptively simple: Rosemarie fixed up a double-sided 3x5 handout with tips for choosing a good locksmith. The idea is that we would bind 50 or so of these mini-flyers into a pad and provide them to individuals in the locksmithing community for a nominal fee.

Locksmiths would purchase the pads of flyers (proceeds to the marketing fund) and then have a handy source of self promotional material to hand out to customers and potential customers.

The flyer outlines techniques for and benefits of selecting a qualified, professional locksmith: it promotes our entire industry, reminds people of the quality of service they should expect for the money they spend, and includes a modest endorsement for membership in the local chapter of ALOA.

We have some fine tuning to do on the wording, but thus far the flyers have been met with broad approval, interest and maybe even a little enthusiasm!

Our next step will be to print a run and see how they go.