Creative Advertising with the Welcome Wagon - Page 2© Bonny Albo
Page 2
Apr 28, 1998
that I personally had to follow while being a part of the Baby Welcome program in my community.
(The following is by no means a comprehensive list of what every Welcome Wagon
program will ask for, but just a guide so as to decide if this form of publicity
suits you and your business.)
- A limited number of home-based businesses in each territory are
allowed.
Since I live in Burnaby, B.C., Canada, there were numerous territories that
were no longer available to me - such as Burnaby. Instead, I chose outlying
areas which, I felt, would want the personalized service that I give all of my
customers by coming to their home to view the products, instead of them
having to travel a half an hour or more to a store.
- A $300 deposit was required from all home based businesses.
- A 12-month contract.
- A free item, with no strings attached, to be given to the recipients of the
program(s) that I specified. This item had to be supplied three months in
advance, at the Welcome Wagon's request. Because of the locations of the parents that I
had chosen, this worked out to be approximately 50 items a month.
- All of the free items also had to be approved by the hospital, since they
would
be given out at the hospital. This meant no food, no "alternative therapies"
(this ruled out the aromatherapy samples that I was planning on giving), and
nothing that would detract from the hospital's policies (i.e., breastfeeding,
etc.).
Now, you might be thinking that this seems to be a lot of output for a very small return.
That is exactly what I thought as well, before I really sat back and thought about it. When
I received my package in the hospital, I was overjoyed. (Yes, I am sure that the hormone
cocktail that was churning through me had a lot to do with it...but a stranger walking in
giving me free stuff? I remember little of that day - except for my daughter's beautiful
face, and the Welcome Wagon visit.) I questioned myself - did I frequent the companies
that had given me their company information? Yes. Was it because of the service and
product information that I had received in the hospital? Yes. I had made a conscious
effort to do business with those companies...and even to this day many of those great
first impressions still stand. And as for the business aspect of the situation, my response has been phenomenal. After
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