Haunt Owners & Marketers - I NEED YOUR HELP!!

[TheDarkestHour]

Hi, guys,

I have actually gone back to school this year, and I am taking some Business and Marketing classes that are really helping me. I have an assignment where I need to talk to at least 2 different business owners, or marketers, and have them answer the questions below. My main project for this class is creating a Marketing business plan for my haunt, so I figure, what better group of people to interview than other haunt owners. If you guys could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it!!

1) What do you like most and what do you like least about what you do?
2) Describe to me in as much detail as you can, without telling me about your product or service, how would you describe your ideal customer?
3) Which different types of marketing activities does your company perform? ... include anything and everything that helps your business promote, advertise, and get your company/product/service noticed by potential customers; for example which social media outlets (facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, linkedIn etc...) do you use, or trade show/conferences, any magazines, radio, mailers, websites, SEO tactics, resellers / partner business, brochures, business cards, etc...?
4) Of your answers to question # 3, what is the Return on Investment (ROI) for each activity or how do you measure the success of the activity?
5) From which marketing activity do most of your customers come from? and Why?
6) What is the most challenging aspect of conducting marketing activities in your industry?
7) If you could change anything within your company marketing activities what would you do? And Why?
8) What advice would you give someone interested to get into a marketing related type of career?

Thank you so much everyone!

[Grey Lady]

Hi, guys,

I have actually gone back to school this year, and I am taking some Business and Marketing classes that are really helping me. I have an assignment where I need to talk to at least 2 different business owners, or marketers, and have them answer the questions below. My main project for this class is creating a Marketing business plan for my haunt, so I figure, what better group of people to interview than other haunt owners. If you guys could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it!!

1) What do you like most and what do you like least about what you do?
2) Describe to me in as much detail as you can, without telling me about your product or service, how would you describe your ideal customer?
3) Which different types of marketing activities does your company perform? ... include anything and everything that helps your business promote, advertise, and get your company/product/service noticed by potential customers; for example which social media outlets (facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, linkedIn etc...) do you use, or trade show/conferences, any magazines, radio, mailers, websites, SEO tactics, resellers / partner business, brochures, business cards, etc...?
4) Of your answers to question # 3, what is the Return on Investment (ROI) for each activity or how do you measure the success of the activity?
5) From which marketing activity do most of your customers come from? and Why?
6) What is the most challenging aspect of conducting marketing activities in your industry?
7) If you could change anything within your company marketing activities what would you do? And Why?
8) What advice would you give someone interested to get into a marketing related type of career?

Thank you so much everyone!

Hi Tanner,
I don't know how much help I can be, I've only been open for 1 season but here goes...
1) I love how much my customers and the staff enjoy attending/participating in my business.
What I like least codes, fire codes, building codes, any kind of code. Necessary yes, still hate them.

2) My ideal customer(s) is a pack of 13 to 15 year old girls with an allowance.

3) I use facebook, newspaper, TV and guerilla tactics like flyers on cars at high school football games (thx Larry). I also have a page on hauntworld.com and am currently building my own website.

4) & 5) Facebook, TV story, flyers were free except for the ream of paper used for the flyers but a bit labor intensive. The newspaper ads were expensive however, in return I received a front page 'above the fold' story. Success rate= Facebook, TV and newspaper were the most effective for getting the word out in my geography, I learned this by polling customers. The ROI is pretty crappy right now but I am building and optimistic.

6) For me the price of most standard types of marketing is the biggest challenge. Also, young people are my target audience and through technology their attention is greatly divided different electronic devices, apps, etc. finding the exact combination to catch their attention is daunting.

7) I would like to partner with a local pumpkin patch and the Halloween costume store for advertising/marketing. This would benefit us each for marketing dollars and also we could market as the autumn/Halloween place to be.

8) no answer

Hope this is of some help to you,
Jan/grey lady

[TheDarkestHour]

Thank you Jan! I was worried no one would respond!

[Grey Lady]

You're welcome Tanner. Hope the classes are going well!
Jan

[BigT]

Hi Tanner,

No one knows this, but I am actually Director of Product Marketing for Oracle. Haunting is my passion, but marketing pays for my passion. Here are my thoughts:

) What do you like most and what do you like least about what you do?
I have always been a bit of a performer. In marketing I get the opportunity to stand in front of an audience a lot. Sometimes its a few people, sometimes its thousands of people. Major events, customer meetings, its all fun for me. What I don't like is all the bureaucracy stuff we have to do.

2) Describe to me in as much detail as you can, without telling me about your product or service, how would you describe your ideal customer?
One who buys something! LOL. Seriously, an attentive audience is always the best audience. I don't like it when they are arrogant, or demanding. I have to often deal with very unprofessional customers and that is never pleasant.

3) Which different types of marketing activities does your company perform? ... include anything and everything that helps your business promote, advertise, and get your company/product/service noticed by potential customers; for example which social media outlets (facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, linkedIn etc...) do you use, or trade show/conferences, any magazines, radio, mailers, websites, SEO tactics, resellers / partner business, brochures, business cards, etc...?
You name it, we do it. Social media, major events, and so on and so on. We have a major event in Spain every year where we have "branded" cars (with custom skins) for transporting important customers. We have buses wearing our skins. Everywhere you turn, you will see our logo. Once a year we hold Oracle Open World in San Francisco, where we take over the city. Its huge, and brings a lot of people into the city (about 50,000-70,000). We use Internet marketing through tools like Eloqua and services like DataLogix (look them up - we just bought them).

4) Of your answers to question # 3, what is the Return on Investment (ROI) for each activity or how do you measure the success of the activity?
That data I don't have. But we have to have a good ROI if we are going to be given budget the following year for the event.

5) From which marketing activity do most of your customers come from? and Why?
Another metric I don't have. Given we have a direct sales force, it is hard to determine which customers come from sales calls and which ones come from marketing activity.

6) What is the most challenging aspect of conducting marketing activities in your industry?
Getting ahead of the competition. Keeping the message fresh, and relevant is the secret. We change messaging and thought leadership on a regular basis. That applies to the haunt business as well by the way. If you use the same old phrases and marketing dialog, stories, etc, all need to be refreshed with new ideas. Even the scenes we create and our characters need to be refreshed.

7) If you could change anything within your company marketing activities what would you do? And Why?
Press releases more often. We don't do a lot of them now for a variety of reasons,

8) What advice would you give someone interested to get into a marketing related type of career?
Marketing and sales are closely related. I have done both. Its a partnership. The closer you are to sales and the sales process, the better you understand what needs to be done in marketing. If you are going to work for a multi-national company as I do, learn about the cultures you do business in. I travel all over the world, and understanding culture and regional traditions goes a long way! For a haunt, look at your demographics. The census provides this data, and it can be very telling. I found out that the town my haunt was located in had like a 28% unemployment rate, high poverty level, and a median income of around $35,000 a year. Not very promising for a business that needs to grow, and is based on entertainment.

Hope this helps!

[TheDarkestHour]

BigT, you sir, are a gentlemen and a scholar. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for me. Both of you!

[drfrightner]

Let me take a stab at answering your questions... <br><br><br>1) What do you like most and what do you like least about what you do?</font></span></font><br><br>i love doing creative things.&nbsp; I hate Halloween now because running the haunt has ruined it.&nbsp; If I ever retire Halloween will go back to being my favorite holiday and I'll actually try to enjoy it. <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">2)
Describe to me in as much detail as you can, without telling me about
your product or service, how would you describe your ideal customer? </font></span></font><br><br>they just want to do something different... keep in mind mini golf, go karts, amusement parks, bowling, blah, blah going to the movies all summer some all year then Halloween comes people looking for something else to do something different <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">3)
Which different types of marketing activities does your company
perform? ... include anything and everything that helps your business
promote, advertise, and get your company/product/service noticed by
potential customers; for example which social media outlets (facebook,
twitter, pinterest, instagram, linkedIn etc...) do you use, or trade
show/conferences, any magazines, radio, mailers, websites, SEO tactics,
resellers / partner business, brochures, business cards, etc...?</font></span></font><br><br>most of the social media platforms you mentioned do not actually work that well especially for the amount of effort you must put into them.&nbsp; they are more hype than results.&nbsp; Youtube is the best marketing platform in my opinion.&nbsp; Hauntworld is my #1 source for graphic outside of Google.&nbsp; Clearly Google is KING because they also own youtube. <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">4)
Of your answers to question # 3, what is the Return on Investment (ROI)
for each activity or how do you measure the success of the activity?</font></span></font><br><br>cost vs return if you spend x and you get y back and y is more than x we have a winner <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">5) From which marketing activity do most of your customers come from? and Why?</font></span></font><br><br>these days its a lot of word of mouth and publicity <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">6) What is the most challenging aspect of conducting marketing activities in your industry?</font></span></font><br><br>there is just too many options... there is a reason sports are getting billions of dollars right now because people want to watch sporting events live in other words NO TIVO so commercials are seen.&nbsp; If you can't afford the super bowl for example well your screwed!&nbsp; LOL <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">7) If you could change anything within your company marketing activities what would you do? And Why?</font></span></font><br><br>i wish it was more simple but it seems to get more complicated by the year. <br><br>
<font color="#333333"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue"><font color="#3366FF">8) What advice would you give someone interested to get into a marketing related type of career?</font></span></font><br><br>leave no stone un-turned and spend the money on what you KNOW WORKS

[TheDarkestHour]

Thanks, Larry.

[drfrightner]

Sorry my post is so messed up! I was trying to post it left my house came back it logged me out when i tried to hit send... Larry

[TheDarkestHour]

No worries, I just removed all the junk when I submitted it.

Thanks again, to all of you, it's much appreciated! You saved me a lot of time!

[hauntfarm]

We don't have a huge budget for marketing by some standards but what we do well is connecting with our customers who enjoy what we do. We send out direct mailings, mass emails, and we also participate in local fairs and parades. You can make a lot out of staying connected with your local community.