Rook's Comics and Games

 I have talked before about the difference between marketing and advertizing.  If we do any type of effort to reach new customers, we want it to be cheap, targeted and effective.  This is what I consider marketing.  Advertizing on the other hand is usually expensive, non-targeted and often (though not necessarily) ineffective.  A great example of this idea is what we recently set up with the Procrastinator Theater.  The Procrastinator is a student run movie theater at MSU.  They show movies that are usually just about to go to DVD.  For example, this week they are showing Zombieland and Whip It.  By showing these older movies they can set the admission price very low, around $2.  The theatre is on campus so the movie goers are almost exclusively MSU students and MSU students are one of our target demographics. 

The Procrastinator , along with providing cheap movies, also likes to run short silly little trivia contests before their shows. Local businesses provide prizes for the winners of these competitions. This set up is great for us since we have quite a few products that are fairly inexpensive and relate well to movies that we can donate as prizes. At this point we plan on providing the Procrastinator with about $120 of product a month.  That is retail value so our cost is lower than that.  In return, they put our logo and name up on the movie screen before the movie starts.  In addition, the Procrastinator gives away our product every week and makes sure to mention it was from Rook's.  The audience is very targeted; meaning the number of customers or potential customers in the audience is very high.  This type of marketing is also very effective because we are giving something away.  If we give someone the first volume of an 11 volume story, they will likely come to us to read the other 10 volumes.  This can also help us get to critical mass on our game nights.  Getting people to come to some of our lower attended nights such as board game night helps everyone one in the group. 

This is the type of marketing that I want to continue doing throughout the year.  This was one of my goals for 2010 and this particular relationship should work out great.  Once we get a month or two with the Procrastinator I will report back on how it is doing.  Also, if you are wondering about the Procrastinator, check out their Facebook page.