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They Hold Groceries, They Don't Sell Real Estate

I understand the need to market yourself. I understand the need to put your face out there. The thing that I find funny are the agents who really feel that "they've arrived" in the business by putting their face on the front of a shopping cart.

Do these agents realize that at least 25% of these carts are eventually abandoned and left in a state of disrepair that wouldn't be conducive to generating business?

What is the logic that jumps into the Real Estate agent's head that makes a person say, "Eureka, when someone is shopping for Little Juan Burritos, English Muffins, and Lard, I want my face all over that advertising situation!"

The shocking thing is that agents keep doing it. Do they have any measurable results? "Thanks to 10 grocery carts, I was able to close one sale." Like lemmings, the agents keep jumping on the advertising band wagon to buy up grocery cart space, and it is so lucrative that there are no less than 4 surfaces on each cart that can be exploited for advertising purposes, and apparently each one of those cart surfaces represents a HUGE market share.

Even more shocking is that agents don't seem to mind if their marketing is commingled with can collection efforts and the furthest thing from a qualified buyer that aluminum recycling represents.

The next time you think that advertising on a grocery cart might be a good idea, think of one at the bottom of a ravine, in an industrial area, upside down, with your picture on it, and a mustache made of mud enhancing your photo. That's likely the way some of that advertising will end up.

It's not pretty, but it is true.

Posted by Rory Siems on 03/13/2007 11:50 PM

Comments (60)

marketing, shopping carts

60 Comments on They Hold Groceries, They Don't Sell Real Estate

MAR

2007

This actually made me laugh cause I was at Fry's today and thought the exact same thing. I mean why does this strike anyone as a good idea? You might as well put your name and face on tissue paper, it just makes no sense.

Rory.... such a great point. I hardly even read what is on the flaps of a grocery cart. Great post in regards to how to market yourself and how not to. Meaning.... do some research first. Just because others are doing it, doesn't mean that it's good. And last, yes, how would one determine if it truly works in regards to stats. The only way that I could think of it is when they receive a lead....ask, how did you hear about me. And just play those numbers games... good post in regards to awareness.

jeff belonger

MAR

2007

The truth is, we real estate professionals (as a group) will buy ANYTHING if we think it will help us make one more sale. I have joked for a couple of years that when I grow weary of selling real estate, I'll just sell stuff to real estate professionals instead....

I'm not sure that putting the agent's photo on a classified home ad is really any different. I mean, what are we telling our sellers we're selling: ourselves, or their homes??? But at least the classified ad has some connection between homes and ourselves. The grocery cart? I have no idea and cannot justify it.

You make some great points.

Rory ~ Shopping carts are where the babies with dirty diapers sit. :)

Isn't that a lovely picture?

Ok.. don't laugh but way back.. I actually did this.. I was amazed that people do recognize you from the carts.. don't know that I directly ever got any business.. but they knew who I was.. Beats the heck out of a bus bench or a phone booth..

Rory- I think the average is 20 shopping carts-10 packages of Little Juan Burritos- a bench outside the store with your name and picture of you, graffitied up and a chewing gum wrapper to 1 sale (possibly a rental if you are lucky!!!)-I'm changing my marketing plan to include skywritting-thanks for the insight!

Rort,

While I agree with you that this is not very smart in my idea however I will give them credit for trying to get their name in the community. I also don't think there is 25% waste of those things in my community. dont get me wrong, I do not spend my advertising dollars that way but I do try to find new creative ways to market.

Branding. That is the only purpose of the shopping cart advertisement. Think of the cleverness of reinforcing your direct mail and door knocking. You can't get business from having your car wrapped or having a bus stop or phone booth tagged. You can't get business from the shopping cart and the conveyer belt dividers (they got em also!) You can get business through name reinforcement through what I said above: a combination of marketing efforts to get you out there. Nope I don't do the shopping carts or conveyer dividers. I am just pointing out the marketing psychology behind it. I do make sure the checkers have my coolio pens that cost me a fraction of what the other agents are paying for their shopping cart advertising et al!

Great points from Rory and Renee. I agree at face value, it seems like a stupid idea, as do so many other marketing campaigns I see around here, but getting your face/name on everything you can increases your chances of someone seeing you enough times that you finally stick in their mind. Personally, I use more face-to-face & referral approaches, however there is some merit to the seemingly ridiculous marketing attempts.

Rory,

I see this at my grocery store all of the time...but I never see this agent's name actually around on the listings. Makes one wonder...

I see bus stop chiars that have agents names all over them in central Florida.......they look nice but I wonder how much of an ROI they get for it.

BTW I would never do the grocery cart thing...... MAYBE I would do the "Back of the receipt" thing tho....

hehehehehe...I see them all the time at Publics, Albersons, etc...

Like any advertising it could work - if you were on every cart in an area for months or years. Who has that kind of budget?

Rory, I'm not one for alot of face advertising, but I do agree with Renee. Branding especially in a smaller community will get you noticed. I never really thought about it until I was recognized in a bar. My picture is on my companies website in alot of areas where I work. The woman who recognized me said she knew me from somewhere but couldn't place me. I thought it was probably through a mutual friend. Then she figured it out. She had been looking for property through our site. Next, we started talking real estate. It didn't materialize into anything, but having my face in front of her got us into a real estate conversation. Although I wouldn't spend my advertising dollars on shopping carts, being in the public eye doesn't hurt.

Branding is the name of the game. And folks it is not marketing and it is not advertising, it is Public Relations. It is about putting your face in front of the entire community until you become a household name. If you expect ROI or business this is not the way to go. However, if you do like I did and take the biggest supermarket in the area slap your name and face on those carts for 3 or 4 years, I guarantee, you will be a household name and that the money that you do spend on your actual advertising and marketing will be much more effective.

You should not just slam that which you don't understand. This is an effective way to become extremely well known in your community, if you have the budget.

I think I would rather have my face on a super market cart than on the door inside the public 'johns'.

There are sooo many types of advertising ==> leading to branding out there. Would I put my mug on a shopping cart? Probably not. But I'm not going to make the claim its not effective...

Rory, I agree with you! I have another question. Does placing a magnet sign on the side of your car bring in any business? I did this for three years and only received two calls and no actual business. So I quit doing it.

Funny story about shopping cart ads. I'm friends with a Realtor who once called another Realtor who had advertised on shopping carts. My friend pretended to be someone who's car had been run into by one of "his" shopping carts -- "And what are you going to do about it? YOUR shopping cart damaged my car door!" He really had him going but eventually told him who he was and they had a laugh over it.

But as for getting your name out there ... someone from another agency does that here, and I'm having trouble remembering who. It didn't make much of an impression with me and I AM a Realtor!

In L.A., the guys that sell those shopping cart ads (also the guys that sell those supermarket TV guides, bus benches, and theatre handouts, etc.) are usually very VERY obnoxious, high pressure sales types. Sometimes it takes a real effort to get rid of them. And they keep at it. I can imagine some agents signing a contract just to make them go away!

Everyone, practice these lines: "No, thank you." "I'm not interested." "No, thank you." "I have an appointment." "No, thank you." "Please get the F** out of my office."

Keep an open mind. What if you found out that for every $1000 invested you would get $10,000 in return? Without those numbers, you can't say if it's good or bad. I hate the thought of calling expired listings but some people are very successful at it.

I don't get the point about carts ending up in the dump. Where do postcards and magazine ad end up?

I would like to know more about Little Juans Burritos...

I was just checking them out at my local Albertsons. Much like my red Keller Williams yard sign, complete with my photo. I figure it's a matter of time before a tooth gets blacked out or a mustache is drawn on the photo. The last sign I had made I actually contemplated having devil horns put on it. I figured if I vandalized it somehow, everyone else would leave it alone and I wouldn't be moustached!

I have never advertised on the shopping card but it can be an effective tool, I actually knew an agent who did this at the two supermarkets in her town and she had the biggest market share , the consumers saw her face all the time so when it came to real estate they called her. I assume this type of branding would work well in a small town.

Ok, I get the branding thing. My only request is that (if you are dead set on using your picture) people use a recent picture. If you are 104 years old, please do not use the airbrushed thing from when you were 32.

Chris - I am starting to give away toasters. Yes. Really.

Lastly, I too would like more information about Little Juan Burritos.

If you sink all your marketing dollars into just shopping cart ads...then no, it won't do anything for you. Add it into an all inclusive marketing campaign, and it will work. As said before, it's about branding. If you farm an area with postcards, newsletters - whatever you do to farm, then add this on top of it...you have a great opportunity to brand yourself. There are two top producers in my area that do it in separate stores. So either they just have money to burn...or it's working as part of their overall ad campaign

Like Ravi said, if it is all you do, it is not a good thing, but as part of your plan it can be effective. I was part of a Real Estate Team where we had a percentage of the carts (we split the exclusivity three ways -- a bank, us and a restaurant) and an ad on the receipts. We were in 3 (on a rotational basis) of the free publications that people picked up on the way out of the store. We had ads in both newspapers. We sent regular mailings to those that lived in the community along with a strong internet advertising.

Now, could I go to that grocery store looking like a mess -- no, and I would wear my badge and I would pick up conversations with people. Did every member of our team shop there almost daily -- yes. It was about exposure and being seen everywhere. The grocery store was a natural extension of that. We all volunteered in various areas of the community and we networked extensively. Never once did we see it as the way we made money -- but as part of the way to get our logo out there. Everything was the same and consistent...

Little Juan Burritos come in economy packs or are also sold individually. You can't advertise on them, only on the surface of the grocery carts that potentially contain them. They are available across the US in most major shopping markets.

At the very least, I'd rather advertise in the coupon mailers somehow. Think about it this way, when people go to the store, they make a list, they use coupons. People RARELY if ever make a list while at the store, that says:

TO DO:

"Drycleaning"

"Oil Change"

"Buy House"

There are so many agents who do the shopping cart advertising, that in every market, there are 5-6 different agents "duking it out" for the hearts and minds of your basic cereal shopper.

Back in the 80's when I was in the consumer products business, one of our largest customers (a big drug store chain) started having advertising messages scroll across a screen at the check outs. The cost was enormous for the return, but the hammer they would swing was a "wash our hands, we'll wash yours" type of message. We used to joke that soon they would be selling ad space on every floor tile.

The general public is bombarded now with many times more ad messages than they were 25 years ago. Like Colleen said above, this should only be part of a plan and a process to brand yourself. By themselves, grocery cart ads are just that, ads on a grocery cart.

Rory, I am so glad you wrote this post. I have a been advocate for years for Real Estate agents to RAISE THE BAR and improve the image of our industry. If we keep cheapening ourselves by plastering our photos on shopping carts, restaurant menus, street benches, etc. how can we ever expect the public to rate us above car dealers? Also, it amazes me how many Realtors have an ego bigger than Texas! How many sites do you go to that basically say "LOOK AT ME"! When you go to toyota.com or microsoft.com you don't see huge photos of Bill Gates telling us how many millions of dollars of software he sold or the Toyota chairman bragging about how cars he has sold. I wish there was a magical pill we could all take when we get our Real Estate license that would make us all focus more on customer service than on self promotion!

This gave me a real laugh! Seen it on many occassions and it always makes me think of a small child's hinney sitting on the agent's proudly displayed add. There's definitely something wrong with this picture. What's the point and are we really that needey for recognition? I've even seen people cart their small dogs into the grocery store in those carts. Ughh!!! Thanks for another fun post!

This is the second blog today where someone took a swipe at car dealers. Sometimes 'we' think we are better because 'we' try and make someone else look worse. Car salesman have a job to do and do it quite well in my opinion.

Back to the topic at hand - nothing at all wrong with branding, and I would suspect this would be very effective in a small locale.

I find some humor from 'the outside world' looking in (Title)....that Realtors, who have some of the oddest pictures on their business cards (at least HALF of the ones in my recent travels do not look like the person that handed it to me) - find the shopping card idea flat out dumb.

Although I feel that it doesn't hurt to try, I myself don't think that the carts would bring much direct business, I DO think that it would open up some strangers when they see you and recognize you from the carts. Perhaps. I Totally agree with the outdated pictures though. One point that I put into my business plan was to "KEEP PHOTO CURRENT"! Great post. Lots of opinions here!

We had one agent in an old office in my office that spent $15,000 doing this. Nearly bankrupted him and he didn't get a single lead or sale from the advertising.

Geeze, he could have donated $15 K of soup to the homeless and put a business card on each can. :^)

Just shows how much true thought goes into some REALTOR®'s advertising. This was a new one for me in that I haven't seen any of them yet.

In addition to the shopping carts and the bus benches, don't forget about the signs on the small transit buses, the billboards, the little school bus weather shelters, and of course, the car wraps, magnetic car signs, and "use this truck free when I sell your home" which are usually permanently parked in a shopping center lot until the city makes them move it as a violation of sign laws. Brand recognition is one thing. POSITIVE brand recognition is something different.

Chris' plan to add the horns & mustache is very, very funny!

I'll advertise on grocery carts when home buyers start going to the grocery store to find a real estate agent.

Doesn't look like this lady is shopping for an agent.

shopping cart Buy me ... buy me ... get a 2% rebate when you do. (NOT!)

Save 10-cents on a gallon of gas when I list your home. (NOT!)

Hey, kid, you got cookie crumbs all over my suit!!!

Please, don't put that box of Depends next to my ad!

Oh, a bottle of wine ... are we going to celebrate a closing?

If Little Juans Burritos are sold across the country.. Woudl it be a too out of the box idea to advertise ON little juan's burritos?

The thing that keeps going through my head as I read this post (besides the Little Juan Burritos-what a plug for them!) is maybe real estate professionals who use these methods succeed in spite of their own efforts to cheapen their message with bus stop seats, grocery carts, etc. There's a long-time agent with a big two-sided sign in my area on a major street that's got a big picture of her and that she hearts Maple Valley (coming from Covington) and that she hearts Covington (coming from Maple Valley. ) It was defaced weekly with someone blackening in the teeth until the workmen raised it an extra 3 feet higher. I wonder what the ROI is on a sign like that and if it gets her the business she hoped for. I just look at it, and professional or layperson, can't fathom how it would help her businesss. Not like the Little Juan Burritos, anyhow:-)

Eric, I already said that the burritos aren't an open advertising platform.

Sorry, those aren't my rules.

I remember when they were introduced at my local Krogers... the agent that put her face on them was someone I knew well... and was NOT nice...

I bet more people threw their boxes at her than called her from that ad...

needless to say that she was the one kicking and screaming the most when the local high school's senior prank netted about 15 of her signs from the front of her listings!

I was NOT a senior that year!

Ever thought, that just maybe, all those shopping cart ads are sold by former real estate agents?

Who goes to the grocery store anymore? I order mine online and get them delivered and then walk to the Farmer's Market on Sundays for fruit and veggies.

If you want to reach me with advertising it better be online! :)

I'm not sure if grocery stores everywhere have these, but around here they also have little ads on the dividers that divide the groceries on the conveyor belt at the register. We designed a couple types of these for clients and the photos have to be tiny. I would think that the ads get covered by all your groceries!?

I got a good chuckle off this post !

Ok Rory - I must admit that I was talked into trying this method once about 10 years ago and it was a waste of money back then and I gather it is still a waste today. In my market there are 3-4 surfaces per cart and I often see more than one agent sharing a portion of the carts in our grocery store. When I am in the check out I am subjected to decals on the check writing surface and I too have to wonder how many deals are closed as a result of this advertising media. I am not a believer.

Nice post.

James

Rory, almost 50 comments! Nice job!

MAR

2007

I don't see this that much in my area any more. And if Publix is doing it, it's not working, as I don't remember it. When I did see it, I never got it. I do understand about the branding, but as a stand alone way to market yourself there are better ways to spend your money. Good post Rory.

MAR

2007

Looks like I made the 50 Mark. That just inspired me to write another post.

Now that's the best thing you've said in a long time, my friend!

APR

2007

I don't think I ever notice an ad on it until I am in the real estate field myself. And when I am waiting in line, bored, I read The Economist (okay, really People) on the shelf next to me. hahaha

cheers,

Cindy@staged4more

APR

2007

I would like everyone to take a look at another way to get advertisements INSIDE all types of stores and restaurants. This is a new option on a unique surface. We are currently market testing in Dayton Ohio, and hope to make it available everywhere in a couple of months.

I found this grocery cart blog doing some internet research, and I have learned a lot from your comments, both pro and con. I would like you to be just as blunt about this new concept.

Please see www.spiralwishingwells.com/advertising

Thank you in advance for your candor.

Steve Divnick

JUL

2007

Rory,

I have to disagree. I'm going to have my face on shopping carts in 3 local grocery stores, one of which I go to three times a week. How many times does the average family go to the grocery store? I believe the statistics say at least 3 times per week. It's just part of having more exposure.

Additionally, I doubt many of the shopping carts that I'm going to be placed in Newport Coast's Ralphs off Newport Coast Drive will end up in the hands of a homeless person...

This should NOT be someone's primary method of marketing, that would be ludicrous. But, if I'm seen in the same place a few times a week, I think it's a nice tool to use.

Hi Galel,

Far be it from me to tell you where to spend your marketing dollars. I hope that the shopping carts work for you. Good luck.

JUL

2007

Hi Rory,

I'll be sure to keep you posted, and if it's a miserable failure you can be sure I'll be right back here letting you know! :)

Galel

OCT

2007

My first sales job was working for RTI which is the company that sells the advertising for the shopping carts and the coupons on the back of the register receipt tapes. This was about 20 years ago and it is very HARD SELL, you have to contact the business, get the appointment on the first call and go over the very same day, get 1/3 deposit and design the ad for the coupons. I did the coupons and we were expected to complete a store (7-8 ads) in a week. Very hard, turnover was very high. I was one of the old-timers when I was there 9 months. We had mixed results, but a lot of people would do them over and over. With the coupons, shoppers actually take them home and many are used, especially those with offers like fast food restaurants. Several corporations were regular advertisers like McDonalds and Burger King. I have noticed that most agents who do the shopping carts don't renew them but I do agree that it might not be a bad supplement to an advertising campaign. They are very expensive though. There are agents in my area doing them and someone said the one agent is paying $10,000??? Wow. There was a big bulletin board at the Safeway which we were contacted to advertise on and they wanted $5,000 for that. It has since been taken down so I wonder if they just couldn't get anyone else to do it?

MAY

2008

I'm not big on these types of advertisements, but I don't think it would hurt you.

Anything that gets your name out there is okay...as long as you don't pay too much for it.

JUL

2008

I've read all of the comments. Some positive about grocery cart advertising, some negative. If you would like to talk with an expert on the subject of grocery cart advertising, please contact me. You can visit www.xtremeadvertising.net where you'll find my contact information. There is a right way to implement grocery store cart advertising and there is a wrong way. I would be happy to show you what works! I also would be happy to share testimonial letters from a wide range of local businesses who have received massive exposure and results through grocery cart advertising. Want the best rates around to try it?

In addition to grocery cart ads, our company also offers a FREE Advertising program that can bring you massive exposure and results right in your own neighborhood and targeted market area. That's right, Yes! A FREE Ad Program! I highly encourage you to find out more by visiting www.xtremeadvertising.net and I would be happy to speak with you in person. Need help with increasing your business? We've got 30+ years in the Advertising, Marketing, and Promotions Industry.

Best regards,

Kurt Schaefer

Xtreme Advertising, Inc.

MAY

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Rory Siems

Laguna Niguel, CA

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