Successful Open House
Auburn University’s CopyCat operation held a successful week-long open house recently to promote its services to both staff and students. To get staff interested, the in-plant sent out messages in a bottle describing what CopyCat does and inviting them to the shop to claim a prize.
“If they brought us a job, they got to register for a grand prize,” says Glenda Miley, manager. “We actually had people go back to their office to bring us something to print so they could enter.”
During this event, the shop also held a Welcome Student Day and gave away promotional products like note pads, pens, pencils and bottled water with the CopyCat label on it. Marketing intern Tricia DeRoy threw beach balls to passersby to get their attention. If they stopped to look at the shop’s products and listen to a short speech, they could sign up to win an iPod nano. A number of students brought binding jobs into the shop on the spot, Miley says.
Theresa Hatcher of IPMA Marketplace was on hand to publicize the promotional items the in-plant markets.
“It has definitely boosted business,” Miley says of the week-long promotion. “We tracked the customers that brought us jobs during the week and several of them do not do a lot of business with us. We compared our cost for the events with the revenue brought to us during the week, and we covered our costs and made money.”
After the event, CopyCat staff did follow-up visits to make sure new customers were satisfied. Staff will also visit those who didn’t attend to find out why.
