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What a Carny can teach you about marketing

by TimCastleman
7 replies
I had the pleasure of going to our town fair this morning. I live in a town of about 200,000 people and the fair is still a big deal every year.

Laugh if you want, but I love going to the vendor booths just to learn and see how they are marketing to customers.

This year I made two purchases which were the same two purchases I made last year!

The first one was the exotic sheets Carny. This guy was a jerk. He had a sign saying $20 sheets but his sheets were actually $30 (for the 1000 count sheets) and an extra $5 for King sized sheets. He kept complaining to me that people could read and it took all I had to tell him - no - you can't advertise.

Anyway $60 later two sets of sheets.

The next guy we bought from was the Shamwow guy. Again a repeat purchase. I bought from him because on one reason - he is local. In fact he has a little card he gives you that says - I'm a local guy and if you have any problems, questions, etc please contact me and I'll make it right.

But here is what got me thinking.

Both of these guys I have bought from before and will do so in the future yet none of them got MY information. I mean I need more than 2 sets of sheets for the year right? And I know about half way through last year I screwed up my Shamwows and had to wait until the fair to get new ones.

If these guys took the time to get my info they could sell me MORE of what I already bought in their "off season". Think about making money sitting at home by simply sending me a postcard saying - hey you bought before, want to buy some more?

It amazed me because I bet these guys are making several hundred dollars an hour now but in two months they'll be making NOTHING and sitting at home.

Oh and one other lesson. Several booths had flyer's for customers to pick up and take with them but only 3 out of the 100 vendors had a giveaway to get the customers information.

So in short - enjoy your teeth and make it a point to get the contact information for as many customers as possible.

Tim "Carny" Castleman
#carny #marketing #teach
  • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
    Autoresponder - list.

    Autoreponder - LIST.

    List = ongoing SALES

    But I like the Carny story :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Originally Posted by TimCastleman View Post

    I mean I need more than 2 sets of sheets for the year right?
    Winter sheets, summer sheets. That's 2 sets.

    And I know about half way through last year I screwed up my Shamwows and had to wait until the fair to get new ones.
    In other words, you didn't keep his card.

    Anyway, good points. I can't help but think of all the people who put a ton of time into their business card, thinking the customer is going to save it. Well, most don't. Those that do probably throw it in a box rather than an organizer, or they'll put it somewhere and forget about it or lose it. A lot of people don't think to get the prospect's info; they just think to hand them a card and hope for the best.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
      Wow! Fairs have changed, or have always been different from the ones I went to in Canada. We always had the rides, the food, cotton candy, candied apples, baseball toss, ring toss, wheel to bet on, air rifles, darts, bingo games, stuff like that.

      One thing I noted back then: Carnies always targeted their prospects. The guy with the big stuffed animal prizes would single out couples. "Win the little lady a stuffed bear. Be a hero. Show her your skill" etc. Targeted message. You had to play or you looked a schmuck to your girlfriend. And, you knew that winning her a large stuffed, cute animal would win you big points (good play on benefit by the carny).

      The clicncher was the carny nonchalantly tossing a ball or ring and getting a winner first time. "Wow! This is easy!" and you had to try. Then, when you screwed up, the carny would be right there "Bad luck. Here, try again."

      And the best part to note was the profit margin. The small plastic dog you usually ended up winning probably cost a few pennies, and you just paid a few bucks for it. But, you had the entertainment value of the game so you never felt cheated.
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      • Profile picture of the author ForeignProfessor
        Originally Posted by Kevin Riley View Post

        One thing I noted back then: Carnies always targeted their prospects. The guy with the big stuffed animal prizes would single out couples. "Win the little lady a stuffed bear. Be a hero. Show her your skill" etc. Targeted message. You had to play or you looked a schmuck to your girlfriend. And, you knew that winning her a large stuffed, cute animal would win you big points (good play on benefit by the carny).

        The clicncher was the carny nonchalantly tossing a ball or ring and getting a winner first time. "Wow! This is easy!" and you had to try. Then, when you screwed up, the carny would be right there "Bad luck. Here, try again."

        And the best part to note was the profit margin. The small plastic dog you usually ended up winning probably cost a few pennies, and you just paid a few bucks for it. But, you had the entertainment value of the game so you never felt cheated.
        Hey,

        I was a carny for almost a year over 2002-3 and you're pretty accurate. The main stuffed-toy game I ran was purely based on luck; you bought a ticket with a set of numbers on it and if it matched the ones on the board you won a prize. The odds of winning were probably about 1/50 or maybe 1/75. I had many many customers who spent 50, 75, even 150 dollars in order to win the stuffed toy which cost us about $3-$5. The good thing is that I was good at drumming up crowds and bulk selling the tickets, so if I had about 20-30 people around me, each of whom had bought 5 tickets, I was pretty much CONSTANTLY giving prizes away which gave people the impression that it was pretty easy to win. Of course guys with girlfriends (or wives.. but that's not as lucrative..) were the main target.

        The other target apart from couples is of course people with kids. It's kind of mean but some kids would get obsessed with getting a stuffed toy and some parents would indulge them.. no matter how much money it took.

        I also learned that there are a lot of idiots out there. When people asked the price of tickets I would say "They're $2 each, or you can get our Saturday Special which is just $10 for 5 tickets!". Very few people caught on that there was no discount in getting 5 haha.

        Another thing I learned is that the games aren't "fixed" as such; it's just that the odds on winning are remarkably low. Maybe some other carny groups are more corrupt but ours was pretty honest. The only game that was somewhat fixed was the 'test your strength' hammer hitting game. On this game we could choose an easier/harder setting (explained to me as a mens/womens setting haha) so we could affect the outcome.

        I recommend spending a year as a carny to anyone. You'll learn a lot. The people you have to work with can be somewhat "rough" though!
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  • Profile picture of the author ppcpimp
    I am surprised at how few local businesses in my town have no internet marketing reach. Most small business owners don't think about reaching out to their customers after they exit their store.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Kevin, a lot of fairs and festivals and such have caught on that they can make some extra cash renting booths to commercial outfits like Tim described. They often have their own section, so the people wandering that section are there to look at the product booths.
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