Marketing snapshot

Some of our recent marketing campaigns have included winter, Father’s Day, spring, and our new food promotion Camberwell Culinary Awards.

Our seasonal campaigns for winter and spring adopted our new branding to portray a strong link to Camberwell Junction. It highlighted different business categories for each season to inspire ideas on how people can enjoy what’s on offer in the precinct.

Our Father’s Day campaign gave entrants the chance to win a $200 voucher to spend in Camberwell Junction – all they had to do was share their best (or worst) classic dad txt for a chance to win.

This year we introduced a new campaign to promote our food dining category, Camberwell Culinary Awards. The campaign is designed to celebrate cuisine in the precinct by giving customers the chance to vote for their favourite meal or beverage across a range of categories. The campaign aims to drive sales to local businesses, as entrants have to purchase a meal or beverage and upload their receipt for a valid entry into the competition. The major prize is $500 to spend in Camberwell Junction and businesses can win an award for each category. We’ll share results of winning businesses for each category in the next newsletter.

Our online marketing activities continue to yield strong results. Here’s a snapshot of Camberwell Junction’s digital audience numbers:

• More than 8,000 email addresses in our subscriber database

• More than 149,800 visits to the websites over the past year

• More than 8,800 followers on social media.

How to improve your in-store experience

The Mainstreet Australia Conference was held in August and shared some interesting and useful insights for retailers and business operators.

A presentation by customer experience expert Amanda Stevens was particularly relevant. She spoke about the ‘experience economy’ and how it is more important than ever to offer customers an exceptional experience in-store, to differentiate from online options.

During COVID-19 lockdowns many consumers turned to online shopping and enjoyed the transaction, especially when receiving parcels delivered to their homes, beautifully wrapped, and often with a personalised thank you card included.

Now, customers are more demanding of what they expect from their in-store experience. They are looking for connection and meaningful experiences, in addition to an attractive and inviting physical space.

It will be vital for retailers to bring their in-store experience to life through physical interactions, engaging their customer’s senses, treating service as a value proposition, and fostering relationships to keep customers coming back for more.

If the experience is only transactional, the customer will quickly revert back to online options or seek more convenient options from other operators. As Ms Stevens said at the conference: “Creating a ceremony around your product or service improves a customer’s perception and satisfaction”.

So, what are some ways that you can make your in-store experience more impressive? Here are some ideas:

• Create an amazing fit-out with some level of interaction, atmosphere or additional services.

• Can you engage your customer’s senses in-store? Introduce a scent, play music that aligns with your brand, make the store easy to navigate, or increase the friendliness of interactions between staff and customers.

• Offer freebies, samples, a bonus at point of sale, or share upcoming sales previews.

• Record your customer’s contact details so you can communicate with them on relevant matters and personalise communication.

• Share your personal business story on your website, in-store signage, or on a label to encourage personal connection to your brand.

• Create a subscription-based offer to keep customers coming back to your store.

• Remember your regular customers: try to use names, acknowledge them as locals, and have a special offer or bonus gift for regulars.

• Offer seniors special deals, if relevant.

• Offer free gift wrapping with purchases.

• Ensure all touch points with your business match your brand. Everything from your website to home delivery and in-store experience should reflect a consistent look and feel so customers can connect the experience to your brand.

Single-use plastics ban

Victoria will ban single-use plastics from sale or supply from February 1, 2023. Businesses are encouraged to start preparing for the ban now.

Single-use plastics make up a third of the litter we see on our streets and in waterways – they are costly to clean up and difficult to recycle. They are also often used for only a few minutes but remain in the environment for a long time, harming wildlife and contaminating food and water.

The ban will apply to single-use plastic items like drinking straws, cutlery, plates, drink-stirrers and sticks, cotton bud sticks, and expanded polystyrene food and drink containers. Conventional, degradable and compostable plastics (including bioplastic and oxo-degradable materials) will also be banned.

To prepare for the ban, your business can start running down stocks of items to be banned, avoid using single-use plastic items, and choose reusable alternatives like metal, wood, bamboo or paper.

Find more tips and resources online: sustainability.vic.gov.au

Reminder to remove bins promptly

All traders are reminded to remove their bins from the street promptly after rubbish collection. We have noticed numerous bins taking up permanent residence or being left out for several days after bin collection, creating an eyesore and obscuring space on the footpath.

Rubbish collection takes place every Friday morning for Camberwell Junction, including the western side off Burke Rd, the junction and Burke Hill area. As such, bins should be put out on Thursday night and taken back into your premises on Friday (or within 24 hours). If your business uses a private collection service for rubbish or cardboard, we understand your bins may need to go out on different days but they still need to be put away within 24 hours.

Traders on the eastern side of Burke Rd, from Prospect Hill Rd to the junction, and those that can access the rear Marketplace car park, can use the rubbish enclosures located in two locations in the car park at any time, with key access. To register for this service, contact the Boroondara Council waste department on (03) 9278 4444. You must use the appropriate cardboard and waste bins and avoid dumping rubbish on the floor or outside of the rubbish enclosures.

Leaving rubbish bins scattered across footpaths for days at a time makes the precinct look grubby and uncared for. We have received complaints from local residents and it is not acceptable. Traders need to be more considerate of their neighbours and customers. If you don’t comply, council officers can issue fines.

If you have any questions about rubbish collection contact Boroondara Council on (03) 9278 4444. We thank you for making the effort to keep our precinct looking clean and inviting.

Trader Portal

We remind you to visit the Trader Portal on the camberwellshopping.com.au website, which houses helpful and informative resources for traders. We regularly update this section on the website to ensure you stay up to date with local news, workshops from Boroondara Council, Business Victoria initiatives, and community surveys from Camberwell Police.