Bartell Drugs is one of Seattle’s oldest businesses. And the company has been able to stick around for more than 110 years in part because it knows how to change with times. A promotion being held this weekend is part of that ongoing transformation.
Bartell’s is partnering with Kodak for what it is dubbing “Free Print Weekend” — a promotion that allows individuals to print photos from their personal Facebook galleries.
Here’s how it works: Those people who “like” Bartell’s on Facebook can receive up to 20 free photo prints from Kodak picture kiosks at the company’s 58 stores in the Puget Sound region. The promotion runs from Friday to Sunday.
It is a cool idea — combining the digital and real worlds. Bartell’s has experimented in the past with the concept, giving coupons to Twitter, Facebook and email followers.
Kara Drinkard, a marketing and advertising specialist at Bartell’s, tells GeekWire that the promotion offers an exciting way to turn Facebook photos into “memories you can truly hold on to.”
I asked for more details on why Bartell’s was interested in expanding its presence on Facebook and here’s what Drinkard said:
“Facebook has undeniably become an integral part of marketing. It allows businesses like us to connect with our customers, provide customer service and engage in dialog beyond our store locations. This provides valuable insight into what other interests our customers have outside of the services we provide and allows us to reach demographics that traditional media vehicles may not. Facebook also allows us to execute targeted promotions and provide special offers to our fans which drive traffic to our stores, where we can track real ROI for a platform that is often hard to track.”
Bartell’s currently has 2,942 Facebook fans, so it will be interesting to see where the company ends up on Sunday. But, the real test may not come on the social networking channel itself but in the Bartell cash registers.
After all, if customers are encouraged to come into the stores for the promotion, they also may decide to pick up a few essentials (vitamins, shampoo, shaving cream, etc.) too.
