Malaprop's Partners With Bike Shop for Holiday Promotion

Taking a cue from the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Association's (SFLOMA) holiday marketing promotion between book and hardware stores, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, North Carolina, has partnered with a local bike shop, Liberty Bicycles, for a new cooperative marketing campaign. For a limited time, Malaprop's is offering its customers an added incentive to shop at Liberty Bicycles, and the bike shop is doing the same to drive business to Malaprop's.

"[Liberty Bicycles is] very active in the community with the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club," explained Malaprop's Linda Barrett Knopp. "I thought it would make a great partnership -- I shop there, and I'm a member of the bicycle club."

Knopp credits the American Booksellers Association for suggesting the promotion, based on the San Francisco initiative. For the SFLOMA promotion, bookstores are displaying easels with take-away coupons offering customers an added incentive to shop at participating hardware stores, and the hardware stores are doing the same to drive business to the indie bookstores. The two Asheville stores have made a change in the way they're distributing the coupons, however; theirs are part of a flier that they are inserting into each customer's bag at the cash/wrap, rather displaying them on a counter-top easel.

The Malaprop's and Liberty fliers bear both store logos. At the bottom are coupons that customers can use in the bike shop if the flier was picked up in the bookstore, and in the bookstore if the flier is from the bike store.

The promotion started just last weekend, so it's too soon to tell how the cross marketing has helped sales, but Knopp believes that both stores appeal to the same demographic. "This is the first time we've done this, but people who shop at Liberty will appreciate that we're partnering with them," she said. "This helps to reach both audiences."

Additionally, Knopp said, people looking for bikes and books "have a common tendency to go online to purchase, and I think that a promotion like this will help emphasize the Buy Local message. We're starting a partnership with one business, but I can see it spurring a local movement." --David Grogan