Great Way to Sell Radar Detectors

Here’s a great trick for selling radar detectors.

The Specialists in AZ placed a life-sized cutout poster  of a policeman aiming a radar gun outside of the stores and saw radar sales go through the roof.

Ovation Audio, IN borrowed the same idea, using a 6- foot tall cardboard cutout of a cop, whose eyes (and speed gun) seem to follow you from any angle.

Customers, at first glance, think that a cop is giving them a speed check.  Ovation says its radar detector sales are up 20 percent since putting out the poster, this summer.

The Specialists’ Charlie Weisel began using the fake cop merchandiser tool several years ago when he became an Escort dealer.

“Our advertising agency, Tagline Media Group wanted to launch the relationship with a billboard campaign. They developed the billboard (shown at right) with the catch phrase ‘gotcha.'”

Then they tied in the billboards to a fake cop in front of the stores.  Weisel said, “Our sales went ballistic and launched us into a mainstream position in the market. We still to this day are the go-to place for radar/laser detectors in Southern Arizona.”

Unfortunately, the town eventually banned the fake cop from being placed outside, so now he’s located inside the store.

On the subject of radar detector merchandising, there’s a few surprising facts, you may want to note.

Don’t be so quick to direct your sales pitches to your male customers only.  Women are actually more likely to be  cited with a speeding ticket —69 percent of women, compared to 64 percent of men, according to the Car Connection.

And it’s not younger drivers that are the biggest offenders.

Drivers age 50 to 64 are actually the most likely to have received a speeding ticket in the past 5 years. And those most likely to have received any kind of traffic ticket are drivers from 30 to 49 years old. And these latter usually have a higher than average household income of over $75,000. The Car Connection noted, that this is the age of parents who are busy driving kids and stressed for time, so speeding may be more tempting.