Marketing 101 for Promoting Your Lemonade Stand
They say marketing is a contest for people’s attention. This is especially true when it comes to promoting your lemonade stand. While it’s important to have great tasting lemonade, if no one knows your stand exists, how will they ever know that you have the best tasting lemonade in the world, or at least in your neighborhood?
So before you set up your stand it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the basics of marketing. This doesn’t mean they need to go to school to take special classes or even read additional books. The beauty of marketing is that it’s all around us. We see it on billboards along the highway, commercials on T.V., advertisements on the Internet and in magazines, and of course, all over social media. It’s not by accident that brands and companies are everywhere you are, and then some.
Here are our top 6 marketing tips to help kids promote their lemonade stand:
-
Conduct market research – the easiest way to determine what you should offer is to ask others. This can include friends, families and neighbors. Conduct a survey of different ideas you have of what to sell at your stand and pick the top choices. This will assure you are giving customers what they want and not just what you think they want. Additionally, check out your competition and see what they’re selling. Before opening for business, attend other lemonade stands and ask what are their top selling items. If your survey doesn’t include it be sure to add it to your list. See how well it rates before including it on your menu.
-
Set the right price – how you set your price per glass should depend on how much your ingredients cost, what you think your customer will pay, and how much your competitor is getting for the same product. Of course, this is where the quality of your lemonade and/or other offerings is key. No matter what you charge, you want to make sure you have great tasting lemonade.
-
Advertise – put up signs around the neighborhood directing people to your stand. Hang the signs on trees and lamp posts. Where possible, have a friend or family member stand on the corner wearing bright colors to draw attention so they can send them directly to your stand. And be sure to creatively decorate your stand so when people show up they’re excited to be there.
-
Network – don’t be afraid to tell your neighbors, friends and family that you are opening a lemonade stand and ask them to stop by. They might even bring some friends and that means more business for you!
-
Location, location, location – In a previous blog post we talked about how important it is to pick the best spot for your lemonade stand. Setting up in a spot where there will be lots of potential customers can help boost sales. And if you are in a convenient location where customers can easily get to your stand they are more likely to buy something. And they’ll likely tell other people about it too, especially if you have a great product.
-
Think of the community – while great tasting lemonade is important, think about what else can you provide at your stand. Do you or your sibling or friend have a talent you can showcase to your customers, like juggling? Added entertainment draws a crowd and gets the community talking about how much fun everyone is having at your stand. Also consider donating a portion of your proceeds to a charity that supports the community. People may give you extra money if they know it’s going for a good cause.
The more time and effort you can put towards promoting and marketing your stand before opening for business, the more likely you are to be successful.
About Lemonade Day
Lemonade Day is a non-profit dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.
Lemonade Day is in 62 cities throughout the United States. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our kidpreneur programs and in 2016 alone, 101,000 kids participated in Lemonade Day.
Visit LemonadeDay.org to learn how to participate in Lemonade Day in your city.
Loading...
back to blog
They say marketing is a contest for people’s attention. This is especially true when it comes to promoting your lemonade stand. While it’s important to have great tasting lemonade, if no one knows your stand exists, how will they ever know that you have the best tasting lemonade in the world, or at least in your neighborhood?
So before you set up your stand it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the basics of marketing. This doesn’t mean they need to go to school to take special classes or even read additional books. The beauty of marketing is that it’s all around us. We see it on billboards along the highway, commercials on T.V., advertisements on the Internet and in magazines, and of course, all over social media. It’s not by accident that brands and companies are everywhere you are, and then some.
Here are our top 6 marketing tips to help kids promote their lemonade stand:
-
Conduct market research – the easiest way to determine what you should offer is to ask others. This can include friends, families and neighbors. Conduct a survey of different ideas you have of what to sell at your stand and pick the top choices. This will assure you are giving customers what they want and not just what you think they want. Additionally, check out your competition and see what they’re selling. Before opening for business, attend other lemonade stands and ask what are their top selling items. If your survey doesn’t include it be sure to add it to your list. See how well it rates before including it on your menu.
-
Set the right price – how you set your price per glass should depend on how much your ingredients cost, what you think your customer will pay, and how much your competitor is getting for the same product. Of course, this is where the quality of your lemonade and/or other offerings is key. No matter what you charge, you want to make sure you have great tasting lemonade.
-
Advertise – put up signs around the neighborhood directing people to your stand. Hang the signs on trees and lamp posts. Where possible, have a friend or family member stand on the corner wearing bright colors to draw attention so they can send them directly to your stand. And be sure to creatively decorate your stand so when people show up they’re excited to be there.
-
Network – don’t be afraid to tell your neighbors, friends and family that you are opening a lemonade stand and ask them to stop by. They might even bring some friends and that means more business for you!
-
Location, location, location – In a previous blog post we talked about how important it is to pick the best spot for your lemonade stand. Setting up in a spot where there will be lots of potential customers can help boost sales. And if you are in a convenient location where customers can easily get to your stand they are more likely to buy something. And they’ll likely tell other people about it too, especially if you have a great product.
-
Think of the community – while great tasting lemonade is important, think about what else can you provide at your stand. Do you or your sibling or friend have a talent you can showcase to your customers, like juggling? Added entertainment draws a crowd and gets the community talking about how much fun everyone is having at your stand. Also consider donating a portion of your proceeds to a charity that supports the community. People may give you extra money if they know it’s going for a good cause.
The more time and effort you can put towards promoting and marketing your stand before opening for business, the more likely you are to be successful.
About Lemonade Day
Lemonade Day is a non-profit dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.
Lemonade Day is in 62 cities throughout the United States. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our kidpreneur programs and in 2016 alone, 101,000 kids participated in Lemonade Day.
Visit LemonadeDay.org to learn how to participate in Lemonade Day in your city.
STAY CONNECTED TO LEMONADE DAY NATIONAL
@LemonadeDayNational