Rembert Parker of Reader Copies in Anderson,
We have taken part in Free Comic Book day every year, but did things differently this year. In the past we had the tshirts, posters, even the Free Comic Book Day water bottles, and ordered massive quantities of all the FCBD comics. And every year we saw pretty much the same faces and had no discernable change in sales -- the only people who came into the store were people who already knew we were there, and most of the potential 'new' customers were chased away by the prices of new comics.
This year we did not order any of the promotional materials, and didn't do any advance promotion of the event. Our regular subscribers were each invited to pick out a few books that they wanted when they turned in their orders for that month, and we ordered additional comics that we thought our regular non-subscription customers might want. Instead of spending an extra $200 on 'free' giveaways, we continued to deliberately over-order and stock current comics (we still have, for example, nearly all the Crisis tie-ins sitting on the shelf for cover price as well as all the Civil War tie-ins).
When customers came to the counter to pay for their comics we offered them some of the Free Comic Book Day comics (which were not on display), and they were usually pleased and surprised to get the free comics (although many of them turned up their noses at the fairly uninteresting offerings from the major companies).
Only two customers asked about FCBD before we offered comics to them, and one actually wanted no less than ALL the independent comics he hadn't already been able to get at other stores (which we didn't have).
The result? Sales the past week were extremely strong, fueled by people coming to the store looking for specific comics they wanted rather than 'new' customers looking for freebies. Civil War #1 in particular sold extremely well, and numerous customers have come back to pick up the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four comics that lead into it. It's already clear that Civil War has pulled several dozen lapsed customers back into the store, and that makes it more successful than all the past FCBD events put together. We probably generated more return traffic by handing out the Civil War Opening Shot book with its checklist to customers than with any other promotion we've tried in a long time.
At least in our small town, none of the advertising for Free Comic Book Day has ever directed much traffic to our store. Unless advertising for it somehow starts to reach the general public and somehow influence them to come looking for comic stores, it appears to be more of an expense than a successful promotional event.
Retailers -- If you'd like to share your Free Comic Book Day story with ICv2's readers, please e-mail us at Comments@icv2.com with your story and images.
