Salvation Army Trading Company Shops
Salvation Army Trading Company’s charity shop division has been working with Absolute PR and Marketing for the past 18 months. During this time we have embarked on an ambitious expansion programme and Absolute’s PR support is proving essential in its success. Press and public relations support in regional and national media ensures that we keep our name and brand in front of our customers, which is key to encouraging greater sales, successfully launching new products and services and recruiting new volunteers. It also helps drive donations to our shops – in fact the PR support Absolute provides has helped to achieve a 10% increase in donations. Their enthusiasm, responsiveness and commitment to our business have been invaluable. I welcome their input and creative approach to our business and regard them as part of our team.
Salvation Army Trading Company Shops
Nick Morton, Head of Retail Operations
The Process
What
Build awareness, generate footfall and spend, encourage donations and recruit volunteers
How
Media relations, marketing communications
Where
UK-wide
When
2009 – 2016
The Challenge
To launch and raise the profile of Salvation Army Trading Company’s charity shops around the UK and to encourage consumers to shop, donate and volunteer in-store.
Our Solution
Absolute ran a press office that managed a nationwide media relations campaign focusing on raising the profile of more than 220 charity shops in regions throughout the UK. As well as proactively driving local stories and reacting to media enquiries for individual shops, we created integrated marketing campaigns to launch appeals across all the shops, which encompassed external and internal communications.
What We Achieved
We achieved regular local media coverage for new shop openings and other stories, including the opening of a new Scottish boutique which created a buzz in national print, broadcast and online media. We also successfully launched several nationwide campaigns, an example of which was the launch of Open Your Hearts and Wardrobes, which we helped devise and roll-out. Our media relations activities resulted in around 150 local and regional articles and figures showed an increase in donations to the shops of up to 20% during the campaign period. The success of these nationwide local campaigns was regularly replicated and the retail division continued to go from strength to strength, opening at least one new shop a month.