Aim  

To help No Smoking Day organisers take on the challenge of running great No Smoking Day stalls to attract maximum interest from the public and the media.

Introduction

Running a stall is the most popular activity for No Smoking Day.  Stalls are a good way of reaching and engaging smokers informally and offering brief advice on stopping smoking.  Stalls can also reach and involve young people, parents and the general public with general information about the dangers of smoking and the importance of making the home smokefree. Stalls can also attract media interest so they need to be newsworthy and have visual appeal.   

This guide gives advice on how to ‘market’ a No Smoking Day stall. It presents suggestions for each of the 4Ps of the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.  All four should be coordinated to maximise the impact of your efforts. 

Product

The ‘product’ is what you are offering your ‘customers’ on the stall. In most cases this will be access to stop smoking services, information about smoking and health and one-to-one advice. For specific target groups, you need to think about how your ‘product’ is perceived by those groups.  What is its ‘branding’ and how is it ‘packaged’?  How can you maximise your ‘product’? What staff will run the stall?  What skills do they have and what training will they need? 

Price

Even if your service or product doesn’t have a price tag, you need to consider the cost to your customers in terms of time and money.  You also need to consider the cost-effectiveness of the event for your funding organisation or employer.

Place  

The location of the stall is also important.  Is your stall in the best location to reach the target group?  What provision have you arranged for adverse weather conditions? If you want the media to attend will they find it easily? 

Promotion

Promoting the stall is important for two main reasons.  One is to let people know about the stall and where and when it will be.  You can also promote and publicise No Smoking Day and your key messages through publicity about the day.  Stalls need to present something new or different to make them newsworthy.       

Marketing your Great NSD Challenge stall

1)   Product

The ‘product’ you are ‘selling’ on your stall is No Smoking Day and its objectives.  This includes motivating and supporting smokers to stop smoking and informing and encouraging others to stay smokefree.  You need to ‘brand’ the stall with a No Smoking Day theme and name, as well as a range of No Smoking Day resources and promotional items. 

You will also need a selection of testing equipment and demonstration models.  Most importantly there need to be adequate numbers of well trained staff to run the stall and engage with the public.    

Branding the stall

It is important to maximise the impact of your stall by branding your ‘product’, by using a theme for your stall.  This also helps to make a stall more interesting and newsworthy for attracting media interest.  ‘Take the Great NSD Challenge’ is the slogan for No Smoking Day 2007 and the image shows a target with a stubbed cigarette in the bull’s eye. The poster uses the colours red, white and black.  So where possible, use the images, slogans and colours of No Smoking Day 2008. Here are some suggestions for ‘branding’ ideas for naming and styling your stalls:

Name

The stall needs a name to link to the theme.  Make a banner heading to put over your stall.  Make it instantly recognisable as linked to No Smoking Day 2008.  For example:

o       Join the No Smoking Day Challenge Sign up Stall

o       Great No Smoking Day Challenge Check In

o       Check your Chest Check in and Challenge

o       Stop Smoking Challenge Sign Up Stall

o       25^th No Smoking Day Silver Sign up Stall

o       Join the Great NSD Challenge Here

o       Great NSD Challenge Stop Shop

o       Stop Stall for the Great No Smoking Day Challenge

o       Challenge Testing Station to help you stop smoking

Styling the stall and staff

o       The stall needs to be styled to pick up the colour and image of the No Smoking Day theme.  Use targets and the colours red white and black for table covers, backdrop, displays and boxes storing information. 

o       Use black, red or white display boards.  If not, paint chipboard or cover existing boards with card or rolls of paper in the colours of the poster.  Get red cloths to cover the table. 

o       The easiest way to decorate your stall is with the No Smoking Day posters and information.

o       If you want to make it more striking try to do something a bit bolder with larger images. Paint or produce a giant title for your stall to put on the backing boards.

o       Download, enlarge and print off the campaign slogan heading off the NSD website or redraw them yourself onto your painted board. 

o       Pick up on the target image on the table cloth or on the back drop or display boards. Start with a large red or white sheet of paper cut into a circle and create inner rings with white and red paper circles stuck on with PVA glue or similar.     

o       Put quit tips on each ring.  Or put tips for each day of the week’s challenge. .  

o       Make a giant target as a chart to record CO readings and call the CO monitor a Challenge-O-meter or CO Target-O-Meter.  Use a giant target for people to write messages of support or to sign up or write their tips. 

o       Have a giant red ashtrays with a target in the middle and a stubbed cig

o      Staff should all wear No Smoking Day T-shirts and black skirts or trousers.  Or staff should wear layers and combinations of red, white and black clothing.  This includes jackets and jumpers in case of cold weather.  You still need to look as if you belong to the stall.  It is a sort of uniform and helps visitors recognise who they can ask for information. . 

o      You could develop the theme of ‘challenge’ and have staff dressed in red and white and ready for physical challenge – so in outdoor hiking gear or snow outfits or ready for sport and physical activity.

o      Decorate the stall with items linked to ‘Challenge’ such as rucksacks and hiking gear and pictures of people doing all sorts of challenges

Staffing the stall

o      For stop smoking advice you will need an appropriate number of trained stop smoking advisors on the stall to talk to visitors either briefly or to give more in-depth advice and run tests. 

o      You should have at least two people and others to call upon if you are very busy.

o      One, at least should give more time advising smokers serious about quitting. 

o      All other staff can help and advise other visitors and refer them onto the specialist advisor or make an appointment with the local stop smoking service. 

o      It is a good idea to have the numbers of all the local stop smoking services and a mobile phone to call and make appointments for smokers wanting to quit.

o      If you are in a very busy public area you need more than two people particularly for times such as the lunch period.  

o      One No Smoking Day stall had to deal with customers fighting in a queue to use the CO monitor.  So make sure you have enough monitors.

o      Make sure everyone is well trained to use the CO breath monitor and most importantly to interpret the results.   Train all staff in what the readings mean and train people what to say about what the result is telling you.  Common mistakes are that members of staff say that the monitor is demonstrating lung function or that it is testing CO2 or that it is showing how much tar or nicotine is in the lungs! 

o      Don’t allow staff to sit around and eat and drink behind the counter.  Take short breaks away from the stall. 

Resources - No Smoking Day products

o       In addition to staff wearing NSD hats and t-shirts you should showcase the No Smoking Day resources in a prominent position on the stall.    

o       Put information to take away in No Smoking Day bags. 

o       Use the banners, balloons and umbrellas to add dimension and colour to the stall.  

o       Put the No Smoking Day leaflets into acrylic holders decorated with a target.  Put them at the front of your stall even if you have other information on display. 

o       Keep to the theme of red white and black and if you have other information on the stall put it in red or white plastic boxes with targets on or no smoking day stickers on the box.     

Other resources on the stall

o       Your key ‘product’ is stop smoking information, advice and support. This includes motivational activities such as CO monitoring, one-to-one opportunistic stop smoking advice and as well as a personalised selection of written information and longer-term support from a stop smoking service. 

o      Motivational tools. The best tool for attracting smokers to a stall is a carbon monoxide (CO) breath monitor.  It is useful to have more than one monitor to enable you to test more people at busy times.  See notes in staffing section above.  Give everyone a personalised interpretation of the result. 

o      To fit in with the No Smoking Day theme, you can rename the CO monitor a Challenge-o-meter, Target-o-meter or Great Challenge-o-Meter.   Create a chart like a target to record and interpret the readings of the CO monitor.      

o      Extra wording on the CO chart.  Pick up on the theme by writing wording on your chart.  At 10ppm you can add, ‘Quit today, and meet the challenge of reducing your CO reading by tomorrow morning.’ For a higher readings such as 35ppm put ‘For the sake of your heart –  take the challenge chart’.  At higher readings use ‘It’s never too late to take the Great NSD Challenge.  We are here to help you’.

o      Check your chest challenge. Offer lung function tests using equipment such as LungLife, micro Spirometers or peak flow meters.

o      Models and displays. Other items that can be used on the stall to attract, inform and motivate smokers.  These can include models and 3D displays.  There are many available such as Tar in a Jar, What’s in Tobacco Smoke, blocked blood vessel, a blocked artery section, Smokers’ Accessories display and Tips to Help You Quit display, Puffing Poisons, What’s Your Poison, LouWheeze, Consequences of Smoking etc etc.    

o      It is useful to have a display of nicotine replacement products and samples of other prescription medications to demonstrate the range of medications available.   

o      Use No Smoking Day and other promotional items and activities to attract smokers and to publicise, decorate the stall and to give away to visitors.  These include Big Cig, inflatable cigarettes, money boxes, balloons, pens and pencils, puzzles, key rings, stickers, stress balls, beer mats, Smokefree Face Painting and sign-making art activities, and smokefree colouring sheets. 

o      The essential written information you need is the No Smoking Day information leaflet.  It also helps to have a selection of other written resources to give a personalised selection to the many types of visitors to your stall.  Here are some of the types of visitors you may get in a shopping centre or market place and what you can have to offer them.