New Company founded by Beta

I'm new to the site but I wanted to reach out and get some serious feedback about a greek company decision I'm going to have to make in the next 4 weeks.

I'm a beta from Villanova and i've co-founded a company call wallhogs.com. We make giant vinyl stickers that are reusable and safe for painted walls. As a beta, one of the first licenses I went out and acquired were those of fraternities and sororities. http://www.wallhogs.com/in_stock/category/15
(We've also licensed artists like gwen stefani and NIN).

These greek items have not really taken off and in the next 4 weeks we will
have to decided if we should pay to continue to license these items or focus only on custom work. From a personal level I would hate to see the dragon get removed from our catalog, but this always comes back to a business decision. I think beta gets 8.5% of every sale.

Do you think college students would want these on their walls or am I totally crazy to think these might be popular and we're just failing to market them correctly? Honest feedback is requested.

Thanks for your help here.

Yours in ___kai___
Kendall Schoenrock
Zeta Epsilon 119

[rastaone]

i think if you had some sales reps (either yourself or some of your brothers) make flyers/ads and give them to every house at your university, some of them will be interested. maybe if they make a large enough order, you give them some sort of discount or throw in something else free? and let them know that 9% is going to their frat/sorority.

ill let the guys in my chapter know. ill try to convince them to get the 39x84 coat of arms and put it in the entrance

[rastaone]

oh quick question...are they all shaped as rectangles with transparent tape in the areas that are not printed on, or are these cut to the shape of the the design? (ie is it a rectangle or does it have a precut border which curves around the letters?)

[a.e.B.O.T.]

I feel like with that big of a wall design, you should be targeting chapters, not individuals... but umm, if I wasnt on my way out, I would so get one... they are super cheap, but just not well publicized... ive spent like 4 years looking at online fraternity stuff and NEVER came across your site

These are actual cutouts. So the crest is separate from the dragon etc.

Our company is very young (~10 months old) so thats why many of you haven't found us.

I think you're right about the marketing. The other bad thing is that everyone's going home soon from school. Does it make much sense to think we'll sell a ton over the summer?

I've also been struggling with the solicitation policies of each group. Beta's for example is as follows:

In January 2006 the Beta Theta Pi Board of Trustees adopted the following policy regarding solicitation of members:

"No member, officer, chapter or affiliated entity of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity or the Beta Theta Pi Foundation shall circularize the Fraternity, its chapters or alumni associations, active members or alumni to solicit funds for any purpose including commercial solicitation for products or services (including those provided by members) without the expressed approval of the Administrative Secretary. An exception to this policy applies to chapters, alumni associations and house corporations soliciting their own members for the purpose of obtaining contributions or dues for the benefit of those entities."

[ECUJacob]

I'm going to have to agree with rastaone... if you market it right and get the word out, your sales should pick up. I would assume that many chapters/members that do not own their house(s) would love the idea of transferable Beta artwork or gifts.

You're right regarding the drop-off in summer sales... I would think that your sales would increase during the school year when students are typically buying greek-related gifts/items.

[rastaone]

does your chapter have a newsletter? or is there any way you can advertise your company through beta and market it to other chapters? i know if houses saw this and knew it was run by one of their brothers they would purchase something.

and if theyre saying you cannot solicit as a beta, do it without representing beta. maybe make facebook ads/group, and talk to the house managers of different sororities/frats and dont tell them youre a beta

[uclabru1]

I'm just gonna say thats a great idea. I personally went to those stands in the mall that make printouts to put on your car, and custom made a Beta with 2 dragons on each side of the beta theta pi and it looks amazingly sick. I think you just need to start letting chapter presidents know and send out an email link to the website. With individual chapters buying these you start some kind of profit, If you give me the link i'll send it out on my chapter's server.

"Once a beta, always a beta, everywhere a beta"

[wcubeta83]

Hey im a beta at west chester, right next door to you. if you ever want to drop some flyers off i could put them in the greek mailboxes in our student union. I met one of your brothers at keystone last year, (jarred i think?) Feel free to drop by sometime were like 15 miles away and never do anything.