Location Question

[rwrussom]

As specifics about the subject are not readily available, you subjective opinion is welcome. This question applies to a first year haunt in a market with no recent or current competitors. I have a few coming, this is the first.

How important is location for a first year haunt. I have a variety of options and have focused on higher visibility location. Options include very visible, freeway adjacent locations, but these may also include parking headaches and future growth limitations. Other more off the beaten path sites allow for more flexibility. Can marketing overcome the location or is the visibility without peer for establishing a product?

[Dr. Giggles]

If your nearer to a major mall thats frequented by people in your area or by a major exit on a major free way then this will definately help traffic people to you. But other then the scene setter eg. an abandoned barn or an old school house its not necessary. If your show is good enough people will go out of their way for it. Not monetarily but driving any way. But yeah visibility is not a huge deal. You could always purchase those huge floodlights used infront of car dealerships that light up the sky. But i would check local ordenance codes before doing that. We tried one out and 3 cars pulled up just to see what it was. So they HELP A LOT. But yeah locations not a huge deal if you got the space and the money.

[Motograter]

We have learned from our first and second year about our building. It was located set back from the road behind a bank which caused people not to be able to find us. Even tho we had large orange signs and banners all over the parking lot and out by the road. Tons of radio air time, website and ads in the news paper advertising us. But we heard from customers that they had to turn around to look for us all over again AND some had to stop and ask for directions from local businesses up the road from us. This was our mistake which we have learned. The rent was cheap which was in our budget because it was our first time ever. So just make sure you are on a major busy street where people can SEE your haunt from the road. We had to find out the hard way.

[Jim Warfield]

Some are very dumb

At navagating and successfully arriving.
No matter where you are located! After the 4th or 10th cell call asking for more directions and they are only driving 100 miles.....? It becomes like leading a small child by their hand, if you take your hand away from 2 seconds they fall down or run off of a cliff!
This little village The Ravens Grin Inn is located in only has one downtown and a major highway runs adjacent to it.
This town only has 1,700 people in it, there sure isn't much congested traffic to slow you down or to distract you from seeing street signs and the like.
Maybe some of these failures have more to do with the alcohol in the driver's tank than it does gasoline in the car's tank?
If you maintain the same location year after year your customers will be able to find you quicker and easier as the experience pool concerning getting to your location grows.
Keep the same name for the haunt every year too.
Keep your name the same too!