Window display

[BoothJ9]

At my martial arts school, we've been scratching our heads for something we can do as a window display. We're based in a village with lots of small businesses and we notice how all the mountaineering kit shops have a display that they change every few months or so to keep it fresh and grab the attention of the locals "Ooo, look! They've got a new display!". Our student retention is good so we're trying to bring new people in the door (we try and focus more on retention than gain). We're on the high street and have two windows with posters and one very large window, (it must be about 4 metres long and almost from ground to ceiling) looking onto the main dojo floor with our logo in the centre.

During the evenings we have a fantastic ever-changing display of the students training but during the day when the dojo is empty it looks very quiet and quite simply 'empty'. Does anyone know of something interesting and unique we could put in the window during the day? Ideally something we're able to remove during classes, one for light and two so people can see in. I was thinking possibly something like boards where students write what karate means to them, why they continue to train etc.

Just thought I'd ask around here to see if anyone has any ideas

[LionsDen]

Well displaying merch probably won’t entice new people to join, so you can’t do a display like the mountaineering stores, but what you might want to do is take some time to record, and edit a real nice looking demo, that you can play on a loop, via a TV in the window.

Some really cool fancy looking kata, some typical compliant self defense demos, whatever sort of sparring you guys do, etc.

[aurik]

Another option would be a photo collage of several of your students ranging from beginner to advanced of different ages showing them doing cool stuff and how much fun they're having. Of course you'll want to get their permission first.

[bushido_man96]

These are both good ideas!

[LionsDen]

Another option would be a photo collage of several of your students ranging from beginner to advanced of different ages showing them doing cool stuff and how much fun they're having. Of course you'll want to get their permission first.

Not to poo poo ideas, but I just want to interject that…retro styles like this idea can be a bit of a turn off to prospective customers if not done very intentionally.

It’s essentially the 1980s version of what I suggested and could work pretty well, but could also could come off as ‘cheap’ or show that the owner is out of touch with the modern world.

[BoothJ9]

Thanks for the ideas. I like the sound of the photo collage. It would be really nice to be able to show the progression. There are some of us who started off in the children classes and are still here a decade later now in the adult classes.