Good Neighbor Spruces Up Displays

A small company began in Norwalk, CT, in 1966 to bring customers and retailers together. Four decades later, Good Neighbor has 4,500 displays near the front entrance of supermarkets and some Wal-Mart Supercenters nationwide.

An estimated 65 million people walk past these displays weekly, said Fletcher Anderson, CEO of Good Neighbor/Omni Marketing, Woodland Hills, CA. And each month 6.5 million pieces of direct response literature are taken from them.

Each display also has 4-by-5-inch free advertising cards for customers to use to advertise noncommercial services like babysitting or selling a lawn mover. Roughly 250,000 cards are used monthly.

Good Neighbor employs 300 people who service these displays about twice a month. It has its own fulfillment center in Knoxville, TN.

In the past year Good Neighbor has placed larger billboard displays across its retail footprint. This year, the company is offering a new trim that looks like a picture frame to dress up the displays.

Companies that have used or are trying this method of advertising include EarthLink, eDiets, People PC, Dish Network and National Glass, Mr. Anderson said.

"The benefit to the advertiser is that we offer the take-one program, which can offer literature or DVDs," he said. "With us, it's selective selection -- you only take literature that you're interested in."