Posts filed under 'Gourmet Gift Foods'
Every month in Gourmet Retailer Magazine, a promotional calendar lists special events and holidays for upcoming months. Create and send your own calendar to your customers by email or direct mail so that they are aware of your creative promotions.
Here are some interesting and fun promotional ideas that you can use to spruce up summer sales.
June 9th is Donald Duck’s birthday. How about a newborn baby basket that includes duckie toys, bibs, cups, and other baby gifts? A cartoon video for older brothers and sisters would also be appreciated!
June 13th is the only Friday the 13th in 2008. Offer a 13% off sale on some of your newest basket designs.
Strawberry season starts on June 22nd. Design a basket that include all of your strawberry flavored items: tea, hard candies, cookies.
One hundred forty nine years ago, on June 27th, the “Happy Birthday to You” song was composed. Offer special pricing on all your birthday baskets during the last week of June.
One last note: June is Effective Communications Month. This might be a good time to have a staff training session that focuses on learning new customer service skills.
May 13th, 2008
Are your email campaigns successful? Do you get orders? Are you attracting new customers? Are established customers responding to your emails? Periodically, we need to ask ourselves these questions and think about what we can do better.
Here are some simple, yet helpful tips from Target Marketing, May, 2008.
- Do you know what your email looks like when received by your customer? Before you send an email to your customers, send it to yourself. Is the format attractive? Is the font readable? Are the graphics or photos that you included clear and sharp? Are the colors used appealing? You might also send it to some friends to give you some feedback about these questions. They don’t need to understand your business or have in depth knowledge about your products to be able to tell you whether your email piece is appealing.
- Do your recipients immediately know who the email is from? Your name should be right at the top of the email with contact information easily found. Have you ever scrolled up and down an email to find a phone number or other way to contact the company? Frustrating to say the least! If you have a logo, you might want to incorporate this at the top of every email so that your customers recognize your brand.
- Is your offer clear? Have you offered solutions to problems relevant to your customers? Talk to your best customers and find out what “problems” they experience most often? Are prices too high? Are they looking for products that will save them time when designing? Are they looking for products that appeal to a certain audience? Your marketing campaign can then explain how your products or services will address these particular needs.
May 3rd, 2008
The All Candy Expo is the largest candy, confectionery, cookie and snack show in America. This year, the event will be held May 20-22 in Chicago, Illinois.
The gourmet marketplace will feature confectionery and snack products including premium gourmet items and all natural and organic products. “The confectionery, biscuit, and snack categories combined are a $70 billion category in the United States.” Join over 5000 buyers to see the newest items in the marketplace. Go to the All Candy Expo web site for more information.
If you sell housewares products, the 2008 Gourmet Housewares Show will be held May 6-8 in Las Vegas. This year, the focus will be on the environment and new product launches. If you can plan a last minute trip, go to The Gourmet Housewares Show for information.
April 16th, 2008
This year, Administrative Professionals Week will be celebrated April 20th-26th. It is always observed during the last full week in April. According to IAAP, the International Association of Administrative Professionals, “this annual event was originally organized in 1952 as National Secretaries Week. It was established as an effort to recognize secretaries for their contributions in the workplace and to attract people to secretarial/administrative careers”.
In Volume 5, Issue 1 of Rave Reviews Magazine, author Gayle Gallager gives some great advice about how to make the most of this holiday. “You have to please two bosses on this occasion. Your gift recipient is the boss you have to please with your gift. Your customer is the BIG BOSS who must be pleased with the convenience, service and value that you provide.”
With this mind, take the time to investigate what will work best by interviewing both the “bosses”. Talk to some business owners that you know and find out what they would be willing to spend for a gift. Then talk to some administrative professionals and find out what type of gifts they would prefer to receive. By doing some informal research, you can please both “bosses” and make this a profitable holiday for your gift basket business.
March 25th, 2008
On the Gourmet Retailer web site, you can learn how to execute promotions that work! Several retailers shared their ideas about creative and fun promotions that have worked for them.
Chris Beykirch, a retailer who offered some ideas for the article suggests the following ideas that will help you be successful. Here are a few of his tips. Read the full article for more great ideas.
“Place someone outside your store to help people remember to come in that day. Ask vendors to provide merchandise to give away throughout the day. Free items always attract crowds.”
“HAVE FUN. No event should ever be so stressful that you hate it. Bring in balloons, set up posters and treat your staff to a catered lunch.”
“Get things ready at least two weeks before the event so that it is a low-stress day. Make sure the entire staff is on hand to help customers on the day of the promotion.”
I’ve also mentioned before that Gourmet Retailer Magazine includes a promotional calendar in every issue that highlights special holidays and events for each month of the year. Here are some ideas to help you plan great promotions for May, 2008.
May 5th is Cinco de Mayo. a Mexican holiday that celebrates freedom and liberty! Create a basket of Mexican gourmet favorites and promote this to your customers. If you have a Mexican grocery store or restaurant in your neighborhood, join forces to promote both your businesses.
May 7th is National Nurses Day. For any of your customers who work in the health care industry, offer a discount on a basket of their choice.
National Chocolate Chip Day is May 15th. Just imagine a whole basket full of delicious chocolate chip cookies. Include your favorites from a variety of manufacturers and ask your customers to vote for their favorites.
May is also Family Wellness Month, National Barbeque Month, and National Military Appreciation Day. Share your ideas with others for unique baskets and promotions that you can build around these holidays.
March 19th, 2008
This year, the Jewish holiday of Passover will be celebrated April 19th - 27th. Passover is a holiday that commemorates the time in history when the Jewish people were freed from slavery in Egypt.
If you are planning to promote gourmet baskets for this holiday, now is time to learn more about the holiday traditions and guides about kosher foods that are permissible for the celebration.
To give you some backround about the holiday, check out these links:
For a line of kosher, gourmet treats, go to Apex Gift Foods.
March 17th, 2008
April is Couples Appreciation month. How about designing “his and her” gift baskets?
Start your design in a handsome wood trunk. Add some sweet cookies, hard candies packed in lovely tins or decorative boxes and herbal teas for her. Select a robust salsa, crunchy chips, and spicy sausage for him. Then, find out about special interests of both recipients and add some special gifts for both: music, books, games, movie passes, or a gift certificate for couples cooking classes.
Choose fillers and ribbons that will work for your “his and her” design. For example, a sunny orange sherbet sizzle pack matched with a bold yellow and orange striped ribbon would create a cheerful palate. Or follow the trends with teal shredded parchment paired with a luxurious double face dot ribbon.
Create a new holiday and new tradition for your customers for Couples Appreciation Month!
March 11th, 2008
I just read an interesting article in Florists’ Review Magazine, January, 2008, that I think has great relevance for our gourmet gift basket businesses. With thanks to author Teresa Lanker, I’d like to paraphrase and summarize her ideas and suggest how these might work wonders for gift basket business owners!
Lanker explains her “diet” for business owners with the following analogies:
- “Eat Less! Control your resources by reducing “consumption” of supplies, time and energy.”
- Clean out your old inventory. Get rid of those products that are out of date or in poor condition. Broken baskets and frayed packaging and will do nothing to enhance your image.
- Make sure your employees are using their time effectively. Sometimes, during a slow season, employees slow down on production. To avoid this, use “down time” to take on extra projects when the regular work is done. For example, ask employees to place a “satisfaction call” to all customers who received a basket from you over the Winter holidays. This will show your customers that you care and perhaps lead to another order!
- “Excercise More! Be proactive, not reactive.”
- Choose one area of your business that you want to change, create a plan and set measurable goals. For example, you may want to create a new line of gourmet designs for the upcoming Summer months. Decide how many new designs you want, decide on price points for these designs, and ask each employee to create 3 new baskets. Make this a team effort: pick and choose between all their designs to come up the best result with some comparison shopping?
- Or, how about a campaign to control some of your fixed expenses? Call all your local phone companies to find out which has a plan that would be most cost effective for your needs. Likewise, get in touch with local utility companies and find out about different plans or contact local banks to find out about their credit card programs.
February 29th, 2008
If you’re planning to attend any trade shows this year, consider the Global Food and Style Expo, April 27-29, 2008 in Chicago. This is the perfect way to find new products for your gourmet baskets. Go to Specialty Food.com to get more information about the exhibitors, educational events, and registration details.
I just returned from the International Fancy Food Show in San Diego. We saw thousands of new products and you’ll be able to see about one hundred of the best at Apex Gift Foods, our gourmet food distribution company:
Also, think about taking someone else from your management team to the show. The time at the show in San Diego gave me and my partner opportunities to discuss business strategies for the upcoming year. Not only do we look at the gourmet foods, we also check out our suppliers’ displays, marketing materials, and sales techniques in order to get ideas for our own business.
Discover new gourmet food products at the Global Food and Style Expo and dazzle your customers with your unique gourmet baskets.
February 1st, 2008
While people may be cutting down on purchases of high ticket items, the specialty food industry reports that business is booming. According to NASFT (National Association of Specialty Food Trade), specialty food sales have grown considerable over the past two years. Full Story.
People may still be buying high ticket specialty foods like those you use in your gourmet baskets, but business owners need to stay aware of well priced products available in the market place. Now, more than ever, it is important to be a “careful buyer”. Look closely at products offered by all your suppliers and find those that are the quality you want at the price you want. Take advantage of promotions offered by your suppliers. While you may not want to compromise on quality, sample new products on the market to find those that you offer at a reasonable price to your customers.
To keep up in a competitive economy where consumers are thinking carefully about their purchases, gift basket designers will have to make a greater effort to offer gourmet baskets that are high quality AND affordable.
January 28th, 2008
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