MARKETING: Show ‘em what you’ve got

It’s the start of a new year. After reports of a strong retail period for a lot of stores, it is time to look at our immediate future and see what we are going to change to allow us to continue to stand out from our competitors, and ensure specialty retail stores stay relevant to our customers. 

If the financial gurus are to be believed, then 2009 is going to be a tough year for retailers, so we cannot let the good finish to 2008 fool us into thinking we are out of the woods. Now is the perfect time to take stock of what worked for us in 2008 and look at how to develop them further in 2009.

Likewise it is time to take a good hard look at those things that didn’t work so well.

Do we re-evaluate how we market them or do we simply move away from the products that are just not giving you a return on your investment.

Take a look at your store. Look at every metre of wall space, every shelf and every gondola. What areas are simply not paying their way? Chances are, no matter how good your store is, there are areas that have simply drifted into unprofitability.

Taking stock of your store like this can provide you with an incredible opportunity to not only change your store’s appearance but return a greater profit for you as well.

If you have found one or more areas that are no longer paying their way then you can be sure these are areas that the majority of your customers walk right past and simply never see. Unprofitable areas are generally zones that have low volume, low attraction products and, if your store is like a lot of stores, they have been sitting in the same area in your store for a long time. It is to be expected that your customers start to not notice these areas. There is nothing new to call their attention to them.

Now that you know these areas are not giving you a profitable return it is time to put a plan into action to return these areas to profitability.

But what do you put into this space that will not only help you pay the bills but will turn these grey areas into displays that will capture your customers’ attention and give your store a fresh new look that lets your customers know that your store is always evolving?

Remember, a store that is always changing is one that customers return to, to see what new and exciting things you can offer them.

We have all seen the gamut of new services that have become available for our industry to market over the last 18 months.

The stores that have taken the punt and set up these systems in store, rather than outsourcing them, have shown an incredible return on their investment. The flexibility that comes from being able to select the range of products that best suit your customers and the freedom that comes from being able to set your own delivery times has given these stores a genuine new revenue stream that they can market and promote heavily.

The savings provided by producing inhouse, as well as not having to pay freight fees, gives the small store the cost advantages to compete with the heavily promoted online operations and larger chain stores. Add to that a delivery timeframe that these big operations cannot compete with, and you have a very sound business model: you just have to get the product out in front of your customers!

More is more

Here is your opportunity to change an area of your store that has not been performing and turn it into a photo gifting superstore.

Get plenty of sample products made up, and then find a way to make your displays interesting and eye-catching.

Remember, gifting products are like kiosks – the more you have in store, the more business you generate. A small display stuck in a corner will never inspire your customers to get creative. Think big, show your customers that you specialise in this product range and your sales will follow.

A classic example of this is Phil Gresham’s Fotofast in Brisbane. He decided to dedicate a large part of his real estate to these products. He removed a range of slow moving products that were not selling enough to justify the space and created a “gifting superstore”. Phil has seen growth in this area every time he has increased his display space. The more room he gives these products, the more he sells. As an added bonus, the slow moving product he removed from the area and repositioned in the store has also seen an increase in sales.

Simply putting the products into a different area has allowed his customers to see them again.

If you are looking for a source of inspiration for how to attractively display these items then step outside of our industry and go to your nearest gift store.

Remember, we are often marketing these products as gifts so why not take a lead from the retailing sector that specialises in selling gifts? How about moving out one of those boring old gondolas and replacing it with a nice, antique looking kitchen table – perfect for displaying these products and certain to be eye catching!

Once your creative zone starts to take shape it is time to look at how to add to the dollar value of these products.

Firstly, create a range of templates that you can easily add to any product. Remember, people give gifts all year long, not just at Christmas.

Create some simple text-based templates for birthdays, anniversaries, Easter, etc.

Don’t forget the most important thing – put the year on them. After all, we want people to keep updating their products and dating them is a great way to get them to do this.

Don’t forget to charge for this added service, and if they want to add a personalised name to the template then charge for that too.

If we are serious about being in the gifting business then we need to look for other ways to not only add extra dollars to each sale, but to make our customers’ lives easier.

The first thing people do with gifts after they have bought them is to wrap them... so why are we letting our customers spend that money elsewhere? Gift packaging for mugs, calendars, T-Shirts, mouse pads, etc, are products we can source easily, and each one adds valuable extra dollars to our business.

A store in Bathurst trialed this concept just before Chistmas with gift sleeves for calendars. They sold out of their test stock within a day-and-a-half of promoting them.

Not only did they make some valuable extra dollars for their store, but they made the customers’ live easier – a win-win situation.

Look to your local cardboard manufacturer or promotional merchandise manufacturer and see what inexpensive packaging you can add to your mix. Make sure you use this packaging in your displays and show your customers how good their gift will look.

Don’t forget that after the gift is wrapped your customer is going to go and buy a $4- $6 greeting card from the local newsagent.

Once again, here is an opportunity to capture that extra money for your store.

Why not offer to have the image they are using on their gift product put onto a personalised greeting card for them?

If your store happens to have a HP system you can offer a fantastic folded greeting card with matching image for about half the price of a generic storebought card. If you don’t offer folded greeting cards then offer them one of the single page greeting cards most kiosks can put through your lab. Your customer will love the idea of matching gift and card and you will love the added profit.

Remember every gift you sell in the first part of 2009 can sow the seeds for next Christmas. If you can provide them with their total gift-giving solution during the year then your customer will remember this when they are planning their Christmas shopping lists.

Yes, lots of stores and web sites offer similar ranges of products, but if you can offer the complete package then you will own this category in your customer’s mind.

If the gurus are right and 2009 is going to be a tough year then these low dollar value, high profit margin products are going to go a long way to keeping your store moving forward.

This past Christmas was proof of this with a huge surge in personalised presents.

If people are going to spend less then they want – maybe even need – to show that they put more thought into the gift.

If business is tight we know our major hardware suppliers will be marketing and promoting heavily for us. All we need to do is to put their marketing into place in our stores and make sure our staff are using this to their advantage.

The promotion of gifting, however, will fall to you, the individual store. It is up to you how successful it is.

If your store has not yet taken the plunge and invested in gifting machinery then now is the time to do it. Order a few less DSLRs this month and invest that money in setting up.

Remember the profit from two or three DSLRs disappears very quickly but your gifting machinery will continue to provide you with profit for years.

How many people offered something as simple as a free greeting card with every gift item sold this Xmas? What a great way to introduce personalised greeting cards to our customers while not discounting our dye sub products. Once again, we are making life easy for our customers. 

Glynn Lavender is the Australian/ New Zealand agent for Mack Extended Warranties, runs a photography workshop and seminar business and is available for retail marketing consulting.

Contact him at glavender@iinet.net.au