Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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Retail SERVICE { } $ 10 Beverage Dynamics • March/April 2014 www.beveragedynamics.com CELEBRATING A HOLIDAY IS EASY! BY BRIAN ROSEN IN WHAT WE CALL the retail off-premise world, we have very few concrete rules as it relates to marketing. There are no hard and fast rules at all. We have the obvious benchmarks of Christmas and New Year's Eve to note sales bumps. Thanksgiving and Fourth of July are also "layup" holiday's, meaning that the whole nation will celebrate and this is our opportunity to "SELL-EBRATE" with them. But aside from the 8 to 10 events and holidays that are on the calen- dar historically, what can we do as retail- ers to create a selling event or what Rosen Retail Method calls a "sell-ebration"? If we waited for the calendar to tell us to mar- ket our stores and goods we would be in a slow season all the time. Let's look at every day, every weekend and every "out of the box" idea to create a marketing event or a "sell-ebration." With Facebook, Instagram and Twit- ter, we have a unique ability to reach our customer base whenever we want. It is so simple, in fact, that we can create an event, manage RSVPs, market it and sell tickets all from a mobile application. In the not so distant past, you had to have your graphics guy create a poster, RSVPs were outsourced and marketing was yet another extra expense with zero guarantee of success. This is what we know. We know that Super Bowl, Valentines Day, St Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and December are the given holidays for alcohol beverage sales. What I like to do is create new and unusual events and holidays to create "buzz," word-of-mouth, and enthusiasm among my customer base. NON-TRADITIONAL MARKETING Here is a list of tried and true non-traditional events that not only raise store experience but also store revenue. Remember, it is very easy to continue with doing the same things all the time; it is much riskier to create, invent and push your business regularly. January- Late January is always the best time to create a "warehouse sale" or "in- ventory blowout" sale. This will bring people back into store and help raise cash while lowering inventory amount. February. The Valentine's Day event. Promote champagne and other sparklers for all the couples and spirits for the un -couples. Lonelyhearts get an additional 10% off. I have seen this done so well with a client that the local TV station did a single's event at the retail establishment. March- St Patrick's Day in-store blind tasting to see who can distinguish Irish beer from another import. April. An event or promotion relating to Tax Day. June. We always liked to do events that relate to the summer season. Often, we did sidewalk BBQ and craft beer pairing. July. Bastille Day. Create a French Wine event. This is a nice follow-up bump after July 4th. September. As the fall arrives and winter looms we always did an event akin to changing over your winter clos- ets. By that I mean that we began push- ing brown spirits and fuller, heavier red wines. We encouraged our customer base to transition from white spirits to brown, and supported this transition with many tastings, events and marketing messages. October. This always got folks into our stores and always created good commu- nity relations. Have a Halloween costume contest to bring customers onto the store. November thru December. Our time as retailers to capitalize on all that hard work throughout the year in events and marketing; focus on holiday season op- portunities. It is my fi rm belief that if we look at the year with the handful of calendared holidays that are given to us, without adding our own twist, then we are leaving both money and opportunity on the table. With the effi ciency of social media and digital properties, creating our own suc- cessful event calendar is rather simple. BD Let's look at every day, every weekend and every "out of the box" idea to create a marketing event or a "sell-ebration." BRIAN ROSEN is operating partner of Evolution Wine & Spirits, in Chicago, and is available through Evolution Speaking and Consulting. He can be reached at brian@ evolutionwines.com.