Holiday Experiential Marketing Campaigns Conducted by Brands Increase Sales Substantially

As a brand, you know that the holidays often represent a crucial period of potential growth for your brand. The stores are filled with those shoppers looking for the best products and the best deals. So how can you attract them to your brand? Experiential marketing campaigns provide a unique chance to attract and build connections with customers – both loyal and prospective. 

Leveraging experiential marketing enables you to undergo meaningful campaigns that engage the customer through experience – creating an emotional connection to your brand. Interacting with customers using sensory experience allows you to create important relationships based on a direct experience with your product and to begin to build that brand loyalty that is crucial to your brand’s success. Common forms of experiential marketing campaigns include product demonstrations and product sampling, and rather than just telling people about your product, experiential marketing campaigns allow them to experience the benefits for themselves. 

The stats about experiential marketing are compelling. A study done by the Event Marketing Institute on experiential marketing campaigns found that 58% of consumers said that they purchased the product or brand after an experiential marketing event that let them experience the product for themselves, while 86% revealed that they became a regular customer afterwards. Furthermore, 71% of those surveyed said that they felt a stronger connection with the brand after the campaign, leading to further brand loyalty. 

We all know that the holidays are a busy time. Having a plan in place before they arrive is prudent, as during the holiday season things can become very hectic. Working with a merchandising company to plan and have the resources in place to launch a holiday campaign will ensure that you take maximum advantage of the opportunity that the holidays represent.

Take this study done by a New York marketing firm as an example of the potential that exists during the holiday season. Focusing on the effectiveness of experiential marketing campaigns, the firm broke down its engagement levels with regard to time, finding that on average, customers interacted with brand ambassadors for an average of 40 seconds. During these 40 second engagements with 120 000 people, brand ambassadors were able to create an emotional connection to the brand that was equal to approximately 1.1 million 15-second television commercials. Taking into consideration the power of a television commercial during the holiday season, it is imperative to recognize how important customer engagement is, especially at the point of retail.

Looking at case studies of work done by experienced marketing company Storesupport demonstrate just how effective experiential marketing campaigns can be:

Case study #1: A well-known juice brand wanted to complete an experientialmarketing campaign during the busy holiday season to gain brand recognition and engage customers to increase customer loyalty. Storesupport was called in to assist, providing consultants who ensured effective product placement and a positive customer experience. Within four weeks, the brand achieved a 96% distribution rate within the stores thanks to the power of the experiential marketing campaign.

Case study #2: A healthy cooking oil new to the market was looking for increased brand exposure and customer loyalty. Storesupport was brought in to conduct experiential marketing which included in-store taste testing. Providing an experienced, professional team of brand ambassadors, Storesupport helped the brand increase their sales in these markets substantially and build brand exposure and clients for their brand.

These represent just two of the many success stories that illustrate just how effective an experiential marketing campaign can be. Taking advantage of the increased traffic visible during the holiday season, an efficient experiential marketing campaign can help to get your name out there and increase customer loyalty and brand recognition by letting customers try your product for themselves.

For more information about experiential marketing campaigns and their benefits, please contact Storesupport at 877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

With the Holidays Right Around the Corner, A Holiday Staffing Plan is More Important than Ever

The holidays are right around the corner and retailers have more planning to do this year than in many years in the recent past. This is because the economy continues to improve and back to school shopping spending this past month is a good indicator that this holiday season is going to be a busy one. 

Retail Wire recently reported that the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that in August of 2012 retail sales in the U.S. were up 4.7% and July 2012 sales were up 4.4% over the 2011 retail sales numbers. This is a very positive indicator for retailers across North America.

In fact, Retail Wire went on to cite a study by Hay Group where 75% of retailers are estimating an increase in sales this holiday season and have a plan to handle increase in business. 36% plan to hire additional seasonal staff, which is an increase of 10% over 2011.

Ecommerce sites like Amazon make it so easy for customers to do their holiday shopping online so if bricks and mortar stores want to have a bigger slice of the holiday shopping pie, the customer’s in-store experience is more important now than ever.

The key to having sufficient staff over the holiday season is to have a plan and resources in place. Having too little staff will cause you to lose sales and customers. Having too many employees will cause you to have high overhead cutting into your revenue.

The holiday season and holiday planning has always presented challenges to retailers with respect to holiday staffing,  in our experience, because retailers must plan based on what they anticipate will happen. Holiday staff will be needed to ensure that: 

1.       Distribution and merchandising is in order and that products are in stock and on the shelf.

2.       There are sufficient cashiers in-store to keep line-ups under control.

3.       There are resources to ensure that holiday displays, décor and experiential marketing campaigns go off without a hitch.

This represents a huge cost to retailers not only in the cost of labour but also in the cost to hire and train seasonal staff. A very common mistake we see retailers make is underestimating holiday traffic and then trying to get their holiday staffing in order at the last minute.

Some retailers will turn to temp-employment agencies to fill the gap, however the challenge there is that these employees’ experiences will vary and many end up requiring significant training which many retailers do not have the time or infrastructure to accommodate during the holiday season.

Merchandising companies offer better holiday staffing solutions to retailers because merchandising companies will generally have a workforce of their own highly skilled retail employees. When a retailer is planning for the holiday season, they can work with a merchandising company to create a holiday staffing plan and then receive the staffing resources to implement it. Because employees of merchandising companies offer already skilled retail staff, this greatly minimizes the burden to retailers as the seasonal holiday staff provided by the merchandising company will require less training. Also, holiday staff provided by merchandising companies have more of a sense of ownership in you being successful. Finally, as you move into the holiday season and start to see what your sales will be, a merchandising company can easily increase or decrease the volume of staff as needed.

It is already October, so if you haven’t started your planning for holiday staffing, now is the time - as waiting could impact your sales potential during this crucial time.

For more information about holiday staffing planning or if you need assistance with your planning or staff over the holiday season, please contact Storesupport at 905-847-6513 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

Merchandising Companies are the Resource for Staffing Up Over the Holidays

As a retailer, you are no doubt aware of the strains created by the holiday season. The surplus traffic that is inevitable can be daunting, and often the only solution is to increase your staff on a temporary basis to meet the needs of customers. But what impact does this have on your customer service standards, retail merchandising and your bottom line? Does hiring new staff for the holiday season actually create higher customer satisfaction, and does it mean a better productivity rate?

In order to keep customer satisfaction and customer loyalty up during the holidays, maintaining a sufficient staff is necessary – but there are 2 ways to go about doing this. Both need to be carefully considered in order to determine which option best meets your needs as far as customer service and retail merchandising are concerned.

The seemingly effective go-to option of hiring seasonal staff is one of your choices. But what are the actual costs and benefits of this? More than likely the negatives far outweigh the positives.

Recruitment costs – since the first step to hiring a seasonal employee is recruitment, make sure you factor in all of the costs for recruitment. How would you advertise the position? How many applicants will you interview, and who will do the interviewing? How much time will be spent on background and reference checks? These things all take time and money – things that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

Training – so every employee needs to be trained. How much time is spent – both by the new hire and the employee doing the training – doing this? And how long does it take. Furthermore, according to a study done by Investopedia, if you are hiring just for the holiday season, chances are that employee will only ever reach about 25% of their potential before the season is over. It isn’t until around the 5^th week that an employee reaches even 50%, and it takes on average 13 weeks to reach even a 75% productivity rate. Knowing this, it is undeniable that training often costs more than the benefits of having the employee there.

High turnover/reliability – how can you ensure that that employee you have hired to work for only a few weeks in interested in doing the best job for you? Often you cannot. More often than not, as a seasonal employee, your new staff member is more interested in quick cash than long-term career goals. Relying on this may leave you in a lurch or lead to decreased morale or a high turnover rate (which could then result in further recruitment and training costs…).

So what other options are there for staffing up over the holidays while still maintaining a high degree of customer service and retail merchandising standards during this busy time? Relying on a third party partner that specializes in retail and provides staffing resources to meet your needs is often a much better choice. The right partner will be able to provide highly trained, experienced retail staff even on short notice. Since these staff members are employees of the third party partner, they have already been checked, hired, and trained, which means you can avoid the hassle. Since they are permanently employed by the third party partner, you know that they are experienced at retail, reliable and will work with your existing staff.  Partnering with this type of organization will also remove the burden of training, turnover and scheduling so that you can focus on what’s most important, your customers.

Hiring staff for the holidays doesn’t have to be a headache – working with a third party retail partner that can provide you with the resources required will allow you to overcome the stress while maintaining a strong bottom line.

For more information about how to best staff up for the holiday season and how to keep customer service and retail merchandising in check, please contact Storesupport at 877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca. We are your third party retail resource for this holiday season. 

Getting Control of your Product Distribution and Retail Merchandising Over the Holiday Season

We all know how busy the holidays get at retail, and we all know how detrimental maintaining good customer service best practices are. For a brand at retail, keeping the customer happy is crucial, especially with regard to product distribution and retail merchandising. 

We have all heard those retail merchandising holiday horror stories that illustrate just how “fun” holiday shopping can be – but if you are a brand located in a retail environment, you know that keeping control of your product distribution and retail merchandising over the holiday season is critical for your bottom line. 

For example, it is undeniable that the holiday season often results in empty shelves or un-stocked product. So how can you combat this? Working with a merchandising company can help you deal with your holiday product distribution woes. By providing access to staff that can navigate the retail space and ensure your product is located on the shelf and accessible to clients helps to alleviate the stress of dealing with holiday hardships. Regular run-throughs ensure that retailers are not letting your product distribution fall to the wayside during the holiday rush, meaning your bottom line does not suffer from distribution issues.

Also important is making sure that there IS stock in the back. If a customer comes in during the holiday season looking for your brand only to find it out of stock, they often have no choice but to switch brands. Working with a merchandising company can help eliminate this by sending consultants to retail to ensure product distribution is up to date and that sufficient product exists in the storeroom.

Yet another important part of product distribution and retail merchandising during the holiday season – pricing. With so many sales taking place over the holidays, sometimes your brand pricing may be lost in the shuffle. If a customer comes in looking for the best deal and your product has not be marked down as you expected, this could result in lost sales or lost customer loyalty. Working with a merchandising company eliminates this by sending out consultants to check pricing and product placement. Ensuring that prices are marked down may not be a retailer’s top priority, but it is yours, and thus it becomes the top priority for your merchandising company.

Another issue that arises during the holidays to negatively impact product distribution and retail merchandising is having too few staff on hand to handle customers’ needs. We all know how difficult it can be to find help at retail during the busy holiday season, but think about the impact of this if you are a brand at retail. Enlisting the services of an experienced merchandising company that can provide the staffing necessary to keep up the customer experience will allow you to ensure that your brand is receiving the recognition it needs and that your loyal customers remain happy.

Even during the holidays – or especially during them – it is critical to keep customers happy to maintain customer loyalty and brand recognition. It does not take much for a customer to switch brands if they feel ‘wronged’ by a brand that they were previously loyal to.

For more information about product distribution and retail merchandising over the holiday season, or at any point during the year, please contact Storesupport at 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.