Experiential Marketing to the Summer BBQ Lover

Barbeque season is in full swing and what better way to get people excited about your product than with an experiential marketing event which targets the summer bbq lover.  Whether you sell hamburgers or buns, paper plates or all the fixings, showing off your products and letting people test products that perhaps they have yet to try represents a great opportunity to boost profits.

Sure television commercials or social media can get consumers thinking about a brand, but that one-on-one is still very important. Building a relationship with your consumer is never a bad thing, and if you bring emotions into the mix, the decision to purchase is influenced even more.

New to the experiential marketing field? That’s ok – now is a better time than ever to get yourself acquainted. Experiential marketing is really just the act of connecting people with products in a live interaction. Whether it is through a product demonstration or a taste test, giving consumers an experience is one of the best ways to build brand awareness and increase customer retention.

The stats speak for themselves. A study done by the Event Marketing Institute found that almost 60% of customers reported that an experiential marketing campaign has led them to purchase the product demonstrated and over 80% said that these events have led to them becoming a regular customer! If you are looking to both retain current customers and attract new ones, experiential marketing is a great way to do it.

Whether you conduct experiential marketing campaigns on a regular basis or have never taken advantage of the opportunities these types of events represent, there are a few key things to keep in mind.

When it comes to an effective experiential marketing campaign, expertise is key. When planning an event, it is critical to make sure that those working the event have a solid knowledge base in order to be able to answer questions correctly and provide the information that customers need. An experienced CPG merchandising company will be able to provide the training and ensure that employees are experts.

Personality is key too. When you hold an event, you need to make sure that those working it are approachable and confident. Having individuals with previous experience working these types of events makes all the difference. Again, those staff members provided by a CPG merchandising company will be qualified and experienced.

So how do you take advantage of bbq season and conduct an effective marketing campaign that gets attention and boost profits? Harness the power of experience and let a CPG merchandising company plan and execute an experiential event!

To get started on your experientialmarketing campaign, please contact Storesupport by calling 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

 

 

Focus on Customer Retention - Canadian Brands Can Learn Something From Our US Counterparts

When the economy was hit hard in 2008, many retailers in the United States adopted strategies for cutting costs. For many companies, there seemed to be very few options as far keeping costs down and the first place that they looked for savings was in their labour costs. This had a definite impact that is still being felt by consumers.

One of the most popular cost saving methods in the United States was (and often still is) downsizing, or, as many prefer to call it, rightsizing. But this trend has led to major impacts as far as customer retention. Saving profits by cutting the cost of employee overhead can mean gains short term, but what about long term?

A recent Ernst and Young report, Cutting Costs Not Customers, relayed some important things that need to be considered with regard to staff reductions and their impact on customer retention:

1. A retailer’s cost-saving initiatives are likely to reduce the support offered to core customers, thereby reducing customer loyalty.

2. Customers are likely to see staff cost cutting changes, such as staff reductions, as making their lives more difficult.

These two major conclusions say a great deal about the difference in trends between how U.S. and Canadian retailers handle customer retention.  If layoffs mean fewer employees in-store, customers are likely to notice these reductions, thereby feeling a decrease in customer loyalty and customer retention. 

How do staff reductions impact customer retention? Think about it this way, if line ups at one retailer seem to be long every time a customer shops, the decision to shop there may be compromised. What about if product is not stocked, or can’t be found, and there are no employees around to ask for assistance. Profits will inevitably begin to decrease if a customer finds very little satisfaction in their shopping experience.

In Canada however, the trend seems to be very different. One of the main differences, especially more recently, is the fact that Canadian CPG companies are recognizing that layoffs are not the way to go, especially when focusing on customer retention. Instead, Canadian companies tend to focus more on long term goals and how to achieve them. Since sales, realistically, depend solely on consumers, it is common sense to remain focused on them.

So how, then, do Canadian companies focus on customer retention? A strong merchandising plan that accomplishes things like promotional experiential marketing or relies on in-store people support at peak times makes sure that customer experience does not suffer. Although some staff reductions may be called for, they are not the only solution – and are used in a balanced approach.

When you focus on customer retention, layoffs should be the farthest things from your mind. After all, cutting costs now can lead to major losses because of a dwindling customer service experience.

For more information about how a Canadian merchandising company can help you keep costs down while ramping up customer retention, please contact Storesupport by calling 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.