The Holiday Bump

While
stores can certainly count on an automatic bump due to sheer
volume of shopping, these are still tight financial times
and competition between stores is stiff. From unique
grab-and-go gifts to enhanced customized service, there are
numerous ways to ensure that your store stands out during
the Yuletide crunch. Indeed, for many stores the holidays
are a make or break time of year as revenues from the season
can account for as much as up to 4O percent of annual sales.
Investing some time into designing an aggressive and
inventive promotion plan can both bolster strong sales and
help build up new regular clientele for the coming year.

GETTING
the WORD OUT If
there’s a time of year to advertise, this is it – these are
the holidays and there’s a much larger demographic of
shopper to reach. Additional money for holiday advertising
should be factored into the budget at the beginning of the
year so there are no surprises or excuses when it comes time
to invest. In addition to print ads, methods such as email,
flyers, in-store signs, and newsletters are all relatively
inexpensive and highly effective. Seasonally themed
invitations – via either email or regular mail – to regular
patrons notifying them of upcoming events such as sales and
tastings typically yield great turnouts. A store website is
another attraction for consumers during the holidays, as
they can surf and shop ahead of time. This is especially
useful for stores that carry additional merchandise such as
cigars, food and glassware. Yankee Spirits in Sturbridge has
a comprehensive website, www.yankeespirits.com, with
specials, news of upcoming events, manager’s picks and more.
Another good example is Gary’s Liquors in Chestnut Hill,
www.garysliquors.com, that has links to news and specials.
If you don’t have a database of customers yet, start
building one now, as it is an invaluable marketing
resource.

Making sure your business
customers are aware of promotions and specials can result in
big holiday orders. Email is very useful for stores with a
large base of corporate clientele. With its location near
Copley Square and the Back Bay, Huntington Wine and Spirits
has found emails and newsletters to be very successful on a
corporate level where planners have little time to shop
around, says owner Steve Rubin Making your prices known to
them cuts their work down.

a
CUP of GOOD CHEER
Holiday-themed tastings featuring beverages such as eggnog,
seasonal brews and wines generally result in strong sales
for those featured spirits. Depending on time and space
available, tastings can range in style, from a casual
open-house event, with a table set up and samples available,
to a private tasting (if there is a separate room available)
with more substantial fare and samples served in glass
instead of plastic. There doesn’t have to be a big sales
pitch with the tasting – just giving someone a small sample
to sip while shopping can be enough. At Yankee Spirits they
run tastings year ’round, but put a special emphasis on the
holidays with their annual in-store Grand Tasting in the
beginning of November. A kick off to the holidays, the
tasting features over 15O wines and food from area
restaurants and vendors. After that they are booked through
the season with wholesalers doing tastings. Christine
Zecker, Director of Retail Sales, comments, “With our
location in Sturbridge, we are really a destination store
and see a lot of traffic during the autumn. Tastings work
very well for us and we get a great turnout during the
holidays.”

Tastings present a good
opportunity to cross-merchandise. Wine and cheese is always
a pleaser, but more creative offerings such as dessert wines
with fruits and chocolates or winter beers and smoked meats
are certain to be appealing. While some stores prefer to
conduct their own tastings, co-hosting an event with a
vendor has its advantages, especially if you’re short on
time and staff. From the vendor’s perspective tastings are
invaluable as they get the product into new consumers hands.
John O’Reilly, Division Manger for Future Brands comments,
“There is a significant percentage of people who only shop
for alcohol at Christmas. It’s so important to get them to
taste products at this time of year as this might be the
only opportunity to reach them directly.”

UPGRADED
SALES and SERVICES
People are much more inclined during the holidays to upgrade
their brand purchases, making this a great time of year for
the premium and super-premium brands. Anne and Bob Selby, of
Kappy’s in Peabody and Danvers, say that single malt
scotches and high-end bourbons do very well during the
holidays. Dan Demeo, Territory Manager for Allied Domecq
Spirits in Massachusetts, remarks, “On certain brands, such
as Canadian Whiskey and cordials, we can due as much as 4O%
of our business during October through December.” While
customized service is always appreciated, it is especially
important at this time of year. People are willing to spend
more on a purchase but want to know that they’re getting
their money’s worth. In addition to having extra staff to
help ring and stock, it’s a good idea to have a strong
presence of knowledgeable experts on site to answer
questions and offer advice. There’s no point in spending
$1OO on a bottle if it doesn’t match the tastes of the
person being shopped for. Anne says that they step up their
in-store staff presence at Kappy’s for beer, wine and
spirits experts at this time of year. At Yankee, Christine
says, “We have one manager who is very scotch and cigar
savvy, one manager who specializes in spirits, another in
beer, and a knowledgeable wine consultants on
site.”

Along with additional sales
people in the store, brand reps will often increase their
visibility during the season. Alex Steppacher, Massachusetts
On-Premise Brand Manager for Future Brands, says, “We aim to
be visible year ’round, but during the holidays we really
make an effort to go to stores more to help with shelf
stocking, answer questions and provide support for the
stores.”

ENTICING
with EXTRAS
Increasingly, stores are branching out by offering diverse
services such as delivery, gift baskets, gourmet foods, and
complimentary gift-wrap. Vinnin Square Liquors, in
Swampscott, has two aisles devoted to unique gift baskets,
corkscrews, countless varieties of glassware, decanters,
wine holders, and other cocktail accessories. While
available all year, these items are great for holiday
purchases.

Take advantage of your
built-in expertise and offer party planning or consulting
services. From corporate parties to big in-home holiday
fetes, Anne Selby at Kappy’s does a substantial amount of
party planning and holiday party orders, though she does
note that the emphasis is shifting away from corporate. At
Huntington Wine and Spirits, Steve says that one of their
most successful holiday features is their credit card styled
gift card. While it’s always available, the store promotes
it aggressively during the season and it is one of their
best sellers.

Over the last couple of
years gift baskets themed around alcohol have become very
popular – whether as a grab-and-go item or a customized
special order. Yankee Spirits offers both pre-made and
custom order baskets. Christine Zecker comments, “Our
pre-made baskets tend to have a heavy emphasis on branding.
For example, one basket might have a golf theme with golf
balls, tees, snacks, and beer while a movie basket might
have popcorn and a DVD in addition to alcohol.” At Kappy’s
gift baskets are popular as well, and Anne says, “We have
one person, Brian Moore, who annually designs a series of
attractive holiday baskets that range in price from $4 to
$25.”

GIFT
PACKS A substantial
part of holiday merchandising involves pre-packaged gift box
sets from suppliers. It used to be that a bottle packaged
with a couple of glasses was the extent of the holiday gift
packs. But just as stores must get creative, so too do
brands find that they need to outdo their competition in
this department. Incorporating current trends into packaging
has proven to be successful. This year, one of the hottest
trends out there is poker. To play off of this, Future
Brand’s Knob Creek Bourbon features a poker-themed gift set
with a deck of cards and poker chips along with the bottle.
And in keeping up with the martini craze, Van Gogh Vodkas’
gift pack will feature their vodka along with 1O flavored
minis and a CD with thousands of cocktail recipes. David van
de Velde, President of Luctor International, importers of
Van Gogh Vodkas, says, “We try to maximize sales by being
unique. We tell/show consumers how to use our product by
including our martini recipes CD with our holiday gift pack.
They become their own mixologist-bartender.” Vodkas and
martinis remain extremely popular, and Steve Rubin predicts
that any vodka/martini themed gift packs will sell well this
year. He also states that wines in gift boxes and anything
that comes in a stocking are great sellers. In fact, he sees
too little of that type of merchandise coming in these days.
However, Steve does feel that the trend is moving away from
gift packages, noting that many stores just don’t have the
space and customers really seem to really enjoy designing
their own baskets. Also, many of the pre-packaged sets are
heavily logo-ed and that can be a deterrent for some
shoppers.

DISPLAYS
with PANACHE
Displays are another integral aspect of holiday
merchandising. Stores want to create an inviting and festive
ambiance and brands want as much exposure for their products
as possible. This is the time of year when large, often
ornate, displays come from suppliers but many stores have
mixed feelings on big displays. Space is at a premium. For
many it comes down to a preference of what look the stores
wants during the holidays. Some retailers do all of their
own decorating and design displays with an emphasis on
high-end cordials, scotches, Champagnes and holiday beers.
At Vinnin Liquors, Store Manager Joe Fiore says that they
tend to stay away from big displays, preferring to do it all
themselves. They also communicate to their suppliers what
sorts of gift-packs they are looking for so there’s no
confusion.

Pre-planning is another way
to deal with the influx of holiday merchandise. Christine at
Yankee Spirits says, “We plan all year, and book our holiday
merchandising a year in advance.” Christine also offers some
advice to retailers saying, “Change your displays! Sometimes
stores never change their displays and it gets stale. It’s
so important to make it new and exciting, especially if your
customers are regulars.”

LASTING
RELATIONSHIPS PAY OFF
This issue of relationships between retailers and suppliers
is a very important one. Many retailers note that they often
get visits from reps they rarely see throughout the year
that show up in time for the holidays pushing their latest
promotions and displays. Then, as soon as the holidays are
over, they disappear. Steve Rubin says, “We have our
strongest relationships with those who work with us all
year.” Dan Demeo with Allied comments, “Relationships are
extremely important to our success at ADS. We have
tremendous coverage with our distributor partners and our
own dedicated Allied Domecq Off-Premise team. Our philosophy
is to be there for the retailers 12 months a year with
consistent POS support for the floor and the shelf.”
Maintaining and fostering strong working associations all
year will go a long way in the end.

The holidays present great opportunities. Plan early, get
creative and communicate your wishes to suppliers. There’s
plenty of holiday business out there, it’s up to you to make
sure you have what the customers want and ensure that they
know you have it.