Have you ever shopped in a retail store that was dull and boring? You may not even recall the name of the store because it was simply that uninteresting. As a product-oriented manufacturer, you don’t want your retailers to become one of those lackluster shopping experiences with their customers. A great way to bump sales of your products is by planning with buyers for key retail promotional events during the year.
By having a well-planned promotion, your products will have a significant impact on product demand and sales with all your retailers. By planning several of these exciting events each year, you’re giving retailers’ customers a reason to return to the store on a regular basis to buy your products. To help with advertising your products that relate to the upcoming events, you’ll need a good strategy to bring ‘light’ to what you want people to take notice of. Equipment such as lightboxes can be hugely beneficial for product promotion and bring a level of professionalism to it.
Retail Promotion Tips
- Choose a promotion that fits your industry, target audience and goals.
- Maintain a calendar of all planned and actual promotional events.
- Don’t forget to include local community events in the planning.
- Try to schedule events 3-6 months in advance to create an effective promotion (most large retailers work out many months in the future).
- Invest in traditional advertising methods such as custom yard signs to place outside your store so that passers-by and customers can learn more about any scheduled promotions and events. Include key dates and discounts so that the facts are clear and enticing.
- Create a folder for each event to maintain records and review the final results.
- Increase your open-to-buy and purchase extra inventory for special events.
Retail Promotional Event Calendar
The following is a list of some of the major U.S. holidays, observances, retail trends, seasonal events and other happenings to help plan product promotions with your retailers.
Jan – New Year’s Resolutions, Martin Luther King, Super Bowl
Feb – Ground Hog Day, President’s Day, Valentine’s Day
Mar – St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, March Madness
Apr – Tax Day, Earth Day
May – Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day
Jun – Dads/Grads
Jul – 4th of July
Aug – Back to School
Sep – Labor Day
Oct – Columbus Day, Halloween
Nov – Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving/Black Friday
Dec – Hanukkah, Christmas, Year End Closeouts
