How to serve a promotional ace this summer

Retailers can make the most of a super summer of events with a raft of promotional strategies being offered by buying groups, wholesalers and suppliers. Nick Hughes reports


Aah, the joys of Wimbledon. Balmy summer evenings. Strawberries and cream. The rhythmic thud of racquet on ball. Peace, serenity, bliss.

For the independent retailer, however, this is no time to be folding out the deckchairs. Events such as Wimbledon provide excellent opportunities to boost sales through targeted marketing activities.

Wholesalers, symbol groups and suppliers have been busy putting together promotional packages with the aim of helping their retailers capitalise on a bumper summer of sport that includes the British Lions tour of South Africa, The Ashes and the British Open Golf Championship.

And it's not all about sporting events. The independent sector is starting to wake up to the potential of other diary dates that are at the moment very much the preserve of the big box multiples and the high street, such as Father's Day this weekend.

Landmark Wholesale has developed a promotional strategy based around the special events calendar. Every quarter, it produces a publication called Retail Matters, which highlights specific dates for retailers' diaries.

"First and foremost it's about understanding what the event is. If it's a sporting event it's all about snacking and staying in, so typically we'll look to promote beers, soft drinks, snacks and confectionery," says Raj Krishan, senior retail controller at Landmark Wholesale.

Retail Matters offers advice on what retailers should stock for each event. For Wimbledon, it suggests: "Mark the start of the biggest tennis tournament in the UK with Pimm's and lemonade, soft drinks, snacks, strawberries - and don't forget the Robinsons squash."

Beyond that, Landmark advises retailers on how they can maximise sales of these items by ordering the right stock, making displays eyecatching and front-loading key lines.

"It's about making it high profile," says Krishan. "Looking at the SKUs and thinking, OK we sell confectionery, but now it's about big-bag confectionery, things people can share. We also look at displays and how to dress up fixtures to make them stand out."

Musgrave Retail Partners is taking a similar approach by supporting its Budgens and Londis stores with summer campaigns that focus on value for money.

Each store will receive a 'seasonal events guide' as part of the campaign. The guide includes details of important seasonal events including tips on how to maximise top-selling products using PoS.

"We are supporting our Budgens and Londis retail partners with a strong value message this summer, and there is a key focus on summer sporting events," explains Musgrave Retail Partners GB marketing director Jemima Bird. "We have looked at the whole customer journey, from leaflets to window graphics and banners through to gondola ends and barkers."

Carefully planned, marketing-led initiatives such as these are a great means of driving traffic into stores, but there remains plenty of scope for retailers to spread their own creative wings. "During the last football World Cup we had all the staff wearing England shirts," says Jonathan James, owner of five independent stores. "It's all about injecting a bit of fun and theatre into stores."

Activity around special events can have a tangible impact on the top line, believes James. "It can definitely help. You're bolting on to the euphoria that is already out there surrounding a certain event. Therefore, yes, you can sell extra booze, you can sell more barbecue stuff. If it's cleverly engineered it can become a significant impulse driver."

While symbol groups are good at supporting their members with promotional activity, suppliers are the key to any successful events-based activity, James says.

"People like Diageo really get behind it. So when the football is on, for example, they'll have offers whereby if you buy a certain amount of beer you'll get a free glass, and they'll provide you with bunting and help to generate some razzmatazz."

It's not just sporting events that provide selling opportunities. Although Spar will be running promotions on strawberries and cream and Robinsons during Wimbledon fortnight, the key focus of its summer events activity so far has been Father's Day. "We plan a calendar of events based on what is likely to produce additional sales rather than whether they are big occasions per se - events that are likely to lead to gifting and communal food and drink consumption are our priority," says Adam Margolin, Spar's head of marketing support.

For Father's Day, Spar distributor Blakemore has developed a themed PoS package and grouped a series of product promotions together to create 'The Father's Day Big Breakfast'.

Given the current economic climate, events can play an important part in highlighting the role of independents in the local community.

Special events such as National Independents Week (see box) provide indies with their own, unique platform to encourage additional traffic into stores.

"We're setting out to create new marketing platforms that didn't really exist before," says Alan Toft, chairman of the My Shop Is Your Shop Campaign, which co-ordinates NIW. "We are focused on creating new reasons for commuters to go to the local shop. This is what National Cuppa Day is all about. It's about driving traffic into local stores through initiatives across the board. And, of course, the real point of the exercise is to have an impact on the top line."

Krishan says last year's NIW activity delivered anywhere between a 6% and 17% increase in store turnover for Landmark members. "It's a little too early to pull this year's information together but the bits and pieces I'm getting through suggest the increase is somewhere between those two figures," he says.

Not all retailers are capitalising on the events season, however. For unaffiliated stores in particular, it can be harder to put together promotional packages. "Commitment varies," admits Krishan. "I'd be lying if I said every single retailer takes it up. It all depends on the retailer, really, and what their frame of mind is."

Wholesalers and symbol groups can only ever be facilitators in the process, he adds. "While we can put together a promotional package, it's about how retailers use that package."

Promoting around special events doesn't come without its challenges. But for those retailers that make the most of the help available, this summer could prove to be game, set and match in their favour. n