Public holidays see more shoppers out in force, buying more items, more often. Schools breaking up mean more shopping trips with kids, resulting in extra purchases and season specific buys.
Depending on the season, targeted seasonal displays and offers can propel profits onto a new level and retailers often look to these times to accelerate their revenue and account for quieter parts of the year. They’re busy times for retailers and for customers alike, though, and strategizing marketing plans in good time before the season hits isn’t the easiest task. Efficient use of data collection combined with correct implementation of this info will ensure that public holidays are used effectively to increase return. To develop these tactics alongside key statistics that pertain to your unique brand, making use of a field marketing company can help you to develop an efficient plan and implement it in stores locally or across regions. Retailers who don’t capitalise on public holidays may suffer later on in the year and chaining holidays together in order to meet supply and demand changes throughout the year ensures smooth transitions between livelier and quieter times of the year.
Summer Holidays
Many products increase in demand in the summer holidays, particularly BBQ meats and foods, alcohol and soft drinks. These increases in sales, though partly organic, are also thanks to the field marketing teams involved which analyse industry figures in order to direct retailers towards the appropriate products which can be stocked and put out in targeted areas of the store.
Another area of increased seasonal revenue during summer is outdoor equipment and goods. Outside display areas are absolutely essential in displaying these as often, throughout the year, they’re stored in a quiet part of the store seldom visited by many customers. Eye-catching display areas captivate the outdoorsy spirit of summer, encouraging customers to take an interest and engage with the products.
Christmas
Christmas is the busiest time of the year for shoppers. Huge stock takes bring in thousands of season-specific items into our stores. From a marketing perspective, particularly field marketing, the biggest challenge is efficiently providing a large array of seasonal goods without overstocking. Many retailers who incorrectly gauge the statistical trends of the year make mistakes in this area, leading to a huge wastage and many products getting reduced to rock-bottom prices in the sales.
Field marketers can assist brands in providing the right products in the right places with the right amount of stock to back them up. Finding an equilibrium or seasonal ‘mojo’ will see your profits bolster in the way you expect them to. David Potts, the Morrisons Chief Executive, said the supermarket found its “mojo”, with a 2.9% increase in all sales excluding fuel in the nine weeks to 1 January. Lidl’s sales rose 10% in December, with a mixture of marketing luxury goods alongside budget, more routine foods. Conversely, Next, the clothing brand saw one of the worst ever boxing day sales combined with an overall drop in sales, largely blaming their wide but unfocused range of clothing.
Field marketing for Christmas is absolutely vital and doing it properly makes the difference between climbing profits and falling ones. You need to nail this part of the year to get you off to good start going forward. Getting the balance right requires the assistance of professional field marketing services, who are invaluable in analysing trends along with your business’s trends in order to form a strategy that is precise and effective. With a variety of services, the field sales agency at Tactical Solutions provides a full package of seasonal marketing techniques and implements them effectively within stores locally and nationally. Their service portfolio is comprehensive meaning no arena of marketing is left untouched.
Easter
Britain is mad about Easter eggs with the net worth of the Easter egg industry being about £200 million. It accounts for 10% of the country’s spending on chocolate every year. Getting Easter eggs out onto the shop floor early with appropriate displays is the key to getting a slice of this revenue. Supply and demand strategies need to be put in place to ensure that eggs are not wasted, whilst stocks can remain adequately high to meet demand.
Other public holidays
The calendar is packed full of smaller holidays. Bank holidays equate to more alcohol purchases and BBQ foods. Mother’s and Father’s Day provide a platform for marketing cards and gifts. Furthermore, there are tons of ‘National XYZ Days’, often formed on social media. These include August 30: National Toasted Marshmallow Day, or June 5th: National Gingerbread Day. These seem silly but some gain massive publicity. Retailers can certainly drum up some more business by pursuing these in-store field marketing techniques. Being in the loop and keeping your marketing in it too is the key to marketing well for public holidays, an area that can be very rewarding for retailers.
