… Do I get points for alliteration? I hope so.
All joking aside, we’re entering a whimsical season, where wintertime puns and Christmas
caricatures will come to define much of your December branding and signage. You’ll have to
forgive my forgoing of expected formalities as I fabricate this article, I find myself, like so many
of you, in the mood to have fun as we wind down the year.
I promise that I’ll stop with the wordplay from here on out.
See, in December, all conventional wisdom regarding sales practice flies gleefully out of the
window like a Christmastime reindeer as the festive season changes consumers’ spending habits.
I’ve written before about how Christmas can be a boon for our stores; I won’t bore you with the
same old, same old again. Instead, I want to focus on another oddity of this season: an oh-so-very
modern piece of the capitalist puzzle.
Let me tell you a story. A few weeks ago I walked through a local shopping mall for the first time in forever. With the rise of online shopping, I haven’t set foot in one of these glistening retail complexes in quite some time. I arrived early, before most shoppers, and stores opened their shutters. It was perhaps
because of this eerie silence that the scene I’m about to describe stood out so much. Outside the
Lush outlet, a store dedicated to selling all things perfumery and bath-bomb adjacent; tens of
families were eagerly waiting to dive into the overly-decorated cathedral of soap.
Honestly, the store’s products don’t appeal to me. However, the allure of this particular day didn’t
pass me by. It was not the usual assortment of aromatic products that were attracting the
shoppers that day, but rather a string of products emblazoned with branding for the new
Theatrical Film: Wicked.
I’m a theatre kid myself, I like the musical. I wouldn’t spend hundreds of pounds on products
simply because they carry the title and Ariana Grande’s face. However, I’m in the minority.
Shoppers strode out of that store carrying armfuls of expensive, brand-integrated limited-edition
products. Someone, I thought, made a lot of money that day!
It got me thinking about our industry. The convenience sector often allows itself to believe that
products have a way of selling themselves. We sell people’s necessities after all. Equally, we can
be accused of being set in our ways sometimes; falling back on tried-and-tested sales tactics that
have worked for us over many years.
However, as creative brand integrations have danced their way into our industry and onto our
shelves, are we missing a trick by not capitalising on it as well as our cosmetics contemporaries?
Did we do as much as we could to maximise the sales of Starfield-branded Lucozade, or Star
Wars peas? (I might have made that second one up)
Either way, as a sector, the convenience trade has an opportunity to flex its creative muscles to
make the most of our colonisation by the creative industries. The question is, what strategies do
we have in our toolkit to boost sales of brand-integrated products? Are you willing to flex your
creative muscles?
Retail Theatre
No doubt many of you who have recently had store refurbishments to drive vape sales or add
new-fangled POS signage will know that the aesthetic of a retail experience is not lost on the
customer. There is great fun to be had, leaning towards the theatricality of brands that align with the
creative industries. Colourful, creative displays are an obvious starting point. For example, could
a creative team member put their arts and crafts skills to good use by building a yellow-brick
road towards Wicked branded products?
While outside many of our comfort zones, I encourage you to embrace the power of visual
storytelling: a costumed staff member, a change in the store’s usual music (there are Spotify
Playlists galore at your disposal). The possibilities are endless to make your limited-time tie-in to
a creative brand an immersive experience that your customers will want to participate in. FOMO
creates profit, after all. Pair this with a limited-time re-arrangement of shelving and displays to maximise the visibility of relevant products, and you’re on to a winner!
Social Media
I know that social media can sometimes feel like a chore. Others of you love playing the game of
creative internet tomfoolery. Regardless of which camp you belong to, it is a simple reality that
social media is where brand marketing lives and dies these days.
Capitalising on this by tagging the social media pages of relevant intellectual property (e.g the
new release film, show, game, etc) and using relevant hashtags (#) allows you to boost your
reach considerably, and attract members of your local community that are already engaging with
those corners of the social media space.
Show Off Your Knowledge
The creative industries thrive on word of mouth. The ‘have you seen…’ effect. Industry metrics
show us that customers want to feel included in the zeitgeist and be able to engage confidently
with friends and colleagues about popular releases. It stands to reason then, that to make a brand-
integrated product even more appealing, we can meet customers there: at the psychological
tipping point where feeling included in the conversation makes them most inclined to purchase
and engage with a product. Your staff should be able to chat to customers confidently about the
current, hot IP (Intellectual Property) of the day, boosting their ability to drive sales of relevant
products tethered to that creative brand. Ask customers if they have seen that movie, or played
that game, and make sure that you and your staff can speak with the confidence of someone who
has done just that.
These are just a few suggestions. I want to encourage you to embrace your creativity and
theatricality. Brand integration will become ever more normalised as the creative industries fight
for customers’ attention, as the market becomes more and more saturated with streaming content
and as marketing budgets for major creative works increase at an alarming rate. We have a
golden opportunity as a sector to make that work for us!
Do you have any more suggestions for boosting your sales of creative-brand tie-in products?
Let us know at info@c-talk.co.uk. If it’s a good suggestion, we’ll share it with the whole
convenience sector and give you the credit!
Have a great holiday box-office season everyone. Make sure that you make the most of it!
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