You Can Make it Sweet, But Will They Find It?
I’ve thought a lot about the future Tweet Sweet (My dream to have a sweet shop, in case you’re new to my blog), and how to promote it and bring people to the shop. While word-of-mouth is always the best and most reliable way of promotion, how do you get customers in the door the first time?
My most recent post about Snickers doing an American Idol-like competition to get people to sing about Snickers (tie in with popular culture and a specific demographic) and all judged by Nick Lachey (specific demographic and celebrity endorsement) made me think of a book I’ve flipped through a few times and read some passages from. Called “1001 Ideas to Create Retail Excitement” by Edgar A. Falk, it gives ways that businesses in general can build buzz for their retail establishment. Chapter 9 talks about creating exciting holidays and seasonal promotions, chapter 10 talks about in-store special events such as live entertainment, celebrity appearances, etc.
Here’s a couple of my ideas: (Many more ideas will be posted later - if you’ve got some to share, feel free to post in my comments!)
1. Christmas Promotion: Utah’s Largest Gingerbread House
I came up with this idea last year while visiting the Festival of Trees in Sandy, Utah. One of the display areas includes beautiful gingerbread houses with incredible detail and covered with sweets and candy. Why not have an artist create the largest gingerbread house in Utah (advertise it as such as well) and then give it away in a drawing a week before Christmas? (The tallest gingerbread house ever built was built by Roger Pelcher - it was 30 feet square by 52 feet tall - I don’t think that baby would be moved anywhere.) This also might be a good opportunity to get press on board for their always friendly/upbeat Christmas stories. (To offset all the calamities in the world, of course)
Here’s the White House gingerbread house created by White House pastry chef Thaddeus DuBois, on display in the State Dining Room for last year’s holiday season.
2. Wedding Season: Parade of Cakes
I don’t know if weddings are as big of a business in other states as it is here in the fair state of Utah, but we’ve got 3 or 4 bridal fairs in the spring during what I call “Wedding Season”. This “Parade of Cakes” would have half a dozen or so (space-willing) cakes showing unique wedding cake designs. I ran across a guy in Redmond, Washington who’s company goes by the name of Mike’s Amazing Cakes. The name does say it all - truely amazing cakes. My favorite is the fairytale castle designed to go with a Cinderella themed wedding (pictured below). Visit his cake gallery and take a look.
