"We Live In An Age Of Immediacy...Digital Is Real Time"
Whether your the inspirational genius for Amazon Prime or the local neighborhood grocer, retail today is real time....period.
So many retailers believe in skipping ads on those predictable off weeks while the big boxes coupled with the internet gurus pound away "real time" 52 weeks per year.
Advertising Perishables "12" Days In Advance?
Do we really understand ten to twelve days in advance what the right price on turkeys will be on Thanksgiving? Is the consumer going to purchase "Fresh" items 12 days in advance?Likely, the customer will not.
Does it make sense to skip an ad and leave the retail sales door open to the competition? Again, likely it does not.
Grocers for generations have lost a fortune in search of dominant perishable pricing on items like turkeys on Thanksgiving. So to save marketing dollars and offset those expensive markdown losses many retailers will skip one of the ads.
This Becomes The "Proverbial Two Week Ad" Retail Sales Bomb
Lost in the dollar savings translation is the loss of retail sales. Valuable top line sales that cover overhead costs and help to reduce shrink throughout all of our perishable departments. The very retail sales that could cover some of those huge holiday markdowns.
As decision makers we must acknowledge the cost of print distribution coupled with the inability to make accurate retail pricing decisions ten to fifteen days in advance of the sale. This is where the savings lies to remain in touch with the consumer, your customer.
This is especially specific to those category killer holiday perishable items. That said, we must become "Real Time" retailers. E-mail, web sites, Facebook, Instagram. Choose the channel you trust but real world real time you will not be printing it.
While Facebook will often be critiqued for information sharing, it is difficult to argue Facebook has the goods on consumer habits and your demographic information. Your potential customers information especially valuable to you.
Real time demographics that as grocers we need utilize to operate efficiently. If we are to compete we need to better understand how real time will become real sales geographically within our marketing area.
Try some of these digital sales channels and have fun. Great sales translate into retail fun.
Many have asked why I choose to write about what I see in the supermarket industry today and my ideas. At Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife we believe great ideas and the resulting branding will give new life and direction to any company. So for that reason we chose to open the discussion.
Yes, I understand I probably misspelled something or butchered the English language in a few places, the goal however was to open your minds to new ideas.
Joel Albrizio, President Bad-Adz Digital, PreparedFoodPhotos.com & Adlife
You can license the below images and thousands more for commercial use at preparedfoodphotos.com
