2002 Best Merchandising Ideas: Chef Apparel

As a retailer, it's both rewarding and exciting to sell to culinary-savvy customers. You can have a passionate discussion about the differences between an extra-virgin olive oil from Spain and one from Greece. You can trade stories about making the perfect cappuccino or the trick to getting homemade gnocchi just right. But while they look to you and your store for the best of everything from espresso machines to pasta, your customers still may be novices when it comes to one important category — chef apparel.

They're chopping vegetables with the best knives money can buy and then rummaging about for a paper towel on which to wipe their hands. They're simmering sauces in high-quality copper cookware and then splattering their clothes with a tomato reduction. They're baking perfect pies and then pulling them from the oven with a holey oven mitt. Isn't it time your customers were outfitted for the well-equipped kitchen you've helped them to acquire?

Winning Makeovers

One way to help your customers discern the differences the right clothing can make in the kitchen is with a Makeover Contest. Everyone loves to see the transformation from clueless to couture, and you can generate this same excitement in your store. Use signage to advertise the opportunity to win a chef clothing makeover. Dress a mannequin in the winning outfit from toque to chef's clogs and place the entry forms in an apron around its neck. Invite customers to submit an entry form and a photo of themselves in the kitchen. Ask entrants to write something short and easy, such as why they love to cook. Then ask them why they need a kitchen clothing makeover. Decide your criteria for selecting the winner — random drawing or most wardrobe-needy. When you've chosen a winner, take "before" and "after" photos. Consider bringing the "before" and "after' photos to a copy shop and having them blown up to life size. Create another display with the "before" and "after" images and all the chef apparel you carry. Use smaller signs affixed to each of the life-sized cutouts to point out the features and benefits of the winning chef apparel and the problems with the "before" attire. After the winner has had a chance to cook in his or her winning wardrobe, conduct a follow-up interview. Find out what the winner likes most about his or her new kitchen duds. Turn the interview into a testimonial and use it in your display.

Easy Does It

The pursuit of simplicity is more than a trend, it's a way of life. Your customers are seeking ways to make everything in their lives easier, and that includes an easier way to get dinner on the table. To do that, they need the right tools like chef apparel. To show your customers how much easier preparing food can be when you have the right clothing, remove your chef apparel from the packaging and put it on your sales staff, demo people, and guest chefs.

Encourage your staff to point out the comfort features on clogs, chef jackets, pants, and aprons. If you hold cooking classes, consider investing in a supply of chef jackets that you loan participants for the class' duration. When your customers feel the ease of slicing and dicing in a chef jacket with a yoke and drop shoulders, they're going to want to bring that comfort home.

Bring additional attention to the chef apparel you carry by making it part of a larger promotion celebrating simplicity. Create a "Top Ten Things That Make Life Easier" Display. Include chef apparel, your favorite nonstick cookware, time-saving gadgets, and so on. Use signage to talk up the benefits of each product in your display.

Present Sense

From bridal registries to graduation presents, chef apparel has great gift-giving appeal. If you're already promoting your chef jackets, pants, toques, and aprons during the bridal and graduation seasons, you can make these gifts more personal by offering complimentary monogramming or embroidery on chef jackets and aprons. His and hers chef jackets are ideal for the betrothed couple, but don't forget other gift-giving holidays like Valentine's Day. Heat up sales of chef apparel this V-day with an "Aprons and Aphrodisiacs" Promotion.

Dress a mannequin in red-and-white chef apparel or hang an apron, toque, and something red and racy from a clothesline. Offer his and hers aprons at a discounted price. Print up simple recipe booklets for making a special aphrodisiac Valentine's Day meal and offer them as a free gift with each purchase.

Snapshots

Invite customers to enter a Makeover Contest in which a new chef wardrobe is the grand prize.

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Promote the comfort and convenience of chef apparel by loaning chef jackets to customers who take cooking classes at your store.

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Spotlight the present appeal of chef apparel by promoting jackets, aprons, and toques as part of your bridal registry.

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Run a special on his and hers aprons for Valentine's Day and throw in an aphrodisiac menu for free.

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