10 Great Promotional Ideas: Small Electrics

When we queried retailers about promotional ideas for the small electrics category, many of them groaned. Though the groaners spoke of small margins with scant room to squeeze out a promotion, others talked of promotions and demonstrations that helped invigorate sales without an accompanying lowering of price points. That's this feature's goal -- to provide you with methods of inspiring sales of small electrics and charge your customers up about the category. Following are promotional ideas we obtained from your retail peers, along with a few of our own -- all are designed to help you plug into a sometimes-perplexing category.

Singles Night
Reality dating shows are more popular than ever. It seems that everyone is looking for love. Why not plan your own dating game with a Singles Night Cooking Class Series? During the series, you can preview some of the newest and not-so-new small electrics by showcasing recipes designed for two servings.
For example, one class could focus on food processors, demonstrating to students that smaller portions work just as well in these multifunctional machines. Start the class by demonstrating the food processor and the other equipment you'll be using in class. Then give students hands-on participation by assigning teams to create a portion of the menu. This will encourage mingling and enable students to test the products themselves. When everything is complete, invite everyone to sit down and enjoy his or her meal in a family-style service.
For example, one class could focus on food processors, demonstrating to students that smaller portions work just as well in these multifunctional machines. Start the class by demonstrating the food processor and the other equipment you'll be using in class. Then give students hands-on participation by assigning teams to create a portion of the menu. This will encourage mingling and enable students to test the products themselves. When everything is complete, invite everyone to sit down and enjoy his or her meal in a family-style service.
Create menus for two centering on a range of other small electrics from indoor grills to ice cream machines. Your Singles Night Cooking Classes will give single people who share a passion for food the chance to meet while you also show off the tools of the trade.

Never Say Never
While specialty independents may sometimes be left to ride the coattails of a national campaign for small electrics, creating a promotion and asking for support from your vendors is always a good idea.
For Seattle, Wash.-based Sur La Table, asking a major vendor for a bonus sales tool was the perfect solution for generating attention for a product that was experiencing stagnant sales.
"We were looking for ways to breathe new life into the Krups La Glacier Ice Cream Maker and we asked for help from the manufacturer. If you don't ask, you won't get it," Buyer Jeff Blanchard explained. "We found a great cookbook, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book (William Morrow & Company), and we were able to give it as a gift with purchase. It was a home run."
Sales of the ice cream maker increased five times with the addition of the cookbook. Blanchard said this practice has worked with other products as well.
"The goal is to find products you really believe in and promote them with something that gives it an added value," he explained. "We drive the message home that we believe and stand behind these products and give the customers a sense that there is a reason behind it."
Scott Goldsmith, president of New York City-based S. Feldman Housewares, worked with his vendors on promotions for his salespeople. Based on a successful Nespresso event that gave his salespeople a $20 bonus for every machine sold, Goldsmith elected to create his own incentives for another small electric.
"We ran a promotion where the salesmen get a spiff for every L'EQUIP Juicer sold from November through December. To do it efficiently, you really have to have a point-of-sale system," he explained. "When we did the Nespresso promotion, they sent a check directly to the salepeople; I paid out $10 per machine for this event."
But just as Blanchard solicited his vendors' input, Goldsmith turned to L'EQUIP, who gave the store merchandise equal to the amount of bonuses awarded.
"It's a great way to motivate people," Goldsmith said. "It's a win-win situation."

Small Fries
Kids continue to become more involved in cooking, whether it's after-school snack preparation or helping their parents out by preparing meals before they get home from work. The largest volume of the next generational demographic -- the Echo Boomers (children of the Baby Boomers) -- are now teenagers and are well involved in the kitchen and the day-to-day activities of meal preparation.
Create a cooking class targeting this age group with a focus on teaching them the safe operation of small electrics from juicers to toaster ovens. When taught proper uses and safety guidelines, children of appropriate age can learn to use a range of small electrics for fun cooking projects. Assign younger children -- 9 to12 year olds -- projects like making breakfast in bed for their parents. Teach them how to use toasters, citrus juicers, and egg poachers.
Provide older teens with instruction on more sophisticated equipment. Older teens will gain confidence in the kitchen by learning the proper use of products, such as food processors and stand mixers, allowing them to prepare meals independently and gain interest in other products in your store at an early age.

Food Network
Well, okay, it's not really the Food Network, but most local television stations broadcast their own cooking segment during the morning, the afternoon, or on the weekend. The Kitchen Shoppe in Carlisle, Penn., is a regular on a nearby TV station's midday news program. The television station crew comes to the store and tapes 11 three-minute segments covering the preparation of a single recipe.
"When someone doesn't show up to cook live at the station, our segments are used as fill in. It works wonderfully for us and is great exposure. Our only costs are food and labor," Manager Tracee Clepper said. "We're able to incorporate products from the store, including small electrics. This relationship has really become one of our best promotions. The local newspaper also came to us when they were writing a feature on electrics and we always use small electrics in our cooking school classes. 'Show and tell' is the best thing with an electric."

Cocktail Hour
Barware is a hot category these days. Homeowners are requesting wet bars be included in new home and renovation project designs, while others are simply creating a space for a bar service during home entertainment.
Central to the bar theme are great blenders and other ice-crushing, drink-making electrical apparatus. As these trends continue to move forward and achieve permanence in the home, it's time you rev up your customers and staff with a monthly or even weekly cocktail hour.
Take advantage of the great looks and fabulous function of today's blenders with a Cocktail Hour Promotion designed to hook these small electrics up with your style- and quality-conscious customers. Formerly a kitchen staple workhorse, the blender is now a much sexier machine that boasts high rpms, sleek designs, and a range of colors from trendsetting red to commercial stainless steels.
For the event, gather all of your barware from funky margarita glasses to tall pilsners to measuring pours to cocktail napkins. Merchandise all of these accoutrements around your best blenders and mix in recipe books for blended and frozen drinks as well.
During your cocktail hour, serve up a delightful mix of virgin frozen and blended drinks. Have some of your sales staff walk through the store with drink samples and hors d'oeuvres. Employ several demonstrators to act as bartenders. While they blend drinks and deftly crush ice, they can explain each blender's features and benefits.

A Fine Brew
At Boulder, Colo.-based The Peppercorn, owner Doris Hougland encourages customers to test out small electrics, in particular high-priced products like espresso makers.
"I think people really need to have the confidence that they know how to use them and that they really work," she explained.
With price tags running as high as $2,300, demonstrating the product is probably the most important tool for salespeople and consumers.
"Demos seem to always do it. We also give a half a pound of coffee with every coffee maker over $50, which also encourages the customer to come back and buy their coffee from us," Hougland explained. "We find our customers are very intelligent -- they don't go for some of the gimmicks you might find at other retailers. They know what they want and they want it for a good price. That's what makes them happy."

Lunch Break
One of the most important benefits of small electrics is the convenience they add to today's busy lifestyles. Demonstrate that convenience with a weekly Lunch Break Promotion, pulling one small electric item from your stock each week to demonstrate its ease of use, convenience, technological advancements, and style improvements.
You can include smoothie machines, contact grills, slow cookers, toasters, toaster ovens, food slicers, microwaves, and food storage products in the promotion. You might even make the promotion a charity event by charging a nominal fee for the sandwiches, smoothies, and other lunchables you serve up each week and donating the proceeds to a local charity. Charity involvement may benefit twofold -- invite the charity to pass out literature during the lunch break sessions and enlist their volunteers to demonstrate equipment and serve up lunch.
Subliminal Messages
Coordinating newspaper and television advertisements with in-store displays helps the sales team at Ketchum Kitchens in Ketchum, Idaho. Advertisements are created with a theme in mind whether it's juicing, baking, coffee, or even breakfast. Then small electrics and other kitchenware are promoted weekly in conjunction with that cohesive theme, which is then repeated throughout the store.
"We try and cross-merchandise products in our advertisements and I include at least two or three small appliances in the advertising each week. We try and make it a set section. For example, I might coordinate a coffee maker, a waffle maker, and a toaster so you have a breakfast theme," said President Don Leonard. "We then repeat those themes at the register as well, so when someone comes to the counter with a toaster, they'll see tongs and butter bells and cutlery pieces to promote additional sales."

New Neighbors
A great promotion that not only promotes your store to local businesses but also establishes you as one of new homeowners' first contacts is partnering with a local real estate agent.
Offer your partnering agents the ability to purchase small electrics, such as blenders and coffee makers, for their clients at a price 10 percent over cost. In exchange, they include your business card with the gift for the new homeowner welcoming them to the community.

Demo, Demo, Demo
"It's a difficult category to promote," said George Whiting, co-owner of Ogden, Utah-based kitchenware store Pan Handlers. "Especially now with the prevalence of small electrics on Home Shopping Network, you really have to work hard on those sales. Whenever we can get in front of a large group of people and demonstrate the products, it always benefits sales."
This past Christmas, Pan Handlers got just that chance with a demonstration on gift giving sponsored by a local newspaper.
"We made a pudding in a pressure cooker, as well as demonstrated a pizzelle maker. We also showed how to package the pizzelles for gift giving. It worked out really well," he explained.
Another recent in-store demonstration centered on trendy fondue parties.
"We did a fondue class that was a really good kicker for selling electric fondues," Whiting explained. "We made a cheese fondue, a bouillon, and a dessert for the class. It was quite a success."
Jerry Hughes at Der Kuchen Laden of Fredericksburg, Texas, was searching for some great ideas to invigorate his small electric sales.
"It's a tough category," he began. "One electric that I really genuinely like is the Waring Professional Waffle Maker. We had a great time with it last weekend and all I did was make waffles."
Well, not really. Hughes demonstrated his favorite electric, tempting customers with the aroma of fresh-baked waffles and an array of syrups to sample. He also cross-merchandised tools the likes of waffle iron butter brushes and waffle forks.
"People come in and you say, 'Wouldn't you like to try something good?' and how do they say no to that?" he asked. "It's amazing what a little sugar, flour, and fat can do. Still, I think we do really well with it because the boss really likes the waffles that come out of it."
The previous example is just one more confirmation that standing behind your products and getting your customers excited about the lines you've selected is the best promotional tool in your arsenal.