Darlene McQueen, Retail Control Systems
Last year around the holidays, I drove all over town trying to find Blue Curacao. Finally, at my fourth liquor store, I successfully purchased the last bottle on the shelf. As I was checking out the owner asked, “Why is Blue Curacao so popular right now?” I pulled out my cell phone and showed him a mouthwatering picture of a drink circulating on social media called “Jack Frost”. The main ingredient in this viral drink was Blue Curacao.
How can your liquor store capitalize on a viral drink? Begin by creating a campaign strategy to engage current customers, which will help sell product and extend your reach. We want to help, so we’ve outlined some tips & tricks.
Start a “Drink of the Month” campaign
- First, create a drink.
- Involve employees by encouraging them to create or share recipes.
- Give the drink a catchy name like “Jack Frost”.
- Publish a Facebook-worthy photo or a video that will catch the eye of your followers.
- Include the recipe and use that opportunity to promote certain brands you carry like CIROC instead of just Vodka.
- Be sure to include your store’s logo on the photo/video.
- Make it fun for all!
- Encourage customers to rate the drink, or share photos of themselves enjoying the cocktail on your social media channels.
Get Ready to Sell
- Create in-store displays that make it easy to find all the ingredients.
- Use your inventory management solution to ensure you have and maintain ample stock of your “Drink of the Month” ingredients.
- Create “Drink of the Month” sales kits and use your point of sale solution to assemble and sell these kits easily.
- Use your point of sale solution to automatically create special pricing on the ingredients in the “Drink of the Month”.
Get Results
- Pull sales reports to determine the success of your campaign.
- Use an integrated email marketing solution, like NCR’s Customer Connect, to target customers who have purchased kits and send emails encouraging them to rate their experience online.
Commit
Before you begin this campaign make sure you are committed, the last thing you want is to promote a “Drink of the Month” campaign and have it fizzle after a couple weeks.
Having a Point of Sale System, like NCR Counterpoint, that can help you easily and quickly create these campaigns to drive customers to your store is important to the success of your business. Retail Control Systems (RCS) values ourselves as trusted advisors and helps to provide you with a POS that will not only fit your store needs, but will also allow you to sell more.
