September 3, 2014
Personalized Fortune Cookies Promotions
This idea is 10 years old but may be a new idea for you to try. It worked for one of my clients in 2004 and just might work for you as well in 2014. The retailer we worked with on this an other associated parts of the kick-off program reported to me that he had a 147% sales improvement on the promoted items.
Not too many programs will get you 147% sales lift on promoted items. Total sales for the retailer’s three stores ranged from 11.5% to 18% overall store sales increases.
The retailer’s “thank you” email to Janet Smith (MSC Director of Operations) was verbatim: “I think it’s safe to say we hit it out of the ballpark.”
I think an idea worth thinking about.
A unique “Price Lock” program for unique items
Most grocers consider “price locks” on high velocity, price sensitive grocery items. Ten years ago Janet and I were working with a store group in the Seattle area who was introducing a unique “Price Lock” program on items that are popular among customers who shop Whole Foods. This retailer wanted to offer a sort of “price lock” for several months at a time on some key items that his customers most likely bought at Whole Foods or other similar stores. They picked 27 items that they wanted to make a price impression with their customers.
If you compete with stores like Whole Foods, you know that it’s pretty easy to sell the same items that are popular in their stores at significantly lower prices. If they are selling organic bananas at .99 per pound, most of their customers remember that price as compared to “conventional” bananas. They’re called “Whole Paycheck” for a reason but it’s not just Whole Foods – there are many conventional competitors to our stores who promote their organic and health oriented items and it’s time we get our share of those sales.
So, if you sell organic bananas at a lower price than your conventional competitors, will any of your customers even know it? Typically organic bananas and other similar items aren’t promoted at all in ads or even in store.
Fast forward 10 years to 2014 and most all our stores carry many of the “healthy living” food items like soy milks, almond milks, organic milk, organic bananas, energy bars, low fat snack items and more.
For the Seattle retailer, we branded their promotional pricing program “Ideal Prices” and needed to announce and introduce the new program. We wanted to have their customers gain a clear understanding that several items were placed on “Ideal Prices” which were “locked” for several months.
We custom designed shelf signs to draw attention to the items but we needed something to really catch the shoppers attention and the solution—-fortune cookies. We created some fortune cookie messages and had them inserted into fortune cookies that were passed out to customers as they entered the store. More details are below.
There are several companies who specialize in selling fortune cookies with any special message and even your store logo. Research shows that 90% of people who are given a fortune cookie open them up to read the message. What a great way to gain the attention of your shoppers with customized messages.
If you google “personalized fortune cookies” you’ll see plenty of providers and many with less than a week turnaround time. Most will allow you to print messages double sided on the “fortunes” and even mix up your order with as many as 15 different messages within your order.
Here’s a list of some of the fortune cookie messages our creative staff came up with to promote the items that were on the “Ideal Prices”
- Man cannot live by bread alone. But it’s worth a try. Baguettes 2.49
- Fame is a fickle friend but ice cream will not betray. Breyers 3.97
- Know thyself, and thy cola. Coke & Pepsi 12 packs 3.47
- A new romance will begin: Organic Bananas, 99¢lb everyday
- Change is overrated-be reliable. iDeal Prices are the same everyday
- Congratulations! It’s a Soy! Soy milk 2.77
- Success is often driven by ambition, but fueled by coffee. Apassionato 10.49lb
- A blissful brain freeze awaits. Breyers 3.97
- A fortune is made, not by acquiring, but by saving. Low prices everyday, look for the ideal sign.
- When you come to a steal of a deal, take it.
- You will come to a crossroad and choose well. It may have to do with NY Steak 9.97
- Empires rise and fall but ideal prices remain.
- Begin a journey of mindful eating. Everyday Ideal price savings
- Energized minds are well-fed. Ideal prices … the natural choice.
- Life is a dream within a dream. Might as well have steak. Ribeye 13.99
- Anything free is worth what you pay for it. $5.00 off any meat or deli item…
- Many a false step is made by standing still. But we’ll keep our ideal prices the same everyday anyway.
- The brown cows will come home.
- Luck favors the savvy shopper.
- Perfect happiness is the perfect item at an ideal price.
Spend 5 minutes on Google and find a provider for your fortune cookies
It’s been 10 years since we helped the retailer sourcing his personalized fortune cookies but with 5 minutes on Google you should be able to find a provider. Many of the bakers are in the midwest area.
I’m providing a couple of potential providers below.
The provider I used 10 years ago is located in Ohio and here’s their website .
http://www.goodfortunecookies.com/default.asp
Here’s another potential provider:
