Promotions in prepared foods are a powerful tool for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Implementing a few strategic steps significantly increase foot traffic in the department.
Discounts make shoppers feel valued and appreciated. Time-sensitive promotions can create a sense of urgency prompting consumers to act quickly. Offering a limited-time discount may entice shoppers to visit the prepared food department, ensuring they don’t miss out on a good deal.
Navigating the complexities of managing promotions can be challenging. To help, here’s a comprehensive guide to crafting effective promotions for prepared foods.
Know Your Customers
In order for a promotion to be effective, you must understand your customers and their needs. Are customers office workers stopping in the co-op for a quick lunch? Are they families with young children who might be interested in special deals on kids’ meals? Are they retirees who might appreciate earlier mealtimes and smaller portions? What you know about your customers can assist you in determining the unique offers and promotions that will get them excited.
Know Your Margins
It’s important to know the margins of every item on the menu. Promote offerings with high profit margins as a lead-in to other items. For example, you could offer free coffee to all customers for a short timeframe, but it might be more fruitful to offer free coffee with the purchase of a muffin. Understanding margins will help you make informed discounting and purchasing decisions and identify ways to make inventory go further.
Offer the Right Promotions
Once you understand customers’ needs, you can think about what kind of customer you want to attract. Are you trying to attract first-time customers, or do you want existing customers to remain loyal to your co-op? Do you want to encourage shoppers to try something new or reward them with a great price on a customer favorite?
Once you know the answers to these questions, you can begin to target your promotions to help you achieve your goals. For example, to encourage customers to shop the deli, offer an in-store coupon for a free 8-ounce cup of soup with the purchase of a sandwich priced at $7.99 or higher. Or, to encourage customers to try made-to-order options, offer a discount for those patrons, too. Offer a limited-time featured sandwich or protein bowl at a discounted price. You can promote deals and discounts for new customers, loyal customers or customers who refer their friends to the co-op.
Of course, you’ll still need to keep in mind your unique set of customers, their preferences and their patterns, but it’s helpful to think about what you hope to achieve with your promotions.
Try New Things
One way to get customers into the store is with special combination offers. Try a buy one, get one (BOGO) offer that gives customers a two-for-the-price-of-one deal on select items. This is a fantastic way to get customers to try things that they might not otherwise have tasted. Or offer a combo deal, throwing in a free cookie when customers order a meal, or offering a free 4-ounce souffle cup of house-made potato salad or coleslaw with the purchase of a sandwich. This can get customers excited about visiting the deli and persuade them to try new flavors.
Seasonal Events
Planning seasonal or holiday-themed events can be exciting and engaging.Many prepared foods departments feature special seasonal items and holiday favorites. Hosting kick-off events on weekends leading up to holidays can generate significant buzz for the deli. Organize sampling events before the holiday to spark conversation about the deli and offer discounts on new products to attract more customers. NCG has a variety of resources ready for you to use for planning seasonal promotions.
Loyalty Offerings
Set a high enough threshold for a free meal or a discount to make it worth your while. This helps to get shoppers to opt in easily with the use of the deli’s loyalty technology. For example: Buy nine coffees and get one free, purchase 10 cups of soup and get one free, or buy eight signature sandwiches and get one at half price.
Loyalty programs work great when a co-op happens to be near a school or college. Even offering students a discount on a loaded gift card can have amazing results. Offer a free $5 gift card with the purchase of a $25 gift card and presentation of a student ID.
Leverage a Big Local Event
Plan a promotion around a big event in the community, such as a local sporting event, concert or festival. This can drive business and generate awareness of your deli to a large audience by riding off another event’s marketing. Examples include: $2 off a sandwich to customers who have a ticket to a local game or $2 off a smoothie starting an hour before a concert down the street. (Bonus points if you create a special smoothie for the event!)
Event Planning
Special events are a great way to boost the co-op’s profile and promote the deli. There are several different ways to do this.
Plan an event around a local guest chef. Feature their signature dishes and offer special discounts to customers who purchase them. This will boost revenue for the day and, hopefully, get people talking about your deli.
Community dinners are another way to encourage more people to check out the deli. NCG offers resources to help you implement $5 community dinners at your co-op. Preferred practices on Planning and Promoting Community Dinners help you carefully plan dinners so they reflect positively on the co-op, and Menus for Community Dinners provides suggestions for preparing tasty food that will make a community dinner a great draw. Links to InDesign templates are available, as well, and they include program posters, wayfinding signage, billboard templates, menu bag stuffers, social media graphics and more!
Promoting Your Promotions
Even the best promotions won’t do much good unless customers are aware of them. Make sure your customers know about any special offers and, ideally, encourage them to spread the word to their friends.
Hopefully, your co-op already has a strong social media presence, using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or other mediums on a regular basis to stay in touch with your customers. Use these platforms to promote special events and new offers.
The more active you are on social media, the more you’ll attract new followers — and those followers may become new customers! Encourage customers to like your social media posts. Remember, the goal is to get people talking about the co-op.
Promotions should get people excited about shopping prepared foods. Think of them as a way to give customers a reason to come to the deli. And with inflation influencing customers’ decisions on what to buy and where, a unique offer can really make a difference!
