Oser Communications Group

Retailing Feature RETAILING FEATURE www.kitchenwarenews.com ■ JUNE 2014 ■ KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 9 BY LORRIE BAUMANN Effective product demonstrations can persuade customers in your store to add an extra item to their shopping basket, bring new customers into the store and bring repeat customers back. "Our goal is to be demonstrating something all the time – tactile interaction is a big part of what makes a store fun. People come looking for a great experience, something they can't get anywhere else, and product demos add that sense of fun and discovery," said Laura Havlek, Owner of Sign of the Bear kitchenware store in Sonoma, Calif. "At some level, we're all about that fun, discovering what's new and delightful. Inviting our customers to experience how it works for themselves is how we differentiate ourselves – and a joy. Nobody can be a commodity business any more. Everybody needs to be an experience – and it's delightful." "If we're not inviting people to try new things, to discover cool new products, and working to delight our customers, we're not delivering that experience and value," Havlek continued. "We live in an era that's supposed to push open our possibilities of what it is to be a kitchenware store, to have a sense of movement and fun, and something you can't get anywhere else." That's why three out of four marketing executives now rate experiential, personalized and hyper-local marketing initiatives as "very" or "somewhat" important, according to a 2013 industry report from the Path to Purchase Institute and CROSSMARK, a leading sales and marketing services company in North America. The same survey found that 40 percent of consumers "strongly agree" or "agree" that they like brands that do more to interact with them than brands that just advertise products. Demonstrations do more to interact because they appeal to more of the senses than just words alone. Millennials, that part of the population born between 1983 and 2000, in particular, are less trusting than previous generations and are therefore less likely to take the word of an advertiser about the quality of a product. On the other hand, they're likely to use social media as an important source of information, and if they have an experience that engages them, they're likely to share it with their friends. Half of them use their smartphones while they're in stores, according to AIMSights, an international marketing consulting company with in-depth expertise in the purchasing and shopping behaviors of Millennials and Baby Boomers. An effective in-store or out-of-store product demonstration starts with engaging the target consumer at the right place at the right time with the right people, said Dan Brice, Senior Vice President of Client Services for Marketing Werks, a division of CROSSMARK and a leading engagement marketing agency dedicated to connecting brands with consumers and shoppers. "You need a relevant person doing the demo. You need someone who is credible, who connects and relates really well to the product or service." At Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe in Santa Fe, N.M., cooking classes taught by the resident chef are an important demonstration venue, say Owners Karen and Mike Walker. "Within the cooking classes, we only let the chef use what we have currently available. That's also a way to demo things, because all of our cooking school classes are hands-on," Mike said. "Karen and I both are strong believers in putting the products in people's hands and making sure that when they walk out of the store, they have what they need." Whether the relevant person who's doing the demonstration is you or a manufacturer's representative or a local chef, Brice's next advice is that the demonstrator also needs to be alert to the fact that there's no telling how long a potential customer is going to tune into the demonstration before moving on. That means that the demonstrator should organize talking points so that you deliver the message that you want your prospective customer to take away within the first 30 seconds, Brice said. "Talking points should be tiered, because you don't know how much time you're going to have with that person," he said. "If someone has 30 seconds, what is the one message that you want to give them? If you have two or three minutes, you can deliver other messages." Make sure the setting is welcoming and comfortable, without too many distractions that can detract from the demonstration. At Las Cosas, the store's classroom kitchen can be seen from the front door. "It's styled like a kitchen in someone's home. Sometimes we Effective Demonstrations Drive Sales just run the Hurom Slow Juicer out there, and the coffee machines are always ready to go," Mike said. At Granada Gourmet in Ormond Beach, Fla., Owner Patti Surguine has a demonstration bar right at the front of the store that she uses as the center for her monthly Saturday morning breakfast that draws customers who come just for the event as well as her regular Saturday traffic. She likes to use an All Clad Grill & Griddle and a Fagor Portable Induction Cooktop, a Hurom slow juicer and maybe a Microplane grater or a chopper to create a menu that she tries to plan around the theme of her bi- monthly newsletter. "I make a healthy galette with egg white and oat bran and nonfat Greek yogurt in the 8-inch Le Creuset nonstick skillet with fresh local honey or one of the Rothschild Farms syrups. I do all kinds of things for breakfast," she said. "It's very popular, and usually draws about 10 people that come in specifically for the event, but everyone who regularly comes in on a Saturday will be there too." Keep the message that you're delivering through your demonstration simple, even if the product is a complicated piece of technology. That's important to customers who may be intimidated by a device they haven't used before, such as the torch that's the center of Granada Gourmet's very popular crème brulee class. "People love crème brulee, but they're afraid of the torch if they don't have experience with it," Surguine said. "People think the torching is so 'chef,' so 'fancy restaurant.' I demystify the torch, let them get their hands on it. By the time they leave the class, they're comfortable." And when they leave the store that day, they've probably bought the torch, the fuel, and even the crème brulee mix, she added. "They sell like crazy." "We think it's critical to immerse the consumer in the demo itself, so it's not just a lecture," Brice said. "Put the product in the consumers hands to use it themselves, so that they don't just see it, they actually do it." At Las Cosas, the Walkers also like to demonstrate items that they can demystify for their customers. "I like to demonstrate sous vide, because that's a cooking method that people aren't familiar with," Karen said. "People go, 'Wow!' they had no idea what you can do with some of the pieces of equipment we sell." The coffee machines at Las Cosas are always ready to brew a cup of coffee or cappuccino for a customer who drops in. "When they see the one-touch operation of a machine like that, it gets them intrigued," Karen said. Demonstrations also work at Sign of the Bear for less high-tech gadgets, Havlek said. "Low-tech demos make the store a fun experience and are an easy way for customers to see how reimagined or re-engineered products, like Lekue's Citrus Sprayer, simplify parts of cooking. Those same demos, along with analyzing our sales to track their conversion ratios, also help direct our evolution. What sells is by definition what our customers want us to be, so key sellers also teach us what our customers want from us." "For a long time the myth was that to be a successful cookware store, we had to carry X, Y and Z, but if X, Y or Z hasn't sold in a year, then clearly, that's not how we add value for our customers," she added. "Reporting and analytics let us actually understand how we add value for our customers and keep working to do better for and with them." At Granada Gourmet, Surguine loves the reaction she gets from customers who see her use the Lekue Citrus Sprayer and talk about how many ways she likes to use a spritz of citrus. "Besides the obvious spritzing in a fry pan with fish or other sauteing, a quick spray on steamed veggies or salad or, in addition, a cocktail. Just for fun, I talk about the days (We are right at the beach.) when we used to spray our hair with lemon juice before heading to the beach to lighten it a few shades or to use as a quick rinse after a shampoo to make your hair shiny," she said. "The Lekue Citrus Sprayer is convenient and perfect for all those things and many more." Converting the shopper from spectator to customer is easier if you leave people in a good place at the end of the demonstration, said Brice. "Once you've educated them and entertained them, you want to reward them." Depending on what you're promoting, you might offer a sample or a small promotional item that's related to the item you're demonstrating: that f ree breakfast f rom Granada Gourmet or the cup of coffee at Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe are examples. "If you're demoing a grill, you might give them a free thermometer, something that they can take back that will drive them to purchase the item," Brice said. "Give them an incentive to purchase later if they're not ready to do that at the moment."

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