MARKETING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Thanksgiving is past, and the VanDorn Family has so much to be thankful for. Long after the turkey is gone my thankfulness for our many blessings continues into each and every day. High on that thankful list is our business, the dynamite team of business associates that have joined us, and that we have reached one of our goals of achieving Double Diamond Status!

Now we are coming up on the Christmas season and there is a magic in the air that is special to this month. It is about FAITH, belief, giving, wishes, dreams and new hopes for the new year, ……and our INCREDIBLE PRODUCTS!!!

It has been such a phenomenal retail season this year, and we are on the home stretch to Christmas, but the season is FAR from over! There is a magical wealth of marketing opportunities just waiting for you to tap into, opportunities that will spill right over into the New Year. This is no time to slow down your business!

I love thinking outside the “box” so to speak, so the magic and creativity of this season makes it a delightful favorite for me. The limits are only in your imagination, so here are a few of the ideas that are working well for us. Try them, and explore more of your own ideas, and make this season “your own in retail growth”! Come have fun with me!

There is a wonderful selection of custom gift boxes for this season and to carry you into the new year that are available at http://www.papermart.com/, or http://www.nashvillewraps.com/ . Take a gift box with white background and black paw prints all over it, layer it with red tissue paper, our simmer pot and melts, a few dog or cat treats, grooming brush, and you have a perfect display or gift for vet hospitals, dog grooming and boarding kennels, individual dog and cat owners, ect. Be sure to put one of our Body Bars in this gift set though with a note letting them know that our Body Bars have been found to be wonderful to bathe our pets (small pets) with as well.

Or how about the local travel agency? Take a gift box shaped like a cruise ship in to them for a display, lined with a plastic bag, you could fill it with decorative sand a couple of sea shells, and our Sex on the Beach jar candle a Body Bar, Body wash ect. or Heart of the Ocean. Many people travel to warmer climes the first of the year, and if they take your products with them on the trip just think of how many places your name might travel to!

Are you a nurse or do you know one, or a doctor? There are gift boxes that look like a nurses medical bag, or a doctor’s bag, fill them with our products and leave a tag that “says light this candle and call me in the morning”.

A gift box for golfer’s or Angler’s, or houses as the perfect listing gift for a real estate agent to give to their new client (you get two new customers with this one, because the home owner will want your candles in their new home!) they even have one with orange chili peppers on it! All of these are tools to keep your retail growth strong and consistent no matter the season or time of year. They are simple, all you have to do is fill them, and they can be personalized to the person or situation. Presentation is everything, and these may open new retail doors for you.

Our Cinnamon Buns also are perfect for that unique gift for the co-worker, neighbor, teacher, friend, relatives, ect. They make a wonderful stocking stuffer! Everyone has a stocking in our house that is filled on Christmas Eve.

These are a tradition and taking it a step further, try purchasing the little brightly colored containers (usually with a picture of Santa shaking an admonishing finger at you on the lid) that contain the infamous lump of coal as a gag gift. You can usually find these everywhere at the dollar stores, hardware stores, or WalMart by the registers, this time of year.

Put the lump of coal container and the Cinnamon Bun back to back and then wrap them together with a decorative Christmas ribbon (like a package) then tie in a pretty bow, and put a catchy tag on it that says something like,
To:
From:
Naughty or Nice, …..I’m covering the bases! Merry Christmas

Inexpensive, but a fun and memorable gift.

The dollar stores as most of you know are a treasure trove of “outside the box” packaging for our products. Let your imagination wander. One of our local discount stores had a whole line of the popular “Chubby Chef” items (say that real fast 3 times!), and one of these was a chubby chef figure bent at the waist holding a platter over his back. This platter is the perfect size for one of our Cinnamon Buns. I’m attaching a picture so you can see how cute this is as a gift by itself, but you could also make it the centerpiece for a beautiful custom holiday gift basket filled with our baking scents in the mia melts & jar candles, with SOCP hand wash (for the kitchen sink) and decoratively arranged kitchen items like, hand towels & pot holders, cookie cutters, wooden spoons and spatulas, and a decorative cookie plate standing up in the back for balance and height, or even a recipe book on baking. Both of these would have our simmer pot in place to secure them. You get the idea, and people LOVE ready made gifts that are personal and unique and won’t require wrapping!

Another great idea that is simple but so realistic it has been a big hit for us, is to sell your bella buns in a bakery box. It’s a great way to market them as a set rather than an individual sale. This will accelerate your retail turn over.

Go to your local bakery or even grocery bakery, or donut shop and get some of the white bakery boxes with windows. These come in various sizes that will fit from 4, to a dozen Cinnamon Buns.

Our local bakery has some great seasonal bakery boxes with windows right now. They have a white background with Christmas green dots.

What I have done is nest the Cinnamon Buns in a bed of red tissue paper for the holidays, then simply close the lid and tape it to keep little fingers out, tie them up like a present with a Festive Bow, allowing the window to still be seen and they are good to go, and look good enough to eat!

They love this when giving them for gifts because with the realism of our Cinnamon Buns accentuated with the bakery box, it is a unique gift that will have everyone talking and ordering “Our Fragrant Pastry” for themselves!

Add a tag saying:
To:
From: our kitchen to yours, or from Santa’s Kitchen, or …….

I would also suggest taking in a sample of the finished package to your local bakery to show them what you did with the boxes. It may open new doors for retail or even distributorship.

This idea will work for all seasons and holidays, simply change the tissue and ribbon to match the theme or season.


If you get a large regular retail account for these, or you decide to sell this idea to police departments (healthier than donuts), office buildings, schools, car dealers, and different businesses where there are multiple office staff, you can also purchase these bakery boxes in larger quantities from http://www.papermart.com/ . Just go to the home page and on the left column choose gift boxes, then food boxes, and then " cake and bakery boxes".

This is A great idea for the office boss that wants to purchase gifts for office staff, that is easy, and that they’ll love. They can buy a bakery box of Buns gift wrapped and have each employee pick one out of the box! Be sure to “Thank” the boss or business owner for their purchase by giving him or her a ScentSations calendar for 2007!

While we are on the subject of Christmas gifts for the office, …..our Body Bars make beautiful colorful Christmas ornaments hanging from a tree! For those of you that have established office or business customers, ask them if they are having a Christmas Party this year, most all do, and offer to supply a Christmas Gift Tree for their employees as a table centerpiece!

Just get a table top Christmas tree (they are everywhere right now and very reasonable, or you may already have one), take a hole punch and carefully put a single hole in the end of the BodyBar wrapper so that you can tie a length of Christmas ribbon through it with a bow. You now have a colorful Body Bar ornament for your Christmas Tree.

Hang all the different Body Bar colors (scents) on the tree (ask the employer how many he will need for staff gifts) add some festive miniature garland, twinkle lights, maybe some small snowmen scented with our fragrances(small cloth snowmen that you have brushed with melted votive wax), and a tree topper that you will be able to “scent” with one of our incredible Christmas fragrances (look for tree toppers that are made from an absorbent material, like angels, cloth stars, ect), and a colorful piece of material for the base.

Get a few of these trees and you could book them for office Christmas parties perhaps that you have done Lunch by Candlelight parties for, and rotate them through different locations.

A variation of this is to use the organza drawstring bags, or Christmas gift bags (the velvet or satin ones with beads are pretty and often the dollar stores will carry them this time of year) depending on the budget the boss or business owner wants to spend.

With this option you could mix and match some of the other products as well, such as Cinnamon buns, hand wash, body gel, our super melts, ect. simply drop them in the decorative gift bag and hang them on the tree as a surprise gift, so no one knows what they are getting until they pick it from the tree. Watch the conversation, smelling, comparing and swapping that will go on, all of which is GOOD for your business! They will want to order what they didn’t get!

All of these ideas are simple, and very quick. Craftiness NOT required! This time of year I am all about memorable impact and marketing, with minimum time investment.

A festive Product Christmas tree is a great conversation piece to get employees talking about your products and business at the party, and they can simply pick their gift from the tree.

This also works wonderful as a table display at your shows and events. It gets the product up at eye level, the twinkle lights will make everything sparkle, and draw the eye of customers, and it will free up your table surface for other things. You can also hang gift certificates from the tree in this situation to encourage larger multiple purchases, like …..buy 4 jar candles and get a “50% off jar candle gift certificate”, or buy 6 jar candles and pick a “free jar candle gift certificate”.

I have an idea to create a garland of our Super Melts for the tree to sell, but haven’t actually made them yet. But I think this is another great and unique marketing idea (especially for those of you needing “hand crafted” items for holiday shows) that I am going to try in our booth at a local craft mall for Christmas.

My thought is to individually wrap them (two of same scent together for thickness) like candies in clear and, or, colored cellophane (tootsie roll style) tied at each end with metallic curling ribbon to seal in the fragrance and prevent cross scenting, then tie them together with ribbon to create a Super Melt garland for the tree! What a great way to give someone that uses simmer pots a sample of each of our Super Melt fragrances. Use one of each scent for a bright multi colored garland, or you can go with one, or two colors to match a specific decorating theme, have garlands that are only baking scents, ect. Do a Fresh Apple one for your child’s teacher! If they have a Christmas tree in the class room this would again be a great conversation piece amongst other parents and teachers to expand your business! Again, no craftiness required. If you can unwrap a candy in reverse, and can tie a bow you can make this.

There are so many ways you can use a simple table top tree to market your products and business for the holidays.

Use the Christmas theme when decorating your show and event tables for the holidays too. Our experience is that it puts everyone into a more Christmas buying mood. It is amazing what you can use just from your own house to dress up your displays without buying anything. If you have another table top artificial Christmas tree hanging around, you can put that at one end of the table and use a Christmas scarf or pretty piece of material around the base as you would for the table centerpiece. Around the bottom of your tree display votive sets packaged like “presents” in a 4x4x4 gift box with bow.

I have also individually wrapped different scents in clear or red cellophane squares to avoid cross scenting, put a label on them to distinguish the fragrances and load them into an empty votive box. I then wrap it in pretty Christmas wrap with a tag that says, “The Twelve Scents of Christmas” and sell them with votive holder included with every purchase. It is a great way to use those empty votive boxes that are just too nice to throw away!

Set these wrapped gift sets around the bottom of the tree. It looks festive, and makes them think of buying their Christmas gifts while shopping at your booth, rather than just two or three for themselves. This will also keep your retail profits at maximum rather than a customer inadvertently nickel and dimming you by buying one votive at a time.

We won't sell votives one at a time, they must purchase them in minimum sets of 4 same fragrance for $12.00, or a box of the twelve scents of Christmas for $36.00. This way if they are buying the set of 4, and we don't have the fragrance in stock they are paying for the whole box if I have to order it, and the other 8 are free inventory for our opportunity bags or more sets of 4 for sale. It also often encourages them to go ahead and purchase a jar candle instead which is where our greatest profit margin is, and their greatest value for the money. “Always we include a votive holder of our choice, to insure the maximum burn experience.”

Another idea for a festive display that will add height to the table and lifts is to take a pedestal cake plate and stack a display of Buns on it, or, if you don't have that, you can take 4 generic wine glasses (upside down on the table) and put a decorative plate that you probably have in your cupboards on top of them so that it is evenly and securely balanced, then stack your display on the plate. This is surprisingly stable. Run a string of twinkle lights up under the decorative plate if it is transparent for an extra special effect.

Again, you can also hang the Body Bars from the branches of the artificial tree so that they can pick their own bars right off of the tree as they purchase them. If using the cellophane, just center the bar in the square and fold the sides up around the bar and then tie it at the top with a curling ribbon. Then hang the bars on the tree from the ribbon. Or, use the whole punch in the package, or gift bag idea from the office party Christmas tree. Again, this puts out the idea to purchase these as gifts and the gift wrapping is done for them.

A pretty Christmas basket, or sleigh filled with pine cones from your yard or the local park will also display nicely on a candle of the month box under a piece of festive fabric for lift. You could have the jewel colors of our BodyBars poking out at different angles from the pine cones. Again have a string of twinkle lights intermingled and it will draw the eye and show off the colorful Body Bars like ornaments in the pine cones.

In the early days I would use our empty inventory boxes under layers of material in different heights for displaying candles and products, when the show is over uncover them and pack them back up with any unsold inventory. I would stack empty votive boxes together also to achieve different “custom” heights.

No matter what display, a great way year round to dress it up, set it off, and add sparkle to the jar candles is to whenever possible use the white twinkle lights in and around the displays and products, especially the jar candles. It will make them sparkle and shine like black velvet sets off jewelry. These lights also always catch the eye of customers, are inviting, and this sets your booth apart. They are inexpensive and most people have at least a string or two of these lights in their Christmas decorations and it is a great way to highlight our products.

We all have so many props around our homes that you can use for your displays, especially during the holidays. Look through your Christmas decorations, cupboards, closets, and rooms with a whole new eye. You may be surprised at the wealth of display materials that are hanging on your walls, or on shelves right now that would give your table unusual drama and appeal, and the price is right.

There is an infinite supply of ideas. Just look around the house for props and unique items that you wouldn't normally think of and your imagination will create a successful holiday marketing display.

We all have things around our house for every day use that can add great drama and interest to an event table. It's creative and fun to think outside the box and to use what is on hand. Have fun with it, and make this magical retail season YOURS.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Kellene VanDorn
Double Diamond Team Leader
www.ourcandleclub.com