How to make your banquet attendees WANT to buy your merchandise! RMEF Merchandising How to make your banquet attendees WANT to buy your merchandise!

The Mission

Setting the Stage *Selling merchandise puts us in the “Entertainment” industry. *You are in direct competition with 100’s of other distractions that demand your “customer’s” attention. *It gets tougher every banquet to get the “WOW” factor.

Who Are Our Customers? The Hunter

The Hunter’s Better Half Who are our Customers? The Hunter’s Better Half

Who are our Customers?

WOMEN! Who are our Customers? Who makes 90% of the major buying decisions in a family? WOMEN!

What are their expectations?

What are their expectations? Seeing old friends and making new ones!

Setting up Your Banquet

Where do we put all the “Stuff”? Method 1 *Panic Mode New Chapters Or New Heads of Committees

Where do we put all the “Stuff”? Method 2 *Lazy Man’s Set Up “We’ve always done it this way, why change now?”

Where do we put all the “Stuff”? *How about trying something new?

How much was a cup of coffee in 1950? How do we make the “Stuff” look like it’s worth more that we paid for it? . How much was a cup of coffee in 1950?

How much is a cup of coffee in 2009? What’s it worth? How much is a cup of coffee in 2009?

So What Motivates Us to Buy? Need

So What Motivates Us to Buy? WANT!

How do retailers make us want to buy? Urgency

How do retailers make us want to buy? Color

How do retailers make us want to buy? Humor

How do retailers make us want to buy? Lighting and Atmosphere

How do retailers make us want to buy? Lifestyle

How do RMEF Chapters use these techniques? Urgency *Uniqueness of products-some of our items are hand made locally or only available at an RMEF banquet. You can’t get them anywhere else. (Make sure to advertise this fact in your invitations and advertising media) *Banquets usually only come 1 time per year. *Some committees offer less expensive meal tickets if purchased early versus at the door. *Early Bird offers-Prize drawings for early registration and ticket purchase. *Limiting number of tickets sold on special Raffle items.

COLOR Warm Colors make you hungry, stimulates your senses, and gets your blood going. Cool Colors calm you down, lower your blood pressure and make you fall asleep.

Typical Banquet Setup

Add some color to your banquet.

Use fabric, tablecloths and napkins for draping and color addition.

Color can be your identity.

Arrange items by color

Use some humor (Cute, Pretty and Handsome also work)

Lighting and Atmosphere We’ve got artists that work very hard on their pieces of art-make sure to highlight their work and make it special in the eyes of your guests.

Lighting and Atmosphere Murals are a good way to fill up wall space Wall tents and Screened Cabanas make welcoming entrances into the banquet.

Lighting and Atmosphere Don’t Leave Anything in the Box! Mix items together in displays to give people ideas on their use and purpose. Give them the unexpected

Lighting and Atmosphere Bring in interesting objects to tell a story and create an atmosphere that will have your guests immersed in the evening.

Lighting and Atmosphere Color, Color, Color Signage, Signage, Signage

Lighting and Atmosphere And still more signs-These are your silent salesmen

Lighting and Atmosphere Use Elevation to get your message seen when there’s a crowd in the room Balloons are great attention getters and lots of fun for guests when used in a raffle.

Lighting and Atmosphere Taxidermists are a great source for displays to add atmosphere to the banquet.

Lifestyle

Show people how the items will look in their homes. Lifestyle Show people how the items will look in their homes.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle

Lifestyle Need versus want factor Give your guests things they think they can’t live without. Need versus want factor

Flex your creative muscles………. The Challenge for 2010 Flex your creative muscles……….

The Challenge for 2010

The Challenge for 2010 You Need to take Aim……

The Challenge for 2010 Get your gang together and do one new thing to merchandise your items that will get the attention of your guests.

This is why we’re doing this.

Thanks for listening. Make sure to email Julie Hoffmann, Prairie Heartland Chapter with pictures and ideas of how you spiced up your banquet this year at erivernursery@hur.midco.net