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

2. The Mission

3. 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.

4. Who Are Our Customers?
The Hunter

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

6. Who are our Customers?

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

8. What are their expectations?

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

10. Setting up Your Banquet

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

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

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

14. 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?

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

16. So What Motivates Us to Buy?
Need

17. So What Motivates Us to Buy?
WANT!

18. How do retailers make us want to buy?
Urgency

19. How do retailers make us want to buy?
Color

20. How do retailers make us want to buy?
Humor

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

22. How do retailers make us want to buy?
Lifestyle

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. Typical Banquet Setup

26. Add some color to your banquet.

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

28. Color can be your identity.

29. Arrange items by color

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

31. 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.

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

33. 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

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

35. Lighting and Atmosphere
Color, Color, Color
Signage, Signage, Signage

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

37. 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.

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

39. Lifestyle

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

41. Lifestyle

42. Lifestyle

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

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

45. The Challenge for 2010

46. The Challenge for 2010
You Need to take Aim……

47. 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.

48. This is why we’re doing this.

49. Thanks for listening. Make sure to Julie Hoffmann, Prairie Heartland Chapter with pictures and ideas of how you spiced up your banquet this year at