Page 24 - July Hawaii Beverage Guide

DO YOU
KNOW WHAT
DAY IT IS?
AS THE CALENDAR BULGES WITH DAYS, DOES THE CASH REGISTER FOLLOW?
By RoGeR MoRRiS
For the past few years, increas- ingly, publicists for sundry wine and spirits products have launched national promotions for special drink days, from International Cocktail Day to National Merlot Week. Does it matter that these days were just made up?
Many wine and spirits retailers are hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. Per- haps this is because they have been ben- e ciaries of the “real” holidays—public holidays such as July 4th and New Year’s Eve, and semi-holidays, such as Valen- tine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.
Now, powered by social media, producers and trade groups have invented a deluge of special days. Granted, #hashtags do not buy things, but people sharing #hashtags often do. Before dismissing ThisOrThat Day as just so much modern #hotair, it is worth remembering that such opportunities are frequent, exible and very low on the nancial investment scale.
Free publicity is already being pushed out from suppliers and other groups; retailers can simply and inexpensively apply pull-through marketing at the local level. Often it’s just a matter of managing calendars well in advance, selecting the most promising of these days, and rolling out mostly low-maintenance promotions.
First, Find Out What Day It Is
But rst, how can you nd out what day it is? Claire Hennessy, an account super-
visor at Colangelo
& Partners, a New
York PR rm specializing
in beverages, recommends three websites: The Intoxicologist, Travelling Corkscrew, and VinePair—just use the blogs’ search tool to locate their calendars.
Tap into these sources and you dis- cover August is Rye Month (fear not, Bourbon Month is September). More in store:
AUG international Beer Day 4
AUG Birth of champagne 4
AUG Mead Day 5
8 international Hangover Day AUG national rum Day
AUG national pinot noir Day 18
AUG
25
AUG red Wine Day 28
And so on. Sound a bit ar-
ti cial? Perhaps, but remember these promotions already exist on social media and decisons as to whether and how to apply which ones to your busi- ness are arguably more important than the “days” themselves. In other words, they are what you make of them.
Here are some quick, easy and inexpensive ways to put special days to work for you.
¡ use social media to link your
store to the Day.
A simple posting on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram a few days before, and the day of, can let people know what relevant products you have in stock—even if there is no promotional discount.
¡ conduct tastings.
If you do in-store tastings regularly, you already know that something “special” about what’s being poured can draw extra attention. Apricots and Honey, a wine shop in Mount Vernon, NY, conducted tastings and promotions in May for National Moscato Day
and National Chardonnay Day. “We saw this as a way to capitalize on special wine days the way we do on
Valentine’s Day or Father’s Day,” says store owner Shaheer Brewster. “We saw modest increases in sales both days, and we see it building every year.”
¡ use store print/online newsletters. Your store communications already call attention to upcoming sales and
AUG
16
20 national lemonade Day
AUG national Whiskey sour Day
Visit BeverageMedia.com for special #Day alerts