The Details of Retail

Mark offered an example of a holiday promotion for a retail store. "We sell a large program two times per year (Easter and Christmas) to a distributor who works with a large furniture retail store chain on the East Coast in a multi-state region," she said. "The client will purchase over 800 of our giant promotions [one of which is pictured on page 68] and ship roughly 15 to each store. The furniture store will advertise and market this item as a free gift if a purchase of $999 or more is made. This has been so successful for them that they have run it three years in a row," she said.

Another use for in-store displays is to enhance advertising space for an apparel, food or hard goods company that only sells through retailers. "The items are also popular with chip and bottling companies, wherein a company like Frito-Lay or Coca-Cola will use our stockings as a dealer-loader to gain more space inside of a grocery store venue," Mark explained.

Shopping Bags

Christopher Duffy, senior vice president of marketing for Bag Makers Inc., Union, Ill., explained why bags are so important to the retail market. "We have sold plastic, paper and nonwoven bags for both large and small retailers—entirely through our promotional product distributor base," Duffy said. As for the differences between small stores and national chains, Duffy noted exactly what you would expect: "Budget is the primary difference," he said. "Larger retailers looking for bags to hold customer purchases view this as a 'replenishment buy' and the large quantity volume dictates a lower unit price," he said.

However, when it comes to special purpose bags, price is less of an issue for large and small stores. "Many retailers also buy our bags for specific marketing purposes, such as gift-with-purchase, grand openings, co-branding opportunities, etc. In these cases, they're looking for more upscale designs and functionality," he said. "Price becomes less of an issue as the marketing presentation itself becomes the key factor." Duffy offered an example of a specialty bag used by a retail store. "A large chain of grocery stores in the southeast sells our insulated grocery tote at their checkout counters," he said. "Its distinctive design makes it a unique purchase and the stores can get their premium for it."