Point of Sale Props

[Big Poppa]

With one of our distributors we have to provide shelf talkers, posters, table tents, any kind of advertising or they just don't use anything. Looking for some ideas that will help us advertise our products and make the distributor money for doing not a dam thing.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

We use a mix of online and local print shops depending on the quantity of items being ordered. A majority of items we print are on business card size stock. This standard shape is useful for magnets, shelf talkers, handouts, and recipe cards (recipe cards and weekly recipes are a large component of our marketing efforts, check out our catalog of 61 recipes on our FB page: www.facebook.com/twenty2vodka)

Since I can't suggest actual content to put on the POS material (that's 100% on you), browsing through the sizes of items offered by these online shops might spark some ideas. Min order is usually 250.

The 2 companies I use are

www.vistaprint.com

www.printplace.com

I'll switch between the 2 depending on what I'm having printed. Both companies offer a turnaround of 3 days (if you want to pay for it). Vista print's 3 day turn around factors in shipping too, which has got us out of a pinch more than once.

Good luck

-Scott

[FrEwing]

We use a mix of online and local print shops depending on the quantity of items being ordered. A majority of items we print are on business card size stock. This standard shape is useful for magnets, shelf talkers, handouts, and recipe cards (recipe cards and weekly recipes are a large component of our marketing efforts, check out our catalog of 61 recipes on our FB page: www.facebook.com/twenty2vodka)

Since I can't suggest actual content to put on the POS material (that's 100% on you), browsing through the sizes of items offered by these online shops might spark some ideas. Min order is usually 250.

The 2 companies I use are

www.vistaprint.com

www.printplace.com

I'll switch between the 2 depending on what I'm having printed. Both companies offer a turnaround of 3 days (if you want to pay for it). Vista print's 3 day turn around factors in shipping too, which has got us out of a pinch more than once.

Good luck

-Scott

Scott,

Your suggestions are always helpful. As a newbie developing my business plan and strategies, I've been wondering if Facebook and other online vehicles like Twitter are effective in generating sales. Or are they just something one has to do? I'd appreciate hearing your experiences and any one else who is using these vehicles.

Thanks

Dick G

[delaware_phoenix]

FB may well have generated some sales for me, especially when I'm not able to place my product in every store. But I wouldn't rely on it.

One thing that is valuable is to let customers know you are a small distillery, a local business. They may not be aware that whiskey, vodka, etc. is being made right down the street from them, in their neighborhood. It may be possible for them to actually meet you. Most people will never meet the person that distills Jack Daniels or whatever it is that they drink. They don't need to know that you spilled mash on yourself, smell like low wines and whiskey, keep terrible hours. But you're a distiller, and for some reason you're now cool.

While I personally abhor the marketing driven shelf talker filled with drivel, an honestly written one may well generate much more interest, and lead to a sale. Very valuable can be the "Staff Pick" with some tasting notes, and something that says they like it and think you should try it.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

Scott,

Your suggestions are always helpful. As a newbie developing my business plan and strategies, I've been wondering if Facebook and other online vehicles like Twitter are effective in generating sales. Or are they just something one has to do? I'd appreciate hearing your experiences and any one else who is using these vehicles.

Thanks

Dick G

Sorry for the delay in this reply, Dick G.

I can't say if Facebook directly drives sales. We do rely heavily on Facebook for our marketing efforts because of what it (fb) offers us. Specifically, our fan page is a presence in a location on the web where a majority of people already hang out. Aside from your time, it costs nothing to have and upkeep. It lets me be in multiple places at once too, appealing to our different markets (i run more than 1 page) without the $ of travel. Our Twitter account is linked directly to our facebook content, so that we can have a "double presence" if people choose one over the other, without requiring "double content" or "double time" to keep both fresh.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but Facebook offers an entirely different format of advertising/marketing from traditional print, and must be approached differently as well. Scott from Catoctin Creek put it best when he said "You have to feed the beast daily". He's 100% correct, because FB and Twitter are all about content relevant to the time it takes to read the 420 characters. While some do take posting status updates to the extreme, relating mundane details that seem irrelevant, there are a bunch of very successful feeds out there that take that approach. Personally for us, we try to maintain at least 6 posts per week, and never more than 14/wk because people will drop you too if you post too much. I could speak at length on the lessons I've learned using FB over the past year, perhaps a topic for a different post (or a book deal if anyone is interested ;-P ).

To return to your specific question, is it something that you have to do? Well, I'd say quite frankly "yes", because everyone else is. And when I say everyone in this context, I'm talking consumers and vendors. If it's not your product getting their 15sec of attention because you think FB is a fad, that's ok, because they'll be reading all about my stuff instead.

check us out on FB here: http://www.facebook.com/twenty2vodka

Good Luck,

-Scott