SalesHQ

Now that I have all of your attention I was wondering if I could get some ideas for a tough project that I am working on? I am working with a small town (very conservative small town) liquor store. She is trying to find her brand as it has changed and has never been very consistent. The one constant is that the after work mechanic and blue collar shoppers will continue to come in and buy their beer so she does not feel the need to reach them. She would like to reach out to the part of the community that cooks with wine, or mixes a cocktail after they get home from work. I am comming up with very many vintage style ideas but we are still drawing a blank because most of these vintage ads market in a way that is now not politically correct. Do any of you have a suggestion? Should I try to tone down and mimmic a vintage campaign, or should we look for something new?

Wow Sell4U Great Ideas.

I say go with the vintage ad. There are very classy and humorous ads that use the vintage look. It's a good way to catch attention. It was the golden age of advertising. Google Images: Retro Humor, for some inspiration. As long as you are poking fun of the lack of political correctness you are not supporting it. I agree that some of them go too far and it is expected. Maybe visualizing an old saying with a retro look and a humorous twist related to cooking with liquor, beer and wine might work. I am just throwing out ideas. For example: use a funny rural/southern colloquialism like a smiling goat in a briar patch holding a gormet dish in one hand and a whine bottle in the other with a retro look of course and say " You couldn't help but be happy when your cooking is this good!" or something more clever.

Sell4U has some good ideas. My first thought was an instore demo, an event or a contest. The liquor store in Houston, Specs, has taste testing events and mini-classes to educate customers and make sales of course.

But back to the ads. I just had one quick idea that might work with one of Sell4u's ideas: A woman smiling with a 50's retro look standing at a podium with the store logo on it. "I'm Jill, and I'm a BAKE-A-holic!" maybe a POV over other women's heads in the crowd with their hands raised with forks in hand. (not what you expected from a liquor store, might be too busy) If you are going for something more classy with the wine crowd the retro wine ads are really nice. Voltaire said "Originality is just judicious imitation." So steal from the best and make it your own!

http://www.enjoyart.com/champagne_wine2.htm

Personally, when cooking with alcohol I am a big fan of beer bread, beer cake (you should really try it),tequila-poached pears, drunken chicken and adding a little vodka to the clam chowder. I do not cook with wine much. Good luck with the advertising! If you need to bounce ideas off someone let me know!

What about offering a wine class for small groups to come in and taste and learn about wines.

You can also do "wine and cheese" pairings or "dessert wines and dessert pairings".

Good luck.

Just create a slogan like....The store where no one will see you if you don't see them.

slst says ...

Now that I have all of your attention I was wondering if I could get some ideas for a tough project that I am working on? I am working with a small town (very conservative small town) liquor store. She is trying to find her brand as it has changed and has never been very consistent. The one constant is that the after work mechanic and blue collar shoppers will continue to come in and buy their beer so she does not feel the need to reach them. She would like to reach out to the part of the community that cooks with wine, or mixes a cocktail after they get home from work. I am comming up with very many vintage style ideas but we are still drawing a blank because most of these vintage ads market in a way that is now not politically correct. Do any of you have a suggestion? Should I try to tone down and mimmic a vintage campaign, or should we look for something new?

Thank you all for the great advice. I like the idea of promoting a contest of some sort. Not only does it develop a brand but it also has a necessity to advertise. I have a little more background that may be important...

This liquor store is city run so all of the profits go to help community projects.

Yes the store does need a brand overhaul on the store level, however it is again a city run store and therefore when the funds are not available her options are limited.

Finally she does host a monthly wine club that has samples and wine vendors that present their products.

In sum, every summer our town has it's small town festival this would be a great place for a city run liquor store to have its main event. This is also something that could lend itself to a seasonal contest. Who has the best Christmas dish, summetime meal... I think this also solves the brand problem on the store level. If all of the contests and meetings are out and about the town then the store can avoid drawing attention to their neon signs that are in the window.

I have now started to ramble. I appreciate all of the ideas feel free to keep posting them. I'll let you guys know how things end up.

a lot of good ideas here...If funds are low for her to spend...is there any extra bottles /co-op dollars that the liquor store could get from these products manufact..and give aways...I once hosted a costume party at my offroad camp and got lots of venders to dontate shrits, banners, gift certificates....the manufact. might just have that to give and mail to her direct free...for you to hand out to patrons...that will help promote their drink and she her store? then when I set up all this up i would do a  cross promote with the complimenting businesses that way eveyone wins. come up with a revised brand and write a press release in the local paper....think that's free usually....love the internet too...also just because I sold yellowpages...see what headings she is the phone book an on the internet yellowpages...because those people are looking up wine...good luck...interested to hear how things work out!

Without knowing more about the community projects I can't add much more than this.

Keeping with the vintage, small town and alcohol advert. How about an ad with the old traveling snake oil salesman but in this case he is curing/promoting a community project or one of your events.  For events you could have someone dress up, crack jokes and loudly entertain and promote your booth/contest/giveaways/etc. It would also be a photo opp. for out-of-town visitors. You could even expand on the advert with the good intentioned TSOS jokingly campaigning against teetotalers (the old idea and not recovering alcoholics) and of course for the community projects. I am thinking along the lines of the politicians in "oh, brother where art thou" or "kingfish" using words like Nephalism, temperance, abstinence/ abstention, abstemiousness and restraint ( synonyms for teetotalism.) Just keep it fun.

People love a cause and knowing what their sales dollars are doing to help the community. Maybe even printing it on the receipt, " Your purchase today or year to date saved the town of (your town's name) $$$.

Yeah I think promoting the philanthopic activities of the store can be great for business.  By having a sign by the register you can educate the customers about what is happening in the community.  It is rewarding for people to feel they are giving back when they buy....  especially when its booze!  :)

I live in a small community and a lot of new business's, ie. bakeries, coffe shops etc. have done extremely well with presenting themselves with bake offs and contests.  Just keep it simple and make sure there is some sort of Acknowledgement for the participants.  As, other businesses will be in like a dirty shirt and want a piece of the action. Some will do it for the glamor of being in the local newspaper, and some will do it just because.  Make sure you get a blurb in the local paper under upcoming events. IT'S FREE! up here in Canada anyway. Goodluck

More great idea Win.  We'll overload him. lol Hopes he's makin notes. lol

so what is it going to be??

Hmm smile you did it again, luv the clarity you mind produces I would like to know how it turned out

smile says ...

After forcasting all this advice, we need to know what you think you might try, so fill us in!

Sorry to keep you all waiting. Here is the scoop... my client loves the idea! She loves the idea of having a cooking contest, she's not so sure about the work that would have to come along with it. She and I continued to talk it over and this is what we came up with. She has a built in network of wine lovers through her wine club that meets monthly. Through these people she will draw out ideas for dishes that can be made with wine. These recipies will then aide her in her new ad campaign. Every month she will publish a new recipie in the Dining section of the paper. Then as the year gets closer to the end she will take 12 dishes and have a cooking school in the local auditorium. At this point she will be able to bring in some of her wine vendors to give samples and demos. Finally the 12 dishes will be sampled for a taste test and grand prize. The fantastic part about doing a cooking show towards the end of the year is that she can then bring in sponsors from around the town. I'm hoping this will eventually grow into what was brainstormed on this forum, but I have a feeling it may take a while.

Doesn't the bible also say "judge not lest ye be judged yourself?" Guess you decided to skip that one while you were ranting about hypocrisy.



Did you ever think that maybe some of them are people who have had a hard go in life and believe that they're still loved by their maker anyway? And take comfort in that?



Jesus hung out with prostitutes. Apparently he didn't find them unworthy, as you do.



Really...this is an ugly and sad question. If this is what you're religion is about, no wonder so many people are turned off to it.

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