On The First Day Of Christmas, I Ran A New Promotion

By Dave Donelson

Traditions fill the holidays for most of us. Unfortunately, a December tradition of the automotive aftermarket is the start of the slowest three months of the year, according to the US Census of Retail Trade. Some aftermarket retailers choose to “suck it in and wait it out” until springs brings the customers out of hibernation. But that strategy is kind of like operating the store nine months out of the year—it practically guarantees losing money on operations during the other three.

The opposite strategy is to go after sales by actively tapping the gift market. It can be done, but it takes a little extra—and unusual—promotional thinking to do it. Here are twelve holiday gift-selling ideas to get your promotional juices flowing. They’ve all been executed successfully by retailers around the country.

1. Your customers will be dreaming of a white Christmas when they register to win a refund on their gift purchases from your store. If it snows on Christmas, the store will draw a lucky winner(s) who will receive a store credit or even a (gasp) cash refund for the purchases they made when they registered. To avoid the hassle of dealing with receipts, the store salesperson or clerk who handles the sale enters the amount of the purchase and initials it on the entry form. A dollar limit can be set, it can apply only to gift certificates, or other simple limitations can be used to control the cost. You also get a big side benefit--a mailing list of the customers who made gift purchases to use for future promotions like Father's Day.

2. Some people see gift certificates as the ultimate in thoughtlessness. Add a little pizzazz to yours by letting the buyer star in a personalized video greeting to be wrapped with the gift certificate. Set a home video camera (that uses standard size VHS tapes) on a tripod aimed at a chair in front of a seasonal backdrop of some sort and let the gift-giver record a personal message. To expedite the process, take a tip from TV and provide an “idiot card” (made with a black marker and poster board) containing a standard message they can read aloud. Considering the cost of blank VHS tapes, you may choose to give them away with the gift certificate purchase.

3. Brides-to-be shouldn’t be the only people with a gift registry. Offer your customers a way to register their wish list at your store. You can use a PC database program or even just a simple paper form that the gift-getter fills out and you file alphabetically for the use of all the friends and relatives they’ll send in. You get a bonus, too: a list of items your customer wants but didn’t get for Christmas! You could boost January sales with a simple postcard to each one that says you’re extending the gift-giving season by giving them a discount on the (fill in the blank) that Santa didn’t bring.

4. Do you know a professional photographer? Even if you don’t, find one and offer them this money-maker. For the price of their donation to the local Humane Society, your customer can bring in their pet and get a professional picture of it with Santa Claus. The photographer sets up in your store on a couple of dates timed so that the portrait will be back before Christmas day. He or she will get orders for reprints and Christmas cards plus a new client database. You’ll not only get additional store traffic, but the Humane Society will probably be more than happy to help you publicize the event. Not bad for a no-cost promotion.

5. Calling home during the holidays is as traditional as decorating the Christmas tree. A great self-liquidating premium you can make available are prepaid phone cards. You can buy them in bulk at a discount from face value, then pass along the discount to your customers who make a gift purchase during the holidays. Some vendors even offer custom-printed cards and/or a voice message from you every time the card is used.

6. Serving as a collection point for “Toys for Tots” or the local food bank is a good way to generate some store traffic. To generate store sales, though, consider offering a discount or premium to the customers who make contributions to the program at your store. To add some excitement to the promotion, offer to make a matching donation if the customer donates their discount to the cause!

7. The jingle bell coupon lets everyone have a little fun while encouraging holiday sales. During a given time period (no more than a week), every customer who comes into the store with a bell gets a discount—just like they were handing in a paper coupon clipped out of the newspaper. And just like a newspaper coupon, it can be limited to one per customer, apply to every purchase or just to certain items, and represent a price percentage or fixed amount.

8. To encourage multiple store visits during the holidays, decorate your store with pictures of the family car drawn by your customers’ kids. Print a simple page with a big area for the picture and a place for their name, address, and phone number. The customer picks up the form and takes it home for the little artist to fill out. Then they return it to the store for display on a wall or in a window. A few days before Christmas, all the pictures are thrown in a barrel and one is drawn to receive a present from you—a bike or a model car. And don’t forget to add the names and addresses to your mailing list before you dispose of the pictures.

9. First-time car owners are like first-time mothers—they need lots of stuff. Put together a first car gift package that contains a lot of standard items like a chamois, wash mitt, vinyl cleaner, ice scraper, etc., put a bow on it, and build a display around it. You might want to offer two or three packages at different price points. You can add extra value to the package at no cost to you by adding some coupons supplied by a stereo installer, car wash, gas station, or other complementary retailer interested in reaching a brand new customer.

10. Crowded stores, no parking spaces, surly, overworked clerks…Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s holiday shopping time! You can’t do much about the first two problems, but the last one is directly under your control. One way to combat it is to offer the Santa Contract, which pledges that your personnel will provide a friendly hello, a cheerful attitude, helpful service and customer satisfaction. Put it in writing on counter cards, window posters, and lapel buttons. Then make sure everyone on your payroll knows why they’re responsible for carrying it out. As an added incentive, you can ask customers to identify a “Santa” who was particularly helpful or cheery to receive a little something extra in their stocking this year.

11. Gift-wrapping a one-piece grill guard is like re-folding a road map; it’s a good idea to find someone else to do it for you. You can probably make a few phone calls and find a school or church group to run a gift-wrap service for you as a fund raiser. Even if it’s only for a few days or during limited hours, it’s usually a very welcome service especially attractive to male customers. We guys especially need gift-wrapping help, by the way, since we have no experience what-so-ever in using road maps. Who needs ‘em?

12. Hopefully, holiday sales don’t end completely on December 24. To keep the traffic going into the new year, hold a white sale, just like most department stores do in January. Instead of selling sheets and towels, though, put promotional prices on merchandise that is white. And a final holiday sales suggestion: don’t discourage returns and exchanges—promote them! Remember, every time you get the customer into the store, you have a chance to sell them something else.

Like all promotions, these take a little extra work and a few entail some expense. But one or more of them can help you boost sales during that traditionally slow holiday period.

Dave Donelson is President of Sales Development Associates, a consulting firm with clients in manufacturing, media, retailing, and consumer services. He is the author of Creative Selling: Boost Your B2B Sales, and a frequent speaker on marketing, motivation, and management.