Luhrs, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Features Freshly Roasted Coffee in His Window
Smoke from the roasters is blown into street through the coffee pot hanging over the door
WHOLESALE MERCHANDISING OF COFFEE Page 2
Practical Grocer Helps
Wholesale coffee merchandising does not properly end with the delivery of a shipment of coffee to a retailer. The progressive wholesaler knows that it is to his best interest to help that grocer sell his coffee as quickly as possible; to make a good profit on a quick turn-over; and to dispose of it before the coffee has deteriorated.
Practical co-operation between wholesaler and retailer is one of the most important factors in coffee merchandising. In these days of keen and unremitting competition, neither agency can stand alone for long. The progressive wholesaler does not sell a retailer a poorer quality of coffee for any particular grade than his trade calls for, and he does not load him up with more than can be disposed of while still fresh. He gauges the capacity and facilities of each retail customer, and then gives him practical help to keep the stock moving.
The packer of branded coffees helps by advertising to the consumer in magazines and newspapers, always featuring the name of his brands; and he supplies the grocer with educational pamphlets and booklets on the growing, preparation, and merits of coffee in general, with an added fillip about the desirability of his particular brand. Through his salesmen the packer shows the grocer how to display the coffee on the counter and in the window, and often supplies him with placards and cut-outs featuring his brand. He co-operates in staging special coffee demonstrations in the store; instructs the retailer in the importance of teaching his clerks how to talk and to sell coffee intelligently; and how to prepare advertising copy for his local newspaper, so as to get the fullest measure of profit from the wholesaler's national or sectional advertising.
Coffee Sampling
The sampling method of creating a demand for merchandise has been tried in the wholesale coffee trade, only to be abandoned by the majority of packers. With other and more satisfactory ways of creating consumer interest, promiscuous sampling was found to be too expensive, in view of the comparatively small returns. One indictment against sampling is that it does not make any more impression on the average person than does an advertisement that appears only once, and is then abandoned. Wideawake merchants have learned that the public's memory is exceedingly short; and that they must keep "hammering" with advertisements to establish and to maintain a demand for their products.
It would seem that the logical place for sampling is in the retailer's store, especially in connection with demonstrations. Many progressive grocers stimulate interest in their coffees by serving, on special demonstration days, small cups of freshly brewed coffee, giving the customer a small sample of the brand or blend used, to be taken home to see if the same pleasing results can be obtained there also. Generally this form of sampling, when properly conducted, has shown a larger percentage of returns than any other method.
Premium Method of Sales Promotion
For many years, the premium method of sales promotion has been an important factor in wholesale coffee merchandising, as well as in retail distribution. The premium system has been characterized as a form of advertising; and many coffee packers and wholesalers prefer to spend their advertising appropriations in that way rather than in transitory printed advertisements in newspapers and general magazines.
While certain forms of the system have been legislated out of existence in some states, friends of the plan claim that it is a true profit-sharing method which "blesses both him that gives and him that takes"; and that it is an advanced and legitimate means of promoting business, when properly conducted. They assert that it is a system of sales promotion whereby the advertising expense, plus a large percentage of the profits of the business stimulated thereby, is automatically returned to the dealer buyer, without increasing cost or lowering the quality of the product so advertised; that it eliminates advertising waste by producing a given volume of sales for a given expenditure of money; that it reduces the cost of advertising by prompting a continuous series of purchases at one advertising expense; that it promotes cash payments and discourages credit business. Premium users claim that the force of a printed advertisement is often spent in stimulating the first purchase; while to secure a premium, the purchaser must continue to buy the commodity carrying the premium, or trade with the giver of the premium until merchandise of a stipulated value or quantity has been purchased.
In general practise, the premium-giving coffee packer or wholesaler may either offer the retailer an inducement in the form of a desirable store fixture, household article, or item for his personal use; or he may offer it to the consumer through the retailer.
The methods of giving the premium are numerous. To the retailer he may give the article outright with each purchase of a stipulated quantity of his coffee; or he may offer it as a prize to the retail distributer selling the most coffee in a certain period in a specified territory. Frequently the premium is of such value that the wholesaler can not give it with any quantity of coffee a distributer can dispose of in a short time; so he issues coupons or certificates with each purchase, permitting the retailer to redeem the premium when he has saved the required number. Or, the retailer may get the premium with the first purchase by paying the difference in cash.
In giving premiums to consumers, the wholesaler follows the same general plan used with retailers, except that in most cases the coupons are packed with the coffee and are redeemable at the retailer's store. Sometimes, however, the consumer sends the coupons or certificates to the wholesaler, getting the premium direct from him. In another phase of the premium system, the retailer works independently of the wholesaler, buying and giving away his own premiums to promote or to hold trade for his store. This phase is explained in the chapter on retail coffee merchandising.
Luhrs, of
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Features Freshly Roasted Coffee in His Window
Smoke
from the roasters is blown into street through the coffee pot hanging over the
door
Johnson, of Red Oak, Iowa, Roasts Before the Customer
Showing a
Royal roasting and grinding equipment
FRESH ROASTED-COFFEE IDEA IN RETAIL MERCHANDISING