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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Now that Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter are behind you, this week’s tip is to take a moment to do a recap for each holiday. By stopping to review items such as inventory, sales numbers, marketing and more, you can forecast more accurately for the following year’s holidays.
Questions to ask during your post-holiday recap may include:
- What was the day of the week and/or date of the holiday?
- Did the weather impact sales (positively or negatively)?
- What sales or special offers did you have? What was the response to each?
- Did you have too much or too little inventory of any particular items (products or otherwise)?
- Was staffing adequate for each day and time leading up to the holiday?
Be sure to include your staff in the process. Oftentimes, they see and hear things from customers that could be enlightening for your holiday planning.
RCI Members: Access a post-holiday recap template created just for RCI members by signing in to the RCI website as a member. Then, click on Planning Tools under the Member Resources tab.
Tags:
Holidays
Marketing
Organizing
Owning a Business
Productivity
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Next Monday April 1 is April Fool’s Day. That means you have six more days to plan a creative way to celebrate this fun holiday in your store and create a marketing buzz at the same time. Why not play a few April Fool’s Day jokes on your customers, or help them play one on their friends and family. One of many ideas may be to create a “zero calorie chocolate box” promotion that will just be available on April Fool’s Day. Then, the box could be empty (zero calories, of course!) but contain a coupon for your store along with information about the health benefits of chocolate. You could promote via social media leading up the day that you’re going to have a big product reveal.
Get inspired by reading what some large companies such as Google and Burger King have done over the years to create a buzz around April Fool’s Day:
As you plan your fun prank, be careful not to confuse or frustrate your customers but to make it enjoyable for everyone involved and something they’d want to share with others (which spreads the word about your store). Be sure to leave us a comment below to share your fun ideas and let us know how they work out!
Tags:
Holidays
Marketing
Merchandising
Owning a Business
Seasonal
Social Media
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Are you looking for a new product to debut this Spring and Easter season? Extremely popular Easter items for many of our members are personalized Easter eggs. Parents and grandparents love to put their kids and grandkids names on the eggs, making it an annual tradition for many. You can buy egg moulds in a variety of sizes. Bonus: Buy hollow moulds and give your customers the chance to fill their eggs with even more treats from your store!
For the best adherence when personalizing items, use chocolate on chocolate and compound coating on compound coating. Sometimes when using a compound coating on chocolate the message will not adhere and it will fall off so be extra aware and cautious. Make a small decorating bag out of parchment paper to do your writing and try to do as many as possible at one time.
Have fun decorating chocolate Easter eggs!
Tags:
Candy Making
Holidays
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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We’ve seen the pictures on Facebook and Twitter and we know many of you have your stores beautifully merchandised and decorated for Valentine’s Day. This week we want to remind you to keep plenty of those Valentine’s goodies in stock until the beloved holiday.
Typically, Valentine’s Day sales are last-minute purchases, mainly the last 48 to 24 hours. Therefore, you want to be sure you have enough product available in store until the final day. Avoiding out of stock situations will help those last-minute customers know they can count on your candy store to be there for them year after year when they need it.
Worried you’ll have lots of product left over? Use ribbons and cello caddies to carry out the Valentine’s theme because they can easily be swapped out for Easter colors to avoid having to place the product on your after-holiday clearance shelf.
Tags:
Candy Making
Holidays
Marketing
Merchandising
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Super Bowl is a week from this Sunday and according to this infographic on 2012 Super Bowl parties, more than $50 million will be spent on food for Super Bowl parties across the country. That’s why this week’s tip is to join the madness and incorporate a few Super Bowl themed items in your candy store.
While you can’t legally use the logos and likeness of the competing Super Bowl football teams, you can use their team colors to create beautifully themed hostess gifts and party platters. How about football shaped cookies using icing with team colors? Or, try football shaped chocolate moulds with a stick in them to make football pop bouquets. Since eight million pounds of popcorn were consumed at Super Bowl parties last year, consider making salty snacks such as popcorn and pretzels mixes. The product possibilities are endless!
Be sure to spread the word among your customers using your website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and whatever social media networks your customers are accustomed to, and encourage them to come to your store for their Super Bowl party treats. Remember, great pictures speak a thousand words so be sure to post beautiful pictures.
Do you have other ideas for joining Super Bowl madness and your candy store? Please share them in the comments below!
Tags:
Candy Making
Colors
Holidays
Marketing
Merchandising
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Have you already set your packaging colors for Valentine’s Day and other spring holidays but want to incorporate the newest color trends and combos? Invest in a few spools of great ribbon or stylish embellishments and you’ll be on trend in no time!
We’ve gathered a few creative uses of emerald green, Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year, from Pinterest to inspire your 2013 packaging and design creativity. Let the creative juices flow!
Bright Ribbon:
Classy Embellishments (great for wrapping a classic 4-piece box!):
Bright Accents:
Fresh Color Combo:
Fun Pattern:
Tags:
Colors
Holidays
Marketing
Merchandising
Packaging
Photos
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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We have just a week until Christmas so this week’s tip is to actually stop making Christmas-themed products and packages. I know, it sounds crazy, but we promise it makes sense. If you instead focus these next few days on putting together winter-themed items (think snowmen, snowflakes, etc.), then your items will still be applicable gifts after the holidays and into the New Year.
Below find some snowman-themed ideas we found on Pinterest to get your creative juices started. Be sure to share any winter themed product ideas in the comments below.
Merry Christmas!
Tags:
Candy Making
Holidays
Marketing
Packaging
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Most candy makers would probably agree it’s easier to keep a super-clean facility when the bows and boxes aren’t flying during the holiday season. But how is your staff doing with keeping the cleaning schedule when there seems to be no extra time in the day?
One way to stay on top of this is to test the cleanliness of your facility on a regular basis. We don’t mean a visual test where you look to see if the area appears clean but an actual scientific test for allergens, sanitation, etc.
You can buy sample test kits and do an on-site test of a variety of areas in your production zone. During one of our recent Kettle Talk panel forums, a member recommended buying sample test kits from Neogen. Using their food allergen tests you can do on-site tests to detect the target allergen ( see list of allergens here) in ingredients, liquids, clean-in-place rinses, finished foods, and on environmental surfaces. They also have sanitation tests to detect the amount of food residue and other organic matter, such as bacteria, yeast and mold, that may remain after cleaning.
Please note this is just one company that was recommended from one member to another at our event and others are likely available to you by searching online. If you also want to send swabs off to a lab to be thoroughly tested, Silliker Labs, who presented at the 2012 RCI Spring Regional event, also provides food testing and sanitation information for confectioners and food facilities.
Do you have other tips for maintaining a clean food facility in the midst of your busiest production schedules? Please share with our blog community in the comments below!
RCI Members: Access additional materials on Good Manufacturing Practices on the member side of the RCI website. Our new website being revealed in January will have a page dedicated to just this topic.
Tags:
Candy Making
Cleaning
GMP's
Holidays
Owning a Business
Quality Control
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Especially as the holidays come upon us, candy makers are busy. That’s why this week’s tip helps you manage your time and maintain the quality of your candies.
This past year, we had a Good Manufacturing Practices series in Kettle Talk, our quarterly newsletter magazine for RCI members. The most recent article included a great tip for quality control we just had to share:
Set your candy thermometer with an alarm for a degree or two lower than your cooking time to ensure you don't overcook.
It’s brilliant, right? Now when you start a batch of caramel and walk away to work on packaging, you’ll be alerted to the candy cooking process with enough time to remove it or begin the next step before it gets even one degree too high.
Looking for suppliers of thermometers with an alarm? RCI members can access RCI Buyer’s Guide on the member side of the website or call the RCI office to be connected to a supplier.
Tags:
Candy Making
Holidays
Productivity
Quality Control
Seasonal
Technology
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Email marketing can be an effective and cost-effective marketing tool. But how do you grow your list with qualified leads to maximize your reach? We’ve compiled five easy ways to grow your list!
- Guestbook in Store – Take advantage of holiday sales traffic in your store and invite them to sign up to receive your emails to find out about future sales and promotions. Provide an easy sign-up sheet and then be sure to use the sheet to enter them into your list so they receive the emails. Remember, the more information you request, the less likely they’ll be to complete the sign-up so only ask for the necessary info.
- Events and Meetings – Since you’re a chamber member (see post here about why you should be), you’ll be attending networking events and meetings. As you receive business cards from your new contacts, ask them if it would be okay to add them to your email list so they can see when their favorite chocolates are on sale.
- Email Signatures – Create a customized email signature for everyone in your company to use. A simple sign-up for coupons button with a link to the sign-up page can produce a great response.
- Website Sign-up – Include a sign-up box on your website to invite visitors to subscribe to your company sales and updates.
- Sales Calls – Do you have sales representatives making visits on your company’s behalf? Be sure they are inviting the contacts they make to join your email list to stay in touch and receive the most up-to-date company information. You could even print some business card size promotions to hand out that share how to sign up.
Note: No false advertising allowed. Be sure you do actually send out coupons if you advertise it!
Do you have other ideas that you use to gather email addresses for your list? Share them in the comments below!
Not an RCI member? Join today and receive member benefits, including a discount with Constant Contact
Tags:
Holidays
Marketing
Owning a Business
Technology
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