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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Have you heard of a Pinterest party? Based on ideas found on the online idea-sharing board, Pinterest, it’s a chance for “pinners” to get together for a time of crafty fun. They get the chance to bring ideas to life that they’ve found on Pinterest.
Hosting a candy-themed Pinterest party at your store is a great way to get new potential customers in your store and to showcase that your products make great gifts and crafts. You can choose some great pins from Pinterest and then create a space in your store to allow customers to get crafty.
After a quick Pinterest search for candy themed gifts and crafts, we found the following ideas to get you started:
So, how do you host a Pinterest party? There are a variety of ways! You could make it an all-day event; customers can drop in at their leisure to make a fun candy themed craft. Or, make it a more formal event that requires signing up ahead of time. Of course, which way you decide to do that will help determine your craft. A simple craft is better for drop-ins and a more involved craft is better for the latter. Either way, provide a coupon or shopping discount for purchases made in your store by anyone who participates in the party.
Happy Pinning!
P.S. We're in St. Louis this week for the RCI Annual Convention & Industry Expo. Check out photos on our Facebook page throughout the week!
Tags:
Candy Making
Holidays
Marketing
Merchandising
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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This week’s tip is quick and easy and may save yourself a headache as you temper chocolate in small batch tempering machines.
Are you using chocolate wafers as seed for your tempering unit? Before putting them in the feed of the tempering machine, quickly (don’t overheat!) use a heat gun on them to form one large clump or block of wafers. By doing this, you will help keep the wafers from sneaking through the blade and over-tempering your chocolate.
See? Quick and easy!
This week’s tip was shared during our Chocolate Boot Camp education course. RCI will be hosting a Creams, Fondants & Fudges course August 5-7 in Dayton, Ohio. Visit retailconfectioners.org/events to stay up-to-date with RCI's education course offerings in the coming year.
Tags:
Candy Making
Quality Control
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Looking for ideas to get the creative juices flowing? This week’s tip is to use a mind map to spark creativity!
What is a mind map? It’s a diagram used to visually outline information. Typically it begins with a word, image or phrase in the center and then other ideas and images branch out from the center across the page. One of the key benefits of a mind map is that an idea doesn’t have to be full or complete or even in sentence form in order to be displayed. The idea is that the process of a mind map resembles how your brain actually works!
Tips for an effective mind map:
- Start with a large piece of paper (Give your brain room to think!)
- Use images, not just words
- Vary the size, color and alignment of your images and text
- Keep topics and labels short (Think big picture.)
Mind maps are useful tools for individual creativity and also can help to get creative ideas flowing among a team of people. In your next team brainstorming session, consider using a whiteboard or oversized Post-it to map out ideas as they’re given and see where mind mapping can take you! If you prefer tech tools to paper versions, check out MindMeld or Mindmeister.
P.S. There is still time to register to join us at the RCI Annual Convention & Industry Expo! Register online now to meet fellow confectioners and suppliers June 16-20 in St. Louis.
Tags:
Creativity
Employee Management
Organizing
Owning a Business
Productivity
Technology
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Father’s Day is just a few weeks away (June 15) so this week’s tip is to utilize social media to help your customers honor their fathers – and hopefully they’ll come in to buy your sweets in the process.
Below find a few ideas for some of the most popular social media tools. Take one and use it, or take a combination approach for the social media avenues your customers use most.
Facebook – For the week leading up to the holiday, have followers post their favorite sayings or lessons learned from their dad. Make a daily post and have followers comment in the post with their sayings or lessons. Then, choose your favorite at the end of the week to win a Father’s Day gift basket. You could take a humorous or sentimental approach with this one!
Twitter – Use a custom hashtag to encourage followers to post about their dad. Similar to the Facebook suggestion, you can take a humorous or sentimental approach here. Be sure to promote the hashtag so you can view all participant submissions.
Pinterest – Have a Dad’s Sweet Dream Gifts contest that requires entrants to have a Pinterest board full of their dad’s favorite items from your website or online store. Require the board to include your company name (awareness builder!) and then have entrants submit the URL to their board by emailing you or posting the link on your Facebook page. (Check out this Pinterest contest for an idea of how it to communicate the idea to customers.)
Instagram – Photo contest! Have customers submit photos of themselves with their dads holding their favorite chocolates or candies from your store. Just as with Twitter, encourage a custom hashtag so that you can easily view the submissions.
For each of these items, you could say that if they come to your store before Father’s Day and show their comment, Tweet, etc. on their phone then they receive a free piece of fudge, truffle, etc. As you know, once you get them in your store, they’re likely to purchase your irresistible treats!
Tags:
Holidays
Marketing
Social Media
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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It is almost June, also known as National Candy Month! This week’s tip is to have some fun with a month-long celebration of all things candy.
Ideas for fun candy month celebrations include:
- Specials and coupons, of course!
- Interactive in-store contests. For example, coloring contests for kids is a great way to get the entire family in your store. Display the submissions in your store throughout the month, letting other customers vote for their favorites. The winning prize could be a fun candy-filled gift basket.
- Limited edition candy. What about getting your staff involved and asking them to create a new product inspired by their own favorite confections that’s only available for the month of June?
- Host a Candy Making Camp where kids can sign up for a day of candy making at your store for a fee.
- Have a new candy contest, encouraging customers to contribute ideas for a new chocolate or candy to be made by your company. They can come up with creative names, or you could even name the winning idea after the winning contributor.
The key here is to have fun celebrating because candy really does make life more sweet – and fun!
Tags:
Candy Holidays
Holidays
Marketing
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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You’ve made a delicious product covered in chocolate and now it is time to package it. Have you considered how the temperature of the packaging room or area will affect your product?
This week’s tip is to control the temperature of your packaging room or area in order to protect the integrity of your products. Oftentimes the focus of room temperature is on the cooking or kitchen area but the temperature and relative humidity of the packaging area is important as well. For example, conditions with high humidity will lead to moisture condensation which will eventually result in sugar bloom on the product’s surface. Additionally, conditions that are too warm could melt your products.
Confectionery experts recommend that the packaging area be maintained at 65° to 70°F with a relative humidity of maximum 65 percent. To help with control, install a thermometer that measures both temperature and relative humidity and assign an employee to check the measurements on a regular schedule.
Temperature control is one of many factors and variables that should be considered as you prepare product for customer distribution. The decisions you make about these items can help to prolong the beauty and shelf life of your confections.
Tags:
Candy Making
GMP's
Packaging
Quality Control
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Think about the last business you entered, retail specifically. Were you greeted upon entrance? If you received a warm welcome, did it leave an impression on you? Likely so as a warm welcome is no longer the norm when it comes to customer service. That’s why today’s tip is to train your employees in customer service.
One of the best examples of excellent customer service is the Apple Store. A Forbes article outlined the five steps of service that Apple Store employees are trained to follow for each customer interaction:
Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome.
Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs (ask closed and open-ended questions).
Present a solution for the customer to take home today.
Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns.
End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.
How are your employees doing at each of these steps? Oftentimes we assume that employees understand the basics of customer service, but it’s up to you as the business owner/manager to train them.
Remember, 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated (salesforce.com). So start preparing your employee training today!
P.S. The Opening General Session at the RCI Annual Convention & Industry Expo this June will provide more insight from industry expert Phil Bruno on building great customer experiences. Register online by May 16 and save $100 on full registration!
Tags:
Customer Service
Employee Management
Owning a Business
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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| La King's Confectionery, RCI 2011 Fall Regional |
It’s almost summertime which means it’s nearly prime time for ice cream! Therefore, this week’s tip is to take a critical look at how you display the ice cream in your store.
As with candy merchandising, the way your ice cream is displayed can have a positive or adverse affect on sales. During our 2011 Fall Regional Conference in Houston and Galveston, Texas, members visited La King’s Confectionery. The owner, Jack King, shared that when he revamped his ice cream display to be more of a European style (similar to the way gelato is displayed), ice cream sales in his store went up. The photo above is an example of how he currently displays his ice cream.
So, if you are still hand-dipping your ice cream out of traditional, round buckets, consider a display redesign. By displaying ice cream in a more modern style and adding embellishments such as cookie crumbles or caramel swirls, your customers won’t be able to resist your delicious ice cream!
Take it a step further: Take your display a step further and offer a toppings bar nearby. Take products that you currently offer (i.e. chocolate covered pretzels, caramel, nonpareils, etc.) and let customers create a new favorite ice cream treat!
Tags:
Ice Cream
Merchandising
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Is the technology at your company helping or hindering productivity? This week’s tip is to take some time to perform a technology audit to determine how it is working and also how it can be improved.
Not sure where to start? Unless you have a skilled IT professional on your staff, you will likely need to hire someone to help you through the process and make recommendations that best fit your company size and goals. The following points are from the SCORE website as items to be sure you consider during a technology audit:
· Information Security
· Training your staff so that they’re using technology as efficiently and securely as possible
· Your future needs and what current/developing technologies will help meet them.
· What is not working right now or what could work better?
Be sure to include your staff in the process as they are in the trenches and can provide some great insight as to what is and is not working in terms of technology and processes. While a technology audit is an investment, it has the potential to provide a large return if you take the time to do it well.
Tags:
Employee Management
Owning a Business
Technology
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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We’ve mentioned Pinterest on our blog multiple times, typically because we love to find ideas there to share with you, our faithful blog readers. Did you know that there is a way to determine if your company has images or links being pinned by others on Pinterest? This week’s tip will show you how to check that and also why it matters.
First, why does it matter if people are pinning links and images from your website on Pinterest? Pinterest users post captions to their images. By reviewing the pins along with the captions, you may find great customer insight regarding your current products as well as ideas to adapt them or make them better.
Second, how to find if you are being pinned. You may search to see if anyone has pinned your content by typing the following into your web browser’s address bar: http://pinterest.com/source/retailconfectioners.org (instead of “retailconfectioners.org, enter your own url). The page that shows up allows you to check out the boards that have pinned images and links from your website. Take a few minutes to review the content and the captions. In addition, it might be a good idea to do a quarterly check on this to see if popular pins and content change based on the seasons or other factors.
It’s always a good idea to track your company’s online presence. We hope this week’s tip gives you a great tool to help you do just that!
Tags:
Marketing
Owning a Business
Social Media
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