Because the term "specialty food" is broad, merchandising these products can be a bit of a challenge. Simply put, specialty foods are foods that fall into several categories at once: ethnic, organic, imported, regional, artisan, gourmet, etc. Thinking of these items this way will help increase sales.

Specialty foods can often be expensive, and many patrons who are unfamiliar with the products may be unwilling to put out the money for them. By familiarizing the customer with specialty foods, you will be pleasantly surprised at the surge in sales! There are several key ways to introduce these products to your customer base.

Education
The key to an increased awareness of specialty foods items is education. Your staff must be educated about the products you carry in order to entice your customers to buy more. You may want to start out by offering tastings to your staff. For instance, by allowing your staff to try hearts of palm, you've given them an experience they can share with a customer, also new to hearts of palm. The employee can now encourage a patron to try something new, by describing the product's taste, texture and uses.

Also, by allowing your employees to taste the difference between, for instance, high-end chocolate and the lesser grades of chocolate, they can go on to explain the differences in taste and feel to the customers. Your customers will be more inclined to try something new and more expensive with your employees' encouragement. You can use this approach with coffees, too.

It's also a good idea to allow your customers to try your specialty foods. A logical place for a demo is near your salad bar. Hand out small samples of items like hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, peppers, and be sure to let customers know where they can find these products in the store. Dips and salad dressings are also a perfect choice for a demonstration in the salad bar area.

Demos in and around the deli and meat section are a terrific place to boost your sales, too. Customers might be curious about the new type of cheese or the couscous in your case. Allowing them to try a bit will help you sell more. This is a great place to market your marinades as well, especially if you can offer a taste of some teriyaki marinated salmon or beef to the inquisitive customer.

By educating your staff as well as your customers, the word will get around! Your customers will go home with a jar of zesty asparagus and serve it to their friends and family, and they'll all come back for more. This gives your store an advantage: your customers will like the personalized attention, and it will distinguish your store from the others.

Integration/Cross-Merchandising
Many stores make shopping for specialty foods inconvenient by keeping these items separate from the rest of the store's inventory. To help better educate your customers, it's important to integrate specialty items. That's not to say that you shouldn't have a separate display case with a particular line of food, it's just a good idea to incorporate those items into the aisles that they would appear in, too. For instance, instead of simply separating out capers or artichoke hearts, make sure you place some of your stock on the shelves alongside the olives and other jarred vegetables, and also with the salad dressings, so that customers will see them. A lot of people have never tried capers, but by placing them with the olives, this may make them more accessible.

The same goes for items like couscous and tabouli. Instead of keeping them strictly in the ethnic aisle, make sure you have some with your pastas, grains, and rice. Not only will this increase visibility, making it easier to find these items, but it will increase curiosity on the part of those who haven't tried those items. They'll have an idea that those items are similar to the pasta and grains they already know, which might encourage them to make an impulse buy, or at least ask questions, which could will lead to more sales.

The Written Word
Another great way of reaching people is through the written word; with it, you have many options! Newsletters - distinct from your regular circulars - are a great start to reaching more customers about the delights of specialty foods. Every few months, you may want to feature a particular type of food, in a four- or six-page flyer. For instance, your first newsletter could be about tea, and in it, you would address the history of tea, its uses, health benefits, some tea recipes, and maybe even spotlight a particular manufacturer or two (or ten!). You could have similar newsletters on chocolate, coffee, vinegar, condiments, and appetizers down the road. A newsletter is a great way to keep your customers thinking about specialty foods long after they've left your store and their kitchens.

Along the same line, an employee cookbook is a productive and fun way to increase the sale of specialty items. Invite your employees to submit their favorite recipes utilizing specialty items. Make sure you include everything: appetizers, main courses, side dishes, desserts, and beverages; and be sure to include all areas of your store: produce, grains, dairy, meat and fish, baking, frozen, deli, etc. This is an involved project, but one you'll be proud of! You can tailor it to work with your resources - does your store have a graphics/advertising department that can put the book together, or will you have to send it out? You might want to organize the book by meal course, or by type of meat or vegetables predominantly used. You could hold a contest among your employees for a cover design, which would be a great way to get people involved! In your cookbook, be sure to include the location of each specialty item in your store (for an artichoke dip recipe, for instance, be sure to give the location of the jarred, canned, and frozen artichokes). Once the book is organized and set, you could have it printed at a print shop in your area. Or you could take the book to a copy facility, and get your copies spiral bound (a cost-effective type of binding; it is also handy for the cook, since the book will lay flat while opened).

Once your book is back in the store, you can distribute them in a number of ways. You can put them up for sale near the register, or your can offer them for free to customers who spend a certain amount of money at your store. The goal, presumably, would be to get copies to as many people as possible, so you'll have more patrons hungry for specialty foods! Take-home publications, like a cookbook, are a great way for you to stay on the minds of your customers after they've left your store. They'll love your effort and customer loyalty will improve for it.

Before big holidays, you also might want to consider distributing shopping checklists for your customers. On your list, you'll want to include alternatives for the traditional holiday items. For instance, you could plant the seeds for exotic and gourmet dishes, by suggesting them in a shopping list before the big holiday. For convenience sake, be sure to indicate the aisle or area of the store where each item can be found.

Another way words can help boost your sales is new signage. You might want to consider new signs for your aisles and departments, as well as signs for your store directory and shopping carts. Eye-catching and legible signs will keep your customers moving in the right direction in your store, and they'll appreciate the new look!

Specialty foods play a critical role in your store. Marketed properly, not only will they enhance your store's image, but they'll make your sales soar. Your store will become known as THE place for exotic, ethnic and gourmet items, which will keep customers loyal and will serve to attract new patrons as well.

For more information or help with printed promotional pieces, be sure to contact Haddon House's marketing department. We're glad to help!

Photo by Dena O'Hara.