Events
There are some big events in the retail calendar every year. Christmas, Easter, Back to School and Baby to name a few. But there are various other events across the year and retailers are constantly innovating to create more events. I have spent a long time working in meal solutions where National Curry Week and Lunar New Year were really big important events in the year.
New events
Events don't stand still, retailers are always looking for new spaces to move into there will have been growth in wellness events with a focus on mindfulness and sleep. This would have bought together products across tea, drinks and healthcare. Movie releases are also becoming bigger retail events and lets not forget large events such as the recent Taylor Swift Eras tour. Retail constantly adapts to wider sporting and cultural events.
Disrupt
Events offer an opportunity to disrupt shopper journeys and showcase products to shoppers from categories that are not part of their usual repertoire. Its a way for shoppers to discover new products for occasions relevant to them and drive penetration for your category.
Plan
So what should you do? You need a plan. Map out all the events across the year that your retailer is partaking in each month that are relevant to your category. You can also include ones that may not make it to the retail calendar but are relevant to your category. You can source this though researching with retailer media teams, your buy contacts, any marketing agencies your business may engage with and google(!). Have recommendations as to why products should feature either from a key focus for the event or a key basket addition to the hero lines. Don't be afraid to come up with your own ideas for events that would be relevant. During COVID I suggested there should be a "return of football event" to a retailer for curries which ended up on the dot.com landing page.
Instore and online
Don't forget that events are activated both instore and online. When you have a plan you are ready to share with a retailer don't forget to include online and also speak to those stakeholders where relevant. Online isn't limited to filling an aisle end with products. Whilst the space clearly isn't infinite there is theoretically more event space available online.
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