Note To Self – Check Out The Co-Op

We all know the words ‘busy’ and ‘overwhelmed’ don’t begin to cover how you will feel during your JCK trip this year. There are so many people to see, lines to review, and information to take in during the show. If you are attending LUXURY as well - go ahead and double that feeling. While you are looking at new lines, you are probably concentrating on which will provide the right type of inventory for your customer base and have the appropriate minimum buy-ins. The vendor’s co-op advertising program is, more than likely, not one of the top questions on your mind. Yet it should be since it is critical for your bottom line. Here are some tips to think about and questions to ask from a media perspective:

• Does the vendor offer a co-op advertising program?
• Is the co-op budget based on percentage of sales?
• What is the reimbursement level and do they reimburse via future purchases or cash back?
• What mediums do they allow for advertising?
• Do you have to use their creative or can it be tweaked to fit your market and brand?
• Do you want to spend marketing dollars pushing this line to the public or do you want to simply introduce the line to your existing customers via email blasts, and have the sales team push it on the floor?

Ultimately, does it make sense to spend your marketing dollars to promote the brand’s availability at your store? Sometimes jewelers get so caught up in taking advantage of every penny of co-op budgets allowed that they forget to brand themselves. You need to find the right balance between branding your store to shoppers in the area, and branding the lines you carry. Remember: YOUR brand is the most important!