Summer is upon us. June is the month America produces the most ice cream, and June and July are the months when we eat the most of it. But our enjoyment of delicious frozen treats doesn’t stop when the cool weather comes in. In any given two weeks period at any time of the year, research by the NPD Group shows that about 40% of the country will eat some ice cream.
Despite that statistic, we all know there are some times when sales are going to slump. If you’re looking to increase sales of ice cream, here are four tips to get a better awareness of your frozen dessert brand.
Get Custom Ice Cream Containers
We’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we do. People will care about your ice cream containers. They will look at them and immediately judge the quality of your ice cream, the value related to the price, the trustworthiness of your brand, and even your stance on social and environmental issues. They’ll even care about the color of your ice cream containers!
Getting custom cups or containers is a crucial way of positioning your brand. Custom designed ice cream containers show that you are about your brand. If you can be trusted to get your containers right, you can be trusted to get your ice cream right. Custom ice cream containers also give you a platform for showing you care about your community or about the environment. They can be fun or elegant, serious or snarky: they just need to be something that sends positive messages about your brand and attracts buyers.
Create a Tasting Bar
Whether it’s at the local fair, at a parade, or at your local grocery store, a tasting bar helps spur on sales when the season slows down. Don’t just hand out samples, either. Take the time to connect with customers and explain to them why your product is worth buying. Show them what they can do with your product, like combining flavors or making a killer milkshake.
Make sure that your tasting bar is more than just tiny cups with a half a spoonful of ice cream in it. Get some nice ice cream cups, small of course, but enough that people associate your brand with generosity as well as taste. Make sure your custom ice cream containers and other branded materials are out for everyone to see.
Create a Challenge
If you can get people to compete, you can get them to care. Get them to care and you’ll get them to buy. Nothing makes people care quite so much as winning and losing. Your challenge can be nearly anything. Who can eat the most in one, timed sitting, for example? Or, try a new flavor challenge. Come up with two or three new choices and then get people to vote, preferably in a way that guarantees a buy for you. Make the winning favorite a regular offering, and any close runners-up special flavors that get brought out during the busy season.
Plan a Sundae Event
Hold it on a Sunday, preferably, and get the play on words going as you promote the event. Partner with a local store or host it at an important community event and donate something to a local charity with the proceeds.
Make sure your brand is prominent, and include plenty of weird and unusual toppings for participants to choose from. You can go with a crazy theme and encourage people to invent the weirdest combinations they can. Or, you can set up judges and encourage people to battle for a truly unique, yet tasty, new type of sundae.
Whatever method you choose to promote your ice cream and your brand, make sure it’s fun and interesting. You can make good sales even after the warm summer ice cream season. You just need to get a little creative with your ice cream containers, your advertising, your promotions, and your brand. Soon you’ll have all the business you can handle!
