Strait Music combines holiday promotions with customer appreciation to drive Q4 growth and create lasting connections with local musicians. Micahl Craig MAKING HOLIDAY SHOPPING PAY OFF
F or Strait Music Company in Austin, Texas, the holiday season is an oppor- tunity to do more than drive sales. It’s an opportunity to give customers an extra reason to visit, build loyalty and keep the store’s name circulating throughout the local music community. One of the store’s holiday strategies centers on an effective incentive every year where customers who spend more than $100 in-store receive a goodie bag filled with Strait Music-branded merchandise, including tote bags and stickers. “We’ve had a really cool bundle of Strait Music logoed items such as tote bags and stickers as a goodie bag for customers who spend over $100 in the stores,” said Mi- cahl Craig, purchasing manager. “It’s a great way to increase our basket size on invoices, and to have our logo merchandise
represented throughout Austin!” The promotion works on multiple levels. While the merchandise provides customers with an immediate perk, it also encour- ages shoppers to add accessories and other smaller-ticket items to their purchases to reach the $100 threshold. The store communicates its upcoming holiday offers directly to its customer email list, while also promoting them across its social media channels and website. The multichannel approach helps ensure that existing customers have multiple oppor- tunities to discover what is happening in-store throughout the season. By promoting loyalty-focused offerings, Strait Music is looking at ways to give customers a reason to come back, take lessons, shop again and remain connected to the store throughout the year.
According to Craig, the strategy has consistently generated a strong response year after year. More importantly, the pro- motion has translated into measurable sales activity during one of the most important retail periods of the year. “This also helped increase our acces- sory sales and basket size per invoice in Q4,” Craig said. “Accessory sales increased during the holiday months, so this promo definitely had an effect.” Looking ahead, the store is also considering ways to make its holiday incentives contrib- ute to longer-term customer relationships. Potential additions include free lessons or a membership-style “punch card” for returning customers who spend $100 or more. “This would be something we could include in these goodie bags for those customers,” Craig said. MI
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