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Tip #112 Pick a Charity

One of the best feelings in the world is giving to those in need. And the amazing thing is that the more you give away, the more you get in return. Many of you have probably already experienced this personally, but it's an idea that can be put to work in your business, too.

PICK A CHARITY TO SUPPORT

Giving money to your customers' favorite charity or non-profit group is a sure-fire way to build great relationships. Here are four tips on how to make donating to a charity work for your business and do some good in the process!

1) Find a charity that has an affinity, a good fit, for you and your customers.
If you own a tattoo parlor, the garden club is probably not the best place to give your donation. However, if you are a Garden Center, giving to the garden club might be something your customers find valuable and relevant.

2) Big organizations are good, but local ones are better.
For example, a women's clothing store might choose to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and that would be fantastic, but the money donated may seem a little remote. Giving to a local women's shelter where the customers could actually see the result of their giving might be even better.

3) Let your imagination go…. there are lots of ways to give.
You could have a special after-hours event (or many events for many charities) where a percentage of your sales go to the charity.

You could let your customers choose a charity for the money donated from their sale from a list of groups that you support. You could designate a different charity every month and give to twelve different charities.
You could donate time instead of money. Run a promotion where you'll donate a minute of your staff's time for every dollar spent. Then you'd pay your crew to go help build Habitat For Humanity houses, or work at the local soup kitchen.

4) Toot your own horn. Make sure the information about your charitable giving is posted in your store so your customers know that their purchases are being used for good works.

Write press releases, especially if you are doing special events to generate contribution dollars. These events are news worthy (so likely to actually be reported by the paper) and could generate tons of free publicity for you. And the more people that know about your giving, the more donations you'll get.

Here's one example of how giving to a charity can really work:
Elaine West, owner of “Any Occasion Will Do” in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is in the corporate gift basket business. One of her clients is a large hospital group which has a retirement center associated with it. She donates 10% of all the sales that originate from that hospital - its staff, fund raising groups, doctors etc. to the center.

Printed on the bottom of the enclosure card is a statement that reads “10% of the sale of this basket has been donated to the XYZ Retirement Center”.

It's a quadruple win!

• The center gets the donations…
• The person who gives the basket feels great about supporting a worthwhile cause with her purchase….
• The gift recipient feels even better than he normally would about his present and the person who sent it to him…
• Elaine gets a targeted group of customers who are highly motivated to give her ALL their gift giving business… Plus, she
  gets a tax deduction for her contribution!

Easy to execute, super low cost, super high impact marketing. Simple, but brilliant!

	LIFE is a Registered Public Charitable Trust which was set up in 2000 in Chennai and is exempted under 80-G of the Income Tax Act. Since its inception 5 years ago, LIFE has been
	working on various activities in Chennai, Mumbai & Bangalore–A Home for Destitute Children, Vocational Schools, Non- Formal Schools, Community Clinics, edical Camps and Relief Works..... You can contribute too. Visit www.lifetrustindia.org TODAY!

If you have any display or store planning/layout related questions, send it to us! Mr. Surender Gnanaolivu, Concept Head - Lifestyle Dept. Store, Reliance Retail, will answer your questions... (Mr. Surender Gnanaolivu has a rich experience of 14yrs in Store Planning, Retail Planning, VM, Presentation & teaching Retail Management.) (submit your questions at thinktank@studioatomium.com)

Q: Now preparing for the peak of the retail season, what would be your tips for AW display? What color palate? Duration to be targeted?...Anand, New Delhi

A. Planning an effective display program for a season is a very strategic activity that needs to take into considerations the marketing and merchandising criteria for the season and this is an input to conceptualize and execute it in the store/chain. Some fundamental criteria are as below:

Merchandising:
1. What is the store offering and its type (Apparel, home, footwear)? Premium or mass? The tone of display for mass and couture would be very different in terms of the props, display density and the signage used in the display. A mass display would look appealing if made very busy connoting value and fashion where as a premium display will need to be very minimalist to denote exclusivity. Thought the display principles are the same the configuration techniques are different for different categories and so consideration needs to be given to the merchandise category also. For example for home category 'aspiration settings' of home are very effective but for fashion apparel surrealistic displays also work.

2. Duration of the in season fashion cycle how often new collections hit the store within a season? If the fashion cycle is 2 weeks (as in Zara) then the displays have to be planned & to be changed in this period so that the merchandise featured in the display are the latest fashions.

3. What is the theme of the seasonal collection in your store? Many retailers use themes to differentiate in the market place where almost all the retailers of their kind would be changing to AW displays. A distinctive theme using graphics or a story to support it would be a good support to the displays.

4. What is the fashion color palate as planned by your store buyers? Color palates are derived from the buyers' theme, usually inspired from international trends, for a collection and this would be different for different categories across chains across regions.

Marketing Considerations:
1. What is the customer profile? Young professional, teenager, mature etc. Obviously the communication content and tone of the VM and displays needs to be planned to relate to the target customer.

2. What is the store positioning? Luxury, masstige or mass? The communication for each of these categories would be different and this would have an impact on the visual communication through the display.

3. What is the scheme or promotion being planned to induce sales and how it is planned to be communicated in the market? If the 'above the line' (outdoor, advertising, print etc.) is going to be extensive then the same needs to be supported in the 'below the line' (in store) by giving a lot of weight age in the visual communication in the VM and displays in store. If this is not there then the in store visual communication can have a stand-alone strategy.

4. What is expected competition plan for this season? Inputs on the competition activities are also critical to plan a visual communication that is distinct and differentiated for high recall of the store and its offerings for the season.

So it would be right to conclude that the plan for the season needs to be put together to meet different objectives of the store to deliver to the shopper excitement and delight.