Are you making the most of Easter?

Just when exactly is Easter??! The date moves around each year and in 2020 it is falling from Good Friday 10th to Easter Monday 13th April. For many schools it is now a two or even three week holiday.

But when does it start for brands, retailers and shoppers?

Believe it or not, ‘self treat’ items such as chocolate mini eggs were seen featured in-store as early as Boxing Day by Mr McGann in his local Co-op! Perhaps you could say it’s because Easter is earlier this year, I would suggest it’s more to do with seizing that first to market opportunity and standing out. Grab attention at the start and drive more repeat purchases across this increasingly long retail event.

Many brands now support the theory of an early start and extending the Easter trading period. This typically splits into three phases:

Phase 1 runs from early January to St Valentine’s Day and presents new impulse opportunities

Phase 2 From 15 February to Mother’s Day (22 March, in case you forgot) is where range and visibility become increasingly more important

Phase 3 runs to Easter Sunday where gifting for friends and family is crucial

What awaits us this Easter, will brands repeat previous successes or look to activate something new? Cadbury Dairy Milk look will surely build on the success of the Peter Rabbit partnership by extending it to feature Peter Rabbit 2 on-pack, whilst Cadbury’s Crème Egg look set to ditch the white egg hunt and spark interest with something new.

Outside of seasonal chocolate and gifting, what is happening in other categories?

The Easter roast dinner is a huge opportunity with well over half of shoppers expected to sit down with friends and family during the holiday. According to Kantar last year, roasting meats doubled market share and accompanying products such as carrots, potatoes and parsnips saw up to +17% increase in sales. With the growing trend towards flexitarian and plant-based diets, we’d expect to see meat-alternative Easters also to thrive.

Will the weather be unseasonably warm again? If so, beers, wines and spirits will raise a glass! Cider was up over 30% in the fine Easter weather last year and spirits and mixers saw a massive +64% increase according to Kantar. We can only hope so!

So, if Easter now starts in January, just when does BBQ season and the Great British summer start? Not forgetting the huge sporting year ahead…

If you want help to maximise key shopper events or to discuss how we can add value to your brand through promotional marketing, please get in touch.

Following on from my last ramblings about Easter…

We have taken a look in-store!

Display is key in the early part of the Easter season. Stores with a dedicated Easter aisle saw it deliver 28% of sales. Items in secondary locations – by counters, display units, gondola ends or at the front of store, for example – account for 56% of sales. – why not do it both? This is exactly what discounter B&M have done. They’ve set up their Easter seasonal aisle next to their tills. Maybe the are already learning from store positioning, have you noticed they moved the least shopped category of grocery to next to their tills, yeah frozen!.

With 20% of shoppers seeing Easter as an exciting time to carry out their food shopping, in-store theatre is coming through as a key way to engage with those shoppers looking for an added experience to their visit. This will be seen in the form of large, dedicated aisles marking the event, and prominent window displays to draw shoppers in.

From IGD’s Shopper Vista research we can see that 42% of shoppers are tempted to spend more at Easter, so giving Easter displays prominence in-store and displaying premium products at eye-level will help encourage trade-up.

While there is an opportunity to encourage more spend through premium products, we can also see that nearly half (47%) of shoppers look out for promotions during events, suggesting retailers should look to appeal to a range of shopper budgets. One strategy we are seeing is the segmentation of Easter ranges into different price points, making the range easy to find and shop. Clear signposting, displays and communication will be key here.