Are you ready for Valentines day?

With Christmas and New Year a distant memory - it's now time to turn our focus to Valentines day!

Last week I was in Denmark, at Pegani, Denmark's Qualatex Distributor with a great group and together we created some fun designs for Valentines day!

Mischievous Monkey with Love in his Tummy! - Design by Sue Bowler CBA

Before we talk about the designs, let's look at a few Valentine's facts first!

This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Thursday! A really good day for Valentine's 'surprise' deliveries! Actually most week days are good, but later in the week a little better as people generally leave it very late to order their balloons!

You may not know that my original balloon business was 'born' 2 weeks prior to Valentine's Day... that was many years ago! Starting at such a busy time gave my new business a great boost!

I actually started my business by selling balloons in boxes and by offering a balloon delivery service. After a few years of trading I saw a little pattern forming at Valentines!

• Valentine sales were always better when Valentine's day fell on a week day.
• More than 75% of my Valentine's balloons were purchased by women to be delivered or sent to men!

It's a few years since I ran my balloon business, so I thought that I would check out some general Valentines Day statistics from 2012 and was not too surprised to see that women buy 85% of Valentine's Day cards, where as 73% of the flowers were bought by men... the full Valentines Day statistics report can be read HERE , this report was by compiled by Statistic Brain.
There are many other statistics available on the web for Valentine's day, and they are worth reading as it might just help you to focus your marking in the right direction!

The Statistic Brain report I think proves my point, men will on the whole buy flowers, chocolates & candies even jewellery, but what can a woman buy for a man, especially if they want to send something funny or even as a 'joke' to embarrass a man, especially at work in front of their colleague! Women buy cards but balloons are a truly great option!
** I just want to point out here, that when I delivered balloons to men, especially at all male locations, you could tell that they all secretly hoped it was for them!

Naughty Smile & A Kiss 'Little Guy'

Once I realised who my customers were for Valentines orders, I focused my marketing in the main towards women. I created a small flier, offering 5 different designs with 5 different pricing points, not too much choice, mostly fun designs (like the Naughty Smile & Kiss Guy or 'Love in my Tummy Monkey' with a few romantic 'I Love You' balloons too! This enabled me to control my stock levels for this 1 day and with 5 pricing points there was something for everyone!

I offered designs that could be delivered, posted or collected! I also offered an incentive for early ordering... like a free 4" 'Ever Lasting Red Heart' just like the Red heart shown in the Naughty Smile & A Kiss - Little Guy above! I always added a gift card so that I could write a message from the sender... plus I always made sure that my company details were attached too! ** I would find that as I delivered  balloons I would get more and more orders as everyone who saw the balloons loved them.. so be prepared to have a very busy day!

Love You Cupcake

I would distribute my fliers to offices, banks and large retails stores, anywhere where the work force was mainly women and hopefully with a staff restroom area or at least a notice board? Sometimes I would offer a small discount for the staff from a specific work place, so that when I received calls, I was able to establish if my marketing campaign was working and if offering an incentives helped! Today we also have the internet and the opportunity to have a great marketing campaign on our websites, but I strongly believe that a little 'leg work' works too!

Hopefully you should have started your Valentines marketing campaign however if I have sparked any ideas that you feel might work for you, it's not too late to try them out!

I just love these Monkey's... who could resist one of these!

Qualatex have a great selection of Valentines balloons for 2013!

Here are a few of my favourites, be aware not all the balloons are available in all countries! To find out which Valentines balloons are available in your country download the relevant Qualatex Valentines Collection or visit your local Qualatex distributor. To download the flier click HERE

Naughty Smile & A Kiss Guy Recipe

To download this recipe right click on the picture and don't forget to fill in the Job Cost form to make sure that you are selling your designs for the correct price.

Wishing you a very successful Valentine's day campaign!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue 

www.suebowler.com