Coke® with Food: Made to Go Together; Drives C-Store Profits
Attention convenience retailers: The Coca-Cola Company now offers a new, customizable merchandising program that can help increase your meal and snack sales. It leverages the combined power of
Coca-Cola® and the Company's heritage, proprietary insights and unmatched expertise in the foodservice industry. Starting January 2010, this program targets your core young adult (18-34) customers, making it easy for C-store operators to bundle Coca-Cola beverages with popular, high-margin foodservice items to drive in-store traffic and profits.
The C-Store Opportunity
In 2008, C-store meal and snack sales grew 1.3% despite declines in overall in-store traffic. That represents a tremendous opportunity for convenience retailers, especially in an economy where more consumers are shifting some of those occasions from quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to C-stores. Just consider that 67% of convenience store shoppers buy a beverage, yet only 36% buy food and/or snacks, and only 11% buy fresh-prepared food or packaged sandwiches.* If you can make it easy for shoppers to "grab and go" -- pick up hot dogs or pizza with the beverages they're already in your store to buy -- you can drive up average check and total sales. And what beverage goes best with food? Coca-Cola, rated the No. 1 soft-drink brand with food by consumers.**
It's Easy!
The Coca-Cola Company provides easy-to-use, online templates that let you create multiple customized point-of-sale (POS) materials with your logo and food bundle selections. You simply:
- Price it. Select a fountain or 20-oz. bottled Coca-Cola, hot dog or pizza meal option and your price.
- Print it. Produce counter cards, mobiles and fountain/cooler door clings with a local printer of your choice.
- Place it. Follow Coca-Cola's "Look of Success" guidelines and place your POS materials in the most high-traffic regions of your store.
- Profit. Get more shoppers who are buying beverages to purchase high-margin meal and snack items.
Selling Coke with Food Adds Up
"This program really drives the C-store operator's average check and traffic, capitalizing on channel meal- and snack-occasion growth trends," says Anita Green, Shopper Planning and Strategy Manager -- Convenience Retail. "In response to the economy, consumers are shifting their buying behavior," she adds. "Because of the shopper's need for convenience and value, we're seeing a blurring of the lines between C-stores and QSRs as their destinations. While convenience retailers' overall traffic has declined recently, meal and snack occasions have increased. Sales of high-margin items present C-store operators with a profitable opportunity."
Get Started Today
For more information, contact your Coca-Cola representative. Templates to create a customized merchandising program also are available through Cokesolutions' Create-A-Promo feature.
* The NPD Group/Convenience Store Monitor and CREST, year-end 2008
** B-Cubed, March 2009
