It’s one thing to promote the location where your store is located, but it is quite another to make your store the destination with your products. Shops can take their stores to the next level of making them the destination by incorporating their own private label among the products they carry.
Dave Seehafer, business analyst of Global Wave Ventures offers both on the products he carries. “I think of private label as an extension of the name drop. When I think of name drop, I think of location, so if your gift shop is in Daytona Beach, Florida, you carry products that say Daytona Beach, Florida. The next level is to put your store brand on there.”
Such a move doesn’t work for every coastal shop, however. The store needs to have a unique brand identity that customers will want to promote.
Brent Durham, owner of Brass Reminders, also cautions against name dropping the store, “unless you are the Salty Dog Cafe or another unbelievably popular brand.” “Do one or two if you think it will work, but keep in mind that your customer is coming to your store because they are visiting the beach.”
But if your store does have fan following, coastal retailers can take their offerings one step further into private label by creating a brand within their store, giving it a name and trademarking it. “Then it’s a brand within a shop,” explains Seehafer, who adds that different price points can be attached to each level.
Seehafer will share more on this topic during a session panel titled “Emerging Beach, Coastal and Nautical Product Trends,” at the Coastal Connections Conference, Jan. 22-24, 2023, in Orlando, Florida. More information is available at www.coastalconnectionsconference.com.
