In a special guest blog for the festive season, IAA finalist Christine Hope of Hopes of Longtown tells us about her plans this Christmas.

This festive season is all about making our customers feel valued when using our new brand; and about communicating to them how convenient and special we are.

This started with a in-store tasting in November to launch our Christmas order form and to tempt and entice customers. We had great feedback and sales of the products tasted have risen dramatically, so it was well worth the effort. However the best bit was not necessarily the sales (which we are very grateful for): it was the “word of mouth” discussion that happened away from the store. Customers telling others: ” I tasted this at Hopes, and I’m going to buy it for Christmas!” is crucial to our business.

The five new product I have had in this year are:

Chocolate red wine

Ricotta & spinach dip

Chilli rice crackers

Peaty Creag whisky

12 Days of Christmas fudge tin

As of the 17th of December,  we have been trading for 11 years. To celebrate this, anyone who purchased in-store on that day received a branded voucher for £5 off when spending £20 in January. Not only did the vouchers state how we value their custom, they are perfect to drive sales in January.

In addition to this, we are running ‘Operation Christmas Card’ , where we give our customers a hand-written Hopes branded card (including our opening times), which will show how we really do take the time and effort and truly appreciate their custom.