Grocery Marketing Campaign Ideas for September 2018

September brings us lots of fun opportunities to engage grocery shoppers with loyalty promotions that keep them coming back. In this blog post, we’ll share some of our favorite marketing campaign ideas for September and a few other ideas to help you get started planning for the upcoming holiday season.

Month Long Holidays

• National Chicken Month
• National Honey Month
• National Potato Month
• National Rice Month
• National Hatch Chile Season

Promotional Message Ideas

• Earn double points on all purchases of honey 9/1 – 9/30
• Earn 50 bonus points on each purchase of potatoes now- 9/30
• Earn a free package of chicken cutlets on your next visit when you spend $75+ 9/16-9/23

Other September Holidays

9/3 Labor Day

• Offer bonus points or double points on Labor Day essentials like hamburgers, hot dogs, charcoal, hot dog/ hamburger buns, ketchup, mustard, bakery items, ice cream, and ice pops
• Bring customers back with a buy 1, get 1 on your next purchase offer: “Buy hot dogs this week and earn a free package on your next visit”
• Promote your private label items: Target customers who have purchased a specific brand of ketchup with an offer to earn bonus points for purchasing private label
• Create a time-sensitive offer to bring customers in today: “Stop by 9:00- 3:00pm on 9/3 and earn 100 bonus points”

9/5 National Cheese Pizza day: Encourage customers to try your private label items by offering 10 bonus points when they purchase your private label frozen pizza

9/9 National Grandparents Day: Offer kids a free cookie from the bakery when they write down why they love their grandparents

9/22 First Day of Fall: Bonus points or double points on pumpkin-themed items like pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin spice coffee/tea, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkins

9/27 National Chocolate Milk Day: Create a bogo offer in which customers earn a free quart of milk when they purchase chocolate syrup

9/29 International Coffee Day: Prevent churn by targeting customers who haven’t visited the store in the past  2-7 weeks a free cup of coffee when they come in on 9/2

Ideas to keep in mind for October

• National Apple Month: “Earn 25 bonus points on all purchases of apples 10/1-10/31”
• National Dessert Month: “Buy 1 bakery item, get 1 free on your next visit,” or “Earn 2x points on store-baked desserts 10/1-10/31”
• National Pizza Month: “Buy any frozen pizza 10/1-10/31 and earn 2x points”
• Halloween Candy: “Earn 2x points on a specific brand of Halloween candy 10/27-10/28”

Start planning Thanksgiving campaigns

Now is a great time to get started thinking about creative ways to get shoppers in your stores throughout the month of November. Contact your AppCard success manager to get a head start on your Thanksgiving loyalty marketing campaigns! Here are some of our favorite ideas to get you started:

Days of deals: Offer customers bonus points on different items each day to help prepare for Thanksgiving. 

• 2x points on stuffing 11/10
• 2x points on cranberry sauce 11/11
• 2x points on pie crusts 11/12
• 2x points on pie filling 11/13

Create a multi-trip campaign: Create loyal buying behavior by encouraging shoppers to visit and spend with you. The most common multi-trip campaign is the free turkey campaign, where shoppers can earn a free turkey for spending more than $300 through the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

• Grocery
• Loyalty & Rewards
• Marketing