Plan Ahead!

One of the main things to keep in mind when creating and maintaining a marketing plan is to always plan ahead! Staying at minimum one step ahead is crucial, otherwise the effort will look clumsy and rushed, and unfortunately stand out for the wrong reasons.

Let's say you want to do something that is based on a specific holiday, think 4th of July, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. If you want to be able to put together treats for these times of year and need items to add a visual touch to them like bows, baskets, ribbons, etc, you may have to look ahead. Stores like Hobby Lobby or Micheal's that cater to numerous items for holiday decor tend to display these items several months ahead and make them available to purchase. The closer to the holiday it gets, the fewer the number of choices that are available for purchase. This is crucial when trying to create the items for ideas you may have in mind.

Chipd and Dip Basket

Even the above pictured chips and dips basket may not be as easy to put together. The edible ingredients are usually not challenging, but it is the packaging that may be more difficult to find, especially when dealing in bulk, meaning more than 3 or 4 items at a time. Most stores re-stock once a week if not less often so planning ahead will allow the opportunity to purchase items on several visits.

Plan ahead, put together an annual calendar of what themes you want to concentrate on for each month that way your mind and begin to think of what you can create and where to find the pieces to make it unique and memorable!

Andi Hidi