With the holidays fast approaching, there is no time like the present for distributors to seize the opportunity to provide their customers with quality, retail-inspired, unique specialty foods, candies, and beverages. This is the time of the year companies want to impress with one-of-a-kind memorable gifts that will leave a lasting impression — and there are a plethora of chocolates, cookies, specialty coffees and hot chocolate, popcorn, mixed nuts and mints to choose from! Additional trends in this highly anticipated market include Do-It-Yourself (DIY) kits, keepsake packaging, customization and personalization — gifts that make a beautiful presentation.
According to Brandon Strong of Chocolate Chocolate, a major trend in this market is making a profound statement with holiday gifts — a true marketing masterpiece from top to bottom. He also notes that quality is paramount. In agreement is Nick Caputi of Chocolate Inn, who also believes that packaging is vital in the holiday market. “End-users are looking for retail-inspired packaging that offers full color capabilities,” he asserts. “Taking this packaging and fulfilling the item with both a hard good item and a consumable item is something we are doing a lot over the holidays with food gifts.” One example of this trend is pairing movie tickets with popcorn buckets.
Retail-inspired packaging is also the top trend at Webb Company. “There is an increased desire for items with a high perceived value and beautiful presentation,” Sarah Hobson says. “Along with that, the buyers and the recipients are getting younger and have a different response to promotional items than the previous generation. The younger buyers and receivers gravitate toward retail items and retail-inspired items.”
Quality and customization are the two top trends at Custom Chocolate. “There is a desire to purchase gifts with premium quality products,” Larry Wilhelm explains. “People want to give the ‘good stuff’ so their company is associated with these higher quality goods. As for customization and personalization, this often takes the form of a custom-embossed chocolate piece in the gift box or basket.”
Debbie Tubbs at Fresh Beginnings also speaks of the trends toward high quality, unique, memorable gifts presented in customized packaging. “Food gifts and holidays are a given,” she emphasizes. “Food gifts are a universal product and can be sold to almost any industry. It would be difficult to find a customer who has not sent a food gift or used a food gift within their meetings or events.” She adds that companies want their customers to know there was thought behind a gift, and recommends a hand-signed holiday gift card accompanying gift packages makes the gift that much more personal.
DIY gifts are everywhere, according to Margaret Dengler of Midnite Snax — including hot chocolate, ice cream, s’mores and pretzel kits. She attributes the popularity of the social media site Pinterest as driving these trends. “People are becoming more interested in creating things themselves,” she states.
Fortunately, the holiday edibles and beverage market is never at a loss for new — and best-selling — products to inspire distributors to expand their offerings, especially in the chocolate category. Custom Chocolate has an entire category of new chocolate gift items, according to Wilhelm. “Our famous handcrafted chocolate sea salt caramels have been very popular, by themselves or incorporated into a gift box or basket,” he comments.
Sea salt caramels are the fastest growing holiday product at Chocolate Inn, along with peppermint bark. Caputi notes that since the company manufactures these products in-house, it has full control over price points.
Again, salted caramel is a top product at Chocolate Chocolate. “With the 23-piece Salted Caramel Assortment, we are able to customize the top of a salted caramel filled Belgian chocolate square,” Strong notes. “We are able to customize this with anything the customer wants instead of just providing a list of designs available. People have been very excited with the premium addition to our line.” Best sellers are its Deluxe Trio bar; and on the higher end gift segment, the Executive 2 pound bar.
New gourmet cookie offerings abound at Fresh Beginnings. According to Tubbs, the company’s new favorites are its Dreamy Drizzle Gourmet Cookies. “We have taken three of our most popular flavors, undercoated them in chocolate, and added a dreamy drizzle to create an elegant display of mouthwatering flavors!" she enthuses. “Try the Chocolate Chip with Chocolate, Peanut Butter with Chocolate, or the Chocolate Double Chip with White Chocolate. Each has its own unique and unforgettable taste.” The company has also added a fresh-baked, moist and chewy Dreamy Drizzle Macaroon Cookie to its gourmet cookie selection. “These holiday favorites are coated with chocolate on the bottom and finished with decorative drizzle on top,” Tubbs elaborates. “They are available in several different sized canisters with a fully customized lid or in decorative boxes with a custom label. This delicious coconut cookie is also available without the chocolate, perfect for shipping during the warmer weather.”
Also new from Fresh Beginnings is its sweet and Salty Chocolate Explosion Assortment, available in small, regular and large sizes. It includes the company’s Dreamy Drizzle Chocolate Chip Cookies, M&M Candy Bark, Chocolate Pretzels, Sweet & Nutty Trail Mix, Drizzled Toffee Crunch Popcorn, and Fancy Mixed Nuts. The company’s best sellers are its customized, full color process tins filled with fresh-baked cookies or assortments.
At Webb Company, there are three “gorgeous” bento boxes and gift sets offering a variety of candy and food options, Hobson says. The company offers a two- and four-piece bento candy box gift set as well as a gift box with a coffee tumbler, its freshly made sugar-free mints and a candy container. The company’s best-selling candy items continue to be its lower price point mint tins and candy containers. “We make the mints fresh daily and offer a huge variety of candy fills,” Hobson adds. “We are seeing an increase in sales of the higher end options such as glass candy jars and gourmet chocolates.”
Midnite Snax has just added Chocolate Covered Pretzel Kits to its DIY line, in addition to some new packaging options for the Hot Chocolate on a Spoon kits. “In terms of DIY kits, Hot Chocolate on a Spoon and S’mores kits are still the most popular, but the others are right behind,” Dengler comments.
Promotional products suppliers agree that holiday foods, candies and beverages practically sell themselves. Chocolate Chocolate’s Strong recommends that distributors have photos on hand, create virtuals and offer samples to customers. “Engraving your face in a Belgian chocolate bar or the signatures of your 30 person office is not something people know you can buy for $40,” he states. “To leverage our capabilities and to try to capture the imagination of what we can create with your client, the sky is the limit. Make the piece personal, use high quality images for the packaging of their office or their product. Ask us for help or ideas.”
Wilhelm of Custom Chocolate recommends that distributors do a self-promo early in the season. “This thanks the customers for their business, and also samples the quality of the holiday gifts, which often stimulates the client to place their own gift order. Most clients are buying holiday gifts somewhere — they might as well be buying from their promotional distributor.”
Dengler of Midnite Snax also recommends distributors start early and not slow down. “We continue to take and ship orders right up until the last possible day!” she affirms. Many promotional products suppliers can turn many orders within 24 hours. In addition, she agrees with Strong’s recommendation to offer virtuals.
Over at Chocolate Inn, Caputi adds that if a distributor isn’t selling food gifts over the holidays, it should be their number one growth strategy for the remainder of 2016. “It is statistically very likely that their customer is in fact purchasing these items; however, they might not know their distributor offers it, or the quality of the items their distributor can get,” he explains.
Hobson of Webb Company offers her perspective. “Over 85 percent of business professionals receive food gifts during the holiday season and it is also becoming an increasingly popular way to say thank you to clients throughout the year,” she concludes. “High-end food gifts in particular send the message of appreciation very well and are often remembered by the receiver for years to come. Offer something with a high value that is shareable and has a lasting impression.”
Case Studies
Larry Wilhelm, Custom Chocolate
Custom Chocolate had a distributor whose client wanted an upscale gift where they could add a locally-produced bottle of wine to the gift. Custom Chocolate created a champagne bucket gift with a cardboard sleeve so the customer could simply insert the bottle of wine into the sleeve and then remove the sleeve. The customer ordered 60 of these gifts at a resale price point over $100.
Sarah Hobson Webb Company
A customer had a client who wanted to send out holiday gifts to many of their best clients and they chose one of Webb Company’s holiday tins with a candy fill. Over the course of the 4th Quarter, Webb Company collected and produced each order for their various locations and drop shipped to over 1,000 locations the first week of December, ensuring each client nationwide received their holiday gift well before Christmas. It was a huge success for the client and they repeated the order for several years.