SIMPLICITY IS CALLED KEY TO SIGNATURE ITEM SALES

ROSEANNNE HARPER

ST. LOUIS -- An item as simple as a dip with a retailer's own signature can help lure shoppers into the deli without requiring a major investment.

Although some research and development is required to come up with a viable product, according to Carin Solganik, vice president of Solganik & Associates, a Dayton, Ohio-based food consulting firm, there is definitely a payoff in profit and added sales.

Solganik presented some signature items that are working for retailers in different markets at a seminar during the 25th annual bakery-deli conference of the Retail Bakers of America held here earlier this month.

A signature product, she said, is an "original, specially and freshly prepared recipe for a best-of-class basic that becomes a star supermarket draw.

"It doesn't have to be a complicated recipe with 20 ingredients. It can be as simple as a dip," she said, giving the example of an original dill dip that has become a draw for Schear's Markets in Dayton. Instead of using a ready-made mix and a base and packing it up, Schear's discovered in the recipe development stage that dicing its own onions for the dip gave it a special flavor and increased the margin as well, Solganik said.

Another signature success is a vegetable dip developed by Dick's Supermarkets, Platteville, Wis. Sold primarily from the self-service case in half-pound and 1-pound containers, that original recipe dip now makes up 7% of total deli sales for the eight-unit independent.

And another retailer, Lees Market, Westport, Mass., made a plus out of what seemed to be a minus -- cheese ends.

"One of the owners, trying to think of a way to use them, developed a cheese bread, which has become a winner," Solganik said. The ends were put to such good use, in fact, that the retailer now needs to use fresh-cut cheddar to meet demand for the cheese bread.

A retailer may already have a signature product and not know it. "It could be your present best seller, and yet you haven't marketed it as a signature food. With some merchandising flair and promotional strategies, you could turn a good thing into a great thing," Solganik said.

"When looking for an original, you simply want something that no other supermarket or restaurant in your area offers. Or it could be a common product but one that's made into a different shape, size or quality," Solganik said. "You want people to drive across town for it even if they don't need anything else from your store," Solganik said.