TOM THUMB TIES CARDS, FRAGRANCES ON DAD'S DAY

MICHAEL SLEZAK

DALLAS -- Tom Thumb Food & Drug here held a Father's Day promotion that cross-merchandised men's fragrances and greeting cards.

A full-page advertisement on the back page of the sports section in the Dallas Morning News on June 15 heralded the event with the headline "Tom Thumb: Make Your Dad's Day."

The ad announced feature pricing on men's colognes, including Gravity, Armani, Lagerfeld, Horizon and Giorgio Beverly Hills. The highest price featured in the ad was $39.60 for a 4-ounce bottle of Polo Crest Cologne. The lowest price featured was $9.07 for both Preferred Stock and Stetson Cologne.

A store source said sales promotions like this are usually run around holidays like Christmas, Valentine's Day and Father's Day, which are peak periods for fragrance sales.

"We sold a pretty good amount of fragrances this year [around Father's Day]," said the source.

Near the bottom of the ad was the statement -- "Tell Pop just how you feel!," which ran alongside an Ambassador greeting cards logo.

According to Leeanne O'Connor, Ambassador's key account executive for the Tom Thumb account, the retailer "used greeting cards along with gift wraps and bags in their [fragrance] display. And they're very creative, especially in cosmetics and floral. They use [Ambassador products] to decorate displays and as a way to have cards by the fragrances and floral."

She said store signs, placed near the fragrances section and the in-store cosmeticians, directed customers to the card aisle throughout the duration of the promotion.

The newspaper ad also played up Tom Thumb's regular daily feature of free gift-wrapping for a cosmetics purchase of $10 or more. Ambassador roll wrap is used to wrap packages.

"The idea [of cross-promotion] was something Tom Thumb's vice president of nonfood, Jack Sprabary, and I worked on to increase store customers' awareness of greeting cards," said O'Connor. "And Tom Thumb and its buyers and advertising department have diligently taken the bull by the horns and followed up with that for every major season as well as the smaller seasons: Secretaries' Day."

She said Tom Thumb also tied-in greeting cards with the floral department for Secretaries' Day.