LESSON 10: USING SIGNAGE EFFECTIVELY

Signage can be very effective in establishing the merchandising tone of a cheese department. In many ways, creative signage is what sells the product. Here’s how to maximize the merchandising efforts in your department.

Use Signage To Sell Groups Of Items

Specialty cheese displays can be daunting to customers. A great way to make departments navigable to your customer is to create signage for subcategories of products so customers can know where to look for things like Brie, goat’s milk, blue, Cheddar, American-made and/or local cheeses. Breaking up the large array into smaller, easy-to-understand groupings can make the department easier to shop.

Use Signage As An Information Tool

Cheese signage should convey the details about the cheese that your customer would want to know when they serve the cheese to their guests.

The best cheese signs include the following pieces of information:

• Name of the cheese
• Type of milk used
• Milk treatment – whether the milk has been pasteurized or not
• Type of rennet used
• Where the cheese is made and by whom

 
Use Signage to Tell A Story

Cheese signage should go beyond giving the customer the who, what, and where about the product. The best signage will also touch upon when and why. Answering these questions delves more into the romance of the cheese, its production and enjoyment. You’d be surprised how knowing the when and the why can sell the cheese before the customer even considers who, what, where.

Some examples of when and why questions addressed in sign copy:

• How should the cheese be enjoyed?
• What other things pair well with the cheese?
• In what recipes can the cheese be used?
• What’s special about the cheese?
• Why is the cheese so expensive?
  
  

Use signage to instruct the customer on how to shop more effectively. Some examples include:

• Ask Us! We’d love to talk to you about cheeses
• It’s your taste that counts … Ask for a sample!
• How to best store your cheese at home
  
  

To price or not to price?

Sometimes, putting per-pound prices on cheese signs can give customers sticker shock. They may not understand that just because the cheese costs $30/lb. what they will be taking home will only cost them $8.00. You may decide to give prices on a quarter or half-pound piece to make the price look more approachable, or you may decide to leave pricing off the sign altogether.