For Specialty Foods Retailers: Sell Your Butter Better
Flavored butter boards are a thing. Check Instagram if you don’t know what I mean. But butter in and of itself is a thing– and not necessarily well understood, even by the folks whose job it is to sell. What am I talking about? Well, I am talking about butter: glorious, rich, flavorful, foundational butter.
Photo by Marine Le Gac on Unsplash
But how to get the point across to your staff and, most importantly, to your customers, that is the question. Try sampling your butters, not one at a time, but several together. Let staff and customers taste those better butters side-by-side. We have wine tastings, cheese boards, and the like. If you want your people to know why $9.00 for 300 grams of butter isn’t too much to pay, let their palates play in your product assortment.
Start with a fresh baguette, saltines, or water crackers for a base. Set out three or four butters together, with their brands and points of origin clearly labelled. Choose butters with contrasting characteristics. Make sure your staff know what those characteristics are. Is the butter seasonal with strong grassy-herbal notes? Cultured and tangy? Crisp and neutral? Subtle and unctuous? Higher in fat and mouthfeel? Taste them for yourselves and find out.
Unsalted and low-salt butters have a shorter shelf-life, and often a higher price-point. So don’t wait until they’re only days away from out-of-date. Let your customers taste that butter in its optimal state. Make sure those butters are at room temperature for a tasting.
Encourage your staff members to find a ‘favorite’, provide them with the brand story for the butters you’re showcasing. Decide what flavor enhancements would work best with which product for eager, would-be butter boarders. And be confident that your customers will trust your shop and your staff to steer them right, again and again, with this simple approach to improving your turns in the butter case.