Rest, Relaxation and Retail Therapy

When the vast majority of a retailer’s shoppers are tourists, it only makes sense for the stores to become part of the vacation experience. That philosophy drives marketing for NXP Corp., operator of 35 Little Switzerland duty-free fine jewelry and luxury watch stores in Caribbean travel destinations.

Vacationers account for at least 75 percent of the chain’s business, says Tony Wasserman, Little Switzerland vice president of marketing. Little Switzerland seeks to create a bond with travelers before they even leave home.

“Our objective is to reach them before they travel -- be a part of their itinerary when they get on the island,” Wasserman says. That means persuading visitors to designate a slot for shopping amid their plans to snorkel, sunbathe, soak up local culture and visit centuries-old colonial landmarks. “If you’re not on that agenda before they get to the island, you have lost an opportunity with them,” he notes.

Driving traffic
Three years ago, Little Switzerland formed relationships with two web travel companies, Chicago-based Orbitz Worldwide and Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia. Little Switzerland became those travel companies’ only Caribbean jeweler partner -- offers from the retailer appear on the screen as customers purchase air tickets.

Little Switzerland has also made deals with airlines serving the Caribbean to create a presence on the carriers’ websites, appear in in-flight magazines and participate in travel reward points schemes, Wasserman says. This year and next, plans call for events promoting Little Switzerland at department stores in the United States and London, he says.

The next step in becoming part of the vacation experience unfolds as travelers reach the islands: Little Switzerland representatives greet vacationers as they deplane, disembark from cruise ships or check into resorts and hotels, says Wasserman. “What we want to do when they get to an island is be the welcome wagon.”

Some greeters work directly for Little Switzerland, while others work under agreements with third-party contractors, Wasserman says. Either way, all of the greeters are long-time residents who embody each island’s unique culture and dress in local attire. He likens the greeters to Hawaiians, so well-known for welcoming visitors with leis.

However, instead of placing flowers around newcomers’ necks, Little Switzerland greeters hand out invitations to stores, keys to in-store treasure chests, tickets to store raffles and copies of a Brand Book that celebrates the stores’ prestige brands, Wasserman says.

Besides revealing the suppliers’ “DNA,” he says, the Brand Book offers chances to win a dozen or so special trips, some as glamorous as a week at a Formula 1 racing school in Barcelona, Spain. He says the company hands out four million Brand Books annually.

“The average passenger capacity for a cruise ship is 2,500 people, and we definitely want to make sure we are putting our marketing materials into the hands of at least 50 percent of that number before they arrive,” Wasserman says. “We measure how much that material is driving people into the stores,” he continues, noting that studies indicate 23 to 60 percent of those who receive marketing materials visit at least one of the chain’s shops.

Controlling the message
Little Switzerland no longer places printed marketing materials on the ships themselves or hiring onboard workers through third-party contractors to promote the brands on the ships, Wasserman says. The company found it could not control the marketing message that way and has found working the docks more effective.

The retailer also dispatches greeters to work the airports. The airport greeters follow the same routine as those on the docks, except they can hand out materials in Little Switzerland bags that are banned from many ports to control litter.

Visitors who slip onto an island without experiencing the greeting effort on the piers or in the airport terminals may encounter Little Switzerland upon checking into their hotels. Under agreements with a number of Caribbean hotels, desk clerks present guests with invitations to the chain’s stores, a few of them located inside hotels.

Whether the nearest store is located inside the hotel or downtown, hotel guests can present the invitations in the store and receive a free piece of jewelry, generally a pendant, Wasserman says. Some pendants bear the hotel name and logo, while others mirror a hotel theme, such as the hammock pendant that symbolizes accommodations on Peter Island, or the ubiquitous frog in Puerto Rico.

“If they need private shopping hours we can accommodate it,” Wasserman says of the conveniences extended to hotel guests. “If they want the privacy of shopping in their room, we can do that.”

Sharing brand interest
Most of the time, however, Little Switzerland works hard to draw vacationers into the stores. That requires becoming part of the vacation experience, sometimes organizing huge community events with bands, food, refreshments and prizes. At one such event in Curacao, the prime minister addressed the 900 celebrants gathered in the Renaissance Hotel, where the chain operates three stores.

About a thousand bon vivants turned out for a street party on St. Thomas, where the chain’s three stores compete with perhaps 400 mom and pop shops selling jewelry, watches, perfume, cameras and electronic gear from narrow spaces in converted sugar warehouses built centuries ago by Danish colonists. “People who have lived on the island forever said we haven’t seen Main Street in St. Thomas that vibrant in 30 years,” says Wasserman.

A party on the streets in Nassau focused on the Breitling brand of watches and played upon that company’s heritage as a timepiece associated with the early days of aviation. Models walked through the crowd introducing potential customers to the watches, and guests had their photos taken in front of a “Hollywood wall” fit for a red carpet film opening, Wasserman says.

Smaller events include private cocktail gatherings where travelers mix with prominent local residents. Sometimes the retailer brings together followers of a certain brand. “It could be an intimate dinner party where we’re not selling them anything,” Wasserman says. “We’re letting people who collect the brand meet one another and create an environment for them to share one another’s interest in that brand.”

At each of the chain’s stores, whether an 800-sq.-ft. affair off a hotel lobby or a 6,000-sq.-ft. freestanding store, brands make a statement. Besides the chain’s Avance and Impulse private labels, the stores offer prestige brands that include Breitling, Movado, Omega and Tag Heuer.
Every brochure, promotion, community-wide party and exclusive gathering has to match and even enhance the glitzy reputations of those labels, Wasserman says, while still serving the company’s other dictum.

“We want,” he says, “to enhance people’s vacation experience.”