FORT ERIE, Ontario, Nov. 27, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One of the largest duty free stores in North America won the Platinum Award for Best Canadian Land Border Duty Free Store (large category), as well as three national awards for its marketing initiatives.
Peace Bridge Duty Free, located in Fort Erie, Ontario, is situated at the Peace Bridge leading to Buffalo, New York.
Staff from the store accepted the awards at the annual Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA) Gold Standard Awards, held Nov. 20, 2013 in Niagara Falls, Canada. The awards night ended a successful three-day convention that brought suppliers, land border staff and airport duty free owners/buyers together. The voting committee was comprised of international duty free media representatives. Supplier members of the FDFA voted on the best store awards.
Jim Pearce, Peace Bridge Duty Free General Manager states, "We're extremely proud of our group. The underlying factor for our successes is the high level of engagement we've nurtured with our staff. This allows us to accomplish many things. It allows us to build off of solid, basic retail strategies and not have to rely on the mystical magic bullet. It also encourages ideas to be freely distributed and to have these ideas created, tweaked many ways, and most important, executed by the group."
Awards were given to Peace Bridge Duty Free for their work in targeted marketing to a specific demographic, hosting celebrity Dan Aykroyd in their store for a bottle signing, and launching a pre-order website.
Competing against other land border duty free shops across Canada, the store won the Best Marketing Award for its initiative in reaching out to approximately 800,000 Ontarians of East Indian descent living within an hour's drive of the store.
"We investigated how we can reach these potential customers in their native language while promoting popular products of their culture," says Bonnie Gates, Peace Bridge Duty Free Marketing Manager.
Marketers who were fluent in Tamil, Punjabi and English wore Peace Bridge Duty Free t-shirts and distributed flyers at key locations. Information on the flyers was provided in Tamil and Punjabi and promoted products popular in the East Indian community such as Johnnie Walker Black Label, Chivas Regal and La Scala jewellery.
"Our flyers were very well received and our duty free ambassadors helped educate about the rules and regulations regarding duty free shopping. This demographic was extremely grateful to receive a printed handout in their language that was easy for them to understand and learn more about the benefits of shopping duty free," says Gates. "This campaign was extremely successful with a very noticeable increase of South Asian business in our store. Due to this success we have plans to target other nationalities in the Toronto area with similar programs."
Peace Bridge Duty Free also won the Best Marketing of a Canadian Product category. The store launched a mass advertising campaign on both sides of the border announcing Canadian comedian and actor Dan Aykroyd would be in the shop to sign bottles of his Newfoundland/Labrador-produced Crystal Head Vodka. The event was co-ordinated by Intrabrands President Barry Parkinson.
"The day couldn't have been any more successful. It was a record day of sales for this product," says Gates. "Equally important was the high number of new customers who came to our store and saw how first class the Canadian duty free industry is. Dan Aykroyd fans lined up two hours before the event began. Dan was so impressed with the event organization and customer response he stayed past his scheduled time to take care of his fans and our new customers."
The store was also honoured with the Best New Idea for its website pre-order system which allows travellers to reserve a product prior to their arrival. The price is guaranteed for up to six months after the order is placed, even if the sales promotion has ended. "Since starting the program six months ago, we have had an 85 percent pick-up rate of pre-order products. When a customer comes in for their pick up, we also reward the customer with a special gift for finalizing the commitment to purchase. This adds a greater element of satisfaction from our customers," says Gates.
Peace Bridge Duty Free President and CEO Gregory G. O'Hara comments, "These awards are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire staff and business partners I am so pleased that their continuous efforts have been recognized nationally by our peers."
Photos accompanying this release are available at:
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=22446
Bonnie Gates Marketing Manager Peace Bridge Duty Free (905) 871-5400
