Maybe you didn’t know this, but the first flip-flop sandals appeared in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the 1930s, flip-flops became popular in New Zealand, China and Japan. Flip-flops are called thongs in Australia.
These fun facts to know were provided to me by a public relations agency as a reminder that National Flip Flop Day is almost upon us.
It’s June 21, the first day of summer. You’re not supposed to wear shoes that day, just flip-flop sandals.
And if you walk into a Tropical Smoothie Café wearing flip-flops, you’ll receive a free 24-ounce Jetty Punch Smoothie in appreciation of this most wonderful of holidays, which, of course, Tropical Smoothie Café invented.
You have to be among the first 500 customers in order to receive the free smoothie, so get there early.
Tropical Smoothie Café, based in Destin, Fla., has 245 units in the United States, which means the chain plans to give away 122,500 smoothies. There are four units in India, but I’m pretty sure they will not be observing this holiday, unless Tropical Smoothie outsources it.
This new national holiday is the chain’s way of kicking off summer by giving customers a “tropical vacation in their mouth,” as co-founder Eric Jenrich describes the event. It’s a whimsical promotion, but summer is a whimsical season, and so Flip Flop Day seems appropriate for getting people into the store, giving them a product sample, and hoping that they become loyal customers.
This is Tropical Smoothie’s way of taking ownership of a holiday, even if it means having to invent it first. Marketers like to claim ownership of a holiday or an entire month, like National Hamburger Month or Ice Cream Month. That’s a typical public relations move to generate incremental sales during the promotion and perhaps convert first-time customers into repeat buyers.
I’ve never really known how well that works, but it’s worth a shot. And I like Tropical Smoothie’s holiday because it’s quirky, and smaller chains have to be creative and original in their tactics as they compete against bigger players, especially when seasonal demand for such products as smoothies is strongest.
Tropical Smoothie certainly is not being cheap with its giveaway. A 24-ounce smoothie is a generous offer, and that’s important when running a promotion for a freebie.
Give away nothing more than a taste of a product and customers will feel cheated. That’s when they think they’re victims of yet another marketing gimmick, and nobody wants to go back to a place where they’ve been duped into thinking they’d receive something of value.
As whimsical as National Flip Flop Day is, it does offer real value to first-time consumers and to customers who may not be frequent buyers but could become repeat customers based on the goodwill Tropical Smoothie is trying to generate.
It’s similar to the approach that Coffee Beanery took earlier this year. The chain, which has 150 units, offered 30-cent cups of coffee all day on March 30 to celebrate its 30th anniversary. That’s a good deal, and it turned out that many of the units saw so many new customers that Coffee Beanery declared the 30th day of each month in 2007 would be a 30-cent coffee day.
Tropical Smoothie’s intention to make National Flip Flop Day an annual event also follows IHOP’s strategy for National Pancake Day. IHOP decided that it rightfully owned the day and would celebrate it systemwide by offering free pancakes to everyone who wanted them. It has become one of IHOP’s strongest promotions, according to the company.
It’s hard to predict whether a promotion will be successful, but if Tropical Smoothie does outsource National Flip Flop Day next year, we’ll all know the answer.