Host 'The 12 Days of Christmas'

Summer NAMM 2013 kicked off with the NAMM Retail Summit. In this segment, retail sales and promotions guru Bob Negen shares one of his all-time favorite holiday promotions, The 12 Days of Christmas, with NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond. This promotion can be an effective way to get people into a store and clear out slow-moving merchandise before the new year.

"As everybody here knows, those last 12 days leading up to Christmas are really important," Negen said. "It's when people are spending money.

"Every day for 12 days leading up to Christmas, you send one email. And in that email, you have one item that's on sale. So this item is essentially a traffic-driver.

"What we've found: Our clients who do video, who make it fun, who make it interesting, who make it silly have a much better response because people are inundated with emails that time of year.

"So one item every day, but you don't reveal it. You never reveal it. And the reason you don't reveal it is because you want people to open it every day.

"Again, 12 days, 12 opportunities to drive people into your store. Another reason not to reveal is because you never know. People who plan this promotion out don't get it right.

​"Coming up into, say, the last five days of Christmas, at the end of the day you should walk around your store and say, 'I'm overstocked here, I'm overstocked there, I'm overstocked there.' And so on the fourth day of Christmas, it is overstock item No. 3. So it really is an opportunity for you to clear out those slow-movers."