I was out in the grocery stores, and was thinking about this experience versus the extreme...the speciality shop...
Speciality shops I can think of off the top of my head are...
1) Butcher's
2) Bakeries
3) Ice Cream or Gelato Bars
4) Chocolatiers
5) Charcuteries
6) Cheese shops
7) Coffee shops
8) Pasta shops
9) Fruit and Vegetable stands
10) Fish shops
11) My favourite : )...wine shops
12) My son's favourite - candy shop!
Contrasting this with my experience in a typical grocery store, well, as you can imagine, it doesn't deliver the same experience. The only sections where Grocer's have made an effort in a consistent way is with the:
1) Bakery
2) Fish
3) Fruits/Vegetables
4) Charcuterie
Opportunity
There is a BIG opportunity for Retail to redefine the centre of the store (to truly pantry items) and bring some of the indulgent 'foodie' sections to life! Have you seen the typical in-aisle candy section!!! What about the in-aisle chocolate? BORING!!! Do you really think that these sections need be treated with the same hand as canned goods, and toilet paper? I have seen a few efforts to do a better a job with this but there is a great deal of room for improvement. And I am not talking about putting up signage in-aisle!! Grocery Retailers should consider bringing these shop experiences to life with the categories where it is no-brainer like with chocolate/candy/coffee.
Can't wait to shop when this happens!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
QUICK FIX TO DRIVE SALES .... INCREASE DISTRIBUTION
For a Consumer Packaged Goods Company, one of the most obvious ways to drive sales is to increase the distribution of its existing skus. Makes sense doesn't it? If your product is on shelf and available in more stores (we will assume for the moment there is consumer demand and it's in the right part of the store) more people will see it, and you will convert more shopper's to buyers.
Sounds easy doesn't it??? OK, Sales Team, go out and get 100% distribution!!!
However every sales person will role their eyes (I might even get a nasty note) and rightly so, when their business leaders have the NERVE to say that! Their answer back to the Business Leaders? How? Or, perhaps worse, they will just tune out the request (depending on the people) and figure it's just business leaders making unreasonable requests again!!!
So today, I am going to tell YOU, the business leaders, marketers, and sales team, how to increase distribution. And yes, it's easy, but you would be surprised how few companies are doing this.....
PRIORITIZE Your SKUS!
Yes you heard me, that's what I said, PRIORITIZE. OK, OK you're right it's a bit more complicated than that. I will explain. But before I do, business leaders, marketers, here's the challenge: if your business has 100 unique products (SKU's) and the average grocery store only carries 50 SKUs in the category , we should all agree that you are NEVER going to get 100% distribution on all 100 products.
Do we all agree?!
So does it mean you should cut the number of SKUs? No, not necessarily. It does mean that the business must adjust it's expectations. The business cannot get 100% Distribution on all 100 Skus. However, you could get 100% distribution on your top 5 or so skus (presuming they are all round solid sellers). And I would bet that there are probably a lot of top SKUS that are not 100% in distribution. And understand this, that by increasing the distribution on just these 5 skus, you will drive significant increase in sales (they are after all the top sellers!). You'll have to do your own calculations, but it can be significant!
So how do you improve it?
STEP 1: Gain alignment from Marketing/Sales/Retail Sales/Retailers - on the top 5 skus. (Not always an easy task depending brand marketers etc.)
STEP 2: ACTIVATE as outlined below:
a) 100% of all planograms MUST have all 5 SKUS included (from the biggest to the smallest set) at all customers
b) You must Prepare a List of the 5 SKUS (let's call it the CORE SKU List) for Sales, Retail Sales and Inside Sales
c) You must then measure your distribution of the skus and track the improvement
d) You then must reward your team for achieving these objectives.
I promise you, if you all get aligned and focused on this objective and follow these relatively simple steps you will definitely improve distribution AND you will increase your sales!
So what are you waiting for??????
Sounds easy doesn't it??? OK, Sales Team, go out and get 100% distribution!!!
However every sales person will role their eyes (I might even get a nasty note) and rightly so, when their business leaders have the NERVE to say that! Their answer back to the Business Leaders? How? Or, perhaps worse, they will just tune out the request (depending on the people) and figure it's just business leaders making unreasonable requests again!!!
So today, I am going to tell YOU, the business leaders, marketers, and sales team, how to increase distribution. And yes, it's easy, but you would be surprised how few companies are doing this.....
PRIORITIZE Your SKUS!
Yes you heard me, that's what I said, PRIORITIZE. OK, OK you're right it's a bit more complicated than that. I will explain. But before I do, business leaders, marketers, here's the challenge: if your business has 100 unique products (SKU's) and the average grocery store only carries 50 SKUs in the category , we should all agree that you are NEVER going to get 100% distribution on all 100 products.
Do we all agree?!
So does it mean you should cut the number of SKUs? No, not necessarily. It does mean that the business must adjust it's expectations. The business cannot get 100% Distribution on all 100 Skus. However, you could get 100% distribution on your top 5 or so skus (presuming they are all round solid sellers). And I would bet that there are probably a lot of top SKUS that are not 100% in distribution. And understand this, that by increasing the distribution on just these 5 skus, you will drive significant increase in sales (they are after all the top sellers!). You'll have to do your own calculations, but it can be significant!
So how do you improve it?
STEP 1: Gain alignment from Marketing/Sales/Retail Sales/Retailers - on the top 5 skus. (Not always an easy task depending brand marketers etc.)
STEP 2: ACTIVATE as outlined below:
a) 100% of all planograms MUST have all 5 SKUS included (from the biggest to the smallest set) at all customers
b) You must Prepare a List of the 5 SKUS (let's call it the CORE SKU List) for Sales, Retail Sales and Inside Sales
c) You must then measure your distribution of the skus and track the improvement
d) You then must reward your team for achieving these objectives.
I promise you, if you all get aligned and focused on this objective and follow these relatively simple steps you will definitely improve distribution AND you will increase your sales!
So what are you waiting for??????
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Hilarious - Focus Group Test - Tesco
Well, as I said I am reading Scoring Points, the book written about the Tesco Club Card Success. I wanted to share with you a hilarious focus group test they did as they were learning the ropes. This kind of focus group test is why companies, even successful ones, can make mistakes! Remember, making mistakes is ok if you learn from them. I am sure Tesco learned from this one!
So, basically Tesco wanted to start a club card for students. Makes sense, develop loyal shoppers from an early age, and then ensure you keep them. In order to go after this target market they decided they should do a focus group!! So they invited students, offered them free beer, wine and sandwiches and began the focus group. Like all focus groups, the company representatives sat behind the two way mirrors and watched. And what did they watch???? The students ate the food, guzzled the beer and wine and proceeded to get 'drunk'! And at the end of the session, the students loaded up the left over sandwiches, beer and wine into their pockets and stumbled out. Likely they forgot about the two way mirrors.
I laughed so hard when I read that story!!! For those of you who remember your student days, perhaps you too could see yourself eating the free food and drinking the beer and walking out with the leftovers (of course). Unfortunately they didn't get much useful information from this focus group. The comments given as the students drank more, made less and less sense!! Next time??? Maybe invite the students in for free breakfast and skip the free drink!! Free food, I'm sure, would still be a powerful draw to the students!
This story in the authors words is on page 83 of Scoring Points.
So, basically Tesco wanted to start a club card for students. Makes sense, develop loyal shoppers from an early age, and then ensure you keep them. In order to go after this target market they decided they should do a focus group!! So they invited students, offered them free beer, wine and sandwiches and began the focus group. Like all focus groups, the company representatives sat behind the two way mirrors and watched. And what did they watch???? The students ate the food, guzzled the beer and wine and proceeded to get 'drunk'! And at the end of the session, the students loaded up the left over sandwiches, beer and wine into their pockets and stumbled out. Likely they forgot about the two way mirrors.
I laughed so hard when I read that story!!! For those of you who remember your student days, perhaps you too could see yourself eating the free food and drinking the beer and walking out with the leftovers (of course). Unfortunately they didn't get much useful information from this focus group. The comments given as the students drank more, made less and less sense!! Next time??? Maybe invite the students in for free breakfast and skip the free drink!! Free food, I'm sure, would still be a powerful draw to the students!
This story in the authors words is on page 83 of Scoring Points.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Reading - Scoring Points - About TESCO
Today I begin my blog! If you’re like me, you struggle finding information on the internet that relates specifically to your professional area. Well, today rather than look, I am creating it for myself! This blog targets what I was looking for...It’s a blog dedicated to giving YOU the consumer product goods professional information on shopper marketing, category management, trade marketing, consumer marketing, and anything else I hunt down that is available and applicable to your business!
THIS MIGHT BE INTERESTING TO YOU:
Just started reading the book SCORING POINTS - it’s about how TESCO learned to use it's customer loyalty information. It was the company, ‘dunnhumby’ that worked with Tesco to pioneer the use of the information (in fact working with TESCO is how dunnhumby came into being!). I’ll let you know if there is anything I think is of use in the book that can be applied to our jobs! Stay tuned.
As another point of interest, did you know that dunnhumby, in addition to it's work with TESCO, has done work with KROGER in the US, and yes, dunnhumby has just started doing business in CANADA. In November they signed a joint venture with METRO! Their offices in Canada are actually literally located within METRO's Offices. For those interested, they are also hiring!
As consumer goods professionals it will be interesting to see how this new agreement will impact METRO's Business!
That's it for today! Feel free to let me know your questions, or share information that you think is of interest to us - CONSUMER PRODUCTS GOODS PROFESSIONAL!
THIS MIGHT BE INTERESTING TO YOU:
Just started reading the book SCORING POINTS - it’s about how TESCO learned to use it's customer loyalty information. It was the company, ‘dunnhumby’ that worked with Tesco to pioneer the use of the information (in fact working with TESCO is how dunnhumby came into being!). I’ll let you know if there is anything I think is of use in the book that can be applied to our jobs! Stay tuned.
As another point of interest, did you know that dunnhumby, in addition to it's work with TESCO, has done work with KROGER in the US, and yes, dunnhumby has just started doing business in CANADA. In November they signed a joint venture with METRO! Their offices in Canada are actually literally located within METRO's Offices. For those interested, they are also hiring!
As consumer goods professionals it will be interesting to see how this new agreement will impact METRO's Business!
That's it for today! Feel free to let me know your questions, or share information that you think is of interest to us - CONSUMER PRODUCTS GOODS PROFESSIONAL!
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