"Make It So" ... Un Shopper Marketing

Not many shoppers in Chain "M" were ever well exposed to this unit

At Foreknowledge, we are heavily involved in helping our clients monitor the implementation at retail of their Shopper Marketing programmes.  We tell them where it is, where it isn't, is it implemented properly, timing, all the basic nuts and bolts that have to be in place in order for the shopper to actually be exposed to the programme that has involved so much thought, time, and money to develop. Despite several decades in this business, I continue to be astounded at the naivité of many manufacturers.  Since they have developed the programme and paid very good money to the retail organization to implement it, just like Captain Jean-Luc Picard, some feel all they have to do next is say "Make it so".

Ahhh ... actually, no ... it takes more than that to ensure compliance. A lot more. Retail organizations, as technologically savvy and as supply chain sophisticated as they claim (and we assume and expect them) to be, on the shop floor are very human driven , or not driven as the case may be.

Let me share with you a brief case history.  This example, from a couple of years ago, is NOT a client of ours.  But it was a major Shopper Marketing initiative from a top selling brand.  So major, in fact, that the brand's top competitor (our client) wanted to measure its implementation.

This brand's promotion involved a very heavy payment to a major Drug organization for prominent placement opposite the pharmacist's counter of a large display unit, complete with brochures and other product information, also tied in to TV ads. The display was to be up for a 6-month period.

Some time after this programme had ended, I ran into a senior sales executive at this firm, and we got around to discussing this particular promotion. "How successful was it?" I asked. "Not very", he replied. "Didn't seem to get a lot of traction".

What he apparently inexplicably didn't realize, and what I and his competition did know, was that the promotion, as well thought out as it was, was never going to get traction. Why not? Simply because it never really happened. We monitored its retail exposure 3 times over 5 months.  It never got more than 40% distribution in that time. Above all,  not in the high volume "A" stores.

if you would like to see what we do visit our web site www.foreknowledge.ca