Every consumer-goods company treats one another as its greatest rival. Being on the same store shelf is always a do-or-die battle for each of these brands. So, the CEO and the company’s strategy is very crucial in determining the best tactic to effectively deliver its finishing blow and stand-out to be the best brand on the store.
But as time goes by, surviving on the market becomes tougher for each company as more competitors arise. Making their strategies ineffective and constantly being under heavy pressure to make hasty but complex decisions which sometimes just make their situation worse. These often lead to them being pushed to the edge and left struggling to be on top.
The only way out is now left on being able to effectively regain control on the market. This is now the key to gain brand survival and growth.
But what could be the Holy Grail for the companies to succeed?
Knowing what and how your shoppers think can give you what an ideal store should look like in order to deliver the greatest results. This will be the basis of all the necessary materials along with all means and ways to attract and convince their buyer. This will also become their guide on each decision they have to make, from dealing with key accounts to monitoring and handling sales reps. This is what makes their marketing capacities and capabilities measurable and more controllable.
The secret now leads down to these three simple tricks:
For leading companies, every space and every angle in a store is a potential winning spot for their brand. But all they need is to effectively control the best spots that will give them an edge over all their rivals. Let’s use chewing gum for example, where could their best hotspot be? The answer is checkout counter-tops on supermarkets itself.
While another jam maker successfully achieved a 15%-25% boost on net sales within four weeks with major stores. This is by effectively controlling in-store resources and having well-informed and well-equipped account managers. By doing so, they were able to convince shop owners and achieve additional spaces for their products.
On the other hand, they knew that 89% of jam consumers already have their flavor in mind when they enter the store allowed the company to better organize the shelf. And because they understand the variety of uses consumers have for jam, it allowed them to identify and optimize the best hot zones for secondary placement. By placing its jam near other in-demand products, they had the advantage of reaching not only the percentage of shoppers who come into a store knowing they want jam, but also the others who don’t.
‘Sure and safe’ is sometimes better than the ‘Risky and Give-It-All’ mindset. Knowing your limitations (available store space, marketing capacity, etc.) can make you identify the best counter-measures that you that can lead to boosting your sales giving you a taste of sweet success.
Most companies know that there is a need to identify what are the best marketing strategies to boost sales before approving the launch of these new products. These includes systematic plans such as Product portfolio which considers available space, Merchandise depending on placement capabilities and Promotions which is set on top customer’s commercial list. This teaches a company to focus not just on their products but on what matters most on a particular store.
Finally, executing with consistency and efficiency is vital. Leading companies’ value the importance of providing a system that will assure that their product will continuously thrive and dominate the market, including a clear strategic plan for their team to execute and conducting proper monitoring of each sales agent’s competence which assures that maximum efforts are being done. Thinking ahead of other competitors will lead you to technological strategies that can increase your in-store effectiveness while being able to focus on other stores that are in need of concentration and troubleshoot. This will establish your strong grasp on being on the top of the market chain
This is impressively evident to a European food company which saw stores that had implemented a sales excellence program achieve 70% more volume uplift than non-program stores. Another company saw a similar effort deliver an uplift of more than 15%.
Much evidence can prove that companies that constantly sought and responded to the potential inside each store can expect and witness sales growth by an additional 5% to 15% each year.
However, there is no time to relax.
Given that the competition for the top spot is a constant and tough battle, consumer behavior and the retail environment will continuously change. So, even the best strategic plan needs to be updated. Because we’re in a time of super-fast shopper decisions and dwindling shelf space, the store is becoming a battle arena where the main rule is: ‘survival-of-the-greatest.’
No company can afford to wait and be still. The war is on-going.