Grocery Manufacturers Association Study Reveals Why Your Experiential Marketing Should Be At the Top Of Your ‘To Do’ List!

A study released recently by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) stated that 70% of retail purchasing decisions are made in-store, and that 68% of purchases are made on impulse. Really, how many people actually walk into the grocery store (even with a list) and walk out with only those items they intended to purchase before entering? Not very many! There is a huge opportunity for you to shift consumer loyalty your way.

One very effective way is through experiential marketing. Experiential marketing involves your brand directly engaging the customer in the store. Some experiential marketing campaigns involve coupons, discounts, ‘give aways’ or take away samples. We believe the best and most effective form of experiential marketing campaign performed in grocery stores is live product samplings.

Live demonstrations have a high probability of converting the prospect into becoming a customer. If a customer who samples your product likes it and feels that the price is right, they are likely to purchase. Running an experiential marketing campaign in the grocery store however is easier said than done. The representatives that administer your experiential marketing campaign must be outgoing and willing to stop passers-by to sample your product. They also must be knowledgeable about your product. For example, if you sell a food product or a product that has chemicals in it, the consumer may have questions about the product’s ingredients. Your representative is a direct reflection of your brand and their ability to knowledgably interact with the consumer it vital.

Experiential marketing is a science and should not be approached lightly. Experiential marketing is not achieved simply by putting a student in the grocery store in front of a table stocked with your product. Experiential marketing campaigns represent many opportunities, especially if you run your campaigns across multiple locations. The more coverage your experiential marketing campaign has, the more consumers you can reach. This will not only increase sales and brand recognition; an experiential marketing campaign is also an excellent way to gather product feedback and intelligence about your product.

Providing the representative who performs the experiential marketing campaign with data points to capture opinions about the customers’ experiences with your product can enable you to improve not only your products but also your packaging and marketing messaging. Having a plan to mine the data and report statistically about the results from your experiential marketing campaign will help you report on the results with success and provide valuable statistics that you can use in future business cases and business planning.

One of the biggest things that the GMA study has done is validate the opportunity and value proposition inherent in an experiential marketing campaign. If 68% of purchasers are making their buying decisions on impulse and if you can capture even a fraction of this audience through your experiential marketing campaign, then your campaign will be a success! If you don’t have the resources in place to facilitate your campaign there are experiential marketing companies who can guide you through the process. Experiential marketing companies can provide you with the staff and technology to make the most of your experiential marketing campaign both in-store and afterwards.

For more information about experiential marketing please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Retail Merchandising Solutions to Quickly Overcome Challenges after Your Product Has Reached the Store

If you sell CPG products at retail then you know just how important good retail merchandising is. While we all hope that the retailers where products are sold will have control over in-store retail merchandising, this is often not the case, especially where brands with vast retail coverage are concerned. Merchandising challenges can directly impact the customer experience, customer retention and your bottom line.

Look at something as simple as UPC codes that aren’t scanning properly or aren’t on some products at all – it happens all the time. When a customer is in a hurry and at the grocery check-out and sees that the cashier is about to call a price check, do they wait or just forgo purchasing the product? Or have you ever experienced seeing a product on sale but then when you get to the check out, the UPC scans the non-sale price, causing you to wait while the store figures out what the actual price of the product is? How frustrating is that!

In retail merchandising time is not on your side. Each day hundreds and perhaps even thousands and tens of thousands (if you have national coverage) of consumers have interactions with your brand. Each day that goes by when your product has UPC scanning issues, or if your product is out of stock, moved, or improperly packaged or labeled, etc… is costing you more than just your lost sales. The CPG industry is competitive and consumers have so many choices that holding on to customers who have made your brand a part of their shopping list by going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure positive customer experiences is crucial.

Your ability to be agile and adapt to retail merchandising challenges can quickly make or break your success at the retail level. The number one merchandising solution that we recommend to brands that sell at retail is to have their own boots on the ground.

Having your own brand ambassadors on the ground who routinely visit retail locations to ensure that your retail merchandising is in order is the best way to learn quickly of retail merchandising issues. This will enable you to respond to retail merchandising challenges quickly.

When thinking about retail merchandising solutions, think about technology. Implementing technology that enables your merchandising team to transmit data and images in real time will keep your brand ahead of the competition.

You may be thinking that this is easier said than done, especially if you have coverage in many different retail locations. Sure, there is value in trying to build this infrastructure internally but many companies have learned that it is often less expensive to go with a pro rather than to re-invent the wheel.

Good retail merchandising companies will have the resources, infrastructure and coverage to be able to support your retail merchandising needs at a fraction of the cost of trying to do so internally. Whatever the retail merchandising solution you choose, if you want to compete, paying close attention to your retail merchandising is a must!

For more information about overcoming merchandising retail challenges and our retail merchandising solutions please visit www.storesupport.ca or call 905-847-6513.

Walking the Line: Post-Holiday Staff Reductions Directly Impact Merchandising Services

So the crazy holiday season is behind us – that means we can pay less attention to providing good customer service, right? Wrong!! Making sure your consumer has a good customer service experience, no matter what time of year it is, is vital. Make sure your merchandising company offers merchandising services that ensure a great customer service experience. 

Often after the holidays, retailers decrease their staff significantly because they think they don’t need those workers. But what kind of impact is this going to have on your brand? Shedding holiday staff is understandable, however retailers sometimes cut too deep which can have a devastating impact on brands. If there are not enough staff members around to make sure your stock is replenished or that customers are getting answers to their questions, customer service rates will suffer which can result in the consumer shifting loyalty from the retailer. Or worse, if their bad experience was associated trying to purchase one of your brands that was out of stock or not properly tagged, it is your brand that can suffer a shift in brand loyalty when the consumers decide to try something else that is in stock. 

Think about it this way – if you go into the local grocery store and receive poor customer service are you really going to be interested in returning to that store? Probably not. What if you enter a store and ask an employee to retrieve stock from the back and are told ‘I’m busy’ or ‘If it’s not there it’s out of stock’  without even looking, that’s not going to make you jump at the chance to go back there next week. Working with a merchandising company that offers merchandising services to combat these challenges is crucial. 

But if you are a brand that sells its products at retail, how can you make sure that your customers are receiving good customer service? A merchandising company that offers merchandising services like mystery shopping and planogram compliance can make sure that your products are on the shelves, in the right place, and priced correctly. They can also make sure that your planograms are executed properly and that a retailer’s staff members are actually doing their job.

Don’t just take our word for it. Right Now Technologies’ Customer Experience Impact Report spells out exactly how crucial it is for consumers to have a good customer service experience. Check out these stats:

-          Over 80% of consumers state that they are willing to pay up to 25% more in order to get good customer service.

-          Almost 90% of consumers actually started purchasing from a competitor after getting fed up because of a poor customer service experience.

A merchandising company that works to ensure that your consumers are having a good customer service experience can help maintain those points of distinction that differentiate you from your competitors. Relying on the retailer where your brand is located can spell disaster. Taking advantage of the merchandising services offered by a merchandising company can keep good customer service at your fingertips.

For more information about merchandising services and how they can ensure a good customer service experience, please contact Storesupport at 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.