Brand Loyalty and Recognition in the Retail Arena

In today’s retail world it has become increasingly difficult to keep customers loyal to a brand. With the plethora of online retailers offering price comparisons and the ease with which an individual can obtain information about the products they want, it is easy, now more than ever, to switch brands without an afterthought. Does this knowledge then make the challenge of building brand loyalty and recognition a lost cause? Is there any real hope to keeping customers coming back time after time?

To keep brand loyalty and brand recognition high, here are some points to consider.

Keep customer service levels high. This is common knowledge in the CPG industry, but it is often a common complaint – one that can have major impacts when it comes to maintaining a hold on your loyalty and recognition statistics. If line-ups in your store get too long, or it is difficult for a customer to receive the help or assistance they want/need, their first response may be to switch stores. This is big for brands too – if a customer can’t find your product on the shelf at their local retailer, they may just switch to the next best thing.

Provide value – and make that value visible. Nowadays consumers want both quality and quantity – the numbers continue to show that correlations with regard to generational differences mean that you need to focus on both of these elements in order to reach the greatest number of buyers. And, you need to make sure that the current cost is always reflected on the shelf – even a small window of time between a price change on paper and a price change on the shelf can mean lost sales.

Stay relevant. This can mean so many different things – but in the CPG industry it is especially important. Here you may think about our previous point regarding quality and quantity, but you may also want to consider things like customer engagement in-store, or providing wants with things like eco-friendly or sustainable options. This is good advice for brands too – those looking to get a leg-up on the competition. Keep track of the latest trends – falling behind here can often spell disaster.

For retailers and brands in the CPG industry, brand recognition and brand loyalty continue to plague us as challenges that need constant attention. Strategies seem to need overhauling on a regular basis, and things that seemed to work as recent as even a year ago have now lost their luster. In the end, all you can do is provide what the customer wants – great customer service, high value, and the feeling that their needs are being taken seriously.

For more about effectively building brand loyalty and recognition, please contact Storesupport today for more information: 1-877-421-5081.

Retail Symbiosis: Why Marketing Needs Retail Merchandising

Any retailer in the CPG industry knows the importance of a smart marketing strategy. Doing business without one will likely lead to lackluster sales and can quickly mean falling prey to the competition. And what about merchandising – can you operate without that? Going without can mean the difference between success and disappointment when it comes to that year-end audit.  Even further – can you do one without the other? 

Check out this great infographic from Content26 that explains how important a constant strategy employing both retail merchandising and marketing is. You need both to close a sale.

Using headphones as a specific test case, the infographic traces the consumer buying process, highlighting the role played both marketing and merchandising.

 



Click here to read full article. 

For more about a retail merchandising strategy to match your marketing strategy, please contact Storesupport by calling 1-877-421-5081.

Retail Merchandising: Spot the Common Denominator

Brands located at retail: look at these four images – does anything stand out? Any common theme come to mind? If your thoughts go right to planogram compliance then we are on the same page. If not, well, perhaps it should be.

When it comes to retail merchandising, planogram compliance is crucial. If you are a brand located at retail, you trust that the section planogram is displayed to exact specifications. But what if it isn’t? What if your products are not located on the correct shelf, or facings and product mixture is incorrect? You pay listing fees so you expect a certain amount of real estate! If planograms are not set to brand specifics, you may lose out, thereby decreasing your overall exposure and ROI.

So how can you accomplish this? Instead of just shipping out your product and hoping for the best, why not hire a company to audit planogram compliance for you. Or, if you are able to execute the setting of the planogram, why not have a company execute your section to your exact specifications and/or audit your share of shelf and send you photographs of the completed project so you can be sure that your brands are being represented on shelf correctly.

For more information on how to ensure planogram compliance please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081, or visit us online at www.storesupport.ca  

Image Upgrade: Brand Loyalty and Customer Experience

With the high level of competition in the CPG industry, especially due to the entrance of American stores in our neighbourhoods, customer experience needs to be high to encourage both store and brand loyalty. When a customer leaves your store, there should be two things on your mind – their current purchases, and whether or not they will return.

How can you ensure a positive customer experience to keep people coming back?

Staffing – If there are staffing issues and a customer has to wait in line longer than they feel they should have to, they remember. If they spend more time than they feel they would like walking around looking for an employee for assistance, they remember. If there are staffing issues, customers won’t be driven to return. Make sure that you always have enough staff on the floor to handle ebbs and flows in traffic, and to assist customers when required.

Cleanliness – The store needs to be clean and tidy, this is a given. If it isn’t, customers notice, and in the CPG industry that is never a good thing. Make sure that displaced products are put back in the right place in a timely manner, and that floors are clear of debris. Also try to avoid larger than necessary displays that take up too much room and make the store difficult to navigate.

Location – Are your products located in the optimal area, where customers assume they would be, or do they constantly have to ask your employees or search the store for what they want? If your store layout in unappealing, confusing or hard to navigate, customers are not going to enjoy their time in your location – this never bodes well for brand loyalty.

Products in stock – If a customer enters the store with a list of specific items, but can’t locate some of them on the shelf, they may just leave without them and purchase them somewhere else. Most customers will not ask if a product is in stock, and so ensuring that shelves are well filled (rather than the stockroom overflowing), is a great way to prompt loyalty.

This is important for brands as well, as even if a customer is loyal to a store, if your product is not on the shelf they are likely just going to choose the next best thing. Your product isn’t going to sell from the stockroom, so you have to be sure that a retailer’s staff is aware of when shelves are growing empty.

Products priced right – By this we don’t mean on sale, although that never hurts, but instead that your products are priced correctly. This is especially important when you are having a sale – otherwise there is no extra motivation to purchase that product.

Is it time for an image upgrade? Think about how a merchandising company can help you with all of these areas and stop stressing so much about the competition.

For more information on how to bring customer experience levels up and increase brand loyalty please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081.

Canadian Grocer on Deloitte Study and Online Shopping

There has been a lot said lately about the impact of online shopping on the retail world. With sales increasing each year, especially with events such as Cyber Monday and the draw of shopping in your sweats, many retailers are making changes to deal with the onslaught of consumers stopping by the website rather than the physical location. But what about the CPG industry - is it facing the same transformation as other retail sectors?

A recent release from Canadian Grocer addressed this issue in their post “Online: a big opportunity for CPGs?” According to the article, CPG industry executives are not so quick to jump on the online bandwagon because many of them believe that “consumers aren’t really interested in buying milk, toothpaste and other consumables on the web.”

Is this assumption correct? According to a Deloitte survey of consumers and CPG executives it isn’t. Instead of finding that consumers are not that interested in heading online to buy daily essentials, the survey found that consumers expect online sales to grow quite quickly over the next 3 years – far faster than industry executives think to be the case. When it comes to CPG, clearly consumers can be expected to follow the same trend as with other retail sectors.

So, with this in mind, do company heads think they are ready? The articles states that although “ninety-two per cent agreed that e-commerce is a strategic sales channel… only 3% of executives think their company has a clear understanding of e-commerce.”

Knowing that e-commerce within the CPG industry is bound to experience a spike in online sales over the next few years, there should be a focus on getting online channels up and running. Are you ready?

For more on the impact of online sales on the CPG industry and how you can prepare your company please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081, or visit us online at www.storesupport.ca.

Consumer Trends: Men vs. Women – Who Shops More?

The Network of Executive Women released an article recently regarding consumer trends that we found quite thought-provoking, so we thought we’d share it with you. The article, titled “Why women shop more than men (and why that matters),” examines the impact of gender differences when it comes to purchasing – and, as the title suggests, why this matters.

According to the author, women shop more than men – but it isn’t for the often materialistic reason most believe. A desire for the latest shoes and handbags is not what drives women to shop. In fact, the author argues, it is far more primal than that: “In virtually every society in the world, women have primary care-giving responsibilities for both children and the elderly (and often, just about everybody else in between). In this primary care-giving role, women find themselves buying on behalf of everyone else in their lives.”

Who are women shopping for? Their partners, children, friends, parents, colleagues – the list goes on and on. So what does this mean for you? It means that women are “multiple markets in one,” and should be marketed to as such.

In keeping with this, the article offers some great advice on how to take advantage of this:

1.      “Address her ‘invisible others.’” This means identifying and acknowledging those influencers who factor into each purchase.

2.      “Study gender as you would a foreign market.” This means taking into account the impact of gender on every purchase.

3.      “Create an emotional connection.” Since the majority of a woman’s purchases are made for someone else, or at least with someone else in mind, they tend to be more rooted in emotion, so creating an emotional connection is critical.

In the end, the best way to cater to women is to make sure that you are not just catering to women – sounds odd, we know, but it actually makes a great deal of sense.

Check out the full article here: http://www.newonline.org/news/120022/Why-women-shop-more-than-men-and-why-that-matters.htm

For more marketing and merchandising tips please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081.

Retail Marketing Competition Conundrum – Financial Post Weighs In

The entrance of Target onto the Canadian retail scene has had a lot of tongues wagging over the last year – for a number of reasons – but as a recent Financial Post article suggests, one of the biggest reasons is its impact on competition.

If you are a retailer in the CPG industry, you are no doubt aware of the high level of competition out there. The stakes are high, and if you can’t keep customers coming through those doors, you might as well close them. As a the article, titled “Food fight among retailers expected to continue keeping prices lower,” proposed, price plays a big role – but is it the only factor?

Is cost the only thing that keeps customers coming back? No – and even if your prices are on par with other retailers, that doesn’t necessarily equal sales. When a customer shops, they are not only looking for the best deals and a variety of choices, they also shop at certain locations because of the atmosphere – even if unconsciously. If a customer enters a store and makes his/her purchases and has an overall positive experience, they will return. If, however, they leave the store feeling dissatisfied or put out by the experience, the chance of them returning has now seriously decreased. It isn’t rocket science – so why ignore it? 

We all know what things make the customer happy - helpful staff, a clean store, products on the shelf, not having to wait long at the checkout – so is your store making the most of the resources available and ensuring that when a customer leaves, they are leaving with the intention of returning?

The Financial Post article argues that most CPG retailers are using specific products as loss leaders to draw the customer in with the hopes that they will spend more on the bigger ticket items. We argue that this is not enough. If your prices are great but the shopper always leaves displeased, there is no guarantee that they will choose your store again.

In order to compete, customer experience should play a major role in your retail marketing. Whether this means increasing your staff during peak times to avoid line ups or to restock shelves, merchandising the store to make it more appealing, or even dealing with emergency product recalls in a timely manner, you need to be prepared.

To find out how you can beat the competition with a retail marketing strategy that sells, please contact Storesupport today by calling 1-877-421-5081, or visit us online at www.storesupport.ca.