Promotions and new product launches
Challenge for CPG companies in the Corona crisis
The industry is also affected by the Corona crisis, although retail store were always open and some products were allowed to experience a real boost in sales through so-called hoarding. But there are very big challenges in this time. On the one hand, of course, that sales force visits for promotions or new listings may no longer take place in some cases, but also that promotions were often only possible to a limited extent, and that it is currently difficult to agree on activation measures with retailers.
Shelf promotions instead of secondary placements
Since merchandisers or sales representatives are not welcome in stores due to contact restrictions, it is difficult to conduct certain promotions such as tastings with advertising staff or display setups. Here there are alternatives for promotional products or innovations. Since in many categories shelf sales account for the majority of sales, it is important to try to find solutions to promote these products on the shelf.
Marking products as highlights
Permanent plastic displays are the ideal solution for this purpose, with their striking shapes and colours that make the new product or promotion on the shelf a real eye-catcher, or various other POS materials. From easy-to-attach and replaceable frames or flags that can be temporarily attached to the shelf, the wide selection ranges from these simple tools to elevated platforms for disruption on the shelf, where the advertising message and product benefits can be easily communicated. A shelf display with pushfeeds ensures that the product is always at the front of the shelf and cannot be overlooked by the customer. Luminous materials or creative branding as well as hanging displays at the edge of the shelf draw additional attention to the promotion. Examples of such displays can be found here.
Retailers are often willing to support a new product or promotional merchandise in this way if the industry partner provides the solution right away. The results of such sales-promoting tools are often at least as good as those of secondary placements. In addition, the probability of securing distribution is increased if the product has a sales aid on the shelf, since a gap due to sell-out is not simply closed by store staff.
Digital evaluation of promotions
In order to be able to evaluate the promotion well, digital aids are required if the product does not have a separate EAN. With good scanner data you can see the uplift of an existing product if it was already listed before. But what to do with a new product?
POS TUNING offers with the Neoalto technology a good possibility to track every product at every location on a daily basis, if the goods feed behind the product is equipped with a so-called Stock Beacon. So you don't have to wait four weeks for market research data or send employees to the stores, which is especially difficult in corona times. Even with a double placement on display and on the shelf, the Neoalto Retail Service Cloud finally allows you to see the exact split of sales, which was previously not possible with checkout or market research data. More information about digital market research can be found here. However, this technology not only enables the evaluation, but also the early detection of out of stocks. They can sometimes lead to a false assessment of performance during a new launch or promotion, if you don't know that the product was temporarily not available on the shelf and therefore sales dropped.
Especially now in these times one should look for creative alternative solutions to get the customer excited about products, because many people now walk faster through the store and do not shop in peace because they are afraid of infection or find the mouthguard unpleasant. So it can happen that new products or promotions are completely unnoticed, even though they cost the industry a lot. Therefore, it is all the more important to highlight products and make them visible with automatic, clever solutions without the need for personal field service on site.
