Speaking from experience (after launching product after product for Gillette, Revlon, Alberto Culver, amongst others) here’s the problem.\u00a0 Many new products simply lose their way when they reach the dizzy heights of being brought by the buyer of a national store.\u00a0 In some categories new products simply are invisible, because shoppers are so intrenched in their buying behaviour, they simple do not consider new market entrants as the purchase decision for these items is made long before entering the store.\u00a0 Have a think about it \u2013 when you shop for ketchup, do you buy the same brand, or same own label brand time after time?\u00a0 If a new brand of ketchup hit the shelf, would you notice?<\/p>\n
All new products are tested with consumers, in a huge manner of ways, before they are launched into the marketplace.\u00a0 BUT, so many new products are tested prior to launch without the competitor context, or against other new market entrants, launching at the same range review. \u00a0Brand Managers, how often have you tested new products, and the results were outstanding in test marketing (mainly isolating conditions), but then the product disasterously failed to break through the noise and clutter when placed in the real-world, on a real shelf, in a real store, with real shoppers!<\/p>\n
Most products, when you are working on them, look amazing.\u00a0 Well at least they do to you.\u00a0 All the packaging will be on equity, the branding will pop out, the colours will be those from the brand guidelines, the layout will match that of the brand packaging hierarch.\u00a0 You are delighted.\u00a0 Then, you do a store check and see your new product in the supermarket or store for the first time.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the real test.\u00a0 Are you still delighted? Are shoppers noticing your product?\u00a0 Does the EPOS match your BASES prediction?\u00a0 Is your product stealing share from your competitors or is it another product that will make its gloomy journey out of the line up via the bottom shelf?<\/p>\n
Capturing attention, and luring new shoppers to your brand is simply not easy.\u00a0 You could read 100 text books, prepare the most fantastic marketing strategy plans, have the smartest teaser campaigns, huge media budget, great trade buy-in and huge pipefill orders.\u00a0 But in the current market place, no matter how powerful your brand, how compelling your product promise is, the most important part of your marketing is to ensure you create packaging that has strong visual shelf impact, both in the use of design and colour, but also in the structural aspect.<\/p>\n
Whilst at Procter and Gamble, I had to run all my new products through Eye Tracking, to see what shoppers actually see, and what they miss when shopping.\u00a0 And shoppers miss at least 1\/3 of all of the products on the shelf.\u00a0 The most noticeable products are those on the shelf at eye level.\u00a0 If your product has slipped down on a shelf below waist height it will be harder for shoppers to even consider it.\u00a0 Have a look when you are next in store, very few shoppers bother to crouch down and have a jolly good look at the small boxes of skincare creams on the bottom shelf.\u00a0 Nor will they get on tip toes and check out the razor blades on the top shelf.\u00a0 Top or bottom shelves are simply less visible to shoppers, which contributes to their declining in sales potential.\u00a0 Placement on these shelves is one step nearer to being delisted.<\/p>\n
When you are next in store do this little exercise.\u00a0 Go and shop in an area you know well, let\u2019s say the hair care section.\u00a0 Stand still and see what happens.\u00a0 If you are a typical shopper you will visually scan the shelf at between shoulder and eye level.\u00a0 And then naturally you will gravitate toward the right.\u00a0 If nothing appealing is located there, then you will look to the left of centre.\u00a0 Therefore, always negotiate placement of your products on a planogram to the adjacent right to the brand leader.\u00a0 This will certainly help your chances of success.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your product\u2019s story?<\/strong><\/p>\n A busy Mum (for arguments sake!) has less than 10 seconds to be persuaded at the shelf to pick up a product and place it in her shopping basket.\u00a0 All brand managers live and breath a new product\u2019s features, benefits, equity pyramids and so on.\u00a0 But does the shopper, in such a passing hurry, understand a product\u2019s unique point of difference? Does the product grab the shoppers attention at shelf?\u00a0 And does the shopper get the product\u2019s DNA? \u00a0Both of these need to occur, otherwise the alternative will be an automatic default to the usual product purchase.<\/p>\n The best example I can share with you for powerful shelf blocking, that pops out from the shelf, \u00a0screams \u201cprestiege\u201d, and makes you want to immediately buy, is from Moet.<\/p>\n It is easy actually for products to win with a bunch of 8 women in an unmarked room for a focus group, or look appealing when presenting to a trade buyer, but the real test is on the shelf.\u00a0\u00a0 Be really concerned if your brand team is focusing more attention on your TV commercial \u2013 which won\u2019t be viewed \u2013 than on your \u201cshelf commercial.\u201d \u00a0What is your product saying to shoppers, from the shelf, in store, at that \u201cmoment of truth?\u201d<\/p>\n Lucy Goaman<\/p>\n MarketingAndPrClinic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brand budgets are shifting.\u00a0 In the age of our economic uncertainty, big brands are diverting old school advertising spend to instore spend, either as a price promotion, on instore collaterial, or cleverly over investing in product packaging development. Aisles are … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/marketingandprclinic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4759.jpg\" "\\"Moet,")
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