It's All
About the Last Mile . . . ?
It's
All About the Last Three Feet . . . ?
It's
All About the
FACINGS! |
For a number of
years the industry has been trying to deal with
the challenge of that "first moment of truth", the
collision between buyer, brand and
banner. We have had all manner of
developments and innovations trying to triangulate
on that moment in order to make the result of that
encounter more predictably successful. In
the end we have improved supply chain elements but
had very little impact on the actual shelf
conditions encountered by the consumer.
Over the last 20 months ShelfSnap
has compiled evidence that there is a lot of white
space in the information we see on the supply -
demand chain. That white space is on the
shelf, where facings put on a products' "Sunday
Best" to try to convince that browser into a
buyer. ShelfSnap has generated a unique view
of that product facing in its natural
habitat.
The new information that
ShelfSnap provides has been missing since industry
players started worrying about out of stocks and
other deviations from the category, promotion and
shopper marketing plans. This information
provides a clear analysis of what Logistics
Viewpoints describes as a void in shelf level
collaboration. It is the only thing not
effectively measured by inference engines, POS
data, audits and, certainly, not by sign or tag
printing programs, i.e., product
facings.
The characteristics of those
facings we measure include:
-
Permanent or
temporary
-
Number
-
Condition
(in-stock . . . all of them?)
-
Orientation (is
the product putting its best face
forward?)
-
Shelf
-
Adjacency
-
Blocking
-
Signage
-
And perhaps,
most importantly, comparison to the
plan
Pretty much
everything that retail and manufacturer planners
want to do revolve around facings.
They plan in order to
- Add
facings.
- Rearrange
facings.
- Move
facings into the line of consumer site.
- Send
consumers in search of them.
- Promote
with facings.
- And,
occasionally cull a particular product facing from
the herd.
Which is the chicken and which the egg?
Are the facings allocated based on "sales results"
or are the "results" the effect of the
facings?
Facings
have three natural enemies which
are:
-
The
Consumer - Consumers hate seeing holes
on the shelf. Studies have found that they
have "helped" by filling in holes with
neighboring products. Or, taken product
out of their basket and put it on the
shelf.
-
The
Competitor - This one is
predictable. There is a lot of incentive
to slide your tag down a slot. Or, to
exchange their position for yours. Savvy
competitors know that facings create sales and
that discrepancies from plan are very hard for
the human eye-mind combination to sort out when
the shelf looks full.
-
The
Caretaker - The caretaker can be the
manufacturer's employee or agent or it can be
the aisle personnel. In these cases the
practice of keeping the shelf neat, tight and
full can result in a change in facings
All of the
changes wrought by these "natural enemies" of the
facing go unseen by the planner, and not clear
from POS data. Rather than infer that
something has gone awry at the shelf the natural
conclusion about the majority of products is that
the plan was faulty or that sales are simply
sliding. As a result we can't honestly
determine what's happening
What
ShelfSnap provides is the only true measure of the
facing and with it a clear picture of the factors
impacting sales.
Give ShelfSnap a
call at 847-996-1077 for more information on the
shelf
analysis. |
| IN
THE NEWS |
ShelfSnap was mentioned as a key addition to
understanding compliance in store specific
planograms. Dave Boissevain from Frito Lay
was featured in a recent Logistics Viewpoints
disclosing how the company was Driving Shelf Level
Demand through store specific
planograms. Dave
mentioned that "Better planning has limited value
unless the plans are fully executed. Frito-Lay is
experimenting with a solution
from ShelfSnap to help improve
execution. | |
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