Real-Time Trade Promotions
Trade promotions, when executed properly, provide a vehicle of wins for the manufacturer and its entire supply chain, the retailer and the customer. A lot can go wrong at various touch points of a campaign that can cause headaches for a manufacturer and a lost opportunity. However, there are two main concerns for manufacturers: 1) Did we sell at the right price and 2) Was the promotion displayed correctly? This month, CGT sits down with Chief Executive Officer of AFS Technologies Joe Bellini, to help answer those questions and provide insights on correcting course in flight.
Why do you need actionable insights while a promotion is in flight?
Bellini: Many manufacturers find out what went wrong during a promotion from a post-event analysis. This information is helpful for the next event. Hindsight is 20/20 but imagine if you could have that kind of insight while the promotion is in flight and you could course correct in real time.
What actionable insights about the conditions of the shelf and the store are needed during a promotion?
Bellini: A crucial step to sales execution is to set up tasks to monitor store compliancy. It’s important for you to know if stores are in compliance with the promotion. For instance: Are the stores using the correct display? Are the stores using the right sales price? Which stores are selling slowly or not at all? Where are you seeing problems and where are you seeing the promotion running as planned?
Having this type of information while a promotion is in flight can save business relationships as well as trade promotions from disaster. Being able to capture information on the fly and collate it into a report that a manufacturer can easily read and translate into actionable items on a dashboard is the best option.
What are the main benefits of having real-time actionable insights?
Bellini: From a corporate level, it is being able to have a snapshot of retail stores in a set area and knowing what product has been provisioned and what has been delivered to each store. Additionally, you empower your sales staff with actionable information. Now you have the ability to talk with the retailers’ product buyer and correct problems while the promotion is still running and a potential loss can be turned into a profit. No one wants to have this conversation based on a gut feeling. You want evidence that is proof positive of the issues that you are conveying so you can address together the challenges during the campaign.
Data-driven decisions are what every manufacturer wants to make and all the better if these are made at a moment in time where you can have a real and positive impact, correcting course at the store level where the customer engages and defines success, rather than as a post analysis recap of how a promotion ran where course correction is a moot point. “We’ll get it right next time” is not the wrap up chat that you want to have with the category buyer and reporting a negative return on investment to your leadership can be avoided.
Why do you need actionable insights while a promotion is in flight?
Bellini: Many manufacturers find out what went wrong during a promotion from a post-event analysis. This information is helpful for the next event. Hindsight is 20/20 but imagine if you could have that kind of insight while the promotion is in flight and you could course correct in real time.
What actionable insights about the conditions of the shelf and the store are needed during a promotion?
Bellini: A crucial step to sales execution is to set up tasks to monitor store compliancy. It’s important for you to know if stores are in compliance with the promotion. For instance: Are the stores using the correct display? Are the stores using the right sales price? Which stores are selling slowly or not at all? Where are you seeing problems and where are you seeing the promotion running as planned?
Having this type of information while a promotion is in flight can save business relationships as well as trade promotions from disaster. Being able to capture information on the fly and collate it into a report that a manufacturer can easily read and translate into actionable items on a dashboard is the best option.
What are the main benefits of having real-time actionable insights?
Bellini: From a corporate level, it is being able to have a snapshot of retail stores in a set area and knowing what product has been provisioned and what has been delivered to each store. Additionally, you empower your sales staff with actionable information. Now you have the ability to talk with the retailers’ product buyer and correct problems while the promotion is still running and a potential loss can be turned into a profit. No one wants to have this conversation based on a gut feeling. You want evidence that is proof positive of the issues that you are conveying so you can address together the challenges during the campaign.
Data-driven decisions are what every manufacturer wants to make and all the better if these are made at a moment in time where you can have a real and positive impact, correcting course at the store level where the customer engages and defines success, rather than as a post analysis recap of how a promotion ran where course correction is a moot point. “We’ll get it right next time” is not the wrap up chat that you want to have with the category buyer and reporting a negative return on investment to your leadership can be avoided.