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Alarms, Bells and Opportunities

By Bill Schober, Editorial Director, P-O-P Times

Sidebar: Less Room for P-O-P

There's an alarming story on the cover of this issue. Information Resources Inc. (IRI) is reporting that retail space is shrinking for CPG-supplied P-O-P displays, and that there's been a decline in sales lift, to boot. In the past, when we'd see something as provocative as that, we'd pick up the phone and dial up Steve Frenda, an IRI/Nielsen/Mosaic/CPG/you-name-it lifer whom we've long considered to be the industry's first-call, all-purpose, big-brain source for anything sales, marketing and/or merchandising metric-related.

However, Steve isn't picking up the phone at IRI these days because he's just joined the In-Store Marketing Institute as managing director of strategy and development. So this time, I just wandered down the hall for a chat:

What's your take on the IRI report?
Brand marketers shouldn't be alarmed, but they should recognize an opportunity. The main issue is that retail stores have become very focused on their own branding. The charge was led by Target and has been picked up by Safeway with their 'Lifestyle' stores, by Kroger with their 'Marketplace' stores and by some regional powerhouses.

The report talks a lot about 'clean stores' that are clutter-free.
They're mixing up a couple of things. The term 'clean store' identifies a policy that tends to go in cycles. Every time a store manager or district supervisor gets weary of seeing a lot of promotions on the sales floor, they decide it's time to clean it up. Six months later, it's filled up again. What's not cyclical here is the retailer-branding trend. They want cleaner sight lines. They want more impactful signage that can inform and educate a consumer.

The report also touts 'strategic trip-based' merchandising plans.
The mix of consumers that shop stores, even within a chain where the stores have similar layouts, can be very, very different. One opportunity for traditional retailers is to satisfy the needs of the various neighborhoods they happen to reside in. By identifying 'trip missions' you can begin to truly understand the mix of products and the types of shopping experiences in each specific store.

I don't think we'll soon see a day in which every single store is ultra-customized, but it is reasonable to expect that each chain will develop clusters of stores with different customer profiles: upscale suburban, mid-scale rural, urban stores, that sort of thing. And each of those profiles behave differently.

If every chain has different profiles, won't CPGs go crazy trying to keep it straight?
Yes, and it would also drive a lot of unnecessary cost into the system. Common definitions and best practices need to be established, industry-wide. In fact, I predict that after P.R.I.S.M., figuring out ways to serve these 'stores of the community' is going to be the next big industry challenge. Is the retailer, operationally, willing to disrupt its 'one-size-fits-all' mentality? Is the CPG manufacturer willing to accept having its product featured in far less than 100% of a chain's stores? This will be a very big deal. The answer to both questions, inevitably, will have to be yes, but the challenge is how do we get there?

What's your take on P.R.I.S.M.?
As someone who's long believed that brands live and die at retail, it's been frustrating that there was no continuum between traditional advertising mediums and the tools of in-store marketing. Everything needs to be evaluated within the context of a total media plan. Now that the ball is rolling with P.R.I.S.M., and a model for audience measurement, it won't be stopped.

What will be your mission at the Institute?
The Institute has assembled the greatest collection of retail information that I've ever had an opportunity to see. I think the next step in our maturation is going to be to look at our members and better understand how we can bring additional value, what types of content are more relevant to them, and what information will be important in the future. It's a valuable resource now, and we want to make it absolutely essential for any brand marketer.

You're a rarity in having spent time in key roles with both IRI and Nielsen.
I've spent my entire 30-year career at the intersection of manufacturers, retailers, sales agencies (who used to be called food brokers) and the consumer experience. I was one of the first people in the research business who was not a classic researcher or technology professional. I was one of the very first business people in a research company, so I dealt with the clients' C-level people in sales and marketing and ensured they were truly gaining practical value from research services. In those days, of course, research was only looked upon as a simple weather report -- 'At the end of the month, were stores and sales up or down?' But with the advent of scanning, we were able to uncover the why behind the what.

OK ... so who's better: IRI or Nielsen?
Not so fast Bill, you're going to have to buy the book.

Published: October 2007

Source: In-Store Marketing Institute/P-O-P Times

More Reading

• Information Resources Report on Dollar Stores (Oct 07,2002)
• Information Resources Unleashes Next Generation of Scanner Data (Mar 01,1992)