Ever try asking a brand marketer to publicly critique a
retailer? You'll get straighter answers asking a baseball player
about his steroid use.
Ask him "off the record" about a specific chain's
policies, and you're likely to hear a litany of complaints about
inflexible planning, prohibitive specifications and criminally
negligent compliance. But ask for an official comment and it'll
sound like he's talking about his mom. ("Retailer X is a
valuable partner that continuously challenges us to rethink
the way we do business.")
But there is safety in numbers -- especially when those
numbers provide complete anonymity. At least that's what our
editors had in mind when developing the survey behind this
year's P-O-P Trends Report.
For the first time in the 11-year history of P-O-P
Times' state-of-the-industry report, brand marketers were
asked to "name names" and offer their views on the
merchandising practices of leading retailers in the mass,
supermarket, drug, club and home improvement channels.
More than 250 respondents did so, answering such questions
as:
Which chain has the most rigid display rules? (Take a wild
guess.)
Which retailer is best at delivering store-level compliance
for corporate-approved programs? (Does a certain club chain
come to mind?)
Which is most receptive to new ideas? (Would you
believe ... Meijer?)
Among negative trends, the retailers we asked marketers
to rate typically expect a price discount to be part of a
product's display program. (The Home Depot is rated as most
flexible on this point.) On the positive side, there isn't as strong
a demand for display allowances among these chains as might
be assumed. (The Safeway and Food Lion grocery chains are
cited as the biggest offenders in this respect.)
Overall, the good news to be gleaned from the survey
results is that no retailer seems too draconian in its practices
to block mutually beneficial collaboration with product vendors.
The bad news is that no retailer earns "excellent"
marks, either. That means the practices of even the most
partnership-minded chains leave room for improvement.
But that isn't really bad news. After all, a little room at
retail is all brand marketers want.
Peter Breen
Managing Director, Content
In-Store Marketing Institute
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