I love brand plans! During my FMCG brand management days, I used to spend a long time writing them and then presenting them both internally and externally. A huge amount of effort goes into creating them and the people writing them are truly passionate about their brands and what they are creating. This means that every year, countless brand plans are created and suppliers spend a long time presenting these plans to retailers.
I personally sat through nearly 25 brand plans presentations last year. Sometimes these were extravagant affairs with offsite hotel meeting rooms booked, lots of theatre, product samples, videos and what seemed like a cast of thousands in attendance.
Suppliers want to share their exciting plans and retailers do want to hear them. Unfortunately, the way they are delivered means the output is often meaningless… assuming there even is one.
Think about it this way.... brand plans are written by brand teams to be great for the brand in terms of sales, growth, awareness etc. Retailers know this. But when all is said and done, the brand plans will be broadly the same for all retailers, so all things as a result (vs. the competition) will remain equal.
What retailers want to know is:
What is my point of difference? What are you doing differently for me?
Why are these brand plans going to be great for me as a retailer?
How do your plans fit with our own calendar and plans?
So here are my top tips to think about when you next create brand plans and present them to the retailer...
1. Brand plans need to be tailored for each retailer
Generally, brand planning presentations follow the same format:
Introductions;
Insight (Summary, YTD Performance, Category Vision, Macro Trends etc)
The competitive landscape – best practice
Brand Plans (NPD, In store activation plans, Media support_
Summary (calendar)
Whilst this format is fine, it generally means that virtually every brand planning presentation, irrespective of the audience, is identical. The plans need to be much more tailored. This doesn’t just mean changing the logo on the front cover and asking the category team to provide some different slides for the insight section. Make sure you have understood what the retailer is trying to achieve and tailor some of the deck to ensure you have helped the retailer achieve those objectives.
A retailer can tell when a generic presentation is being delivered to a host of different retailers. A convenience retailer can also tell when the presentation was written for a big multiple and has been ‘dummed down’.
Personal bug bear: please don’t show us pictures from other shops and pretend they are our stores – either remove them or tailor the deck appropriately. Plus don’t show a convenience store retailer an entire gondola end full of stock – leave this image in for the grocery mults only!
2. Are the right people in the room?
A brand planning session can often include a variety of attendees: Brand Manager, Shopper Marketing, Insight, Account Manager etc. Please make sure that each of the attendees has a real purpose to be there and that they understand the plans in relation to the specific retailer.
Don’t let brand managers present if they don’t understand the market. Don’t get loads of people in the room if they are not needed. Bringing lots of people because you think the retailer will be impressed with how important you believe the plans are doesn’t work! It actually makes us think you are wasting money that you could be spending with us to drive sales!
3. Insight
A lot of time is often spent on the 'insight' section. In my experience, this is often a major waste of time! The brand plans probably haven’t been created with specific retailer insights in mind and that is why the presentations often feel disjointed.
Presentations normally start with a summary of performance. We know how we are performing. Consider discussing whether we are all aligned as to the performance?
Don’t share lots of general market insight if there isn’t a realistic call to action for us to implement.
Don’t present HIM or IGD facts about our business (or other facts) back to us – we know these already! Focus on sharing key insights that are interesting.
Don’t spend too much time telling us about your market or sector – we assume you know more.
Suppliers spend a lot of time, effort and money creating category visions based on strong consumer insight. Having done so, you wish to share the information with us as retailers. You also wish to share what you deem as best practice across other retailers. Retailers want to hear this but at the end, we say: ‘OK, that was really interesting. What do you want us to do / what can we do to leverage that insight and drive sales?’
The most common response: ‘We will have to come back to you on that’ (and no-one ever does!)
Consider sending information up front to pre-read and focus on discussing actions in the meeting. If the purpose of sharing is to convince us that your plans are grounded in good consumer insight – maybe try assuming we trust you!
Retailers are fast moving and action oriented – focus on the so what? If there isn't one or its too expensive or complicated, don’t bother sharing.
4. NPD
I have never presented or sat through a presentation where the NPD didn’t test well. As a retailer, we want to work with you and support your plans including your NPD. As such we don’t really need to be convinced that it’s the greatest product you have ever developed and consumer tested. (Assume we expect you to say that and we will list it!)
What we do need to be convinced of is why we should stock it:
Commercials: What are the commercials? How does this compare to other products?
Switching vs. range extension: Is this swapping for another product or incremental space? If swapping, is it switching with space that you as a supplier already have or are you trying to ‘steal’ space from a competitor? If incremental, where is it coming from and why?
Launch support – what are you going to do to support the launch in and out of store – i.e. price, promotions, media support, communications? What external support will directly benefit my stores?
5. Prioritise your brand initiatives and campaigns
It is worth stating the obvious... (a) many suppliers have multiple brands; (b) each brand has a huge amount of desired activity; and (c) retailers stock multiple suppliers products. For example:
CCE: Coca-Cola, Fanta, Monster, Relentless, Capri Sun, Oasis, Glaceau Water, Schweppes
Heineken: Strongbow, Bulmers, Fosters, Heneken, Kronenbourg, Desperados,Tiger
Walkers: Quavers, Wotsits French Fries, Squares, Monster Munch, Cheetos, Doritos, Sensations, Walkers
As retailers only have a very limited amount of space and media channels, not everything can be delivered. Whilst your brand(s) might have 10 things to activate, we see lots of brand plans (20+ from major suppliers) and we can’t implement everything. We can only activate a small number of things well in any promotional period. Think about it like this... if Coca-Cola, Camelot, Heineken and Unilever all have major launches in P8… what should we do?!
So be clear which activities you really want to get behind? Which activities are trade driving and require off shelf space? Which are more for information, will rely on the pack or advertising and will be fine as an on shelf promotion?
Ask yourself... if you could pick 1-2 ‘Gold standard activations – what are they and what would you like to see in store? And be prepared to invest to make it happen!
6. Try and integrate your plans with retailer's own plans
Whilst as a retailer we are a ‘house’ of other people’s brands and our sales come from selling supplier products (excluding own label), we also have our own sales and marketing plans. So in addition to fitting your brand plans alongside other suppliers, we also need to integrate them with our own.
My advice to suppliers is to pro-actively build the retailer's plans into their own brand plans. When doing this, remember that all stores are not created equal. So it is worth reviewing your plans based on performance by store type as often different store segments have different opportunities to drive performance.
7. Be realistic about what can be implemented
The average C-Store is probably around 1,500 square feet. Many are smaller. This means that there is only so much space and this combined with low rate of sale limits what can be achieved. You know this so why do you present things that can never work or be implemented...?
Even in the bigger stores, there is no point sharing images of full Gondola Ends of products – it won’t work in a C-Store and thus can’t be implemented. Sharing ideas and pictures like these just makes the retailer feel that you don’t understand the environment at all. Show what you actually want to do!
If you are considering creating an FDU please think about the design of this carefully (and read my other post)... as a summary:
Convenience stores are small and as such there is a limit to how many FDUs will fit. Not everyone can have an FDU!
Legally the retailer needs to communicate the price / promotion to the customer – so please leave space.
Consider the design – make sure the product is visible from the front (not just from above) and ensure the footprint is appropriate for the store size. If the unit is too big, it will end up at the back.
Think about the amount of stock they hold vs. the likely rate of sale and stock delivery to store. If you send in an FDU that holds 4 cases for a store that sells 1 case, we might increase the allocation to 2 cases but certainly not to 4. You will end up with a half filled FDU.
Work with the retailer on production and distribution to store
Just because its not your budget, doesn’t make it right to ‘waste’ money
8. Be clear and specific about your media support
We love the fact that you are investing to support your brand in national media.
We know that you have inflated all the numbers (at least double, maybe triple?!) and in truth, we don't really mind or care. What we do care about is how much of this media spend will benefit us as a retailer specifically? What will it do for us vs. our competition?
For example…
If you are spending money on outdoor media, how many sites are within 250m of our stores? (A media agency can map this easily).
Similarly, what press or radio stations are within a 5 minute drive time of our stores?
TV is great for brand awareness… but ultimately will have little impact on a C-Store where the driver is convenience and thus location. Whilst great for the brand, TV spend will broadly be wasted from a retailer's perspective.
It is also important to remember that retailers are media owners in their own right and are thinking about themselves in this way. So as a supplier you need to actively engage with the retailer (and its Media Centre if it has one) to co-create activation plans.
Consider whether you can afford to implement what you are proposing - i.e. don’t show a picture of a £50,000 gold standard execution if you only have enough budget for an on shelf promotion with a barker!
Summary
Brand plans are definitely worth both creating and sharing but only in the right way. I believe there is a simple formula for success with Convenience retailers: understand small shops, take a commercial approach, assume trust and build plans collaboratively for success.
Remember...
Make sure the people in the room need to be there
Don’t share information or insight for the sake of it or that we already know. Ask yourselves ‘so what? after every slide – if there isn’t one, then remove it.
Come with a commercial proposal for all NPD
Don’t expect us to be able to deliver everything you want – small shops, lots of brands, plus our own plans – prioritise!
Tailor plans to different store types and segments
Work with us to maximise potential throughout the year but be realistic as to what you actually want and what will actually work in store.
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