As a manufacturer, you’ll know that the launch phase of a new product is absolutely critical. As our recent POS Analytics study in Japan shows, product life cycles can be short. As much as 90% of the overall sales of mobile PCs and smartphones in this market are delivered in less than 10 months of their launch1. You have just a small window of opportunity to make sure your product secures its target share of market and sales against the competition. You will therefore invest heavily in a sophisticated launch campaign with key retail partners to promote your product. But how can you be sure your trade marketing campaigns are being executed as agreed?
Monitor key retail partners’ performance to get the maximum ROI
Let’s look at the major smartphone manufacturers. Three have recently launched new generation flagship models. They will want to know how the launch promotions they have designed and agreed with their various retailer partners are being implemented. Is their product achieving maximum visibility across retailers’ channels? Are they using the right video online? How is the product positioned in-store? How is it featured in their seasonal TV advertising?
Often trade marketing campaigns focus on promoting a particular technical feature or benefit, like an infinity screen, or a sophisticated camera that can take high-end pictures for posting on social media. If you are running a feature-led campaign, you will want to ensure that retailers are promoting the relevant selling point to consumers across touchpoints.
Determine how retailers are implementing the campaigns you’ve devised for them
You should monitor online, in-store and print advertising to determine how retailers are implementing the campaigns you’ve devised for them. You will know if your product features prominently in their advertising and promotional materials at the point of sale, if it is reachable within five clicks on their website and whether it appears in one of the “golden locations” (i.e. the front entrance of end of aisle, etc.) in their stores. Similarly, you can monitor the execution of your competitor’s campaigns.
By combining intelligence on the execution of different elements of your trade campaigns by retailers and their sales data, you can determine the success of your campaigns. More importantly, you can align your efforts and investment – in different channels, campaign elements and retail partners – with your results. This level of transparency about your campaigns and retail partners’ performance is invaluable when it comes to agreeing campaigns and your level of investment with retailers.
Contact me at Karsten.holdorf@gfk.com to find out how we can help you to optimize your trade promotion management.
1 Our recent GfK POS Analytics studies of durable goods in Asia provide evidence of increasingly short product life cycles. In Japan, for example, 90% of the overall sales of mobile PCs and smartphones are achieved in less than 10 months. However, selling the last 10% of these products takes longer than the entire time needed to sell the first 90%, despite the best price incentives being employed for the final 10%.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
