Data Drives Consistent Growth
Understanding the scope of the market and the strength of competition in new geographies or retailers can be challenging. To determine which new retailers or channels to target, you need to know which offers the best opportunity for your brand to succeed. This involves a cross-market report that will identify the top-selling or fastest-growing retailers in your category. When matched to your internal capabilities, geographic proximity, and alignment between your target customer and the retailer’s target customer then you can strategically prioritize your expansion approach. Pursuing the wrong retail partners can lead to unsold (i.e. wasted) products or heavy promotions that eat away at margins to clear the shelf. If the sales volume doesn’t cover the slotting fees then the expanded distribution could actually hurt your bottom line. You can successfully launch new products with data, craft a winning product assortment, or even optimize your CPG pricing strategy.
A distribution strategy that your inventory can support and doesn’t stretch the team’s resources too thin is worth considering. Shoppers have grown weary of out-of-stock and supply issues, so failing to fulfill orders could be detrimental to both your relationship with the retailer and customers.
How Data Can Facilitate New Market Penetration
In our work with beverage and alcohol brands, our experts have identified three ways brands can leverage retail data to achieve growth goals and make data work for your BevAl brand . In this use case, we showcase a beverage brand as an example of how this is done. Any growing brand can learn from the example of our beverage and alcohol clients.
Detailed below are the three ways growing beverage brands have used retail data to grow market share:
01
Define Your Brand’s Unique Position in the Alcohol Universe
Any market entrance strategy is based upon an understanding of your brand’s and product’s position in the category and broader alcohol market. As beverage category definitions are continually expanding, many new products don’t fit neatly into predefined segments.
Syndicated data reports break down all SKUs in a category by a variety of parameters, including flavors, characteristics, and claims. This data shows where your product fits in the category and where there is an opportunity to differentiate. This allows you to understand which niche your product will fill and how much room there is for potential sales growth.
02
Determine Growth Potential Across Retailers and Regions
Comparing retail sales data for different retailers, regions, or channels highlights where there is the most opportunity for your products to grow. Looking at the year-over-year change in sales volume for comparable products indicates growth potential and allows you to target the right regions and retailers.
This kind of cross-geography analysis also reveals whether other considerations. Think local preferences, demand for different flavors, and pack size restrictions in different retailers or states. These will all have an impact on your distribution plans.
03
Analyze Competition and Determine Positioning
Once you’ve identified the best expansion targets, you’ll need to make sure you know how your product will stand up to competitors. This begins by identifying the brands in the category that are dominating or growing. Then, analyzing metrics such as average price, promotional frequency, depth of promotional discount, and total distribution.
These benchmarks provide context for your strategy to best position your products for sustained success. As inflationary pressures hit the market, it’s particularly important to consistently evaluate your strategy and modify it appropriately to remain competitive.
Key Outcomes of Using Retail Sales Data When Considering Expansion
The right data can help you formulate an effective expansion strategy. It also helps your emerging beverage brand understand the “size of the prize” in regions, retailers, or retail channels you’re targeting for expansion. Access to this information allows you to define your brand and product relative to competitors. You can also analyze your competition and determine which brands are dominating the category or growing fastest in your targets. All of this combined helps your brand identify ways to price and position your product to maximize growth. Using this data, you can impress during category reviews and protect your shelf space while driving growth.
How NielsenIQ Can Help
Nielsen provides access to the essential data beverage brands need to successfully enter a new region, retailer, or retail channel. We offer the best-in-class, accurate, current retail sales data tailored to specific geographic regions and channels. We help beverage manufacturers assess the size of the market, analyze competitors’ performance and hone in on untapped growth potential.
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