Point Of Purchase Magazine

Case study to further conform how this synergy works. Knorr Soupy Noodles launch campaign — for this campaign HUL partnered up with Big Bazaar and launched its new Knorr Soupy Noodles. Customer Objective was: • Build the Shubh Mahurat property • Grow the noodles category Growth Drivers for HUL were: • Time to prepare • Lifestage • Health • Meals [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] HUL with Big Bazaar made the aisles of the store green, sampled inside the store, undertook trolley branding, created visibility at the checkout tills. Took up premium space and using POP displays and other elements increased its prominence in the store. The impact of a strong partnership and effective campaign was seen in the results. Within first four days of the campaign the value share of HUL grew leaps and bounds as indicated in the chart. Value Share: 24-Mar – 0 25-Mar – 17 26•Mar – 31 27-Mar – 38 Summarizing and sharing the formula of powerful partnerships, Stephen shared the important parameters which included: • First ascertaining the granularity of growth — what accounts, which stores, which retailers, which shoppers, once you clear about where you want to play then get clear about • Where to play • 4 Conversion points • Insight — ask you customer for insight too • Customer objectives • Growth driver for category And finally he concluded on the 22nd minute by sharing one thing you (as the audiences and brands like HUL) need to know about successful partnering with modern trade to deliver joint marketing plans based on customer and shopper insight is… “The customer must be keener to do it than the manufacturer!” And with this personal observation and tip Stephen signed off. Highly Spirited! Highly Intuitive! Day 2 of In-Store Asia 2011 had yet another best practitioner who left the audience in high spirits literally, as he said ‘There is alcohol on every slide, so you better take it easy!’ Shubhranshu Singh, National Head — Customer Marketing & Key Accounts, Diageo India, enlightened the audience on `The Wine & Spirits retail in India and the shopper marketing opportunity for brands’. He chose to use this opportunity to share the possibilities, challenges and nuances of practicing shopper marketing in the Liquor category. In his view while India is shining, shoppers are getting huge experiences, but when it comes to Liquor as a category its retail environment is at the most primitive stage compared to any other product market. With this he shared a glimpse of what the Indian wine and spirit industry is like: • Regulated & Restricted — State Subject. • Affects Price, Distribution, Route to Market • Varying degrees of freedom in sales & marketing • Strong Demographic Dividend (Young India) — India is the youngest country in the world and is one of the most populous countries in the world. • A Brown Spirits Market —Predominantly Whisky, Rum & Beer • Whisky – 120 Mln Cases of growing at 19% (60% of total IMFL) • Beer -140 Mln cases growing at 7% • Rum – 42 Mln cases growing at 12% • Vodka – 5.8 Mln cases growing at 29.8%. • Scotch 1.5 Mln cases growing at 21 % • Semi Dark Market for Liquor Advertising — Although there are opportunities to publicize, there are opportunities to ride on surrogate and bring the brand in front of the consumer, but with all these there are constraints even at the point-of-sale. A lot cannot be used, depicted and said. This affects the category. • Showing product, consumption situations even alluding to it is not permitted Further on he gave an outline of Liquor Retail in India. • Alcohol retailing is controlled -license or state ownership • Limited channel – High stakes • Nature of trade – Sellers market • High throughput • Steady & growing catchment Counter shops is pretty much the face of Liquor retailing environment in India, the so called conventional over the counter shops rule as a channel and represent close to 90% of the volume and a very high value across the industry. And the counter sales person is the only point of interaction. People come to these shops with a pre-meditated choice, having a consideration set of at the most one, two or three brands that too laddered by preference. This scenario has changed a bit with the development of walk-in shops which are surprisingly mushrooming more so at tier two cities rapidly. And finally there is the emerging Modern and On-trade space that have a hybrid license, which allow them to create a tasting room, and sampling opportunities. The catchment for these MOT stores is largely young, twin income consumers who are coming in because they are interested in Wine and premium spirits. While the retail space is evolving, the challenges in the space are plenty Shubhranshu brought to light some shopper issues that are practical challenges, which make implementing any shopper science difficult. The challenges include: • No planograming or category grouping — When it comes to shelf stocking category view or planograming standards are completely absent. Explaining this further Shubhranshu says “You will see a brand retailing at Rs. 5,000 standing shoulder to shoulder, with something that sells at Rs. 550 and if you wonder why so, the answer is that section has been brought over by a particular manufacturer and so they have the legitimacy to stay there even though the adjacencies are different. • Price points irrelevant in finalizing the layout — A very expensive brand because its sells few units could be sitting at the bottom, while cheap brand and a smaller SKU could be placed right there in the front because it sells many. The logic of eye-level refuses to exist. • Very little science to allocations of ‘hot-spots’ — If you have bought the space you can create what you like on it. Very often you will find shelving kind of displays and shelf kind of placement in interruptions. With all these challenges present,

Creativity as an input into winning the hearts and minds of Shoppers has always been important. Now it has become essential. Like fuel for an engine Creativeness viz- imaginativeness, leveraging insights and innovating are critical determinants of success. The reasons are self evident namely competition and the pace of change. The growth of several new retail formats and the soaking in of multiple streams of information have made the shoppers immune to repetition. They get excited when they see truly creative and engaging approaches. Then they take out their wallets. Two factors catalyze the process of creativity i.e. technological advancements and market acceptance. As people become richer and new choices explode along with old established choices becoming within reach, the shopper is no longer easy to pacify. There is an evolution- revolution happening out there and one thing is in demand -Creativity! So, it is easy to conclude that we must understand how creative people work best and what it takes for a steady supply of great ideas to be generated. While the popular imagination of creative genius is one of solitary effort — A DaVinci or Michelangelo are not of much use in the modern corporate world. [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] This is not about the painter in his studio; this is about art on the scale of an assembly line. Shoppers don’t move around in an exhibition or a gallery —They are engaged in an active process of selection and purchase. Therefore creativity aimed at Shopper motivation must be fired by trends that are popular and current. There is another aspect of large corporate structures which needs constant creative reassessment and refueling. That is called the burden of the ‘routine processes’. Departmental processes, procurement timelines, meetings and manuals can become fairly inflexible and rigid when creativity most demands flexibility and morphing. There are umpteen number of emerging technologies that reach the Point of Sale late because adoption en masse happens when the results are obvious. But that’s not creativity that is adoption of someone else’s initiative. Now, if we have a conviction that creativity spurs growth then clearly the burden must fall on our educational system. The task of sending our creatively fecund individuals with inquiring and experimental minds is a pre-requisite to all around growth. It is an area where we seem to be failing. Look at the stereotype and it will show you how much cloning there is in the corporate world. From the moment that a mind is recognized to be belonging to the academic elite, there is pressure to repress originality and creativity and conform. There is reward to believe in the collective wisdom of ages gone by. A new mind, with immature and inchoate interpretations and insights falls in line very fast. This sedation eventually snuffs out the creativity. To avoid this, the influence of educationists like Froebel, Montessori and Pestalozzi needs to be felt from kindergarten to post graduation for us to get true change. But in the interim, what do we do within companies to foster creative talent? 1. Invest in groups of creative people with a deep intirest in practical application in the Shopper domain — their creative chaos will produce result, one has only to be patient 2. Foster Dialogue, debate, discussion with reference to the real marketplace – Make it virtuous to operate with creative impulses. Let shared convictions be questioned. 3. Give leaders of the creative groups wide ranging autonomy and adequate budgets — If what they have imagined in visual terms has to be written up as a memo or put into an Excel sheet and passed up to higher authority, it is a prescription for failure. They create, they implement, they get credited —That’s the mantra. 4. Allow for Shopper interactions in numerous micro pilot projects —The risks of failure are smaller when compared to the risk of losing shoppers where it matters. Therefore, incubate projects in the real market, amongst customers and get live feedback from shoppers and trade. 5. Promote talent in situ – Growth should not mean displacement away from Shoppers. Let people continue to grow while enjoying what they do, where they are. Shopper Marketing career paths should be crafted to navigate several levels of the hierarchy and not merely at the interim or early stage levels. 6. Build commercial reward into the DNA — Idea rich people can often be commercially insensible. The notable exception is the Silicon Valley. Take examples from history — The Chinese invented gunpowder but used it for fireworks only. The Byzantines invented coupling clockwork but used it to levitate the emperor to impress visitors. The Tibetans invented turbines but utilized it only to turn prayer wheels. Ideas will live up to their potential when there is reward in its commercial exploitation. Lastly but most crucially, let your creative group live away from office amidst shoppers. Let them spend time in trade. Let people be curious without constraints of pre-written questionnaires. Let the process of osmosis happen. Creativity is not an urge, it’s a compulsion.