For additional earlybird discount book before 23 December!

Download your ShopAbility Path to Purchase Summit Brochure here, and use the promotional code at the top when booking your seat to receive 10% discount.

PathtoPurchase2012_shopability

As part of the conference program, ShopAbility’s Norrelle Goldring will be speaking on:

Leveraging the growing amounts of shopper data for in-store activation:
• Differentiating information from insight and understanding the types
of insights to be gained from data
• Analysing the uses of insights across sales, category, trade marketing,
brand marketing and externally
• How to gain insight and leverage results for category strategy

As Gold Sponsors, ShopAbilitly will also have a stand at the conference so feel free to come and say hello!

There’s been a lot of media huff and puff lately about the growth of online shopping in Australia. But the larger revolution – albeit quieter from a media point of view – is the change in shopper behaviour before they purchase, brought about by the ability to search online for product information before they even get to a store.

This has implications for the ‘path to purchase’ and for impulse purchases. As the degree of prestore search increases, so does the degree of planning.

I thought it worthwhile having a look at this and its implications for what stores will need to do in order to retain a role broader than being a mere transaction zone. The game SHOULD be much bigger than just range and layout, which are hygiene, navigation and deselection (narrowing down) factors, they’re not strategy. Once you’ve got your range and layout right, then what are you going to do to increase your category sales in an environment where shoppers are getting harder to influence?

THE PATH TO PURCHASE IS BLURRING

Traditionally the path to purchase was thought to be prestore and instore.

Prestore was when shoppers were making lists and were the passive subjects of advertising and promotional stimulus. Prestore was about consideration.

Instore was where the shopper was influenced on which of their considered products in a category they would buy. Instore was where the conversion happened.

Now the model is blurred. We have conversion happening prestore, and consideration happening instore.

The advent of mobile search and compare is creating consideration at shelf, not just conversion. An example is a shopper standing in a shoe store looking at training shoes. The shopper can whip out their mobile phone and price compare the shoe in the store they are in versus somewhere else. And if the somewhere else is nearby they may change their store choice. You’re then relying on your store staff service and sales capabilities to keep the shopper in your store. Or they might be looking at a shoe on shelf and if a staff member isn’t available, look up the product information online using their smartphone.

This isn’t just for the ‘few’ who have smartphones, by the way. Australia has one of the highest smartphone penetrations in the world, currently nearing 40%, and set to hit 60% by the end of 2012.

THE ‘FIRST MOMENT OF TRUTH’ – JUST ONE OF A SERIES OF TRUTH MOMENTS

P&G are largely credited with coining the expression the ‘First Moment of Truth’ to describe the shopper experience at shelf, where theoretically all the prestore and instore marketing and category management efforts come together to create a purchase decision at the shelf (or offlocation display).

Now we have not only a First Moment of Truth, but a Zero Moment of Truth (prestore) and a Second Moment of Truth (post store, when the purchased product is actually trialled).

Google’s recent report (April 2011) on the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), whilst not expressing a new idea, has probably been the first to articulate it clearly.

It identifies the shift in shopper behaviour by differentiating advertising and promotional stimulus (considered passive) from online and mobile search (proactive).

The ZMOT is when a shopper actively searches for product information online. This may be from a retailer’s website, manufacturer’s website, product reviews, social media such as Facebook, and blogs (which are a form of organized word of mouth), among other things a search engine may dig up. ZMOT is everywhere because it can be accessed whilst mobile, and it’s not just for high involvement purchase categories like cars and entertainment systems. Shoppers are actively searching prestore in product categories ranging from plasticware to pet food.

The Second Moment of Truth (SMOT) – product trial, usage and experience – has an impact on ZMOT. Users of a product when they get it home may post a comment about the product (and their purchase experience) on a social media website, or a product review on a blog or website. These reviews then contribute to the next shopper’s ZMOT findings.  In a recent report from IBM it was stated that a shopper is more likely to believe a review from a stranger than what a retailer or manufacturer says about a product. This demonstrates the need/role for informal product advocates and ambassadors (rather than paid celebrity sponsors).

Whilst marketers can’t control what shoppers post for SMOT, smart marketers in manufacturing can use ZMOT tools – including offers – to mitigate retailer clean store policies.

So now we have a model where advertising stimulus and promotions (Stimulus) may be prestore or instore. The ZMOT is everywhere (accessed prestore, instore, in transit) as is the SMOT. The First Moment of Truth may now be online, or in bricks and mortar stores, or multichannel (eg order online, pick up instore or order instore, have delivered to your home).

I haven’t figured out how to draw this yet in a pretty diagram. Stay tuned. It’ll probably look like one of those communication network diagrams like a cloud with lots of lines where everything connects to everything else.

THE DEGREE OF PLANNING IS INCREASING

The more ZMOT proactive product search that occurs, the greater the degree of pre-store product planning.

Depending on the channel, category and trip type, there may be a lot or a little impulse. On average in Australia across a number of shopper research projects in the past few years, we’ve found that most categories in grocery are planned down to product or brand level between 60% and 70%. That is within a specific category.

But this doesn’t mean you can’t get switch, upgrade or impulse instore, or that a shopper doesn’t buy other categories/products on impulse. We know that around 80% of shoppers deviate from (add to) their grocery shopping list once instore. That is, they come in for 4 things totaling $20 and wander out $50 and 8 items later.

What it does mean is that you need to work harder to interrupt them within a given category.

Interestingly, the recent Coles and Woolworths smartphone apps have a number of functions that will actually increase the degree of planning (My List, My Specials, where items are located in my store so I can find them faster etc) with fewer of the apps to increase browse time/impulse/engagement (recipe finders being the main one at this point).

In an environment where retailers have trained shoppers to expect low prices as the cost of entry and promotional strategies have simply shifted the majority of a category’s sales to on promotion (and deflated category value in the process), the crying need instore is for INTERRUPTION. Shoppers want to discover, be surprised, delighted, and informed … this requires engagement and theatre.

THE NEED TO PLAY TO EMOTIONAL, NOT JUST RATIONAL

In ‘The Buying Brain’, Dr AK Pradeep emphasizes that 95% of human decision making is unconscious and emotional not subconscious and rational. He outlines 7 shopper experience dimensions. In no particular order, these are Information, Interaction, Entertainment, Community, Education, Simplicity, and Self Worth. These serve as a useful ‘retail health’ scorecard for a brand or category.

It’s evident from this list that grocery retailing only really talks to simplicity (ease of shop) at the moment, with perhaps some bits of information and some Community (charity) activities. But supermarkets have work to do on the interaction, entertainment, education and self worth dimensions.

When you look at the traditional point of purchase drivers (range, space & layout, visibility & display, price, promotion and persuasion) there are 3 that are rational (range, space, price) and 3 that are more emotional (display/theatre, promotion, persuasion).

Clean store policies are effectively stripping the emotion out of a shopping trip that for many is already a grudge trip or considered a chore.

When we run shopper research typically the retailers want to understand what their range and layout should be, and most of what shoppers want is not just a layout that makes sense but typically category information, samples, tastings and demonstrations. They want things that will help them with solutions and keep them entertained.

Interruption and engagement – the levers to pull for impulse sales and category growth – will come from more theatre; better thought through relevant/tailored/interactive promotions that pull levers other than price, and from personalized service.

In the brave new world of shopper-controlled retailing, the retailers who retain relevance will be those who can interrupt, surprise and delight by playing to emotions.

On the face of it, the New Zealand supermarket channel looks similar to the Australian one: a highly consolidated market with two big players who have the vast majority share between them.  But in NZ each of the supermarket retail groups are rowing their own boats, with mixed results.

Below we overview the NZ grocery market, what each of the major players is doing, and some two-way lessons from across the ditch.

WHO’S WHO IN THE NZ ZOO?

The NZ grocery channel is split roughly 50/50 between Progressive Enterprises Limited (locally known as Progs or PEL) and Foodstuffs (locally known as FS or Foodies).

Progressive, owned by Woolworths Australia, have traditionally had 3 retail badges with around 170 stores in total across Foodtown, Woolworths, and Countdown outlets. All PEL outlets are in throes, between 2011 and early 2013, of being rebadged as Countdown utilising the Woolworths green ‘apple peel’ logo and a store fitout similar to WW 2010 store formats.

Foodstuffs are proudly 100% NZ owned and this is a point of difference they flog hard. Foodstuffs have a number of supermarket retail banners: New World (135 outlets), Pak & Save (45 outlets), 4Square (280 outlets, skewing regional) as well as a couple of smaller regional banners with only a few stores (Shoprite, Write Food) and a chain of corner mixed business stores (‘dairies’ in the local parlance) numbering around 145 outlets.

HOW DO THEY COMPARE?

In the NZ market, there is not an overt comparison on price. Foodstuffs’ Pak & Save is renowned as a lowest-cost-operator (like an Aldi or Costco), but the two flagships of Countdown and New World compete head to head for shopper loyalty, albeit in different ways.

Below is a comparison table we have pulled together across a number of aspects for the two major players for their flagship banners (Countdown and New World, respectively).

HOW ARE THEY EXECUTING? EXAMPLE PROGRAMS

Countdown have recently instituted both Combo deals (some are true solutions such as fish and chips, some are multibuys by another name, as the attached photos demonstrate) and in the past few weeks launched Feed Your Family for Under $14, using shopper-submitted recipes in a form of competition.  The Masterchef program has been supported instore with recipe cards but also with specific ‘recipe bays’ featuring total meal solutions in one chiller compiled by 2010 Masterchef winner Brett McGregor.

New World have been using the ‘Clever Baskets’ mascot as a ‘discount price special’ ticketing visual shortcut. From a meals point of view, they offer pre-packed cross-category lunch solutions in chilled barges instore, and out of store run a meals TV program called  ‘World Kitchen on TV3’.

OPPORTUNITIES AND LEARNINGS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DITCH

Although Australian supermarket retailers have only in the past 18 months started to employ occasion based solutions such as Feed the Family, these types of bundled programs are even newer in NZ.

Kiwi manufacturers are starting to employ simpler and clearer program messaging on POS, which is useful when the NZ supermarket retailer majors apply a clean store policy even more stringent than that in force in Australia. Very few POS communication pieces are allowed. This is limiting shoppers’ experience, and also renders less effective promotional mechanics. For example if you only allow on-pack promotions, destination categories with high household penetration levels won’t actually see much of an increase during promotions because the shopper was already going to put the category or item in the basket. These types of categories really require AWOP or frequency based activations. So an opportunity here is to allow more flexibility for different promotional mechanics that require activation away from the main shelf as well as at it.

Australian supermarket retailers could take a cue from NZ supermarket retailers (eg the Clever Baskets tags) and cut down the number of price specials, and therefore specials tickets, in each category at any one time, to make the category easier to ‘read’ for shoppers.

Stores on both sides of the ditch could be made more engaging with more instore theatre … particularly in fresh food, where ‘theatre’ is even more lacking in NZ (which doesn’t have specialist fruit & veg shops or butchers) than Australia. We know that the vast majority of shopping decisions are made emotionally. Dr AK Pradeep in ‘The Buying Brain’ refers to 7 dimensions of shopper experience, being Information, Interaction, Entertainment, Community, Education, Simplicity, and Self Worth. Yet most Australian and NZ supermarkets (Coles renewal stores excepted, perhaps) only really play to Simplicity, and perhaps a bit of Information and maybe Community (IGA, Foodstuffs). Entertainment and Interaction are currently largely missing.

The instore limitations have an upside however, and that is the NZ exploration of the digital space, with trial of different pre-store mediums (including QR response activations) high on the agenda.

All in all, it feels like NZ can learn from Australian meal solutions executions, and Australia should keep an eye on what NZ supermarkets are doing online and manufacturers do in the digital space.

It will be interesting to observe how the NZ and Australian grocery markets evolve over time, given their similarities and differences.

Back in February 2010 we discussed the evolution of category management into shopper marketing in our article ‘Where To Shopper Marketing?”. In that article, we outlined some of the key themes coming out of shopper marketing conferences in the USA as being:

• Tailored, not Mass
• Occasions and Trip Types, not just Product and Price
• Emotional, not just Rational
• Integration, not Isolation
• Impact, not just Activity.

These themes were emphasised and brought to life in more detail at the recent Shopper Marketing Live event at Darling Harbour, which drew over 1,000 industry professionals. They also correlate strongly to some of the key findings that came out of the 2010 POPAI/ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Benchmark Survey.

Here’s my wrap up of the key outtakes from the conference, with some implications. Everyone will have a different take depending on what sessions they attended, but I’ve had a crack at capturing the recurring themes cross-session. We’ll discuss each of these areas in more detail in subsequent articles (and post my findings from the upcoming Shopper Insights in Action conference in Chicago in July).

SHOPPER INSIGHTS AND BEHAVIOUR

• Insights are fundamental: The best shopper marketing programs have an insight at their core. This may be either a consumer or shopper insight, translatable into a ‘big idea’ that can be calibrated across touchpoints
• Who and why are equally important, if not moreso, than what and how. The insights and research programs you run should focus here
• Emotional, not just Rational: Dr Pradeep in one of the conference’s highlights outlined 7 shopper experience dimensions (in no particular order – Information, Interaction, Entertainment, Community, Education, Simplicity, and Self Worth). These serve as a useful ‘retail health’ scorecard for a brand or category. It’s evident from this list that grocery retailing only really talks to simplicity (ease of shop) at the moment, with perhaps some bits of information. But supermarkets have work to do on the interaction, entertainment, education and self worth (including role of charity) dimensions
• More Emotional, not just Rational: Rod Slater’s presentation highlighted that different categories and areas of the store provoke different emotions.  There are opportunities for marketers who can make their brands ‘happy’ in inherently ‘sad’ categories, and the opportunity in frustrating categories is to at least make them neutral
• Which tools?: There are a number of tools ranging from trackers to bespoke research to data – figuring out what info is important and relevant for you is the challenge
• What to measure?: Likewise there are lots of ways to measure, figuring out the most important things to measure is critical so you don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. To paraphrase Bryan Gildenberg from Kantar Retail, measuring is important but figuring out which things to measure is more important.

SHOPPER MARKETING PROGRAMS & ACTIVATIONS

• No longer one size fits all: shopper segments, specific by retailer, by trip type and occasion are the name of the game as the market increasingly fragments
• Niching opportunities: likewise, specific shopper type and localisation opportunities will become more important (viz the SupaValu example of diabetics – small number of them but fiercely loyal to store). Specialist retailers are growing faster than the generalists in Australia so the strategic and profit/margin (not volume) opportunities will be in tailoring your offer
• Blurred shopper and consumer in a blurred path to purchase: shopper is a mindset, not a geography. The rise of mobile and on-the-go shopper marketing means there is no longer a linear ‘path’ to purchase
• The Zero moment of Truth: likewise, the rise of digital means just getting the instore execution right is not enough as the Zero moment of truth can occur in home or on the go. That is, anywhere. The implication is that shopper marketing programs need to be THROUGH the line (not just above or below it), incorporating out of store, on the go, instore.

ENABLERS & SUPPORT

• Top down support from the Executive is critical for success
• Collaboration: between manufacturers and retailers is an essential element, not a nice to have. This requires two-way info sharing to understand business needs and objectives on both sides
• Funding: the train has left the station. Stop arguing about where it sits, cobble some dollars together and just get on with it … you can adjust your structure later, although you do need at least one shopper ‘champion’ in the business and a centralised department of some sort is even better
• Cross departmental communication: is required to activate through the line. Silos will no longer work. To paraphrase both Bryan Gildenberg from Kantar Retail and Di Shelton from Coles, get together the people that ‘know stuff’ with those that ‘do stuff’
• No silver bullet: There are no templates for success at this early stage, just different experiences and ideas. The role of the POPAI Shopper Marketing Industry Council is to turn the ideas and experiences into tools and templates over time.

They’re my main takeouts. We’ll build on these over time, with more case studies, once the results of the 2011 POPAI/ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Survey are in. In the meantime, we welcome your feedback about Shopper Marketing topics and discussions you’d like to see.

STOP PRESS

The 2011 POPAI/ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Survey is now in field and calling your name! Have your say in the new and improved 20 minute online survey by clicking on the survey link at www.popai.com.au before closing date 1 July, 2011. Participants will get a free copy of the findings report, valued at $495.

Following on from our Rise to the Occasion article last year, about occasion based shopper marketing opportunities, let’s take a look at the opportunities winter presents.

HIBERNATION BEHAVIOUR

People are more likely to stay in during the winter – even in subtropical towns like Sydney and Brisbane – because they don’t want to venture out ‘in the cold and rain’. Unless they’re going to the snow. This is why restaurant patronage generally drops during the winter … people ‘go out’ and socialise in the summer and ‘stay in’ during the winter.

So how can you leverage these natural behaviours?

Play to the ‘quiet night in’, particularly for girls – flannelette pyjamas, DVDs and popcorn. As a bundle. Or you could go one step further and do what the breast cancer guys have done by creating a group ‘girls’ night in’, book-club style with champagne.

For mass merchants and discount department stores it’s all about ‘rug up’ items for indoors – blankets, throw rugs, heaters, warm pyjamas (again). And slippers. And of course you’d bundle it all up as a ‘stay warm this winter’ deal.

WINTER WARMERS

So here we’re talking about Dinner Tonight shopping trips, but for heavier and heartier fare.

Stews mean you can do bundles of recipe ingredients. Heavier pasta types such as gnocchi can also be bundled with other ingredients.

And it’s soup season, as well as pudding style ‘hot’ desserts. So there’s a 3-course meal suggestion that will drive AWOP – soup, stew and pudding.

If summer is synonymous with BBQs, what dining/entertaining occasion can we create or leverage for winter? The Great Sunday Roast? Traditionally the Sunday Roast (or baked dinner, depending on what state you come from) was family oriented, but what’s to stop it being promoted as a big night in with friends, thereby tapping into Entertaining shopping trips?

In liquor, it’s all about dark spirits – bourbon, scotch, dark rum. And red wine, to go with those Sunday Roasts. Stretching it a bit, you could include fortifieds such as port and sherry (which aren’t just gifts for Grandpa).

SNOW HOLIDAYS

This is all about the après-ski back in the chalet … a form of entertaining as the nature of ski and snow trips tends to be just as much social and friends as it is family.

Stocking up and entertaining in the ski chalet sense is about alcohol … red wine (and bottle openers), ingredients for gluhwein, sparkling/champagne as well as cheese/dips/pates etc – opportunities for cross-channel bundles here.

If you’re a mass merchant or specialty retailer the snow holiday opportunity revolves around snow and ski gear rather than food. Apparel, boards, poles etc. Plus some of the ‘rug up’ items discussed in Hibernation. You could get greater spend by bundling it all together as a series of package deals – apparel deals, gear deals.

JUNE LONG WEEKEND

Some hardy souls in this country still go camping in winter (generally coastal destinations where it’s slightly more temperate).

Camping trips generally involve more cooking for oneself than do snow holidays (where people eat out more). So there’s an opportunity here to package up a series of meals for several days of camping … the BBQ meal, the burgers and hot dogs meal, the roast meal (again!) … including packaged desserts (ie frozens).

Similarly to the snow holidays, for mass merchants and specialty retailers the opportunity is around bundling camping gear. Everything from eskies to travel rugs to thermos to tents. And entertainment – games for the kids to play in the back of the car, board games for the adults.

SNIFFLING AND SNUFFLING

Let’s not forget that winter is also ‘cold season’. Sales of tissues, sinus and cold/flu treatments go up, an opportunity for a ‘cold and flu family bundle’ or similar.

People not only get colds in winter, they generally feel more sorry for themselves and therefore get more massages and remedial therapies – in the summer people have too many fun things on, and are too busy and social to be sick!

So the principles are to look at the natural occasions the season provides, and create bundles for the whole occasion, rather than just promoting single items.

And then there are all the instore ‘theatre’ opportunities – snowflakes, log fires etc -  that these winter occasions provide …

ShopAbility has partnered with the Bevington Group, Australia’s most experienced process and productivity improvement specialists.

Coupling the experience of ShopAbility’s senior strategy team, all of whom have decades of CEO and Board level experience in Retail and FMCG companies, with the Bevington Group’s experience in improving business operational processes, we can deliver a unique suite of services that centre on real Organisational  Insight using XeP3.

The Organisational Insight Approach using XeP3 consolidates lessons from over 400 assignments in some of Australia’s largest and best recognized companies and ShopAbility is exclusively licensing Bevington Group patented technology and expertise for use in the Retail & FMCG sector.

Here in our second of a series of six insightful and interesting articles, Roger Perry the CEO of the Bevington Group discusses the fundamental principles behind restructuring your business in a changing and improving trading environment.

The 7 Principles of a successful restructure

Even as the economic outlook appears to brighten, the fact remains that many organisations can no longer operate as they had been.  A key feature of this changing landscape is the need for organisations to restructure. As process and structure specialists, Bevington Group has observed the good, the bad, and the ugly of restructures. Based on our experiences, we have devised seven broad restructuring principles to help make any restructure a successful one. These principles are:

1. Align structure to strategy

All restructures must align to strategy.  This may seem self-evident, yet a significant number of organisations fail to do so. For example, if local conditions are a predominant factor then stress local sales and marketing functions rather than a centralised behemoth which then tries to matrix with local elements.

2. Reduce complexity

Simply put, complexity costs. Whether it is a complex organisational structure, a complex product offering, or complex transactional processes, the added cost of complexity can be a drag on performance.

To mitigate complexity, there are three considerations which help with organisational design:

1. Design structure for strategy before you design for specific personnel.  Organisational redesigns which are a compromise between strategic intent and line management preferences inevitably add complexity. So, whilst politics are unavoidable, at least start with a clean and clear design that matches to strategy.

2. Avoid making leadership roles too complex (see principle #5);

3. Minimise the use of matrices. They introduce measurement overhead and a lack of clear direction to the staff;

3. Focus on core activity

Remove noise (inefficiency in processes), and enhance core, before restructuring roles. This means that you will need to know what people are doing today by obtaining a detailed understanding of tasks by role.  This ensures that no value added activities are thrown out when removing a role.  Similarly, duplication and redundant activity can be removed at the time of the restructure.

4. Create feasible roles

Don’t overload roles – restructures generally leave an organisation with fewer people to do the same amount of work.  When restructuring to reduce headcount, make sure you understand the current workload of employees. This will help to ensure you design roles that are neither too heavily laden nor indeed too light.  Furthermore, role design must take into account realistic groupings of skills.  Packing a role with too many distinct skillsets reduces the pool of durable candidates.

5. Balance Own-Work and Supervisory load of managers

The case of leadership or “management loading” can be particularly troublesome in restructures.  Often, the inability of managers to focus on leadership tasks due to increased output requirements can create significant problems for an organisation   For example, time spent mentoring and coaching staff drops off; staff become disengaged, more issues arise due to staff errors, and managers end up spending more time resolving them.  To ensure management are appropriately loaded, it’s critical to balance three elements: 1) the number of staff directly managed or supervised; 2) staff ability to perform work without supervision; and 3) the amount of “own work” managers have to do on top of their leadership activity.

6. Implement with clarity

Often there is confusion in the first weeks and months after an initial restructure. After all, who is supposed to be responsible for what? The answer is to clarify roles and responsibilities from the beginning, identify all functions (activities, tasks, and decisions) that have to be accomplished for effective operation, clarify who should be involved, and be specific about accountability.

7. Maintain flexibility

Finally, it is important not to cut your resources too fine. If the organisational change is material you will need resource flexibility in the first few months, so even as you strive to operate more efficiently, be sure to give yourself some wriggle room in your staffing.  Flexibility applies not only to staff members, but to staff capability.  Leave yourself and your leadership team some room to respond to capability gaps in the new structure.

Common ways to do this include: a staged transition so there are fewer capability gaps to manage at a point in time, and a temporary use of contract resources until in-house staff become familiar with their roles.

ShopAbility has partnered with the Bevington Group, Australia’s most experienced process and productivity improvement specialists.

Coupling the experience of ShopAbility’s senior strategy team, all of whom have decades of CEO and Board level experience in Retail and FMCG companies, with the Bevington Group’s experience in improving business operational processes, we can deliver a unique suite of services that centre on real Organisational  Insight using XeP3.

The Organisational Insight Approach using XeP3 consolidates lessons from over 400 assignments in some of Australia’s largest and best recognized companies and ShopAbility is exclusively licensing Bevington Group patented technology and expertise for use in the Retail & FMCG sector.

Here in our first article of a series, Roger Perry the CEO of the Bevington Group discusses opportunities make your Marketing department run leaner….and smoother.

Tips for running a Lean, Mean Marketing Machine

A key feature of the changing economic landscape has been the push to operate in the most efficient manner possible.  As revenue has dried up, organisations have been realigning teams, trimming staff, cutting spending, all in the interest of finding the most cost-effective way to operate.

As productivity and restructuring specialists, we have observed the good, the bad, and the ugly of organisations’ attempts to increase effeciencies, including within marketing teams in various organisations.  From these experiences, we have distilled some critical pieces of advice for any marketer that wants to run their team, department or business as efficiently as possible.

Align the thinkers and doers

In most marketing teams we have encountered, there is a split between strategy execution (often called Comms / Marketing Managers, ie. The Doers) and strategy creation (Customer Intelligence, Marketing strategy, ie. The Thinkers).

While important, we have seen this split become problematic in structures that have divided these functions into two separate teams, with separate reporting lines.  This can lead to a disconnect between the actual intention of the strategy, and its execution, meaning that strategists’ advise on campaign execution may be ignored, customer insights disregarded, and at worst, an us vs. them mentality can arise between the teams.

Break down this disconnect by creating marketing teams that combine the thinkers and doers.  By putting the thinkers and doers into the same team, the barrier caused by the above structure will be eliminated.

Control the ad hoc work

Often, the lack of a clear process for channeling requests into a marketing team can lead to a high volume of ‘backdoor’ activity.  Because many people find it difficult to say ‘no’ (especially to a senior stakeholder), ad hoc requests of marketing teams – for data, for new initiatives, for a small (yet inevitably time-consuming) change to a piece of collateral -  can become a significant distraction to actually completing the prioritised tasks.

To combat this, it is helpful to have all ad hoc requests go through one person (a ‘front door’), who can clarify the specific needs of the stakeholders, ensure the necessity of the request, and then help prioritise the work.  There should also be clear escalation points to resolve any disagreements.

Streamline the briefing process

The campaign briefing process is the most critical process in an marketing team, yet is often inefficient and inconsistently conducted by staff in the same team.  This leads to unnecessary use of time for multiple stakeholders – an agency’s account managers, the creatives, marketing managers, and even product and legal teams.

…It is critical that all people managing the briefing process understand and follow a consistent briefing process.  This will reduce confusion internally and teach the agency how to deal with your organisation.

Furthermore, make sure that all relevant parties understand exactly what their role is in the briefing process, and exactly at what point they will be engaged.  Each role should know where they fit in the process, and whether they are responsible for an action, accountable for the overall piece of work, are being consulted for advise, or are being informed as a courtesy.

Beware the retainer

When agencies are on a retainer, client staff have a tendency to use the agency as if it were ‘free.’  This has two negative consequences: 1) the agency is called for any problem, no matter how appropriate, leading to inefficient use of agency’s time; 2) The marketing team will send campaign work to the retained agency, even when the campaign would have been better executed by another non-retained agency, because the retained agency is ‘free’.

It is important that marketing teams understand the appropriate way to engage a retained agency: agency time isn’t ‘free’ – it just comes at the expense of another, de-prioritised piece of work; secondly, work that can be done internally should be done internally; finally, prioritise campaign spend to ensure that the most appropriate agency does the job.

Marketing teams that are able to not abuse retainers are able to reduce costs associated with the retainer, and use their and the agencies’ time more effectively.

Don’t create roles just to fit technology

The technology available to marketers is changing rapidly.  Google, Facebook, Twitter and their ilk are expanding the ways that organisations communicate to the market.  This means more opportunities – and more work.

As these technologies proliferate, it is tempting to create new roles – and hire new staff – to fully harness them.  Yet because these roles often have little time to mature, some of their output can be of questionable value.  In good times, marketing teams can afford the luxury of the learning curve.  In tight times, however, this is not the case.

Rather than creating new roles to harness these technologies at the outset, start off by upskilling existing staff in these technologies, or even outsource the work.  Overtime, as your organisation comes to understand its needs in relation to these technologies, the number of staff dedicated to this area can be scaled up.

Review your reporting

Marketers, particularly in large organisations, produce lots of reports.  These are an integral part of a high performance organisation, and their quality and timeliness are key to good decision-making.

However, we have witnessed many companies – and marketing teams – that spend far more time reporting than is required.   This can be due to a number of factors: inefficient reporting processes, poor data quality, or the production of unnecessary reports.

If the issue is data quality or reporting processes, the solutions can often be complex and costly.  For these, it is often helpful to enlist the support of outside experts.

However, a simple reporting audit can provide important insights into the value of reports produced by the marketing team.  Start by compiling a list of all reports produced – even seeing them all on one page can expose the sheer volume of reporting done.  Follow this by asking the end users about what value they derive from the report and what data they can do without.

Based on this information, it will be much easier to determine which reports should continue, which should stop, and which can be altered to better suit the end-users’ needs.

Maintain flexibility

Finally, it is critical not to cut your resources too fine. As organizational imperatives change and the economy picks up, marketing teams will need resource flexibility to ensure they remain agile enough to carry out new initiatives.

Flexibility applies not only to staff members, but to staff capability.  Leave yourself and your leadership team some room to respond to capability gaps in the new structure.  This can involve a staged transition to reduce capability gaps, and a temporary use of contract resources until in-house staff become familiar with their roles.

The study, a joint initiative of POPAI in partnership with researchers ShopAbility, will track advances in shopper marketing and category management, including case studies, since the first Australian industry benchmarking survey in 2010.

Survey participants are rewarded with a free copy of the research report, valued at $495 (+ gst), and are invited to attend key industry leadership workshops where the research findings are discussed amongst retailers, suppliers/brands and POP agencies.

The link to the online version of the survey is now online and can be found here according to POPAI’s General Manager, Karen Spear.

“The inaugural industry survey in 2010 led to a raft of measures for industry improvement, and the best practice tools and templates developed by POPAI’s Shopper Marketing Industry Council over the past months since the study’s completion are evidence of this,” Karen said.

“This year the online survey will be shorter, and we’ve taken our focus areas directly from industry feedback provided last year.”

Norrelle Goldring, Chair of POPAI’s Shopper Marketing Industry Council, believes the survey will provide a valuable tracker as to the progress of the Shopper Marketing function in Australia.

Broad focus areas for the 2011 Shopper Marketing & Industry Survey include:

• Definitions
• Capability & Resources
• Insights
• Activities & Case Studies
• Digital / Online / Social
• Measurement & Effectiveness
• Impacts, Challenges & the Future

What you can do:

Go direct to the online open survey link here

Register to participate in the online or face to face or both: Email your name, company and ‘Register for Shopper Marketing Survey’ to popai@popai.com.au

Want to know more? Download the survey FAQs

POPAI’s Shopper Marketing Industry Council (SMIC), of which ShopAbility’s Norrelle Goldring is Chair, have developed a number of best practice tools and templates, including a handy ‘shopper marketing wheel’, case studies and roadmaps that are free to all delegates visiting the POPAI stand.

Delegates at the stand can also voice their opinions in the 2011 Shopper Marketing & Industry Survey. The study, a joint initiative of POPAI in partnership with  ShopAbility, will track advances in shopper marketing and category management, including case studies, since the first Australian industry benchmarking survey in 2010.

Survey participants are rewarded with a free copy of the resulting research report, valued at $495, and are invited to attend key industry leadership workshops where the research findings are discussed amongst retailers, suppliers / brands and POP agencies.

A link to the online version of the survey will also be announced in mid-May for those unable to attend Shopper Marketing Live!, according to POPAI’s General Manager, Karen Spear.

“The inaugural industry survey in 2010 led to a raft of measures for industry improvement, and the best practice tools and templates developed by POPAI’s Shopper Marketing Industry Council over the past months since the study’s completion are evidence of this,” Karen said.

“This year the online survey will be shorter, and we’ve taken our focus areas directly from industry feedback provided last year.”

Broad focus areas for the 2011 Shopper Marketing & Industry Survey include:

• Definitions
• Capability & Resources
• Insights
• Activities & Case Studies
• Digital / Online / Social
• Measurement & Effectiveness
• Impacts, Challenges & the Future

In addition to the online survey, POPAI and ShopAbility are conducting face to face interviews with interested participants willing to share case studies of shopper marketing in action (optional anonymity).

What you can do:

o   Visit the POPAI & ShopAbility stands at Shopper Marketing Live! To pick up your free tools http://www.shoppermarketinglive.com/

o   Want to know more? Download the survey FAQs at www.popai.com.au

o   Register to participate in the online or face to face or both: Email your name, company and ‘register for Shopper Marketing Survey’ to popai@popai.com.au

Walking into the Kmart store at Broadway in Sydney the first thing you observe is a far tidier store than the average mass merchant, the shelves are stacked neatly and the pallet displays are well merchandised with clear signage to help you navigate the store. As part of the repositioning, Kmart Broadway trialled 24hr/7 day trading but has since reduced the opening hours to 8am till midnight each day. Less than 24/7 but more then I would have expected.

But are the exceeding expectation with regard to price? Well if a $9 toaster, $10 fan or $49 microwave are anything to go by there has been a definite shift in pricing for average household items. Kmart have introduced a generic brand called Homemaker offering a wide range of household items. The obvious next question has to be around the quality of such cheap items and therefore the true value for money but for the average student or family looking to set up a new home or replace household items they do offer a low-cost alternative.

Another thing which is evident is the Kmart pricing strategy which sees a large proportion of the products in store being offered at round dollar prices…$5, $8, $15, $49, etc…so there is now no need for loose change.

It is important to note that the shift in perception of Kmart as a retailer driven by value is being delivered through own-brand products. Branded products or goods such as CDs, DVDs and branded toys, for which there is not a generic substitute, are not as cheap as other products in-store, and they are certainly not the cheapest in the market for these products either, but overall my perception of Kmart has definitely changed. So, if you haven’t visited a Kmart store in a while…expect change.