Category Management, Planogram and Retail Insights

The Importance of Socializing New Business Reporting Tools – Part 1

Organizations can be very good at identifying category management reporting needs, getting the required reports developed and set up for the organization to view. Where organizations tend to fall short is in the ongoing training for new and lapsed users as well as ensuring the ongoing relevance of the available reports. So, what can an organization to do to ensure that they do not fall into this trap and waste valuable time and resources? There are two key areas to consider in this process:

Ensure a solid launch

In order to gain the visibility required to break through the day-to-day work within an organization this really needs to be something that grabs the potential audience. It should speak to them about how the new tools will make their work tasks easier, take away a little bit of the pain and give them additional time to spend on more important things like developing new strategies aimed at more efficient product launches or better promotional activity.

Develop a reasonable and relevant curriculum for the intended audience. Will you be working with the executive team, marketing, finance, sales? Each of these groups has a different set of needs with respect to a reporting system and you need to recognize this in your training plan. Make the training relevant to the audience.

Include case studies or exercises. This is key to getting people into the new system and having them see its relevance to their regular tasks. Some of the most successful training that I have been a part of has included both exercises and case studies that provide the audience with something they can take back and use in their business right away. Helping someone get a head start on an annual brand or sales review is a great way to incorporate new tools and reports into the organization – plus, you get the added benefit of everyone at least starting from the same spot on a review. Don’t forget to work through these exercises yourself so that you can answer any questions that come up – you are the expert on this subject.

Plan the training time with balance of information download, exercises and (tightly scheduled) breaks. You want to keep the audience engaged in the training.

When you book the training make certain you have the right amount of time in the plan. You want to be certain that there is enough time to cover the material, with questions, for the size of the audience without dragging through things out. You will want to keep the training interesting and upbeat. Consider throwing in some quick questions throughout the training and handing out a small prize for answers – you would be surprised at how this can break the ice and get an audience more engaged.

Lastly, follow up with the new users after the training. A quick email to remind them of a time saving tip or how to use a report will help to ensure a longer retention of what they learned in the training.

Customer Care Principles at ToolBox Solutions – Part 2

Our goal is “Simplifying the Information and Merchandising Process”. Our core strength is implementing turnkey solutions to help your company gain a competitive edge. Our mission is to exceed our customer’s expectations defined by our ‘Customer Care’ program badge of honor. This is all driven by our results-oriented Services and People that will supply you with the knowledge required to build winning Category Management solutions.

Within our Customer Care team, our Account Managers are driven by the following Top 20 core principles

(see blog `Customer Care Principles at ToolBox Solutions – Part 1 for first 10):

You are frontline and therefore the face of ToolBox. To your customer, you are ToolBox. Have fun with your client but still maintain professionalism and act with integrity.
Discuss work with the client that pertains to them. Value their time.
Respect your client’s time. Be on time for meetings or phone calls. Prepare solid agendas …do not have a meeting that doesn’t have a purpose. Also, be prepared for presentations by rehearsing prior and leaving enough time for set up. Give sufficient notice if you need to cancel/reschedule.
Follow ups…do them! And make sure they are done in a timely manner. DWYSYWD – Do what you say you will do.
The Sundown rule: respond to your client prior to sundown, at least before the end of the business day.
Your client is busy. Keep emails brief, to the point and remember to do a spelling/grammar check.
Your client is not a developer. Do not get overly technical with them in any form of communication.
Show your customer they are valued, don’t assume they know it. Take a moment to tell the customer that their business is appreciated. It can go a long way!
Treat your customer like more than just a customer. Make it personal but keep it professional.
Last but not least, Internal Customer Care is as Important as External Customer Care. Respect all others within the ToolBox organization.

Customer Care Principles at ToolBox Solutions – Part 1

Our goal is “Simplifying the Information and Merchandising Process”. Our core strength is implementing turnkey solutions to help your company gain a competitive edge. Our mission is to exceed our customer’s expectations defined by our ‘Customer Care’ program badge of honor. This is all driven by our results-oriented Services and People that will supply you with the knowledge required to build winning Category Management solutions.

Within our Customer Care team, our Account Managers are driven by the following Top 20 core principles:

You are 100% accountable for all of your client’s products. If something is not working, do what you need to do to get it fixed. Do not blame others/other departments. Get it done.
“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply. Instead, always think of what more can be done to make it better.
The Golden Rule: Exceed Customer Expectations Every day. If you did it once, don’t stop, repeat it in each customer experience as much as possible.
Attitude is extremely important as it will reflect on your customer. Have a POSITIVE and FUN attitude. ToolBox will teach you how to do your job but the attitude you bring to the job is up to you.
Never say ‘No’. If you absolutely have no choice but to say no, then turn it into a ‘wow moment’ i.e. At Disney, if a child waits in line for a ride only to find he is not tall enough, he is presented with a certificate that allows him and his family to go immediately to the front of the line for another ride where he is tall enough.
Size doesn’t matter…whether big or small, make your customer feel like they are your #1 customer.
Get to know as many people as you can in your account so you can provide assistance to all. Make yourself visible.
Know what initiatives your customer intends to take and the extent to which you can be involved. Know their business plans so you can help.
Use “common sense” with any form of communication whether written or verbal.
Common courtesy would be to advise your clients in advance of your vacation or extended time out of the office especially those you speak with frequently. Don’t let them find out from your phone message that you are off for March break.

See `Customer Care Principles at ToolBox Solutions – Part 2` for more!…

Planogram Scorecard

A Planogram Scorecard is a tool many retailers are using to facilitate the implementation of short and long-terms planogram goals and strategies through a mechanism of measurement during the Planogram Development Process. Depending on the retailer, the Planogram Scorecard tracks process efficiencies, financial and nonfinancial drivers of each business unit that will go through a major or minor change in their merchandising strategy.

The key benefits of having a Planogram scorecard is to understand and have visibility to the key milestones of the planogram process, to understand the roles and responsibilities of each supporting group that will contribute to the success of the planogram implementation at retail. The collaborating teams are made up of Category Manager or Retail Buyer, Planogram counterpart, Vendor Advisors, Supply Chain, Pricing Analyst, Store Specialist and other support teams depending on the corporation.

Below is an example of the first phases of a 16 week Planogram Scorecard outlining the key milestones for a Domestic business, e.g Cookies category.

Seasonal businesses that rely on Off Shore sourcing may use between a 40-52 week scorecard process to accommodate longer lead times by their supplier(s).

The scorecard milestones are tracked updated and require follow up if issue(s) have been identified by the process owner. The ultimate goal is to have an on time delivery of inventory before the planogram is released to stores. Any delay or issue identified in the process is tracked through colour codes.

GREEN STATUS is used when a milestone has been completed 100% by the task owner(s).

YELLOW STATUS is used when a milestone has not been completed 100% by the task owner(s). Action plan(s) must be agreed to by all stakeholders to get the planogram release back on track.

RED STATUS is used when a number of key milestone(s) has not been completed 100% and could result in a delay of the planogram release to the stores. When a red flag has been communicated to all teams, this could result in delaying the release until all key milestones have been achieved, or depending on the organization, cancel the entire planogram release to avoid poor implementation at store level.

A consistent plan, visible to and shared by everyone involved in the process leading to a more efficient process and successful planogram execution.

Leveraging Planogram Data for Sales Growth

By pairing sales data analysis with planogram information a category manager can have greater insight on how to grow sales within their category. Here are 3 simple questions a category manager can ask and get answers to with the additional insight provided by including planogram data as part of their analysis.

Are the top selling items in the category planogrammed in all stores?
Are all stores selling the top items that are planogrammed?
Are the lower performing items that should be discontinued occupying placements on planograms?

By taking the results from the ToolBox Planogram Crosstab by Item report for your category, you can further filter on just the top selling items. The result will identify how many of your stores do not have your top selling items included in your category’s planograms. Getting your top selling items planogrammed and assigned to more stores will provide your first opportunity for greater category growth.

Once you have your top selling items planogrammed and implemented in the greatest number of stores, your next opportunity can be found by using the ToolBox Stores Not Selling report. A great little feature of this report is the integration of planogram data. Included in the report is a simple flag for reporting only on those items that are planogrammed. Here you have a view of the stores that have planograms in their stores containing those top selling items, and yet, not selling. As well the report provides the dollar opportunity available if these stores gain sales on these items. With the inventory levels included also for you there can be quick gains just by getting these products back on the shelf.

The answer to the third question can provide further opportunities for growth. We gain this insight by using the ToolBox Planogram Crosstab by Item report as well. For this type of insight you can filter on just the lowest selling items. Comparing these de-list candidates against the number of stores assigned planograms with these items can identify where shelf space could be optimized sales growth.

ToolBox recognizes the added value of including planogram data in its reporting solutions enabling our clients to leverage such insight for sales growth.

Brand Profiling with Advantage Loyalty

One of the advantages to the data collected by retailers’ loyalty programs for manufacturers is the ability to understand who purchases their brands and what the shopping missions are for those who purchased the products.

Any brand manager would want to know the demographics of who is purchasing their brands. This is easy to accomplish with the Who Buys report in ToolBox Solutions’ Advantage Loyalty solution. The Who Buys report is a profiling report by demographics and shopping behaviour that lets users see the unique appeal of a brand versus competitors. It can also highlight opportunities in the category for line extensions or new brand launches if a demographic is underserved. Did a marketing campaign or line extension connected with the expected target audience? The Who Buys report can easily answer that.

A brand manager should also understand the characteristics of who is purchasing their products and what need state they are in when making a shopping trip. Basket analysis can answer that by analyzing what else is being purchased with a brand and comparing that against the average basket to create a significance index. The more likely that product is likely to be purchased with a brand versus the average basket, the greater the significance index. The lifestyle that the shoppers lead can be ascertained. Purchases of isotonics and protein can allude to a fitness heavy lifestyle. Shopping missions for diet supplements and artificial sweeteners can signify consumers looking to diet or improve their lifestyle. These insights can be useful for marketing and promotional opportunities.

Lastly, the Cross Shop report can identify the power of the brand and what the true competition of the brand is. It tracks the buyer of each brand over a time period and identifies what else they purchased at any time during that period. A brand’s power can be ascertained by the exclusivity that shoppers have for the brand. The higher the exclusivity, the greater the argument for keeping our products into lower planogram sizes and the greater the argument for innovation to be listed. This gives a very good indication as to a brand’s competition is for its consumers. It is clear that the brand posing the largest competitive threat to a brand is the one where the interaction between the two is greatest.

Who Buys, What Else Did My Customer Buy, and the Cross Shop report are three key reports in Advantage Loyalty to profile a brand and gain insight to increase a brand’s market share.

Protecting Your Data with Single Sign-On

In today’s world security breaches seem to be everywhere. LinkedIn had 6.5 million member passwords compromised. Sony’s PlayStation Network had a breach of 77 million user accounts and was forced to take down their network for over a week to improve their security. Phishing and risk of identity theft of banking accounts are commonplace. The impact of a breach to your brand or company can be detrimental.

If your IT department isn’t forcing down policies to help protect you, they should be. You need strong passwords. You need to understand that user accounts and passwords should not be shared. Your passwords should rotate on a regular basis and not be repeated within a specified interval. These steps all help reduce the risk of exposure by making it harder for an attacker to get your password or limit the amount of time that your credentials might be exposed.

Implementing a single sign-on technology like SAML 2.0 can help reduce identity and password threats. Single sign-on is a concept that reduces the number of logins and passwords that you need down to only one login and password for each system that participates in the single sign-on. The user accounts and access permissions are controlled and stored within your organization in an identity provider. The systems participating in single sign-on are connected and trusted service providers that exchange secure encrypted tokens containing the validated access permissions. Your password stays secure because it doesn’t flow out from the security system to any of the remote systems.

Users can save time and effort because they don’t have to struggle to remember or lookup their password. In the event that a user needs to be disabled, your IT department can shut off access to all the systems participating in the single sign-on at the same time. This can actually provide a lower IT cost from reducing the number of passwords reset requests to the help desk since you only have one set of login and password. This can also reduce the threat of a phishing attack too, as there is only one login page that is familiar.

Single sign-on has some great benefits. ToolBox Solutions can integrate with your identity management system to help improve security, reduce the number of passwords, reduce the risk of phishing attacks, and lower support costs.

Planogram Compliance

Type in Planogram Compliance into any internet search engine and roughly 49,700 responses is what you’ll have returned to you in less than one second. From software to in person field auditing the options are endless and varied. This only highlights the importance and concern that planogram compliances poses for every retailer and manufacturer within the CPG industry.

Manufacturers spend thousands and thousands of dollars, and years and years of time launching new products, presenting them to retailers, getting products listed and promoting them once launched. Once launched all their hard work can quickly be undone by poor planogram compliance. Retailers and manufacturers realize the importance of compliance and have started to push this as a major initiative at store level.

There are several steps and questions that need to be addressed to ensure planogram compliance:

Does the warehouse have supply and have all stores received distributions of new items?
Are all discontinued skus out? Have they been price reduced at shelf to expedite clearance?
Does planogram match listing base for store?
Is there proper facings supporting appropriate shelf holding power?
Is new listing base uploaded into store ordering system?
Do we have digital images for all skus?

The last point has gone a long way to solving planogram compliance as the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true even in merchandising. Fully imaged planograms sent to stores and street selling forces has had a large impact on closing the gap on planogram compliance. Having the ability to see the products and shelf sets as they appear in real life will definitely ensure that planograms are being executed correctly. Which would you rather setup at store level? Here’s an example of a planogram that is fully imaged and non-imaged, which would you rather setup in store?

Planogram

Not only does it help with compliance the time to complete the planogram setup is cut which adds to the efficiency of the planogram and the store.
The costs to assist in planogram compliance is not out of this world anymore and can quickly be recovered from capturing lost sales that would have resulted if the planograms were not executed correctly. A store manager/field representative armed with a tablet computer can quickly walk the store, view fully imaged planograms, send images back to head office and pull reports highlighting new product launches to ensure the product has hit the shelves at the proper time.

Mobile App Planogram

Retailers that can close the gap on planogram compliance will not only be more successful they will also be the retailer manufacturers want to partner with on their new innovation launches. Having the ability to prove to the manufacturers that a planogram has been executed correctly at store level will go a long way to ensuring that both the retailer and manufacturer continue to win at shelf.

Efficient Planograms

Planograms are visual merchandising aids provided to stores from the Corporate Office for the most part which communicates an approved merchandising strategy for a particular category.

Planograms may be created by a number of sources including CPG Partners, an in-house planogram group or outsourced to a 3^rd party specializing in analytics, merchandising and execution. In-Store merchandising is so critical that some large CPG’s employ teams of field reps numbering into the hundreds to ensure proper execution at store level.

Effective planograms utilize art & science to create an image that is visually appealing to consumers and backed up with analytics to grow the bottom line. An effective planogram will grow sales and profit because it contains the optimal assortment, proper sku layout, maximizes available space, controls inventory and allocates the proper space to an item/sub category to minimize out of stocks.

One of the most important qualities of an efficient planogram is that it is executable at Store level. Headquarters cannot reasonably expect the stores to support the process if the stores are not properly being supported throughout the process. Stores have needs and some of the key needs are

Advance Notice of an upcoming planogram release
Exit Strategy for discontinued items
Confirmation of review completion with a planogram release date
Fixture requirements for the upcoming release and contact info if fixtures are required
Expected Completion date
Planogram executes as designed
Auto Distribution of new items week prior to release

In summary, an efficient planogram design supported with retail analytics during the review process that has focused execution at store level will help you win at shelf edge.

Insight on Demand – Part 2

More and more retailers and manufacturers are looking to cloud-based solutions in order to meet the demanding needs of the business team and removing pressure from key I.T. resources. Utilizing these types of solutions enable access to insight on any device, at any time, ensuring that the key information required to make correct decisions is always nearby. These reporting solutions need to be designed to deliver answers to specific business questions, such as:

‘how do I optimize my assortment?’
‘are my promotions efficient?’
‘do I have the right inventory at shelf edge to please my customers?’
‘how can I increase my transaction counts, customer counts and market share?’
‘was the launch of my new product a success?’

Once a question is known, it is possible to tailor a report to not only provide the correct answer, but also to deliver enough flexibility to enable true insight to the problem. It is imperative to find the balance between providing too much information and not enough, too much flexibility and a rigid response. We are problem solvers and simply need the correct tools to drive success.

Our expectations have started to evolve. We have become a generation of consumers of information, we have moved away from gathering and searching for the next piece of valuable data. We expect it to be delivered to us based on our preferences, our needs and our objectives. Social and personal solutions have raised the bar and we need to meet these new expectations within our daily work life. This has made it imperative that business solutions provide alerts and configured dashboards to ensure accurate insight delivery in a rapidly moving world. We need to be able to find answers at the touch of a button, share information to relevant colleagues easily and we have demands that this is achievable in one screen.

The recommendation.

Solutions leveraging cloud-based functionality, delivering tailored flexible insight and alerts to a user specific interface, updated and available when required for my role in the business.

How can we meet the needs of our customers, if they can react more quickly and intelligently than we can? Companies that embrace a new generation of technology will finally enable their users to win in an extremely competitive landscape by planning pro-actively instead of reacting when it’s too late.

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