Episode 1: How Product Placement Can Make Or Break Your Sales
Welcome to the first entry of our mini-series “5 Aspects of Retail Execution That Can Hurt Your Business”. Today we will go over various aspects of product placement. Stay tuned for more articles!
A lot of work and planning goes into generating successful sales. Starting from marketing and advertising, all the way down to store-level execution. So, let’s say you have prepared your strategy down to the last detail to ensure your brand’s success, and yet you are still registering disappointing results. Is there something going on – at store level – that is negatively affecting your product’s performance? Product placement might be one of the reasons. So let’s take a look at how it works and how it affects your business.
What is product placement?
Product placement generally refers to where your product can be found within a retail store. However, when it comes down to in-store execution, the broader concept of product placement can be broken down into three simple questions:
- In what section did the store stock your product?
- Where is it on the shelf?
- Is there any consistency of your product placement among chain stores?
Where are you stocked?
You know what your product is all about, therefore you plan to have it displayed in a specific area of the store. But is the product really in the section you planned for? The misplacement of your products can greatly hurt your brand visibility and outreach to customers.
For example, if you specialize in fresh natural juice you might plan to have your product displayed in both the produce section and soft drink aisle. But what if the store places you exclusively in the produce section? You lose half of your product visibility because only consumers browsing the fresh groceries corner will come across your product.
Where are you on the shelf?
We all know the saying “Eye level is buy level”. However, not all brands can afford the optimal spot in the store. Still, as a brand you expect your product to be where you negotiated and, possibly, paid for it to be. So what happens when your product is not on the shelf where it’s supposed to be? You guessed it. You miss an opportunity to introduce your product to potential buyers. And you might also lose loyal customers. Sometimes consumers don’t have the time to look for your product and will alternatively buy from a competitor.
Is there consistency for your product placement among store chain locations?
You are selling your product to a store chain. After determining where in the store you want your product to be displayed, it is not to assume that your product will be in the same spot at each of the store locations. Perhaps 4 out of 5 stores stock your product in one section, while the last one might place it somewhere else. So, what happens next? A consumer who is used to find your product in one specific spot, will go to a different store location and suddenly find herself confused because your product is not where it’s supposed to be. From this point on, two things can happen: the consumer is loyal to your brand and therefore goes look for your product, or decides to buy a different product. Bottom line is, the risk of either losing a loyal customer or a potential buyer is real.
Product placement is only one of the factors that can increase or hurt your sales, much more goes into retail execution that can help your brand. In the upcoming articles we will explore other aspects of retail merchandising. Stay tuned for more!