The Promote Better Blog

“Every dark cloud has a silver lining.” Remember that saying? For Brand Ambassadors and for brands banking on demos as a means for driving trial of your products, it’s certainly easy to see the COVID-19 pandemic as a dark cloud. So where is the silver lining?

 

Dr. Bronner’s is an icon in the natural products industry. Founded in 1948 by Dr. Emanuel Bronner (after nearly 100 years of family soapmaking), they have been a pioneer in products, organic certification and fair trade practices, social and business integration and fair business practices, and GMO labeling. And of course, they are a certified B Corporation.

At the beginning of the unfolding COVID-19 emergency, we posted about “doubling down” on the type(s) of promotion that brands should be doing during the pandemic. As it turned out, our ideas have largely been proven correct. However, there has been some contrary - we'll even call it bad - advice going around, so we’d like to go one step further and clarify what that bad advice is, as well as what brands should be doing instead and why.

In the last 2-3 weeks, in-store demonstrations have become a virtually non-existent activity as grocery and food retailers across the country scramble to serve shoppers preparing for extended periods of quarantine due to the COVID-19 crisis.

In our previous post, we discussed how both perception and reality are important factors to consider in formulating a strategy for how best to proceed in today’s uncertain environment. 

The Coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic is currently posing unique challenges for businesses in virtually every industry. While it’s naturally human to fear the unknown, all the facts are indicating that this is not a virus that poses an existential threat. Nevertheless, it’s sparking panic and decisions like the postponement of Expo West 2020 – a huge hit to our industry. For an emerging consumer goods brand looking to grow their business in stores, what to do? It’s an interesting question, and one for which we have a pretty clear answer.

If you’re a brand on retail store shelves, there’s a high likelihood you’re running some sort of trade promotion. The sole purpose of trade promotions is to move the brand’s products off the shelf and into the shopper’s cart. It’s the primary way that brands partner up with retailers to drive more sales to consumers.

As much as we all love technology, let’s be honest: it has invaded every part of our day. Rarely do we come across a warm, smiling voice over the phone when we need help. Even more rare are the times when our experience is so easy and positive that we sit back and take note.

Without a doubt, demo day profits are one of the most important metrics of any retail demo program – after all, you only get one chance to maximize this number! So, given the limited time for in-store demos, it’s vital to capitalize on every minute your Brand Ambassadors are in front of shoppers.

We know that designing a winning demo starts with one single factor: hiring the right Brand Ambassador. The quality of your BA can have the single most important impact to the bottom line on your investment. Therefore, you would be wise to spend some quality time preparing an interview process that will result in only GREAT brand ambassadors representing you.

Young and emerging food and beverage brands are often surprised to find that to get on store shelves, they may need to pledge a certain amount of store support in exchange for that placement. So, as part of the deal, their sales reps and brokers will promise the retail buyer a few in-store demonstrations. No big deal, right?

A peek “Behind the Scenes” of our new look and feel. WOW. Version 3 looks completely different! I LOVE IT!

Introducing Promomash Version 3. What did we do, and why did we do it?

Remember the old saying, “The early bird catches the worm”? It meant that someone who wakes up early and gets at it before everyone else will get a bigger chunk of life’s rewards. And for demo coordinators, “rewards” means actually taking all the demos that you are authorized to do, and getting them scheduled into stores. No one wants to be asked (or authorized) by management to do a bunch of demos, and then come back a month or two later and say they just couldn’t get them all set up.

But too often, that's what happens.

You are a smart, successful manager or top executive in a consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketing and sales organization. Our goal, with the Promote Better Blog, is to make you even smarter (or at least better informed), and even more successful.

Amazon announced yesterday that its shakeup of Whole Foods Market will begin this coming Monday, August 28, on its first day as the new owner. Bezos and team understand that with all eyes on them, this is their first, best, and cheapest opportunity to drive home what the new sheriff in town is all about – and as a result they announced 2 major, audacious changes to WFM. The first change confirms what everyone has suspected: Whole Foods will sell groceries via Amazon, and Amazon will deliver groceries via Whole Foods. Not merely “either”, “or”, or “both”, but something synergistically bigger than the sum of the parts. Boom. And the other audacious change is that Whole Foods’ new mission is to make healthy and organic food “affordable for everyone.” Price cuts starting Monday. Double boom. Wow, what a ride.

It’s hard to imagine a bigger, more earth-shaking move in the retail grocery world than Friday’s announcement that Amazon (AMZN) is acquiring Whole Foods Market (WFM) for 13.7B (a 25% premium over its price at the time of the announcement).

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is perhaps the most strategically brilliant businessman of our time. The main thing for the rest of us to do is figure out what he’s doing, what’s next, and how we can survive (or even prosper in the face of) this significant event.

CEOs are not dumb. You may not understand their madness right now, but with any luck and a bunch of hard work, someday you will. And one thing that will get you there faster is your demo report template.

Demos and events can often be seen as a source of frustration and wasted resources for brands and, to a lesser extent, retailers. But demos and events are also among the most productive marketing options available, for those vendors and retailers who do them well. Much can be done to improve the situation, starting with a more disciplined approach to measuring and managing demo programs.

It’s a truism because most humans respond more urgently to an active headache than to the prospect of proactively avoiding headaches by staying healthy. But that does nothing to minimize the fact that (according to Zion Market Research) over $130B of vitamins and other health supplements are sold globally every year.

The digital technology revolution has transformed marketing. Significant opportunities continue to unfold in the consumer marketing space in 2017 for executives focused on the implications of the many changes caused by the digital revolution. Consumers are responding positively and negatively to change, and both create opportunity. The most successful marketing teams will proactively embrace systems and processes that will (a) allow them to quickly and regularly utilize relevant data, both tactically and strategically; and (b) assist them in developing their marketing outreach to result in richer, more authentic, more loyal relationships with consumers.