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TACTICS FOR FAST-TRACKING POST-COVID GROWTH It’s not just the property market that’s taken off, but also businesses wanting to speed up growth as we move out of the Covid mindset. By Poplever Director Debbie Schubert. I n an abundance of collaborative meetings between retailers and suppliers over the past few months, the focus has been on fast-tracking activations that excite the shopper to buy more. The aim is to ensure strong base growth as well as getting behind emerging new better- for-you segments, or all we’re doing is filling up the bucket that has a hole in it. This means the discussions are wide-ranging, including how to drive shoppers to buy more core heartland products, and how to channel shoppers into trading up into premium and higher margin goods, among other imperatives. In the convenience channel, we’re noting more bundle deals linking food and beverage. One helps the other, driving basket size and influencing shoppers to trade up into high margin areas by incorporating fresh food. We’re also noting more account- specific activations as the retailers work with the suppliers on value adds for their customers. This triggers the age-old issue internally for suppliers: marketing teams focus on building brand equity, using traditional media sources and on-pack callouts, which work well for the brand, but when these are market-wide, such as an on-pack promotion, they lack the ‘wow’ factor for the retailers. What many brands forget is that category buyers need to pitch their category offers against other categories internally. It’s the best cross- category offer that wins. If you’re targeting off-location space, you need to reflect on the fact that promotional space is limited and critical to the growth of the retailer for a specific period. You aren’t just competing with your category, but every category in the store. When the retailer has to choose from the activations offered by suppliers, they’re leaning towards activations that single them out as special, making them the destination, not the brand. This has led to an increase in account- specific activation in convenience. We’re noting an increase in the market of ‘gift with purchase’ items. The benefits of this, if you can get the ROI right, are that you can reduce the in-store deal and reward the shopper with a value item that makes the multi- buy worth paying more for. In the first quarter this year, most of the major convenience stores have had offers on their billboards tempting the shopper to buy in-store when they top up their fuel. A wide range of offers has included bonus cups with the purchase of two Cokes at Caltex, a beach bat set with two Dare iced coffees at UCB stores, PopSockets at Coles Express, and trainer cricket balls at BP, among many others. Do they work? The answer is a resounding yes, but this comes with watch-outs. They must be the right offer, something a shopper wants. They must offer real value, not something that breaks on first use, becoming landfill. They must be an authentic offer that makes a shopper smile and think, ‘I want that!’. Planning for a gift-with-purchase activation is not for the faint-hearted. They must be bought at the right price, which takes planning and long lead times. Timing needs to be locked in with the category buyers six months in advance and work with what else they have going in the market. I was asked the other day whether gift with purchase had replaced consumer promotions. Interestingly, over the past quarter, we’re also noting a big increase coming from the smaller P&C groups for consumer promotions. In Queensland’s convenience independents, the prize pools that excite are those focusing on the ‘glamping’ experience and the great outdoors. Ringing up a winner in this region is an absolute delight as you get to witness a real customer’s excitement and feel the thrill of the win. Again, it comes down to getting the right prize or gift with purchase for the retailer’s customer and understanding what item will trigger a multiple purchase that will lift sales. As salespeople know, nothing happens until someone buys something. The takeout here for teams building plans for post-Covid growth are to build them around your retailer’s customer base rather than just the brand launch activity. Work with them, understand their customers when building up plans, and work towards a win-win with growth and margin accretive activation for both sides of the fence. SHOPPER MARKETING About Debbie Schubert Debbie is the Director and founder of Poplever shopper marketing agency, established in 2016. She is a shopper marketing and retail strategy expert working on client side as well as agency in FMCG shopper marketing and sales. She worked with large multinationals and start-ups including Snack Brands Australia, Lion Dairy, PepsiCo, Nestlé, SC Johnson, and RB. She has an intricate knowledge of the Australian FMCG retail landscape. She was chair of POPAI (Shop!) for four years. MAR/APR, 2021 CONVENIENCE WORLD 27