Shifting The Balance Of Power At Retail
NEAT! organized its retail leverage strategy around airport kiosks. They built a base of success in airports. Their first retailer was their own channel. They believe this gave them their best chance to succeed. Today, Neat’s products are found on the shelves of the largest Office Superstore chains – Staples, Office Depot and Office Max, many regional retailers and on the websites of such behemoths as Amazon.com.
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When you start breaking down Powermat’s launch strategy, you’ll realize they are using a hybrid of retail leverage strategies. More importantly, they are doing it on a scale much more relevant to challenger brand marketers used to dealing with 7 figure budgets.
1) Offer Program or Product Exclusivity (sort of)
2) Have Something So Big “They” Can’t Ignore
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The secret 6th entry in the 5 sure-fire ways to get Retail Leverage is Price. I feel dirty even saying it.
NIKON GAINED RETAIL LEVERAGE
Nikon is a great and current example of a brand that has gained significant Retail Leverage in the last year thanks to their media campaigns featuring the ever popular Ashton Kutcher. I have nightmares of that guy dancing through my head.
Nikon gained retail leverage with something so big, it couldn’t be ignored. Couldn’t be ignored by consumers. Most definitely couldn’t be ignored by retailers. And unfortunately for the marketing and sales folks at Sony, Canon, Kodak, Fuji, Olympus and Samsung – it probably wasn’t ignored by the boss.
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We’ve come up with 5 strategies / paths / scenarios on how you get Retail Leverage. This will start a series of posts that examine each of those 5 examples.
1. “Have The Hot Product With No Substitutes”:
The Nintendo Wii example advocates channeling all of your resources into one product, especially if you have a product where there are no substitutes.
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SUMMARY:
Retail buyers hate risk.
Five approaches which establish a track record of success prior to engaging with the universe of major retailers:
1. Over-invest in Trade Shows
2. Seriously consider direct-response advertising
3. Launch exclusively with specialty/boutique retailers
4. Build a “community”
5. Launch exclusively with one major retailer
Remember, very few strategies give your challenger brand more leverage at retail than the promise of bringing your successful past to the retailer’s risk-averse present.
Five Ways To Build A Culture Geared Toward Retail Leverage:
1. Tie each corporate executive’s bonus to growth at a “pet” retailer
2. Have the sales team do some heavy lifting during National Sales Meetings.
3. Require product managers to model profit pool for their category at key retailers.
4. Shop together and learn.
5. Don’t enable the “Desktop Marketer.”
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Own something!
To state the obvious, stronger brand positions, or leverage vis-à-vis the retailer, means having a strong degree of consumer PULL. Retailers come to you and want your product, when customers come in droves to their well-lit, organized boxes asking for your product…by brand name. Even if your national brand position is small, your consumer pull should be strong in some way shape or form. OWN SOMETHING…or perhaps more correctly….OWN SOMEONE.
