Brand owners have to be agile and adapt to this trend. Investment and focus needs to shift from the bias of the mega store, key account management model to a more diverse one that captures growth and a larger contribution of sales coming from smaller accounts. This is harder. It requires more leg work. Many brand owners don’t have a clear focus, investment strategy, the resources or the relationships to grow the mid and lower tier outlet sales.

Without this adaptive and well engaged B2B2C model, brand owners will lose market share to competitors that have reacted faster and put this model in place.

This is a LinkedIn post originally posted in November 2020

LinkedIn Post: The end consumer shopping experience has been evolving…

I am privileged to work with many consumer brand companies. We learn constantly and I am asked what others are doing. Along with WFH practices, covid-19 brought cost reductions. Not fun, but understandable. 1 by 1 the taps had to be turned off.

In previous years, usually, budgeting was about having all the taps on & tweaking the % to get a better mix v previous year.

My point. No one should plan for 2021, by referring to 2020 budget. It’s the perfect time for a reset. Ask these questions:-

1. Which taps did we turn off first? Why? [Lowest priority].
2. Which taps did we not turn off, or turn off last? Why? [Highest priority].
3. Use 2020 experience to re-focus. Which taps should we turn back on first? When? How much? Which ones next? Build back up from there.

Some taps might not need to be turned on again. The outcome will be a better planned investment budget, more aligned to the core business than in previous years.

Feel free to agree or disagree below. . .

Good luck & stay safe!

This is a LinkedIn post originally posted in October 2020

Linkedin Post – Oct 20 – Q4 Budget Planning

I remember in my University days in England, that Sales and Marketing was all about the 5P’s. That soon became 7P’s and I am guessing someone somewhere is currently developing the 20P’s of Marketing. When I started my working life I was soon exposed to the need to ‘Build Brands’, then ‘Internet Marketing’ came along, followed more recently by ‘Multi Media’, ‘Social Media’ and the latest concept I hear a lot of my Marketing expert friends talk about is ‘360°Marketing”.

It seems that as time goes on and in a world where we need to stay ahead, we might be in danger of over complicating or at least being overly creative about what Sales and Marketing is all about and more importantly what we need it to achieve. I see many Agency awards for creativity, but I don’t see any Agency awards for directly growing Clients Sales or Market Share.

‘360°Marketing’ I am reliably informed is about aligning your Offline and Online, PR, Print Media, Digital Media, Multimedia and Social Media communications. I get that. Working with good Creative Agencies, you can control what Customers see and hear about your products and services. But there is a BUT! Let me ask this question. Is this 360°?

I have also learnt that the vast majority of Companies Products and Services are being sold to Customers through a Sales and Distribution Channel. That is a complex network of Distributors, Wholesalers, Dealers, Retailers and ultimately Front Line Sales personnel who might not (and usually do not) share the same passion, let alone loyalty or affinity to the Product or Service that you do and they do not need to. More importantly, these people represent your Product or Service at the most important place in any Sales process, the Point-Of-Sale, where decisions are made, Sales are earned and Market Share is won or lost. Put simply, this is where Customers buy yours or your Competitors product or Service. A plethora of research suggests that up to 70% of purchase decisions are made at the Point-of-Sale. This means that Front Line Sales have a tremendous influence over your Customers decisions. They can ‘push’ or ‘advocate’ your product, your Competitors product or in many cases no product at all.

This raises a question in my mind and leads to healthy discussions with my Business partners and Clients, usually over a coffee. How does anyone develop a 360°Marketing and Communications Strategy that does not include a direct Solution for the Sales and Distribution Channel – a place where up to 70% of Sales are won or lost?

At Renoir Avanza over the past 12 years or so, we have developed Proven, Practical and Real Sales and Distribution Channel Solutions that have a Real Top Line and Bottom Line impact! We know how to effectively influence the Sales process at the Point-Of-Sale, to ensure that ‘Advocacy’ or ‘Push’ happens. The benefits are obvious; our Clients’ Sales grow!

We “Challenge” Retail Owners and Front Liners in a fun way, to Proactively ‘Advocate/Push’ your Product or Service and tangibly measure the impact in ways most Companies did not think about before. We “Reward” this ‘Advocacy/Push’ by physically witnessing it at the Point-Of-Sale. This culminates in a new level of “Motivation” for Retail Owners and Front Liners, to ‘Merchandise’ better, ‘Advocate’ better and ‘Push’ your Product or Service to Customers, like it is their own. Our Retail Brand Advocacy Solutions, strengthen relationships and always lead to an increase in Sales!

At Renoir Avanza we don’t deal in subjectivity. The success of our Solutions are transparently measured together with our Clients. We insist on it. We work by two principles in developing our solutions, “What Gets Measured Gets Done!” and “What Gets Rewarded Get Done Well!”

We don’t do ‘360°Marketing’, or aspire to create a concept and call it ‘540°Marketing’, but we do ask our Clients if their Sales and Marketing efforts are complete if they are not doing enough Real Solutions in their Sales and Distribution Channel to maximize Sales. We still find that many Companies look at Sales and Distribution Channel Marketing as giving Seasonal Trade Discounts or taking the top 2% of Dealers on an overseas trip every year.

Finally, we have also had the privilege to hone our skills, expertise and solutions by working with many of the biggest International and National Companies and we are very grateful for these opportunities. If you have read this far into the article, I am guessing that you are interested or somewhat intrigued? So, if you would like to “Look Beyond The Obvious” and hear more about what we do, what we have done or more importantly how we can help you, please get in contact with any of our team and allow us the pleasure of buying you a coffee and having a chat. . . who knows where it might lead”.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and letting me share my thoughts with you.