Page 54 - RetailWorld-May2021-Tobacco-Updated

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT SAME STORY... SO DON’T EXPECT A DIFFERENT ANSWER Better internal alignment enables a more strategic approach to developing your categories and therefore your business, leading to increased sales from a stronger end-to-end offer. IBy ShopAbility Directors Peter Huskins and John Day. t may not be new, but it’s still one of the biggest factors holding back FMCG suppliers from achieving business potential: a lack of internal alignment among marketing, sales, category and field teams. How to get these silo functions ‘singing from the same hymn book’ is a conundrum and a never-ending challenge for many FMCG companies, or any sales focused company for that matter, and is the focus of this article. The kind of comments we frequently hear when talking to industry contacts include: • The marketing team is a roadblock. They don’t get in-store. They don’t understand what the retailer wants, the trading terms and the implications, or how a store operates. • We’ve developed the product. Now it’s over to you sales guys to sell it in. • The sales team only care about achieving short-term sales targets. They don’t get the bigger brand and product positioning story, or the personality of our brand. • This is the first joint planning meeting we’ve had with marketing in more than two years. Category and field teams don’t feel as if they’re understood by either, as they’re usually the ones at the bottom of the pile. The old saying that ‘crap runs downhill’ has never been more relevant for many companies. (Go on, have a look in the mirror and deny it!) The ability or inability to execute at store level can be severely hampered by poor planning, poor communication and inexperienced expectation. But the biggest issue while all this internal squabbling is going on is: • Who’s looking after the shopper? The shopper makes the buying decision at shelf and is the last person we have an opportunity to ‘talk to’ before an item is put into a basket – hopefully, our item. The shopper may not necessarily be the consumer. Think pet food, kids’ cereal, fem hygiene, men’s deodorant, hot and cold beverages, vitamins and supplements... the list goes on. So, how is this VIP usually recognised in our internal structures, processes, procedures and, most importantly, accountabilities? Marketing is usually focused on the consumer, and sales on the customer/retailer. The traditional trade marketing role is intended to own the shopper but is usually the buck-stops- here point of contact for all sorts of other loosely aligned reporting and tactical initiatives, which leaves little time to think strategically about our shopper response. There might be an embryonic ‘shopper insights’ department headed up by a person who has had to shift from consumer insights, brand marketing or even sales, with no additional training from the company. But there’s no one to direct shopper strategy or implement shopper-focused initiatives, apart from trade presenters, perhaps, and they usually focus on sell-ins or on stand placement. So, what to do? Consider structure optimisation It could be that your traditional teams and their reporting structures are no longer effective for your changing needs, or those of your retail customer or of your shoppers. For example, some leading FMCGs have created ‘shopper’, a department on the same structural and reporting level as marketing and sales, reporting to the GM or MD. Another example is implementing category teams populated by the relevant marketing, shopper and sales team members. These examples: • Ensure that shoppers as well as consumers are considered in the strategic decision-making process. • Create a bridge between marketing and sales (including field teams), thereby improving alignment. • Ensure a clear focus on the in-store element of the path to purchase. These are examples of how to restructure to refocus – not for the sake of it, but to change your business approach to include the shopper in all strategic decisions. The most important factor is the true function each team is currently performing, whether it’s the optimum function for the business, as well as what, at a higher level, needs to be achieved and therefore how the business should be structured to support this objective. What to consider when looking at optimising your structure: • How/where is your current business structured to include the shopper? Who currently owns it? Has it settled into a department where it’s treated as irrelevant, and will therefore never get the clean air that the shopper deserves? • Look to the future! How do you want to treat the shopper? You could argue that a purely production line manufacturer should be more focused on consumer trends, for example, and therefore doesn’t require a separate shopper function. But rather than ignore it, the question I would ask is: how much do I really need to understand about shopper behaviour to have the best chance of shelf sales acceleration? Even if I don’t own the brand? (But remembering that I live and die by the sales volume!) • Assess the overall internal alignment of the different silos. Who does what by when, etc, as process and role creep occur in any business? The larger it is, the more prevalent it is. • Compare roles across the business to identify insight gaps. What do I spend my money on? Where and how is it used? What questions are my retail customers asking me that I can’t answer? What are they asking that they can’t answer? Skills assessment Have you changed people’s roles, titles and expectations without considering their skill sets? This can become a major source of stress to both company and team members. Illustrating this are the new ‘shopper insights’ roles that have miraculously appeared without adequate training being provided to support the new roles. Similarly, the growth of trade marketing 52 RETAIL WORLD MAY, 2021