Page 55 - RetailWorld-May2021-Tobacco-Updated

into increasingly complex analysis and forecasting has occurred without adequate upskilling or needs analysis. One of the biggest issues is that marketing people are expected to know all about ‘shopper’ when it currently isn’t even on the radar of most traditional marketing schools and training grounds, leaving a big knowledge gap that can be responsible for the ‘roadblocks’ the sales department complains about. Further, where does this ‘new budget’ come from for all this ‘new’ shopper work? Usually from existing marketing budgets. And how is that usually received? I’ll give you three guesses! New initiatives need to be funded from across the business, as with any new strategic venture, and some areas may make a larger contribution than others, but this should be based on something more than a subjective view of where the dollars are taken from. When reviewing internal alignment, it helps to conduct a thorough, supportive (non- threatening) skills assessment of the relevant staff. What to consider when undertaking skills assessments: • What are the current outputs and deliverables by silo? • What are the duplications and unnecessary outputs? • Where to reallocate responsibilities if necessary? • How do I identify best practice for my business? This will depend also on how ‘best practice’ I want to be. One MD I worked with had the view that each year you ‘removed’ half the internal comms that rattled around the office, purely to focus on ‘what we needed versus what we wanted’ (and it does save costs). Training Roadblocks to internal alignment and getting things done among multiple silo functions are often about people feeling threatened – because they’re supposed to know something they don’t (because nobody has advised them or trained them for such a role), so they stick to what they know, to feel comfortable and appear competent. This ultimately holds the company back. Tailored approaches are needed for each team, and the personalities within the team, to harness the potential for alignment. What to consider when conducting team training: • Clearly assess current company and individual skill capabilities and competencies – where are my gaps? • Use a template or roadmap for training that ensures a consistent flow and sequence of subject matter. • Match the required skills to the role, job description and review process. • Train the knowledge and skill gaps, rather than everything. Culture Culture, for the purposes of this article, can be defined as ‘how the members of a company experience it’. Often, in FMCGs with alignment issues, that experience can be fraught with turf wars, impenetrable alliances and the careful navigation of internal politics before any single initiative gets off the ground. If the coffee machine had ears! This internal friction and disagreement, in turn, result in all those good ideas and strategies sitting on a shelf or being dumped in the too-hard basket. What to consider for improving your alignment through culture: • Co-locate functions that need to work better together. The classic example is sales and marketing. As exampled above, some of the better integrated companies have put sales, marketing and category all on the one floor in an open space. They must talk and understand the issues other roles must contend with. • Musical chairs. It’s an oldie but a goodie: ask people to step into others’ roles for a day (‘walk a mile in the other man’s shoes’) to gain better understanding. A really important one is to get the marketing people out in field. Get them to see how their brands are brought to life (or not) in the in-store environment, and how their brands are being sold by the sales team to retail customers. If marketing staff aren’t out in field at least once a month, they risk being ivory tower theorists. • Ensure that marketing co-presents that all-important new line to the retail customer, not just to get feedback on their creation, but also to start to understand what, when and if their earth-shattering new line will actually get the acceptance and subsequent shelf space that was expected. If not, what went wrong? If accepted, how can I use those lessons to make sure the next new line I submit is just as successful? • Similarly, ask sales people to deliver their thoughts on the long-term brand building strategy (three to five years). And so on. The point here is that the company must invest in enough ‘downtime’ to allow staff to do this – ie, it needs to be seen as valuable time spent. • Assign an account sales problem to another area of the business for a ‘blue sky’ solution. This forces research and understanding of the other functions’ issues and solution frameworks, and the only place to get the answers is from the people who currently perform the role. Again, they must talk and understand the issues other roles must contend with. You may well be surprised with the result. • Develop cross-functional teams to produce and filter ideas and initiatives. Many companies use this approach for their NPD pipeline, so why wouldn’t it work in other areas? You need to watch that you don’t strangle progress through bureaucracy, but the principle is worth either discussion or a trial, as the end result is clearly worth the investment. Category vision An interesting question to ask a round table of 10 of your most senior executives drawn from across your business: • What is our category vision and what are the key elements I would expect to see when I’m shopping in-store? Most companies would generate certainly more than six, and up to 10, different answers to this question. Why? In most instances there isn’t a single aligned company approach that’s been developed across the different silos, so each is subtly and without intent working against the other. It’s critical that your company speaks with the one voice when it comes to your approach to in-store marketing. The impacts are evident to your retail customer and may just be the reason your competitor is considered the thought leader and overall category driver, regardless of market share, NPD, promotional spend or rolled up margin. The fact is that better internal alignment enables a more strategic approach to developing your categories and therefore your business, with less time navigating politics and better skilled staff with higher morale, all leading to increased sales due to a stronger end- to-end offer. CATEGORY MANAGEMENT MAY, 2021 RETAIL WORLD 53