Get Ready for the Reset! Brand Proportion Distortion
March 8, 2010 by Newsfeed Editor
This week, I blogged about how rationalization at retail is affecting the licensing community and brand owners/licensors in particular. Writing the post, I was reminded of how retailer and supplier brand portfolios are expanding and contracting as an outcome of rationalization and how this is changing the game for retail marketing service organizations.
A funny thing has happened as retailers “optimize” their brand portfolios and cut back on the number of brands that they carry – the brands that remain look larger than life, even as the actual number of products gets reduced through SKU rationalization. Taking in the vast brand-blocked presentations and lifestyle brand displays that are sprinkled liberally throughout a given store, it doesn’t take long for visions of continuity programs to start dancing in your head . . . but who has the most skin in the game to ensure that these brands succeed? The changing answers to that question will point you to your best customers and the bigger their portfolios, the bigger your opportunities!
I’ll be taking on the impact of rationalization on brand ownership and other retail realities that are rocking the world of retail in my presentation at the NARMS Spring Conference. I’ll see you at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 19th!
(Carol Spieckerman of newmarketbuilders is a guest blogger and is on the agenda for NARMS Spring Conference, April 17-20, Saddlebrook Resort, Tampa, FL.)
SKU rationalization is not a one-time event. Retailers need the ability to quickly know what SKUs are selling, which attributes are selling and where they are making money. This SKU maintenance is KEY to having good sales and efficient capital utilization. These are two key metrics that define the survival of a retailer.
-Jeff