Aug 27, 2010 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 8/27/10 edition of Retail Industry News.

- A&P Hopes Newest Exec Brings Friendly Skies With Him
- Sale Sign Comes Down For Marsh Supermarkets
- Trader Joe’s: Less Is Much, Much More
- Sansolo Speaks: “Unseen Competitors”
- Costco Goes To The Mall
- Carrefour Begins Rolling Out New Hypermarket Format
- The Role Of Authenticity In Defining Wellness
- FastNewsBeat
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

Webinar Series Reaches Two Year Anniversary

The month of August marked the two year anniversary of the NARMS Webinar Series. Over that span of time, 42 installments have brought value to the members of the at-retail merchandising and marketing services community under the NARMS-U educational platform. And what might be even more exciting is the future of this popular communication vehicle as programming is now complete for the balance of the year. The industry has also enjoyed tremendous support as associate member Natural Insight has generously sponsored the series and associate member ReadyTalk has provided their leading technology to bring the events to you.

The popularity of the NARMS Webinar Series is evident by the number of individuals and companies who consistently take advantage of this tremendous benefit of membership. There are many stories of entire conference rooms full of our members and their staff using each session as a part of their corporate training and team building. The leaders of each session are among the top people in their field and bring expert insight to the topic at hand. This has proven to be a great way to extend the life and messages of our annual Spring Conferences and also to preview the next annual industry get together.

For those who have not taken advantage of this information rich resource, here is a quick primer. All you have to do is simply register for the event via the email notification, or go directly to www.narms.com and click the webinar tab. You will be sent a confirmation email that will give you a link to the computer screen portion and a phone number and code for the audio portion. Because many of our attendees are traveling, the audience will be muted with only the speaker and host, NARMS Vice President Ken McKenzie, audible. This helps keep the background noise to a minimum. For most presentations, a chat feature will be opened later in the one-hour format to allow for you to key in questions. All those who register receive a follow-up email containing a sound file of the webinar and all related material including the slides used by the presenter and any other written materials in an electronic format. Anybody who registers receives the follow-up material, even if their schedule does not allow them to attend the session.

The next two webinar sessions are schedule for September 9 (Jerry O’Brien – The Values Based Retailer) and September 21(Scot Maurath – NARMScertifyU). The NARMS Webinar Series is complimentary to NARMS members as a membership service but is also made available to other interested persons at a non-member rate of $99.95. We encourage you to share this invitation with other co-workers and anyone else who might gain value from this information-sharing opportunity. You will want to tune-in and experience first-hand the benefits and evolution of this multi-faceted and valuable presentation.

Times & Trends Report Looks at Channel Migration

Over the history of this column, we have occasionally previewed the findings of SymphonyIRI Group, Inc. and their monthly Times & Trends Reports. Their August 2010 edition examines the shopper channel strategy in terms of how many different channels consumers are shopping, how many trips they are making and what they are spending per trip and by department. It is important to keep our fingers on the pulse of these trends as the at-retail initiatives of CPG brand marketers and retailers are surely affected by them.

We know that consumers are continuing to seek money saving strategies in their shopping practices. According to SymphonyIRI, shopping in multiple channels to find the best deals on everyday CPG needs has been embraced by many, especially after fuel prices dropped. Three quarters of consumers shop at five or more channels for their CPG needs. However, a significant segment is starting to cut down on channels as 24% shop at five or less channels, a two percent increase from 2008.

Supercenters seem to be the big winner when it comes to shopper penetration. SymphonyIRI reports that nearly 70% of shoppers make CPG purchases in supercenters, an increase of 1.9 points over the past year. Supercenter shoppers seem to be migrating most heavily from the club, grocery and drug channels. Dollar stores are also gaining shoppers, mostly at the cost of club and mass merchandisers.

SymphonyIRI also reports on the drastic shift in consumer shopping trip behavior. Early in 2008, gas prices spiked and the number of consumer shopping trips dropped while basket sizes grew. Trip frequency recovered as gas prices eased and basket sizes went down in 2009 as consumers made more frequent and less productive shopping trips. Now it appears the frequency of trips is on a slow decline while basket sizes are still continuing to fall.

This is just a summary of the major themes covered in the SymphonyIRI August 2010 Times & Trends Report. To fully absorb and embrace the information, you should download and read the report in its entirety. It is a quick read and offers extensive data and insight as to what consumers are doing and where they are doing it.

Father of Category Management to Lead Webinar - Retail Marketing: The Next Wave

We know that, as the result of the economy, shopper perspective and behavior has gone though some dramatic changes. Even though it appears we are on the road to a slow recovery, those changes in consumer behavior are expected to remain, creating a new normal. To be successful in this new environment, retailers must make a major transition from merchants to marketers. Join Dr. Brian Harris for the NARMS Webinar on Thursday, Aug 26 at 1:00 PM CDT as he presents, “Retail Marketing: The Next Wave.” The hour-long event, another in a series of member educational offerings by NARMS-U, is sponsored by Natural Insight and brought to you through the technology of ReadyTalk.

The retailing industry is undergoing many significant changes as it attempts to manage the new consumer. This is the next wave of retailing and it is firmly centered on a deeper understanding of the shopper and shopping behavior. The webinar will focus on how the shopper perspective has become the core component of two important industry business methods - Category Management and Shopper Marketing. These new shopper-driven tools are essential to successfully navigate the waters.

Dr. Harris is internationally recognized as a pioneer and innovative thought leader in the field of retailing and consumer products marketing. He pioneered and led the global adoption of two significant modern methods in the retailing and consumer products marketing industry — Computerized Shelf Space Management which he introduced in 1983 and Category Management in 1989.

Recognized globally as the “Father of Category Management”, Dr. Harris co-authored the U.S., European, and Brazilian ECR Category Management Best Practices Reports. He founded The Partnering Group in 1990 to develop and implement his business methods, including Category Management; later implementing his business methods in leading retailers, wholesalers, and consumer goods product manufacturers in over 25 countries on six continents. He continues to lead the development of industry next wave including the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing efforts on Best Practices for Collaborative Shopper Marketing.

The session is complimentary to NARMS members as a membership service but is also made available to other interested persons at a non-member rate of $99.95. We encourage you to share this invitation with other co-workers and anyone else who might gain value from this information-sharing opportunity. You can register by clicking here.

Aug 20, 2010 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 8/20/10 edition of Retail Industry News.

- Stater Bros. Focus On Education “Goes Beyond”
- Kroger Doubles Private Brand HBC Range
- Walgreens Brings Taste Of Duane Reade Past The Hudson River
- Sansolo Speaks: “Both Sides Now…And Quickly”
- Marketing To The “Of The Moment” Generation
- Walmart Looks To Future As It Retools Its Merchandising Approach
- Executive Suite: More Moves By A&P
- Fresh & Easy Targets Early 2011 Northern California Openings
- New Study Has Different Take On Back-To-School Shopping
- FastNewsBeat
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

NARMScertifyU Course Trains Eyes and Ears Too

Certainly the members of NARMS provide arms and legs to help retailers and brand marketers with professional at-retail marketing and merchandising support. But equally important is their mission to gather data and intelligence about the shopper experience at store level. Mystery Shops are a great way for trading partners to walk a mile in their customers’ shoes. NARMScertifyU, the official on-line learning center of NARMS, offers a Mystery Shopping Course that teaches the standards necessary to become a productive and successful at-retail intelligence agent.

Mystery shopping services provide valuable intelligence to executives and frontline managers who need to better understand the quality of interactions happening between their associates and their customers. The fundamentals of a mystery shop are very simple: Conduct and report the results of mock shopping experiences in order to assess and improve customer service, sales and merchandising performance.

While these fundamentals are simple to understand, actually executing them can be very challenging. It requires a deep understanding of certain fundamentals and specific skills to complete the duties successfully. Upon successful completion of this course, your field rep will develop a clear understanding of mystery shopping excellence, how to prepare for and execute an effective store visit and how to properly submit their report.

NARMScertifyU is available directly to individual field personnel at $15 per course, or in a bulk pricing package now available to allow for member companies to purchase on-line courses for their field reps at a great savings. Questions about pricing and purchasing should be directed to Scot Maurath at NARMScertifyU. His phone number is 949-472-6700 ext 1107.

There are eight courses currently offered at NARMScertifyU: Train the Trainer, Retail Visit Excellence, Merchandising Standards, Demonstrations, Event Marketing, Fixture Installation, Mystery Shopping and Team Lead Skills. The user simply selects and completes the course to earn a certificate of completion. Their NARMS Recruiter profile is automatically updated with the increased level of knowledge making them a more valuable, accessible, marketable and hirable resource.

NARMScertifyU represents a quick, easy and inexpensive option for enhanced at-retail service knowledge for both service company and individual field personnel. To learn more, visit the site here and then help spread the word of this tremendous industry building resource.

RollStream and Natural Insight Partner to Provide New Supply Chain Management and Execution Capabilities

Joint Solution Provides Faster Speed to Market with Improved Quality

MCLEAN and STERLING, VA – July 13, 2010 – RollStream Inc., the leader in enterprise community management and Natural Insight, the leading web-based platform for task management and workforce optimization, today announced a channel partnership to help large enterprises optimize their supply chain operations by improving execution management processes and boosting trading partner compliance and performance. The joint offering brings together RollStream’s community management platform with Natural Insight’s workforce platform to accelerate task plan creation, enhance in-store project execution and improve overall trading partner collaboration and compliance to drive new supply chain efficiencies.
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Promotional Considerations Include At-Retail

A recent article on the Progressive Grocer website entitled, “Five Key Considerations for Taking the Guesswork out of Promotions,” hands out some very sound advice on how to improve promotional activity and forecasting. As practitioners of at-retail marketing and merchandising services, it is only natural that NARMS members would automatically read this and begin to articulate how their services could further augment the battle to win new customers with promotions and special offers.

The first consideration is to take a holistic view of promotions. In other words, looking not only at how a promotion affects the featured product, but also those around it. NARMS members are exceedingly good at gathering at-retail data and reporting it back to brand marketers. They utilize sophisticated hardware and software and a variety of real time reporting capabilities to make this happen.

The second is to integrate promotions with overall operations. A successful promotion can greatly affect the supply chain. Out-of-Stocks and distribution voids can take a tremendous positive and turn it into a disaster. The reach and depth of consumer interaction via social networking make being prepared for the results of a promotion more important than ever. NARMS members have long been a friend in the fight against out-of-stocks.

The third is to implement a scalable system that takes into consideration the unique aspects of each location. NARMS members have field personnel who are well trained and have a broad base of experience in understanding company strategic goals and how to transmit and adapt those goals into local tactics. In fact, NARMS offers its members and their field staff an on-line training center called NARMScertifyU in order to ensure the best possible store level execution.

The fourth is to build a solid foundation of data. We have already discussed how NARMS members are well in tune with data gathering tools and methods. They have also made huge investments in information technology and systems and are fully capable of helping retailers and brand marketers add to the depth of the ever more important pool of data.

And finally the one that really hits home, which is investing in the proper resources. It is important to make sure you have the skill sets, either in-house or outsourced, to properly execute increasingly complex promotions. At-retail is a vital part of this mix and the best in-store marketing and merchandising companies in the world can be found at www.narms.com.

Aug 13, 2010 IRI/Morning NewsBeat

Below is the list of articles you will find for the week ending 8/13/10 edition of Retail Industry News.

- The Opportunity Of “Calculated Consumption”
- Raley’s To Convert One Of Its Stores To Discount Format
- Meijer Makes Room For The New
- Publix Takes Second Shot At E-Grocery Business
- Casey’s Completes Private Placement
- Food Deserts Issue In Chicago Gets Addressed By…Walgreen
- FastNewsBeat
- The MNB Wal-Mart Watch
- Executive Suite

Click here to read Retail Industry News

August 15, 2010 My NARMS

In this issue:

- NARMScertifyU
- Member Program - Staples Advantage

Read the newsletter