Dan Raftery is a management and research consultant with a depth of experience involving Efficient Consumer Response, Category Management, Direct Product Profitability, Activity Based Costing and Frequent Shopper Program Development. With early career experience in supermarket retail operations, Raftery went on to consult with Willard Bishop Consulting, Ltd. before founding Prime Consulting Group and more recently launching Raftery Resource Network.

NARMS’ nearly 400 member companies perform well over $3 billion in merchandising services, sales marketing, event marketing, demonstration and other retail services annually. The international trade association serves as a “central gathering point” for the retailing industry; promoting and establishing industry standards; providing critical industry research studies and educational information about the industry while acting as a voice for its diverse membership of service providers, manufacturers, retailers, and associates. NARMS represents all classes of trade including: grocery, drug, mass, department, home and building centers, computer and office supply, electronic, value retailers, specialty, and convenience retailers.

The varied educational offerings supporting improvement and excellence in retailing practices are all part of NARMS – U, the educational arm of NARMS International, and include continuing education under the banner of www.NARMScertifyU.com. Additional NARMS information is available at www.narms.com, including details about the 16th NARMS Spring Conference & Exposition at Portola Plaza Hotel, Monterey, CA on April 9-12, 2011.

Contact:
Ken McKenzie
Vice President
National Association for Retail Marketing Services
2417 Post Road
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Phone: 1 888 526-2767
FAX: 1 715 342 1943
kmckenzie@narms.com

Retailers are pulling back on some recent initiatives that were designed to enhance efficiency, but in the end pushed shoppers away. Hauptman uses Walmart as an example, citing temporary price reductions, Project Impact assortment reduction and reducing aisle displays as failed experiments that the retailer is now reversing. This recent Walmart experience is an example of a company reverting to a clear, appealing shopper value equation. In other words, they are getting back to the things that made them successful in the first place.

Why does this happen? Hauptman says many retailers try to be all things to all people rather than identifying what they are going to stand for and taking a leadership position. Another factor is not being able to keep up with the latest shopper needs. Success is some areas and categories have lulled some retailers to sleep as their own success made them blind to the fact that competitors had caught up and surpassed them. Still another factor is not being able to see new competition such as Dollar and Drug chains offering food items.

Competitive Edge says that building a successful shopper equation requires a retailer to define key elements of its value proposition and then establish and implement strategy that makes them the clear and undisputed market leader in at least two of the elements.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. Headquarter strategy often falls short at the point of at-retail execution. That is precisely where partnering with NARMS members can help retailers and suppliers balance the Shopper Value Equation. Again, we thank Willard Bishop Consulting for sharing their thought leadership and encourage our members to download and digest the August issue by clicking here.

- NARMS InTransition
- Member Program - ReadyTalk

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- 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

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.

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.

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.

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Click here to read Retail Industry News

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.

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.

RollStream’s collaboration platform paired with Natural Insight’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) workforce management platform delivers complete project lifecycle execution intelligence including project status, issue management resolution and effort analysis.

“By combining Natural Insight’s solution with RollStream’s collaboration platform, retailers now can behave like a Consumer Packaged Goods company without all of the risk,” said Nick Parnaby, COO and Founder of RollStream. “Together the two platforms deliver substantial gains in business efficiencies and allow companies to better focus on rapidly expanding their business with new product offerings.”

“At Natural Insight, we are always on the lookout for methods to extend our platform capabilities and providing enhanced trading partner information through RollStream is a win for everyone,” said Stefan Midford, President and CEO of Natural Insight. “We are now able to extend management intelligence from the initial partner relationship all the way to actual field execution, which will provide our clients with a competitive edge.”

The combined solution provides retailers looking to expand product selection or private label brands to establish new trading partner relationships, manage compliance initiatives and improve product quality while managing rollout execution across hundreds to thousands of store locations. Retail partners are now able to turn intelligence and communication from the RollStream community into actions in the store with performance management feedback loops and status tracking.

Both the collaboration and workforce management platforms are available as annual software license under the SaaS model offered and managed by Natural Insight. Companies looking to grow their markets with a cost-effective technology can quickly launch the joint solution with little or no IT investment and minimal setup effort.

About RollStream:
RollStream Inc. is the leader in enterprise community management. The company’s SaaS product optimizes supplier relationships through a powerful collaboration platform that includes master data management, robust communication tools, and process applications Industry leaders such as CVS, Ahold USA and Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson use RollStream to realize the full potential of their extended supplier community through activities such as supplier registration, compliance and risk management, and dispute resolution. Learn more at http://www.rollstream.com or @rollstream

About Natural Insight:
Natural Insight, a web-based platform that improves an organization’s ability to make superior business decisions, provides real-time task management capabilities with extensive tools for workforce communication and remote data collection. The company’s solution enables Execution Intelligence that can dramatically reduce costs, accelerate speed-to-market and maximize performance. Natural Insight customers experience rapid work verification, improved accountability and increased accuracy that empowers managers to coordinate the activities of a larger number of workers with significantly less effort. Visit www.naturalinsight.com.

Media Contacts:

RollStream Contact:
Leah Wilkinson
RollStream
(703) 907-0010
leah@wilkinsonshein.com

Natural Insight Contact:
Suzie Linville
703.437.8018 x 232
slinville@vizual.com