Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/541538
High Volume Merchandise www.beveragedynamics.com July/August 2015 • Beverage Dynamics 39 plays can enhance the store, establish its reputation, encourage the customer and drive incremental sales. In the last few years, the particulars of retail merchandising have evolved and expanded. New, modern stores are more geared to digital merchandising, a "clean store" policy that limits supplier displays and creates a preference for store-cre- ated presentations. Large grocery and chain retailers look for bespoke displays, expecting broad input into what suppli- ers offer. Smaller, niche stores seek few supplier merchandising or POS in order to accentuate the personal connection to shoppers. All of this makes it more com- plex to create incendiary merchandising tools, and suppliers are sometimes shying away from one-size-fi ts-all strategies. "Ten or twenty years ago, displays were everywhere; now everything is mandated by national buyers who are really savvy about what works and what doesn't," says Wendy Ny- berg, VP of marketing for Trinchero Family Wines. "Now we have to execute knowing we might have to share a display with a competitor." PICK THE RIGHT ONE When deciding what sort of merchandising displays to adopt, retailers should look for things that suit their target customers. "Consumers come into a retailer's business look- ing for certain things," says Steve Wallett, VP of category development and strategic accounts marketing for Diageo. "They may see the big national brands promoted outside the store and they want to be able to fi nd them easily, but they also get frustrated easily." Big brand displays should be used as a way to help cus- tomers navigate a store, he says, as customers locate them- selves in a store using brands like Smirnoff as a landmark for a category, starting with a trusted brand and then looking for the fl avors, sizes, other brands or extensions within the category afterwards. Wallett says research shows about a third of consumers will leave a store if they can't fi nd the product they want quickly, while the other two-thirds might buy another brand but may not return to the same store the next time, especially given the growth of beverage alcohol competition today. While many stores like to cooperate on merchandising plans, others limit what they use. At Total Wine and Spir- its, the 110+ unit big box chain, shelf space is entirely pro- grammed alphabetically in-house, says Melissa Devore, VP of wine buying, Total Wine & More. "The number of facings given are in direct correlation to each wine's volume, and so the larger national brands get the appropriate facings based on that." And that can change store to store - if a wine sells better in one market, the store adjusts correspondingly. Total Wine doesn't take on a lot of wine supplier merchan- dising, given its large private label business, though in spirits displays suppliers are welcomed, she says. "The key on the supplier side is providing great POS so customers are engaged with things that make it different for them; that's what we rely on suppliers for - to get their brand message across through things like bottle neckers or shelf talkers." POS can still be an effective way to promote the brand, but with the prev- alence of clean store policies, suppliers need to be creative in their approach, Georgetti says. "Because of this, we are seeing a shift from traditional print POS to signature, iconic display items (i.e. Jim Beam Pot Still) and more engaging tactics to leverage the shopper's interest, provide education and engage with the consumer before they enter the store." In general, Total Wine's merchandis- ing space is based on seasonality, with easy-drinking wine getting summer preference and more ex- pensive, gift-giving brands featured later in the year. To keep supply steady, the stores order multiple times weekly during year-end holidays, and have case stacks available of popular items in storage so that associates can provide them quickly for those customers buying in quantity for entertaining. BIG BEER BREWS SALES Given the size of purchase and display space required, beer retailers have long had a love/hate relationship with merchan- dising. But doing it right is even more crucial during a time of such volatile consumer behavior. Says Tim Gossett, VP of cate- gory leadership, national retail sales, Anheuser-Busch, "We be- lieve a balanced approach to the beer category is necessary and the data proves it. Retailers that focus on one beer segment at the expense of another grow slower than the market average. Retailers that apply a balanced approach between segments, however, are growing faster than the market average, due to the fact that even loyal shoppers spend dollars on beer outside their favorite segment." He cites InfoScout research data that shows premium/ value shoppers spend 27 percent of their beer dollars on other segments, while the high end (craft/import) shopper spends 43 percent of their total beer dollars on the premium/value segments. Premium beer, with the highest penetration, drives traffi c to and represents the majority of retail dollars spent on beer, while the Value segment has the highest shopper loyalty, with those shoppers highly responsive to merchandising fea- tures and displays. According to beer consultant for Florida's ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Josh Beerman, markets like his rely on major suppli- ers for displays and sales, despite a growing craft brew busi- ness. In May, he had success with a Corona Cinco de Mayo display including piñatas and other paraphernalia set up about two weeks in advance, while in the fall, about a dozen much- sought after pumpkin beers are gathered in their own display. "We're fairly strong with the national beers. With the tourist economy and the hot weather, people going to the beach after arriving from different parts of the country. Having major brands "High-volume brands are the ones consumers are looking for." — Mitch Cristol, director for off-premise trade marketing, Pernod Ricard.