ADOI Blog

This Week in Retail…

admin2 on 02 24, 2011

By: Manita Khuller

Why don’t modern retailers support brands as we want them to? If I had a Dollar for every time I heard that from a client brand manager or even my agency colleagues I would be somewhere else!

Many brand marketer’s rant about their frustrations with modern retailers: Why don’t they allow the use of my brand’s carefully designed creative point-of-sale materials (POSM)?  Why strip them down to a shadow before letting them in store? Or make the POSM languish in some warehouse somewhere, instead of on the shop floor?

I can almost believe that modern retailers are the enemies of brands today out to destroy creative and beautiful expressions of ‘brand equity’. That’s what many agency
creative directors might say too…creativity is precious.

As a brand manager your career depends on the preservation of your brand and its equity thus not surprising you feel this way! My experience is different though – maybe because I have been around for a long time.

Did modern day brand marketers simply not realise the formidable developments that have taken place in retail all over the world and their impact on brand marketing?

It’s a new world out there for brands – one in which the retailer has to be a key part of your brand strategy. Not as an afterthought, but up front.

Let’s begin by taking a peek at modern day large retailers today.

Rule #1: Whether they are big box hypermarkets like Tesco or Carrefour or convenience chains like 7-11; they are all big companies with commercial goals. Just like brands, they are in business to make money.

Rule #2: They are only interested in your brand if your brand helps them make money. How can your marketing plans demonstrate to them you can help them grow sales and increase profit?

Next time we will explore what are the ways modern day retailers make money. And what that means for your beautiful brand and its expressions to the shopper.

Manita Khuller is Regional Strategy & Planning Director of OgilvyAction Asia Pacific. OgilvyAction is a specialist division within the Ogilvy group helping clients create purchase behaviour in store

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