BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #7

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #7

Welcome to the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.

I’m your host Dan Lohman. This weekly show is dedicated to getting your brand on the shelf and keeping it there.

Get ready to learn actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

LETS ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND GET STARTED!

Dan: Thank you for joining me today. Today I have Mat Brogie as a guest. I brought Mat on the show because, he works with merchandisers every day. In fact, that's his passion, that's his business. We had a really great conversation about how to help brands and retailers merchandise shelves to make shopping more consumer friendly. This is how you drive loyalty within your store, and how you drive traffic to your different categories. At the end of the show, I'll let you know how you can get the must have merchandising cheat sheet. Without further ado, here's Mat.

Hello, today I'm talking with Matthew Brogie of Repsly. And, Mat, before we get started, can you tell me a little bit about yourself, your background? And what is Repsly, and how does it help natural brands?

Mat: Sure Dan, thanks. So, yeah it's Mat Brogie. I'm COO here at Repsly. I've been working with Repsly for seven years now. The product itself is a tool for field teams. It's primarily used by business organizations that merchandise their products out in the field, wherever it is. Three types of users typically benefit from Repsly; the merchandisers, the brand ambassadors that are doing demos and things like that, and more of the sales type. The people that are trying to get placement within stores.. One of our working taglines is, "We help brands grow", and we do that by making sure that all of the activities that are being conducted out in the field, out in retail, out with the public, are following your plan. How you want to execute. How you want to be perceived. We make sure that the reps that are out there representing you, are doing it in a way that you want them to.

And, that they're pulling information back in from the field that will help you make decisions as you compete, as you understand the market, as you understand the demographics of the people that you're working with. And as you're understanding the feedback from your product.

Dan: Fantastic. Well, I appreciate that. You touched on this a little bit so, when a merchandiser goes into a store, they're representing your brand. What are some of the most important traits that a retail merchandiser should have?

Mat: Oh that's excellent Dan. So, we've seen probably about 10,000 merchandisers come through Repsly. And, we spend quite a bit of time with our customers out in the field. We've gotten to know, who are the better merchandisers and what makes them better. And, one of the things that we think about is, the fact that the merchandiser themselves, represent the brand. If you remember when you started your own brand, and you were the only one in the company, or maybe it was you and a friend or your wife or your husband; when you're starting a brand, you have all of the passion. And then when you start bringing employees on, that passion for that product begins to get diffused a little bit.

So, as the company gets bigger and the brand gets bigger, and you start to have tens or hundreds of people out in the field representing you; the traits of those merchandisers, particularly the merchandisers and the ambassadors, need to really start with enthusiasm for your product. Right? The reps have to be super energetic. They have to be really dying to get out there and evangelize your product and all of the things that are great about it. So, high energy is probably a number one trait.

Another one is, they need to be really articulate, right? They have to be able to take whatever brand message you've given them to share, and whatever passion they have; and they need to be able to convert that into language that they can use when they're out on the street speaking with potential retailers. Retailer partners. And with consumers out there. So high energy, articulate; I like to say they need to be brave. The better merchandisers that I've dealt with, out ... when I've gone on ride-alongs, with some of our customers is, I look at them and I say, "Wow, these guys are brave. They're not afraid of any obstacle in the store. They push for the product. They compete fiercely." So, they're out there doing battle, and they have to be brave.

Because they work on their own quite a bit, if they're out in a territory; they might be a thousand miles away from where you are, from where your home office is. They need to be very responsible. They need to have a high degree of integrity. They're out there spending hours that you're paying them for to get out there and evangelize and get the message out. And you need to be able to have a high degree of trust in them. So when you're hiring them, look for indications of integrity and things like that. And then probably the last one I will mention now ... There's probably quite a few more, but the last one I'll mention now is; they need to be detail oriented.

And the reason for that is, you put a lot of thought, time, effort, money, into determining how best to position your product. And how you want it featured, and how you want it promoted out in the field. And, merchandisers that are out there doing that on your behalf, they need to be paying attention to the fine details of what they're doing. Making sure that, the products are oriented correctly. That they're in the right order on the shelf. That, the promotions are placed where they're supposed to be placed. That the message that they're giving is exactly the message that you want them to give when they're out there. So, you need to hire people that are very detail oriented, that care about making sure that they check all the boxes. And tick off all the T's as they're going through the process you want them to in the field.

Dan: Great, I appreciate you saying that. I cannot emphasize that enough everybody. It is so critically important. As Mat said, you've worked so hard to put a product together. To put it on the shelf. And it's got to be represented the way you want it to be presented to everyone consistently across every retail landscape. So, thank you for getting into that.

Mat, you've said that you've seen a lot of companies that put merchandisers in the field. What are some of the best practices that you've seen with regards to maximizing a product's presence at retailers?

Mat: That's a great question Dan. You know, earlier in my career I spent a fair amount of time ... A few years, actually working on a very large retail merchandising automation product project for Proctor and Gamble. And I learned quite a bit about how aggressively they went to market. And some of the fundamentals of what they talked about. A couple of the key things I learned early on; they're kind of obvious, but, they're super important, right? One is, the consumer can't buy your product if they can't find it. You have to make sure that your product is able to be found. If you're advertising the product outside the store, or if you've got loyal customers, loyal consumers that are going into the store; and they walk into a store saying, "Geez, I'm going to buy product X today." If they can't find it, they can't buy it. If they find a competitive product before they find your product, they may switch their allegiance. So, making sure the product is able to be found is important.

And you do that in a couple of ways. Obviously, you want to get the optimum shelf placement. Eye level, in the middle of the aisle; of the correct aisle, in the right category. Have your product placed in the places where people will be looking for it. And in places where they will be able to see it. But also, pushing really hard for secondary placements in the store; I think is super important. When the merchandisers are out there, they've got a relationship with the managers, the department managers or the store managers. Particularly in independent stores, they can influence that quite a bit. And getting a secondary placement in a store will add to that subliminal push for people to want to buy the product. They'll see it in their mind as they pass by it, and then they'll see it again, and they'll see it again, and they'll just buy it a bit on impulse.

Also, promoting the product in the store is super important. It can be expensive obviously, to get the right to promote the product in store. But, for the most part, it will pay for itself easily. And you can obviously measure the lifts you get from doing these things. Doing various testing on the type of in store promotion that you do. Putting stickers on the floor, stickers on the cooler, shelf talkers, anything you can do to draw attention to the product and make it more visible to the customer in the store; and make them think about it more times, are certain things that will help quite a bit.

One other thing that I find particularly in smaller stores where you have some more influence is, if you can get a handwritten big price sign. So let's say you get a knee knocker. Or you get a product placement right at the front of the store. If a customer sees a handwritten, you know a big splash sign on the front of that display that says, "Two for One" or, "$3.99", or "$12.99"; whatever the price is, even if it's not on sale, a customer seeing that kind of a handwritten price will just immediately think, "Oh, this is something special, and I need to take advantage of it." So, those kinds of things create a more personal feeling. A person was here, wrote this sign kind of thing, that can be super helpful as well.

Dan: Love it. In fact, I had forgotten that you had dealt with, or had a connection to P&G. My background includes Unilever and Kimberly-Clark. Those are the companies that really understand better than any one else on the planet, how to do the merchandising, how to do just everything retail, everything CPG. So the fact that you bring those experiences into the natural channel, and for smaller brands, is so relevant. You kind of touch on this again as well. But besides the basic blocking and tackling, what other high value functions can they perform in the store?

Mat: So, before I jump onto that, I'll just echo what you said about the big companies. And I think part of the reason that those big companies are so good at what they do when it comes to getting that presence in the store, part of it is, they have people that are paid the big bucks to wake up everyday and that's all they think about, how do I optimize what's going on in the store? How do I optimize and particularly in the natural segment, there is a lot of innovation. A lot of companies are small, and as they're growing, they don't have a full time person that does nothing but think about; how can I optimize what happens in the store?

One of the things I like to recommend to people that are in that situation is, make that a super high priority hire. As soon as you can afford to, have somebody on your team that does nothing but think about, how to improve your presence in the store, how to improve your presence on the shelf. And a lot of times that starts with these merchandisers that are going into the stores. It could be you'll hire one person, and they've got to figure out how to get your presence going, and they're out in the field and they're doing these things. And as that evolves, what you'll find, is that every retail environment is different. Every product has it's own unique differentiation. And, that's probably one of the most important, high value functions that a merchandiser can provide in the store; is articulating and pushing your message and your differentiation.

They represent you, your brand, and they represent your product when they're out there. And, if they can passionately and enthusiastically get your message across; then, when they leave the store, what they've left behind is passion for your product. And an understanding of what makes it different. So that the store employees, when they're communicating with the public, when they're communicating with consumers, they can pass some of that passion along. And they can pass some of that differentiation along as well. And also, as they're making decisions about which product to move in or out of a location in the store; if they've got passion for your product, and if they understand what makes it better and what makes it different, and why it will sell, they'll be more likely to keep it in the right place or to give it a preferred spot when you're not there.

So, that's key. Driving passion and enthusiasm for your product. And really training the store personnel on being able to represent your product as well. The other key, really key thing, is that these guys when they're out in the field, they are your eyes and ears. So, they see what your competition is doing. They see trends that are emerging as they're emerging out in the field, with what consumers are reacting to, or how retailers are managing products on the shelf. And, they can get that information to you probably quicker than anything else. By the time you get industry reports about trends, those trends are old news. So, your merchandisers ... if you equip them with what they need to be able to capture information, to be able to quickly get that information back to you, they can help you be in front of the market as opposed to being a follower in the market.

And then, as I mentioned a little earlier, the secondary placements. I'm a huge believer. I've seen the data time and time and time again, that two identical stores and identical demographic neighborhoods; one with two or three placements of a product, one with just one. Their numbers are staggeringly different between the velocity of the product.

Dan: Couldn't agree with you more. In fact, thinking back on my personal career, I remember we had a direct dedicated sales team. And then the company decided that it wanted to move to an indirect sales team. While we looked good to Wall Street, we lost tremendous share in terms of what our product was, in every category. So that echos what you're saying. So that passion is just so critical. And again, I could not state this anymore clearly as you did. That, you've put a lot of effort and energy into putting the product together, to building it, to putting it in the right packaging, et cetera. Now getting it on the shelf is just such a critical piece of that.

And as far as your comment on the secondary placement, I don't think people really realize how dramatic a sales increase you can get off a secondary placement, including an end cap. Sometimes it's exponentially higher than what you'd get off the shelf. So, thank you for sharing that as well. You mentioned that ... you were talking about putting a sales team together, that's got to be quite an investment. What are some of the ways that companies can measure the effectiveness of and the return of, that investment?

Mat: In the end, the ultimate measure is product sales, right? You can talk about product quality, you can talk about differentiation. You can talk about competitive activity. But, the final measure is how much of that product sold. And, the best way to measure your return on investment of a field team, is to be able to tie their activities with product sales and changes in product sales. So for example, say you've hired 10 people to cover a region. My suggestion to people typically is, do an AB test, you know? Leave some percentage of your stores uncovered, and then a similar type of store, cover them. Make the visits once a week, once every two weeks, once a month; perform different activities at those various stores. And then just measure the changes in the sales that you get.

Universally, you'll find lift in the stores where merchandisers are. And if you can get granular enough data, what you'll find is; in the days after your rep visits the store, the sales are the highest. And then they begin to fade away until the next time that person comes into the store. Because they're pushing; they're putting the tags back up. They're making sure the product is fully stocked, and making sure all the products that are authorized in the store are available and on the shelf. They're getting secondary placements and things like that. And getting the secondary placements put back because some competitor has gone and talked the store into moving it out.

So, measuring the relationship between store visits and the lift that you get from those visits. As well as measuring the differences in lift that you get based on the different activities that the reps are doing in the field; is really the ideal way to get that payback.

Dan: Thank you, I appreciate that. Thanks Mat. So on that note, do you have any additional insights about how merchandisers themselves and merchandising teams can be more efficient out in the field?

Mat: Yes, there's a few things that I think about here. One is, it's an old adage, "People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan." So, have a plan and execute that plan. It's probably the simplest way to approach it. Make sure you have a plan, and make sure that plan is being executed. And by executing the plan, that involves quite a few things. Probably key one is training. Make sure that you are very descriptive about what you want your reps to do when they're in the field. Make sure they know exactly what's expected of them. Give them scripts. Coach them. Role-play with them to make sure that they know how to get your brand message across. Make sure that they know the best way to pitch a secondary placement. Make sure that they've got a checklist that they can use to touch on all the things that they're supposed to do in whatever type of store that they're in.

So those kinds of things, the real details of a plan and being able to execute against that plan. And make sure that your plan is getting executed; I think this is the number one key. Tied very closely to that is what we just talked about. It's measuring the results, right? So, what you can't or don't inspect, you can't improve.

Dan: I like that.

Mat: If you want your reps to be doing certain things in the field, make sure that they're doing them; inspect those things. Look at the photos that they're taking. Read the comments that they're making. Do follow up checks with them in the stores. Another thing is coach aggressively. Have weekly meetings with the reps, review the results that they're getting. And how they're doing compared to their peers. Let them know that they are having an impact on sales. People get huge energy from that. Particularly, what I'm finding, at least in our business here, is the new generations that are coming into the workforce right now; they want desperately to be recognized and they want to be recognized for making an impact.

And if you have regular coaching sessions with your reps, and you're showing them like, "Look, you made these visits, and here's the lift that you got on these stores. And you can have more lift if you do these other things. We noticed from your activity reports that you're leaving out this one step; do this step, you'll get even more lift." So, having that kind of regular coaching and coaching against the data is super important. And speaking of data; I'm a huge proponent of arming reps with what they need. I spent quite a few years ... different kinds of sales, but out in the sales world. And having the tools that you need to be able to make an argument and make a pitch, is super important.

So, historical information about sales in a store. Comparative information about similar store sales ... sales in similar stores with different configurations of product or with different placements of product. The more data that you can provide to your reps, and coaching that you can give them around how to use that data; the more successful they're going to be out in the field.

Dan: Fantastic. I think a lot of people forget that people want to be appreciated. They want to be recognized, and they want to be supported. And, like you said, I couldn't agree with it more. Having the right resources, applying the right resources to help your brand ambassadors be successful; is the greatest way to build your brand successfully and to grow sales. And to build shopper loyalty in the long run. So, I really appreciate you're commenting on that.

Are there any other things that you want to talk about before we wrap up? And by the way, I'd also like you to talk a little bit about Repsly and what it is, and how your solution addresses some of these many things that we've discussed today.

Mat: I'd love the opportunity to do that. And I'll tie it to a concept our CEO, our founder, CEO, Marko Kovac likes to talk about. You know, he started as a software guy. There's a few people in the company that are software guys, because our product is ... at its roots, a software tool. But all of us on the team have been deeply involved with various aspects of CPG and sales and a lot of merchandising experience. And tools for merchandisers and things like that. And, Marko talks about how the two worlds, the world of software development, and the world of merchandising actually kind of overlap in some ways. And people may have heard about an agile process for software development. And Marko has come up with a way of kind of applying agile to merchandising. And really what it is; it's going out and experimenting.

So, taking a first pass at what you think is the right way to do something. And then, inspecting it, measuring it, adjusting it, improving on it, and innovating on it very quickly and very frequently. So, getting insights back instantly, making adjustments to process. Getting insights on that adjustment quickly, and making adjustments again. In the software world, that helps you build software that's always relevant. Software that responds to the changing marketplace very well. And if you apply that in the merchandising world, then your product and it's presence at retail does the same thing. It can evolve quickly, and respond to market pressures very quickly.

So having said that as kind of a background, Repsly is a tool that is used for field teams, to make them agile. You can take Repsly and very, very quickly implement it through your field. It doesn't take much. All the reps need is a smart phone. And all managers need is access to the internet. And pretty much everybody has both of those things these days. And what it is, is reps have an app on their phone that they use to manage their days. They keep their store lists in there. All the history about their store; any data that the company shares about their product sales, or the store itself, is right in there in their smart phone. They organize their day, they optimize their routes about how to get around from one store to the next.

And when they check into a store, all the tools that they need to report what they see, to take orders, to gather information, to report the activities that they're completing, is right there at their fingertips. So they can be very efficient with how they're conducting their business in the store. And then, at the end of the day, they sign out of Repsly and they're done. They don't have to fill out call reports, they don't have to do any kind of activity sheets. They're just done with their day. It makes them super efficient. On the back end, the field team managers, marketing managers, product managers, have access to all this data. And they have access to it instantly.

All the data is automatically timestamped, location stamped. So when a rep makes an observation out in the field somewhere, Repsly just automatically marks which store it was, where it was, which rep it was; if they're using certain tools we have within the software, it associates is with the product SKU. And you can very quickly get insights as to what's going on out in the field. Both about your product in the market and how it's performing at retail, and what's going on at retail; and your field team itself. So you can use the product to manage your territories, make sure you're getting the coverage that you need. Make sure the stores are getting visited as frequently as you need to get them visited.

You can easily pull that data out of Repsly and get those connections between activities that are going on in the field, and the performance of your product out there on the shelf. So, in a very quick nutshell; Repsly is a tool for field teams that helps brands grow ... like brands in the natural food space.

Dan: Thank you very much. In fact, I'd like to drive this point home even more. The opportunity to maximize every sales opportunity is really what this podcast is about. That's what we're talking about here. That's what Mat and I are both sharing in terms of the strategies to really help retailers. Syndicated data is extremely expensive. And the reality is that most brands don't know how to use it. There's a one month lag time. And as Mat said, this is essentially real time data. And what I really want to drive home here, is that retailers don't need to know how well you rank in a category. They want to know that you're supporting them at retail. They want to know that you're driving sales for them, that you have eliminated back stocks. And that you're doing everything to help support them in their mission to compete against other retailers in their market.

So, I love the way you frame this. And again, could not stress again enough, the importance of being able to have real tools. To be able to help you stand out on the shelf, and give you a significant competitive advantage. Because let's face it, not every other brand is willing to make this commitment. And the brands that make the commitment to really drive sales and support their retailers, the retail partners; are the one's that are going to win at shelf. And the ones that the retailers are going to bend over backwards to work with. Mat mentioned earlier, secondary placement. This is how you get those secondary placements. So again Mat, thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Any comments you want to make before we wrap up?

Mat: I think I'm good Dan, thank you very much for the opportunity. I love talking about this stuff.

Dan: I remember when you did that webinar series before, so that was a lot of fun. Well Mat, thank you so much. I appreciate your time, and I look forward to our next conversation. Again thank you. You can learn more about Repsly and their solutions on their website: www.repsly.com. Check it out and be sure to tell them you learned about them on this show. I will include links to the webinar series Mat and I discussed on this episodes page, thats brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session7. Take a listen to them. There’s a lot of great information that I think you will really appreciate.

Again, I want to thank Mat for participating and being a guest on the show today. After we ended the recording, we had a really good conversation where we talked about some of the different trends in the news. One of the things we talked about was a story we read recently that said that Whole Foods is planning on banning merchandisers sometime in 2018. Mat asked me my opinion, and I thought this would be relevant for this particular podcast. So, my opinion is that this is a really bad idea. Retailers have tried different strategies like this and failed, almost on every occasion. What I'm getting at, is that retailers who limit the exposure of the support that they get from their brands at shelf, or the number of brands that they have on the shelf, tend to also remove the amount of shoppers coming into their store.

Here's why. Retailers cannot possibly be experts in everything they sell. Even the most passionate, talented, and sophisticated store, does not have the same passion that a brand would have. Furthermore, they do not possess the same education or the knowledge about specific products and the attributes. This is why consumers shop natural stores. This is what makes natural, natural. And this is what allows natural stores to compete head-to-head, toe to toe, with their mainstream counterparts. Anything that any retailer does to derail this, or to lessen this or to minimize the impact that brands have in supporting them, is going to result in lost sales over time.

Let's face it, consumers don't go into natural food stores just for groceries. They go for the experience, the product education, and the community. If you remove some of that, even just a little bit of that, you're taking away a big reason that consumers come to the store. A lot of the experts talk about how price is the most important factor. Price is not the most important factor. In fact, this is a myth. If this was true, luxury and indulgent products would be declining in sales. Also, if this was true, we would purchase our food from the lowest cost supplier. This is the very antithesis of the natural channel. Shoppers want what they want, they are not clones. Especially committed natural shoppers.

This is why I coined the term, "True category management". It's because traditional category management tends to commoditize products and shoppers. My focus, and the focus of this show, is on the core committed natural shopper. It's this shopper that's responsible for all the sustainable sales growth across every category and across every channel. I go more into depth about this in my podcast session number five. Remember that generically speaking, retailers don't make anything. They sell other people's products. What retailers do sell, is shelf space. And they fill that shelf space with brands that drive traffic into their stores. It's those brands that are on their shelves that drive product innovation. And again, bring consumers into their stores. It's those brands that are on their shelves that help support their growth and help them remain competitive against any other retailer within their market.

This is why I believe that it is in the best interest of every brand to work closely with their retailer partners, to help drive sales. It's this symbiotic relationship that help natural stores gain their foothold in the industry to begin with. At the beginning of the show, I talked to you about my must have merchandiser checklist. Text "MERCHANDISECHECKLIST" to, 44222 to download your free copy. You can also get a copy of it on my website, brandsecretsandstrategies.com/sessionseven. You'll also be able to download the show notes there.

Thanks again for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next show.

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