Brand Management Technologies Accelerate Speed to Shelf

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July 26, 2010

By Patti Soldavini

To compete effectively against national brands for the consumer’s share of purse, retailers understand they must step up their store brands game. No longer are they hijacking national brand designs for their retail store brands. That was then.

Instead, they are emulating the way national brands are developed by hiring senior brand and marketing leaders away from CPG companies, taking a more sophisticated approach to rationalizing their products and strategically optimizing their brand portfolio. This is now, and the stakes have never been higher.

While the number of store brands increase daily and consumers are more readily embracing store brands, it doesn’t mean that the concept and power of branding can be easily dismissed. In fact, the opposite is true. The store brands movement reinforces the power of effective strategic branding. While consumers may have flocked to store brands during the recession principally to save money, whether they stick with the store brand or return to the national brand is, in a way, irrelevant. The point is that product and brand benefits always matter.

Progressive retailers committed to creating store brands that meet and exceed the quality of national brands do not recognize the phrase “trading down” when used to refer to store brands. These retailers are creating power brands across multiple categories throughout their stores. They are optimizing their brand portfolios to improve shopability. They are creating brands with strong, unique identities that differentiate them from both national brands and other retailers.

And while store brands may have better shelf placement, they are still sitting on shelves next to national brands -- brands that receive considerable promotional support nationally. So, while retailers control store shelves, they face many of the same challenges that national brands do when it comes to getting new products to market quickly. The biggest challenge is to be agile enough to respond to evolving consumer trends strategically in order to win at shelf. Being on shelf at the right time with the right message is key to maximizing the “first moment of truth” opportunity for all brands.

Consumer demand for new products with new flavors, new ingredients, new benefits comes and goes, sometimes relatively quickly. Not being on shelf when consumer demand is high has multiple negative results, including lost sales. If it’s not on shelf, it can’t make it into the cart. This also sets up a brand switching opportunity for the consumer. For the retailer (or national brand), it’s the moment that brand preference goes out the window. And lost sales equals lost market share, giving your competitors a bigger slice of the pie.

Brand Consistency

Getting to shelf quickly enough to capitalize on consumer trends -- whether they are related to health and wellness, sustainability, “ungredients,” (what’s not in a product) or emerging flavors -- with products that fill this need in a way that creates a compelling and consistent brand experience is what all companies look to achieve. Those that are achieving the benefits associated with strong branding and streamlined workflows are using what we call brand management technology, a vital component of managing their brands.

Brand management technology solutions include a strong PLM (product lifecycle management) component. To help retailers effectively manage, execute and track the processes that support the development and deployment of their brands requires not just a PLM system, but integrated software and services delivered by a service provider that offers deep workflow experience along the brand development continuum -- from brand strategy through creative design and execution.

There are numerous PLM systems to choose from. Strong brand management technology solutions are robust yet very user-friendly and include a variety of support services, which are critical to a successful implementation and user adoption.

Strong technology systems are also very flexible, allowing for the subsequent implementation of additional models such as digital asset management, project management, online proofing, copy management and KPI Reporting and integrating easily into existing IT systems such as SAP. This allows retailers to build onto the base technology system confidently, expanding as their needs grow. It also includes everything that retailers require for the efficient creation, effective deployment and confident expansion of their brands in the marketplace.

By implementing a brand management technology solution, retailers can empower in-house branding, marketing, legal staff –– as well as vendor participants such as design agencies, premedia companies and printers –– by allowing them to collaborate online in real time to bring new products from strategy to the shelf more quickly, accurately and efficiently. This allows store brands to reach their full marketing potential through compelling and consistent brand experiences across shopper touch points.

Patti Soldavini is director of corporate marketing for Schawk Inc., a leading provider of brand point management services. For more information about the Des Plaines, Ill.-based company visit www.schawk.com.

Read These Related Articles:

• Who Should Pay for Packaging Design?
• Retailers: Focus on Packaging and In-Store Marketing to Drive Shopper Growth
• Retailers Place Greater Focus on Store Brand Packaging Design
• Landmark Store Brands Packaging Design Study Underway
• Packaging & Design: Elevating the Store Brands Game

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