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Who's watching the store?

Who's watching the store?



Have you gone shopping to check on your brand recently?
Seems like a sensible thing to do. After all, its holiday season and you most likely want to assess how your product measures up at retail.
You’re not just taking up shelf space are you?
As a matter of thought; why would anyone want to purchase your product for themselves or for gifting? Is it such an obvious question? To you perhaps. Given your media spend, the PR push, the on premise surge, and all that ‘buzz you have created on the net, the question seems trite.
Maybe.

I’ll get to the point.
You’ve gone to a bit of trouble surrounding your brand with a package and, most probably, you have added a gift or some glassware to sweeten up your holiday offering.

You have created an environment, as such, around your brand, and that package is now your spokesperson.
What is it about your holiday offering that stands out and upstages its neighbors to the right and to the left?
How does the package inspire your loyal fans, and to what extent is it attracting your competitor’s franchise? Take an impartial look. Does your product scream awesome; maybe just captivating; surely at least compelling; just interesting; or simply forgettable and irrelevant?
 
 

The National Retail Federation is projecting a 2.3 percent increase in November and December sales from a year ago, but many economists expect even bigger gains. “We’re forecasting a 5 percent year-over-year increase in holiday sales,” says economist Mark Vitner at Wells Fargo Securities. Wells Fargo’s definition of holiday sales differs slightly from that of the NRF, but the tally is still more than twice the NRF’s projection, and it would be the strongest showing since 2005.  

Now ask yourself:
Does this package convey to the consumer your company’s depth of conviction and value it places on its product?
Each and every minute people are reaching for that shelf and making their purchase. Have you focused all available resources and channeled your best efforts to take control of that decision?
You need to be the leader, the very best at that activity, or you need to stop wasting corporate funds simply because the expense is allocated to get something ‘good enough’ out for the holiday.
Your off premise holiday offering must resonate with the passion your team has for the brand. It must fortify your story and work in lock step with the energy your team has invested in every component of your marketing endeavor.
I’ll tell you what I see, and, yes, there are a few wonderful special exceptions whose marketers needn’t read further. I look at a sea of sameness in the retail environment.
The arena in which the final battle for brand loyalty and supremacy takes place is a big blur of mediocrity.
Do you care? You damn well should!

You correctly say that value and cost are currently the predominant market drivers. And I say you can choose to dominate at any price point.  You state that yours is the best product available. Okay, marry it to something tantalizing and up-charge for it! Ignore the herd.
 Choose to be a category of one.
What do you think?