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GETTING MORE CONVENIENT
There may be many reasons for targeting the convenience and independent sector with Field Marketing. Amongst the main ones are establishing new products and proving competitive advantage.
See what David Norbury (CEO of REL Field Marketing) has to say on the subject in ‘Field Marketing Magazine’.
Ex-Diageo sales director David Norbury, nowadays CEO at field agency REL knows that this applies especially well to the alcohol sector.
“The convenience sector performs well on beverage alcohol, overtrading when compared to food sales. It is attractive for beverage alcohol brands for many reasons too: large numbers of local outlets/stores in convenient locations, late opening hours (a good fit for when people want to drink!), ease of access and speed of shopping (i.e. beverage alcohol fixtures are closer to the checkouts than in the supermarkets where alcohol is often in the furthest corners of the store and hence gets less shopper penetration)”.
He continues “Convenience stores allocate a significant percentage of the store space to beverage alcohol and have extensive ranges, coupled with offering smaller unit purchase sizes (also saving customers money per visit), single cans of beer, single bottles of RTD and miniatures of spirits. They often offer greater ‘cold availability’ on wine, beers and cider. Brand participation is higher with less emphasis on own label alcohol. The purchase occasion is less price sensitive as it’s usually an impulse or top up buy.”
“As alcohol is more important to the convenience store it gets greater share of mind and attention from the store manager/owner. This is really important when considered alongside the ability of the store manager (often an owner) to make stocking and promotional decisions for their store – in an instant it opens up customer marketing potential for those with a clear strategy for the convenience channel. In times when supermarkets are contracting ranges and some brands are losing distribution this could be a life saving opportunity for a brand.”
REL has to know the convenience sector inside-out. It is working for brands like Gaymers, Red Bull, Ferrero Rocher and Kellogg’s. Indeed so confident is REL in the long-term growth prospects of the convenience sector it has launched a new convenience sector service: ICE – Independent and Convenience Expertise. The ICE service combines the use of a fully profiled 40,000 – store database with consumer catchments targeting tools and flexible contact strategies (face-to-face supported by direct mail and telemarketing).
A 40,000 database would seem to indicate a big opportunity for branded impulse goods, especially if top-up purchases are, as Norbury says, not wholly reliant on price.
Source: ‘Field Marketing’ Volume 7, Issue 1
