The Branded Pantry

There were some pretty good speakers and pundits (in addition to yours truely of course) at the NARMS Conference in Colorado Springs at the beginning of the month.  It snowed the Sunday afternoon before the Monday noon tee time and I think that kept a few attendees…in attendence.  That’s a good thing.   MVI, Paco Underhill and Jamie Tensor from the In-Store Implementation Share Group all had some very interesting observations about the state of the industry in these troubling times.   I think I liked this one best:  “In-stocks are paramount to shopper satisfaction.   You cannot leave a dollar of earned demand on the table because of retail conditions.”    earned demand…at least my definition is fairly simple.  The consumer for one reason or another has decided to spend his/her money on that item in your store.    MVI told us that from the consumer’s standpoint “where I am beats, where I am going” (in other words I want fewer shopping destinations for basics…so don’t make me go elsewhere!)   I would say this is pretty sage advice….recession or no recession.  Consumers come into CPG retail stores to meet and buy merchandise.  They do not come for clean stores, friendly service, lower prices or proximity.  If the products they want to buy are not predictably in the store, none of those other things matter.  If the products they want to buy are not predictably in any of the avialable stores then they need secondary sorting criteria which includes lower prices, proximity, cleaner stores or friendly service.  Offer consistent…predictable shopping results from a merchandising standpoint - head and shoulders above the competition - and you will convert AND hang onto a bunch of consumers.