How to Use Data to Execute and Maintain Brand Promotions

Mastering the retail channel is a massive opportunity for CPG brands, but those who have played in the space before know it takes a committed investment to reap the benefits. To make the most of that investment, CPG sales and marketing teams are putting data at the forefront of their retail execution efforts, unlocking the insight they need to execute and maintain brand promotions by prioritizing and maximizing high-opportunity initiatives.

In this blog, we’ll outline how you can take a data-driven approach to execute and maintain brand promotions by leveraging activity, observational, and sales data.

Activity Data:

Regardless of the size of a brand, it’s up to the reps in the field to properly set up and maintain those promotions. That means being timely, on-brand, and consistent. Brands should be regularly tracking the actions the team takes in the field, including metrics such as visit frequency, total territory coverage, time in-store, and more. This type of data is referred to as activity data.

Check out how the most reliable brands are tracking activity data to execute and maintain promotions:

• Ensuring a coordinated promotional rollout by scheduling each of their reps account visits, setting specific tasks for them to execute upon arrival, and then reporting on that data to identify any gaps.
• Comparing rep time in-store to the expected time it takes to appropriately set up a display to highlight potential problem areas - or identify super-efficient reps.
• Maintaining the boost in sales from additional displays by keeping track of when each rep last serviced each of their accounts.

Observational Data:

Broken shelf-talkers, beaten-up displays, and bent price tags are the bane of branding experts at big consumer brands. If promotions aren’t properly run and maintained, their full potential can’t be realized and the sales impact from them cannot be properly measured. We can measure the in-store presence, including stock levels, the number of facings, active promotions, and anything that may be detrimental to the success of promotions through observational data.

Here’s how top brands make sure their promotions are given a fair shake:

• Making sure that displays stay in top condition and adhere to brand guidelines by having reps collect photos and fill out quick surveys on various aspects of a promotion.
• Improving current and future promotions by recording information like shopper reception, foot-traffic.
• In those cases where it’s the job of the retailer to maintain a promotion or display, regularly checking in and confirming that everything is in order ensures that both parties are holding up their end of the bargain.

Sales Data:

Brands run promotions for a number of reasons, but by far the most common objective is increased sales. Understanding the impact a specific promotion has on sales is how large brands consistently run “winning” promotions through wildly different retailers. By measuring sales data, brands have the ability to track key metrics including how much of each SKU sold within a given period, and how their product compares to other accounts and SKUs.

Check out these ways brands are leveraging their sales data to better execute promotions:

• Looking at sales lift from previous promotions to determine which promotions to run at specific retailers. Combine sales data with observational data has made it easy for brands to be prescriptive in their promotional strategy.
• Looking for immediate change in sales after a promotion is set to begin - if there’s no apparent change in sales trends, it may mean that the promotion has not been properly set up.
• Using sales data from previous promotions to justify running those promotions in other retail locations within the same chain.

Together, these three types of data give CPG sales and marketing organizations a complete picture of how their products are presented, sold, and supported in all of their accounts, shining a light on how and when brands can deploy their field teams to have the biggest impact in the store.

Many of the fastest-growing consumer brands in the world are leveraging the insights they gain from activity, observational, and sale data to gain huge competitive advantages over other brands in their space.

Explore the 3 Types of Data to Explode Sales to learn four more ways high-performing retail brands are leveraging structured and reliable data to have the biggest impact in the store.