GO-TO-RETAIL STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT: Finding common ground for growth

We all enjoy a great Cinderella sports story.  The team that comes out of seemingly nowhere or overcomes insurmountable odds to ultimately be victorious.  We love to see the last minute buzzer-beater or Hail Mary (unless it is against our team).

I’ve seen many companies project these same fantasies onto their business.  They dream of being Cinderella.

They imagine sudden huge distribution gains and sales that production can barely keep up with.  They enjoy the thought of beating the big guy…the market share leader they view as lazy and slow and out of touch.  They can’t wait for the rest of the world to finally recognize their genius.

But many forget that few overnight successes actually happen overnight.

PLANNING AND EXECUTION

The beginning of most great success stories start much earlier…often years earlier.  They start when a goal was set, a plan was put in place, and persistent hard work followed.

A great product idea, just like the idea of becoming a star athlete or winning a championship, is a bet against very long odds. 

Few high school sports stars end up making a living as an athlete. 

Sports leagues only crown one champion each year. 

And the odds of a new product developing sustainable longer-term profitability are only slightly better.

However, there are ways to dramatically improve those odds.  There are ways to have more consistent new product success and steady sales growth…with a goal, a plan, and persistent hard work.

In other words, you need to develop and deliver on a great strategy.

PLANNING TO SUCCEED

To be successful in sports or business, a great strategy needs to begin with several dimensions.  These include:

Understanding the skills and tools your team possesses (and what they don’t)

Understanding the rules of the game (and how they can be bent to your advantage)

Understanding the competition's playbook (and how you can outmaneuver it)

In our industry, there are many more rules, many more competitors, and many more ways to bend those rules.  Inexperience leads to companies relying on strategies that are too simplistic:

I just need to offer a superior, higher quality product

I just need to offer my product at a lower cost

I just need to offer something that is different

We know that the high failure rate for new products does not reflect the rampant pursuit of bad ideas.  It is a reflection of how scarce the skill of strategic development and delivery is.  It reflects the fact that a good idea is only the start.

Success requires the alignment of many additional components:

Does your product fit with how the retailer is managing store- or category-level strategies?

Do you know exactly who is the prime prospect for your product and how that group aligns with the shopper profile at different retailers?

Can you demonstrate how your product will deliver incremental volume and dollars and profit to the category without cannibalizing existing sales?

Are you doing enough to drive demand and desire before a shopper is standing in front of the store shelf?

If you had trouble answering any of these questions, contact us to learn more about how we approach building a strategy with the highest possible potential for success.  Working with clients across 150+ categories has taught us a lot about what works and what doesn’t work.  Let us use that experience to benefit you.