Jamie Matthews, CEO at Initials, tells us how challenger brands are successful in the market, and shares tips and advice on how established brands can adopt this mentality to fight back. 

Today, even the longest established and most famous FMCG brands are under intense pressure.

Over decades, these brands have been massively successful at carving out a role in people’s daily lives. They have been highly effective in leveraging their scale advantages via globalisation, ubiquity of distribution and weight of advertising. They have been masters of the marketing game as it has traditionally been played. Now the rules of the game have changed. The landscape is being redrawn by several inter-connected factors.

Firstly, the structural. Dramatically lower barriers to entry, the emergence of ‘new’ retail and re-prioritisation within traditional retail are all having an impact. Secondly, attitudinal factors. Different consumer expectations, an appetite for experimentation and scepticism about traditional elites result in dramatic changes.

In order to get under the skin of this issue, we commissioned quantitative research amongst over 1,000 people who had recently switched from an established brand to a new challenger brand. The research looked at eight FMCG categories – from food to beauty to household products.

Across each category, the findings showed that Challengers are disrupting every product range. By marrying mindset, ambition and behaviour, challenger brands are able to lead with conviction and win new customers.

CHALLENGER BRAND PHENOMENON

The challenger brand phenomenon isn’t new, but it’s definitely accelerating. Today, across almost every category, challenger brands are on the march.

While it’s easy to see how market changes are giving Challengers a significant leg up, that doesn’t explain why consumers are embracing them with such enthusiasm. Challenger brands aren’t just winning market share – very often, they’re winning the market argument too.

To understand why, let’s define precisely what a challenger brand is. Adam Morgan, an expert on the topic and author of the seminal ‘Eating The Big Fish’, puts it well: “A challenger brand is defined, primarily, by a mindset – it has business ambitions bigger than its conventional resources, and is prepared to do something bold, usually against the existing conventions or codes of the category, to break through.”

MINDSET AND AMBITION

Mindset and ambition are fundamental to success. Challenger brands believe they can change the weather by overturning category norms. And they marry belief with behaviour. At every level – values and personality, product design, channel strategy, service delivery, customer experience – they display complete coherence and absolute conviction. They jump on insight to identify a point of resonance, then focus on it with ruthless obsession.

HOW CAN ESTABLISHED BRANDS FIGHT BACK?

To challenge the Challengers effectively, established brands should consider adopting more of this mindset. This means re-setting ambitions, re-discovering conviction and turning both into new behaviours and actions that channel the positivity and energy of the Challengers. To a certain extent, they need to re-invent themselves.

This may require changes at both a product and an emotional level. At the product level, quality standards must be maintained or enhanced, NPD must be prioritised, even at the risk of self-cannibalisation. And brands must dig deeper to find authentic, resonant product stories.

At the emotional level architecture may need to be re-framed; certainly, behaviours may need to be re-invented in order to convey true conviction. Stories should be built from the ground up, encouraging people to re-discover the brand for themselves, and the narrative opened up for audiences to play with and shape.

In order to compete effectively, established brands need to find a guiding conviction of their own and re-organise themselves around it. All of this requires bravery and a much greater appetite for risk.

TRANSLATING BELIEF INTO BEHAVIOUR

What Challengers lack in capital, they make up for in conviction. They have the ability to translate strongly held beliefs into strongly attractive behaviours, due to some intrinsic advantages.

1. Because they start with a clean sheet of paper and carry no historical brand baggage, Challengers can zero in on unarticulated or emerging consumer/customer needs.
2. Their product development can be highly considered and laser-focussed on addressing that key need.
3. They can design the customer experience from the ground up, ensuring every element of the offer supports the core value proposition.
4. They can pursue the distribution strategy that best fits their model and proposition. They are not slaves to historic trading relationships, ways of working or other entrenched interests.
5. At launch, challenger brands rely on making an exaggerated impact on a limited number of people. Because they do not have to please multiple constituencies, they can be more dynamic and take more risks in how and where they communicate.
6. If necessary, they can refine their offer quickly. Compared to most established brands, they are not burdened with cumbersome decision-making hierarchies, so they can be nimble in responding to changing circumstances.

In short, challenger brands have the luxury of positioning themselves in opposition to the category norms and expressing that opposition through their values and behaviours. The present shift in consumer attitudes gives them an unprecedented opportunity to overturn the status quo. So, for those established brands that are not evolving accordingly, then it may be a case of do or die.

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The Kraft Heinz Company, the world’s 5^th largest food and beverage company, has brought in shopper marketing specialist Live & Breathe to run its entire UK integrated shopper account and act as primary shopper marketing partner across all its brands.

The appointment, following a competitive pitch, ties in with the 150th anniversary of Heinz, which takes place in 2019. Live & Breathe will partner with Kraft Heinz to define an integrated shopper strategy across the entire grocery retail sector, in particular promoting soup, ketchup, baked beans, salad cream and mayonnaise as the group’s ‘hero products’.

The agency’s role for 2019 and beyond involves developing creative, technology-based solutions for the common challenges faced by food brands and retailers, overcoming barriers and finding new approaches to the traditional grocery shopper missions.

Nicolas Aranguren, Head of Sales Execution at The Kraft Heinz Company, commented: “2019 is a colossal year for the Kraft Heinz family of food brands and we were keen to ensure we had exemplary shopper marketing support, with an agency that could partner with us at the highest level.

“Live & Breathe combines in-depth understanding of retail with a keen eye for seeking out creative uses of technology and routes to market, which is exactly what we wanted.”

Nick Gray, MD of Live & Breathe, added: “This is an immense opportunity to work with a forward-thinking FMCG business as well as food brands that have been category leaders for decades. We plan to help Kraft Heinz develop shopper marketing strategies and platforms that will benefit its brands not just in 2019, but for years to come.”

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New research conducted by independent creative agency Initials has found consumers are switching to challenger brands in their droves. Two thirds of respondents claim that being over-exposed to marketing messages is making them less loyal to established brands. The findings expose five harsh truths established brands must tackle in the face of the challenger brand phenomenon.

Aiming to delve deeper into the dizzying climb of the challengers, the research surveyed over 1000 UK consumers, exploring how and why they are switching. Focusing on eight FMCG categories; food, soft drinks, alcohol, household products, healthcare, toiletries, beauty and grooming products, the research looked at everything from drivers at a category level to attitudes post purchase.

The first harsh truth is that challengers are impacting all categories. After food (57%), some two fifths (39%) of consumers say they have switched to a challenger brand in toiletries, followed by alcohol (35%) and beauty (34%). Household products (32%), healthcare (31%), soft drinks (29%) and grooming products (28%) complete the category list.

The second harsh truth is that across the board the switch to challengers is likely to be permanent, with 44% saying they intend to stick with the brand they’ve switched too. Of those that don’t intend to stick, almost a third (30%) plan to try another challenger rather than revert to their original established brand. TV is viewed as the most effective channel for driving consideration of challenger brands, cited by 42% of respondents.

Thirdly, value for money still matters. Despite the premium often associated with challenger brands they are delivering against their promise, with exactly half of respondents saying challenger brands are seen to provide good value for money.

The research also found the more shoppers are invested in their purchase, the more probable it is that they’ll find a reason to try a challenger – this is the fourth harsh truth and a concern for brands with higher consideration products. It’s most significant for food purchases with well over a half (60%) of shoppers saying this.

The fifth, and perhaps most significant truth, is the emotional connection consumers feel towards challenger brands – people recognise and respond positively to the purpose and personality presented by challengers. This is particularly significant amongst younger consumers, those aged 16-34.

Jamie Matthews, CEO of Initials, comments: “These findings should act as a wake up call to brands. The rules of the game have changed, with challengers disrupting every one of the FMCG categories we examined. To compete effectively established brands need to adopt more of a challenger mindset. Doing that requires bravery, and a much greater appetite for risk, but in order to succeed they need to match challenger’s sense of ambition and conviction. Regardless of category there is a lot to be learned from how the challengers are doing things.”

Initials is one of the UK’s fastest growing independent agencies, with expertise in brand planning and brand activation, spanning three strategic centres of excellence: Promotional Marketing, Shopper Marketing and Live Engagement.

Describing itself as the home of UNINHIBITED THINKING, what makes Initials different is its eclectic mix of people. The team comprises seasoned brains and youthful vigour, possessing a diverse skill set, whilst also sharing an energy and passion for creating smarter, innovative, and more extraordinary solutions for clients on a local and global scale including: Heineken, McLaren Automotive, PepsiCo, Twinings, The Gap Partnership, Coty and Philips.

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Newspapers are the fastest-moving consumer goods industry of them all. David Tymm of i-movo explores what brand owners can learn from how they drive loyalty and turn customers into subscribers

The online world has quietly ushered in the ‘Subscription Economy’. Similar to Louis XIV’S Finance Minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert who declared that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon and many others have realised that getting customers to pay “little and often” is the best way of maintaining their loyalty.

Perishable, produced from scratch every day and almost obsolete by four o’clock the following afternoon, newspapers are the very definition of a fast-moving consumer product. Notwithstanding the difficulties the industry has experienced in the face of the competition of instant, up-to-date and free online news, there are lessons for brand owners to be learned from this beleaguered sector in terms of maintaining consumer loyalty.

Given the logistical challenges of producing and distributing a new edition every day and the financial constraints imposed by a low product price, newspapers are sold through retailers rather than delivered direct.

Up until 20 years ago or even later, loyalty was forged as a result of tribal support to the editorial line. But, as with many other sectors, the internet ‘changed everything’ – including, for many former loyal readers, the habit of buying and reading a particular title every day.

The response from publishers was to launch subscription schemes, getting readers to commit to buying the paper for a set time – usually a year – in return for a discount on the cover price.

Four times annually, readers are sent books of 90 or so paper vouchers and use these to pay for the paper. The retailers than claim the value of these vouchers back from the publishers. The original theory was that if readers paid in advance, they would be certain to read the paper every day. For the publisher, the sale and associated advertising revenue would therefore be protected.

It’s a strategy that has proven to be partially successful in arresting the decline in sales. By way of a single example, the Daily Telegraph had 796,000 readers in 2007, of which 327,000 were subscribers. Over the next decade, subscribers fell to 223,000, a 32% drop – but that against a 53% fall in overall average daily sales to 377,000.

Paper is pricy

But paper vouchers are expensive to distribute, expensive to process and vulnerable to various ‘practices’ that can result in considerable, avoidable expense for the publishers. In addition, high fixed costs inherent in the production process result in publishers adopting ‘a one or two sizes fit all’ approach to product strategy. Fixed-term contracts with no escape route are also the norm. Both traits are somewhat at odds with consumer expectations of mass-customisation and a belief that subscriptions should be for their convenience, not to predict the revenue of suppliers.

Digital voucher systems dispense with these operational deficiencies and also provide added benefits. Digital provides insight on subscriber behaviour right down to who is using their subscription (or not), at which retailers, on which days of the week and at what time of day. Critical information for customer retention and product development that is lost in the ether with paper vouchers!

As a result, the Financial Times and Guardian Media Group have been the first to move away from paper fulfilment for subscription services to digital

Other fast-moving product categories face a similar challenge to those faced by publishers two decades ago – and they can learn from the experience of the newspaper publishers.

With consumer decisions often made within 30 seconds or 12 feet of purchase, according to some shopper marketing experts, relying on habit for loyalty and constant investment in marketing programs to influence the consumer at point of selection is, I would argue, economically unsustainable.

Also questionable are the considerable sums spent on digital media when the impact of online promotion is difficult to measure in the context of offline sales. Recent media coverage suggests that the party is over and brand managers are beginning to wise up to the state of the current online advertising market. Texans refer to such arrangements as a ‘Goat Rodeo’…a system rigged in favour of the organisers.

Generation Subscription

With financial innovators such as Zuora and GoCardless democratising the recurring payments market for credit/debit cards and Direct Debit respectively, any business can now collect payments easily and inexpensively from consumers on a regular basis and so sell their wares on a subscription basis.

Dollar Shave Club is probably the most famous example of this model. The disposable razors they sell have a predictable consumption pattern and are easy to ship. The less well-known Batch Brew distillery in Burnley makes fabulous but quite pricy gin. If you sign up as a subscriber, they send you a bottle of whatever they’ve decided to brew up that month for a direct debit payment of £30 a month, just below the price/value consciousness threshold of their target customer, I would guess.

Both examples have the advantage that direct payment and direct fulfilment are viable options. But, as with newspapers, direct fulfilment is not feasible for brand owners where such products are frequently purchased across a range of retailers. Brands will also be aware that retail partners will continue to represent the majority of sales and a direct-fulfilment strategy would effectively dis-intermediate them and damage commercial relationships.

Turning consumers into subscribers is not only good for brands in terms of securing loyalty and stabilising revenues. Consumers welcome it too. The Economist reported in 2014 that 80% favour subscription for preferred brands providing it signifies convenience and is not at the expense of flexibility.

For example, an energy drink manufacturer could pre-sell 20 bottles online and deliver a mobile voucher to let the customer collect at a retailer anytime they want one, but without any commitment to consume all 20 by a certain date. Consumers who have already made their purchase decision and paid are unlikely to buy a competitor product.

Alternatively, firms such as Klarna will extend credit to consumers based on their email address. This means consumers would not always need to pay up front – just settle a monthly invoice for what they have consumed. Purchases can also be added to mobile phone bills using services such as ‘Payforit’, which is supported by all the UK’s major mobile phone operators.

Although the options are many and various and set to evolve further, two truths are inescapable: The ‘Subscription Economy’ is here to stay – and brand owners that cannot supply direct need a method for remote fulfilment of their products if they are to take advantage of this generational shift in consumer behaviour.

David Tymm is founder and CEO of i-movo, one of the largest Secure Digital Voucher networks in the world. i-movo works with over 60,000 participating retailers and has delivered over 300 successful campaigns, processing over 20 million vouchers worth over £400m.

Photo by Peter Bond on Unsplash

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Essity, the Swedish health and hygiene group, is backing its new Cushelle Quilted toilet paper variant, launched in January, with an integrated below-the-line campaign aimed at helping drive awareness and trial of the new variant – which is claimed to be the brand’s “most cushiony-soft toilet tissue ever”.

Cushelle Quilted was introduced into retail stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland in January 2018. The new campaign, which spans the full shopper journey, aims to increase penetration by reinforcing the product superiority and ‘Quiltiness’ by asking shoppers to test just how ‘Quilty’ the paper is for themselves.

The activity, created for Essity by Manchester-based marketing agency Blue Chip, includes a money back guarantee being promoted across selected shopper media to drive trial at the point of purchase. Additionally, a door drop and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) couponing will deliver the same message and a further incentive to purchase out of store.

The door drop, featuring the Cushelle brand character Kenny the Koala, will hit 4 million doormats across the UK in March, a week after a new Cushelle Quilted TV advertisement hits screens.

Lauren Roberts, Account Manager at Blue Chip, says: “This promotional activity carefully considered how we would convert shoppers to the new Quilted product. The money back guarantee is a proven trial driver, removing the risk of purchase and making it the perfect choice for this NPD. Driving penetration was also a key objective. By adding a door drop with two £1.00 money off coupons, we aim to further incentivise shoppers to try this new product for themselves.”

The money back guarantee will be valid in retailers including Asda UK, Waitrose UK, Co-op UK, Ocado UK, Morrisons UK, Tesco ROI, Dunnes ROI and SuperValu ROI.

Essity was formerly part of SCA, the giant Swedish paper products group. Its brands include a number that were bought from Procter & Gamble in 2007, when SCA acquired P&G’s European paper operations, including Charmin. While Charmin is still sold by P&G under that brand name in the US, SCA rebranded Charmin as Zewa in Germany and Cushelle in the UK.

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Tim Eales of IRI looks at the implications of the massive fall in the number of price promotions in retailers

Increasing pressure on UK retailers to be more transparent in their pricing has seen pure price-based promotional activity drop to its lowest level for around a decade. For the retailers and suppliers involved in managing the fallout of these reduced levels of price promotions, the challenges are great.

For consumers who have become used to taking advantage of the numerous multibuys, BOGOFs and other special offers in store during their regular shop, the fact that there’s been a significant reduction in the number of items on discount in store might come as a bit of shock.

When it comes to price promotions, the most recent change we have seen in the industry is the direction encouraged by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) back in 2012 when it set out its guidelines around the idea of pricing transparency. Since the demise of the OFT, many of its responsibilities have been taken over by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), including issues of pricing and how prices are communicated to consumers.

Back in 2012, the OFT raised concerns about prices being artificially inflated to make later discounts look more attractive, and stated that products should not be on promotion for longer than they are off promotion. This actually led to concerns by some retailers at the time that it would increase incidents of ‘yo-yo pricing’ rather than make it more transparent.

We’ve also seen pressures coming from other quarters, including increased competition from the main discounters, Aldi and Lidl, who have made it their mission to create a much more simplified approach to pricing than the major multiples, offering a limited range but at attractive low prices.

As a result, they have rapidly grown market share in the UK, forcing the supermarkets to rethink their strategy on ‘everyday low prices’, rather than simply relying on discounts and special offers to get shoppers through the doors.

According to a recent study by IRI on Price and Promotion (launched in August 2017), there was a 25% reduction in the number of items on discount since November 2012 (when the OFT guidelines were announced), with the proportion of items on price promotion as a percentage of all items stocked falling from 37% to 29%. The effect, it seems, is more pronounced in food categories.

During 2017, trade promotion levels were lower than they have for almost 10 years, while deal depth has been falling since early 2016. Shoppers effectively lost £3.7bn worth of offers.

This represents an 18% reduction in the overall benefit that price-based promotional offers have previously provided, although it has been offset to some extent by everyday (off-promotion) prices having been held lower than they would have been, or even going down in some cases.

For retailers and manufacturers, we are already seeing them pulling back from trade promotions, preferring to put emphasis on communicating the brand benefits rather than on consumer price promotions.

There is now increased competition for promotional slots and for off-shelf displays in stores, so in this climate of greater price transparency, it’s clear that brand owners need to know which categories are performing well and which aren’t, which deserve the highest levels of promotional support, and, most important, what effect different promotional strategies are having on different products.

The challenge of price promotions is not an easy one. It’s generally accepted that promoting products on price alone can drive short-term sales, but also eat into profit margins. Once the cost of discounts, displays and in-store marketing materials are taken into consideration, the positive effects reduce or even cease altogether.

However, there are other benefits, over and above driving short-term sales, including driving trial and penetration for both the retailer and brand, generating footfall for retailers, maintaining premium value positioning, and also augmenting the benefits of advertising, where this can be proven.

So, when prioritising promotional choices, retailers must look for categories where the effects from price promotions on the products promoted also result in a volume benefit for the category as a whole, delivering a win-win for both retailer and supplier.

Tim Eales is Strategic Insight Director of IRI, is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights for FMCG, OTC health care, retailers and media companies.

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Andrew Rae of incentives, rewards and prize management company The Black Tomato Agency argues for the value of rolling out the red carpet to attract and retain key customers.

There are relatively few great mysteries left unsolved in the world today. We know how the pyramids were built, we’re pretty sure that the Loch Ness Monster doesn’t want to be found and we are certain that the retention of clients is paramount to business success.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the FMCG sector, where the sheer volume of available options means that brands have to do their utmost to achieve two crucially important goals: the first is to immediately, at the point of purchase, distinguish themselves from their competitors. The second is to do what you can, at all costs, to foster brand loyalty. Account teams across the land are constantly set the challenge of turning a consumer into a fan.

In the incentive and rewards industry, we are regularly asked the same two questions: “what can we do to retain our customers?” and “how can we stand out from the crowd?”

The second question is relatively simple for us to answer; the former is more of a complex beast. Does brand loyalty still play a part in your customer’s purchasing decision? Are customers too cynical and time-poor to be swayed by incentives?

Reward to Retain

The conventional offers or rewards that are given to new customers are in general fairly similar and, dare we say it, not particularly engaging. The desire to keep on directing the customer back to the product with a voucher or money-off coupon is almost too alluring to move away from.  And in the right space, it is the perfect incentive.

But the question remains, if everyone is employing the same tactic, are you offering your customer the right incentive to choose and stay with you?

If you are confident that your product is the best around (which I’m sure you are, and I agree!), then make sure that confidence comes through in the sales funnel and reward the loyal with unique and remarkable experiences instead.

The sheer fact that your product offers the chance to win a tailored and unique experience is enough to automatically give you shelf appeal and set you apart from the crowd.

We recently handled prize creation and prize management for a client who was launching a product with a ‘Fire and Ice’ theme and wanted to create an experience intrinsically linked to the campaign messaging.

The objectives were, firstly, to set them apart from the crowd and, secondly, to reward their existing, loyal customers.

We created an experience where the winner was flown to Iceland to stay in the ION Adventure Hotel, and rode in a private helicopter over a live volcano before transferring by Super Jeep to another (dormant this time) volcano where a bespoke private dinner was laid out – within the magma chamber…

The effect was immediate and the impact tangible. By engaging with their customers in such a unique and remarkable way, their loyalty was rewarded and their custom retained.

However, sometimes the old methods are just as important – which is why we took the step of leaving a hamper of branded goodies in the guests’ room as a welcome gift. With a personal message included, it reaffirmed the brand message and reminded them of why they were there in a unique, personal and engaging way.

This method of rewarding or engaging customers by offering the chance to win experiences can be seen in a variety of different industries, not just FMCG.

Take Harley Davidson for example; they are currently offering potential customers the chance to win ‘The Tour of a Lifetime’ if they take a test drive. Now, more than ever, brands are seeing the benefit of experiences as incentives for customer acquisition and retention.

Creating a VIP Community

Moving on from the world of rewarding the individual, there is an increasing interest in the value of VIP community events and the opportunity for an elite few to share an experience with others in a similarly prestigious position.

In the same way that a private members club creates a sense of intrigue that sparks interest in those on the outside and pride from those within, a private VIP member’s community in the FMCG market can have an incredible impact on loyalty.

Many luxury brands have already taken this approach to rewarding VIP customers including Bentley, Rolls Royce and Johnnie Walker. They are increasingly using group experiences rather than more traditional gifting initiatives.

An event offers a brand an incredible opportunity to amplify its values and core message through creative and well-curated experiences helping the members identify with the lifestyle association of the brand.  What’s more, a reward that is shared by a community brings into play a unique dynamic that focuses on the human need to share experiences with others and a sense of pride in being recognised as one of an elite group by their peers.

Through effective pre- and post-event, as well as on-site, communications, the value of any event can have far wider reach and offers an incredible opportunity to create a legacy and drive significant longevity for each experience, thereby maximising Return on Investment.

Collateral such as images, videos and sound bites from these events can be repurposed to give those aspiring to be in the VIP club a glimpse into this exclusive world (and thereby encourage them to work towards this).

The combined budget of a group event can allow for otherwise unachievable experiences to be accessed and created.  The buying power of pooled reward budgets can often enable a group to negotiate the very best deals and open doors otherwise closed to the general public.

For a VIP group event, the challenge is always to create a ‘money-can’t-buy’ experience that is quite literally a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity.  In recent years, we have organised everything from a complete buyout of Richard Branson’s Necker Island for a VIP group to camping in Alaska in search of bears and a supercar rally through the UAE.

So whether you are looking for a prize promotion to influence the purchasing decision at the point of sale, or thinking of engaging with a community of loyal brand advocates, always think of how you can Reward to Retain.

Andrew Rae is Head of Promotional Marketing at The Black Tomato Agency, which designs and manages award-winning experiences that engage with customers.

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Digital promotions and couponing can help FMCG brands build or maintain their share of supermarket shelf space, says Stuart Sankey of Quotient

The UK retail environment, particularly the grocery multiples sector, has always been fiercely competitive – historically, much of that competitiveness centered around the Big Four (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrison’s,) challenging each other for increased market share, as well as Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brand owners battling one another for shelf space for their brands.

The arrival of the German discount grocers Aldi and Lidl (in 1990 and 1994 respectively) and their rapid expansion from 2010 proved to be significant because their success was based on a different business model – a no frills approach and less variety in-store.

A typical Aldi or Lidl store stocks around 2000 items, whereas a Big Four supermarket may stock anywhere between 30,000 to 90,000 items. The undoubted success of Aldi and Lidl has caused a massive shake-up amongst the UK’s Big Four, which in practical terms means that it is now significantly more difficult for FMCG brand owners to achieve and maintain a product listing in the major supermarkets.

Some relatively well known brands have suffered the ignominy of a de-listing in a major supermarket, although it is smaller brands that are being hit hardest as smaller brands lack the marketing budget of the more established names.

What Can FMCG Brands Do To Protect Their Listing?

The Big Four supermarkets are looking for brands that can help drive footfall into their stores – and prove it! They want products that help them with their business model, and FMCG marketers who can demonstrate that their brand fits into this scenario.

Here are some ways you can support your listing:

• Drive Consumer Demand Using Digital Retailers will want to see evidence of ‘reach’ from your marketing plans – and that usually means including digital elements. Make sure that you are not just driving awareness of your products, but actually adding strong call-to-actions to your campaigns that give consumers a reason to go into the store and buy your product.
• Harness Social Media Brands that make the time to invest in Social will reap the rewards. The low barriers to entry mean that smaller FMCG brands that put resources into building a community around their products will improve their chances of driving word of mouth and awareness. If you have an audience on Social Media that you can drive in-store for a promotion or special offer this will help in your listing conversations with retailers.
• Demonstrate Demand with Data Plans and marketing calendars are great, but you will need to demonstrate with data that your promotional activity works. One way to demonstrate effectiveness is by creating consumer demand via promotional offers delivered through retailer loyalty programmes. Another way, which is retailer agnostic, national and scalable, is to use digital printable coupons in your marketing activities – when the consumer redeems them in-store they can be tracked to not only store level but right back to the individual you engaged with online, allowing you to continually drive re-purchase and loyalty cost effectively.
• New Product Launch Activation Consider extending the shelf life of new product launch promotions or campaigns by continuing to provide savings and discounts via a coupon after the in-store promotional activity has ended. This can encourage consumers to continue to buy the product, increasing the likelihood that it will become part of their regular purchase repertoire.

Stuart Sankey is European Sales Director of Quotient Technology Limited (formerly Coupons.com Limited), a leading European digital promotions and media platform that connects FMCG brands, retailers and consumers. It recently launched Shopmium  in the UK, a mobile-first proposition that enables FMCG brands to win on mobile.

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Duracell and the Great Run Series have announced that the Great North Run will feature pacemakers for the first time ever when the runners take to the streets of Tyneside on Sunday 11th September – and the first ever pacer will be Ryan McLeod, son of Mike McLeod, the first ever winner of the Great North Run.

Duracell has worked with the Great Run Series to recruit 50 experienced runners who will serve as pacemakers for the huge numbers of runners taking part.

As well as providing the pacers to help runners maximise their own performance, Duracell is helping runners of the Great North get the ultimate motivation. The Great North Run will feature the debut of the ‘Duracell Power Zone’. Located at Mile 10, one of the toughest stretches of the Great North Run, the Power Zone is designed to give runners a boost just when they may be struggling to keep going.

The Power Zone will feature music, cheering fans and a big screen displaying messages of support for runners and their pictures as they go by. Duracell will also be helping spectators cheer on their friends and family using the Duracell #PowerBoards. These customisable boards will allow fans to write their own personalised messages for runners as they go past.

The pacers will be the running embodiment of the Duracell Bunny, one of the nation’s most loved brand mascots, helping and encouraging runners to run for longer as they take on the half marathon. The innovation in the race is designed to help runners of any ability pace their race safely and successfully.

Founded in 1981, this is the first year that the Great North Run will feature pacemakers. Ryan McLeod, the son of Mike McLeod who won the first ever Great North Run in 1981 and again in 1982, has competed for Team GB at the European and World Cross Country Championships and is the 2015 British Half Marathon Champion.

The pacemakers in the Great North Run will be kitted out as the iconic Duracell Running Bunny, as part of the Series sponsor’s campaign to help runners unlock their power within and go for longer. The Duracell Bunny Pacers have already featured in previous races of the 2016 Great Run Series.

Brendan Foster, former Olympic Bronze medallist and founder of the Great North Run said: “The Great North Run is the world’s biggest half marathon and has huge numbers of supporters on the route. In events like this it’s easy to get a little over ambitious and set off too quickly. The introduction of pacers by Duracell will be of real benefit to runners who are looking for a time and will be an excellent addition to the day.”

Alex Haslam, Duracell UK Marketing Manager said: “With our partnership with the Great Run Series we have been proud to play an active role in helping runners all over the UK unlock their own power and improve their performance. Duracell lasts longer than the competition and we’ve been helping the runners of the UK last for longer throughout the Great Run Series. By bringing our iconic mascot, the Duracell Bunny, to the race in the form of the Duracell Bunny pacers, we’ve been able to help runners in a way that fits perfectly with what we believe in as a brand.”

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Ahead of the Great Newham London Run taking place this Saturday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Official Partner of the 2016 Great Run Series Duracell has released a new film that celebrates three of the UK’s most inspiring runners.

Duracell is officially powering the 12 race series that sees 180,000 runners compete annually across the UK and includes marquee events such as the Great Manchester Run, the Great Newham London Run – which concludes with a lap inside the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – and the world’s biggest mass participation running event, the famous Great North Run.

The partnership also includes turning the race pace makers into the iconic Duracell Bunny at each race to champion their role in helping runners go for longer.

The brand is also reviving its iconic ‘running bunny’ commercial in a TV campaign later this summer.

In the new film, each of the three ‘hero’ runners tells the story of their own struggles and how running has helped them ultimately triumph. The three runners are:

• Christopher Goddard – a 25 year old who was diagnosed with MS last year;
• Maxine Langtree (pictured) – a 68 year old who started running at 66 and is now running 10 kilometres alongside people 50 years her junior;
• Emma O’Gorman – having quit smoking and started running, Emma is now much healthier and an example for anyone looking to improve their health.

The film is part of Duracell’s campaign to help runners of the UK unlock their own power within to go further.

Brendan Foster, former British Olympic medallist and founder of the Great Run Series, says: “Sport at the elite level is for only the dedicated few. For the vast majority it’s about converting the inspiration we get from champions in their field into personal goals. Films like this are very valuable in helping encourage people to get out and get active. I’m delighted that Duracell, a new sponsor of The Great Run Series this year, are helping to encourage greater participation in running across the UK.”

Alex Haslam, Duracell UK Marketing Manager, adds: “For all runners, motivation is a really important factor in them performing at their best. As part of our campaign we really want to help UK runners maximise their own performance and do the best they can, and we hope that the example given in this film by these three incredible individuals can help inspire the runners of the UK on to bigger and better things.

The film can be viewed on Duracell UK’s YouTube channel. 

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