The Yin and Yang of Retail

by Deepak Sharma on Thursday, July 10, 2008

A very well written blog post on the relationship based on trust between Retailer and Vendors when it comes to shipping displays, running promotions and packaging.

Why would I stop a vendor from shipping displays, running promotions and changing packaging? Because I don’t trust that they know what they’re doing. I’ve seen too many hastily designed displays, too many promotions that build up like expired plaque on my planogram, and too much packaging that shows how little they understand the value of real estate. From here, it’s a short leap to understand why I’d ask for “just hand me the check book” entitlement programs. Entitlements are insurance policies against vendor marketing failures. Pay me up-front. I expect you to fail.


All this makes sense until a brand shows me that they understand what I do for a living and then proves it. Show me quantitative packaging and promotion research measured against your end users who shop in my stores. Show me how you’ll forecast it, ship it, sell it through, and then clean it up after it’s done. If you can do this, I’ll test anything you want because I’ll believe that you know what you’re doing and you won’t make a complete mess of the one thing I have that you don’t – my stores.

http://note-to-cmo.blogspot.com/2008/07/yin-and-yang-of-retail.html

2 comments

Thanks, Deepak, for your kind words! Sometimes you have to see things from the other side of the aisle to fully appreciate things.

by Stephen Denny on 1:46 PM. #

Indeed, it stresses out the blind-faith sometimes retailers develop with vendors. I have seen so many professionals developing vendor scorecard with fill rates and etc, which are important, but how vendor truly integrates with retailer's supply chain is often seen from the "one end of the aisle".

by Tushar Suryawanshi on 6:03 AM. #