MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. -- New products are a proven driver of packaged-beverage traffic in convenience stores. In the most recent IRI New Products Pacesetters list of most successful c-store product launches, eight of the top 10 slots were snatched by beverages.
Here’s how to make the most of them in the cold vault and beyond ...
A “perfect rollout” of a new product includes eye-catching signage, sampling and a coupon, hot price or buy one, get one free offer at the time of launch, says Samantha Barry, marketing manager of E.J. Pope & Son’s Handy Mart chain of 39 stores, based in Mount Olive, N.C. “I want trials as soon as the product is available and in store,” Barry says.
Retailers typically reset their cold vaults only a few times a year. So it’s important to have a flexible secondary position for new products. Suction cups inside a cooler door, a secondary cooler at the checkout or ice barrels can get the job done. Barry offers PepsiCo’s LifeWtr bottled water, which rolled out in February 2017, as an example.
“The only way we could actually get them into the stores was to use warm displays and barrels for points of purchase,” she says. “Sales were good, [but I believe] they would have been significantly better had they been able to make it into the vault.”
Some retailers like to see proven outside success of a new product before they make space for it in their stores. Others want to be first on the street. Barry will happily add a new product if she can offer a good price or promotion and if the manufacturer promotes it in her market.
“Vendor participation and planning is a huge piece of a new launch,” she says. “I like to set a plan for racks, barrels, suction cups and product delivery one week before promotional windows start. Then we can monitor the vendor sales, and stores can prep for launch.”
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