Looking to move more of your products from shelves into carts?
Once you acquire a distribution agreement for a food and beverage product, the hard part is now getting your product off the shelves. So, how do shopper marketing brands get folks to purchase their product?
It’s crucial for CPG brands to improve sales velocity as it determines overall success of their product in stores. Stores want products that are fast movers, not stagnant and collecting dust on the shelf. So, how do you set your product up for optimal selling conditions?
Before we dive into this important shopper marketing strategy, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself about your business:
- Are you trying to attract a brand new audience?
- Are you trying to expand your client base?
- Would you like consumers to switch to your brand from another brand?
It’s an approach we make a point to uncover with our clients as we dig into the strategic marketing and business goals of these CPG brands. Marketing objectives allow you to pick the right tactics to boost sales, and your business objectives will be the driving factor behind your marketing objectives.
To determine the appropriate shopper marketing tactics for your CPG brand, approach it with a scientific mindset. Always be testing. After trying different approaches in various subsets or sample audiences, you can expand and scale them to reach the most potential customers.
In fact, there are four categories of marketing tactics that improve sales velocity for emerging CPG brands. Cross-reference the following tactics with your business objectives to find the right shopper marketing strategy for your brand:
1. Incentive-based strategies
These tactics can help improve the sales velocity for CPG brands by providing an incentive for customers to try your product. Whether it be through a coupon/store rewards program or by offering samples (using brand ambassadors or by creating smaller “sample” sized portions).
Coupons encourage consumers to try the product if they are unsure of the value and don’t want a “risky” purchase should they dislike the contents, but they can run you about $1-3 per product, which is a high buy-in. Product sampling allows your marketing to be a little more targeted and can be a little less expensive, depending on the costs of distribution.
2. Leveraging your connections
Components of this strategy can be fairly easy to execute, if approached the right way. For example, using your personal network of colleagues, partners, friends and family can certainly go a long way.
You can also pursue influencer partnerships with influential members of your target audience, or accounts that review food and other CPG brands online. This may help you grow your own social media channels, which is another excellent medium to connect with your audience. Creating a giveaway or promotion on social media is another great way to get your product into the hands of your audience while fostering positive associations.
Check out our free Contest Marketing Guide to learn more!
3. Retailer-specific promotions
Your retailers can offer you shelf-tags that promote certain aspects of your business (like “local”, “women-owned”, “vegan friendly” etc.). These tags make it easy for people to shop and they will appreciate the call-out from their favorite store.
You can also partner directly with your retailer for an in-store promotion, sampling program, or to be featured in their newsletter or social media channels. Their endorsement will go a long way for some of your desired audience and can definitely influence purchasing.
We also recommend merchandising your display area within their brick-and-mortar store or paying for a banner advertisement on their website if possible.
4. Be purposeful with packaging
At the end of the day, make sure your packaging clearly explains your CPG product and its benefits (while standing out amongst your competitors) is a great way to be seen by potential customers. Consider using embedded QR or adding AR scans on your packaging and POS. As this technology becomes more widely adopted, we consider it an excellent way to stand out without breaking your budget.
Remember: Thoughtful packaging goes a long way, but it is also your prerogative to ensure as much of your audience as possible has the opportunity to see your product.
Next Steps for Improving Sales Velocity for your Brand
Here’s the good news: When you partner with a shopper marketing agency like Cliffedge Marketing, you can trust the specialists to deliver the marketing results that drive sales velocity!
