How to get your products listed at the main retailers?

Each country, each retailer but also each manufacturer has its own procedures, habits and tricks. The best way to get your listing of course is doing your homework well and give the retailer an A-brand approach based on thorough local market research, a proper account plan and an A&P planning and budget that shows the retailer that you are making a serious commitment to create a success for both parties. But even at the top companies today this approach cannot always be used in all countries and a tight time plan can force you to use other means to secure distribution in order to get or allocate the required advertising budgets.

Speed of internationalisation is faster than the traditional planning of marketeers and if products are not launched quickly in more countries competition can outpace you. Advertising budgets are needed today at levels that do not justify a slow or steady growth but they should create a quick increase in momentum. Even the largest brands today can be easily blocked by some retailers that slow down the listing. And who dares to put advertising budgets on the table that are far higher than existing or even predicted total sales values.

A rather rough average for advertising space creating adequate awareness for a new product in the target group housewives 20-50 of age is 50.000 Euro per million inhabitants in a country. Of course this is a ball park figure that is also depending on total advertising in the category, the complexity of the message, the impact of the commercial or print ad etc. No company will spend that budget when not a realistic sales value is expected for which you will likely need over 50% weighted distribution before the real advertising can start. If the high upfront budget is not available it depends on your capacity and creativity to make the retailer your partner and give him a better share in the project, be it a simple better margin, special packaging features, and possibly even a privat label for a comparable product in which you should always keep your branded strategy as long term goal. If the product or concept is a real novelty the privat label approach must be avoided by the manufacturer and at the same time it will be the real bait for the retailer.

The very best way to approach the retailer is first to understand the real needs of the retailer and of the buyer(s) involved. Of course it is their job as well to look for new products, new categories and market trends. It is our experience that many manufacturers forget to make a real dive in the retailers store, see products, talk to shop management and even the staff stocking the shelves. No Nielsen or IRI figures can replace the eyes of the wondering client. Before ever starting selling to a retailer you should have visited recently his stores 5-10 times and try to get a feeling on what the retailer implicitly wants or needs. This should not be done at the latest stage of product development and for real successful products today the need of the retailer should probably prevail to that of the end user. Not an easy statement for marketeers but reality today. So consider to develop your next product first from the store instead of the kitchen or the moment of usage. It might make your chances for listing far better.