Lowering Costs with a Managed Marketing at-Retail Solution - Part 1

Part 1

Remember 2005, 2006 or even 2007? Those were the good ol’ days (the money tree days) — profitability was often great, and consolidation actually had worked, so far, in your favor.  Managing a profitable distributorship was a lot easier when the economy was strong, unemployment was low and consumers, apparently, were actively looking for the next premium grain, grape or malt beverage. Things have changed — in today’s economy, smart business owners must find ways to cut costs, improve productivity and simultaneously acquire tools that will provide competitive advantage both now and later, when the economy inevitably recovers.

In response to today’s tougher economy, Alcohol Beverage Distributors of all sizes have started adopting efficiency measures in all areas of their operations.  For example, fuel costs, often the number two or number three expense item for distributors are being addressed via fuel buying programs and, even by deploying technologies that can increase diesel engine efficiencies to 95% (a 20% improvement.)  Some distributors have tackled lighting costs by switching to “green technology” lighting.  A distributor told us that by switching from conventional to green lighting, energy costs dropped substantially as did the carbon footprint of their facility.

Other areas where distributors are improving their efficiencies include the adoption of warehouse management, route accounting, e-commerce, and other distribution execution applications.  Mobile technology deployment (netbooks, for example) has been on a tear, too, fueled by rapid advancements in capabilities, universal Internet access and slashed prices.

Finally, dozens of distributors have recently adopted promotional management systems to help them lower their Marketing at-Retail expenses.  These point-of-sale (POS) initiatives are often a distributor’s number two or three expense item.

With a POS management solution, you can:

• Reduce sign and menu reworks by as much as 98% and dramatically lower your POS costs
• Produce 15% - 20% more signs with your existing resources
• Improve POS time-to-market by days over your competitors
• File and receive your marketing co-op recovery allowances automatically and rapidly  

I’ll discuss these benefits in Part 2 of this blog.

— Mark Fullerton