POS Promotion Management — Top Challenges of Consumer Goods Companies

Industry Study

In a recent study conducted by IDC Manufacturing Insights, Consumer Goods companies, including beverage companies, confirm they are spending a significant amount of money on Point-of-Sale (POS) Promotions. The survey lists the Top 10 Challenges these companies are facing, the most significant being that POS promotion spending is their second largest expense after Cost of Goods Sold.

Results of the Study

Of the Top 10 POS Promotion Challenges of these Consumer Goods Companies, five of them are addressed with a POS Marketing Management System which is currently available in the market. The following chart specifically shows these five challenges and their ranking within the Top 10:

Beverage Alcohol Distributors

Like consumer goods companies, beverage companies, including alcohol beverage distributors are facing similar challenges. POS is typically their second largest expense item after payroll. In fact most report that POS costs are out of control. 

Distributors don’t have the ability to easily determine the beverage sales that resulted from their POS marketing investments. They lack the automated tools to accurately track, measure and manage these POS investments vs. the sales results.

Bottom line they don’t have the data at their fingertips to make better business decisions about their POS investment.

Current Industry Thinking

If you believe the current industry thinking - that more than 70% of buying decisions are made by shoppers while they are in the store - you might be more willing to accept that tracking and measuring POS produces data that shows the actual performance of your POS marketing campaigns.  Armed with this information, you would be able to determine which signs, menus and messages were most effective in converting shoppers into buyers.

Once you know the most effective POS types, their best placement and the most successful messages, you can begin to focus your marketing budget for the greatest impact.

Leveraging Point-of-Sale Marketing

A growing number of beverage wholesalers are turning to Point-of-Sale (POS) Marketing Management systems to help improve sales and business performance through the tracking, measurement and management of POS Marketing campaigns and materials including: custom and permanent signage, custom beverage menus and beverage samples.

Wholesalers as a group are spending more money than ever before on POS in an effort to “win the war” where the sales battles take place — at the point-of-sale or point-of-purchase. Many distributors are adopting these POS tracking systems in response to supplier’s accelerated efforts to source cash from wholesalers by further pushing POS marketing costs down to them.

Wholesalers are being held to a higher standard of proof-of-placement by their suppliers. So, in order to qualify for marketing bill-back recovery, the distributors must provide complete and accurate data to their suppliers. With complete POS life-cycle management, distributors now have all the data they need to receive the maximum, allowable bill-back recovery from their suppliers.

To learn more about OnTrak Software POS Marketing Management solutions and the way they address all these challenges please click this button: