Track and Measure Your POS Marketing Investment - 2014

Do you think you’re spending too much on at-retail promotions?

Whether you answered Yes or No - How do you know? - Unless you measure it first!

These are not meant to be trick questions!

Most of OnTrak’s customers and prospects feel they are spending too much on Point-of-Sale (POS) Marketing. Some feel they are spending too little. And occasionally we find one who feels their spending is just about right.

The truth is that often times they don’t know. Or they’re just guessing.

Based on our experience in the Alcohol Beverage Distribution segment, unless you have the tools to effectively track and measure your at-retail marketing initiatives, you can’t know what you’re getting for your spending. In addition, if you can’t determine your return-on-investment, you can’t manage your POS investments.

Bottom line: If you don’t measure, you can’t manage.

The alcohol beverage industry spends at least three-quarters of a billion dollars ($750,000,000) annually on retail promotions. According to POPAI, this number has continued to grow an average of about 7% annually even through the ‘Great Recession’.

I would think if you were an alcohol beverage distributor, you would want to analyze and evaluate your retail promotions just because it represents a lot of money; and POS is known to have the greatest impact in turning a shopper into a buyer.

According to the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), certain forms of POS are more effective than others. ARF studies have indicated that some POS “produces sales lifts twice the size of others.” 

Do you know what POS works best for your brands and products? Do you know the return on investment (ROI) your POS generates? If you don’t know the answers to these questions you may be getting a low or zero return on your retail promotions — or else you’re just very lucky.

The data comparing your POS spending to the top-line revenue changes during a specific POS campaign provides you with both information and knowledge about the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. This knowledge gives you a competitive advantage (if you have the tool) that will lead to profitable business management with an increase in market share.  

Almost immediately after deploying one of OnTrak’s POS tracking tools you can make information-based decisions (not gut-based decisions) about where to place your POS for maximum impact; determine what type or size of POS works best; and what delivers a message that results in the most sales lift.  

You will know whether your POS spending has been too much, too little, or just right, by using the information provided by OnTrak’s applications. The long-term impact is that OnTrak enables you to create POS campaigns that have a high probability of success. By tracking and measuring your POS process, you’ll know what works. No more printing a bunch of POS, placing it in the market, and hoping it works.

Who is likely to triumph: Those who really know what works OR those who are just guessing!

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