When it comes to seasonal promotions, we’re seeing products on the shelves earlier than ever. Easter eggs in store as early as December last year left consumers baffled as they hadn't even completed their Christmas food shop yet!
We spoke to our experts from across our group of agencies to get to the bottom of this shift in seasonal execution. Why the rush? Are factors such as securing space before competitors and getting a head start on sales the real reasons? Or is there something else we need to know...?
Paul Horne, Channel Lead for Britvic at McCurrach shared his thoughts on what brands need to consider...
How far in advance do brands need to put their products in store? This depends on what their activity is and when the promotions go live. I would anticipate product landing at a store level four to six weeks prior to it needing to be there, so they've got it in advance for any impactful displays.
Has that changed recently? I think confectionery companies are really jumping on the bandwagon. We went out on Christmas Eve and there were Easter eggs out, which was just insane. So, I think confectionery brands are way ahead of the curve and that impacts not only their field marketing strategy, but others as you have to react to what's happening in store. In January we’re already seeing restricted space in store for incremental displays, because it's being taken up by Easter confectionery. So other categories are already losing opportunities based on Easter, with seasonal execution starting three months in advance.
I always try to think if I'm a shopper, how do I shop? Have I bought an Easter egg this year? No, why would I? it's January. I'm a casual shopper and we’re in the Tesco down the road two to three times a week rather than doing a big food shop. Have we picked an Easter product up? No. Have I bought a Valentine's card yet? No. In my opinion flooding the market doesn't necessarily drive that behaviour. What it does is send out a clear subliminal message. If I think about Easter, the two colours that immediately spring to mind are the purple of Cadbury's and yellow of many other Easter Eggs products. So, by the time I get to Easter and I'm thinking of buying Easter eggs for the kids, I'm thinking of mini eggs for that reason.
When I look back at Christmas, the feedback we got from our client was that we were up on all of our values. I kind of challenged that and said, well, hang on a minute, because our competitor was sending stuff in in September. We were sending stuff in the third week in December. How did we win? What transpired was that competitors were flooding the market with one product and people weren't always buying the same product.
We almost created a supply and demand issue with the likes of Pepsi and J2o because we weren't supplying enough of it. So, by the time we got to the back end of Christmas people were fed up with some of our competitors’ products. Meanwhile our product was landing and started selling through at a rate of knots, whereas competitor brands were still sat there with 15 pallets in store. Therefore, although it felt like competitors were winning by getting products in earlier, they are actually creating problems later. It’s all about getting the right balance when it comes to seasonal promotions and stock availability.
If I think about confectionery, securing the space ahead of time is a key factor. Brands like Cadbury will send in multiple units in advance of a seasonal promotion. So it's all on the prefilled units. They might send forty of those into a store, but if they secure that space in January that 40 units will dictate that product is going to be in the same space and the same location, right the way through up until and including Easter. Whether it's a strategy that works in terms of sales, I’m not sure but in terms of securing the space and restricting competitors and the likes of brands like us, it absolutely works.
My advice to brands is that you need to go earlier. We need to start looking at landing stock earlier. However, for some brands it’s not essential to increase sales as I have experienced with my client. However, I still think there needs to be a realignment of promotional activity in store that supports some of the products and whether they need to send bulk in earlier.
Gareth McCullough, Client Account Manager at Standout gives an insight into how he tackles seasonal execution…
The early seasonal execution doesn’t have a big impact on us as our client doesn’t do anything specifically for Valentine's Day or Easter. The brand has some premium cakes with messages on it for Valentine's Day, Easter and other seasonal events. However, instead of having a Valentine's Day message and then a different Mother's Day message, this year they've made it more generic and put ‘with love’ on the package. This means they can keep it on shelves for longer as it’s not as distinctive as a Valentine’s Day product. It then naturally becomes a Mother's Day product. That’s one of the changes Premier have made for their premium cake product by adapting the message. Now it can just flow through and uncover 2 seasonal events, as opposed to 2 different batches of promotional stock.
Manufacturers try to secure as long as season as possible because it's all about repeat purchase. We see examples of this through the likes of Nestlé and Cadbury with their sweet tubs. At Christmas we see these products appearing as early as October, with consumers making their first purchase then. They then buy again in November and once more in December, stocking up for friends and family.
Field sales teams will try to get in first before competitors but there is some stuff that’s head office agreed and between the manufacturer and the retailer.
Jamil Bheepathee, Client Account Controller at McCurrach shares his insights…
Brands are keen to get time sensitive stock out as quickly as possible. They’ve built their seasonal plans and they're trying to ensure that they hit the markers, especially if it's promotional packaging and products that are time sensitive. For example, during Easter or for us sporting events such as the World Cup, there's a window that it happens and after that it becomes obsolete. So, brands need to get the stock in their forecasts and the volume in early so that they can sell more of it.
When we think about events like Halloween, which has grown massively over the years, confectionery brands are utilising it for marketing purposes to really push their volumes and products. So, although we’re not in the same category we do see that as being a bit of a challenge for us because space becomes more of a premium because stores and outlets want to push these products out into stores early.
From a HFSS point of view, confectionery brands are not allowed to promote on the end caps. However, there are certain parts of store such as the back walls and areas as you walk into an outlet or store that is usually commanded by beers. During seasonal events when confectionery brands have got so much volume of chocolate, they sometimes utilise this space. This has an impact on non-confectionery brands like us.
We increase the number of heads that we have during those seasonal times adding Sales Surge teams. We consider events when beers are selling more as this is when we’ve got greater opportunity to drive more incremental space. When you're looking at different categories and who wins, having a field team out in store for us means that we are. We're able to maintain those relationships to ensure that our brands get the space that we require and are not being pushed out because stores are holding massive stock of chocolate. We've built those relationships up with our key retailers to continue to push our agenda all year round.