Marketing Plan Builder | Merchandising

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The Types of Plans
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The Strategic Plan

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Market review
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Product
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Price
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Place
Distribution
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Promotion
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Merchandising
Public relations & publicity
Corporate communications
Direct and database marketing

Marketing budget

Financial statement

Action plan and timetable
Review and evaluation

Glossary

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Merchandising

Good merchandising precipitates impulse purchasing

Merchandising is the effort you apply to make your products more prominent and visible at point-of sale. These activities include:

Influencing the position in-store at which your product is placed.
Negotiating proportionately more display space for your products than competitors' products receive.
In the case of supermarket products ensuring your products are shelved at eye level.
Negotiating secondary display sites (often known as off-location displays) in addition to normal shelving. Many stores use the demand for in-store 'real estate' as an important revenue source.
Drawing attention to your products with special display materials such as posters, show cards, price tickets, elaborate cutouts, showcases and display stands, sample books, customer flyers and corporate brochures.

Many companies go to the extent of employing specialised merchandisers whose primary function is go from store to store to ensure their companies products are displayed according to agreed shelf layout schemes and that products are displayed in the most eye catching manner. Merchandisers also physically build large product displays as authorized by the store's head office or store manager.

Large consumer goods organizations often go to the extent of devising plan-o-grams on behalf of the store chain or group. Plan-o-grams set out recommended shelf layouts for the entire product category including competitors' products. Plan-o-grams ensure that a company's products receive at least (but preferably more) proportionate shelf space to market share.

You cannot overestimate the value of your product being shown to advantage in-store as this can provide a significant competitive advantage. It can also lead to valuable impulse sales i.e. sales that were not planned or premeditated by customers.

In-store merchandising activities are all the more valuable because they take place in a location where your product is actually available. This can be more effective than expenditure on media advertising for example since customers have to 'bridge the gap' between seeing or hearing the advertised message and being in a position where they can purchase the product.

Public Relations and Publicity

Publicity has more credibility than paid advertising.

Public relations is the wide ranging mix of methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favourable relationship with different 'publics' such as consumers, shareholders, employees and government. Aspects include publicity, seminars and customer functions, corporate entertainment, product launches, government lobbying, community involvement, networking, and sponsorships.As well as creating favourable publicity, public relations is also sometimes used to minimise or 'hose down' negative publicity.

Publicity is part of the larger concept of public relations involving the process of securing editorial features in print and electronic media where the space (or time) is not paid for. Publicity tends to have more credibility than paid advertising and can be very cost effective as the only costs are those incurred in developing the media releases and in persuading the media to use them.Public relations consultants are often journalists who have close relationships with the media and have the expertise to 'slant' a media release so that it is suitable for publication.

Publicity is often described as a marketing stepchild because it is relatively underutilized in relation to other marketing mix elements. Publicity generally provides more credibility to a product or service than paid advertising. The vehicle used to submit items to the media is the media release – a statement prepared by the company or their public relations consultants. The media release sets out the facts and figures of the story and provides contact details for further information.

The main test of media releases suitability for publication is newsworthiness. Products or services that can support stories of interest to readers, listeners, or viewers are those most likely to be used by editors. Press releases based on mere 'puffery' about products or services are usually not considered suitable for publication. Some localised or specialised publications can be persuaded to publish editorial articles if press releases are supported with paid advertising.

Many small businesses are able to get articles published in local newspapers, which have less strict guidelines on what constitutes newsworthiness than mainstream media. Published stories are usually more corporate than product oriented. Local sponsorships and 'human interest' stories are often effective in gaining local publicity.

Restaurant reviews are good examples of how publicity can promote a business. Other examples of articles being suitable for press releases are those relating to a business winning awards, human interest stories, situations in which a business creates new employment, achieves an R&D breakthrough or has a community involvement slant.

Corporate Communications

This is the diverse range of essential everyday printed and electronic 'sales tools' needed to respond to sales enquiries, use in direct mail campaigns, keep in touch with customers and prospects, and to inform customers, employees and shareholders of developments within your organisation.

Corporate communication items include:

Corporate brochures
Product catalogues
Newsletters
Sales presenters
Presentation folders
Flyers and mailers
Annual reports

With the universality of the World Wide Web, print is increasingly being supplemented with many forms of electronic communication formats such as web site links to pdf (portable document formats) documents and database broadcast e-mailing.

A supply of on hand multi-purpose corporate communication materials are a prerequisite to any firm's sales and marketing requirements and should be the first item in every marketing budget.

Many printers offer a complete design service in the production of these materials. There are also many freelance graphic designers and graphic design studios equipped to provide a comprehensive service inclusive of copywriting design, photography, artwork, pre-press and printing supervision.

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