{"id":871,"date":"2013-06-04T07:12:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T12:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=871"},"modified":"2013-06-04T07:12:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T12:12:28","slug":"space-its-the-final-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=871","title":{"rendered":"Space, it’s the final frontier……"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stella_bottle_hero_v8400\"<\/a>When I introduced Krombacher in 2011, I told the wholesalers that the key to success was to get distribution in all key chains.\u00a0 While getting the sales number out of this distribution was important, the real\u00a0key was to quickly find out how the consumer would accept the brand(s).\u00a0 Assuming there was not an issue with the liquid, important factors to consider were: how was the packaging, pricing, p-o-s, mother cartons and did the product message get to the consumer?\u00a0 I felt all along that these were the keys to long-term success.<\/p>\n

\n

With the Krombacher introduction, we were fortunate to get some key authorizations early in the introductory.\u00a0 Binny’s, HEB, ABC and Total Wine, among others, all supported us.\u00a0 Because we had targeted Florida, getting Publix\u00a0to come on board was of utmost importance.\u00a0 We were fortunate to align with most of the AB network, however, once we got in to present to the Publix\u00a0buyer, we hit an unexpected wall.\u00a0 Given the introduction of Bud Light Platinum, and their\u00a0 massive marketing spend, the buyer expected a marketing program from Krombacher of similar size. \u00a0He requested a BOGO\u00a0for all 720 stores.\u00a0 The cost of entry was staggering, even for a brewery the size of Krombacher. In marketing terms, however, a BOGO\u00a0is a relatively small expense for distribution and immediate exposure given the magnitude desired by Publix.<\/p>\n

At the recent Craft Brewers Conference, Bob Sullivan, VP of Crafts for Andrews Distributing, suggested that the “SKU challenge could best be handled by the dominant craft player in the area.”\u00a0 He went on to state that the local craft brewer is more likely to ”\u00a0“look at the best interests of the retailer” and “craft expertise on schematics is ultimately the best bet for retailer profit.”\u00a0\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n

Kevin Stadler, the architect of AB’s fact-based chain selling in the 1980s, had these comments, “Ultimately, what is in the best interest of the retailer has to be defined by<\/i>\u00a0the retailer.\u00a0 What do they want out of the category?\u201d\u00a0 Kevin further emphasized that if the objective is a full range of assortment, the retailer should look at customer behavior and work with a category captain that understands that category.\u00a0 If the goal is to maximize profits, the retailer needs to work with a category captain that has a complete model for cannibalization and halo effects.\u00a0 If the object is to highlight up-and-coming products and create a beer section that begs for repeated new product trail, then the retailer would want to understand the local landscape.\u00a0 If it’s a national retailer, and they want a consistent look and feel in all markets, then the category captain should be one with a national program.<\/p>\n

The real questions should be: is it in the best interest of the retailer, not, is it in the best interest of the industry?\u00a0 Does it increase volume?\u00a0 What is the spend per basket? \u00a0And how is it beneficial to the retailer?<\/p>\n

Sully also\u00a0states, “Crafts have a disproportional space verses mainstream beer.”\u00a0 Another way of putting it, domestics have been under indexed.\u00a0 Finally, Kevin believes that “you should use the tool that matches the problem, and ultimately the retailer needs to enforce a no-bias category captain policy with key performance indicators periodically checked.”\u00a0 Space, it’s the final frontier!.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I introduced Krombacher in 2011, I told the wholesalers that the key to success was to get distribution in all key chains.\u00a0 While getting the sales number out of this distribution was important, the real\u00a0key was to quickly find out how the consumer would accept the brand(s).\u00a0 Assuming there was not an issue with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-e3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}