If you’re a business that produces (or sells) a product or products, we can safely assume that if you’re still in business, you understand your market. You have found a niche or created an opportunity, done the research, produced a business plan, progressed through various design and testing phases and invested some solid time and money in Branding and Marketing. If your product sits in a retail space, you then approach or are approached by outlets and eventually make some supplier deals confirming terms of trade etc. Now your product sits proudly on the shelf for all to see and assuming the back end of your business is ok (production, logistics etc) the only thing that sits between you and market domination is your competition.

Your product (let’s call it Product X) sits in a retail space amongst 5 competitors A,B,C,D and E

· You are all at roughly the same price point

· Your products share similar features and benefits

· You all invest equally in Advertising and Promotion

· And yet product C is outselling your product 2:1

· Why?

· Product C has found a way to capture the hovering hand.

What’s the Hovering Hand I hear you say? I’m glad you asked. The Hovering Hand is the moment when a consumer stands in front of your product and rather than immediately pick it up and head to a cashier they look to the left and they look to the right, then they look up and down, they begin to go over the features and benefits again and now they are also in front of your competitors. You have a potential customer who wants the product you produce, they may have even seen your ad and walked in to the store with your brand top of mind, but now you have a 1 in 6 chance of getting the sale.

This is a common occurrence and it happens wherever we shop. The last few metres of the Path to Purchase can do more to affect the outcome of a transaction than all the advertising and marketing that preceded it.

So how do we capture that hovering hand and ensure that our product is chosen over its competitors?

Eliminate the last 2 meters

This is a great strategy and the ideal situation in theory; however we all know how things should work in theory.

This presupposes that a consumer has been pre sold prior to entering the store. There are many ways to do this including some sort of incentive, trade in, loyalty schemes or captive market deals. The increasing popularity of social Media is making this space very interesting indeed, but you can never rule out a competitor beating your best offer in store.

Position and space

As in Real estate retail space is all about location location locataion, the more space you have and the better your placement the easier it will be to secure the sale.

Point of Sale

This may just be the thing that steadies the hand, a clear outline of features and benefits will help consumers remember why they wanted Product X in the first place.

Conduct Regular Audits

Don’t rely on facts and figures from your outlets or sales manager to tell you how your product is doing. Regularly send mystery shoppers in to photograph (where possible and legal) and record your in store brand health. This will help you to understand your product sales from an independent point of view.

Cheap versus Value

Brands that get a reputation for being cheap are not necessarily the ones that sell the most units. Most people have been burnt by purchasing a cheap product in the past and are now wary of the cheapest on the market (unless you have a well established brand/product that is heavily discounted). Most consumers tend to subconsciously choose a mix of price and perceived value, so make sure you think carefully about where you position your product here.

Train and Incentivise Staff

If you invest some time and effort in the store staff, they will be much more motivated to try and support you. Don’t pay them lip service though, because this can be more damaging than doing nothing.

Finally, don’t be scared to get help.

If you need to fix your car you should visit a mechanic, likewise if you need an operation you should see a doctor. There are some things you can do yourself and others that you simply shouldn’t. Often it can be more effective to outsource aspects of your business to gain truly objective insights regarding your product. There are some great organisations like beachside out there that specialise in helping to create and implement brand health strategies for products just like yours. http://www.beachside.net.au/retail_melbourne.html