Hot dogs and sausages had the lowest display presence at retail level out of 45 consumer packaged goods brands such as Coca-Cola, Heinz and Pepsi during the summer, according to analytics firm Quri.
Over the last two months the company, which specialises in performance-driven merchandising, has tracked how a number of popular consumer brands are displayed to the public in Walmart and Target stores. By analysing on and off-shelf availability, Quri is providing food manufacturers with data on the ways products are displayed in supermarkets to help firms drive growth.
Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs, Ball Park Brand Hot Dogs and Applegate Sausages – the three surveyed meat brands – had a display presence of 13% for Memorial Day and 11% for the Fourth of July. The average for this period was 36% and 29% respectively. This was the lowest out of all 45 products, but the company said there a few things businesses can do to increase sales by at least 5%.
Availability concern
“Manufacturers can maximise their merchandising by ensuring consistently high levels of on-shelf availability,” Justin Behar, CEO and co-founder of Quri told GlobalMeatNews.
“It is important to monitor this routinely and make sure products are fully available on-shelf, especially right after a power period where we tend to see OSA (on-shelf availability) levels drop. In addition, manufacturers can maximise their displays by increasing the level of execution and the quality of execution – the right locations and display types that generate the highest sales lift.”
While hot dogs and sausages had the worst display presence, Quri’s data shows that nearly every brand in the study had “significant gaps” in on-shelf availability, particularly during the key dates over the summer. The research shows on-shelf presence levels are 20 points below the 98% rate reported by the industry when using “inadequate monitoring strategies,” the company reported. But keeping summer displays fully stocked and moving displays from the home aisle to other areas of the store can lift sales.
“In an industry challenged for growth, uncovering a significant and highly achievable growth opportunity is welcome news,” said Behar in a statement. “Through routine reporting based on what shoppers actually see on-shelf, leading brands are increasing OSA levels on a store-by-store basis by both fixing routine execution problems and diagnosing more systemic forecasting issues.”