Gene Hoffman

Retail Customer Experience: Retailers, take back your shelves

March 5, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Over the past generation, stores lost their individuality, becoming homogenous and undifferentiated. A major factor in this lack of personality came when stores began selling space for advertising. To what degree is co-op advertising responsible for any sameness seen across supermarkets?      [more...]

When retailers operate out of fear that competition will offer something better than his/her store, they go with the flow, which is a conventional phenomena. But co-op advertising is only one of the factors involved. Is going with the flow good merchandising/marketing/retailing? No!

With so many SKUs and so many incentive pressures from suppliers for a retailer to deal with, there isn't enough time for the conventional thinking retailer to become a Trader Joe's are an "Ollie's Odyssey." And, without innovation, sales tend to trend toward price operators such Walmart and toward unique retailers such as Trader Joe's, co-op advertising not withstanding.

That raises a question for retailers and suppliers: "Who is the culprit in co-op advertising?"