Flexibility is Key to Heublein Merchandising Team

How did you get started in P-O-P?During the past 17 years, I've worked in advertising and marketing companies for a number of clients that have required point-of-sale materials as part of their marketing plans. I began as a mechanical artist (back when traditional board mechanicals were still produced) and worked in production management positions within several advertising/marketing/sales promotion agencies working on such consumer market accounts as Subway, Stanley Tools, McDonald's, Hitchcock Chair Co., Cadbury Beverages and Heublein. The agencies I worked with had a broad base of clients covering consumer, business to business, industrial and retail. This afforded me an opportunity to learn about a wide variety of production techniques. Prior to joining Heublein, I worked at Lardis, McCurdy and Barcham, a sales promotion agency, fulfilling account service and production responsibilities on various accounts including a number of Heublein's brands.What other areas have you been involved with in addition to your work in merchandising?In addition to production and purchasing, I have also worked in management, account service, business development and traffic functions. I've designed and implemented organizational processes and procedures for optimum efficiencies and purchasing controls in many of these companies. I was also partner in a marketing/advertising agency and was involved as vice president/general manager in the start-up of a company that specialized in affordable four-color printing sold through retail locations.Within Heublein's merchandising services department, working with a team of nine professionals, we are responsible for a variety of functions beyond purchasing and production of displays. We purchase and produce all of Heublein's merchandising materials, which include premiums as well as temporary and permanent displays. Working with the marketing teams, we implement programming tied to brand strategies. We also negotiate the contracts and supervise the suppliers for warehousing and logistics. We provide graphics and multi-media services within the company. We are continually challenging our processes and procedures to improve efficiencies and quality and to reduce costs. We perform annual formal evaluations jointly with our core suppliers, meet with them to review opportunities for improvement on both sides, and select "IDV North America Supplier(s) of the Year." And, we are now investigating potential benefits and opportunities for strategic alliance relationships with some of our core vendors.Have you and your team created a display or a merchandising system that you are particularly proud of, or that performed beyond expectations?Heublein's display materials are created by teams from marketing, promotions, our agencies, merchandising services and our suppliers. These teams have created some outstanding displays that have contributed significantly to the increase in sales. We, our vendors and our agencies are continually challenged to develop displays that are unique and "never done before." Displays that will ensure that our salesforce will get and hold floor space during the busy holiday periods, will draw consumers to the display and ultimately increase sales.One recent project that stands out is the Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila Dancing Cactus, which has just won a POPAI Gold OMA award. The concept of a dancing cactus that would represent the Jose Cuervo Tequila brands' hip, southwestern image was conceived by Heublein's Cuervo team. They didn't really care how it was produced but knew what they wanted. We worked with several suppliers in different mediums before the final solution was accomplished. Our suppliers were challenged with developing a pole topper that was "hip, cool, danced, looked like a real cactus, and represented the Jose Cuervo brand image." A difficult proposition with that type of shape.With Resources in Display in Cranford, N.J., Hankscraft Motors Inc., Reedsburg, Wis., and C.D. Baird & Co., West Allis, Wis., we created a solution that utilized several materials including, of all things, car foam upholstery! Apparently, this was a first in the P-O-P industry. Our suppliers were willing to challenge convention and accomplish the design goals, which ultimately resulted in a display that is truly unique. This display contributed to significant sales increases during the month of December and the salesforce is leveraging the permanence of the display with decor items to maintain floor displays throughout the Super Bowl and beyond. This display is also being considered as a repeat, with minor modifications, for next year's holiday program.What are the greatest challenges involved in creating outstanding P-O-P?The basics: good strategic fit, cost, ease of assembly, size and easy access to product, always have to be taken into consideration while creating unique, "cutting edge," eye-catching displays that do not interfere with in-store visibility. However, the two key areas that are requiring our focus and investigation right now are flexibility and customization. The competition for floor and shelf space is fierce and the displays must be flexible to accommodate the variety of store sizes, space availability and retail requirements.Our greatest challenge going forward will be to provide high-quality, cost-efficient, customized P-O-P. Not just imprinted shelf talkers and case cards, but sophisticated temporary and permanent display materials customized to the local market or retail account.As the P-O-P Hall of Fame honorees have stated in the past, the ultimate challenge is to create displays that sell product. We have to stay focused on our consumers.Do you expect to see more or less emphasis on P-O-P materials in your particular product category? Why?This is a difficult question to answer at this time. The spirits industry is investigating options for value-added consumer promotions and programming, and various brand groups are targeting strategic brand awareness advertising campaigns. These shifts may impact the allocation of dollars distributed between advertising, merchandising and promotions that will ultimately impact the P-O-P budgets.What have you found to be the most important elements of a successful program?Again, flexibility is very important to our salesforce. For many of our major promotions we will produce a variety of items that may include mass merchandisers, pole toppers, case cards, case stackers, shelf talkers, cold box decals, posters and banners. Our salesforce will utilize different elements in different retail locations depending on their size and/or requirements.What have been the most significant changes affecting the use of in-store displays or other merchandising in the past five years?In recent years, the level of sophistication of our consumers, retailers and distributors has increased dramatically, which has provided exciting challenges in P-O-P requirements for creative and production. We and our suppliers have had to look outside the normal manufacturing channels in the P-O-P industry for unique processes and materials to produce some of our displays, such as the Jose Cuervo Dancing Cactus, which utilized foam manufactured for the auto upholstery industry.How are new materials and processes impacting the production of P-O-P materials?One of the most significant changes that we have seen is the shift from traditional to computer-generated mechanicals and artwork. Approximately 80 percent to 90 percent of the mechanicals and artwork that we receive now is computer generated compared to 25 percent to 30 percent three years ago. This has had a tremendous impact on the level of sophistication and knowledge required of our agencies, our vendors, our promotion managers and merchandising services managers. We have established an internal graphic services team to review (and archive) everything to try and alleviate some of the problems we, and our suppliers, have encountered. The tendency is to provide everything off computer, but some displays are so complex in construction that they still warrant traditional mechanicals and artwork. Software upgrades and varying knowledge levels are impacting everyone and education is key to our success in embracing these technological advances.The turnaround time for delivery of projects has increased tremendously. Suppliers used to have six to eight weeks to produce programs and now some of the same types of projects have to be produced and shipped within two to four weeks. We are currently working on improvements within Heublein's P-O-S processes and systems to allow for better planning and lead-time, improved and complete communication to the field, and streamlined, user-friendly systems for P-O-S ordering, shipping and inventory management.What do you like best about your job?I have a great team of people working in my department. They are talented, knowledgeable, creative, motivated, fair, supportive of the team and most important, they all have a sense of humor. We work on a wide variety of projects that provide the creative challenge that "keeps us coming back."

Flexibility is Key to Heublein Merchandising Team

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