Grin & Share It

A California reader found this interesting floorstand in his neighborhood Safeway store. What's so special about it? Two arch-competitors -- Intuit and H&R Block -- have to keep the peace as their prime products -- TurboTax and TaxCut -- are positioned side-by-side on the same shipper display."Grin-and-share-it" merchandising is not unprecedented. Anyone deeply involved in category management schemes knows that occasionally, a retailer will call a lunch meeting, sit the dominant brand down at the table with its smaller competitors, "share" various display designs for revamping the in-line shelf presentation, and most important, determine how the cost of all of this will be apportioned among the participants. (The brand participants, that is. Mr. Retailer almost never picks up the check.)What's unusual about the display pictured here is that it revolves around a relatively low-cost, space-efficent shipper -- not some sprawling, complicated and costly gondola re-set project. Mark it down as yet another low-water marker in the stormy seas of retailer-versus-CPG relations.Based on a quickie call-around to some P-O-P producers, it seems that at least one other retailer (said to be big, blue and fond of smiley faces) is thinking along similar lines. We've also heard reports of displays for as many as four brands that are forced to squeeze into a small endcap-sized sandbox and play nice. While H&R Block and Intuit may not like it, Safeway has a certain logic going for it: TurboTax and TaxCut dwarf all other competitors in the category, so this simple display instantly creates a reasonably comprehensive "department" wherever it's placed; The tax-season sales window is very small, so there's simply no time for fussing about it -- grab any space you can; Intuit and H&R Block products already sit next to each other on main shelves in computer stores everywhere else, so why get upset in a supermarket?Still, I'd love to sit in on the Safeway presentation the day they propose the world's first Bud Light/Miller Lite shared shipper display. Just don't forget to invite the riot police. Speaking of arch-rivals, I never understood why Best Buy was so hell-bent on stripping the demonstrator displays for Xbox, PlayStation II and Nintendo of their distinctive trade dress (globular glowing green, shiny metallic and purple, respectively) these past few years. After Best Buy installed their nice but very uniform-looking demonstrator row in their stores, the only discernable difference among the three platforms became the color of the clothes of the kids who are always hogging the controllers.(Okay, I'll admit it -- I am among the 24% of the game buying public who, according to brand new Nielsen data, are over the age of 40. And there are a lot of us out there. I was at an industry dinner recently where every guy at the table confessed to routinely slaying dragons or shooting secret agents at the end of stressful days.)The new Xbox 360 design that appeared in my e-mail this morning (and which is coming to stores in November) is white with gray-chrome and yellow accents. PlayStation III and big upgrades from Nintendo are on the way for early next year. I hope Best Buy has the sense to let them all fly their brand colors in their own way.

Grin & Share It

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