HBA Show Debrief: P&G Leads with Retail Innovation

Creative collaboration with retailers is an important part of Procter & Gamble's overall marketing strategy, says Susan Arnold, president of the company's Global Personal Beauty and Global Feminine Care operations. During a keynote address at this week's Health and Beauty America Expo, Arnold stressed the need for innovation in retail marketing. "The retail environment sets the stage for the consumer shopping experience with our brands," said Arnold, "and innovation at the shelf can drive category growth and increase profitability for both the retailer and the brand." Case in point: the hair-care aisle. Shoppers looking for the right hair-care products are often hindered by bewildering variety, lack of information, and confused presentation. In many stores, Arnold noted, "the shopping experience in hair-care is no different than buying a can of beans or motor oil." P&G is currently working with more than 15 retailers to improve the aisle by simplifying the experience and providing more consumer information. Some of the solutions they've hit upon, she said, include providing educational information and grouping together similar products such as premium salon brands or ethnic items. In a more-efficient aisle, "consumers will spend half the time [they previously did] finding product and more time browsing and discovering product," Arnold said. P&G's efforts have grown the hair-care category 10% to 44% at participating retailers, she said. Among other insights presented at the HBA Expo: Retailers and brand marketers "forget to take into consideration actual customers" when deploying interactive kiosks, said Tom Moseman, senior vp of shopping researcher Envirosell. "Are you designing your display to meet the realities of its use,or is it merely decorative?" he asked. Durability, functionality, and location are key factors that should be considered before installing kiosks, he said. More customers buy when walking along curved paths then they do when walking straight ahead, for the simple reason that curved paths create a wider field of vision, advised Martin Roberts, president of retail design firm Grid2 International. (See Collaborative Store Design in Related Articles for a case study from Grid2.)Women should be treated to a "feeling of beauty" and a few moments of luxury when they're shopping for cosmetics, advised William Ecker, CEO of retail-merchandising company Diam International, and Mike Indursky, vp of marketing for Maybelline. Echoing the words of P&G's Arnold, the pair advised marketers and retailers to remember that "not too far from where she's buying cosmetics, she's also buying detergents and diapers," and therefore could use a more-pleasurable experience. One advantage of working with a single P-O-P supplier instead of multiple vendors is that a single provider can "turn on a dime," said Marie Antonelli of Unilever, which now works exclusively with Shorewood Packaging. "When we need something done, they do it right away," she said. "Brands have multiple personalities" depending on the store they're in, and therefore must be able to adapt their core identity to different retail environments, said Andrew Edelman, executive vp of sales and marketing for P-O-P supplier Henschel-Steinau. The Health and Beauty America Expo was held Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in New York City.

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