P-O-P People to Watch: 2006

This summer, P-O-P Times called for nominations of rising stars in merchandising. The editors compiled the nominations, reviewed the bright choices and selected the next class of up-and-coming in-store marketers.The interviews published in P-O-P Times were edited due to space limitations. Institute members may click on the Related Articles links below for the full interviews.Insights from the Interviews"I'm in the stores all the time, and the best thing for me is talking to Wal-Mart associates, the department managers, store associates, to try to get a feel for how they feel about the category, how they feel about shoppers. Then lots of times, also just talking to shoppers in the aisle and asking them, why did you pick that product over this product? Maybe not just for the categories and brands that I work in, but I'll lots of times walk other aisles."-- J. Ryan Parks, Jarden Consumer Solutions"We have an online display catalog that captures the history of the displays that we've produced in the past, as well as new concepts that have been generated, and we're able to go on there and look at kind of some cost curves based on some directional costing practices and pick a display that will be right for that promotion."-- Becky Stapleton, Sanford Corp."When I first started, there was more opportunity to get more collateral materials on the shelf. Now it's more a relationship level with retailers and brand marketers, so going in with creative ideas, we think about ways we can work with the retailer to create promotions that will mutually benefit both of us."-- Britt Clem, Lexmark Inc."I rely a lot on my vendors. If we're doing the install, I totally depend on them for a daily status report that we're hitting all of the installs that we should be hitting and making sure they're 100% compliant. They're an extension of the team, as far as I'm concerned, and we treat them as such."-- Anthony DeCaria, Virgin Mobile USA"We started to create testing that reflected the supply chain, meaning we'd build the display, stack it, put it in high humidity for a period of time, create a vibration test that would simulate going from a co-packer to a DC. It sounds like a lot, but ... there's always that jump of faith when you make something and wait for that phone call when it's totally destroyed, and that cold sweat runs down your back. I remind myself, and I remind my vendors, would you rather have that cold sweat at the testing lab or at retail?"-- Bill Kambol, Nestle Purina PetCare"Can I make things 100% recycled, sustainable, reusable? Absolutely, but that comes at a price -- a price we can't afford because the materials have not come down to the level where they can be widely used. Can I make it 30%, 40%, even 20% eco-friendly? Every little bit helps, and we do the best we can."-- David Curtis, The Timberland Co."When a program comes down from retail, we do three surveys. We do a distributor survey to make sure that we understand what they liked and didn't like -- everything from ease of execution, simple to understand, materials, etc. We do an internal salesforce survey, asking them, 'did I give you the right tools to sell it, could you communicate it cleanly to retailers?' Then, we'll do consumer surveys. We want to see if we're top of mind, test recall."-- Michael Hand, Miller Brewing Co.

P-O-P People to Watch: 2006

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