What Not to Do

What do retailers want? Here are key mistakes marketers continually make, as seen by William Rudolph, directory of fixtures and equipment purchases at the drug chain CVS Inc., Woonsocket, R.I.:If it's going to lose space, don't do it. "Many divider systems are too thick, and they aren't calibrated for our shelf widths," he explains. Losing an eighth-inch for each divider may not seem like much -- until the last facing of eight facings on the shelf sticks off the side by an inch. "We're not going to let a product hang over the edge of the shelf," he says. "So we've lost a facing just to add a divider. Real estate is too damn expensive to lose facings."Make it easy to execute and maintain at the store level. "A lot of programs organize a lot of complicated products, but they're impossible to maintain, or to receive replacement parts if something breaks," he says. For instance, lipstick displays "are a giant pain," with colors continually changing and needing tiny plastic dividers that fall out whenever someone touches the unit. "We have an army of people in our stores, and they spend their lives making sure those little plastic lipstick pieces are where they belong."First focus on the basics. "If a display system is going to make the product pop and increase sales, that's great. But not if it's a tradeoff that takes up facings or eliminates our ability to carry an SKU. If it does, how do we make that up?"Know your limits. "I hate to sound snobby, but your company has to be a certain size to even do business with CVS. It can be a major commitment." For instance, CVS asked one supplier to drop-ship its program to all stores in a one-week window. The vendor agreed, then called back to say that achieving that would mean renting forty 40-foot trailers, even if it could even find the labor to label and ship in that time. "They were a huge company, and they didn't have the wherewithal to accomplish it," he says. "I hadn't thought about their logistics problems for supplying us, and it's becoming a vital ingredient."

What Not to Do

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