• Only reliable information. Our auditors collect information and fill out a questionnaire in a special application and only at retail outlets. During each visit, the GPS coordinates of the point and time are recorded. It is not possible to create a visit outside the point. Thus, our customers are protected from data falsification.
• High research speed. Thanks to the use of modern technologies and the presence of employees throughout the Russian Federation, we carry out projects in the shortest possible time and with the specified quality.
• Any amount of research. We work with large volumes of research. Every month we can make over 10,000 visits to retail outlets throughout the Russian Federation
• Caring about your reputation. We care about the reputation of our clients, so we avoid conflict situations and, if necessary, carry out research in secret.
• Customer focus. We always strive to exceed customer expectations, both in the quality of research and the level of service. At the same time, our activities are transparent for the client - you can control the progress of the project and receive reports online.
• Working with us is beneficial. Our functional divisions are located in the region, which allows us to reduce the cost of services. In addition, our pricing policy is built in such a way that it would be profitable to cooperate with us in the long term.

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In grocery retail, they are constantly forced to organize various promotions to create a feeling of bargains.

Unfortunately, retail chains can no longer refuse to increase the share of promos, fearing an outflow of customers. The constant decline in commodity prices leads to the fact that stores become stock addicts, constantly increasing their share. At the same time, the business process in the networks is built in such a way that different departments are responsible for traffic and profitability. As a result, the marketing department is not interested in generating income, but only seeks to increase the number of checks. And everyone considers promotions to be a magic wand for this. Even 7 years ago, the share of promo was only 10%, two years ago it was at the level of 20%, now it reaches 35% -40%. Some categories are so dependent on promotions that their share reaches 70-80%.

How can such a thing be imagined? Products are sold only with a promotional discount, goods without a discount are not sold. The most dependent categories include detergents, powders, as well as coffee, tea, and expensive alcohol. The least committed to the effects of promotions are "fresh" categories - with short shelf life (Milk, cottage cheese, vegetables, chilled meat, fish, etc.). Decreasing the prices of a large number of goods leads to the fact that stocks become less and less effective, and dependence on them becomes more and more.

Miser pays twice. Where does the buyer pay?

It may seem that promotions allow consumers to benefit, but they are not. After all, any price reduction will be offset by a rise in the price of the remaining range. And the buyer will not even notice it. After all, we are able to remember only a small number of prices on the basis of which we decide how expensive the store is. While the network reduces prices for these particular . As a result, a vicious circle that is very difficult to break. Everyone wants to get the most tempting offer and as a result they do not notice how they overpay for the rest.

Chains must make a profit and are simply forced to compensate for the promotional discount on non-promotional assortment. But the thought arises - is it better to provide reasonable prices than to compensate for an insane amount of reduced prices? Unfortunately, such a prospect is not visible. After all, if the network reduces the share of promotions, it risks that the buyer will be lured away by discounts in other networks. And to assess the change in the cost of the entire food basket is quite difficult for the consumer. Therefore, the share of promotions is growing, and the cost of our grocery basket is not decreasing in any way.

It was in the last few years, due to the rapid growth of the promotion market, that it became necessary to check and control the work of promotional agencies working on sales promotion at the point of sale.
Why is there a problem of control? The answer is simple: a lot of sales promotions are based on the human factor. Promoters (main performers) are the main resource of the agency. Let's take a look at some numbers.
At the Tabacex exhibition, a certain promotional agency reported that promotions for tobacco companies are held in 73 cities of Russia by 320 supervisors and 1400 promoters.
In another large company, the Moscow merchandising department consists of about 60 people working only in priority stores - the rest are sales representatives and distributors.
About 300 promoters were involved in large-scale actions of cosmetics manufacturers in Moscow alone. I think that these figures speak quite eloquently about the need for special control mechanisms that would check all this mass of people. The fact is that people are the most complex of the resources involved in the economy. And do not hope that this resource will independently make a profit. The whole issue of proper work with personnel during promotions is beyond the scope of this article. In this case, I will confine myself to describing one of the aspects - control of the work of personnel, audit.
An audit of promotions is needed when conducting large-scale promotions. On the one hand, these are direct executors - promotional agencies, on the other - their clients. These are large, as a rule, international companies - manufacturers of goods of the FMCG category. Note that in the case of agencies, this is usually an audit of promotions, and the companies themselves order an audit of merchandising. Neither is a hard and fast rule. The circle of customers is quite narrow: about 20 specialized promotional agencies and about 50 large manufacturing companies.

The objects of audit are:
- major promotions;
- activities of large departments of merchandising;
- regional BTL-activity.

Note that the audit is not a punitive tool. The audit is designed to identify the inefficiency of ongoing promotions and further work on the errors. An audit should be seen as an informational tool with which to obtain accurate data.

The objectives of the audit can be the following (from tactical to strategic):
Identification of poorly performing employees in order to screen them out.
Basically, it is placed directly during a problematic promotion to temporarily improve its functioning (tactical goal). Then the results of the audit are provided daily in order to be able to quickly correct emerging errors.
A similar task can be an audit of merchandising, constantly carried out by employees of the company, if their salary depends on their success. In this case, a monthly audit is provided for each employee (for a group of stores, so the employee himself remains unknown) and on its basis, a bonus or de-bonus is carried out for the merchandiser.
Study of the situation (which is bad in general) and identification (localization) of problem points. As stated above, the results of an audit can affect the salaries of employees. Of course, it would be most effective to find out what typical mistakes exist, what difficulties merchandisers face. Based on this, additional training is carried out, or this information may be the basis for changes in the merchandising concept.
Investigation of problems (identified problem points) in order to identify their causes. In the future, on the basis of a detailed questionnaire, a detailed statistical analysis of the relationship between various factors and results can be carried out. It is used to identify possible causes so that they can be dealt with more effectively.
Consulting based on audit data. That is why the audit is ordered by the performers (organizers) of promotions.

Of course, the question immediately arises: who will check the auditors themselves, who will vouch for their quality of work.
- Firstly, the agency can be recommended by Clients who have already been audited.
- Secondly, there are schemes for rechecking the data obtained during the audit.
The general idea of ​​these schemes is to include inaccuracies in the data for auditors, knowing about the presence of which, they are forced to check everything. These are “false” points, cross-validation, and so on. Note that as a result of these schemes, the cost of the auditor's work increases somewhat. And this is well justified. You have to pay for quality. One of the key points is a careful approach to the selection of auditors. In our promo agency, auditors are allowed to work only after an interview with a recruitment manager with a psychologist qualification. As experience shows, this saves a lot of effort at the next stages and improves the quality of the work of the entire agency. When conducting audits, it is especially important to weed out unsuitable people before they start working.
It is appropriate to note that auditors are a kind of personnel incubator. As a rule, during the audit they receive a lot of practical knowledge, learn to identify errors. They can be trusted. Of course, not every auditor can become a good leader, but one who is not a good auditor is unlikely to get promoted. Thus, auditors are the elite among promo btl personnel. That is why the salary of auditors should be higher than the salary of those whom they check. I note that in this case we are talking about the methods of work adopted within our agency.
In some cases, one hears statements about the fact that it is better to conduct an audit on your own (internal audit). I will not argue, this has its advantages: increased efficiency, very good knowledge of the narrow specifics of one's own work. But, as practice shows, in this case, the responsible persons of the companies are involved in the audit. In this case, the audit rather acquaints the manager with the most general situation than allows a qualitative analysis of the situation. But the main goal - identifying problem points - is not achieved. This requires painstaking collection of information, its prompt processing and analysis, carried out centrally by the forces of not one person, but a team. And then the “bottlenecks” already become clear, identified on a sufficient amount of information and maximally devoid of a subjective approach. While any point of view of one person is subjective. For obvious reasons, objectivity is enhanced by the involvement of external auditors who are not associated with the client company. In the end, I’ll tell you directly about the mechanics of the work (the stages are listed in the order in which they follow).
Setting goals - without them, the audit is meaningless. Various options are listed above.
Tasks - detailing goals, developed in relation to a specific case.
This requires either a detailed concept of merchandising, or detailed and detailed requirements for promoters. Tasks are usually separate items of such detailed programs. Data for the Client - indicators are determined that reflect the state of affairs for each specific task. The fact is that the indicators must be measurable and comparable, so it is thought out how to measure certain factors.

As a result, they are divided into 2 clear groups:
measured objectively and subjectively. In the first case, the number is determined by simple counting, and in the second, by an assessment on a 5-point scale. Data form - it is determined in what form the Client wishes to receive data (tables, graphs, charts, etc.). In some cases, this is of great importance, especially when the form of providing data is important for the Client, and there is little time to provide a report. Methodology and data that are collected “in the field” - based on the data provided to the Client, a list of data that needs to be collected “in the field” and a methodology for calculating some data based on others are developed. A properly organized methodology can reduce the amount of information collected and thereby reduces the error in its collection.
Questionnaire - the data is formalized in the form of a questionnaire, the methodology is finally specified.
Writing software (software) in accordance with the methodology, questionnaire and form of data provision is necessary for storing, accurate and fast processing of information. The presence of software is especially important for large amounts of data and large questionnaires (trade audit, merchandising check). Data collection - “work in the field”.
Installing data into the database - entering personal data into the database. For greater efficiency, it is carried out by an individual employee. Data processing, quantitative report - if the previous points are correctly performed, it is performed automatically, except for those cases when in-depth analysis is required.
Analysis of information, qualitative report, recommendations - based on the quantitative report, further analysis is possible. In some cases, it is performed by the audit customer, sometimes by the contractor.
Audit is a new tool, the correct use of which improves the quality of promotions and merchandising. Therefore, its use is necessary if you want to see your BTL structure functioning well.

Ekaterina Ivina CEO of BTL agency NGN Promotions
Marketing PRO Magazine, No. 6, 2007

Trade promotions (trade promotions) or promotions to stimulate the company's sales staff to sell or display (merchandising) products of this brand, promotions to create sales staff loyalty to this brand is one of the fastest growing areas of the Russian BTL services market.

Trade promos are becoming an obligatory element of any BTL campaign for most companies. Carrying out a trade promotion campaign in support of a consumer promo event guarantees the availability of goods in the retail warehouse, excellent display of this product, as well as the loyalty of sellers to this brand. According to RAMU, the volume of the trade promotions market in 2006 amounted to $400 million and grew by 25% compared to 2005.

Companies managing a significant assortment need to thoroughly approach the planning of trade promotion events, scheduling trade promotion activity based on the seasonality of product demand, periods of marketing activity, etc. In order for the trade promotion campaign to be as effective as possible, the number of products or categories participating in the promotion at the same time should not exceed two or three. With an increase in the number of goods participating in the action, the effect of the event is rapidly declining. In each period of time, it is necessary to concentrate the attention of the internal sales staff of the company or the staff of the retail network for which the promotion is being carried out as much as possible on a narrow range of products.

Choosing the mechanics of trade promotion events

When planning to start a trade-promo activity, it is necessary to proceed from the tasks that the company sets for itself. Each task corresponds to a certain mechanics of trade promotion.

Methods for conducting trade promotional events are diverse and depend on the category of goods promoted by this promotion. One mechanism is effective and actively used by companies in the non-food market, but is not applicable to the food market. The other one is recommended for FMCG companies, and the third one is ideal for motivating the company's internal staff.

The tables show some examples of choosing the mechanics of trade promotion events based on the tasks set by the company:

After the mechanics of the promotion is determined, the planning of the event itself begins, the development of a motivation system, and the choice of trade promotion tools. In order for the assessment of the success and effectiveness of the action to become possible, it is necessary to clearly fix the planned performance indicators or KPIs (key performance indicators) in advance. Then, at the end of the action, on the basis of previously established planned indicators, the degree of achievement of the tasks set is assessed, and, consequently, the degree of satisfaction of the company with the action carried out.

Below are some of the trade promotion performance metrics we use to measure the performance of promotions for our clients.

1) When holding a promotion for retail chains personnel, to assess the degree of attractiveness of the promotion for its participants, we use the calculation percentage of participants

Definition:% of sellers who participated in the promotion from the total number of sellers in the database

Formula:% return (return rate) = number of participants in the promotion / total number of sellers

In our experience, this figure ranges from 20 to 55% and largely depends on the mechanics of the promotion, its availability, and the attractiveness of rewards.

2) to assess the overall financial performance of the stock, a standard indicator is used ROI (return on investments)

Definition: The ratio of the total net profit received as a result of holding this share to the value of the costs of this share

Formula: ROI = ((actual sales* - planned sales) X margin - share cost) / share cost

The indicator should not fall below 0 (breakeven point). It is necessary to strive for an indicator > 1 (that is, every 100 rubles invested brings an additional 100 rubles).

This calculation should ideally be based on sell-out data (sales to the end consumer), and not sell-in (sales to distributors), since distribution overstocking often occurs under the influence of such promotions.

When calculating sales as a result of a promotion, it is necessary to exclude such factors as market growth, the effect of an advertising campaign or consumer promo campaign, etc.

3) The simplest technique that allows you to assess at a glance whether the costs of the action carried out justified themselves - simplified performance evaluation

Definition: comparison of 2 indicators - the ratio of actual sales to planned sales and the ratio of the spent budget to the budget planned for this event

Formula: Actual/Budget X 100< = >Cost/Budget per share X100

4) When planning any marketing event, it is extremely important to properly plan inventory. With all the evidence of this fact, in about 30% of all our promotions, we faced the problem of a lack of stock at the client, which ultimately negatively affects the result of the promotion. When summing up the results of the action, it is important to evaluate the influence of this factor on the overall result of the action. We use the indicator Out of Stock Ratio.

Definition: The number of days when the product was out of stock to the total number of promotion days

Formula: OOS Ratio = Number of SKUs* OOS X number of OOS days**/ total number of SKUs* X total number of promotion days

When conducting trade promotion events, a very effective tool for checking the quality of the promotion, as well as the main tool for evaluating the work of the staff participating in the promotion, is the mechanics of the mystery shopper. In some cases, especially when conducting large-scale actions, this method is the only possible one. This verification system is often a necessary element of the promotion, as it allows you to regularly and objectively evaluate the activities of trade promotion participants. On the part of the sales staff, confidence in stocks that include verification mechanics such as the mystery shopper tends to increase. the verification is carried out by a third-party organization - an agency organizing a trade promotion event, according to clear, pre-known and understandable criteria.

Trade promotion is definitely an important and very effective tool of modern trade marketing. But, as in the case of any other type of marketing activity of the company, this activity requires thorough planning, clear setting of tasks, as well as a scrupulous calculation of the effectiveness of the event. A seemingly successful stock may turn out to be unprofitable upon closer examination.

In the conditions of fierce competition, companies that conduct active trade-promotion activities, who care about the high level of motivation of their sales staff or retail staff, have a significant advantage over their rivals. In some sectors of the market, companies are already competing with each other in a creative approach to ongoing promotions, the level of technical support for ongoing events, the degree of interest of sales personnel participating in such promotions. Today, the trade promotion market is growing and developing at a rapid pace. And on how successfully your company will be able to use this tool in its activities, its future position in the market largely depends.

A failed promotion can not only be a waste of advertising budget, but also spoil the relationship of customers to the brand. Unfriendly promoters, a slacker supervisor, lack of accountability are just some of the ills that can befall a poorly organized promotion. We've put together some tips on how to avoid them.

Underwater rocks

There is an erroneous opinion that organizing such events is a simple matter. In fact, this is a laborious process that requires many skills and abilities. And very often, the organizers pay for the lack of necessary knowledge with a huge number of mistakes, and the final result is failure. For example, a year ago in Seoul, LG launched promotion, where promoters, instead of playing balloons with smartphone vouchers, launched them into the air. People started chasing them, shooting from pneumatic pistols and throwing knives in order to appropriate the coveted voucher for themselves. Eventually promo action failed, seven people ended up in hospitals, and LG was forced to pay compensation to the victims. There are typical organizers' mistakes: irresponsibility, disorganization and lack of control. To avoid wasting money, time and nerves, pay attention to the following points:

• Planning . More precisely, its absence leads to poor preparation of the action itself. It is important to discuss, but it is better to write down all the nuances: promoters at the point, control by supervisors, the required amount of consumables, compliance with the training contract and submission of reports. If this is not done, a disastrous outcome awaits you.
• Untrained personnel . The key to any success is trained promoters - people who will advertise your product. If they are not trained by providing them with full information about the product, the promotion can become a risk to reputation. It is necessary to clearly position the product and direct the work of promoters to those potential buyers who may be interested in the product. Pay attention to the appearance of promoters (attractiveness), their behavior, ability to respond to emerging emergency situations, conflict-free.

• Errors in determining the target audience . To get it right run a promotion It's not enough to choose the right place. You need to decide how you position yourself in front of your target audience. If these are men, then girls with a spectacular appearance should be promoters. If purchases at the selected point are made by married couples, it is necessary to focus on an interesting, attention-grabbing suit of promoters. But smart, modest and tidy girls should work for promotions aimed at housewives.
• Inexperienced supervisor. It is he who is responsible for the control of all Promotions. The work of promoters, the speed of receipt of the necessary goods and other moments during the promotion depends on it. An inexperienced person cannot handle this. When choosing a supervisor, it is wise to use people you have worked with before and who are familiar with your products. If you run a promotion For the first time, make sure the supervisor you want to hire already has experience in organizing promotional events. Recommendations from his previous jobs will not be superfluous.
• Theft . Alas, it happens, and quite often. For example, the administration and employees of the store eat sweets intended for, all friends of the promoters write with pens, and his family goes shopping with gift bags from Promotions. To avoid this, reporting and control of gifts issued by checks are necessary. A trusted supervisor can provide a fair amount of control right on the spot, but the most basic list of used inventory will save him and promoters from the temptation to take something for themselves.
• Lack of reporting . This has the most deplorable consequences. The promoter does not record sales or write them in a way that only he can understand. Or maybe at the end of the working day he simply thinks them out. To avoid this, the report format should be regulated. It is extremely important to indicate the frequency of recording - by days, or, preferably, even by hours. If the consultant does not have a control sheet, the inspector cannot track his work. At preparing a promotion Discuss reporting rules with staff and explain why this is important. The presence of structurally described results of the action will also help you plan future events and evaluate the effectiveness of their implementation.

In conclusion

Successful promotions not only increase sales and brand awareness, but also remain a pleasant memory for your customers. Organizing an action is not that difficult, especially when you know what problems may arise and how to get around them in advance. Smart people learn from the mistakes of others. Learn our tips - and they will help you avoid common mistakes and be successful in everyPromotionsfrom your company.