It’s important to execute NPD well in-store, particularly when it’s around a product Mars calls its “biggest brand launch in 20 years”. Woodlands Local worked with Mars to make sure goodnessKNOWS got off to a flyer.
by Antony Begley
One of the many reasons we first bought Woodlands Local was to give us the opportunity to work with suppliers to demonstrate key disciplines in local retailing. One of the most important of those is great quality execution of major new product launches. This month we’re having a go at what Mars is calling its “biggest brand launch in 20 years”: goodnessKNOWS.
A fresh take on the breakfast bar concept, goodnessKNOWS comes in “four snackable squares” packed with fruit, whole nuts, rolled oats and dipped in dark chocolate. A nice touch is that the brand will channel 10% of all sales profits to the ‘goodnessKNOWS Fund’ that will support community projects and local initiatives across the UK. Ticked every box, as far as we were concerned so we got in touch with Mars and put together and execution plan for Woodlands that saw us introduce a whole array of POS.
We also supported the launch with a series of Facebook posts and by some in-store sampling with our staff encouraged to join in so that they could answer any questions that our customers had.So what did we do?
FSDU
We sited the FSDU next to our hot food counter to drive up impulse sales as customers waited for their food to be served.
Counter-top unit
The unit was sited between the two tills to drive trial and interest.
Shelf-topper
As we already have a significant trade in breakfast bars, we have a small gondola-end dedicated to a range of them. We decided to use the impactful shelf-topper unit to act as a beacon for the category and sited it on top of the gondola-end, drawing customers to it and driving trial of goodnessKNOWS and other breakfast bars.
Staff t-shirts
Our staff have been given t-shirts and have been wearing them throughout the trial period which has generated some questions, a lot of interest and a few jokes here and there, as you might imagine!
Results
We’re only a couple of weeks into the trial so far but we have already sold 127 units, which is a very successful launch in Woodlands. We will keep running the trial and will provide fuller figures in the next issue, by which time we will also have the other flavours in-store.
