Woodlands Local has recently joined forces with Barr Soft Drinks to bring the iconic Scottish company’s new category vision to life in the store.
by Antony Begley
If there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the last month or two, it’s that soft drinks is the category that benefits most from warm weather. Sales of soft drinks in Woodlands have risen by an average of 18% a week over the last few weeks or so, making the category the most frequently bought category by volume in the store bar none.
While soft drinks sales are very solid for us in the store, we’re always looking for new ways to drive even more growth out of the category – so when we learned recently that Barr Soft Drinks had unveiled an innovative new approach to managing the entire soft drinks fixture, we thought it was time to sit down for a chat with one of the most iconic companies in Scotland.
As a result of that conversation, we will now be working with Barr’s over the next 12 months to run a number of really exciting trials, initiatives, competitions and projects in Woodlands Local. This is a hugely exciting project for us and we’re thoroughly looking forward to sharing our work with you through the pages of SLR over the next year.
Implementing the vision
While we are already well progressed on our plan of activity for the year with Barr Soft Drinks, we thought the most obvious and best place to start is to simply implement Barr’s new soft drinks vision in Falkirk.
There are lots of ways of laying out a soft drinks fixture and lots of merchandising advice available, but Barr’s new vision takes a genuinely fresh approach to merchandising the fixture that takes account of all the latest consumer trends.
What’s the thinking behind the new vision?
Barr’s new category vision focuses on three key drivers that it believes will be major contributors to category growth in convenience retailing:
- Health & Wellbeing
- Taste & Fun
- Lifestyle & Culture
These three drivers reflect changing consumer lifestyles, influences and needs in relation to buying and consuming soft drinks.
“We’ve taken a long, hard look at the category, together with the lifestyle changes that are sweeping across the UK and how they impact on soft drinks’ consumption,” says Nick Bentley, Category and Shopper Marketing Controller for Barr Soft Drinks.
“It is difficult for retailers to be an expert on every category within their store and that is where we can help by really understanding your shopper at local level, to ensure your store stands out from the crowd by offering the choice they really want.”
What will it look like?
Barr Soft Drinks has used the three category drivers to develop a blueprint for the future of soft drinks merchandising in the UK.
The new approach involves focusing on six specific shopper need states which cover all the major soft drinks’ consumption occasions, enabling retailers to merchandise the fixture to really engage shoppers.
The six consumer need states identified by Barr Soft Drinks are:
- Healthy Refreshment – Water and water-plus products perform an important, functional role
- Tasty Hydration – Low calorie products with the health benefits of water and the great taste of a carbonate
- Everyday Enjoyment – The backbone of the fixture needs a good range of great-tasting choices
- Adult Social – Indulgent treats and options for those that avoid alcohol
- Connecting Cultures – Vibrant section to tap into growing demand for exotic flavours
- On The Go – Nearly one in three purchases is an energy drink so this section needs to offer the right range of products and flavour choices
Bespoke POS will be used to signpost each need state. This showcases the choices on offer and makes it easier for shoppers to find the products they want.
Will it be Scotland-specific?
In a word, yes. Barr’s will be using a mix of their own data added to Epos data from Woodlands Local to create the ideal range for the store – and this will be reviewed as time goes by and we learn from our experiences in the store.
“Using a regional planogram based on these shopper need states will ensure that retailers are offering the right range of products for their shopper,” says Bentley. “Merchandising the chiller in a clear and engaging way with POS to signpost, will make shopping the soft drinks fixture much easier and ensure that your store stands out from the crowd.”
Is Woodlands first to do it?
We’d love to say that we are trailblazers once more, but the new Barr vision has already been trialled over two months at three stores in different regions with different shopper profiles. So while we’re not first, the great news is that we have a target to aim for because the three trial stores averaged sales uplifts of a whopping 18%.
“The trials have shown that our new approach can really drive incremental sales by engaging shoppers and driving loyalty,” says Bentley. “We’re now looking forward to rolling out the category vision into Woodlands Local and then nationally,” adds Bentley.
Next month we’ll give you a glimpse at how the vision looks on-shelf in the chiller at Woodlands.