How One Snacking Powerhouse is Redefining Retail
Retail is changing at a frenetic pace. Each day brings fresh headlines of retailers announcing bold initiatives to better position themselves in the battle for sales.
The speed of change can be dizzying, even terrifying. But it doesn't have to be.
According to Phil Stanley, chief sales officer at The Hershey Company, the basics still apply: "Although the "how' may be changing, the fundamentals endure: Consumer wants. Consumer shops. Consumer buys."
And even in a changing world, Hershey is still helping retailers meet those fundamentals.
Stanley has been with the snacking powerhouse for more than two decades. He's helped to shepherd retailers through the advent of self-checkout and the arrival of club and dollar stores.
After starting as a retail sales rep on the retail floor in Boston, Stanley led the creation of the company's ground-breaking category management team in 1998. Hershey's unique approach to category management places the shopper and the overall health of the category at the center, above the interests of Hershey's individual brands. This method has now become an industry benchmark.
He advocates for The Hershey Company's command of category management for the physical and digital shelves. The company's track record speaks for itself. Hershey was named America's second most loved brand in a Morning Consult survey of U.S. adults, trailing only Google. And the company was recently named No. 1 in category management expertise in an Advantage survey of retailers.
"We've been consulting and providing guidance to retailers for over 20 years and we've become a trusted partner," Stanley says. "We have found that the capabilities and strength we've developed in the brick-and-mortar store are translatable to digital. By thinking holistically about a frictionless retail ecosystem – one where the digital and physical worlds fully overlap – we are seeing ample opportunity to generate sales and create category growth."
According to the Consumer Technology Association, smartphone penetration now reaches 87 percent of U.S. homes. This "store-in-your-pocket" is dramatically changing how consumers buy. Stores are open 24/7 and consumers can buy anytime, from anywhere.
But they still have to find what they want, and this is where Hershey's deep category knowledge empowers retailers.
It starts with the shelf. Even in the physical realm, Hershey's emphasis has always been on search – making it easier for shoppers to find product on the shelf. That same mindset translates to digital, where Hershey is helping retailers win through merchandising and packaging that's both foot-stopping (in-store) and thumb-stopping (digital).
Regardless of where the consumer chooses to purchase, consistent packaging across shopping experiences is key. And Hershey is leading the category by providing a unified shopping experience wherever consumers search for their snacks.
For instance, Stanley says, research shows shoppers respond to finding the same experience in store as online. With Halloween coming, Hershey advises retailers to provide the same look, design and feel on both their instore and online shelves.
This advice is supported by Hershey's profound category knowledge, which is continually honed at the front lines of retail.
According to Stanley, Hershey has more than 1,000 retail sales reps working in the candy aisle, not only building displays and providing pricing and promotional insights, but also observing and interacting with consumers. Their front-line feedback on buyer behavior and program effectiveness adds depth and meaning to the advice Hershey shares with retailers.
"Our retail sales reps are 100 percent fully dedicated to executing our merchandising, driving distribution and helping us win seasons, which is critical to us and our retailers," Stanley says. "They are passionate advocates and nurturers of our brands, and that level of commitment leads to more focused and relevant insights."
Hershey's retail counsel comes with unmatched precision. Rather than offer a retailer one planogram for its entire chain, for example, Hershey can tailor a retailer's planogram to a cluster of stores. This is all about getting the right product at the right place at the right time by leveraging geospatial analytics, which includes demographics and psychographics. The process helps Hershey build retailer-specific assortments based on certain lifestyles and where shoppers live.
"We are able to set the assortment more at a store and geographical level," Stanley says.
Driving everything is data. By dovetailing the retailers' broad store-wide data with Hershey's trove of category data, Hershey is finding new paths for growth.
"Retailers have a pretty good idea of what their shoppers are doing all over the store, but they don't necessarily have a clear idea of what those shoppers are doing in their candy aisle," Stanley says. "As we get to know online behaviors more, as we receive that digital data over individual tastes … that precision is where the real magic will happen."
It all goes back to category management. "We were at the forefront of modern category management 20 years ago," Stanley says, "and this competitive advantage is helping us create the future across physical and digital."