10 Retail Positioning Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for 2015

Last year was a real retail thrill ride filled with heady ascents, stomach-churning drops, bold business model inversions, and shiny objects so blinding that even some of the most forward-looking companies were left squinting. Hold on tight. Retail is on track for more twists and turns in the year ahead, but that doesn’t mean you have to get thrown for a loop. Whether you trade in brands, products, solutions or services, I’ve curated a timely list of hacks and predictions that will keep your retail business development on the fast track as we hurtle into 2015 and beyond. 

POSITION TO THEIR PLATFORMS. Retailers are no longer companies that sell stuff – they’re platforms that tie together digital, social, and mobile outreach, partnerships and acquisitions, services, content, big data and more. Their reach now extends way beyond hundreds or even thousands of stores or millions of hits on a website. It’s exponential. Yours can be too, but only if you stop pitching and start positioning your assets in the context of retailers’ overarching platform goals.

RIDE IN THEIR WAKE. Back when retailers were just boxes that sold others’ brands, most were happy to plug your marketing campaigns into their platforms. It was a free pass. These days, retailers consider themselves brands, so they have a point of view. Smart brand marketers will tie into retailers’ top initiatives and themes rather than creating disembodied programs. The days of plug-and-play have passed.

STUDY THE SPECTRUM. Think all retailers are motoring on mobile? Are you sure that everyone’s vibing on video? Not so fast. Retailers’ platforms are more diverse than ever, but no two are following the same path or playing at the same level. For example, some are churning out digital innovations right and left while others are playing a mean game of catch-up. Some are tapping into recognized social media platforms exclusively while others are creating their own. It’s time to ditch assumptions and go deeper with your research.

GET READY FOR THE RETAILER-MANAGED ERA. Retail is “post-POS”. Transactional point-of-sale data is no longer the Holy Grail as user-based insights derived from social media, mobile and other sources take center stage. As I tell my clients, user marketing will be the new shopper marketing. But here’s the challenge: back when “vendor managed” was the rallying cry, retailers relied on you for insight. Soon, they’ll transition to hoarder mode as their caches of big data become more valuable and they hone their internal analytic capabilities. Retailers will be more discriminating about who they share this new data with and more demanding in terms of the actionability of what comes back to them when they do. In other words, you’re going to have to earn access.

MAKE PROCESSES PROPRIETARY. Retailers will still rely on insights from third party data providers in order to arrive at the much-coveted “combined view of the customer”. The rub is that no two retailers will take the same approach to carving up the data and acting on it. They’re going to become more possessive, not just of the data itself, but of the processes for gathering and leveraging it. Algorithms will be the hot new intellectual property, and retailers will expect protections around processes.

LOSE THE LAYERS. The technology start-ups that retailers are gobbling up in record numbers will soon influence more than digital strategy. As technology permeates every aspect of retail, the hierarchical, merchant-centric structures of the past will be compressed. Suppliers that maintain byzantine decision-making structures will start to stand out, and not in a good way, as the world of retail gets flatter.

REFRESH YOUR REFERENCES. “Brick and mortar” may describe a location, but it no longer accurately describes most retailers (increasingly, the same applies to “e-commerce”). Many companies are still compared with or referred to as “manufacturers” even though they no longer make anything (or on some cases, never have). “Channels” are no longer a relevant way to segment shopping behavior (but the term will take on new meaning as retailers evolve into media companies and content providers). As the pace of retail change accelerates, traditional definitions will become obsolete more quickly. Stay on top of transitions in terminology, and pay attention to the parlance of particular retailers.

MASTER THE MESSAGE, MEDIUM AND METRICS. Even though mentions of content and content marketing were ubiquitous in 2014, retailers are still in early stages when it comes to crafting strategy. Suppliers tell me that they are confused (“Who should we be talking to about this stuff?”) and retailers say they are getting frustrated (“Why aren’t suppliers coming to us with a plan?).  On the first point, retailers are creating new positions that center around, or incorporate, content planning right and left (get used to seeing “in the newly created role of…”). Watch for announcements and expand your relationships accordingly. As for retailers' frustration, they know that they can’t create all of the content they need to power their platforms, nor do they want to. They need your best thinking on which messages and formats work best in particular mediums, how those messages should be orchestrated across multiple consumer touch points (not just on a pet platform), and the metrics that make sense for each. Talk about opportunity!

SCORE WITH STORYTELLING. From retailers’ newly insatiable appetites for STEM talent to algorithms, robotics, beacons, and IOT, a litany left-brain concepts and skill sets have infiltrated retail. If crafting narratives is your niche or your greatest gift is gab, then you might be tempted to look for a new line of work. Hang tight. Retailers want stories that support the statistics and are beginning to value those who can articulate how data impacts or empowers diverse stakeholders. When it comes to retailers, numbers and inputs they’ve got, framing and context they’ll need. Calling all wordsmiths!

SEPARATE TABLE STAKES FROM SECRET SAUCE. In a recent interview, Chris Rock noted that “not enough people try to take into account what you’ve heard already.” Although he was venting about the current state of stand-up comedy, his words ring true in retail. Information is ubiquitous and instantaneous these day, and facts and figures that used to cost retailers a pretty penny are just a click away. “Passing along” news stories to retailers or posting them on social media without comment is a ticket to “meh” (chances are they’ve already seen it). Unless you’ve conjured up some fresh conclusions, presenting observation-based information or readily-available statistics at conferences or in retailer meetings is a yawn-fest waiting to happen. The bar for insights has been raised. Edit ruthlessly, and make sure to add your own twist!

Want to get a head start on hacking your 2015 retail strategy? Sign up for Carol's Retail Master Class at the Kidscreen Summit in Miami, February  23-26, or ping Carol directly to learn more about her Retail-ize workshops and Retail Trajectories presentations.