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"The current crisis demands significant and immediate action, doing nothing is not an option," warned Jonathan Copulsky, leader of Deloitte's Customer & National Market Strategy practice. "It's important to keep in mind that customers have memories. Taking short-term actions that produce measurable but modest benefits might make you feel like you're doing something effective, but if they end up damaging relationships that you'll need in the future, what's the point?"

Grocery stores, like consumers' food budgets, are shrinking. This month Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened four pilot Marketplace stores in Arizona that are half the size of a traditional supermarket.

Supervalu-owned Jewel-Osco is testing its own small-format store in Chicago known as Urban Fresh. Safeway trialed its version in Southern California. And Whole Foods has said it is scaling down the size of its new stores.

Overall, there is a high opportunity cost from delisting items. The estimated percent sales lost due to delisting has historically been greater than the new item dollar share. In highly marketed categories, roughly 30% of category sales are generated from SKU movement. With such a substantial chunk of category sales tied to listing and delisting decisions, the accuracy of assortment management is critical.

Good real estate comes at a price - and the aisles of a retail store are no exception. When a manufacturer launches a new product, there needs to be room on the store shelf for its placement. To make that room, the retail buyer will notoriously ask the manufacturer to delist an item from the portfolio. But which item gets the ax? Is there a compelling story that identifies what item to delist?

The survey, conducted by IDC Global Retail Insights and titled “Being Consumer-Centric: A Retailer and Manufacturer Update”, shows companies are seeing benefits from the concept, but more opportunities are available. Consumer centricity was defined in the survey as any strategy for which an organization uses shopper data to develop insight as a driver for decision-making.

“This survey confirms that retailers and consumer products manufacturers have become more consumer-centric for several years and are serious about committing to this type of initiative,” said Marc Dietz, vice president of marketing at DemandTec. “Given the difference between top-performing retailers and the rest of the pack, it is interesting to see the tremendous opportunity for additional investment and improvement.”

Every brand makes a promise to the customer; but a truly strong brand makes a highly relevant and distinctive promise, then delivers it consistently across the board. This is no small task, and one that requires everyone within an organization to know and understand the brand promise and how each and every activity of the company connects with delivering that promise.

BRADFORD, England -- The global recession is spoiling the summer for a lot of industries, but not the U.K.'s supermarkets. They're loving it. With an estimated five million Britons staying home this summer instead of traveling, the country's leading grocers are slugging it out for shoppers' time and money. They're slashing prices, launching new budget brands and taunting the price claims of rivals in advertising.

It's a precarious time for brands. Consumers are spending less money and investing it more carefully. They may be abandoning favored brands for low-priced competitors or generic alternatives. That's why it's more important that ever for established brands to engage in aggressive value building.

Value building is not a new concept. In good times and bad, smart brand marketers have always recognized the need to build value and differentiate-to make their brands a little better than competitors by adding a new feature, creating a special promotion or forging a unique alliance with another brand.

Marketing a product to a consumer necessitates getting the word out to the public – buy our product and you will get the best bang for your buck. In today’s economy, consumers are not handing out their bucks so quickly. People are being more thoughtful and cautious before parting with their dollars.

Many economists have declared a recession is already here, thus fueling a critical change in thinking for millions of consumers. We have witnessed gas prices across the nation climbing toward or over the $4.00 a gallon mark, the volatility of the stock market, and the soaring number of home foreclosures due to the subprime mortgage financing crisis. With all these conditions preying on us, we are forced to take a more introspective and analytic approach when it comes to personal buying habits.

Source: PMA