The last 5 feet

I was interviewed about retail promotions by B&T last week - they are calling it "The Last 5 Feet". Brilliant.

It was a moment of absolute clarity when the journalist asked me why it was so hard for brand marketers to engage retailers. She had interviewed a few folk on the client side and had obviously had them refer to the retailers as 'big bullies' and 'megalomaniacs' and...I offered her the other side of the arguement.

Brand marketers believe they own the relationship with the consumer. They believe their sales team are out there gathering orders through the retail channel. They find it a rather irritating distraction when a sales guy asks for a retailer specific activity. So much so that responsibility for its development usually falls into the lap of the most junior member of the team.

Then the idea is presented to the retailer. The retailers are bright, passionate and incredibly experienced. They know who their consumer is, what they buy, how often and why. They want their vendors to help by putting together plans that help their consumers buy more at their chain of stores and to make everyone more profit.

The retailer asks some tricky questions about the idea and get a mumbled response about it being 'on-brand'. Understanding the rhyme and reason behind one retailers offering over another is key to the success of any brand. If you cant rationalise why this is perfect for your retailer you may as well pack your bags and head home before you get your head bitten off by a time poor businessman selling 20,000 other products in his store.

Sydney marketers, more than most are guilty of what someone once described to me as '3 iron marketing' - you think that your market is within about 210m (a good hit with a 3 iron in golf) of your head office.

There are some wonderful exceptions and I am in awe of what Canon and Mars are doing in the space. Coca-Cola of course cracked it years ago, despite brand and sales being 2 very separate functions.

Spend some time in your retailer outlets. Go see what a 7-Eleven, BigW and Kmart looks like. Checkout what their shoppers look like. Go stand beside a Harvey Norman salesman and listen to his brilliant patter.

So the article will get printed in a couple of weeks and we can all read that there aint many folk out there that get it. Either that or I am wrong, of course.