Top Retail Planogram Sales Tools to Get on the Shelf

A retail planogram is a vital tool for visual merchandising. Per the Oxford English Dictionary, they are a diagram or model that indicates the placement of retail products on shelves to maximize sales.”[1] The planogram’s effectiveness is measured by the sales volume generated from the specific area that is diagramed.

A store’s retail planogram (POG) is the strategic setup of how product categories are displayed on a store shelf to maximize sales. A planogram’s strength is measured by the sales volume generated by the mix—or set—of the store’s products for a certain category.

The job of deciding which products go in his or her retail planogram is the category buyer. We’ve talked about the retail food buyer plenty of times—their whole job performance rating is based on how well their POG does in sales-per-inch.

If you want in that retail planogram, you better come prepared with a pitch deck, a good (but nice) argument outlining why you belong in the POG, as well as a deep understanding of their POG.

Top Retail Planogram Sales Tools #1: The Store Check

Go to the store and snap a pic of the POG well before your meeting. Then detail all the items in the POG and start to see the big picture.

Why: Illustrates every aspect of their POG. It would be best if you were an expert in your category…it helps a lot to be an expert in the food buyer’s POG. Ideally, this is so you can see how your product fits into their POG:

• Total Product count – this is the big picture:
  • Is this POG bigger or smaller than the buyer’s competitor’s POG?
  • Is there room for your product line?
• Number of brands – including private label, which may be a sales opportunity
  • Who are the big players – those brands that have the majority of the POG
  • Who are the small guys: a brand you may want to displace?
• Product variations and packaging
  • Do you see too much of one flavor vs. another? Or a missing flavor or variation?
  • Can your packaging compete and stand out against the other brands? Will it “fit” into this mix?
• Pricing
  • Researching the full range of pricing will help you understand where you fit.
  • Remember, every item in their POG is there because it is selling—how will your product do better?
  • Does the MSRP for your product place you way higher—or lower than average or even the highest price point.
  • It will help if you come prepared to defend your price point to someone whose main concern is selling all the products in their POG at a very high velocity.

You probably don’t have to memorize the buyer’s POG but ask yourself: How much is riding on that food buyer pitch meeting? How do I show I am the expert partner they need to help their POG succeed?

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how marketing can help your company or about NewPoint, please reach out to the NewPoint team — interested in food marketing topics? Please visit our “Intel” page or check out my book: Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.