"Shopper Marketing: Bringing It To Life!"

There are few things more challenging in today’s marketplace than appealing to increasingly thrifty consumers. It’s a challenge that requires a deep understanding of consumer shopping behaviors and an ability to engage and connect with them. Among GLS Companies’ customers is BARD Advertising, a marketing agency offering its clients specialized expertise in developing effective retailer-specific shopper marketing programs.

BARD has been bringing its expertise to major manufacturers for more than a decade—and it relies on GLS Companies for production of many essential program deliverables that can bring the program to life.

The client

The agency works with manufacturers who join with retailers in “co-marketing” programs—joint ventures to create retailer-specific promotions. You’ve probably seen them: Shoppers get a free, collectable cereal bowl with the purchase of three boxes of brand-specific cereal. Moreover, the shopper receives a free half gallon of store-branded milk.

Everyone wins. The manufacturer sees increased sales, the consumer enjoys a bigger take away and the retailer gets both an enhanced shopping experience for its customer and an introduction to the store brand. These co-marketing programs may contain numerous layers of promotion and they can be enormously successful. In fact, Barbra Stabno, president of BARD, says these programs result in double and triple digit returns.

“Shopper marketing is a major evolution to both the manufacturers and merchants who want to see real return on investment,” she says. “To achieve those results it’s all about layering the right type of program to appeal to the retail-specific shopper.”

GLS’ role

What is the GLS contribution? A major element of attracting and directing the shopper to the promotion is the Point Of Purchase (POP) display. In fact, it’s often an element that brings the promotion to life.

Recently, BARD brought GLS an in-store promotion calling for vibrant POP displays for General Mills. Captivating shoppers and creating store-level excitement, the displays included hanging signs, danglers and floor standing displays featuring colorful 3-D cereal boxes, product characters and company logos—all designed to grab and direct shopper attention.

GLS Companies has strong experience in the printing, production and distribution of POP materials so creating realistic, two-foot high cereal boxes and the other pieces was well within its experience. GLS provided it all: 4-color printing, CAD and die-cutting services, and packaging. But that wasn’t the only reason BARD gave the project to GLS.

Excellence in execution

BARD’s Vice President for Strategic Development, Jay Zemke, says it was the confidence they place in GLS’ Account Executive John LaBahn. He says John knows both the complexity of production and the crucial importance of distributing the final product to various retail locations on a strict schedule. 

“We really expect A+ quality. When you need your creative to bring the program to life in the store, you need your printer to execute the creative to its fullest,” he says. “John hand-holds not just oversight of the printing but many of our programs require complex logistics, along with detailed shipping instructions to multiple locations.”

BARD President Barbra Stabno concurs. “Shopper marketing is all about programs that are specific to the retailer so distribution has to be done right the first time; I don’t allow slippage because that could create big problems. John is always on top of everything.” 

Effective retail marketing programs—Shopper Marketing—has become a partnership between manufacturers and retailers—and the successful execution of the POP component is a partnership between the agency and its printer. Contact your GLS account executive to see how we can partner with you to produce excellence in Point Of Purchase displays.

To learn more about Shopper Marketing and Bard Advertising, visit www.bardadvertising.com.