Study reveals retail marketing priorities

A study by Mohive has revealed that better internal communications, more product knowledge on the shopfloor and smarter campaign production tactics are the top priorities for retail marketers.

The study asked more than 100 retail marketing experts to highlight the promotional 'weak spots' they are now most likely to address as traders seek to toughen-up promotional tactics and make ready for the difficult trading conditions ahead.

With less than one in 10 retailers claiming promotions are unscathed by the downturn, the serious business of review and reform has begun for marketing and promotional experts in UK retail.

Charged with delivering recession-busting campaign strategy in 2009, these marketing experts are now looking internally to see where improvements and efficiencies in the campaign production process can be made.

Lars Unneberg, chief executive officer at Mohive, said: 'Having just suffered the stark reality check offered by the winter promotions period, retail's marketing community is now getting down to the serious business of preparing for what is undoubtedly going to be the toughest year on our high streets in living memory.

'While there is little that marketers in retail can do about the economy, this study clearly shows that promotions people on the high street intend to fight back.

Internal comms processes that fail to effectively communicate latest campaigns down to local sales people were identified as a promotional weakspot.

More than 80 per cent of respondents believe that internal comms should be working harder to get latest information about new campaigns to sales staff as soon as they go live.

82 per cent of retail marketing experts said that it currently takes them too long to create promotional campaigns and want to improve processes to deliver more campaigns faster.

More than 80 per cent of retail marketers believe that countering the downturn means being able to complement classic campaign strategy, such as seasonal promotions, with more high-definition campaigns that appeal to well-targeted subsets in the customer base.

Unneberg added: 'With no room for second chances, retail marketers today are more focused than ever on making sure that the internal mechanisms available to them within the operation are finely tuned and best equipped to support the critical promotions they roll out in the weeks and months to come.

'The promotional tactics that evolve in 2009 will undoubtedly take a more collaborative approach as concepts such as workflow and knowledge transfer start to close the gap between the promotional experts that create campaigns and the sales staff upon which their success largely depends.

While almost all retail marketers questioned agreed that the downturn was having a negative effect on their promotions activity just over nine per cent claimed to be experiencing no negative effects so far: the majority of them (two-thirds) do not anticipate any negative effect in the future.

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