Do it right the first time

It’s well-known that new products are a brand’s lifeblood. And by getting their own-brand products out first to market, retailers obtain a valuable, persistent competitive advantage, says Jim Hertel, managing partner with Barrington, Ill.-based retail consultancy Willard Bishop.

“So anything that slows or stops the process has long-lasting effects,” he notes.

Therefore, it’s critical that retailers have a strong speed-to-market strategy in place when beginning the development process. Not only does such a strategy get innovative items out first to market — allowing retailers to become well-known as a source for “exciting new products” — but it also supports growth without the need for discounting.

However, developing a powerful speed-to-market strategy is not an easy feat.

“[It] is heavily dependent on executional excellence: ordering, getting entered into accounting systems, developing [a] merchandising plan, receiving at the distribution center, receiving at the store, cutting into the set, and ensuring product can be reordered,” Hertel explains.

It’s also not a very “sexy” feat, Hertel adds.

“It’s all about documenting the process; identifying the gaps, holes and vulnerabilities; [and] setting improvement goals,” he says. “Once you get it right, you repeat the process to see how [much] additional improvement can be gained.”

Get it straight from the start

The first and foremost rule retailers, manufacturers and service providers need to remember when developing a speed-to-market strategy is to get product and package development right the first time, says Allan Meyerson, senior vice president and executive creative director with Group360, a St. Louis-based strategic marketing communications firm. He believes retailers and their partners should think of the development and delivery process as a straight line.

“What you don’t want to do is … end up doubling back,” he states. ”You don’t want to cut zig zags along the way because if you can keep that line as straight as possible, you will get to where you need to be as quickly as possible.”

As an example, Meyerson points to the process of developing packaging creative or determining product positioning. It takes extra time for retailers to make sure everyone involved is on the same page, which could seem, to a certain degree, counterproductive and wasteful.

“But if you can absolutely guarantee internal alignment in terms of things like objectives, what you’re trying to accomplish, and the role a particular product might have … it certainly makes things like developing creative and approving creative a whole lot easier,” he says.

The fact is that all too often, teams start a project too soon, engaging various resources that take time and cost money without bringing them together. And it isn’t until they hit certain points of the production process that certain barriers show themselves.

“And all of [a] sudden, you realize you don’t have internal alignment and internal understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish,” he says. “And you end up doubling back, doing things over and wasting money.”

Collaboration, transparency key

After everyone is on the same page, they need to understand the importance of collaboration and transparency. By collaborating and being transparent with each other, they will have instant knowledge and accessibility of information across the supply chain, says Michael Bromme, executive vice president of global business development with Trace One, a Boston-based provider of product lifecycle management solutions for retailers and suppliers. This minimizes errors, callbacks and delays. It also leads to greater cost efficiencies and accelerated time to market.

“In a recent study conducted by Trace One, 93 percent of the private label supply chain players surveyed said their organizations are more productive because of their ability to collaborate,” he explained. “Eighty-two percent of the respondents said they believe that better collaboration helps to offset costs associated with the industry’s top market pressures. Forty percent of all respondents said ‘improved time to market’ is a top initiative for their organization in the year ahead.”

Collaboration and transparency allow companies to determine if a project is even doable from the get-go. As an example, Meyerson points to a project Group360 did with Dr Pepper Snapple Group when the consumer packaged goods company sponsored Marvel Entertainment’s The Avengers film in 2012. The sponsorship specifically involved the Dr Pepper brand.

“Their brief to us at the beginning of the project was … to design what they referred to as ‘badass, beautiful cans,’” he explains. “Of course we can absolutely do that — it’s Marvel Comics, for goodness sake.”

However, the process of printing on metal cans can be challenging. To make sure the job could be done and was done right the first time, Meyerson’s team put together its printing experts and designers, allowing them to come up with designs that not only were “badass,” but also were able to be printed in the first place.

“And we had complete confidence that not only were they beautiful on their own, but they could actually be printed,” he states. “Because at the end of the day, what good is a great design if you can’t print it?”

Retailers and their design partners also should ensure that the design meets all of the printer’s specifications. Cindy Trusler, director of development with Group360, notes that printing 
can take anywhere between six and 12 weeks. But the closer a file is to a printer’s exact specifications, the faster the product can get to shelf.

Distance, number of hands can hinder

But it’s not always easy to bring teams together for collaboration, especially with many retailers relying on manufacturers and service providers in another area of the country — or even beyond the ocean.

“Today, retailers, suppliers and manufacturers rely on partners around the globe, and supply chain players need to communicate clearly, quickly and effectively for complete product quality and, ultimately, improved speed to market,” Bromme states.

More than just two or three departments often have to collaborate, too, meaning not everyone can be together at once. With many departments involved in product and packaging development — including finance, merchandising, operations, etc. — many handoffs are necessary, Hertel explains.

“That means that processes must be well-documented and visible so that everyone knows what to do, when to do it, and how to hand off to the next responsible party — and they are able to keep the process moving without duplication of effort,” he says.

Retailers have several avenues for enhancing documentation and visibility efforts. One solution is to work with a fully integrated company, which can help avoid the pitfalls that come from working in a siloed environment — with separate groups of agencies, printers, prepress folks, strategists and more, Meyerson states.

Another is workflow software, which can be used by teams across multiple companies or by an all-in-one integrated solution provider. Such software can be far more effective for collaboration and transparency than offline tools.

Today, nearly three-quarters (69 percent) of store brand “players” are using offline tools such as Dropbox, Excel documents and e-mail to share information with one another across the supply chain. And according to Trace One’s “Private Label Collaboration Survey,” 62 percent of those who rated their collaboration ability as “poor” or “fair” are using these offline tools.

“This data demonstrates that offline tools are not an effective means of communication — especially in today’s increasing global and complex private label world,” Bromme says. “Not only do retailers, suppliers and manufacturers need to adopt the right tools to facilitate greater collaboration and transparency, but they also [need to] adhere to changing regulations — such as FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act.”

New technologies today go beyond supply chain communication and visibility, Bromme adds, and now allow partners to share even more detailed, real-time information about raw materials, food product packaging, compliance standards and documentation.

In the case of Group360, Todd Pressly, vice president of operations, notes that people across all teams use Vision Point, a library and communications program that houses a constructional ticket system, handles asset management for all SKUs and brands, and drives workflow throughout the production cycle. Anyone can access the software anytime, anywhere.

Pressly notes that software such as Vision Point could save teams months during the initiation of a project.

“As an example of that, we’ve got a customer that keeps track of the database of all nutritional facts information within their packaging,” he states. “And so if they have an FDA regulation change, they can go into the system [and] type in ‘all products with wheat,’ and all products with wheat will come up. … In the past, that was a very difficult task — to figure out which ones have wheat out of 75 [or] 100 SKUs.”

Consider your commitments

Looking externally, retailers will want to consider how much their commitments with suppliers affect speed-to-market efficiency. Greg Mueth, vice president, account planning and shopper marketing with Group360, notes that retailers understand that the longer the contract they have with a manufacturing partner, the lower the cost per item. But while the retailer saves money on products, it could end up losing something valuable elsewhere if it isn’t paying close attention.

For example, a two-year product commitment typically involves printing two years’ worth of packaging in one run, Mueth explains.

“Before you rush into committing to that two-year run of packaging, make sure it’s saying everything you need the package to say,” he says. “Because of the long-term commitment, you’re basically stuck with that package for quite a while.

Mueth recalls a ready-to-eat cereal with a high protein content that launched shortly before the high-protein trend hit the breakfast cereal category, leaving Mueth and his team with no reason to call out the high protein content on the box.

“Because we went so fast, we kind of overlooked that aspect of it,” he states. “We had a benefit that really wasn’t called out on the package as it probably could have been. So ‘speed, speed, speed’ is the mantra, but … the tradeoff sometimes is being smart and doing it better.””

And speaking of speed, don’t assume that a good speed-to-market strategy has to get a product on shelves as fast as possible. Pressly says many retailers mistakenly believe that producing more SKUs in a shorter period of time equals efficiency. However, doing so could lead to products and packaging being of lesser quality than expected.

“A lot of customers want to bring things up to, ‘Let’s do batches of five and let’s do them in three days instead of five days,’” he says. “And what I [tell] people is, ‘Let’s do 25, and let’s do them in seven days instead of five days.”