ROWLAND

HEMING - STORE CHECK FORM 2011

The aim of this form is to give some guidance and methodology, in order to make your future store-checks both effective and useful to understanding the market context and aiding the design and marketing process. Rowland Heming Business Development Director Design Board: rowland.heming@designboard.com

1. Sales Channels
List of the type and names of stores you should visit, in order to get a complete picture of where consumers meet your product and packaging. Take into account your distribution dynamics and plan to visit the different types of stores where your product, and your key competitors products, are found, Distribution channels can be unique to different markets and the display situation may radically change between store types. When you visit small stores, its always best to ask permission to look around, small storekeepers are generally friendly and accommodating, whereas most supermarkets will not allow you to openly do store-checks, so you will need to be prepared to use your iphone (or equivalent), to take notes making it less likely that you will be challenged in-store.

Hyper/Supermkts Other

Corner stores

Small stores

Kiosks

List any observations and differences observed: displays, specific advantages or disadvantages

2. First Moment of Truth

Take a quick look and then walk away and record what you see. Register which packages stood out and your general impression of the shelf display and the findability of your brand.

3. Product/Category Location
Analysing the shelf in detail:

How the shelf is filled? : Are products displayed by product types, or blocked together as brands?

Opportunities: Is there an opportunity to create colour blocking or is there a need to create a strong range design that can easily identify your brand when its mixed up with all the others and displayed by flavour? Where is your brand placed, in comparison to the competitive packs? : On the left or
the right (in western society we read from left to right, so packs placed on the left will often have a visual advantage over others)? Are the packs placed high (at eye level, where visibility scores are high), or lower down (where a design will have to work harder to gain attention)?

How many facings are awarded to each brand and private label? : This is important,
because it gives the designer an idea of the stand-out challenge, it also exposes if there is an opportunity to make a repeating design or not. ! ! ! ! One facing Two facings Three facings Four facings ! More?

4 Packaging advantages:
Make a note of the physical packaging, this is the moment to see if competitors have any physical packaging advantages, these may be in display, use, transport or storage. Advantages may also take the form of original, innovative packaging or printing innovations.

5 Sensation Transference
How does your brand, and the competitive brands, fit within the context of the whole category, Take a moment to examine how each package interprets the visual stimuli of this communication, and look for points of difference or possible advantages that can be exploited.

Does your brand (competition), look like it belongs to the category: Does it deliver on
product and consumer expectations if so how, if not why?

What are the emotional cues employed by the category and how is emotion expressed via the design: This may be from the way a product is shown to be, for example: hot and steamy or cold and fresh, to how a brands quality level is expressed. 6 Shopper Experience
Watch how people shop the category, is this group of products bought on impulse or is a more reflective purchase. Take this opportunity to observe consumer gender and age, watching also to see what seems to draw their attention and how they interact with the packages that are in front of them.

Gender: Age group: Impulse or reflective purchase: Other observations: Example do consumers pick-up touch the product?

7 Read the Labels

Observations on the total packages, are there trends in the way information is presented both on the front and other panels of category packaging?

8 Price and Content

Observe and note how your brand is positioned within the category, from both the price and the quality communication, in order to discern if youve got the mix correct!

Brand Content/Weight Price Price per Kilo Other observations