Promotion Management for Retail at

Brookshire Grocery Company

Cathy Cockrell, Terry Gilbert, and Ina Viljoen

LEARNING POINTS

SAP PMR Overview

Brookshire Grocery Company business goals
Brookshires PMR implementation experience
Our Lessons Learned

What is Promotion Management for Retail?

SAP Retail Promotions is an application that helps retailers identify the promotions that will be most profitable based on
true shopper demand. SAP Retail Promotions provides support for planning promotions, forecasting their performance, and
creating a single platform that allows business users to collaborate quickly and effectively throughout the entire promotion
planning and execution lifecycle.

SAP Retail Promotions Objective

Connect promotion planning, creation, forecasting, and execution process to improve promotion effectiveness and profitability

Process Goals

Build Area and Block Templates used to create the Events page layouts that can be viewed and printed
Manage variations by product, locations, and date
Forecast impact of promotional offers & deals

Key Output

End Result is approved promotional events and offers that are transferred to ECC for execution at point of sale

SAP Retail Promotions

Promotion Planning Overview
Solution Components
Promotion Planning

Data Management

Create Events
Assign Templates

Offer
Creation

Assign Offer
To Event

Manage Block, Area, & Content Templates; Product & LOC Groups

<Primary Display Image>

<Display Price>

<Unit>.

<Product Group Head>

<Product Group Description>
<Size>
<Text>

Promotion Analysis
Analysis Modeler

Product
Groups
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Site
Groups
Store 1
Store 2
Store 3

<Reg Price>

Transfer
-Event Transferred to
ECC 5 weeks before Ad
Break

Offer
Modeling
& Analysis;
Vendor Funds

Forecast

-Offer Details sent to

Advertising
-Complex BBY Offers
sent to AMS

2500.-

SPAR

499.

LIVA kombi-sknk

Hylder, top og fronter i

massiv eg. Med 2 trlger,
1 glaslge og 2 skuffer med
metaludtrk.
B136 x H140 x D45 cm*
Norm Pris

Event Schedule

2999.-

Content
Selection

Export to POS
POS Outbound
AMS WESOUT

2500.-

SPAR

499.

LIVA kombi-sknk

Hylder, top og fronter i

massiv eg. Med 2 trlger,
1 glaslge og 2 skuffer med
metaludtrk.
B136 x H140 x D45 cm*
Norm Pris

2999.-

Proof
Corrections

Advertising

Ad Specialists

Pricing Analysts

SAP Retail Promotion Glossary

Offer

Financial metrics and content

for a Product, a groups of Products, or a
category; presented to the consumer for
purchase within a specific Store or Store
Group and for a particular date range

Campaign

Area

Event

[Could be a Printed Weekly Ad Page, Mailer,

Flyer]

[Could be a Printed Weekly Ad, Mailer, Flyer,

In-Store Displays, etc.]

(Collection of Offers)

(Collection of Areas)

(Collection of Events)

Display Image 1

Product
Headline

Product
Description 1

Location

(Store or Web)

Location Hierarchy

Display
Promo Price

Save Story

(Group of Stores)

Block Elements

SAP Retail Promotion Goals/Benefits

Enable Collaboration between Departments
Improve planning and execution of Promotional Activities

Automation of Promotion Creation

Improved Accuracy of Promotions Verification & System Validations
Re-use Previous Promotions / Offers
Product Group Library

Science-Based Forecast for Promotions

More Reliable for Profit Management and Procurement
Run Scenarios to Maximize Sales and Profits
Identify Incremental vs. Cannibalized Sales in a Promotion
Attach Vendor Funds to Offer

Promotion Process Taken On-line

Improved Visibility to Cost
Merchandising Layouts / Template Management
Event Preview and Print

BGC Business Goals and Objectives

Enable Collaboration between Vendors, Category Managers, Marketing and
Advertising within the Retailer
Ensure information is consistent throughout the Planning Process between these
groups
Improve Planning and Execution of Promotional Activities
Reduce the number of Tactical Tasks
Reduce communications between Category Managers and Advertising with regarding
to promotional Content
Provide iterative support for the strategic Annual/Semi-annual planning process
Incorporate re-use of previous Events thereby reducing time for Event creation
Leverage Assets from ERP and External Systems
Ensure accurate use and re-use of Master data to eliminate errors
Enable use of low resolution images which improves the proofing process

BGC Business Goals and Objectives continued

Enable Use of Templates that reduces time to execute and errors in

communication

Provide Templates for Pages and Displays which provide a vehicle to

communicate Promotional activity between groups

Templates allow use and re-use of information by merchandising and

advertising

Allow creation and re-use of Product Groups streamlining the Buyers process

Effective creation and communication of Event Plans

Valuable time savings by enabling Event creation and management utilized by

all Groups

Providing a single source for association of Promotional Offers to Events

BGC Business Goals and Objectives continued

Facilitate consistent method of creating Promotional Offers

Provide a cohesive method of Offer creation among all departments
Allow simulation of Promotional Offers to realize the most effective Offers to
promote to the consumer
Permit the use of Vendor Funds in Offer to ensure proper margin calculations
Enable the Use of Retailer to Consumer Incentives for Complex Offers
Enable Financial Review of Promotional Offer in Context with Events
Enable Financials of Offers to be compared within the Event
Leverages the ability to negotiate between categories for best financial performance
of the Event
Shows full financial performance at Space, Area (Page) and Event levels
Enable user provided planned quantities

BGC Business Goals and Objectives continued

Forecast of Products within a Promotional Offer

Integrate with a science-based engine to issue Product Store forecasts based

on sales history and other influencing factors
Comprehensive Export of Promotional Information

Enable automated communications with Desktop Publishing programs

BGC Summary of Business Benefits

Improved

productivity supporting better collaboration

among vendors, marketing, Category Managers, and
advertising execution groups; streamlining promotions through
fewer cycles; and using resources more efficiently

Greater

promotional effectiveness enabling the creation of

relevant, timely, and targeted advertising (by product, category,
and zone) via automated ad-versioning functionality

More

accurate product and store level forecasts helping

to understand the financial performance of each promotional
event before making final decisions

Lower

promotional costs reducing the time required to

produce advertisements as well as the number of proofs
needed for printing and reviewing

SAP Retail Promotions at Brookshires

High Level Event/Offer Process Flow

Brookshires Detailed Event/Offer Process Flow

Brookshires Original Project Scope and Details

End Users:
Category Manager; Category Manager Assistants
AD Specialists; Advertising
CM Analytics; Pricing Analytics
Merchandising; ICAs
Project Note: Ramp Up Customer
Original Estimated Timeline: 24 Weeks
BGC Project Team: 9 Full-Time Resources
SAP Project Team: 2 Full-Time Resources

14

Overview of the Ramp-Up

Communication Structure

Solution Back Office

BGC PMR Project

RampUp Coach

Back Office
Team
RU Owner

Development
SAP Support

BGC Project Team

SAP Project Team

OSS Customer Messages

BGC SAP Promotions Extended Project

Timeline
Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Complete
Blueprint

Go Live Phase I ECC

Business Functions

Technical Go Live Phase II Promotion

Execution

Business Go Live Phase II Promotion

Execution

Technical Go Live Phase III - Forecasting

Business Go Live
Phase III Forecasting

Technical Development and Unit Testing Complete for all Phases

07/30 08/27

08/27 11/24

11/12 04/22

11/12 04/03

08/27 04/03

Complete Blueprint

(Phase I)

(Phase II)

(Phase III)

FDDs

Promotions
Execution

Forecasting

FRICE

ECC Business
Functions/Web
Services

(Ongoing through
Phases)

Blueprint Gate
Review and Sign Off

New Promo
Types/BBs
UAT/Training

Promotions entered
into PMR
AMS Interface

Historical Data Initial

Loads
Begin Daily Sales
Loads

Technical Specs
Development
Unit Testing

BGC PMR Extended Project Scope

PMR and ECC are integrated

Automatic flow of all
Complex Bonus Buys to
AMS/LogiX via NCR upgrade

Single point of Ad Promotions

entry (excluding TPRs)
Analytics will be available during
Ad Generation Meeting

Offer number
generated in PMR flows
through entire system
Requires NCR
modifications
No changes to Retail
POS

Forecast includes two

years of historical sales
and offer history
Forecast vs Actuals
Reporting

Required modifications to
link sales to all PMR offers

17

SAP Retail Promotions Integration at

Brookshire Grocery Company (BGC)
BGC Export

DTP

BW Extraction (ZSEC)

SAP Retail
Promotions
Promotion
Planning

SAP ECC

Promotion

SAP BI
Promotion
Effectiveness
Analytics
Released Event Plan
BW Extraction

Master
Data/
Inventory
Outbound

DMF

Master Data, ECC

Retail Event

Daily Sales Load

Sales History

AMS

POS

4
7

POS Outbound Non

AMS Offers

POSDM
POS Inbound Processing

SAP Retail Promotions

Change and Training Topics
Advertising

Template Creation
Creation of Event
Assign Templates to Event

Ad Specialists

Create Location Hierarchy (MGR Only)

SAP Retail Promotions Overview /with Glossary
- Offer Creation (Discount Price, Amount Off, % Off, Bonus Buys)
Product Groups
- How to create / maintain; Naming Convention
Assign Offers to Events
Post Processing Office
-Change Process Rules

Pricing Analysts

Attaching Vendor Funds to Offers

Creating VF in SAP Retail Promotions
Forecast Analysis

Brookshires Expected ROI

Increase in Warehouse Service level for Ad Articles

Substitute Sales
Increased Scan Gross from Increased Service Level
Labor Savings

LESSONS LEARNED

Lessons Learned
Assign a dedicated ECC Pricing & Promotions resource
Plan go-live approach early in the project
Document & finalize process flows early in the project
Ensure all parties are in agreement on scope and what it
means in terms of processes, job functions and expected
results
Ensure gaps are clearly defined and accommodated for, in
some way
Identify RICEF objects early during project preparation if
possible

KEY LEARNINGS
PMR is the system of record for offers feeds into ECC
Multiple areas & processes are touched
PMR offers a one-stop-shop for promotions & offers
feeding into ECC, DTP, Ad creation and execution at the
POS. Resultant data allows for forecasting and analytics
Sales data & promotional data is matched for
forecasting

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING

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