Wal-Mart stores can be as large as 300,000 square feet for a SuperCenter, which includes a full grocery as well as all the traditional dry goods categories. Enticing shoppers to notice anything is simply daunting in this vast warehouse of vendor-supplied packaging and vendor-supplied displays all competing for attention with proprietary graphics in colors chosen to stand out. More difficult still is getting shoppers to pay attention to basic goods not related to any major holiday, gift season, or national sporting event.
Here is how it got done for basic baking supplies: aluminum foil, flour, chocolate chips, peanut butter, plastic wrap, baking trays, etc.
- A 16-foot long metal shelving unit was designated by Merchandising and Store Ops to house baking supplies. Nothing glamorous and no sale items—just the basics.
- A simple retail strategy was developed by Creative Marketing: make the shelving unit into a separate, defined destination within the visual blur of the store.
- A three-pronged tactical approach was deployed: name the unit, visually display the potential end products, visually display the end-user. Which meant luscious photographs of fall pies, cookies, and cupcakes on their own or being devoured by great looking children were used to wrap the top of the shelving unit and create an island of focus in the flurry of the store.
The results showed the power of building focus as a disruption in the blizzard of vendor packaging; the power of creating a focus through signage; and the power of telling the shopper what to think of the goods arrayed before her rather than leaving her alone to fill in all of the blanks and make all of the connections between these basic items and her family's happiness.
This simple, 16-ft metal shelving rack:
- exceeded plan by $65 million
- exceeded previous year by 20.6%
- exceeded margin plan by 2%.
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