Shelf Space

Now that we're underway in the simulation, things haven't exactly gone according to plan so far. My team is humbly bringing up the rear, and a big reason for that is my ill-fated decision to try to optimize Allround's distribution channels.

Allround started with a competitive advantage in two channels, Mass Merchandise and Convenience Stores. Considering that these were two lowest grossing channels industry wide, it seemed like it was in the brand's best interest to reallocate the shelf space budget toward higher grossing channels, such as drug stores and grocery stores. However, the end result of this was simply to concede a large amount of existing shelf space, gain a much smaller amount in the higher grossing channels, and barely get additional sales from this endeavor while tanking in Mass Merchandise sales in particular on the flip side.

This is the first of what is bound to be many real world lessons learned from the marketing simulation. Shelf space isn't guaranteed if you throw more money at retailers, and giving up existing positive relationships to attempt this can end up with absolutely disastrous results for distribution prowess and overall sales. These things should clearly be tweaked for improvement rather than blown up entirely, and it is certainly not something I'll forget if I end up in a position that makes similar decisions in my career one day.

Here's to hoping the next lesson learned is how to successfully reverse a major distribution decision error!

Vicks: the New Blackberry? Hopefully Not

Now that we're starting the marketing simulation portion of the course, it's set up an interesting situation for us students to approach. Vicks cold medicine (AKA Allround) is without question the market leader, ranking first for crucial stats such as market share and brand awareness. The problem is, however, that the lead the brand has accumulated is starting to slowly slip away when it comes to sales. In an ever changing world full of competition and innovation, even the strongest market leader will eventually capitulate and crumble into oblivion if a culture of complacency starts to sink in. As an example of this, you could just ask the former executives of Blackberry back when it was in its prime. They ruled the market not too long ago, but failed to foresee the direction the industry was headed and became completely irrelevant within a few years.

It's up to us, as students, to curb the trend that is beginning to occur for Vicks. It's a known brand with high consumer satisfaction ratings and a pretty reasonable price, but consumers are slowly starting to move on. It will be very interesting to attempt to diagnose what the reasons are for this decline, and what the most effective and impactful marketing solutions are to initiate a trend back in the right direction.