USP was responsible for nationwide, all-year sales assistance on every sales channel and for each category on behalf of Philips for several years. Here, the focus was placed on sales assistance and active selling of Philips vacuum cleaners, irons and SAECO coffee makers. Other categories include beauty, men’s grooming, air and kitchen devices. Professionally trained and highly motivated USP assistants provided customers with personal, individual and competent advice on Philips products, taking the opportunity to ensure active sales promotion on 1,000 project days each year.
Over the course of the average week 20 promotion days took place – the majority of them in the highly presentable network of MediaMarkt outlets. The promoters sold the products directly off the shelf or were able to present the Philips world to customers in a shop-in-shop experience. USP organised an array of special marketing drives at Manor, Globus, Jelmoli, Interdiscount and Melectronics, mostly with a high-impact promotion stand for professional product presentation and a sleek branded look.
POS merchandising & live tasting
Besides providing information and advice and generating sales of Philips products during a POS merchandising project, USP’s over 50-strong team of promoters also ensured professional visibility at the POS for each sales channel by checking and (if necessary) correcting the stand assembly according to customer specifications and completing other tasks to ensure that the Philips products were presented in the best possible light. Special merchandising drives during the promotions and product launches created a perfectly visible and branded stage at the POS and also ensured continuous product availability. In addition to planning and organisation, USP rounded off its services with live tasting sessions – for instance with Philips coffee makers or demonstrations of the PastaMaker and other kitchen appliances – to provide more detailed product descriptions and above all to heighten the interactive brand experience.
Barcode scans for sales reporting
USP developed a digital reporting tool for efficient KPI tracking as part of the Philips sales promotions. The USP assistants downloaded the app to their smartphones and used the camera to scan the barcode of each product they sold. This meant that each promoter had real-time access to current turnover and the number of sold products. At the end of the day, they closed the assignment by adding qualitative feedback and suitable images and then sending the data to the USP project team. The project manager was therefore able to analyse the data using a desktop application.
ALL KPIs defined by the customer were identified and analysed after each round of merchandising. The digital reporting tool enabled analysis of all KPIs down to the store level. This detailed evaluation gave Philips valuable feedback on the promotional performance, as well as tips for optimising presence at the POS.
USP took charge of the complete planning, organisation and monitoring of the sales promotion projects in close coordination with Philips. This included weekly discussions with the customer and ongoing work rosters, including backup staff, support and coaching for deployed promoters and regular communication with the branch managers. When necessary, USP recruited additional experienced and competent sales assistants, organised regular product and sales training and conducted regular field checks to ensure high-quality roll-out in the markets. Comprehensive additional services in the areas of warehousing and logistics rounded off the work package.
Briefing
Full service marketing agency for the planning, organisation and monitoring of nationwide sales drive projects with regular assistance days, POS merchandising, special promotions and live tasting on all channels within the Swiss retail sector.
Solution
Dedicated Philips personnel pool with specialist assistants and merchandisers for assignment to all POS projects anywhere in Switzerland. Also detailed live training in product knowledge and coaching in customer assistance, advice and sales, as well as digital planning and organisation processes, including online sales reporting for efficient and purposeful project management and performance metrics.
Result
50-strong promotion team; over 100 POS supported throughout Switzerland; more than 1,000 project days per year; CHF 2+ million annual product sales.