Coke Launches ‘Shelf-Savvy Marketing’ To Boost Sales, Create Value at Shelf

Coca-Cola is rolling out a “shelf-savvy marketing” initiative that leverages the power of its special brand to evoke fond memories among consumers. The program aims to connect with all shoppers in the store – whether they are singles on a quick trip or families stocking up for the week.

Underlying the initiative is Coke’s notion of creating value through specialness and creating specialness through an experience. That’s the formula for selling more products at a higher price.


“Shelf-savvy marketing is a new initiative that we’re trying to drive forward pretty aggressively,” said Darren Marshall, Vice President of Global Customer and Shopper Marketing at Coke. “At the end of the day, shelf-savvy marketing for us is all about blending and balancing love and value, fusing inspiring ideas with commercial disciplines, and bringing those two together to truly create value. That’s what shelf-savvy marketing is for the Coca Cola Company.”

He said Coke is thinking more holistically about its marketing in an effort to create value for shoppers, more of whom visit Walmart every week than watch the top ten TV shows.

“Shelf-savvy marketing is all about converting shoppers into buyers,” he said. “That’s how value is created, and we do that at the shelf. That’s where it all happens. So we’ve got to be able to make sure that we’re bringing that to life.

“As marketers, our role is to make this brand special – not just on the street, but also in the store, truly creating unique experiences,” he said in a presentation to retailers recently in New York at the 99th annual convention of the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Marshall said connecting with shoppers effectively calls for partnering with retailers to create value collaboratively. “What we don’t do enough of – and we’d love to be able to get your help with – is differentiating the packages, the price points, and the occasions within a retail store.”

He listed the seven habits of highly effective shelf-savvy marketers:

Balance Create a balance between love and value. “It’s one thing to build a brand, but if you’re not making commercial value out of that as well there is really no need,” he said.
Prioritize Decide among the many opportunities such as geographies, categories, occasions and shopping missions. “We’ve got to be strategic about what we’re doing, going after the things where we’ve got not only the biggest opportunity but the biggest set of capabilities to bring it to life.”
Portfolio Think about how people are interacting with your portfolio, whether it’s a portfolio of brands, banners or store formats. “We have 450 brands across the world. We cannot cram 450 brands into every store in every geography. We’ve got to be able to make decisions and think about things in terms of what is going to be the best mix for those shoppers.”
Segmentation Group shoppers into similar traits and behaviors. “As marketers, it’s our role to be able to understand what motivates people and how those motivations are different.”
Differentiation Create distinct brands. “We differentiate brands. We’ve done it for a long time and we’ve created very distinct different brands.”
Interruption Capture people in the store. “Only 30% of the people are going down the beverage aisles these days. As shopping patterns continue to evolve, that’s going to decrease even more because there are more {shoppers} who are very focused on going in and going out. We’ve got to be where they are, which means not just stacking high with big displays. It means being very strategic about where we’re placing things throughout the store.”
Occasions Make the brands relevant when people are buying the product. “Whether it’s lunch at home with friends or it’s at a football game, bringing brands to life in a situational type of environment is really the magic of how brands truly live and breathe in our everyday lives.”

Marshall said it’s important to create “context” in the store because it creates demand. The in-store experience must be something different and special – maybe unique.

“It’s about making connections with our shoppers because we’ve got to be able to turn shoppers into buyers or else there’s no economic value created for anyone. If we forget that, then we’re lost,” he said.

Marshall gave the example of connecting with two different shoppers, each spending $3.50 to buy Coca-Cola. Maria buys the new 1.5-liter twin pack for her family, while Mike buys a chic, very cool aluminum bottle Coke.

“Think about the economics,” he said. “Maria is very price sensitive. It’s very important for her to get great value. Mike, not so much. The core lesson here is that one size does not fit all. The more differentiated that we can be, the more profitable that we can be as well. When we think about activating at retail, it’s all about being as differentiated as possible, as differentiated as our execution capabilities allow us to be.”

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