Visual Merchandising plays a vital role in industries such as CDIT, FMCG, Financial Institutions etc. Effective VM improve the brand visibility, awareness & sales while on the other side ineffectiveness can cost badly & hamper the budgets of the organization. This invokes importance of the timely measurement of productivity of visual merchandisers with key responsibility areas. Here are few measures which needs to be assessed periodically which will lead to effective visual merchandising on ground.
Productivity of VM should be tracked in two categories:
- Quality
- Quantity
Let’s discuss both one by one.
Quality:
There are brand hygiene parameters which should be kept in mind by a VM while doing the execution on ground. Few main hygiene parameters are mentioned below.
- Brand Logo should not be cut/torn/undistinguishable while adjustments being made by a VM to fix the PoSM at a particular space in retail outlet.
- Campaign communication should be clearly seen by a viewer post deployment of the PoSM at merchant counter.
- PoSM placement must adhere to the guidelines & should not be placed at a wrong place. Viz, a poster should not be placed in an exclusive outlets & a high cost PoSM should not be placed in low footfall counters.
- PoSM placement should not be done on any active campaign of one’s own brand.
- PoSM should not be cut/torn or molded in any form to illustrate creativity without getting approval from management.
How to Evaluate?
This can be done by appointing layered quality checks on the Visual merchandising execution on ground. An authorized & skilled quality check executive should rate the VM pics basis following criteria:
- Prominence/Correct Placement.
- PoSM Communication/Name Visibility.
- Guidelines Adherence.
The outcome of this exercise will provide the rating of VM execution with regards to quality.
Quantity:
Creating a controlled environment which drives the behavior of employees in field keeping end objective in consideration is necessity of any organization. Thus, standardizing the parameters of productivity with regards to quantity is indispensable characteristic for effective VM as well.
Following are the points to note while standardizing the parameters for quantitative analysis.
- Total visits per day per person in a particular region should be set basis the geography of the territory.
- Time spent per day should be calculated in market to measure the tentative working hours of the person on field.
- Time spent in a particular outlet should also be measured to analyze the quality time a VM is spending in outlet.
- PJP Adherence of a visual merchandiser is the key to ensure every outlet is visited as per the SOP set for the territory. So, journey plan should be adhered as per the SOP.
How to Evaluate?
Evaluating these parameters is complex & need authenticated source of data from where information can be extracted. There are many applications available in market which enables reporting through field & captures every bit of data nodes but very few of them provides real-time data with 100% authentication. Channelplay has in house application developed for the field force automation purpose which enables management to get real time analysis & insights basis world class evaluation tools used in the app. Ask for a demo here:
https://www.channelplay.in/#contact-us