The Challenge:

Marketers of a sports drink brand were curious whether their beverage was being properly placed and displayed at a specific major retail chain's stores. Additionally, the beverage maker wanted to know if shoppers who bought its brand were satisfied with the selection of flavors and sizes?

The Solution:

MFour conducted a GPS geolocation study of the retail chain’s shoppers, intercepting them naturally as they entered a store and surveying them immediately on their smartphones via the mobile app Surveys on the Go^®. Shoppers who said they had bought the client's sports drink from the retailer within the past 90 days qualified for the survey and were directed to find it. All 250 respondents also answered a photo question in the survey with their smartphone camera, showing the shelf display of the product and its competitors.

Key findings:

1. Confusion over where to look:

• 34% of shoppers said they had a hard time finding the drink.

• Shoppers named four different aisles where they had expected to find the drink.

• Most looked first among bottled waters (39%) or sports drinks (48%).

• Others initially checked in the juice or soda aisles.

• 98% eventually did find the drink.

2. Dissatisfaction with display and product availability

• 34% said they were dissatisfied with the display.

• 36% said the product was not neatly arranged on the shelf.

• 51% said they couldn’t find the flavor they wanted.

• 53% couldn’t find the quantity-per-package they wanted.

• 16% said the sports drink was not in stock.

3. Threat to in-store sales

• 57% of respondents said they would be willing to buy the drink online.
  

Insights and recommendations:

• Establish a single, consistent aisle location.

• Display it with bottled waters or sports drinks, but not either-or.

• Offer a single-bottle option, in addition to multi-bottle packages.

• Provide more flavor variety and keep shelves well-stocked.

• Improve visibility of the drink, which was often on the bottom shelf.
  
  

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