Want to know what the #1 subject for New Year's resolutions is going to be in 2003? Think it's things like "lose weight","get in shape", "no more Ebay", "stop yelling at the kids", "stop smoking", etc.?
 Think again! In a recent survey conducted by myGoals.com -- "the Web's leading site for setting and managing all of your personal and professional goals" (their phrase, not ours) -- the #1 subject on which people plan to make resolutions for 2003 is work-related goals.
This is defined not so much as landing new jobs, but as acquiring new skills, increasing sales, productivity and profitability and improving performance generally. Interestingly, this was mentioned as #1 by 27 percent of survey respondents -- up from only 9 percent in 2002 -- and has moved ahead of even health care (24 percent) as people's top priority for 2003.
It is in the spirit of this priority that we thought we would provide a suggested "Resolutions Checklist" for consideration by each of the legs of the consumer take-away stool -- Sales, Product Management, Supplier Top Management and Retailers.
To further the cause of truly working together while maintaining the integrity of one's own objectives -- and perhaps to get a jump on what we think will eventually happen anyway in this industry -- here's a checklist of resolutions that can serve as starting points for decision makers who may be challenged in searching for 2003 resolutions.
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SALES:
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- I will learn what drives our top retailers' decision-making process -- e.g., determine which accounts are fundamentally financial institutions versus merchants -- and tailor my approaches to leverage this knowledge.
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- I will develop a company-approved formula for evaluating the ROI of different types of retailer-developed promotion devices and consumer communications vehicles and adjust investment/involvement accordingly.
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- I will help my top retailers improve ROI and secure my brands' future by voluntarily limiting distribution of certain brands and/or sizes to those stores that meet each retailer's minimum turns criteria.
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- Similarly, I will tier all in-store promotion and merchandising recommendations based on how well brand demographics match store demographics on a per-outlet basis. I will avoid strong P.L. stores and bad matches, even if the individual store has high overall volume.
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PRODUCT MANAGEMENT:
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- I will become personally involved in the Annual Strategic & Tactical Planning process for each of my brands' top accounts.
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- I will work with my Promotion Agency and Sales Department to develop trade performance requirements that are more imaginative, compelling and entertaining than "feature, display and TPR."
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- I will study the equity-building contribution potential of my top accounts' promotion devices and media vehicles. I will establish investment and evaluation criteria relevant to my brands and empower my sales teams to participate within the framework of these criteria. At a minimum, I will run a few tests.
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- I will dimensionalize my experience and broaden my perspective by proactively making calls on my brands' most important accounts as a member of my Top Accounts' Sales Teams. I will learn first-hand how mega-retailers can help (or hurt) my brands' objectives and how to capitalize on this knowledge.
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- I will make it a habit to compile channel-specific brand SWOTS at least once per quarter, based solely on making personal store checks.
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SUPPLIER TOP MANAGEMENT:
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- I will clear up the budget mess by officially sanctioning the addition of a line entitled "Co-Marketing" to each brand's P&L and define what this term means in my Company.
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- I will restructure and reformat the annual Brand Planning process to incorporate Top Account planning and budgeting as an integral part of the overall marketing mix.
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- I will reengineer or reformulate to minimize the silo effect between Marketing and Sales and to bring the full weight of all Marketing and Sales resources to bear on the Company's top accounts -- up to the level of ROI objectives.
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- I will calculate profitability on a channel-specific or account-specific basis and strategize away from those channels or accounts that are not meeting objectives. I will give Product Management and Sales permission to do this and reallocate accordingly.
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RETAILERS:
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- I will survey my customers to determine why they shop my store -- what they view as destination and what they would like to see improved -- and stop trying to be all things to all people.
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- I will arrive at a corporate positioning that enables me to differentiate on a non-price basis in ways that resonate with what consumers expect of my stores.
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- I will provide vendors with specific guidance on the timing and types of promotion events I want to run next year to reinforce my core positioning.
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- I will pave the way for top-to-top meetings with a representative number of smaller vendors to ensure balanced perspective and input.
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Now what, realistically, are the odds that any of this will happen as a result of resolving to make it happen?
In one of those obscure studies that only consultants like us can dig up, we found that approximately 63 percent of people who make New Year's resolutions are able to stick with their most important resolution for only about two months.
The good news concerns the nature and type of resolutions one is making: Based on a 1997 study done by the (well-known and wildly popular) "Addiction Behavior Research Center" of the University of Washington, people are more willing to do something they know is right than give up something they know is wrong. Of 264 people interviewed for this study, 222 or 84 percent vowed to start doing something while only 44 people or 16 percent vowed to give up something.
Because all of the resolutions on the above "Resolution Checklist" relate to "starting to do something" and none calls for "giving up something," we can only conclude that 2003 will be a banner year for the CPG industry -- at least for the first two months.
Christopher W. Hoyt is President of Hoyt & Company LLC, a packaged goods training and consulting organization based in Scottsdale, AZ. He may be reached via his web site at www.hoytnet.com
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