Your company’s ideas may be as valuable as your products.

Many of today’s most relevant and distinct brands, such as Oakley sunglasses, Under Armour, Axe, Aveeno, Apple, Method, Stonyfield yogurt and Whole Foods, have one thing in common: Each of these brands may not be the largest in its category, but it is the best at creating emotional connections with its core consumer. They are brands that are well positioned in the consumer’s mind and supported by an array of corporate assets — many of them intangible. What is their secret?

Each of these brands has created a compelling consumer relationship and has earned the loyalty o millions of raving fans. These organizations understand on an instinctual level how to communicate with their customers on both an emotional and functional level. They have found a way to capture the heart of the consumer and have forged deep, trusing relationships with the consumer. Their invisibl equity is a huge asset that differentiates them from competition — and it’s personal.

These leading brands provide unique hidden assets to both the retailer and consumer, while setting the tone and the rules of engagement within the category. Whole Foods, in particular, is definitely reflecting the cultural shifts already occurring in our society, and it is clearly one of the driving forces transforming our views of healthy and sustainable business practices.

One factor that makes Whole Foods unique is the symbiotic relationship between its employees, customers and vendors. Company chairman John Mackey understands the societal power of aligning with the emerging green movement while creating a deep bond with his employees and customers. Whole Foods has managed to accomplish this while understanding on a very intimate level how to drive profitability.

Whole Foods is a retailer with many tangible assets, but its most valuable asset is invisible and intangible — the passion and zeal of its employees. The typical Whole Foods team member understands the mission and embodies the essence of the company’s core values. It is an asset that is very apparent to the company’s consumers, and creates great value.

On a broader level, the more unique assets company offers, the deeper the commitment and personal connection the consumer has to that company’s brands. Many companies discount, disregard or areblinded to the many unique assets hiding within their own corporate cupboards. They have assets, but they have been lost amid the daily challenges ofmanaging a business. The winners take the time to unpack their cupboards and unleash any asset that enables growth and strengthens consumer loyalty.

We have found that there are four primary areas where corporate assets often are hidden: Knowledge, product, connectors and experience.

• Knowledge. This includes all the intellectual properties, research, business models, international know how or unique insights harbored within all divisions of an organization. This is the most undervalued and underappreciated intangible asset with in most organizations. If you are the only one with unique knowledge in an emerging new business, you possess a valuable asset.

• Product. That is, the ability to customize your product in a way that provides an opportunity for real differentiation within your top retail partners. This includes custom promotional programs, exclusive offerings, store brand ideas, innovations brought over from another country or innovations that address unmet consumer needs, while offering the retailer an opportunity to build loyalty with its core consumer.

• Connectors. This includes the ability to introduce valuable influencers to your consumers or retail partners. Companies that harness this, directing leading influencers, social networks or third party specialists to their retail partners, increase the value of their bundle. These connectors enable companies to build their brand and their sphere of influence within the industry. It is a strong intangible that can be more valuable than your brand.

• Experiences. These are the unique instore marketing ideas, merchandising systems, interactive educational kiosks, marketing alliances or instore advertising programs that enhance consumer loyalty, shopping experience and your company’s value in the eyes of the retailer and the consumer. Experiential retailing is here to stay, and manufacturers that bring forward assets in this area will increase their value.

In a retail world now marked by consumers who are less loyal than ever before, companies must bring more than product to their top retail partners. Bestinclass operators offer a diverse set of corporate assets, elevating their brand, differentiating their company and filling unmet consumer needs while aligning with the retailer’s broader strategic agenda. It is a tall order, but these are the new rules of engagement.

What unique hidden asset may be stored away in your corporate cupboard?

Dan Mack is EVP strategic sales at The Swanson Group and managing director of Mack Elevation Forum. You can contact him at (630) 607-2774 or learn more at. TheSwansonGroup.com or MackElevationForum.com

How valuable are you in the eyes of your most trusted retail partners?

Over the last couple of years, there has been a new mandate declared by many of the top retailers in America: provide differentiated consumer value or perish. Last year, I conducted research with a number of the top merchants in our industry. The insights uncovered were very telling. It is very clear that many manufacturers — big and small — are not as aligned and valuable as they may think.

The four manufacturer blind spots included:

• Not truly understanding their most vital boardroom priorities;
• Not truly being perceived as differentiated versus their competitors;
• Not bringing the most relevant assets or people to the relationship; and
• Not being hardwired to their agenda and not providing enough custom solutions.

Do most manufacturers understand that this is going on in the minds of many of their top retail partners?  The dirty little secret is that most companies are not as valuable as they think they are.

Our research showed that the smaller underdog companies that are winning operate with a very different philosophy. During a recent strategy development meeting, a client asked the question: “What are the best smaller or mid-size companies doing differently?”

Here is what we shared as our findings:

• Identity and alignment: It is always about deep vision — alignment and purpose. The top companies recognize that business is never transactional, it’s personal. They operate under clear core values, and everyone fits the culture. When you create a company like this, it is then easy to incorporate an Enterprise Sales Model, involving many departments in the sales process. This philosophy drives creativity and shared expectations, while helping them exploit all their unique resources. The winners push the boundaries of innovation and are not afraid ofsharing internal power or failing.

• Messy    innovation: We also have found that some of the best are the most agile and in fact are a bit “messy” at times. Even though they clearly have defined the sandbox they play in, they always are evaluating, innovating and tinkering around the fringe of their business. They ask a lot of questions and never assume they fully understand either the industry or their business. As one buyer shared with me, “the best companies move from prototype to end product quicker than competitors and have learned to deal with the messiness.” They are the masters of speed, and they constantly are in the process of reinvigorating their base business, leaving competitors in their wake.

• Co-creation: Open innovation is a powerful idea, but few organizations really do it effectively. It may seem risky, but as one marketing executive shared with me, “you can’t afford the risk of not co-creating products with your top customers.” Some of the brightest smaller companies minimize risk by actually designing their next line of innovations very early in the process with their top retailer partners. They have found that open, disciplined and professionally facilitated meetings can help unlock an innovation stalemate. This practice unleashes growth and competitive advantage, and is the secret sauce of many emerging companies.

• Specialized “ideas”: Emerging new companies’ understand that mastery is about focus, practice and a deep understanding of your craft. We consistently see in our research that the best in their respective categories spend the majority of their time digging deeper into the customers’ needs, and consider how societal trends are affecting their business. This allows these firms to create a unique point of view on their category, supporting their retail partners with meaningful ideas that optimize the category and fill unmet   consumer needs.

• Experiential/custom solutions: Making great products gets you on the shelf. Making great products and providing unique instore solutions that attract the consumer keeps you there. The art of connecting with the consumer has moved from manufacturing goods to creating an experience in the store that creates loyalty and improved shopabilty, and that differentiates the retailer. Retailers are looking to brand their store, and are looking for partners that can help achieve this vision. What an opportunity for a company to create meaningful value. We have found that the thought leaders are agile and innovative, but also thrive on custom product offerings and programs that the top retailers can own. So how can this be done effectively? The answer is that they try to spread the wealth of customization, offering unique products and ideas that help their retail partners appear different to their guests. A difficult challenge? Yes. A meaningful strategy? Most definitely.

The winners are singing a different tune.  They set the category rules of engagement, provide meaningful hidden assets to the relationships and move faster than their competitors. Strategic relationships are built on transparency and shared vision, but most importantly meaningful value creation. How valuable are you really?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Success is often one of the biggest blind spots a company can have, because you’re so busy doing well you doesn’t have the time to assess what it is you’re doing. That is one of the core reasons for being for the Mack Elevation Forum, “a share group on steroids,” described program founder Dan Mack, EVP of strategic business development for the Swanson Group, which hosted its most recent meeting Friday morning here at the Hilton Scottsdale.

The group brings together executives from noncompeting, smaller to midsized companies. Today there is a new path to purchase for the consumer: 38% are using mobile devices to make their final purchasing decisions; and 31% are using their mobile devices in the store to influence a purchase. For retailers and vendors that means a new path to consumer education and delivering product innovation, explained Mack. It’s about finding the holes in the market and figuring out where your brand can play a role

To kick off the conversation, guest speaker Joe Magnacca, Walgreens’ president of daily living products and solutions briefed Elevation Forum attendees on the transformation occurring today at Walgreens, as the company moves from what Magnacca described as an “operations-based” to a “merchant-based” business model..

Magnacca, the veteran of Canadian retailing who led the major transformation of New York’s Duane Reade stores to one of the design jewels in all of retail, talked about the new challenges that will lie ahead as the company continues to experiment and explore the drug store of the future. Retailers like Walgreens will look to new profit centers in the store, such as expanded convenience foods and more fresh offerings, and retail clinics, all of which will create new pressure for vendors to demonstrate the uniqueness and non-transferability of their products in order to stay on the shelf.

Discussion led to opportunities for vendors to help retailers like Walgreens to create more of an experience for shoppers in the store. One way to accomplish that is with product packaging, shared Tim Cleary, VP sales at Purell Consumer/Gojo Industries. “The stronger the SKU level differentiation — by utilizing relevant colors, disruptive Packaging — the more compelling your brand experience can become,” he said.

Tina Jackse, senior director of national accounts at Beiersdorf, noted that social media is one area to tie into retailer efforts to help improve the shopping experience.

“We try to ensure that your company’s social media and other marketing efforts align to the brand image and merchandising being utilized within the store,” she said. To get there, Marty Marion, CEO of Cobalis, suggested using a thirdparty partner to help coordinate all social media tactics under one comprehensive platform.

SAN DIEGO — It’s a new game. And the winners are the ones that follow the new rules of the game.

That was how Swanson Group VP Dan Mack teed up the discussion here, Friday morning, at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel, for the latest edition of The Mack Elevation Forum.

The share group — which merged with the Swanson Group last November — organized and coordinated by Mack, brings together executives from noncompeting, generally smaller to mid sized companies to examine critical business issues with the ultimate goal of enabling participants to align their sales and marketing strategies with the broader vision of the retailers they do business with. In all, executives from more than 20 different supplier companies were in attendance.

Among other things, the new rules, Mack explained, dictate that the pie of which suppliers fight to secure a share is smaller than it once was as retailers focus on growing their store brands; the new “value” consumer continues to grow in number — and value isn’t always defined by price; social media continues to level the playing field from a brand marketing standpoint, even as SKU rationalization does its best to shrink the playing field; and customer loyalty has reached an all time low.

Special retailer guest, Bill Bergin, VP health and beauty for Rite Aid, provided attendees with an insider’s view of how suppliers can better engage Rite Aid, and shared details of key programs — such as the chain’s newly introduced Wellness+ customer loyalty card program, which the company began rolling out in May — that are priorities for Rite Aid.

Picking up on the theme of Drug Store News June 6 issue cover story, “7 Deadly Sins of SKU Rationalization,” Mack Elevation Forum attendees focused a good deal of the discussion around the topic of SKU rationalization — and, more importantly, how smaller vendors can keep out of the crosshairs.

To some extent, SKU rationalization has been a bit a of self fulfilling prophesy, explained Vic Mazzacone, CEO of Drive Medical Design and Manufacturing, retail division. “The supplier community set the table for the radical SKU rationalization that is currently occurring,” he said, citing a lack of “real innovation. And overzealous marketers created a stream of new products that did not grow the segment and only traded sales. Too many brands are truly not differentiated, which makes them vulnerable.”

Dan Quail, VP sales for Similasan, noted that in one of his key business segments, the ear category, there historically have been six to seven other manufacturers competing within the section. “With some retailers, there are now only three manufacturers competing in the section,” Quail said. “It was a perfect case of companies notbeing differentiated and diluting the overall performance of the section.”

The bigger question, of course, is not so much  what caused SKU rationalization, but what suppliers can do to keep from having their items eliminated.

“Suppliers must understand emerging consumer trends and stay on the forefront of meeting evolving consumer needs,” said Mike Barna,VP sales for First Boston Pharma. “By staying out in front of the curve, you have the opportunity to create new products in growth segments where retailers are more willing to invest … and [you] are also more insulated against rationalization.”

Audie Rudiger, VP sales for Wahl, noted that the 80 year old clipper company utilizes data from Zoomerang to identify consumer preferences, and uses that information to help support why its products must be a part of the planogram. Rudiger also recommended the online consumer survey service Questback.com for deeper qualitative and quantitative consumer feedback, and QuestionPro for more complex consumer research.

Another strategy for maintaining an item’s place on the shelf is to demonstrate that item’s contribution to the overall market basket, or the value of the trip the item generates, or that the value of that shopper is higher than the category norm, noted

Tina Jackse, senior director of national accounts for Beiersdorf. “Try to establish if your brand — if not on the shelf — encouraged the consumer to leave the store.”

In the end, it is important for suppliers to leverage all of their assets to bring constant value back to the retailer. “Winning companies are bringing products to their retailer partners, but they also provide context on national best practices and are students of the important societal shifts,” Mack   explained. “They understand that the game is about bringing ideas that help retailers build customer loyalty, drive trips and encourage instore conversion. Companies offering these type of assets build strong brands and are more immune to being delisted.”

CHICAGO — at a time when consumer takeaway is low and financial resources are limited, retailers and sup pliers need to dig beneath the surface to find creative ways to grow sales; it’s about exploring your hidden assets. And it was a key takeaway of a recent Elevation Forum meeting, held here last month.

Dan Mack, founder of the Elevation Forum, told attendees to focus on the needs of retailers and consumers.

“It’s not about what YOU make — it’s about what THEY want,” said Dan Mack, The Swanson Group’s EVP strategic business development and founder of the Elevation Forum. “Many organizations spend too much time looking inward at their own capabilities, goals, corporate metrics and opinions, and not enough time looking outward at the changing needs of their retailer partners and the consumer.”

In all, roughly 20 different companies attend a typical Elevation Forum — a think tank that brings together executives from noncompeting companies to examine the opportunities to better align their brands with the broader goals of retailers. Discussion at the Oct. 7 meeting centered on improving in store shopper marketing practices and learning how to win “winner take all” negotiations.

Winning on both fronts requires a laser focus on the things you are and the qualities your brand brings to the consumer. “The winning companies are the firms that explore their inner ‘weness,’” said Bruce Kramer, VP sales and marketing for Wahl Home Products.

One key issue most vendors in the group seemed to agree upon was the incredibly short window that retailers seem to allow for new products to meet critical sales thresholds.

Another area of agreement focused on the escalating costs associated with bringing a new product to market, particularly for smaller and mid sized companies that may not get a chance to start all over again if the launch goes wrong

As for the battle for the consumer: That often can be won at the store level, explained Swanson Group principal Rich Swanson. “Shopper marketing also includes creating impactful, special packaging or added value Incentive.… Research shows a consumer is more willing to buy a product when [he or she] can see the brand within the package. Transform the package so the product is the star, not just your packaging and positioning,” Swanson said

Most organizations have blind spots hindering their growth and their alignment with their top retail partners. So what is the root of this reoccurring leadership trap? In many cases, executives are fearful of true self assessment uncovering cracks in their own armor, while others just don’t place a high enough value on strategic reflection and a thoughtful design of an integrated national sales strategy. How often do most organizations honestly look into the mirror while practicing personal reflection? Since research shows that only 29% of the work force actually is engaged in the workplace, according to Gallop, it’s probably not often enough.

Years ago, I worked with an executive who administered a feedbacking process with members of his team — but would not subject himself to the same level of discipline.  The story is, at one point he made himself vulner-able to critique, didn’t like the out-come and never asked for it again. He was not strong enough to deal with the truth. How about you?

As we advise management teams on business strategy, we have seen the impact of reflecting on the following four strategic sales and marketing questions. Addressing these questions on a quarterly basis is a strategic discipline that will unleash new value, strengthencompetitive insulation and improve customer alignment. How are you doing?

Do your top assets align with your retailer’s strategic boardroom priorities? Manufacturers that struggle to create meaningful value with retailers most of the time do not bring unique or relevant assets to their engagements. Company assets — both tangible and intangible — are only of value when they align with the retailer’s boardroom priorities. Our suggestion is to dig deep into your corporate cupboard to ensure you pull out the right asset — one that differentiates your company and your offerings. If your assets are not of value to your retail partners, then you are not of value.

Have you designed a differentiated umbrella sales or go to market position? The more clarity an organization brings to its retailer engagements, the higher the probability of winning.   Winning organizations do not show up in front of their customers with multiple divergent strategies. They present a clear corporate brand image and focused strategy while moving to a place on the competitive map that they own. Your goal is to move to a position where you are the only one who does what you do; creating a corporate culture that develops the skills of listening in between the lines and always looking for new revenue streams and stronger alignment.

Are you utilizing an enterprise sales model with your strategic retailers? Your largest, most visible retailer partners deserve a significant share of mind, and the ideas of multiple layers of your organization. How have you chosen your strategic retailers, and are they resourced appropriately to achieve your business plan? If your company’s brain trust is not involved with the customer planning of your top retailers, you are not as aligned as you could be. Your most visible retail partners need the insights of all company departments. The one caveat is that senior executives or ownership must have the insight and courage to know when to get out of the way.

Have you earned the right to co-create with your top retail partners? The top marketers in our industry don’t make a move unless they are aligned with their top retailers. Their sales and marketing teams are hardwired and deeply aligned with the retailer’s corporate agenda, and they are astute at co-creating new innovations that fill unmet consumer needs. This generation of winners has learned to embrace this best practice — understanding that alignment and co-creation is the key to profitable growth.

Creating a disciplined sales strategy supported by the rhythm of periodic reflection points is vital to team health, focus and results.  So why do many fight it? It takes guts to truthfully look in the mirror or to ask others for a reality check addressing the cracks in the operation. Whether you look in the mirror or not, the cracks remain. Be brave enough to address them. It will make a difference.

Dan Mack is EVP strategic sales at The Swanson Group, and managing director of Mack Elevation Forum. You can contact Dan at (630) 607-2774 or learn more at MackElevationForum.com.