CHICAGO -- Collaborative relationships are key to the success of the whole health segment, according to speakers at the Whole Health Solutions Conference here.
Retailers, distributors and manufacturers need to work together in a number of ways, said Greg Leonard, corporate director of merchandising for Tree of Life, and John Chmarney, customer business development manager for Procter & Gamble. The two spoke during a general session held here last month. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute, Washington, and the General Merchandise Distributors Council, Colorado Springs.
Leonard offered both successful and unsuccessful case studies of retailers with whom his company has collaborated. One success story was in a city with a strong showing of natural product stores. At the time Tree of Life got involved, there was already an existing upscale unit in the mainstream company that had successfully integrated a natural foods assortment. The company then wanted to increase sales by creating a store-within-a-store.
The CEO of the company championed the program, and Tree of Life helped design the space and create the right product mix and promotional programs. As a result, the natural product area brought in new customers and took sales away from local health food stores. Two other programs were successful because they had similar ingredients: commitment from management, aggressive promotion plans, distributor assistance and good communication between collaborative partners.
Management failure to commit to the whole health program was a main characteristic of unsuccessful partnerships, along with failure to educate shoppers about where to find natural products in the store. These retailers also did not effectively market or promote their programs, Leonard said.
Procter & Gamble's Chmarney, who is currently involved in start-up and development of customer business teams, offered a top 10 to-do list for developing a whole health initiative. Retail and vendor sponsors need management support, he said, and the vendor must have the ability to provide resources. He mentioned other important elements, such as the need to be unique in the marketplace and to maintain a collaborative team effort among the whole health players.
"A successful partnership requires a willingness to share, trust in each other, operate from a basis of fact and leave out personal agendas," he said. "A partnership is based on working together, and that means that both sides have to deliver," Chmarney said.
