VIDEO VENDORS ADVISED TO CATER TO FOOD STORES

DAN ALAIMO

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Video suppliers must do a better job of designing sell-through programs for supermarkets, particularly for special interest products, said George Port, president of Video Treasures, Troy, Mich. "We think probably the most under-merchandised area in the market right now is supermarkets," Port told SN during the fifth annual convention of the Special Interest Video Association, held here Nov. 9 to 11. Video Treasures is a division of the Handleman Co. "There's life between $5.99 kiddie promotions and 'Jurassic Park,' " he said, following a panel discussion in which he participated. "We have to develop more sophisticated merchandising tools to allow the supermarket companies to give us the privilege of taking their valuable space," he said. Port's comments reflect a growing acknowledgement within the video industry that supermarket retailers need sell-through programs that are better tailored to their class of trade, said industry observers. What works for Wal-Mart, Blockbuster or Best Buy was not necessarily right for food stores, they said. Contrary to what some video executives say, the problem is not on the supermarkets' side, said Port. "We haven't done it well enough to know if the market is there. It may end up not being successful, but you certainly cannot look at recent history as any indication of what the potential is," he said. "The burden is on us to do it. This is an area we are really concentrating on, because we think it has the potential for enormous growth," said Port. "It's got to go beyond cardboard dumps and, 'Buy this because it is cheap.' We've got to come up with fixturing that makes sense and that integrates better into the food store's way of presenting itself," he said.

Supermarkets are becoming more concerned with how they look to customers. "It's color schemes, formatting, how the program is laid out. The more sophisticated supermarket executive is looking at all those things. You can't walk in with yesterday's cardboard dump display and convince the buyer to put that into the store. We have to be clever and we are trying to be," said Port. Supermarkets have been viewed by many in the video industry as a place for in-and-out promotions, but these stores can do more with video, he said. "It's a true merchandising issue. It will take more effort, but the company that puts it in will probably do well," said Port. A key component for a successful supermarket program is ample lead time, he noted. "You need more advertising, you need to set up more complicated in-store programs, and it all takes lead time. Things that are done quickly usually aren't very well thought out and the chances of success aren't very good," he said. Many special-interest programs have not fared well in supermarkets, but this doesn't have to be the case. "This is a market area that is crying to sell this kind of product. I've got a better chance of selling a special-interest category from an end-cap in a supermarket than I do hoping that someone will walk into the bullpen at Wal-Mart to see it," he said One place not to put special-interest, or other sell-through tapes, is in the video rental department, said Port. The products should be up front in the store, or in some other logical part of the main selling area. "You can't bury it in the bullpen."