Quri Examines Winning Brands of In-Store Super Bowl Merchandising

Quri has released the outcome of its first-ever Quri-Bowl Study, which examined brands that scored big on grocery shelves everywhere. The Quri-Bowl tracked a selection of popular consumer packaged goods brands—including Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Doritos, Tostitos, Snickers, Skittles, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and Coke—and showcased the interplay between their display promotions and on-shelf availability in-store during the Super Bowl week power period.

“Every year the industry celebrates the best of TV Super Bowl advertising, but generally overlooks the creative, but often complex, blocking and tackling of in-store merchandising,” says Justin Behar, CEO of Quri. “Our first-ever Quri-Bowl followed nine major brands as they call their in-store merchandising plays using both promotional displays and on-shelf availability to drive sales during this vital power period.” 

The Quri-Bowl analyzed brands’ merchandising presence both in primary and promotional display shelf locations across over 1,100 grocery stores for the seven days ending Saturday, Feb. 6. Below are the results for the nine brands tracked.

Display location can impact sales lift. The lobby and checkout areas are the highest traffic areas, which drive visibility and awareness. Doritos had 46 percent of its displays in the lobby and checkout area of the stores, and 95 percent of its displays were outside of their expected home aisle in chips, which was the highest of any brand. Skittles had 42 percent  of its displays in the lobby and checkout areas of the stores.

Display type is also a major factor in driving sales. Quri Academy data indicates that pallets drive sales lifts by 118 percent, and endcaps drive sales lifts by 76 percent. These are some of the highest lifts amongst the various display vehicles. Mountain Dew's promotion displays leveraged pallets 26 percent of the time and endcaps 39 percent of the time. Pepsi had the second highest percent of displays, made up of pallets and end caps.

Multiple displays create multiple points of interruption to encourage impulse purchases. Pepsi averaged 2.3 displays per store. Coke averaged 2.0 displays per store.

Carbonated beverage brand, Pepsi made another appearance during the Quri-Bowl with the highest on-self availability, which averaged 99 percent per store. Coke maintained the second highest on-shelf availability on their 12-pack cans at 98 percent.

Pepsi managed to master home location promotion compliance with the highest on-shelf promotion tags, averaging 96 percent per store. Pepsi comprehensively supported their in-store merchandising efforts by maintaining high levels of on-shelf availability at the home location and ensuring promotional elements like the promo shelf tag were present and visible, according to Quri officials.

“While we are proud to celebrate the success of many of the brands and execution teams that worked so hard during a busy time like Super Bowl week, insights from our data and analytics indicate there is room for significant improvement in our merchandising efforts as an industry,” says Behar.  “The $5 million on average spent on a single Super Bowl TV ad is nothing compared to the $10s of millions spent in-store to merchandise brands every day. With Quri’s daily insights from the shelves of thousands of stores, innovative brands are focusing on driving the best performance possible from their in-store merchandising spend.”

Data and insights derived from Quri’s Retail Intelligence Technology greatly enhance a manufacturer’s ability to profitably manage in-store merchandising. Quri demonstrated how the real win for manufacturers during the Super Bowl is successful in-store merchandising via both promotional displays and on-shelf availability. With Quri, manufacturers receive timely, quantified data on how their merchandising plans look at the shelves of tens of thousands of stores daily, allowing them to sell more effectively, guide in-cycle corrections, unlock key drivers of sales lifts in post-analysis, and build more efficient, profitable merchandising plans routinely in every new cycle.

Quri will unveil the culmination of the Quri-Bowl during a webinar on Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. (EST)/11a.m. (PST). The webinar will take a deeper look at the results and announce the overall Quri-Bowl champion of in-store merchandising.