Context and challenges for transforming your sales strategy with 3D Merchandising

Presentation of the company

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MAM Baby is an Austrian company founded in 1976 that develops baby products combining design and functionality. The range includes feeding bottles, teats, soothers, accessories and breastfeeding products.

MAM Baby has been present in France for over 10 years, and through its French subsidiary distributes its products in pharmacies, parapharmacies, specialized baby stores and specific e-commerce channels. The company is recognized as the world leader in the baby care market, with a 77% market share in pharmacies.

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Presentation of the interviewee

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Marine Paitrault has been working at MAM for around 3 years as Trade Marketing Manager. Her role involves managing all aspects of point-of-sale marketing, category management and merchandising.

It ensures the operational adaptation of planograms (plano) and product availability to support the sales team in its interactions with stores.

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What was your initial problem? 

The practical problem was to replace aging merchandising software that was no longer fully satisfactory. The aim was to quickly and easily find a solution offering better rendering quality, with high-quality visuals and an attractive 3D view.

A second challenge was to facilitate communication with our outsourced sales force. The team had expressed the need for a transition to something more professional. 

Retail VR responded positively by specifically developing a feature to provide field sales staff with relevant information.

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What were your objectives with the Merchandising 3D solution?

Prior to 2021, the outsourced sales force was multi-carded (marketing products from several different laboratories) and "sell-in" oriented, i.e. focused on taking orders from distributors. 

Since April 2021, we have switched to an exclusive sales force working exclusively for MAM, which has developed "sell-out" skills to develop sales to end consumers, and has gradually put merchandising at the heart of its activity. 

It was therefore crucial to provide the sales team of around thirty with better quality planogram visualization tools, to highlight the MAM approach and our products, and to facilitate direct sales. 

Our aim was to make merchandising more attractive to our sales force. 

Solutions and feedback for transforming your sales strategy with 3D Merchandising

How did the Merchandising 3D solution help you solve your initial problem? 

The solution is very easy to use, making it possible to create planograms more quickly. Above all, this simplification has made the sales pitch more attractive to networks of pharmacists and specialist baby stores. 

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What facilities/difficulties did you encounter in setting up?

It was easy to set up, as the tool is very intuitive. 

The only difficulty we encountered was synchronizing tool updates for field sales staff: security standards are not always the same between the different channels, and equipment is different. As is often the case, sales staff are not all equally comfortable with the technology, which posed a number of difficulties with the numerous updates and version upgrades during the first few months.

On the other hand, once installed, the tool is easy to use, logical and simplifies the work of sales staff. 

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What are the advantages of this solution?

The tool is easy to use and works well, making our day-to-day work much easier. Planograms are easy to access for the sales force, and very legible thanks to 3D. 

We have seen a significant impact with our customers, thanks in particular to the creation of a pharmaceutical universe on the plans, which reinforces the relevance of our presentations by enabling them to better project themselves.

When we migrated to Retail Staging from our previous editor, we were able to easily retrieve all our old planograms. This feature greatly facilitated the transition to the new solution.

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What benefits did you perceive? 

At present, we have little quantitative data, and have not yet set up in-depth analysis or reporting tools. 

For the time being, we're relying more on qualitative feedback, in particular on the quality of the planograms and the overall environment created. The feedback is very good.  

The platform is widely appreciated for its ease of use, and satisfies all the teams involved.

The ability to e-mail a plan to a customer, with a direct list of products to be ordered for relocation, is also a plus appreciated by sales staff. 

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If you were to sum up the solution in 3 key points

• The platform's ease of use in the field and at headquarters
• The responsiveness of the Retail VR teams, which enabled us to successfully complete the various projects and react quickly to any problems encountered in the field.
• The qualitative aspect of the renderings generated by the platform, with 3D elements that enable us to present much more "commercial" and attractive displays. 

3D Merchandising transforms your sales strategy through collaboration and follow-up

Why did you choose Retail VR?

We had very good contact with Josselin Monnot, the sales representative with whom we initiated the set-up. Discussions were very constructive, and our needs were quickly taken into account and understood. All in all, the Retail VR teams were very responsive and available to help us bring this project to a successful conclusion. 

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What next for this project?

We are very satisfied with the Retail Staging software. 

The solution is sufficiently intuitive that, in the medium term, we plan to let sales reps modify their planograms on the fly.

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About us

The project  

Retail Staging consists of 3 tools: micro merchandising, macro merchandising and a sales support solution for sales staff. 

MAM Baby chose :  

• 3D Planogram Studio: 3D micro-merchandising editor for easy creation of high-quality 3D planograms. Planogram Studio can be used to generate all types of furniture, POP displays and signage and make them merchandisable, offering merchandising teams a solution with no limits. 

• Retail Staging For Field: Retail Staging for Field is a sales support solution for sales staff, enabling them to view a selected planogram on a tablet, smartphone or PC, from which the salesperson and customer can select the products to be ordered. Retail Staging for Field facilitates order-taking and enables sales reps to easily pass on merchandising recommendations to a customer. 

MAM Baby uses 2 Planogram Studio licenses managed by head office and 30 Retail Staging for Field licenses for field sales staff.

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Retail VR

Founded in 2018, Retail VR offers a 3D experience platform to accelerate sales and retail processes.

Limited travel, high showroom operating costs, reduced carbon footprints - in this context, it's hard to come up with new concepts, or successfully launch a product or run a promotional campaign.

Thanks to our 2D/3D converter, we can create 3D environments and content very quickly. Our solutions help brand owners and retailers to simulate their points of sale, validate product launches and work on consumer studies. We also help them to digitalize their showrooms and offer immersive, brand-enhancing shopping experiences, thus saving time and money.

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