Interview Story - Solved a Problem

My client, a Fortune 500 retailer, was rolling out a merchandising program focused on lip balm with three Consumer Package Goods companies. My company made the displays that were to hold the product from these three CPG manufacturers. After three months of coordinating with the retailer and manufacturers, the displays were to be revealed at a Presidents’ meeting, on a weekend at a hotel, and at a store.

We were told to ship our displays and product to arrive no later than Saturday at noon, and just hope that all of the products and displays arrived and were presentable. There were too many ways for this to go wrong. Saturday deliveries to a hotel were not guaranteed, and then everything had to be brought to a certain room to be matched with all the other elements. The same issue with the store, since things getting lost in a large retail store, is almost the definition of business as normal.

I had to find a solution that would ensure this went well, or we might lose the program.

I contacted each of the manufacturers and asked them to send their product to me, to package and deliver on behalf of all our companies. I had already spoken with the retailer who vouched for me and recommended this course of action. The manufacturers readily agreed.

The timing was pretty tight. The meeting was Saturday, and Friday afternoon I still anxiously awaited these deliveries. Fortunately, all three arrived before the end of the day.

When I opened the boxes of products, they were a mess of hundreds of lip balms of different varieties. It looked like the manufactures had hastily run their arms down the shelves and pushed them into the boxes in order to meet the night before FedEx cutoff.

I stayed up late to sort everything into the two display cartons. Then, I got up at 3:00 am on Saturday and drove 6 hours to the store and to the hotel. I arrived on time and arranged the displays. The retailer’s corporate team reviewed the displays and gave their approval.

The program went off without a hitch, and it resulted in a very profitable business for all involved. The campaign ran for 18 months and saw a 12% lift in product sales, compared to prior displays.