Research Reports

Linda Brazil is used to helping her clients “handle any product issues that Mother Nature may throw our way.”

But when Mother Nature hurled Hurricane Ike into Houston in 2008, the challenge was different than Brazil, a field specialist with Los Alamitos, Calif.-based Frieda’s Inc., had encountered. Like most supermarkets in the devastated area, Kroger’s Southwest division stores had to find a way to serve customers who needed food more than ever when their entire inventories were literally under water.

The Kroger Co., Cincinnati, shipped tons of groceries and other supplies, including 233 truckloads of produce, to its Houston-area stores. Then Brazil went to work helping her client get up and running.

“I am available when out-of-the-ordinary events occur, such as Hurricane Ike. It devastated the stores ... they needed all the help they could get in so many different ways,” Brazil says. While she did not visit extremely damaged locations like the Kroger in Galveston, Texas, she did help other stores get up and running. “The stores had no power if they did not have a generator, so most of the product had to be thrown away, the department cleaned, and product reordered.”

Pamela Riemenschneider

Linda Brazil, field specialist for Frieda's Inc., helps pack produce at a Houston Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association event. The role of a field merchandiser is more than retail operations.

Whether assisting in “out-of-the-ordinary” ways or simply offering advice about in-store promotions, field merchandisers are the experts retailers consult for help in boosting produce sales.

“Field merchandisers are the hands-on eyes and ears of produce distribution from the individual store level to the corporate level,” Brazil says.

The Role
Field merchandiser. Promotion director. Regional retail account manager. Some are employed by produce companies; others by associations; still others are consultants who represent several different commodities. But while their titles and employment terms vary, these produce pros have a common goal: to help retailers increase sales and profits of the specific product or category they represent.

“Their job is to assist the retailer in ways that will increase sales, overall margin and profitability of the complete potato category,” Seth Pemsler, vice president of retail/international for the Idaho Potato Commission, Eagle, says of the association’s four on-staff promotion directors. “We have expertise. Many buyers have multiple categories or are new to the category. We have the understanding of how to price and promote.”

Field merchandisers also foster relationships essential to success in today’s highly demanding and competitive retail marketplace.

“By having a team of regional retail account managers working on our behalf, I can be confident that the information is getting out there and the relationships are being fostered so that retailers will make good decisions to build their mango business,” says Wendy McManus, director of marketing for the National Mango Board, Orlando, Fla.

The Responsibilities

According to David Anderson, president of Anderson Food Sales and Marketing, a field merchandiser’s general responsibility is to market and merchandise specific items with the retail food trade.

“We work in advance of the crop, calling on key decision-makers, setting up the activities,” says Anderson, who counts the Hass Avocado Board, California Pear Advisory Board, California Bing Cherry Promotional Group and Bard Valley Medjool Date Growers Association among his clients. “We usually precede the actual sales companies, shippers and growers who are then fielding the orders, confirming P.O.’s, packing and loading trucks.”

Those activities range from providing crop forecasts to explaining the nuances of preparing a specific produce item.

“Anything I can do to save my retailers time or make their job easier is important to me and to them. I share general crop information but also look for educational opportunities to train produce managers," says Sheila Carden, a National Mango Board retail account manager who represents several commodity boards.

That “anything” includes updating clients on category trends and promotional opportunities, and training produce managers so they, in turn, can educate their customers about the produce they purvey.

“I give them talking points to make them feel more confident when advising their customers,” Carden explains. “Sometimes it can be as simple as advising them to tell their customers not to refrigerate tomatoes, how to pick out a watermelon, or how to cut a mango or an avocado. I give the retailer a menu of ways they can promote a commodity and work with him to choose which is best for his company.”


The Evolution

Consolidation. Not only has it has changed the retail landscape, but also the scope of tasks field merchandisers must undertake.

“Retail consolidation began in earnest almost 10 years ago, which has shrunk the customer base,” Anderson says. “That means we need to bring even more value to each and every call. The level of sophistication [in terms of data] we as merchandisers now bring is certainly a recent trend.

“We also are frequently calling on more than one contact with a retailer—merchandiser, buyer and recently dieticians as well as marketing, advertising, and consumer relations departments,” he adds.

Time constraints, too, have transformed interactions between field merchandisers and store staff.

“Retailers are so pressed for time that you can't have small talk anymore. Retailers used to have ‘supportive staff,’ but now one contact may have to handle all produce department responsibilities,” says Cece Krumrine, National Mango Board retail account manager. “Each retailer meeting has to be of added value to the retailer. The merchandiser must be organized, brief but complete.”

“I have noticed it is more difficult to make appointments with retailers over the past couple of years because of their increased responsibilities, fewer employees, and tight schedules,” Carden says. “In the past I called on a retailer an average of three times a year. Now we are able to accomplish a great deal via phone and e-mail. This allows me to work closer with the retailer because we communicate on a regular basis.”

Finally, food- and nutrition-savvy customers have influenced the role field merchandisers must play.

“I’ve seen our role change from just setting up promotional programs to more of an educator role,” says Katie Manetti, retail account manager for the National Mango Board. “Customers are becoming a bit more aware of what they are putting in their mouths, so retailers are looking for more information to provide the consumer about what they are putting into their baskets.”

That’s when field merchandisers become teachers for retailers who often lack the knowledge to educate employees about a specific commodity. An ad for Frieda’s pre-peeled whole coconuts on Kroger Television (KTV), which Brazil helped produce; the Idaho Potato Commission’s Power Up and Good Sense POS Kits; and the National Mango Board’s mango handling quick reference sheets, which include Mango 101 information, are examples of educational materials retailers can reference and use to teach customers about the benefits of produce.

“Many times we have come in to help facilitate this process and give them ‘Category 101.’ The store- level folks are the first line of contact for customers and many times are their deciding factor on whether or not to purchase the product,” Manetti says. “We want to help them make that incremental sale.”


The Impact

Value. The word most often associated with products and prices that benefit customers also applies to what field merchandisers deliver to the produce clients they serve.

Field merchandisers can identify category trends a retailer might be missing and provide resources “to make it as turn-key as possible for them to reap the rewards of whatever changes in merchandising strategy are proposed,” Anderson says. “Data analysis, market trends, category development strategies are all of keen interest to most retailers, and many—not all—don't have access to these category-centric, national, regional and market level resources,” he adds.

The study of blueberry best practices that the Chilean blueberry industry recently commissioned is one example of that category-centric approach. According to Tom Tjerandsen, managing director for North America for the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, the study uncovered proprietary data about retailers’ blueberry sales and analyzed what was working and what wasn’t. Field merchandisers shared this information with clients under-performing in the blueberry category. “They could have tried to have a seminar at a convention, or sent [the information] out as a report, but it was most effective to have merchandisers present the information [in person],” Tjersandsen says.

Pemsler, too, says proactively presenting data the way the Idaho Potato Commission’s promotion directors do is the best way “to bring value to the retailer that allows them to be more successful.”

“We used to help only when we were asked questions, and we focused on crop quality. But retailers can get that information from shippers,” Pemsler says. “Now we track ad data from all retailers in the U.S., give our clients six months of Nielsen data, and look at marketing data—for example, do 10-pound bags of potatoes out-sell 5-pound bags?”

Most importantly, field merchandisers can extrapolate numbers in ways that show each retailer the gaps and opportunities that exist. “They might ask, ‘Why am I down recently?’ Our data might show they advertised six times in six months, while their competitor advertised 21 times in six months,” he explains. “We also track differences in price points—we can say you’re giving away margins, you’re too low.”

Pemsler says promotion directors can help stores decide which products to carry, help with pricing on request, and offer advice about when to promote and discount potatoes. “We tell them not to offer deep discounts during the holidays—advertise but don’t discount, because people are buying them then anyway,” he says.

Ultimately, says Pemsler, this approach increases retailers’ profits—a goal on which every retailer and field merchandiser can agree.

Tjerandsen says, “Nothing more clearly and capably achieves our objective than having a merchandiser sit down with buyer and say, ‘Here's what your'e doing; here's what the high-performers are doing. How can we get you to this level?’”