Using GrabScanGo “Virtual End Caps” to Promote New Food & Beverage Products

The smartphone-app-based GrabScanGo micro-market system enables powerful “Virtual End Caps” to introduce new food & beverage products to consumers. New Product Introductions Historically, grocery stores & convenience stores have proven to be the best “last mile” channels to introduce new food & beverage products to consumers. The GrabScanGo system now enables micro-markets to join that […]

New Product Introductions

Historically, grocery stores & convenience stores have proven to be the best “last mile” channels to introduce new food & beverage products to consumers. The GrabScanGo system now enables micro-markets to join that group. A majority of micro-markets are in workplaces, where employees are able to view, touch & experience the various products available, over the course of an entire workday, in a more convenient setting. Also, micro-markets do not have the space limitations that vending machines do. This makes them ideal to introduce new food & beverage products, or re-introduce mature ones.

Introduction of Reign Energy Drinks

To demonstrate the power of the GrabScanGo system as a virtual end cap to introduce new products, we ran a 7-week experiment across 4 small to medium micro-markets that had monthly sales of $1000 to $2500. These markets had been experiencing healthy sales of energy drinks Bang, Monster, Red Bull & Celsius. We introduced Reign, which is being positioned as a Bang alternative by its manufacturer, into these markets.

In weeks 1 & 2, we stocked the 4 markets with 3 flavors of Reign, but did not highlight them in any way, or discount them. In weeks 3, 4 & 5, we featured them on the GrabScanGo app’s Home screen (example below), with discounts of 30%, 15% off & 0% respectively – the discounts in weeks 3 & 4 further enticed shoppers to try them. Finally, in weeks 6 & 7, we removed them from the GrabScanGo app’s Home screen & did not discount them either, similar to weeks 1 & 2.

Results (Bang vs Reign)

The results are below, and they speak for themselves. Several regular Bang drinkers switched to Reign. Reign’s sales more than doubled over the 7-week period and they remained at that level, while Bang’s declined by a third.