Ensuring brand success is one of the biggest challenges in the food and beverage industry, as well as in other consumer product distribution sectors, is ensuring that our products are presented and sold according to the terms agreed upon with our distributors. Whether it’s in supermarkets, online stores, or points of sale in general, maintaining brand consistency and visibility is essential for success in the market.
The Challenge
The process of monitoring point of sale execution is critical to ensuring that our commercial efforts are effective. But how can we ensure this is being carried out efficiently when operating in multiple markets such as Germany, France, or the UK? Often, after closing deals with distributors, many of us tend to relax, trusting that everything will go as planned. However, this is precisely the moment when we must remain most vigilant.
Contracts, negotiations, and commercial strategies are just the first step; the real test comes down to how our products perform on the shelves and in-store displays. Poor follow-up on point-of-sale execution can have devastating effects. If we are not closely monitoring visibility, pricing, labeling, and product availability, we are likely to miss valuable opportunities, generate distrust with distributors, and jeopardize our brand reputation in the market. This is where advanced tools like ENTRIIcopilot AI play a key role in ensuring success.
The Challenge of Monitoring a Brand Internationally
When operating in international markets, the cultural, logistical, and commercial differences make it difficult to monitor brand presence effectively. Markets like Germany, the UK, France, or Italy have their own standards and expectations for how products should be presented. Some of the critical aspects to evaluate include:
- Visibility at points of sale: Is our product placed in the correct shelves? Is it visible to consumers, or is it hidden in an obscure corner?
- Pricing and labeling: Is the price consistent with what was agreed upon? Does the labeling meet local regulations, or are there deviations that could affect the product’s perception?
- Stock and availability: Is our product available when the consumer searches for it, or has the distributor let it run out of stock?
As international sales managers, we are not only responsible for negotiating with distributors and wholesalers, but also for ensuring that these agreements are executed efficiently and effectively at points of sale. This is particularly critical when working in markets where consumer expectations are high and competition is fierce. Manual monitoring of these aspects in international markets is a laborious and costly task. Constantly traveling to verify compliance or relying on distributor reports can be inefficient and prone to errors. The key to successful execution is having reliable, real-time data.
ENTRIIcopilot AI: An Ally Based on Artificial Intelligence
This is where ENTRIIcopilot AI makes a significant difference. This tool, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and access to millions of curated, high-quality data points, not only facilitates point of sale monitoring but also optimizes the process to help international sales managers make more informed and agile decisions.
How ENTRIIcopilot AI Helps
- Real-Time Monitoring of Visibility, Pricing, and Labeling
- Visibility: ENTRIIcopilot AI tracks the exact location of your product across points of sale in various countries. By collecting visual data (photos of store shelves), it ensures that your product is properly placed and visible as agreed. This is particularly important in markets like Germany, where consumers place high value on product organization and presentation on the shelves.
- Pricing: ENTRIIcopilot AI compares actual prices at points of sale with the agreed-upon pricing. If it detects deviations, such as higher prices than agreed or unauthorized discounts, the AI alerts the sales team, allowing for quick intervention.
- Labeling: The AI also checks whether the product labeling is correct and visible to the consumer, ensuring compliance with local regulations and maintaining the product’s transparency and clarity.
- Photographic Audits ENTRIIcopilot AI enables photographic audits of points of sale. This is crucial when working in multiple international markets, as it guarantees that execution is carried out according to plan, even when we are not physically present at every point of sale. The tool captures images of the shelves, helping to detect significant deviations such as stock shortages, incorrect pricing, or misplaced products.
- Data-Driven Decision Making The platform doesn’t just monitor execution; it also processes large volumes of data from multiple sources and countries. ENTRIIcopilot AI efficiently analyzes this data, providing actionable insights that allow sales managers to make decisions based on solid, concrete information rather than assumptions. This is essential when managing products across multiple markets, as it enables quick, informed actions.
Benefits for International Trading: Why It’s Crucial to Use ENTRIIcopilot AI
- Ensures Brand Consistency Across Different Countries Maintaining brand consistency is one of the biggest challenges when operating internationally. Ensuring that the product looks and is valued the same way at all points of sale is crucial. With ENTRIIcopilot AI, you can track execution across different countries, ensuring your product maintains its presentation and prestige, safeguarding the reputation of your Spanish brand.
- Quick Response to Compliance Issues or Pricing Fluctuations In international markets, prices can fluctuate rapidly due to changes in distribution costs, seasonal adjustments, or even pricing policies from distributors. ENTRIIcopilot AI allows you to quickly identify pricing fluctuations and make adjustments before they negatively impact sales, ensuring a timely response.
- Consolidation of Brand Image as a Reliable and Professional Supplier Efficient and accurate monitoring strengthens relationships with distributors. By ensuring products are properly placed, correctly labeled, and competitively priced, ENTRIIcopilot AI helps consolidate your image as a reliable and professional supplier. This, in turn, opens the door to new collaboration opportunities and international expansion.
In international trading, it’s not only about negotiating commercial agreements but also ensuring that these agreements are executed properly in every market. Thanks to ENTRIIcopilot AI, international sales managers have a powerful tool that makes the entire process much more efficient and precise. The ability to obtain curated, real-time data allows for informed decision-making, optimizing execution, and ensuring that products are well-positioned and correctly valued at points of sale.
The application of artificial intelligence to point-of-sale execution monitoring not only improves operational efficiency but also strengthens the competitiveness and reputation of our brand globally. If you manage products in international markets, I encourage you to consider ENTRIIcopilot AI as an essential ally to maximize the impact of your brand and optimize your commercial operations worldwide.