The beauty of it all is that it is not as complicated to organize in-store demos as you think. There is no need to add dedicated personnel as most supermarkets do not have so-called full time demo coordinators anyway.
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The streamlining and coordinating of different people and processes can be left to a technology solution that is intuitive, easy to set up and operate, such as Demo Wizard. ​

As a final note, let’s look at the gains from these grocery store marketing strategies.

First of all, the cost of running in-store demos is covered by vendor brands. Second, there are mutual benefits, namely the lift in sales of a brand and product.

In fact, in-store demos can result in “a 150% lift in same-day sales for a demonstrated CPG item – followed by a 90% lift for that item over the course of the next 90 days.”

This shows that operational executives of supermarkets should consider the long-term gains by thinking of in-store demos as a “network of events.” Just as how you would evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, think beyond the single instance and consider the “halo effect.”

With an integrated approach and the right tool, in-store demos can help improve the stickiness of your supermarket’s brand as you improve your customers’ experience. The time to act is now, when online-only retailers are still trying to navigate the brick-and-mortar space.

Schedule an online demonstration of Demo Wizard, or see how it helps streamline in-store ​demo planning here.

Before you read why you don’t get them, perhaps you want to know why you want them. 

Supermarket Executives Love In Store Demos

Since you are reading this, it is relatively safe to assume that you already realize the value in store demos bring to your stores, but let me provide some numbers.

Smart grocers love demos because they draw foot traffic, sharply increase the sales of promoted products, and boost sales for an entire category of products. While Retail Industry research shows 150% boost in the same day product sales*, Food & Beverage product demos often report over 400% sales increase, and that makes it one of the most successful Grocery Store Marketing Strategies. Consider additional 90% - 120% residual boost in item sales over the quarter following demo event, all paid for by the vendors, and it becomes very easy to understand why smart grocers want more demos. 

The lessons below are distilled by analyzing tens of thousands of demo reports conducted by dozens of CPG brands in thousands of US supermarkets over the last couple of years. 


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Most supermarkets do not have dedicated demo coordinators whose prime responsibilities are to schedule and coordinate promotional events with vendors. More often than not, it is handled by a person who already have too many “hats” to wear, some with specific measurement of performance. So it is not surprising that her attention is not focused on a number or effectiveness of the vendor’s in store demos. 

That leaves Vendors with a very unpleasant task of multiple calls to the same store, and pain in the neck holding the phone while waiting for a “right” person who can give them availability date for a demo event. 

Since stores often use Wall Calendars and no workflows, they usually will give only one date/time slot per day for a request. They may use a Google calendar, or a generic scheduling software without workflow coordination, which won’t provide any remedial relief. The more difficult and unpleasant it is for a Vendor to setup the demos in your store, the more likely she will spend her budget funds at a store of your competitors. I do have hard data to support this statement**. 

While it may not be economically attractive to add a full time, salaried employee to manage this process, specialized software for in store demo management automation is readily available for supermarkets at an affordable price. Use of such software eliminates the requirement for dedicated demo coordinator to manage scheduling process.  ​

One of the recurring complaints you would likely hear from Field Marketing Managers and Demo Coordinators is how unreliable are the Brand Ambassadors they have to deal with. In fact, if you ever experienced scheduling a few demos, you have probably endured a Brand Ambassador's last moment cancellation or "now show".

I would like to posit that the Brand Ambassadors' perceived lack of reliability is not necessarily caused by their mercurial personalities, but by the nature of their business and unavailability of appropriate time management tools. Consider the fact that most Brand Ambassadors are independent contractors who try to earn their living selling their personal skills in small time increments. After all, most in store demos only last 3-4 hours. As such, the Brand Ambassadors need to market their services to Demo Coordinators, Brand Managers, etc. as well as delivering these services in stores and events.

It is impossible to estimate how many hours a Brand Ambassador has to market their services to get a single demo for which she can earn $60-$140. This reality forces them to continuously work with multiple Brands, conflicting times and constantly changing dates.