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A promotion only pays back if shoppers find it: the display built in the agreed spot, stocked, priced, and signed while the deal runs. This page covers how managers brief promotions, how admins set up the checks, and how reps confirm execution in the store, so head office knows which stores delivered.

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Why It Matters

Shoppers make most of their choices in the aisle. The 2012 Shopper Engagement Study by Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) found that 76% of purchase decisions were made in store, and about one in six brand purchases happened when a display for that brand was present.1 Yet in-store execution of promotions is often poor. A 2015 report by POPAI UK and Ireland, its United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland arm, found full compliance for in-store campaigns can be as low as 29% in some developed markets. Only 21% of retailers independently monitor compliance; the other 79% assume displays are being executed.2 The same report lists the top reasons campaigns fail in store: vague instructions, displays that are hard to install, fragile components, overly complex planograms, and no compliance check after installation.2 The money at stake is large. Nielsen’s 2014 analysis of more than a million products and 39 million promotional events found that most promotions don’t break even.3 When a promotion is missing from the shelf, the spend is wasted and the result looks worse than it is.

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Best Practice

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Brief What Good Looks Like

Vague instructions are the top reason promotions fail in store.2 For each promotion, give reps one clear picture of success:
  • Location: where the display goes, such as the gondola end nearest the category.
  • Product and quantity: which items, and how much stock the display should hold.
  • Price: the promotional price and how the ticket should read.
  • Point-of-sale (POS) material: which signs, wobblers, or shelf strips go up, and where.
  • Window: the dates the promotion is live.
Attach a reference photo of a correctly built display. Reps compare against it faster than against a paragraph of text.

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Agree It in the Store

A head-office deal doesn’t build a display. POPAI advises getting store manager buy-in, not only head-office agreement.2 Ask reps to confirm the display location with the store manager on the first visit of the window, and to record a reason when the store refuses.

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Time Visits to the Promotion Window

Visit early in the window to build or check the display, and again during the window to restock and repair it. Displays get moved, removed, or shopped out, and a shopped-out display is an empty promise to the shopper.2 Prioritize the stores with the most volume at stake when you can’t reach every store twice.

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Treat Secondary Displays as Their Own Task

A secondary display, such as an end cap, floor stand, or chiller, is separate from the home shelf. Check both: the home shelf must still be stocked and priced when the display is up. Keep display checks as a separate task so you can report on them separately.

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Verify With Yes or No Questions and a Photo

Ask closed questions that a manager can count, such as “Is the secondary display in place?” and “Is the promotional price ticket showing?” Pair each one with a required photo. The answer gives you a number; the photo shows what the answer means. When the answer is no, ask for the reason, such as no display space or stock not delivered, so the cause can be fixed.

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Score and Follow Up

Promotion compliance is the share of planned stores where the promotion is fully in place. Score each element (display, price, POS, stock) if you want to see which part fails most often. Review results while the promotion is live, not after it ends, and send reps back to the stores that failed.

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How FieldKo Helps

When a store already has a suitable Not Started visit inside the campaign dates, FieldKo adds the campaign’s tasks to that visit instead of creating a new one. Your reps don’t get duplicate visits, and the promotion check rides on the visit they were already making.

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Common Pitfalls

  • Launch and leave. Checking only on the first visit misses displays that are moved or shopped out later in the window.
  • Measuring visits, not displays. A completed campaign visit shows the work was done, not that the promotion is in place. Report on both.
  • Multi-select questions. They’re hard to count. Use one yes or no question per element.
  • Photos without a question. A photo alone can’t be totaled in a report. Attach the photo to the compliance question.

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See Also

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Sources

  1. Supermarket News, “POPAI: 76% of Decisions Made In-Store,” 2012. Read the article
  2. POPAI UK and Ireland, “In-Store Insights, Issue 24: Compliance Report,” 2015. Read the report
  3. FoodNavigator-USA, “Three-quarters of CPG promotions don’t break even, says Nielsen,” 2014. Read the article
Last modified on October 26, 2026