On Dec 21, 2007, at 11:01 PM, LACTNET automatic digest system wrote:

> First of all companies do
> not pay retailers for space for their products - certainly not in 
> Australia
> anyway -

This is absolutely done in the USA!  The bigger brands will get front 
and center placement, and they pay $ big bucks $ for it.  Generics and 
other brands get the bottom or very top shelves.  There is an entire 
segment of the industry devoted to this kind of thing.  I wish I could 
think the name of the author I read a couple years ago.  It was 
fascinating--600 pages.  This guy's teams discovered, for example, the 
exact height cosmetics should be placed, because young women will not 
stoop or squat if it means putting their derrieres out into the traffic 
pattern.  So you either raise the display or widen the aisle.  It is 
useless to tuck cosmetics into a niche, because nobody can handle the 
confined space and they won't sell.

These folks go into a store and place many video cameras, and then also 
go in personally, undercover.  They do an unbelievably detailed 
analysis of traffic patterns, who buys what in what order, etc ad 
infinitum.

These are the folks who discovered how important end-row displays are, 
why milk is at the back of the store, why candy is in all the checkout 
lanes. . .

You can bet that formula marketers, at least in the USA, are taking 
advantage of marketing science.  Nothing is done without a reason

Lynn in MO

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