Leadership Perspectives

With over 16 years’ experience in the Consumer Goods industry, Sebastian Zapała is a Salesforce Effectiveness Manager for Nutricia Poland. Sebastian has worked his way up in the company through other areas including Supply and Demand Planning Specialist, Trade Marketing Management, and Shopper Marketing Management.

Through our specialized nutrition brands and support programs and services, we work to fulfil people’s specific nutritional needs throughout life. What I mean is that our company always puts people first so we look at all tasks from our consumers’ perspective. And so do I. My main responsibility is the supervision of the execution route to the retail market. I have been a part of the route to the pharma market project with a focus on instore execution. It was more of a consultant role, sharing the retail experience, and it resulted in applying some of the retail solutions in the pharma channel. In my view, there is one important common factor with these two domains which is the shopper. At the end of the day, all activities of the sales team, no matter if it is retail or pharma, are visible in-store and more precisely on the shelf. The shopper is the one who is confronted with the shelf, and he/she is the one who makes the final decision on which product will be taken from the shelf and put into the shopping basket. This is the moment of truth for the manufacturer and its products. I believe that the way the product is displayed and how it is visible plays an important role in that moment. From that perspective, retail and pharma are the same.

The main challenge is to “see the forest for the trees.” What I mean, is that the technology and data collection process can enable you to be more efficient and effective and it can also lead you in the opposite direction. The main challenge, is to decide on your priorities, goals, objectives, rules, and the way you see the world. Technology is the servant whose role is to help you reach what you aim at and we treat it that way. First, the objective, then the way to reach it and here is the place for the right technology and data.

Many things have changed. We noticed channel shifts from traditional trade to modern trade, the emergence of discounters, and pharma stores changing the layout to drugstore type arrangement. Most recently, small format is coming back to play and e-commerce is growing rapidly. You may say that the only stable thing in life is change. Yet, when you look deeper, below the surface of change, some things are the same way. There is the shopper who buys products in stores (including online), and the product to be bought must be affordable, available, and visible. Some things are the same, and I like to look for the stability below the surface. The one stable aspect that has not change ever since I remember is our commitment to bringing health through food and this commitment is as old as the company itself. It really makes our work much easier because we all know that, regardless the times, the end game stays the same.

To manage this business area, we took advantage of two elements combined. The first one was mentioned at the beginning of our discussion, the most important factor in sales is the shopper. The other factor we mentioned earlier is technology. Together with our partners, we have created a solution for modern trade chains without sales reps’ service (it is beyond discounters). In brief, the solution is very simple, a shopper using a mobile device, takes a picture of a shelf or display, sends it for image recognition analysis, and the data is then translated into a digital report, summarizing the in-store situation. The data is available via a dynamic reporting platform with pictures for reference.

The technology, especially Image Recognition, helped us to change the way the field team perceives the shelf. It made it possible for us to change that perception. The new method is a very simple way to look at the shelf through the shopper’s eye. What is visible on a picture, is also visible to the shopper. The first positive impact for our business after Image Recognition implementation, was an improvement in the quality of product exposition. Simply speaking, the shelf looked much better after the sales rep’s visit.

Dashboards and integrated analytics are key to an effective decision-making process. The ability to see “the big picture” and to make a “deep dive” in one interactive dashboard is priceless. All data needed for quick analysis and business decisions are on hand. When it is easy-to-use and user-friendly work, it becomes pleasure time.

Perfect Store is the perfect concept for an effective in-store visit. We defined the success definition for every parameter that is important for us. It is our vision, and with the scorecard, we know how close we are to that vision and we know what to do to get there.

I saw that shoppers preferred alternate shopping channels and e-commerce, discounters, small formats, and some supermarkets are on the rise. People will still continue to buy stuff. We should follow them or anticipate their destination and be there before they get there.

Nutricia as a part of Danone is very keen on promoting a healthy and safe lifestyle what is expressed in its mission: bringing health through food, so it is difficult to resist it. We are educated on that. We say, you are what you eat. On top of that, my wife is into healthy eating and there is no way I can escape it. Therefore, I can see the connection between a healthy lifestyle and my well-being.