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  • Unilever Deploys Palm Handhelds.

    Mobile Marketing Solution by Australian-based Channel Marketing Decisions increases market knowledge and sales.

    Responsible for many of Australia's fast moving consumer goods, Unilever is implementing mobile solutions in its Lipton Iced Tea division to gain a better understanding of the market and food outlets they are doing business with, improving relationships and sales.

  • "We are very impressed with the handhelds, they are major advantage in the road environment and we believe we have achieved a return on our investment."

    Mr. Alain Moffroid
    Business Development Manager
    Unilever

    The Challenge
    Following the success of Lipton Iced Tea products in Europe, the United States and Asia, the Unilever Lipton Iced Tea division was looking to re-create the same market success in Australia. Prior to the product re-launch in August 2001, Unilever was looking for a method to electronically collect sales information that would give them a better understanding of the product's in-store positioning. With only 30 merchandising representatives to monitor the Lipton Iced Tea product range in the 100,000 plus food outlets through-out Australia, Unilever had no systematic processes in place to get the maximum value from its representatives.

    "The division was using a random system that didn't allocate a call cycle for its reps or provide a method of measuring information gained from the outlet visits," said Alain Moffroid, business development manager, Unilever.

    "With questionable accuracy of information, and no focus on sales drivers, we needed a new process that would be easily and quickly adopted by the sales reps."

    The Solution
    Channel Marketing Decision (CMD) is a consulting technology company that assists businesses in measuring channel performance. Already working with Unilever for the development of a geographical mapping application, MapInfo, CMD developed an application for the Palm® Vx handheld that allowed the easy collection of in-store data.

    According to Kevin Ladd, a simple interface was designed that used tick-box and touch-screen responses to gather and report the relevant information.

    "Ease of use was a defining factor. No writing is required to enter the data and the information is reported back to the main database server by using Satellite forms with the infra-red function on the Palm handheld to a Nokia mobile," said Ladd.

    The solution suited the sales representatives who were out on the road and could connect back to the office via the two-piece solution.

    "We went with a handheld device because of its convenience and adaptability. Palm was chosen for its affordable functionality and the familiarity of the brand. The open platform of the Palm OS® also meant it was easy to program," explained Ladd.

    The Outcome
    The result gave Unilever access to weekly market information including store size, prices, number of shelf facings, product types, availability of product, product placing and merchandise material.

    "We started seeing a change in our processes after the first week. We had access to information we had never had before - and this could all be gained in two and half minutes of in-store visits!" said Moffroid.

    In the two months since the new system was deployed, Unilever has doubled the number of outlets they visit from 5,000 to 10,000, and increased sales. The perception of professionalism also helped develop and improve relationships with the outlet operators.

    "We are very impressed with the handhelds, they are major advantage in the road environment and we believe we have achieved a return on our investment," said Moffroid. "In fact, Unilever is considering rolling out similar Palm handheld solutions to other divisions of the company in Australia."

    CMD is also working with Unilever to develop a Global Positioning System for the Palm handhelds that would allow the merchandise representatives to easily find outlets or vending machines on their designated route.