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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // September/October 2016
our story is so much more compelling.
We’re able to convince our retail partners
of Lottery’s potential and make a stronger
category impact by getting premium floor
space and a secondary selling location at
the coveted check-out counter. This is the
tool the industry needs to consistently
generate the sustainable growth that good
causes depend upon.
Wow. It is exciting to imagine what could be
accomplished. It’s also scary to imagine how
we will fare if we do not modernize.
T. Delacenserie:
When it comes to
using sales data to promote the category,
we’re still working with an abacus while
everyone else is using high speed comput-
ers. I believe as an industry, we know what
we have to do. We just have to start some-
where. Right now, we just need to move
the dialogue forward, address the ques-
tions and concerns, and do it all with a
sense of urgency. The beauty is that the
blueprint is crystal clear. APIs are already
being used to great effect, have been for
many years, and so we have thoroughly
vetted best-practices to model after. Obvi-
ously, there are obstacles, like how to fund
it and what is the organizational structure
that hosts, maintains, and operates the
API apparatus. But the ROI on the invest-
ment is so emphatically clear, the conse-
quence of failing to invest is dire indeed,
and so the will to make it happen should
be resoundingly embraced by all of us.
How important is it for Lottery to be visible
at the check-out counter, and how does API
contribute to that goal?
T. Delacenserie:
It’s very important.
Let’s take a look at what goes into a pur-
chase decision. Retailer surveys show that
for most brands, the average consumer
spends seconds deciding on an in-store
brand purchase in part because they al-
ready know what brand they want to
buy before they go into the store. For ex-
ample, the condiment section of the su-
permarket makes a large statement with
many brands and sizes. But it shrinks dra-
matically in the mind and perception of
the shopper when their attention is drawn
to the brand of choice. A behavior condi-
tioned from repeat past patterns. People
who buy Heinz catsup probably could
not even tell you the names of the other
brands because they literally do not even
see them on the shelf even though they
are right next to Heinz. The purchase de-
cision is made quickly.
A buying decision can also be condi-
tioned by seeing a product at multiple
consumer touch-points. Let’s take Wrig-
ley’s gum. They reinforce brand awareness
through advertising, as well as with prod-
uct shelf placement in the aisles where the
consumer sees Wrigley’s next to the other
brands of chewing gum, and then again
on the racks at the check-out lane. The
key touch-point for the product though is
where impulse intersects with payment—
at the check-out lane.
Now let’s just take Powerball. Is it a
staple like Heinz that is purchased with
very little thought or emotional engage-
ment because we know it must be there
on the table when it is time to eat din-
ner? Or is it like Wrigley’s gum, something
that we want but will not be missed if we
don’t get it? Brand awareness of Powerball
is conditioned by billboards and other ad-
vertising. But the decision to buy or not to
buy a lottery ticket is often made right in
the store. Just like Wrigley’s gum, Lottery
needs that visibility and easy access right
at the check-out counter. It is the repeti-
tion of exposure to the brand that condi-
tions the shopper to look for and buy it.
The consumer needs to know that every
time they are in the check-out lane, they
will have the opportunity or be reminded
to buy Lottery. We all know how hard it
is to procure the premium position. The
API is the mission-critical component to
this picture that enables all the function-
ality that the modern corporate account
retailer needs to support a product.
So the API eliminates some of the issues
that make vending the product laborious
for the retailer.
T. Delacenserie:
Yes, but it’s much
more than that. The bar-coded ticket is
scanned and that transaction data is trans-
mitted to the Retailer’s system as well as to
Lottery’s central server for processing, all
done automatically. By capturing trans-
action information in digital form, the
data can be used in a variety of ways from
improving inventory management to pro-
viding an understanding of the complex
relationships between advertising, promo-
tion, merchandising, and product sales.
The business of calibrating the optimal
product mix becomes a science instead
of an art. Improving the accounting rec-
onciliation alone would create incredible
efficiencies that currently aren’t being re-
alized at retail with Lottery. This is the
type of information CPG brands provide
for their retail partners and it is what the
retailer expects us to provide. The thing is
we need to do this for ourselves, not just
Without the API, we don’t have the data,
we don’t have a story to tell, and we don’t have
the attention of our corporate retail partners.
With that data, our story is so much
more compelling. We’re able to convince
our retail partners of Lottery’s potential and
make a stronger category impact by getting
premium floor space and a secondary selling
location at the coveted check-out counter.