August 23rd 2013, Symphony EYC, a global leader in delivering ROI for retailers and manufacturers using customer insights to drive execution, today announces that Marketforce UK Ltd, the UK's leading magazine sales, marketing and distribution company has purchased its Space Planning and Space Automation solutions to increase personalisation and growth of its customers’ magazine sales. Marketforce represents 28% of the magazine market, operates across 89 different sectors and works with customers including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and BP.
“As one of the largest magazine distributors in the UK, it is vital that Marketforce has access to the best technology to help increase operational efficiency, speed and consistency based on customer insight,” says Rachel Bohanna, Head of Category Management at Marketforce. “Our business needs to be personal and flawless to meet the needs of our customers and their shoppers. The Symphony EYC solutions not only enable us to generate effective and market relevant planograms, but also refine our existing retailer account approach that is increasingly complex and delivers mutually profitable propositions.”
“The magazine world changes very rapidly, making speed of response and efficiency critical,” says Matt Robinson, Symphony EYC. “Marketforce have processes that can benefit significantly from automating everyday repetitive merchandising tasks by a system which understands not only current stock, placement and previous purchasing patterns, but also the need to introduce new magazines throughout the year. Through this investment Marketforce can take new insights and drive them through to execution quickly, adapting to the changing market conditions.”
Marketforce signed the agreement in December 2012, with roll-out being completed by July 2013. It is using Symphony EYC’s space optimization solutions to automate planogram production ensuring must-stock items are always present, that SKU adjacencies are consistent for each store, enabling customer insight to influence execution. This helps the team to create planograms quickly and efficiently, allowing them to focus on value added analysis, strategic objectives and customer relations.
