SALISBURY — In a world where consumers have unlimited choices, companies invest carefully to ensure their products are placed in the right stores at the right time and in the right locations. Acosta Sales & Marketing, new to Salisbury, helps many of America’s brands found in major retailers across the country do just that.
And now, through a short course at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, local residents can become qualified for new jobs coming to the area.
“This is absolutely a growing field and industry. We’ve hired 13 people recently — 90 total in the last 18 months,” said Jim Hanson, senior vice president, Space Management Solutions, with Acosta Sales & Marketing. “I expect we’ll hire more here in this region in the next year or so.”
Apparently, there is a reason that milk is in the back of the grocery store.
“The milk category (very high-demand products) is typically positioned in the back corner of the store by design — to encourage shopping in other categories,” said Hanson. “There is an unbelievable amount of strategy that has gone into the layout and contents of your grocery store.”
Space Management isn’t just occurring in grocery stores — chains like Best Buy and Lowe’s employ space technologists to maximize their profits.
Students will learn how to analyze and place products to ensure successful sales. This course will place students in a position to qualify for roles in Space Management or retail merchandising for either retailers, manufacturers or a sales and marketing agency.
Walking into the Acosta Sales & Marketing offices in downtown Salisbury reveals a mix of both old and new. With offices on the third floor of the newly renovated Hardiman Building, the business environment has all the charm of a quality historic building with all the amenities of new construction. The modern furniture and vintage Coca-Cola signs give it the feel of a hip tech company.
Using hi-tech, specialized software, space technologists create what is called a planogram, which allows them to produce, modify and conduct analysis on an electronic rendering of each category in a store.
“If a student is comfortable on a computer and completes this course, they will be an attractive candidate for a role as a space technologist,” said Hanson.
Acosta Sales & Marketing, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., is not new to this business — nor are they small. With more than 35,000 employees across North America, the company provides sales, marketing and retail merchandising solutions to consumer packaged goods companies and retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
This class will teach the principles of space management and specifically how retailers use space management to develop planograms and floor plans to help make decisions on how to allocate space between brands and categories, and where to position products on the shelf and in the stores. Much of the class time will be spent on learning what actual retailers require to make fact-based decisions about their shelves, such as inventory analysis, gross margin return on investment, days of supply, annual turns, etc. Students also will study the impact of product placement, traffic flow, adjacencies, out-of-stocks etc. on sales and profitability.
The eight-week class will be a hybrid course with about 65 percent of the class taught in a traditional classroom format and 35 percent completed via online coursework. The class will also include at least one field trip and guest speakers from the industry.
After years of teaching internally within Acosta, Hanson is eager to teach those new to the field. “There are only about four other colleges in the entire U.S. teaching this topic. It’s thrilling that local residents here in Salisbury and Concord will have access to an amazing educational opportunity.”
Rowan-Cabarrus is the only community college in the nation to offer a program of this kind. Classes will be held on Thursdays from 6-9 p.m. beginning Oct. 10 and running through Dec. 5, (no class on Nov. 28). Classes will be held at the college’s North Campus in Salisbury in Building 400, Room 4126.
For more information about Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, please visit www.rccc.edu or call 704-216-RCCC (7222).