A national beverage brand was losing sales it could not see. Manual audits suggested availability was "fine," yet sell-through told a different story.
The intervention
By rolling out photo-based shelf recognition across its field force, the brand replaced gut feel with store-level truth. Reps received same-visit alerts on gaps and planogram breaks.
The result
Within two quarters, measured on-shelf availability rose 23 points in the focus channel, and the brand reallocated field time from counting to fixing.
The lesson: you cannot improve what you do not measure — and you cannot measure execution with a clipboard.