From Strategy to Shelf: How a Retailer Transformed Its Execution

By Luis F. Garcia, Marketing Advisor at DuartePino

You invest time, effort, and budget into building the perfect marketing strategy retailer execution. You craft strong campaigns, bold messaging, and irresistible offers. But then… something gets lost in translation.

The in-store execution doesn’t match the plan. The displays aren’t set up correctly. The promotional message is inconsistent. And the front-line teams feel disconnected from the larger strategy. Sound familiar?

At the very place where the sale is won or lost the store your strategy begins to fall apart. This is not just frustrating. It’s a serious risk to growth, reputation, and, more importantly, your margins.

The Retail Gap: A Common, Costly Problem

When I joined DuartePino, I had already seen this story play out too many times. Campaigns that looked perfect on paper, but collapsed when brought to life in-store. Marketing teams are blaming Operations. Store teams are improvising. No one speaks the same language.

That’s when we realized the issue wasn’t the people. It was the lack of a shared system. Strategy was being treated like a handoff, not a continuous discipline. What was missing was not more complexity, but Clarity.

Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to apply this principle with a $400 million retail chain in Puerto Rico. With over 15 stores, hundreds of employees, and a dynamic supplier network, they were ready to evolve, but needed a system to unify strategy and execution.

That’s where our Structured Innovation model came in. Initially built for complex environments like tech and health, it proved just as powerful in the supermarket aisle. The result? Measurable impact, not just marketing noise.

The 4 Pillars of Structured Execution

Here’s how we helped this retail leader move from disconnected plans to seamless execution across its entire footprint:

1. Data for Decision, Not for Guesswork.

   We shifted decision-making from habit and intuition to insight and evidence. Through POS analytics, syndicated shopper data, and in-store behavior tracking, we identified what actually works on the shelf. This gave marketing and commercial teams real-time feedback and the power to optimize.

2. One Unified Roadmap for Structured Innovation.

   We replaced fragmented workflows with a quarterly planning cycle and a shared calendar of bi-weekly shopper activations. Marketing, Commercial, and Store Operations now move in sync, driving promotions that are consistent across every channel from flyers to WhatsApp to shelf tags.

3. Coherence over Chaos.

   We introduced KPIs to measure not just sales, but alignment. Is the offer in-store what was promised online? Does the team know the promotion? Are displays and inventory aligned? When coherence improves, sales follow, and so does trust with both shoppers and partners.

4. Leadership Autonomy.

   True transformation doesn’t require micromanagement. It requires empowerment. We gave store leaders and category teams the tools, training, and templates to execute with confidence. The plan lives beyond the strategy deck. It’s owned by the people who deliver it.

Planning as a Leadership Discipline

For this retail chain, planning is no longer just a calendar task. It’s a leadership discipline. And it’s delivering results:

• Higher promotional ROI

• Margin improvement through category management 

• Faster alignment with vendor support

• Stronger loyalty through consistent shopper experiences

This isn’t magic. It’s method.

Where Your Strategy Retailer Execution Meets Reality

At Duarte Pino, we don’t believe in “hope-based execution.” We believe in Structured Innovation built for real-world environments where time is short, pressure is high, and every shelf counts.

Whether you’re in tech or retail, transformation only happens when the strategy reaches the front line. If you’re ready for your next plan to actually work where it matters most, let’s talk.

Schedule your strategic session with DuartePino today.

About the Author

Luis F. García is a Marketing Advisor at DuartePino, with over a decade of experience driving growth for retail and CPG brands.

About DUARTE PINO

Duarte Pino is a management outsourcing firm that combines deep customer knowledge with practical expertise in marketing, communications, and brand management to drive sustainable growth for clients. Our network of Trusted Advisors brings years of experience, offering fresh perspectives, proven processes, and the martech tools needed for effective execution.

In addition to our core services, we have expanded through our ventures, Téntico, a strategy-first brand studio focused on authentic branding for legacy brands and scale-ups, and Haipriori, specializing in custom software solutions and digital innovation. We manage over 15 marketing communications departments, representing over $1B in annual sales, with 70% of clients exporting to international markets.

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