In 2014, Apple acquired Beats by Dre, prompting the need for a full European reseller audit to ensure retailers were adhering to selective distribution criteria and brand guidelines were being met.

Using an off-the-shelf mobile application, 3,200 stores, across 19 countries, with 9 products were audited to ensure the standardisation of POS and product branding was being delivered in accordance with brand guidelines.

Staff training and competitor insights were also on the auditors’ checklist, ensuring training was at an adequate level and competitor insights were achieved from the shop floor.

Detailed reporting of the Beats real estate discovered that 65% of stores didn’t have a working demo headset and fewer than 10% of store staff were Beats trained.

Beats were able to establish a centralised view of POS displays and their usage, a heatmap of the most compliant resellers and a correlation between accurate POS materials and increased sales.