Each business morning on RetailWire, retailing execs get plugged in to the latest industry news and issues with key insights from the RetailWire BrainTrust of retail industry experts.

In light of the recent report on Procter & Gamble's decision to pull out of a radio frequency identification (RFID) program that placed tags on displays at Wal-Mart locations because of a lack of execution at store-level, it seemed fair that attention be brought to a tagged display program at Walgreens that the chain has publicly credited with helping it to become a more effective merchant.

Walgreens has used an RFID-based system to enable it to determine the location of displays and the level of execution in stores. An upgrade to the current system created by GOLIATH Solutions and used at the drugstore chain's stores nationally will include EPC tags placed on displays.

David Van Howe, vice president of purchasing for Walgreen, called the information captured from the displays a "game changer" for the chain.

"Not only does it help us identify and purchase more effective programs, our store operations teams are embracing the GOLIATH data to improve execution throughout our chain," he said. "Store level information about what is up and where it is in the store allows unprecedented accountability for achieving program potential. The results have been impressive: Over the past year, our in-store execution has grown to nearly double the industry average."

Revlon is one of the vendors that have worked with Walgreens on the RFID display program. The company's sales director, Bill Ferry, said, it had gained "unprecedented insight into what works and what doesn't with consumers."

"This has helped us maximize our return from our displays and refine our programs to eliminate displays that aren't producing as effectively as we would like," Mr. Ferry added. "For the first time, we now have an independent measure of store compliance, and additional insight into optimal location for our programs."

To gain greater insights, RetailWire asked its BrainTrust panel to discuss the merits of Walgreens and Revlon using RFID-tagged displays and whether or not it is the best approach to improving compliance at store-level and gaining insights into what displays work and why.

"The distinction between Wal-Mart's and Walgreens' efforts is of importance because of what it says about delivering RFID ROI," said Evan Schuman, editor of StorefrontBacktalk.com. "There is no material technological difference between the two deployments so, as has been argued so often, it's really an issue of prioritization and attitude. When P&G pulled back from its Wal-Mart RFID promotional tagging project, it pointed the tagged finger of blame at Wal-Mart. If the retailer doesn't aggressively use the RFID information (whether that means putting the displays out when the tags say they're still lying in the back or repositioning them or even rethinking what that product is a good fit for your customers), ROI has no chance. It's sort of like the CRM ROI argument. If line managers won't believe and act on the recommendations made, what's the point? Walgreens appears to have committed to the approach much more completely, meaning not merely at the corporate level but all the way down. That is very likely the difference. "

Other BrainTrust panelists also noted that the collaboration and execution exemplified by Walgreens and Revlon (as opposed to Wal-Mart and P&G) is the real story here, and not the technology. In short it is the practice that counts, and not necessarily the tool, when it comes to optimizing store-level performance.

"Execution is execution!" said Susan Rider, of Rider and Associates LLC. "If enforced, paper technology will work. I don't see the return-on-investment here."

Mike Spindler, managing partner of Panther Mountain Cos, concurred. "What gets measured gets managed. The impressive results are due to the fact that the execution is being measured. RFID faces a number of large, industry-wide hurdles to implementation which explain why it remains another unimplemented good idea. There are alternative approaches just now in place or emerging that overcome those hurdles and offer the ability to measure accurately, quickly, via accessible technology and without distortion."

"The retailer that formulates a compliance plan, enables it with appropriate solutions, and measures its outcome relentlessly will always achieve better performance on in-store programs," said James Tenser, principal of VSN Strategies. "A grease pencil and a clipboard may be technology enough in some situations. A large chain like Walgreens needs some tools to help manage scale. For fixtures and displays, RFID may in fact be useful. But it works because Walgreens also instituted the practice to make it work."

Camille Schuster, president of Global Collaborations, also said the focus should not be on RFID technology, but on how companies utilize the information that the technology provides. "Having the RFID tags is not the goal; having the RFID tags on pallets or products is not the goal. Determining where product is at any point in time so that something can be done if it is not in the right spot is the goal. That's the difference between what has been reported on the Walgreens and Wal-Mart examples. Walgreens managers are notified if the displays are not in the right spot at the right time. Wal-Mart apparently did not make similar use of the information."

Bill Bittner, president of BWH Consulting, noted that it is difficult to evaluate process improvement efforts realized by RFID because each organization has a different starting point. "It could be that all the improvements at Walgreens merely brought them up to the level of Wal-Mart. I don't believe that to be the case, but I am keenly aware of the Hawthorne Effect. Merely by putting in the test, Walgreens may have put focus on a process that needed improvement and employees delivered. I agree that the initial benefits of RFID will come from process improvements rather than inventory tracking or item security. Displays are a great place to begin learning, but if that is as far as you intend to go with RFID you can save a lot of money by using other means. The next steps for RFID should be pallet and case tracking so that movement of those containers can be monitored. That will be the holding point for a while because of the technology issues involved with unit-level tagging."

George Anderson is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of RetailWire.