Companies, especially branded
manufacturers, have over a long
period of time drawn their source
of competitive advantage from
developing powerful brands and
driving depth of distribution.
They have continued large and
sustained investments in traditional
marketing practices such as
advertising and trade promotion. Yet
brand loyalty, product innovation
success rates, and sales lifts remain
elusive.
As a result, consumer products and
retail marketing is in the midst of an
evolution. Marketers need something
more – and the shift has been
brought about by a new strategy Shopper Marketing.
Globally, marketers and retail
partners have embraced the new
go-to-market strategy, a strategy
focused on the shopper and in-store
elements of the marketing mix that
are delivering superior returns on
marketing investments.
What Is Shopper Marketing?
Shopper marketing is a crossfunctional discipline designed to
improve business performance by
using actionable insights to connect
with shoppers and influence behavior
along the path to purchase.
‘‘Globally, marketers and retail partners
have embraced the new go-to-market
strategy, a strategy focused on the
shopper and in-store elements of the
marketing mix that are delivering superior
returns on marketing investments’’
These insights can be derived from
a variety of sources and obtained
through numerous means, including
scanner and loyalty-card data, store
intercepts, demographic research,
online surveys, consumer panels and
focus groups.
The only criterion is that they provide
actionable data for influencing
behavior in the phases of the shopper
behavior cycle and along the ‘path to
purchase.’
The path to purchase incorporates the
genesis of demand for a product and
the evaluation of options including
outlet, the navigation of the store and
the purchase decision. Initially most
path to purchase constructs relied on
a linear orientation – from demand
generation to outlet selection, to store
navigation to product purchase.
To effectively market to shoppers,
companies must generate targeted
insights for specific shopper
segments, specific trip missions and
even specific retailers. They must be
able to link shopper and consumer
insights to develop solutions that
delight both shopper and consumer
alike.
As shopper marketing developed,
digital disrupted the original linear
model and created a continuous
feedback loop with numerous
interactive intermediations. It
(digital/mobile) now totally
surrounds the path to purchase
and shopper marketing can engage
shoppers whenever and wherever
they are most ready to buy.
It requires much more granular
insights, closer collaboration between
manufacturers and retailers, and
better integration of cross-functional
areas than traditional approaches.
The development of shopper insights
is often the first step and biggest
investment made as an organization
becomes more shopper-centric. From
at-home research conducted by
shoppers, to the mobile devices that
provide the nexus between the home
and the store to the shelf itself.
Companies must look at the shopper
as a “Segment of 1” - what categories
does the shopper prefer, what’s the
shopper’s share of wallet and how
does the marketer move it in their
favor, which retailer does the shopper
prefer? Effectively eliminating static
segmentation.
Success comes when shopper insights
and consumer insights are integrated
and a scalable platform is developed
for their application across the
organization.
Viewing the shopper from the
vantage point of how they live, how
they shop, and how they ultimately
use the product is an effective tool
for driving this integration. Effective
strategy is developed when these two
sources of insight are harmonized.
Why Is There A Shift Of Focus To
The Shopper And Retailer?
Shoppers are not always consumers
and vice versa. Marketers have
traditionally focused on affecting or
changing consumer behavior; there
is now a need to change the focus
from purely consumer to consumer
and shopper - But it must start with
the shopper in order to identify
the behavior needed to affect, to
accomplish a growth strategy.