Shopper marketing is "understanding how one's target consumers behave as
shoppers, in different channels and formats, and leveraging this
intelligence to the benefit of all stakeholders, defined as brands,
consumers, retailers and shoppers." According to Chris Hoyt "Shopper
marketing [is] brand marketing in retail environment." Since it includes category
management, displays, sales, packaging, promotion, research and marketing
"Shopper marketing is the elephant in the room that nobody sees the same way."
Shopper marketing is not limited to in-store marketing activities, a common
and highly inaccurate assumption that impairs the spread of any industry
definition. Shopper marketing must be part of an overall integrated marketing
approach that considers the opportunities to drive consumption and
identifies the shopper that would need to purchase a brand to enable that
consumption. These shoppers need to be understood in terms of how well they
interpret the needs of the consumer, what their own needs as a shopper are,
where they are likely to shop, in which stores they can be influenced in, and
what in-store activity influences them. Unilever defines a shopper insight, an
insight upon which shopper marketing is based - as a "focus on the process that
takes place between that first thought the consumer has about purchasing an
item, all the way through the selection of that item." -
Shopper marketing challenges the assumption that the shopper and the
consumer are the same. Despite the fact that this is not always true it is clear
that the industry still gets confused. Shopper marketing is important for many
reasons, but it is clearly of importance to manufacturers if for no other reason
that they spend vast amounts of money on it, and that these amounts are
increasing. Many organizations spend over 8% of total sales on in-store
marketing; when total trade spend is added up it can often top 40% of total
revenue. In shopper marketing, manufacturers
target portions of their marketing investment at specific retailers or
retail environments. Such targeting is dependent on congruency of objectives,
targets and strategies between the manufacturer and a given retailer or a
given type of retail environment. A significant factor in the rise of
shopper marketing is the availability of high quality data from which insights
may be gleaned to help shape strategic plans. According to recent industry
studies, manufacturer investment in shopper marketing is growing more than
21% annually. For instance, Procter & Gamble,
according to the company’s financial statements, invests at least 500 million
dollars in shopper marketing each year. Procter & Gamble's Walmart/Sam's Club
Customer Team and Sam's Club, are considered by many as the original
pioneers in true Shopper Marketing in the US. Rhonda Harper, the top marketing
officer for Sam's Club at the time, is credited with launching shopper
marketing during a 2-day Bentonville strategic planning offsite in May 2001,
attended by more than 300 vendor marketing and sales executives. Shopper
marketing is also practiced by the leading European companies such as
Unilever and Beiersdorf and the discipline is developed further by the
likes of Phenomena Group, Europe's first shopper marketing agency.
The following statistics have caused the reapportionment of marketing investment
from consumer marketing to shopper marketing. What follows is ultimately
very misleading; each brand performs differently based on shopper need
states, shopper trip types, retailer formats, brand importance, brand
relevance and a host of other factors: 70% of brand selections are made at
stores 68% of buying decisions are unplanned
5% are loyal to the brand of one product group
Practitioners believe that effective shopper marketing is increasingly
important to achieve success in the marketplace
Partial areas Shopper marketing is rooted in consumer
marketing and the principles of consumer marketing often apply to shopper
marketing. For instance, shopper marketing refers to the marketing
stimulus reaching the shopper, which is based on an understanding of the
shopper’s buying behavior. Like the traditional marketing mix, shopper
marketing can be divided into four P's: product; price; place; and promotion.
Product: size, shape, color, material, packing, packing messages, and graphics.
Price: discounts, bundled offers, price communication, and coupons.
Place: store concept, lighting, shelves, and placing of special presentations.
Promotion: packing promotions, store promotions, promotion communications,
special presentations, in-store TV, floor stickers, as well as advertising
on shopping carts and baskets Buying behavior data
Several different data collection methods provide information on the
shopper’s buying behavior of a given brand: observations, intercepts, focus
groups, diaries, point-of-sale and other data.
Observations made before entering a store, in the store, and after exiting a
store clarify when, what, where, why, who and how shopper behavior occurs.
Issues to be noted consist of, for example: the length of the buying
process, the items the shopper noticed, touched, studied, the items the shopper
bought, as well as the purchase methods influencing the process. Interviews help
uncover motives guiding the buying behaviors. The matters commonly
clarified are: the likelihood of product substitution and the identification of
substitutes; values and attitudes; desires and motivational factors; as
well as lifestyle and life situation. Point-of-sale data provide information
on which products were bought, when and for how much.
How other shoppers in a store can influence the shoppers in a target
market are also of interest. For example, research by Martin in a
retailing context found that male and female shoppers who were accidentally
touched from behind by other shoppers left a store earlier than people who had
not been touched and evaluated brands more negatively, resulting in the
Accidental Interpersonal Touch effect Segmenting shoppers
When conducting shopper segmenting, the market is divided into essential and
measurable groups, that is, segments on the basis of the buying behaviour data.
Shopper segmenting makes it easier to answer the requirements of individual
segments. For example, price-sensitive and traditional shoppers clearly differ
from one another as far as their buying behaviour is concerned. Segmenting makes
it possible to target marketing measures at the most profitable shoppers.
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