There has recently been a huge amount of debate recently as to whether shopper marketing is strategic or tactical, especially following Mike Anthony’s post on whether shoppers are consumers or not. The major fact of the matter is that shopper marketing has been mis-defined for too long. Without a clear view of what shopper marketing is – the debate on what it does will rage. So just what is Shopper Marketing? [Read more…]
Shopper Marketing Revolution or Evolution?
I blogged a couple of weeks ago about whether shopper marketing meant the end of category management. With thanks to POPAI this turned out to be one of the widest read posts I’d ever written. I was also excited by the level of comment it provoked. Some wholeheartedly rejected the idea that that Shopper marketing was anything more that the logical evolution from category management, whilst others passionately argued that the two were separate and that shopper marketing was an entirely new discipline. [Read more…]
Does Shopper Marketing Mean The End Of Category Management?
Whilst researching and writing, “The Shopper Marketing Revolution” which I wrote with Mike Anthony, I got the opportunity to speak with and get to know Dr. Brian Harris. Back in 1989, Brian effectively ‘invented’ Category Management by publishing an 8-step process which has guided collaboration between retailers and consumer goods companies for the last 23 years. [Read more…]
Who gets the Shopper Marketers’ ‘Best Retailer’ award?
I’m often struck, when visiting consumer goods companies, by the number of awards on display and I’m most drawn to those given by retailers for being the “best supplier”. It’s funny though that I’ve yet to come across “best retailer” awards given by their suppliers. I thought it might be fun to think about this from a shopper marketing perspective. I think that the following four criteria could be used by Shopper marketers in judging who would win their Best Retailer award . [Read more…]
Is Shopper Research The Only Option?
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to marketing teams about how they can use shopper insight. On a number of occasions, I’ve been asked “doesn’t that mean that we’ll have to do loads of shopper research?” The answer to this question lies in the “shopper fitness” of the company. Some companies are like professional athletes when it comes to shopper insight – they have heaps of well-structured data which is used create clear strategies and plans and they work on it daily to hone their skills. Others don’t. We all know that to perform build muscle, you need spend a lot of time in the gym. The same is true with developing shopper marketing muscle – you have to work with and develop broad data sets to become really effective. [Read more…]