In the blog last week I wrote about the truths shopper marketers need to know behind two of the commonly believed myths in the field. This week I explore the next two: that shopper marketing is just about large super-organized chain stores, and that it’s an evolution from trade marketing and category management.
Myth three: Shopper marketing is only relevant in large stores like Walmart
False: Shopper marketing is marketing. Shopper marketing’s focus is on getting people to behave differently when they are buying and people buy in a massive array of retail environments. We’ve already learnt that shopper marketing can influence people before they head to store, so it’s fair to say that shopper marketing can influence someone’s behavior regardless of the store that they choose.
Let’s take an example: Some years ago we were working with a baby nutrition company. Most of their sales were made in massive hypermarkets and as a result most of their investment was focused on activities to get people to buy more in hypermarkets. The trouble was, when shoppers walked into a hypermarket, they already had a brand in mind. When we followed people through the stores, guess what happened? 98% of them bought the brand they’d planned to buy. All that investment in big stores was changing the behavior of exactly 2% of the population! But when we looked at the very few occasions when a mom decided to change brands, we found these shoppers were 70% more likely to go to a pharmacy. A small amount of careful investment in pharmacies, we concluded, might have a much greater impact in the long term that the massive volume of money spent with hypermarkets.
Implication: Ignoring the potential to influence people’s behavior in independent stores, online or even in less important retailers limits the potential of your brand. Have all your shopper marketing efforts only focused on big retail is therefore going to limit your returns. Make sure you understand the retail environments that are important to growing your brands and invest there, even if it isn’t your biggest customer.
Myth four:Â Shopper marketing is part of an evolutionary change
False: Many have argued that shopper marketing is the logical extension of the movement from category management, into in-store marketing and finally to today’s shopper marketing. It isn’t. Shopper marketing is the process of creating and implementing a marketing mix which changes shopping behavior in order to drive consumption. Just because it employs tools that have been developed in category management or in in-store marketing as part of its marketing mix, it doesn’t follow that it is has evolved from these tools. Shopper marketing has become important because marketers recognize the truth behind the first myth: that consumers and shoppers behave differently, so different marketing approaches are needed to get the required response.
Let’s take an example: A couple of weeks ago I highlighted the work that had been done in revitalizing Old Spice as an example of great shopper marketing. This has nothing to do with in-store activation, and everything to do with the insight that in order to get men to stop using their wives’ or girlfriends’ body wash, one has to persuade these shoppers to buy body wash for men. The key element of the marketing mix to make this happen was effectively communicating to women that their partners smell like girls. So good old fashioned advertising, and a cool online campaign did the job that in-store activity would probably have failed to do. This isn’t category management – it’s marketing, with a different outcome.
Implication: Companies that assume that re-branding the trade marketing team “shopper marketing†is all that’s needed will continue to enjoy the same results they have had to date because nothing will have changed. Successful companies realize that shopper marketing demands a fundamental change in the business model, business processes and organization structure. In return for their investments, these successful companies are enjoying sustainable and profitable growth.
If you’d like to learn more about how shopper marketing is transforming the way companies market their brands, pick up a copy of The Shopper Marketing Revolution today!