23 July 2009 | Design Week Get to know your customer
The art of shopper marketing, says Andy Scott, lies in knowing how to apply branding messages in different retail environments.
Shopper marketing is a phrase that is hard to avoid at the moment, and for good reason. As the recession bites, brands want to know their customers better to sell more products. And as we move away from shared consumption of mass media, brands must learn new ways of communicating with shoppers.
Shopper marketing consultancies are keen to prove their worth in this role. But amid all the smoke and noise, it is easy to lose sight of what such a simple phrase really means.
First off, shopper marketing is not sales promotion with a new name. It is a new discipline that requires companies to raise their game.
Shopper marketing is about influencing shopper behaviour. The purpose is to turn shoppers into buyers, and a large part of that challenge lies in interpreting above-the-line messages in stores. The interpretation is key - simply repeating an above-the-line message ad nauseum can mean a message is lost or filtered out.
I liken this to going on a dinner date with a very attractive companion, who makes a bright and perceptive point within the first five minutes - then goes on about it all night like a stuck record. A similar effect is achieved by taking a witty line from an ad campaign and smearing it over every piece of cardboard available until shoppers are bored stiff.
We are all familiar with the claim that 70 per cent of purchasing decisions are made in-store, but this figure is misleading and inaccurate. If it were ever true, it could only pertain to one category, in one store, at one particular time. Learning how decisions really occur opens up a world of opportunity.
It varies enormously between categories. We use different frames of mind when buying toothpaste, a gift, a television, or chocolate - yet all might be purchased in the same shop, even on the same visit. We shop differently when grabbing food to go at lunchtime than at the weekend; differently if in a forecourt or a large supermarket.
It is essential to recognise that shoppers change constantly. A ‘one size fits all’ communication strategy does not work. The problem for many brands is to admit that it never has. Shopper marketing is the science of finding the right message for the moment.
Andy Scott chairman of Vivid Brand
