There are many reasons why shopper marketing is being talked about so much at the moment. Unfortunately much of it is hype but beneath it all there are some solid reasons for really investing time and effort into understanding shoppers. Unfortunately for too many these efforts seem still to revolve around the point of purchase. Shopper marketers are working ‘store-back’ analyzing retail data to come up with what is largely in-store activity which seems to be little differentiated from that which was around ten or twenty years ago. Not picking on anyone in particular (and I have huge respect for much of what both of these companies do), Mondelez and Coca-Cola put snacks and soft drinks together in-store and this is heralded as some sort of triumph? Come on! There must be more to shopper marketing than this! Shopper marketing needs to move on, and recognize a few home truths about shoppers, and marketing to shoppers if it is to deliver on its hype.
Where did shopper marketing come from?
In-store marketing, in many ways the predecessor to shopper marketing, grew up out of ideas such as the ‘first moment of truth’ driven by a belief that vast numbers of shoppers could be found, and influenced, in large stores such as Wal-Mart or Tesco. Fragmentation of media meant that it was hard to gather large audiences in front of the TV as had been in the case in bygone days, but at least the mass audience could be found in the stores of big retail. The propagation of statistics such as POPAI’s “76% of purchase decisions are made in-store” reinforced this. There was no need for any sweat – most shoppers could be found and influenced at one point. In a way the rise of “shopper marketing 1.0” (aka in-store marketing) was driven by marketers trying to find a simple solution to the problem that media fragmentation caused.
Time for shopper marketing 2.0
Fast forward to today and that whole concept has taken a bit of a battering. Shopper Marketing 2.0 is born out of the reality that shoppers can’t all be found, let alone influenced, in the gaping halls of Wal-Mart. Shoppers (gasp!) actually make shopping decisions outside of stores, and many of them barely register a thought as they grab pre-determined brands in-store. Shopper Marketing 2.0 recognizes that different shoppers behave very differently, and therefore there is a need to differentiate between shoppers – to identify a target shopper – and to understand that target shopper in terms of where they go and where they can be influenced.
Shopper marketing cannot stand alone and thrive
And shopper marketing 2.0 recognizes that whilst shoppers and consumers are different, efforts to market to shoppers must be integrated with those aimed at consumers. Shoppers buy for consumers: if there is no consumer demand then the shopper will stop buying. Likewise consumers use products which are bought by shoppers. If the shopper doesn’t buy, then the consumer cannot consume. Synchronizing shopper and consumer marketing efforts is therefore an imperative for either discipline to prosper.
Further, the advent of digital channels and marketing muddies the water between the consumer world and the shopper world. Back in the days of Shopper Marketing 1.0, where shopping was apparently confined to within the walls of the store, it was easy to see shopper marketing and consumer marketing as two different things. Now shopper journeys can start on the couch at home; and consumer targeted media can be picked up on a mobile phone in the store.
Shopper marketing needs more marketing, more insight, and less analytics
In short, the old world of shopper marketing is gone, in the same way as the old marketing world is gone. What is needed is a different way of thinking about marketing – a way that genuinely (and I hesitate to use the phrase) integrates the activities of a brand against its two targets – the consumer and the shopper. It’s time for shopper marketing to deliver. Shopper marketing needs to be marketing, not just shopper. And that means targeting, insights, and segmentation. If all we are able to do is to analyze loads of data and find that snacks and soda are often consumed together, then I despair for the future of shopper marketing!
I’ve been hard on Mondelez and Coca-Cola here – but I could have pulled any number of examples from other leading brands. If you have examples of really good shopper marketing, please let me know in the comments section below.
