I was in conversation recently with a friend who works at a large shopper activation agency, and we were talking about the briefs they receive from clients. I was surprised that in many cases, one of the key goals was ‘to delight shoppers’. Really? Apparently, yes. For many shopper marketers their goal in life is to delight shoppers. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being delighted, but the idea that this is the goal of so many campaigns concerns me. I don’t see that shoppers necessarily want to be delighted, and I’m not sure that delighting shoppers always ties back to the goals of the business. In this post I’m going to explore why delighting shoppers isn’t a good shopper marketing goal (for starters it shouldn’t even be a goal!) and how to create better shopper marketing goals.
How often do shoppers really want to be delighted?
How much delight does the average shopper need? How many times have you left a supermarket and thought to yourself: ‘That was pretty good – the queues were short and all the products I wanted were in stock, but I wasn’t really delighted by the experience?’ NO, nor me. ‘Delighting shoppers’ sounds suspiciously like something made up by marketers. Perhaps, when perusing the shelves of a gadget shop (for me at least) finding something cool and interesting might delight me. But, as I meander down the shelves of a supermarket, or pick up a book on Amazon, I’m not really into being delighted. I just want my stuff, and I want to get out of there. I’m looking to be satisfied, but not delighted. I don’t want to whoop with joy in every aisle!
Is delighting shoppers ever a shopper marketing goal?
Given that delight may be a desirable outcome for the shopper in certain circumstances (finding a rare vinyl copy of One Direction’s first single, anyone?) is it a legitimate shopper marketing goal? I would argue no. Shoppers may want to be delighted, but (and correct me if I’m wrong), ‘delighting shoppers’ rarely appears on anyone’s objectives in their annual review. Usually these are full of financial objectives, or project deliverables. I would argue that delighting shoppers is a strategy, not an objective. We delight shoppers as a strategy to achieve an objective (to get a shopper to buy something, perhaps?). As marketers we get rewarded for sales, not delight!
Is delighting shoppers ever measured?
Returning to the conversation with my friend, I asked him, ‘How do you measure success?’ My friend looked confused for a moment, and then smiled. Ah yes. An objective that is never measured. Always a good one to stick in a brief!
Setting better shopper marketing goals
Goals should clearly reflect the commercial reality of the business. There are financial targets that the company should require to meet: short term sales, profit, return on investment. But beyond this the true purpose of shopper marketing is to get certain shoppers to behave in certain ways. Delighting them may be a legitimate strategy to achieve this, in certain circumstances, but surely it’s not a goal? Shopper marketing goals should look to change the behavior of the target shopper in ways which drive long term changes in the consumption of the brand.
Short term financial goals are not enough, as they do not help understand the true value to the business of the behavior that is being created. Take a simple example. A promotion encourages a shopper to buy three packs of a brand. Financially it is simple to measure the sales growth, and a short term RoI. But how much value is created depends on who the shopper is and what happens to their long term consumption. If the shopper used to buy a competitive brand, but as a result of this will switch to our brand in the long term, then the value is high. If the shopper is a loyal shopper, who buys on a deal but does not consume anymore, then the value of the sales growth is lower. Great shopper marketing goals define who the target shopper is and what shopping behavior is targeted.
I’m not saying that delighting shoppers is a bad idea, I’m merely suggesting that it is a strategy, not an objective, and is not a universally desirable or effective strategy either. The underlying assumption that shoppers are looking to be ‘delighted’ simply does not stand up to scrutiny.
Setting effective goals for activity is a tricky skill, and requires close working across consumer, shopper and sales teams. For more on setting objectives for shopper activity, check out the Three Objective Model here.
Image: Flickr
