Shopper marketing has barely established itself in the marketing lexicon and in the halls of consumer goods companies, and yet it seems to be facing a new existential challenge. In this age of digital marketing, the worlds of the consumer and the shopper seem to blur: I can be a consumer one moment and a shopper the next. The neat line between the world of the shopper and that of the consumer is harder to define. Surely it is time to ask a key question. In this age of digital marketing, do we still need to differentiate between consumers and shoppers? Do we even need shopper marketing?
Digital Marketing blurs the lines between shoppers and consumers
It is true that the lines have certainly blurred. There used to be a simple approximation: that the world outside the store was ‘consumer’ and inside the store was ‘shopper’. But let’s be clear – that was always an approximation as there were always shopper-related activities taken outside the store (think about writing a shopping list, or deciding where to go shopping – both are clearly shopper decisions).
So the in-store versus out-of-store model was just that: a model. An approximation of the real world that was useful to marketers to help them recognize that consumers and shoppers are different, but to give a practical model that they could work to.
Fast forward to the age of digital marketing and that model has long since broken down. Shopping can happen anywhere, and shopping activities have invaded spaces which were always considered to be the realm of the consumer. So how do we as brand marketers cope with this new reality? It is quite simple: we need a new model!
Digital Marketing accelerates the need for a new marketing model
One alternative model would be to consign shopper marketing to the trash can, and just go back to talking about consumers (or for those of you who still haven’t caught up with the reality that consumers and shoppers are different, just carry on as you were!). But this model really doesn’t approximate reality. Shoppers still are different. Or rather, when I am in ‘shopper-state’ I am different to when I am in ‘consumer-state’. The lines are blurred, for sure, but they are still different. The last thing we want to do is go back to thinking that marketing to shoppers is basically sticking the consumer message in front of a shopper. No, we need a new model.
An alternative would be a blend: to think of people as ‘shopsumers’ (yes, I hate that word too!). But that ‘average’ runs the danger of being just that, an average. Consumer and shopper are two different states which switch ‘in a heartbeat’ – that much is true. But two states which switch in a heartbeat are still two states and while on average we in between, that is a poor approximation for what we are at any time. Put it this way, imagine you are betting on a two-sided card – on one side of the card is a zero, the other side has a ten. If you have to place a bet on which side comes up, what would you do? On average the score will be five, but betting on five will be a loser every time. Trying to understand a ‘shopsumer’ is just like that.
The new digital marketing model still needs to reflect the differences between consumers and shoppers
We need a model that reflects that consumer and shopper are potentially two different states, but that people switch between them. We need a marketing approach which understands how to appeal to consumers, and how to influence shoppers. We need to develop a marketing mix for consumers, and a mix for shoppers, and they need to be integrated.
Is this new digital reality make things difficult? Yes! Does it validate a move back to consumer equals shopper? Not in my mind!
Digital Marketing brings together consumer marketing and shopper marketing
Great marketing in the future will be marketing that recognizes both consumers and shoppers but is able, at any given touchpoint, to work. The way we develop this for clients is to develop a consumer marketing mix, and then a shopper marketing mix, and then to integrate this, touchpoint by touchpoint. Some touchpoints are pure consumer: some are pure shopper. Some need to be a blend of both.
This calls for a much closer integration between consumer marketers and shopper marketers, and will, I believe lead to more companies bringing shopper marketing within their broader marketing teams, rather than (as many companies currently do) housing it within the sales team.
For more about Total Marketing and how it works in the age of digital marketing, why not join the one of our workshops.
