In my last post I referenced The Hub’s latest survey on the state of shopper marketing and this created a fair amount of discussion around where shopper marketing was, and what needs to happen to move it forward. There were a couple of questions about what it takes to create ‘real shopper marketing’ – which is the topic of this post, but before I do that I’d like to just remind everyone of why a strategic approach to shopper marketing might be worth pursuing.
Shopper Marketing, done correctly, delivers massive value. Chris Hoyt of Hoyt & Co suggests that a strategic approach to shopper marketing can deliver ROIs of over 2.5, compared to a more tactical shopper approach barely breaking even – better than plain old trade promotions but nowhere near what a strategic shopper marketing approach may deliver.
Creating a strategic shopper marketing approach requires many things and there are many factors to consider. Whilst covering all of these lies beyond the scope of one blog post one thing is clear – making shopper marketing work requires the cooperation of more than just the shopper marketers themselves. Shopper marketing truly is a team sport – so who do you need on your team, and what positions must they play?
In this I am going to make gross generalizations, and be critical. I do this based on experience, and included in that is experience of being a Marketing Director, being a Sales Director, and being a CEO – I’ve been there, and I’ve made the mistakes, and if I had a time machine and could go back and do it all again…..
In the game of shopper marketing, if (and forgive me attempting a soccer analogy that I will almost certainly stretch far beyond the point of snapping), the Shopper Marketer is the midfield general (or for my American friends, the quarterback) who calls the shots, I’ve already described the characteristics of this key player in the middle of the park.
To win at the game of shopper marketing, shopper marketers need consumer marketing on their team. Sometimes marketers seem to want to stand on the sidelines, be the strategists and see any game with shopper or retail in its title as tactical. Marketers – if you are on the team you need to be on the pitch, and that means you might get a little muddy. That’s OK. It washes off.
Teams play together, and win together. Marketers need to step up and to embrace accountability, and that means ROI. In the world of consumer goods there is no ROI until someone buys the product and that means shopping (and by the way there is no consumption without purchase either!). Marketers cannot achieve ROI without shoppers – and that means somehow integrating consumer and shopper. Marketers who may appear reluctant to get involved need to realize that actually they have no choice. To extend my soccer metaphor consumer teams can’t score goals without shoppers.
The CEO is the Head Coach – and he needs to start to call different plays. Those 75% of CEOs who are fed up with a lack of accountability from their marketing teams need to call them on that, or make a substitution. The ball needs to be passed seamlessly from consumer marketers to shopper marketers to trade – Ensuring everyone knows their roles in this process, and ensure that everyone’s KPIs are linked to this. No-one wins unless we score goals with the shopper. Just because we have more Facebook likes than anyone doesn’t mean we’re winning. You can’t take love to the bank.
Sales Directors, so often seen as the lone striker, hanging around the opposition goal and spending more time closer to the other team than their own, need to look in the mirror and remind themselves of the color of the shirt they wear. They are not in the customers’ team. Partnership with retailers is a myth – at best we have coerced collaboration. The Sales Team’s job is to create conditions for shoppers to buy, and to buy our brands. Their job is not to improve the performance of the retailer, nor grow the category. Their job is to facilitate the sale of the company’s brands.
Finance Directors need to demand accountability – but demand it equally. Sometimes it seems as though the poor shopper marketer is held to much higher standards than their counterparts in marketing and sales. Carry on being demanding, but do it in a balanced way. Why is it that cutting advertising budgets is seen as a “bad thing” but budgets to create shopper insight are given so grudgingly? How many consumer marketers have a standing research budget, compared to their shopper marketing counterparts who have to beg on a project by project basis?
I was asked recently why I thought shopper marketing was a revolution. Let me be clear. Shopper Marketing could be a revolution. If and only if it is done properly. It is revolutionary because it demands a significant change in, not just how we plan activities in stores, but in how consumer teams, sales teams and boards behave: it requires a complete shift in the way that consumer goods companies market their brands. The future is a completely different game.
