Consumer, Shopper, Retail Expert
Consumer, Shopper, Retail Expert
If you were to believe what you read in the press (both marketing and otherwise) today’s shoppers are incapable of shopping without their phones. Led by companies such as Google, marketers are led to believe that shoppers find it hard to pick up so much as a can of tomatoes without consulting their social network. …
Using data is becoming more important to marketers. In a recent survey in the UK by Hays 27% of respondents said that data analysis was now the most essential skill in marketing (beating creativity (17%) and being customer-centric (12%) respectively). Further, the most ‘in-demand’ skill was ‘using data to optimize campaigns’ – with 55% of …
It appears that zero-based budgeting for marketing is rapidly becoming a common-place practice. News of major companies such as Unilever transforming their marketing budgeting practices has had a big impact. Now it appears that zero-based budgeting is rapidly becoming a common best-practice. That talk is still focused on marketing budgets, and not (as I have …
I often hear or read of the idea that shopper marketing is all about making life easy for shoppers. As a shopper, I certainly get this: too often categories are hard to shop for many reasons. Anything that makes it easy for me to find what I want to buy quickly and simply would be …
Amazon’s latest move into offline retail was widely reported last week, with the media alternately excited and dismissive of the online giant’s latest news. But in a consumer goods world already struggling with the new reality of changing shopping habits, any news involving Amazon and offline retail should not be dismissed lightly. So what are …
The consumer goods industry spends a fortune on in-store deals (and proportionally) more in online environments. By some calculations, the amount spent on promotions is significantly bigger than the total profit the company makes. That is a huge cost, and yet, when pressed, the reasons for the spend are a little opaque. Some proudly announce that …
This week Unilever was again in the press for making big changes to its marketing. Following the drive to zero-based budgeting, and the monster acquisition of Dollar Shave Club, Unilever announced a significant centralization of its marketing structure. Local marketing teams will now report to global marketing teams, rather than up to market GMs, in a …
I’d like to hope that we’re past the point of thinking that shopper marketing equals in-store marketing: that most people in the industry accept that the process of shopping starts before the store. But definitions and points of view stubbornly refuse to change. I could include many links to articles and sites that define shopper …
Insight. It’s a buzzword isn’t it? Can you remember the last time you were in a meeting and the word wasn’t used? Tough isn’t it? (And I’ll admit, I’m probably as guilty as the next person for over-using the word insight). As a word, insight is thrown around liberally to describe all sorts of things: …
The announcement that P&G was apparently turning its back on targeted Facebook ads created a storm in the marketing world, leading to some utterly crazy comments suggesting that targeting and segmentation was in some way suddenly wrong. By coincidence, I’d simultaneously published a post on the merits and benefits of shopper segmentation, and a number …