When Retail Execution Goes Wrong (and how to get it right)

When Retail Execution Goes Wrong (and how to get it right)

Anyone involved in shopper marketing, for agencies or manufacturers, will likely have been frustrated at some point by a retailer who was reluctant to install their brilliant work. Even with a great argument, backed by objective research, retailers can be tough to persuade. Why is this? Sometimes it is simply that implementing and maintaining that shopper …

The Tesco Revolution –  A better shopper experience?

The Tesco Revolution – A better shopper experience?

Around four years ago I visited a Tesco store in Warrington in the UK, and used it as the basis of a rather scathing blog on the state of Tesco, some of their biggest suppliers, and the state of shopper marketing. The store was bleak, horrible to shop, and devoid of any marketing creativity. Since …

Retail design: Insight and simplicity rule!

Retail design: Insight and simplicity rule!

The industry spends a huge amount of money trying to influence shoppers. Unfortunately, much of that is spent on discounts. Nowhere is this more true than in Turkey. I visited Istanbul for the launch of engage Turkey & Middle East recently. Shop after shop, the first thing that I saw as a shopper was a …

How to use generic shopper data to fuel real shopper insight

How to use generic shopper data to fuel real shopper insight

The internet and conference presentations are full of shopper data soundbites. Apparently shopper behavior can be wrapped up in simple soundbites and generic shopper data  such as “24% of shoppers use their mobile when shopping”. Yet in my experience understanding shoppers, and then using that understanding to influence shopping behavior is far from simple. Doing …

Digital Marketing Rules: Do We Need Shopper Marketing?

Digital Marketing Rules: Do We Need Shopper Marketing?

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 …

Consumers and Shoppers have Different Brand Relationships

Consumers and Shoppers have Different Brand Relationships

I’m often asked why we need shopper marketing (thankfully less now than before). There are many possible answers – but here is one: Shopper marketing exists because shoppers and consumers have fundamentally different relationships with brands. Consumer marketers spend an enormous amount of energy creating (or at least attempting to create) ‘brand-love’. But brand relationships …

The Complexities of Understanding Shopper Behavior

The Complexities of Understanding Shopper Behavior

Winning with shoppers is key to consumer goods success: I think we can all agree on that. And on the surface, shopper marketing looks pretty straight forward. Stick some activity in a store and a shopper responds… Simple eh? Alas not. Shopper marketing is fiendishly complicated. Deep understanding of shopper behavior is key to shopper …