Marketing to shoppers – understanding our target market as they shop, and creating activity to change their behavior in a way which will drive consumption of our brands – has many benefits. Organizations with effective shopper marketing in place deliver significantly greater ROI than those that do not employ these strategies (when we interviewed Chris Hoyt when writing The Shopper Marketing Revolution he suggested that shopper marketing could deliver returns of up to 300% more than other trade activities). But in the organizations that we work with, there is another, potentially bigger benefit – alignment across the sales and marketing functions, and through this consumer marketing teams benefit from shopper marketing too.
At its simplest level, consumer marketing is about driving consumption of brands: shopper marketing is about getting shoppers to buy brands. But if shopper marketing stops there, then the returns simply don’t come in. Shoppers buying more give a short term blip in sales (which, don’t get me wrong, can be very handy indeed!), but if all the shopper does is buy once, or stock up their cupboard at home, then the benefit to the brand is small and short-term. When I buy extra toothpaste because I notice a new display, I don’t go home and consume more toothpaste. Whilst Colgate gains a short term sales blip, they sell nothing more in the longer term, because the shopping activity did not impact my consumption behavior.
But if that purchase leads to additional consumption, either a long term brand switch, or a change in consumption habits (drinking an extra cup of coffee a day, for example) then the value is enormous. Shopper marketing yields maximum value when it also drives consumption. Put it another way, unless shopper marketing efforts are aligned with consumer marketing efforts, it is unlikely that the maximum returns will be received.
Maximizing marketing ROI requires alignment across consumer and shopper teams
Yet still, in many organizations, shopper and consumer are seen as separate worlds. Too often, to the consumer marketer, shopper marketing is a bit of an afterthought (agency friends talk of being asked “oh yeah, can you add some shopper stuff to this?”) I sense that shopper marketers are more willing to work with consumer marketers, but often allow their activity to be driven by what retailers want rather than what supports brand growth. So how to create this simple, yet valuable alignment?
Everything starts with the consumer
Consumer marketing starts with the consumer, and so should shopper marketing. Why? Because shopping exists to meet a future consumption need, and if consumption isn’t changed (see above) then the value of the shopper marketing efforts is reduced. Shopper marketing should begin with a clear, identified consumption opportunity. This creates alignment between consumer and shopper marketing teams on goals and priorities. It also helps identify clearly who the target shopper is…
Use an understanding of the target consumer to identify the target shopper
Rather than using a standardized shopper segmentation model from an agency or a retailer, identify your own target shopper. How? It’s pretty simple. Your target shoppers are the shoppers who are most likely to unlock the identified and agreed consumption opportunity. Yes, it’s a simple as that. It creates a clear definition of the target shopper which is discrete yet completely aligned, with the consumer marketing team’s target consumer.
Consider the targets separately, then together
Consumers are not the same as shoppers. Sometimes different people, sometimes the same: but they are in a different mindset, often in different environments and they have different needs. Further we have different goals (we want consumers to use, and shoppers to buy). As a marketing challenge, therefore, we need to consider them separately, and develop a separate marketing mix for each. But the job isn’t done (or the returns not maximized) unless both parts of the mix work. Therefore the entire marketing mix must be put together, to ensure that it will deliver the desired consumption and shopping behavior.
Evaluate the impact on consumption as well as shopping
Lastly – the full value or impact of shopper activity isn’t clear until the impact on consumption has been measured. Once consumer marketers start seeing the additional consumption that shopper marketing drives, then future alignment and cooperation becomes much more likely. For more on the benefits of alignment and how to make that happen in your organization, check out the book: its jam-packed full of case studies and practical advice on how to manage, plan and organize your team to reap maximum benefits from shopper marketing.
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