ARTICLE POSTED BY: Bill Chidley

Companies under pressure to stem margin erosion may jump headfirst into shopper marketing before they are ready. In doing so, they could overlook the need to solve fundamental problems in the shopping experience and end up with unpredictable results in the store.

The urge to dive in is understandably tempting. Brands that invest in shopper marketing are seeing three times the return as compared to traditional marketing disciplines. But the discussion revolves around a very small percentage of brands, such as CVS/pharmacy and Mars Snackfoods, ShopRite and Kellogg’s, Walgreens which just announced it will engage in a shopper marketing pilot with The Hershey Company, and of course the eminence of shopper marketing, Procter & Gamble. All have been working on shopper marketing for years and have an extremely high level of expertise.

Instead of starting with the shopper journey, a company should first seek its own path. Ask yourself, ‘Where do you want to go?’ From there, you need to determine how that impacts your category growth strategies, partner relationships, and competitive advantages. Then you can look at your path in light of the path of the shopper you want to have. Shopper marketing understands the shopper psychology and what drives choice, but who benefits from that depends on what their business objectives are.

The performance-boosting strategy promised by shopper marketing is real. But there are many ways to get lost in the avalanche of rhetoric and the diversity of views among practitioners. Companies need to take the time to understand what separates effective from ineffective efforts.

Tags: Business Brand Strategy, Shopper insights, Shopper Marketing | No Comments »-->