Shopper Insights

Enabling Deselection

Monday, August 2, 2010 by Jared Meisel

Shopper Marketing tends to focus on using shopper insights to enable selection at the point of sale. However, in categories that are complex, overwhelming or otherwise hard to navigate, enabling deselection is just as important. You have to enable your shoppers to deselect what they don't want before they are able to select what they want. I learned this lesson while working on Millstone, at the time a P&G premium coffee brand. In an intimidating category like premium coffee, we found that organizing the shelf based on shopper insights gained from research brought about more clarity and ultimately, more sales.

The above picture is a fun way to approach another category that can be intimidating - wine. Press in Charlotte, NC chose not to take the typical approach to categorizing wines by regions or varietals, instead creating fun categories based on what the shopper will experience. Deselection ultimately should enable better and faster selection and in this example, narrow down a large wine list into a smaller set of relevant options.

Fighting for Share of Wallet

Thursday, July 22, 2010 by Jared Meisel

How well do you know your shopper? How well do you know your competition? Have you ever used shopper insights to define your competition?

Traditionally, retailers and brands have viewed their competition as other category or cross category offerings. But if you define your competition from your shopper's perspective, your competition will be defined broadly and probably more accurately as those you fight with for share of a shopper's wallet. American Eagle, the teen clothing retailer, realized they were not just fighting with other teen clothing retailers for sales, they were increasingly fighting against technology gadgets for share of their target's wallet.

Understanding this led them to create an interesting promotion that will run from July 21 to Aug. 3, during the critical back to school sales window. Shoppers who try on a new pair of jeans receive a card directing them online to select one of dozens of free phones (from brands such as BlackBerry, Motorola and HTC) as long as they sign up for a two-year contract (through a variety of carriers including AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless). They didn't stop there - the free phone is shipped along with a $25 American Eagle gift card, incenting their target to get back into their stores.

Great shopper marketing is built on great shopper insights. And great shopper insights can lead you to refining how you view the competitive landscape in order to provide relevant offers to your shoppers.

Shopper Marketer. Shopper-centric. Shopper savvy. Shopperist.

Friday, July 9, 2010 by Jared Meisel

All words pointing to the same thing – I am passionate about shoppers. I love the discipline it takes to find the issue or barrier keeping shoppers from purchasing a product. I love the vision it takes to find shopper insights and then bring it to life in a relevant way. I love the curiosity it takes to stay on top of the technology and trends that are changing how shoppers approach retail environments, whether brick or click (traditional stores or online).

10 years of shopper marketing experience has brought along some awesome opportunities. I have worked on some of the largest retailer and manufacture brands around, from Walmart to USPS, Walgreens to P&G and have lived in some great cities along the way, from Fayetteville, AR to Cincinnati, OH to Chicago, IL. And this experience has led me here, to birdsong gregory in Charlotte, NC. Why? The answer is based on how I view the future.

I believe the best way to predict the future is to create it. And I believe the role of future creators will belong to smart, strategic, neutral and nimble companies, those who choose to approach problems as conversations. A conversation requires approaching challenges engaged in actively listening, watching and focusing on what factors are influencing the situation before responding. birdsong gregory has taken a purposefully conversational approach to their 10 years of growth, building their business on the idea that facilitating a conversation requires low overhead and high access. The fact that Charlotte ranks 8^th in the US for Fortune 500 companies has provided a perfect regional and national proving ground for this philosophy.

Have a passion for shoppers? Have a shopper challenge you need help solving? Let’s start the conversation.

Turning a Shopper in Sight into Shopper Insights

Monday, March 29, 2010 by Jim Cusson

The key to any effective shopper marketing execution is understanding what the shopper needs and wants, and while traditional insight collection tools like tracking, exit interviews, shop-alongs, or focus groups can help a retailer or a brand make more informed marketing decisions, there's a new way to make the most of an old technology: in-store cameras.

The most basic shopper surveillance setup has been around for a few years, using video cameras in ceilings and sensors near fitting rooms to learn how many customers pass through the doors and where they tend to go. But now some retailers and consumer research firms are taping shoppers’ every movement and using specialized analysis to study the shoppers’ behavior. For example, after seeing scores of customers struggle to navigate a particular area, analysts might suggest that the retailer widen the aisle. Read more about it here.

Shopper Marketing Budgets Climbing

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Jim Cusson

The most recent AdAge Magazine has an interesting article on how brands and retailers are increasing spending to gain shopper insights. The article suggests it's hard to pinpoint how much is spent on shopper marketing, but estimates range from $3 billion to as high as $18 billion. The Grocery Manufacturers Association said in 2007 that manufacturers would boost their shopper marketing dollars by 21% each year through 2010. Our shopper marketing agency works very closely with several banners of Delhaize America, including Bloom and Food Lion supermarkets and we are seeing more and more opportunities for them to partner with national CPGs on in-store executions.

Shopper Insights and Good Design Prove a Boon

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Jim Cusson

Through our work with Britax, our shopper marketing agency in Charlotte has gained experience and expertise in the "mom/baby" space. So lately we've been making contact with prospective clients who go to the market through the same channels and have similar target audiences. One such company is Boon Inc. They are commit ed to "... creating nothing but the most innovative gear—and keeping it affordable." And I must say, their design sensibilities are top notch. Every product they produce looks museum quality. The video above shows me feeding my daughter Charlie with a traditional spoon (what a mess!) and then using Boon's Squirt spoon - what a difference. I suspect Boon designed the spoon after hearing from Moms how much of a pain it was to feed kids on the go. So the food itself is contained within a squeezable reservoir in the spoon. For a Dad like me though, it's just means a whole lot less food on my kids face.

Shopper Marketing Drives Consumer Choices

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Jim Cusson

A new research report from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Shopper Marketing 3.0, reveals that in-store marketing elements are more influential than out-of-store advertising elements in shopper's ultimate brand selection. This highlights an opportunity for smart brands to implement strong shopper marketing programs to lift sales. While price is the most influential factor across categories, insights gained from shoppers can be used to gain attention and shift the focus away from price towards specific product attributes. To learn more about birdsong gregory's shopper marketing services, contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299

The Fundamental Rule of Shopper Marketing? Know the Shopper.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Leslie Kraemer

The tremendous growth in store brands, at the expense of heavily-advertised national brands, has been fueled by a number of factors, including the greater range and quality of store brands, consumer demand for a better price-value relationship, and more sophisticated shopper marketing tactics on the part of retailers.

This insightful white paper delves into the challenges that established national retail brands face and looks at how a more nuanced, richer understanding of a product's perception in the marketplace - in terms of perceived benefits and consumer needs – can help drive revenue and market share.

By creating a market map with "concentric spheres of consumer interaction" (seen above), a savvy brand manager can better understand how the market is organized, what the real competition is, and how to identify and prioritize the most viable innovation opportunities.

That's the big idea, anyway, and here at birdsong gregory, we're excited to read about it.

UT Launches Shopper Marketing Forum

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Jim Cusson

And that's T as in Tennessee, not Texas.

Just on the other side of the mountains from Charlotte, a group of top executives from some of the world's leading companies — including PepsiCo Americas Foods, Wal-Mart, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark and The Walt Disney Co. — gathered in Knoxville late last year to help the UT College of Business Administration launch its inaugural Shopper Marketing Forum.

UT has two other forums: the Supply Chain Strategy and Management Forum and the Forecasting and Demand Management Forum, both under the umbrella of the Demand Supply Integration Forums. The forums are research-based think tanks that bring UT faculty together with company executives to address key industry issues. Member companies pay a fee to belong to the forums and attend the twice-yearly meetings.

Some of the issues explored at the shopper marketing forum included collaboration among supply chain partners in retail; improved metrics and return on investment (ROI) for marketing initiatives; gaining deeper insights into shopper thinking, behavior and value perceptions; and enhancing shopper experiences through state-of-the-art technology such as social networking and virtual simulations and displays.

The Five Elements of a Great Shopping Experience

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Jim Cusson

Check out this new shopper insights paper at the Retail Council. Based on research conducted by the Verde Group, the findings come from 1,006 online panel interviews conducted nationally with North American consumers between May 11 and May 13, 2009. The sample was weighted 60% : 40% US vs. Canadian shoppers.

The study focused on how shoppers define great retail experiences, how frequentlythey occur, and which great experiences matter most to loyalty and a store’s bottom line?

The results?

Great shopping brings back shoppers

75% of shoppers who have enjoyed a great experience with a specific retailer definitely intend to return to that retailer the next time they need a similar product or item. When shoppers encounter merely “standard” experiences at a store, their likelihood to return drops by over 65%.

A great shopping experience drives store advocacy

When a shopper enjoys great shopping, they are almost 80% more likely to definitely recommend the store to their friends and associates than those shoppers who experience “standard shopping.”

Shoppers talk about their great experinces.

Nearly 80% of shoppers who enjoy a great shopping experience will talk about it with their friends and associates. When they talk, they talk widely: on average, they’ll tell between four and five other people about their experience. And volume makes a difference. The higher the number of elements in a shopper’s great shopping experience, the more people they tell about the experience.

So what are the 5 critical elements behind a great shopping experience?

1. Engagement: being polite, genuinely caring and demonstrating sincere interest in helping, acknowledging and listening.

2. Executional excellence: patient explanation and advice, checking stock, helping find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.

3. Brand experience: exciting store design, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and that they always “get a deal.”

4. Expediting: being sensitive to customers’ time and long check-out lines, and being proactive in helping speed up the shopping process.

5. Problem recovery: helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete shopper satisfaction.

Shopper Insights into Online Behavior

Monday, January 4, 2010 by Leslie Kraemer

More than ever, shoppers are connecting with brands on social networks for reasons other than simply trying to save a buck through limited offer or special deal. Today's networked shoppers are are now following brands on Twitter or Facebook to learn more about new products and about the ethos of the brand, some consumers do so more often than to just get e-coupons.

In fact, a December 2009 study from MarketingSherpa entitled Why Consumers Friend or Follow Companies separated the respondents into three categories: Max Connectors, Daily Users, and All Respondents. As shown in the survey, these three categories sometimes behave very differently from each other.

Of particular interest are Max Connectors, a new type of consumer demographic with 500 or more social network connections that is an especially valuable as MarketingSherpa explains, "for marketing, at least in theory, because they can spread a positive brand or product experience so widely."

Here at birdsong gregory, we call these super networkers brand advocates, which denotes a consumer with favorable perceptions of a brand who will talk favorably about it and generate awareness or influence purchase intent.

Got that?

In-Store Marketing Trends Report Coming Soon

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 by Jim Cusson

Here at birdsong gregory, we've always felt that in-store communications and marketing programs have greater impact on incremental sales than traditional forms of advertising. However, it will be interesting to see what insights the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) offers in its new report based on up-to-date review of shopper marketing trends across North America.

From our perspective, shopper marketing includes everything from signage to fixtures to environment and lighting - in short, every aspect of the shopper experience capable of creating a connection with your brand.

Expected to be released in November, the press release describes this report as an effort to “research and develop a 360-degree perspective on successful industry practices and key shopper marketing challenges.”

We'll keep you posted.