Quantifying and capitalizing on digital behaviors is a focus of many marketers, as a lot of traditional shopper behavior has migrated online. Based on this, I thought the below infographics from Nielsen on the most valuable digital consumers presented some compelling information.
Based on reaching the tipping point of 50% smart phone penetration, understanding your target market's needs, behaviors and opportunities is going to become even more important.
The Windy City certainly lived up to its name during the annual Shopper Marketing Expo this month in Chicago. We were buffeted by winds up to 55 miles per hour. Fortunately most of my time was spent indoors at the historic Navy Pier. The Expo brings together the brightest minds in the shopper marketing space and serves as an opportunity to share best-in-class examples of practical applications at retail. During one of the dinners I was seated next to a senior brand manager from Kimberly-Clark and we toasted each other for being fellow Gold Hub Prize winners. His team won for work related to Kotex and Poise feminine care products. It was gratifying to realize that our young, agile studio in Charlotte is competing at the level of national and international brands like Kimberly-Clark and their agency partner JWT/OgilvyAction. As we like to say, sometimes the biggest ideas can come from the smallest agencies. Learn more at www.birdsonggregory.com
The technology tipping point is here. More phones are sold than computers, becoming the preferred way to connect and compute in the twenty first century. Nielsen estimates that smartphone penetration will be over 50% by the end of 2011. With the increased adoption there is enhanced integration of technology into everyday life. And more strikingly, in shopper behavior.
55% of smartphone users believe the shopping experience is more enjoyable thanks to smartphones (Internet Retailer).
73% of shoppers would rather use their phone than talk to a sales associate (Internet Retailer).
41% of iPhone owners have made a purchase from their smartphone
These are not just shifts in behavior. They are step changes in beliefs. This is not just about digital shopper marketing. The conversation is no longer about adoption. It is about adapting marketing strategies and tactics to harness the power of this technology for your business.
So how should you adapt? Your customer should be your starting point, not technology. Watch how they are and are not using technology today. Look at trends that will continue to evolve their behavior tomorrow. Find opportunities to provide value beyond the realm of just your products. Just like shoppers have integrated technology into their experience, so should you look for ways to holistically integrate technology into your plans. Not just as the strategy, but as a way to better connect your strategy to your audience. Want to learn more? Visit www.birdsonggregory.com
This is a quick peek inside the refreshed Bloom Grocery store. This showcases just a part of the work that earned shopper marketing agency birdsong gregory a Gold Prize for excellence in the retail environment from Hub Magazine.We introduced new graphics and merchandising efforts in key departments to amplify the new product offering and improve the shopping experience. See more of this work at www.birdsonggregory.com
Retail associate are a personification of your brand. They are front line brand builders or brand breakers. They have a direct impact on your store's shopping experience.
This is a reality that spans retail channels - how associates choose to interact with your customers will form an impression of your brand. Whether shoppers are looking for a product recommendation, need help navigating the store or seeking information, when your associate doesn't take the time or have the answer, you are missing a critical shopper engagement opportunity.
Sadly, we all have examples of bad retail associate experiences. It is an unfortunate retail reality these days. But think about your recent positive associate interactions. What was common about these experiences? I would argue good retail associates are like bartenders. A good bartender engages you and seeks to understand what you want. They are ready to make a product recommendation if you aren't sure what you are having - based on understanding inventory and market trends. They know their tip is directly related to the level of service they provide and as such, they put service before product. They have the background knowledge to make what you need and the empowerment to deviate from a specific menu item to make you happy. There is follow up to make sure you have what you need.
For all the focus put on marketing, don't forget the most important contact point you have with your shoppers. How are you empowering them to build your brand with customers? Maybe it is time to start viewing your associates more like bartenders.
We are in the midst of designing new promotional materials for several communities developed by our client, Crescent Resources. In a clear demonstration of "doing what it takes" to please the client, we offered up members of our own team as models (I use that term loosely) for several photo shoots scheduled over the past week. Above is yours truly and my wife Heidi enjoying some time by the fire. Keep an eye out for our shopper marketing agency's favorite dog, Pete, who's making his model debut soon.
Think the shopper behavior of finding ways to save money is going away anytime soon? Not according to a recent Mintel report.
Shoppers continue to look for discounts. While this is not a total surprise based on the sluggish economy, what is surprising is how this behavior has seemingly shifted away from doing this out of need and into doing this out of enjoyment. According to the report, 64% of US Moms say they are spending more of their time looking for details, sales, etc.
In other words, they are spending more of their personal, pre-purchase and pre-store time seeking these deals. This is no longer just about saving money, but about finding enjoyment in the “hunt” for these deals. It is about the process as well as the outcome.
With the boom of shopper technologies, the challege for marketers is not creating and helping shoppers find deals. Instead, the important consideration is how we are shifting shopper engagement strategies to talk to customers pre-store and at the point of sale to effectively drive brand preference.
There is no doubt that this focus on price and finding deals presents significant shopper marketing challenges. However, given this reality, how you adjust and directly impact your shopper's choice to put your brand in their cart? Perhaps birdsong gregory can help?
We've often said that at birdsong gregory we're more interested in delivering results for our clients than winning awards, but every once in a while the two come together nicely. We were just informed that the collection of work we developed to relaunch the Bloom Grocery Brand has been awarded a Gold Prize from the annual Hub Magazine competition honoring excellence in the retail experience. Our peers in the Gold category include international brands like Disney, Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble. And their agencies partners are some of the biggest names in the Shopper Marketing space. It just goes to show you that you don't need a big shop for big ideas. The top Gold winners are competing for the best-of-the-best Hub Cup via on line voting through September 14th. Click here to vote for Bloom.
After reading a recent article in The Times about Google Goggles, I was struck by how rapidly the world of digital shopper marketing is evolving. Google Goggles is a mobile app that uses image-recognition software to decipher landmarks, text, book and DVD covers, artwork, logos, bar codes, wine labels. etc.
Comparison shopping has never been easier, now that you can snap a quick pic of a book’s cover while in store and almost instantly check the price and reviews on Amazon, but the mind races to fathom all the opportunities a good image recognition app could offer a retailer or consumer brand. Here are a couple:
• Massively successful European billboard advertiser JCDecaux is launching an image recognition iPhone app called U snap. Users can take pictures of JCDecaux posters and billboards – which the app will recognize, and provide access to extra content. Several major brands including Orange and Lancome have already signed on, and the app is planned for Android and Windows launches as well.
• Amazon Mobile includes the “Amazon Remembers” feature, which allows you to take a picture of any product, and (using the Mechanical Turk service identify the product and put it in your wish list. This isn’t real-time yet, but several product categories (movies and books) are already automated.
• Layar is one of many popular augmented-reality apps on the AppStore which allow you to see the iPhone’s camera output in real-time, with supplemental data overlaid on it. For example, take a picture of street you’re walking down to see what stores lie ahead.
Our shopper marketing agency has devoted countless hours over the past year strategizing, formulating and finally launching a new brand position for our grocery store client, Bloom (see the case study to learn more). Knowing there was a lot at stake, we commissioned a research study to gauge shopper sentiments about the store experience before we relaunched the brand. Now that the relaunch is complete, and shoppers have had a few months to soak in the new surroundings, we went back and completed a second wave of research to see what they think. The results are very promising. We saw a 7% lift in the likelihood of shoppers to recommend Bloom to their friends, a 15% increase in likeability for key departments in the store, and 15% improvement in store navigation. Those stats along with a double-digit increase in overall same store sales, how's that for ROI?
Diet Coke first hit store shelves in 1982 and has been a top seller ever since. But even legendary icons can use a bit of updating. AdWeek asks industry experts to chime in on the new packaging design. Click here for the whole story and to learn more about birdsong gregory's philosophy on design, shopper marketing and the state of advertising read our Manifesto featured on our new web site.
While f-commerce continues to lead the digital shopper marketing push for retailers and manufacturers, it is quickly becoming obvious there are critical differences between f-comm successes and duds. From a recent NY Times article, Doron Simovitch of SortPrice offers 7 f-comm tips:
Engage users creatively (and consistently) with likeable wall posts to support your f-commerce offering
Provide exclusivity with promotions, discounts and sales that are exclusive to your Facebook fans
Attract new fans with added incentives with one-time promo codes, coupons or discounted shipping for those Liking your page
Solicit input by asking your fans directly how you can improve the f-commerce experience
Make Facebook a PR tool with wall posts that provide news beyond retail – such as charitable and community service initiatives
Incorporate Facebook into Customer Service by enabling customer product reviews, a forum to share shopping experiences, and proactively, publicly and transparently addressing customer concerns
Keep an eye out for new features and tools with new f-commerce tools such as flash sales, group-buy offers, and contests – designed to may the f-commerce experience more fun and social
While there is benefit for brands to have a f-comm presence, it is important to ensure your strategy reflects the unique opportunity the Facebook shopping experience provides. It is not just another commerce outlet - it is an opportunity to engage your audience, allow them to interact with your products through unique offers and provide compelling incentives to purchase and share.
1. Visibility Contrast is key, which is why a strong logo and lots of white space work (think Special K) – especially when shelves are filled with a visual cacophony of slogans, logos, and CTAs.
2. Shopability Consumers can easily be overwhelmed by the breadth of a category, so making your product easy to find and, most importantly, easy to understand, is critical. If you have different products for different applications, the layout should be consistent and facilitate comparison. For example, colored caps on similar colored bottles can bring branding and product differentiation into harmony.
3. Differentiation Since purchase decisions are often intuitive and emotional, packaging needs to embody or represent key aspects of your brand. If you're selling health food, your packaging needs to look healthier than the competition. If you're selling high end auto care products, you should make the rest of the shelf look downright proletarian.
4. Simplicity Consumers don’t spend a lot of time studying the items they throw into their shopping cart, and accordingly, the package needs to convey a clear message. Adding more claims, for example, won’t increase the time the shopper spends reading the package and can even dilute the message.
5. Consumability Smart packaging design can increase sales and help anchor your shopper marketing strategy when it makes a product easier to store (think fridge packs) or to readily consume (think "on-the-go” packaging).
6. Sustainability We are all increasingly concerned about the environment, and packaging design needs to address our collective need for greater sustainability. Fortunately, it’s increasingly easy to align a product’s marketing needs with those of the world around us. For example, eliminating secondary cardboard packaging can make a product more visible (and more unique).
I don’t buy 10 cartons of Yoplait because I can’t (won’t) eat 10 cartons of yogurt before they go bad. I’m lucky if I can eat my way to the bottom of one carton. So when my local Food Lion has a great deal on yogurt, I tend to pass. From a shopper marketing perspective however, such outlier behavior is generally atypical of how middle America reacts to a ten for $10.
The Times had a good article about multiples this morning, and here’s a quick birdsong gregory exegesis.
Using buying patterns detected from loyalty cards, receipts, and other research, grocery chains are searching for the multiples sweet spot. For example, Kroger currently has lemonade, socks and Kroger gummi bears candy on sale at 10 for $10. And, to the chagrin of right-brained finger counters everywhere, the old gimmick — buy one, get one free — has been expanded to include some pricing equations based on complex NASA-inpsired algorithms – or at least it appears so to my mathematical challenged mind.
Most grocery shoppers make a list before going to the store, according to two recent studies, In one, Acosta Sales and Marketing, which advises clients like Nestlé on pricing, found that 84 percent of shoppers make a list, 23 percent make fewer grocery trips than a year ago, and that, over all, shoppers are spending less per trip than a year ago.
Then, throw unemployment, rising gas prices and more expensive food into an already meager stew, and you get consumers who have become extremely value driven, budget minded, list minded, less impulsive, and very deal oriented. So in order to get someone to buy something that wasn’t on their list (or more of what was), grocers like our client Bloom need incentives to nudge shoppers outside their typical behavior. And it’s working.
Well advertised, relevant multiples push customers a little higher than their typical purchase rate. People tend to buy the amount, or buy in increments, that are advertised – ten boxes of tortellini for $10, for example. According to John T. Gourville, professor of marketing at Harvard Business School who studies pricing strategies, even though shoppers usually do not have to buy the suggested amount to get the discount, they do anyway. “It is all about the power of suggestion,” he said.
One of the more interesting bits of information coming out of the recent announcement of Apple's retail leader Ron Johnson going to JC Penney are insight into Apple's retail "secrets." While it is too simplistic to assume a short list of secrets are all you need to unlock your retail potential, there is much to learn from Apple's approach to retail.
As retailers and manufacturers know best, your front line is where the interaction with the shopper happens. It is where impressions are made, brands are built and products are sold. And yet, even with all the complex training and engagement strategies this is one of the biggest industry weaknesses. Given this, Apple took a KISS (keep it simple, stupid) approach to employee engagement - bringing their philosophy to life through an acronym. A: Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome. P: Probe politely to understand all the customer's needs. P: Present a solution for the customer to take home today. L: Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns. E: End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return."
What a great reminder that retail marketing requires as much simplicity as it does strategy.
It's been fun to watch companies of all shapes and sizes scramble to win the hearts and minds of shoppers through a bevy of evolving new media channels like Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and YouTube.
But far more companies are struggling to navigate the singular paradox inherent in social media marketing: it's not about your company – it's about the shopper.
So with that in mind, here are few broad guidelines to consider.
1. Focus on the needs of your audience or the community as a whole by showing that you care about your customers and the public. This can be accomplish in a variety of ways. Use community boards, comment on prospect and customer pages and/or blogs. Or, take a page from Mountain Dew's playbook and provide a forum where customers can show off their creativity.
2. Give shoppers multiple paths to purchase and connect. For example, let them use Twitter as another customer service option or a smart phone app to order groceries.
3. Provide useful content by contributing to an informational blog, creating useful infographics, or giving away a free e-book. The key is to tailor your content to meet your shoppers' needs. If you’re not sure what they want, ask them!
4. Ask your community how you can better satisfy their needs. Starbucks has a community board to collect suggestions where the community votes on them.
Hope this helps, and if you'd like to find out more about ways we've helped our clients connect with shoppers via social media, give us a buzz.
This video explains Facebook commerce (f-comm) in a pretty simple way. As shopper marketing expands beyond the walls of traditional retail to include digital shopper marketing, the fundamentals of understanding shopper behavior to create a positive shopper experience is still critical to retail success.
While brands and retailers are still trying to figure out how to use Facebook, this video proves there is a lot of opportunity for creating meaningful shopper engagement through social media.
Looking for a partner to help you determine if you should enter f-comm or help you differentiate your f-comm from your m-comm? Reach out to bg - we believe not all comms should be treated equally. In this digital age, we are an equal comm opportunity shop that loves helping clients navigate the new world of retail activation.
As retail marketing evolves, talking about how retailers are changing has been easy. I have already spent time contemplating the role of retailers and talking about how they continue to evolve.
What hasn't seen as much evolution is the role of manufacturers in all of this change. The creators of brands and products now find themselves competing with their retailers for shelf space and dollar share. Even worse, as retailers evolve their brands, manufactures now compete with retailers for shopper share of mind as well.
While this is not to say that manufacturers have been sitting back or standing still, retailers have led this round of evolution with manufacturers observing and learning. Why? For one, manufacturers have more to lose as they risk angering retailers by sidestepping retail outlet to sell direct to shoppers. And yet, as brands seek to stay relevant, it is essential to be where their customers are.
Which brings us to Facebook, the worldwide phenomenon that it is. Based on the scale of the audience and share of time Facebook continues to amass globally, manufactures have been dipping their toes in the water, testing out different f-comm (Facebook commerce) models. P&G has just announced the creation of new Facebook commerce pages for Tide, Gillette, Olay, Gain, Covergirl, Luvs and Febreeze, complete with product information and purchase capabilities.
P&G is viewing these pages as "live learning labs," further ways to garner shopper insights and e-comm experience. While it will be interesting to see how this evolves (will this be the tipping point for other manufacturers to dive into f-comm) what remains to be seen is how shoppers will respond. While it may be convenient to purchase products on facebook, mixing friends and brands has yet to prove a sustainable business for most manufacturers.
As reported recently in The Wall Street Journal, the once staid barcode is suddenly getting a bit of flair. It seems that granola, juice and olives packaging are sporting barcodes that integrate famous buildings, blades of wheat and bubbles into the ubiquitous black and white rectangle of lines and numbers. This evolution of package design to include the barcode is a way for consumer-goods companies to better connect with customers. And while the the trend is popular with smaller companies, even one of the world's largest food companies, Nestle SA, is trying out vanity barcodes on its smaller brands.
The Journal reports, "Barcodes are what allow retailers to track products through their stores and change pricing without needing to retag every item. Every retail barcode number in the U.S. and 107 other countries is assigned by GS1, a nonprofit standards organization created in the early 1970s when barcode technology entered the retail landscape. A company applies to GS1 for a barcode number specific to that company. It then creates (or hires a firm to create) the barcode to match that number."
Do you have a novel vision for your next barcode? Contact Shopper Marketing agency birdsong gregory and let's chat.
Are retail employees supposed to sell products or help shoppers?
A retailer's lifeblood is sales and therefore every retail employee needs to sell products. Your retail marketing should be oriented to sell-through. But there is a difference in the answer to this question that results in a short term (sales) or long term (service) focus.
Apple's retail stores are as oriented towards service as they are sales. In fact, a quote from their training manual reinforces this: "Your job is to understand all of your customer's needs - some of which they may not even realize they have."
Said another way, your job is to help shoppers. And through that help, based on having relevant products, the solution could be a sale. But the employee's focus is not a sale, and as a result, Apple's stores provide a richer shopping experience.
Think the shopper behavior of finding ways to save money is going away anytime soon? Not according to a 
Powered by Compendium