engage’s Toby Desforges recently wrote a popular article on his blog about whether shopper marketing means the end of category management. The post, slightly controversial as it was, has generated widespread comments on our social profiles.
In this blog post, Toby refers to a conversation he had with Dr. Brian Harris while researching for this upcoming book The Shopper Marketing Revolution. The conversation triggered some interesting thoughts and output –
- While Brian sees shopper marketing as the latest evolutionary step of retail management, Toby thinks that shopper marketing creates a revolution in consumer goods marketing in general. Brands can no longer focus on mass communication and mass distribution in order to succeed – rather, marketing efforts should drive the creation of different consumption behaviors
- Whilst category management remains important, marketers must not confuse it with category management, as they are two totally different things.
- Whilst category management applies only to well organized retailers, shopper marketing applies to anywhere shoppers shop – retailers, hypermarkets, convenience stores, or online, for example.
- Category management is a choice, not an imperative, for most manufacturers – shopper marketing helps brands make this choice more effectively. Shopper marketing enables manufacturers to understand consumers, shoppers, and determine what shopper behaviors need to be influenced. Only then can manufacturers make a wiser choice of what needs to be done in which retail environment in order to bring about the desired change in shopper behavior.
To see Toby’s original article, click here.