Shopper marketing is a tough place to be strategic. When we speak with shopper marketers (and trade marketers, for that matter) they complain of being ‘stuck in the middle’, jammed between two (sometimes opposing) strategies. On the one hand, brand teams are pushing their brand strategies, and on the other side, retailers have their strategies, and want shopper marketing activity which fits with that. Little wonder that a lot of shopper marketing activity ends up being tactical, and sometimes appears incoherent or schizophrenic. But it is possible to take a more strategic approach to shopper marketing. In this post. we’re going to explore the five key elements of a shopper marketing strategy.
Shopper marketing strategy starts with consumers
This might sound strange, but it is critical. Shoppers buy for consumers: so unless we understand consumers, we don’t fully understand shoppers either. Shopper marketing strategy begins by understanding where consumer growth is going to come from. Which consumers, and what changes to their behavior, will drive future growth for your brand or category? Shopper marketing strategy requires shopper marketers to understand a number of key things about the brands’ target consumers.
By using the consumer marketing strategy and the starting point for developing shopper marketing strategy, shopper marketers are able to focus their strategy on the same opportunities as their consumer marketing colleagues, creating high levels of alignment between consumer and shopper marketing activities.
Understanding shopper behavior
Strategy is about choosing what to focus on, and (by implication) what not to focus on. A shopper marketing strategy ensures the business focuses on the right shoppers with the right activity in the right environments. So the next step in developing a shopper marketing strategy is understanding shopper behavior. And not just any shoppers: we’re interested in our target shoppers. Consumer marketers have target consumers, and shopper marketers have target shoppers. Which shoppers are these? These are the shoppers that are key to unlocking the consumption growth identified in the brand teams’ strategies. Shopper marketers need to identify who these shoppers are, and build a clear understanding of their behavior and motivations.
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Prioritizing channels
The next part of a shopper marketing strategy is selecting and prioritizing environments. To drive growth, target shoppers will need to change their behavior. To achieve that, shopper marketers must influence them. But where? In which environments might we find the most target shoppers? In which channels will these shoppers be most open to our message? These are the channels (be they online or offline) that our shopper marketing strategy should be focused on.
Develop the key activity thrusts
If we’re clear on which shoppers we are targeting, and what we want them to do: if we’re clear on the environments we want to work in, the next question in our shopper marketing strategy journey is: what type of activity is most likely to impact these shoppers in each prioritized environment?
To be clear, we’re not looking for specific mechanics: at this stage we’re talking broad direction. And we’re not just talking about promotions either: any change to what is put in front of the shopper can be included. When we work with clients we focus on three key areas:
Availability: Which products should be available to buy in that environment or channel, and how should they be merchandised or laid out for shoppers? Where in store (or on a website) should they be positioned, how much space should there be, and how should this space be allocated?
Communication: What messages, what media, and where should that media be positioned (again, in a store or on a website)?
Offer: What long and short term prices should be applied, in absolute and relative terms? What offers, deals and promotions are OK, and what are not? How deep should deals be, and how frequently should they happen?
Investment frameworks and guidelines
The last part of any strategy should be investment, and the same is true for a shopper marketing strategy. The investment framework details how much are we prepared to spend, to implement the strategy, and achieve our goals. It will detail which customers are to be invested in, and upon what conditions can this investment be made. It will detail acceptable returns on investment.
The benefits of an integrated shopper marketing strategy
As I hope you can see, developing a shopper marketing strategy in this way has a number of benefits. Firstly, there is clarity on which shoppers are the focus of our activity, and what activity in which channels the business should focus on. This should help guide all shopper-facing activity, improving the effectiveness of this activity, and reducing spend on less effective (off-strategy) activity.
But more than this, it creates alignment points with both the consumer marketing team and the customer management team. The shopper marketing strategy started with the consumer and ends (by and large) with the customer. In our experience, this alignment is one of the key benefits of developing a shopper marketing strategy in this way.
Having a strategy doesn’t fix everything. Teams will still need to do tactical activity which is ‘off strategy’ because retailers demand it, or hitting budgets requires it! But at least with a shopper marketing strategy the business is aware when it is ‘off strategy’, and there is the opportunity to do more activity which is on strategy, than off!
It’s hard to do justice to a complex strategic process in one blog post. If you’d like to know more about how shopper marketing can help the entire marketing and sales function be more strategic, better aligned and deliver better results, check out Shopper Marketing Experts.
Image: Flickr
Interesting stuff! I’ll probably share this with some of my friends. Thanks again for posting it.