There are so many different things we can do (in theory) to influence shopper behavior. And the rise of omnichannel shopping just adds to the choices. So how do we decide on which tools to use? Many companies end up doing the same activities as last year. Or maybe we do what the retailer nags us to do. Neither of these options is necessarily the best solution. But with so many options, how to decide what activity is ‘best’? More importantly, how to do this consistently? A engage, we have a process we use, which follows our Shopper Activation Wheel™. In this article I’d like to share three key steps from that process that are critical to identifying what is the best activity (or combination of activities) to use.
Our approach to creating better shopper activation – The engage Shopper Activation Wheel™
The engage Shopper Activation Wheel™ helps organizations plan exactly what activity, or combination or activities, are most effective. It’s an end to end approach that guides the team through the entire process (and, as the name suggests) cycles back the outcomes and learnings from activity into future activities. In this way we continually improve the outcomes we get from all shopper activities.
For better shopper activation – integrate your planning process with consumer marketing goals
The engage Shopper Activation Wheel™ is a powerful integration tool too: it connects consumer marketing objectives and strategies right through to every activity we implement with our retail partners.
It’s omnichannel too. Unlike many processes of this nature, the engage Shopper Activation Wheel™ is shopper-centric: so it allows us to consider all of the channels and retailers that comprise a shopper’s purchase journey and understand which channels and which touchpoints are most important.
Three key steps to better shopper activation
What makes it so powerful? There are lots of things, but in our experience from applying this with clients and training clients in how to use it: there are three really powerful elements that are often missing from other shopper activation processes.
Identifying the target shopper – Setting Shopper behavioral objectives – Identifying and overcoming shopper barriers
Select better shopper activity by identifying the target shopper
I mentioned before that one of the things that make the engage Shopper Activation Wheel™ unique is that it is shopper-centric. So it should come as no surprise that one of the key steps in the process is to identify the target shopper. This step adds value in many ways, but it is critical to helping us select the best activity.
Changing shopping behavior is great: but not all shoppers are of equal value to us. Let’s say we have a marketing strategy to encourage consumers to use our beverage product during meal times. If that is our goal, then targeting shoppers buying for mealtimes would make sense. An activity which attracted shoppers who were buying for on-the-go occasions might be commercially valuable (we might drive sales) but it wouldn’t necessarily support our strategy.
So by defining the target shopper clearly, we are far more specific about who we are targeting, and that will help us make the decision about which activity or activities to use.
Select the right shopper activation by setting better objectives
At the heart of identifying ‘which activity is best’ lies the concept of objectives. Our objectives define what we mean by ‘best’. The ‘best’ plan is the one that is most likely to achieve our objectives. Given this, it often surprises me how little time and effort is put into creating objectives for shopper activities. Better objectives more clearly define what we want to achieve. The more clear this is, the more discerning we can be about which activity to choose and how to implement it to maximum impact.
Most companies we work with set broad sales objectives for their activity. They might target to grow sales by 10%. Fair enough. That’s not a bad objective, but it doesn’t really help us very much in deciding which activities to choose. After all, there are lots of activities which could increase sales. A discount. A promotion. A secondary display. Signage. And for each of these, there are many permutations. Price discounts. Buy one get one. Floor display. Secondary display. Signage on the main shelf. Signage at the entrance. Online. Offline. Which one should I choose, if they all might do the job?
Herein lies the problem. If all of these activities can hit the objective of increasing sales: then I’ll need another criteria to help me make a decision. I’ll do what is easy. Either things that I’ve done before, or things that the retailer likes. If value is apparently equal, then ‘easy’ always wins.
But are these activities all of equal value? If the only objective is growing sales, then yes. And this is why our stores are full of discounts and displays. Because we set bad objectives. Or rather, we don’t set better objectives.
In previous articles I’ve talked about the power of considering three objectives, covering our commercial performance, the retailer performance, and shopper behavior. Having these three objectives in place will help us filter all of the possible activation options and permutations to come up with the best possible activity: one that delivers the commercial performance we want, one that delivers for our retail customers, and one that adds strategic value by changing shopper behaviour.
So we have the first two ‘filters’ as I like to call them. By being clear firstly about who is the target shopper, and what our objectives are (including a shopper behavioral objective) we can now filter much more effectively and choose the best activity.
The best question to ask to help create better shopper activation – ask ‘why not’?
The third really useful filter we can use to help select the right activity relies onanswering a simple question.
Why not?
Selecting the best shopper activation – understanding shopper barriers
Why is it that this target shopper doesn’t do what we want them to do? We have a great brand. A great product. Its perfect for them. So why aren’t they buying? This third filter, is Shopper Barriers. And by understanding the shopper barrier – the why not – we are much better positioned to choose the right activity.
How does that work? Think about it this way. If the main reason the shopper doesn’t buy your brand is that they don’t know if it works, will a ten percent price discount work? Maybe not. But a performance guarantee might. Or communication about how other shoppers are totally satisfied.
If a shopper doesn’t buy your brand because they don’t usually buy that category, then a price discount on the home shelf is unlikely to work, as the shopper probably won’t visit the category.
The more we know about shopper barriers, the more we can tune our activity to overcome those barriers and convert the shopper into a buyer.
Three powerful filters to help select the best shopper activation or intervention
With these three questions answered, we now have a brilliant set of filters to use as we select the more appropriate activity. We need activity that will attract out target shoppers. We want our activity to deliver against all our objectives, including a specific change in shopper behavior. And we need to select activities that are going to overcome the specific barrier that this specific shopper has, that stops them doing whatever it is we want them to do.
Take your shopper activities to the next level with three questions:
Who is the target shopper? – What behavioral change are we targeting? – What are the key shopper barriers?
Next time you or your team are creating activity ask yourself about each of those three things. I guarantee you that you will start making different decisions about the shopper activity you invest your time and money in.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to go into each of these in more detail with a series of articles expanding on the concept of target shoppers, about setting behavioral objectives, and about the various shopper barriers that exists and what you can do to overcome them. If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe now so that you don’t miss out.
Take your shopper activities to the next level with the engage Shopper Activation Wheel™
And if you’d like your team to be fully immersed in our Shopper Activation Wheel™, check out our training programs or contact me now for a solution designed to meet your specific needs and situation. We tailor all our programs to ensure you get best value out of everything we do together. Get in touch now.