From 'Pinch Pennies' to 'Embrace the Challenge'

Schaumburg, Ill. — Shopper studies often look at trip types such as pantry stocking, fill-in, quick trips and special purpose. Sara Manke, director of insights and strategy at The Integer Group, said that while this taxonomy provides good information because it takes a “basket-back” approach that looks at what shoppers buy to attempt to understand what they were thinking as they moved through the store, it’s limited.So Integer undertook a mobile-enabled two-part study – with 1,000 quantitative participants and 50 who took part in a more in-depth qualitative evaluation – to track the people’s emotions, reasons for shopping, tools used and behaviors, which Integer dubbed the different shopper “modes.” These can differ even when baskets are the same, Manke said. “If you’re picking up eggs and milk, is it because you ran out, or because you’re baking a cake?” she said.Sara MankeThe study uncovered seven basic shopping modes, which Manke stressed are not mutually exclusive:Don’t Worry, Be Happy. Shoppers who are feeling cheerful, want to explore the store more, might want to bring someone along, and pick retailers who align with their goals.Relish Every Moment. Similar to ‘Don’t Worry,’ but they are more likely to shop alone, more self-indulgent, and more likely to have done research beforehand and be organized.Embrace the Challenge. Get organized, lay out coupons in advance and stick to your budget. “It’s about winning – doing what’s on my list and doing it efficiently,” Manke said.Pinch Pennies. All about saving money, “period, full stop, that’s it,” she said. “There are still some ways you can get her attention and get her to look up.” But these shoppers are focused, clear-cut and willing to sacrifice quality for price.Keep it Simple. This mode is all about minimizing cognition and effort, saving time and making things easy, willing to enter the store “but not at the expense of my sanity,” Manke said.Check. Out. This is ‘Keep it Simple’ on steroids, she said. “They’re so unengaged. They’re neutral on everything. Meh, I’m not even thinking hard enough to care. If it’s here and it falls into my cart, that’s OK.”Do Less and Do More. This mode is most typical of online shoppers, who want to maximize productivity and minimize effort. “This is spear fishing vs. net fishing,” Manke said. “They prioritize price, quality and time equally, and you can see the pleasure they get in hitting all three marks.”Integer’s research into the seven modes found that “Don’t Worry” and “Relish” shoppers undertake the most over-spending because “happy shoppers spend more,” Manke said. “You heard it here first.”“Don’t Worry” shoppers tend to realize they need other things, she added, while “Pinch Pennies” will sometimes buy something they find on sale, and “Check Out” shoppers sometimes see something they want, and “that kicks them out of zombie mode.”The seven modes taxonomy “plays well” with other types of shopper segmentation and should be shared with retailers, Manke said. “It can be used as a brainstorming tool,” she said. “What’s going to excite people? What’s going to cause them to purchase an impulse buy? We can mentally cycle through the modes when doing store checks to observe different things.”The modes can act as a filter for in-store marketing, Manke said. “Is this going to be effective for a person in this mode, or this mode?” she said. “We can use this as a diagnostic … to identify which are the predominant modes.”The study points to the balances marketers must strike, starting with the premise that basket building means prompting the shopper to buy more than she intended – which tends to happen when the shopper is happier.“What can we, as marketers, do to help her feel better?” Manke said. “How do we empower the ‘Embrace the Challenge’ shopper without overwhelming ‘Keep it Simple’? ‘Pinch Pennies’ provokes a tension for premium brands. What, then, can we do to make sure we’re developing the right kind of message for a value-seeking shopper?”

From 'Pinch Pennies' to 'Embrace the Challenge'

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