Revisiting 'Shopper Marketing' as We Choose Hall of Famers

Just last week, after we Path to Purchase Institute editors had a chance to catch our breaths following another successful event — Retail Media Summit 2025 — we had the first of a few meetings we need annually to select our Hall of Fame class.

Each year since 1994 (except 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic), P2PI editors have chosen three individuals to induct into our Hall of Fame. Through the years, these individuals have represented the very best of the commerce marketing industry, the path to purchase and in-store marketing.

We like to say that these professionals don't just follow the path to purchase; rather they help build it.

There are not many specific qualifications someone needs to be considered or chosen, other than they must currently work for a retailer or consumer goods company.

Generally, inductees either have a history or currently work in areas that we focus on, such as in-store marketing, shopper marketing and now even retail media. We consider their body of work, their variety of experiences. Also, it helps if a candidate gets themselves out there at industry events, addressing the issues they and the industry face in a public manner.

While we’ve honored some very high-level executives with long careers, we’ve also honored some impactful individuals who were far from the end of their careers, instead in the thick of it, doing the hands-on work day to day.

To get inspiration and spur discussion at our meeting last week, I not only reviewed our list of past inductees, but I went back and read through some of the feature stories we’ve written about the inductees. (They are in the archives on P2PI.com.)

One thing that caught my attention was in our profile of 2014 inductee Andy Murray (then of Walmart) — his definition of “shopper marketing.” I think for many, it’s always been a challenge to define exactly what the discipline is and how it differs from other marketing.

To quote Murray: “It is really hard to define because the definition is a total circle, and I think the industry would be well-served to get a better definition. There is a core piece of it that everybody pretty much agrees on, and when you go to that outer circle everybody comes at it differently based on their own competencies.

“What most people will agree with is that it is insight-driven; that you are going to be considering the retailer, the brand and the customer; that the work is about overcoming purchase barriers; that a sense of creativity, ideas and emotion is part of it; and that it is not just a tactical exercise.

“True shopper marketing has a good sense of an idea and a creative piece hopefully infused by good insights. Those are really core elements. Otherwise, it is just promotions. And I do think that shopper marketing is looking at the whole path to purchase. It is that point of being prompted through those different behavior stages to repeat purchase and loyalty.

“When you start looking at shopper marketing as a list of tactics, that’s where people get a little bit lost. Is it direct mail, packaging, shopper-based design, category management? My answer is ‘Yes’ to all of that, if we are talking about insight-based work with ideas that change behaviors.”

Shopper marketing has come a long way since its early days around the turn of the century, and without a doubt it’s a different world now than it was in 2014. But Murray’s words still ring true, wouldn’t you agree?

If you aren’t up on our history at P2PI, know that the development and advancement of shopper marketing has been a centerpiece of our focus through the years. It still is today, even though the term isn’t used quite as much now.

And while working in shopper marketing is not a specific qualification, it does help if a Hall of Fame candidate has shown to have excelled in the discipline during his/her career.

Anyway, wish us luck in selecting our 2025 Hall of Famers. Expect us to announce this year’s class sometime this summer.