Shopper Marketing Side Effects

A new report on shopper marketing from Booz & Co. and the GMA that we highlight this month is a must-read for two primary reasons.The first is that it demonstrates the emphasis consumer packaged goods manufacturers are placing on shopper marketing. Leading CPGs are allocating more money to the practice even as they decrease or hold the line on spending for traditional line items such as mass media, consumer promotion and trade promotion.The second is that the report outlines the ways in which this fairly broad discipline is taking shape, as marketers identify a range of tactics that can be used to effectively influence purchase decisions everywhere and anywhere they're made. The report lists 49 "vehicles" in the shopper marketing arsenal, and begins the task of evaluating their ability to achieve specific marketing objectives. (For analysis of that kind in the digital realm, you also should refer back to "Clicking Through the Path to Purchase," a report the Institute released in September with Catapult Marketing and Google Inc.)But the report also raises several other issues -- some in little more than editorial asides -- that may be equally important, since they represent key aspects of shopper marketing that make the discipline far more than a strategy for increasing product sales.The report states that the rise in shopper marketing "has been fueled by the need to shift spending further down the purchase funnel, get beyond price and inject more equity into in-store marketing, and develop greater retail intimacy." This sentence alone has enough thoughts to drive a full-day conference.The phrase that immediately leaps out in my mind is "get beyond price," a point that Booz partner (and lead report author) Matthew Egol always uses in his industry presentations as well. Done effectively, shopper marketing should uncover communication strategies that can reduce the emphasis on price that dominates the packaged goods industry -- both in terms of manufacturer-retailer negotiations and shopper-facing promotions.There's also the idea that the practice can help "inject more equity into in-store marketing." It may surprise some marketing professionals to learn that off-shelf displays are viewed by CPGs as effective in driving brand awareness and consideration, as the report finds. Of course, it's no surprise to in-store veterans, who've been trying to get media-minded brand managers to accept that notion for decades.Shopper marketing can also help "develop greater retailer intimacy." Working collaboratively to develop shopper marketing programs can give retailers and manufacturers a better understanding of each other's business objectives and processes, which should in turn lead to more mutually beneficial activity. Speaking in October at the Shopper Marketing Expo, Hershey Co.'s Phil Stanley alluded to this point, suggesting that the company's recent pilot program with Walgreens for the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing was especially beneficial in fostering a "stronger partnership" between the two participants.Another phrase from the report that I like immensely is the description of research-based insights as the new "currency of retail collaboration." If true, that fact offers a lot more potential for mutually beneficial collaboration than anything that can be derived when the primary currency is, well, currency (as in trade dollars).Finally, the report recommends, "To build a well-oiled shopper marketing machine, companies need to break down silos and integrate their marketing efforts -- in fact, this integration and the improved results that come with it are one of shopper marketing's greatest dividends." This is another concept that Stanley touched upon last month, when he suggested that the planning process required for shopper marketing might be worthwhile if it did "nothing else" but require companies "to align internally."Now, the first time I wrote about the need for consumer product manufacturers to break down the internal silos that inhibit integrated marketing was back in 1998. And it wasn't exactly a new idea then.So it may be a bit idealistic to expect that a shift toward shopper marketing will produce all of the results discussed here -- soon or ever. But the potential is certainly there, and these goals are definitely worth pursuing.Peter BreenManaging Director, ContentIn-Store Marketing Institute

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