DDi - June 2011 - (Page 38)

38 | Shopper Marketing & Consumer Insights Focus on the shopper By Ken Barnett n 1908, Henry Ford produced and sold the very first Model T. Back then, there was only one product and one kind of customer—the kind who liked a black automobile. The story of Ford offering any selection of color “so long as it was black” is great lore. This one-size-fits-all mantra worked in a product-centric world, but would not work in today’s shoppercentric world. Shoppers today expect more than mere variety, they expect personalization. Consider car shopping today. Consumers can design their own car online, place the order themselves and pick it up ready-made. And, according to Mini Cooper, there are more than 10 million possible combinations of customized features for car buyers. How far we have come. In Henry Ford’s day, marketers of consumer goods focused on the product. Today, savvy marketers focus on the buyer. The shopper is a focusing mechanism that drives marketing efforts, across contexts, throughout the path to purchase. Personalizing communications is the key to success. The Person Remember, the shopper is a person. Gender, generational cohort, language, geography, ethnicity, life-stage and psychographics all indicate how to talk to this person. For example, the very successful Elderhostel, founded in 1975, began as a chain of inexpensive inns for Greatest Generation retirees to explore Europe. As the baby boomers began to retire, Elderhostel noticed its number of visitors was slipping. The reason? The name. Boomers don’t like to think of themselves as “elder”—hence the name change to Road Scholar in 2010. Tailoring language to the shopper is critical. The Purpose Next, the shopper always buys with a purpose in mind. Is this item for a weeknight family meal, or a holiday occasion? Is this just a juicebox, or nutrition for my children? Understanding the shopper’s purpose is crucial to delivering the right message. The shopper’s purpose in buying snack foods is a great case in point. Snack foods are bought all year long. However, snacking takes on a particular role during big sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and March Madness. Diamond Foods, which owns Emerald Nuts and Kettle Brand chips, spoke directly to Super Bowl snack buyers, not simply for their immediate purpose—the Super Bowl occasion—but to their larger purpose: to participate in the Super Bowl as a historical event. Toward this end, Diamond Foods ran the “Snack Bowl 2011” promotion. By buying Diamond snack foods, fans had a chance to have a plaque with their name on it in the Photo: Courtesy of Ford Motor Co. I Football Hall of Fame Snack Bar, and to participate in the induction. The response was overwhelming. The marketers understood the shopper’s purpose. The Place Finally, the message needs to be geared to the place and trip mission. Is this a quick trip to 7-Eleven for diapers? Or is this the shopper’s refrigerator away-from-home? The same place means different things to different shoppers, but the same shopper will shop differently depending on the channel or retailer. Dr. Scholl’s is a great example of marketers using place. In grocery, shoppers will buy shoe inserts because it is convenient for them to do so. However, that same shopper will take more time to explore product benefits in a drugstore, especially if waiting on a prescription. Dr. Scholl’s recognized this opportunity—and Dr. Scholl’s Custom-Fit kiosk was born. Shoppers step onto the platform, and the machine uses infrared technology to determine the correct kind of insoles for the shopper. Talk about customization—and great use of place. Using the shopper as a focusing mechanism is not only a strategic tool, it is an effective one. According to Rick Abens, president of Foresight ROI, “The average ROI for shopper events we have measured is 36 percent higher than comparable trade events without shopper marketing. These results are based on our benchmark database with over 500 shopper-marketing events. And it gets better over time. We typically see a 10-plus percent ROI improvement year on year with a continuous process of measurement and assessment. That translates to $10 million increased profit based on a $100 million shopper marketing budget.” Great results come when we know whom we are talking to, where we are talking to her and what she is trying to do. To be effective in today’s world, focus on the shopper, not just the product. —Ken Barnett is the CEO of Southfield, Mich.-based shopper marketing agency MARS. For more information, visit www.marsusa.com. | June 2011 www.ddionline.com http://www.marsusa.com http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - June 2011

DDi - June 2011
Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Visual Perspectives
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
ASICS Amsterdam
Behind the Scenes: Macy’s Flower Show
Shopping Marketing & Consumer Insights Section
Focus on the Shopper
Shopper Marketing Roundtable
POP Products
Right Light
In-Store Technology
Product Spotlight
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Shopping with Paco

DDi - June 2011