Expert Column: Adapting Shopper Marketing Practices to the Digital World

I work in shopper marketing and I’m proud to do so.  There, I’ve said it.  Why? Well in addition to being fast-changing, unpredictable and an increasing part of the marketing mix, the really exciting part is that it’s just getting going. Marketing stands atop digital quicksand -- especially shopper marketing -- and the ground is shifting and shifting fast.

Sadly too much of today’s shopper marketing activity is conceived for the analog, pre-smartphone world. It’s tactically driven and forcefully siloed into transactional channels and communications that value short-term volume growth.  That’s the way the marketing community and their agencies like it: neat and predictable. But, it’s not how consumers behave. Nearly all shopper marketers use some form of a "Path 2 Purchase" model.  Visually, some models look like funnels, some like cyclones or turbines but all fundamentally involve stages of awareness - most often advertising, content to fuel consideration, incentives to encourage action and prompts to drive post-purchase sharing.  Personally I feel these models fail to acknowledge the seismic shift in consumer and shopper behavior wrought by changes in society, economics and most of all technology. What if the total Path 2 Purchase was three clicks: search, buy, ship, or even two: read tweet and buy?

Mobile Users on the Rise

The digitally connected shopper is already here (more than two-thirds of Americans had a smartphone last year, with similar percentages for Canada) and digital influence will only grow as Millennials become full-fledged shoppers and Gen Z, those born after 2004 and don’t know a world without Facebook or Twitter, begin to enter the consumer marketplace.

Anyone who doubts the importance of our digital devices needs to do some quick math. There are already 7 billion mobile devices in use globally (more than one for every person on planet earth) and research from The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that this number will increase three-fold over the next 10 years. Also, according to a Morgan Stanley study, online and online-influenced packaged goods purchases are projected to grow from 36 percent of today’s $5.0Trn market to almost 85 percent of a $6.2Trn market by 2019.  And in case you’re still on the fence, here’s further evidence of the profound changes in shopper behaviour for your consideration:

• 31 percent of CPG decisions are influenced by mobile activity
• 79 percent already use their phone for shopping related activities
• 74 percent of shoppers made a purchase in-store as a result of mobile phone activity

So we’ve arrived in the digital age. Well we all know that. But what does it all mean?  What do shopper marketers need to change?

Firstly, let’s move on from marketing to clusters based on age or lifestage to one rooted in behavior. We still have a tendency to aggregate based on audience -- Millennials, GenX, Boomers, etc. (I’ve just done it) -- but if we except that virtually everyone is digitally connected, then this aggregation may no longer be the most appropriate. Although we’re all connected, to paraphrase, not all mobile users connect equally. Increasingly it’s the manner of their connection that matters most: how they find out about products; how they connect to places to browse, to share and to shop; their preferance for physical versus online stores; and their liklihood to consume advertising versus just content.

Secondly, in a world that’s shifted from the value of impressions to one of engagement, it's vital that we embrace the shift of marketing from one of presence.  With the ability for marketers to have real-time context, pinpoint accuracy of the recipient's location and knowledge of past and current behavior, comes a responsibility to provide solutions that are timely and relevant.  Part of our responsibility is discipline. Yes, there really will be occasions where our product or service is not the answer to our shoppers' needs at that specific moment and place. I contend that if we stay true to this mantra then they will actually value us more.

Thirdly, we’ve arrived at a point of convergence between what is technically possible and what that means for the consumer experience.  Real-time, one-to-one marketing is possible but I challenge you to rethink it as a personal one-on-one dialogue. This pivot requires acknowledgement that this is two-way conversation and not merely the means to smarter, faster targeting of messages and offers. It’s not a conversation unless both parties get to contribute.

Dialogue and conversation imply some notion of relationship. In my humble opinion, “Relationship” is a heavily over-used word in marketing. Do I really have a relationship with my toothbrush?  But trust is something different altogether, and the foundation of all successful brands. By demonstrating intuitive understanding of a shopper's needs, brands have the opportunity to demonstrate “what have you done for me lately?” and by so doing can gain greater trust.  In essence I value what I trust and I trust what I value. 

To summarize, the core tenets for successful digital shopper marketing in this new paradigm are to build audience clusters based on actual behaviour, utilize data knowledge to gain shoppers' permission for meaningful engagement, increase affinity through equitable dialogue and gain greater importance within the shopper's life by earning their trust.