Shopper Marketing - recipe for retail success
The cliché "Marketing is advertising!" still persists. But even if this statement is not entirely wrong (advertising is a component of marketing), it is definitely too short-sighted. Especially in 2024, when marketing encompasses more areas than ever before and can be divided into more and more niche areas. One of these is shopper marketing. This focuses on the needs of customers in the best possible way and does not get involved in price wars. But does this approach have what it takes to be used on a broad scale?
Shopper marketing - a proven success factor
Shopper marketing is not a new trend or a passing fad. It is an established discipline that has stood the test of time. The marketing world may regularly come up with new trends and revolutionary methods, but shopper marketing has proven to be a consistent and effective approach. At a time when products are becoming increasingly similar and customers increasingly demanding, it is crucial to find innovative ways to successfully market goods or services. Shopper marketing offers exactly these solutions and has established itself as a sustainable method that is here to stay.
Shopper marketing meets the zeitgeist
Creativity and innovation are not just technical processes, but are also strongly influenced by psychological factors - because society and the way people think is changing, and so is consumer behavior. Manufacturers and retailers need to adapt to this. So instead of (as in the past) trying to break records in the advertising triathlon (good, cool, cheap), the focus should be on people's needs. And they increasingly want purpose, meaning, a sense of belonging and attach importance to issues such as sustainability and social responsibility. Individuality is becoming increasingly important, and individual preferences are becoming more and more decisive for purchases. It's no longer just about the price, but the entire purchasing process. Shopper marketing fits in perfectly with this need. Instead of focusing on price, it's about creating a particularly pleasant shopping experience for consumers.
Not just classic retail marketing
This may be reminiscent of the well-known trade marketing. But even if shopper marketing and trade marketing have points of contact, they are very different. The main difference between these two marketing concepts lies in their focus. Trade marketing is aimed at retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. The aim is to increase demand within a chain. In contrast, shopper marketing is aimed at shoppers. The idea is to increase sales by strengthening customer relationships - across all channels.
Online and offline - multi-channel experience
Because omnichannel services have long been the norm. People obtain information via different channels. And here, too, shopper marketing is in tune with the zeitgeist. Because shoppers expect an end-to-end experience. And companies achieve this not least thanks to the approach of focusing on customer needs. The approach works the same for both the analog and the digital world. In an increasingly crowded eCommerce landscape, shopper marketing helps companies raise their profile, increase the number of visitors to their online store and convert first-time visitors into long-term customers. And thanks to the ability to obtain relevant data, the task is becoming increasingly easier.
How can this be implemented in practice?
After all, shopper marketing is not effective because of all the valuable data that companies can obtain. In the digital world, this is easy to do using user accounts, apps or landing pages. In the analogue world, companies can conduct research, observation and focus groups to gather insights. You can conduct surveys and talk to customers to find out what motivates them. Customer loyalty programmes are also an excellent way to do this. Analysing which products customers buy most often (and in what combination) and understanding why this is the case creates competitive advantages for the future. All this data provides a clearer picture of the target group's preferences and motivations when making a purchase, enabling companies to improve the purchasing experience and thus increase their own sales.
Promotion-Tools builds innovative AI solutions for shoppers
Our agency is developing an AI model to plan activations in the shopper marketing sector more effectively. This model focuses on explainable algorithms that not only predict the success of promotions, but also actively improve them through prescriptive analytics. The development process involves several steps - data collection, data cleansing, feature engineering, data splitting, model training and model evaluation. Relevant data is collected and cleansed to ensure accuracy. Important features are then extracted and the model is trained and tested. By using this innovative AI solution, resources can be used more efficiently and the effectiveness of marketing strategies can be significantly increased.
Best practices in shopper marketing
When used correctly, the method leads to impressive results, such as a significant increase in sales. In practice, it looks something like this -
Through targeted tastings for Delica CoffeeB, we were able to achieve an increase in sales of up to 300%. The success factors were the development of a well thought-out shopper marketing concept and the coordination of activations at the point of sale (POS).
In the process, 100 highly trained field agents were deployed at over 150 POS. A comprehensive communication toolkit supported the shopper journey and emphasized the brand messages of sustainability, enjoyment, and convenience. These best practices show how important targeted promotions and a strong focus on shoppers' needs are necessary in order to significantly increase sales.
Examples like this one are not the only thing that illustrate the effectiveness of the marketing method known as shopper marketing. It means that there are more opportunities to get noticed, to engage with shoppers and to convert them into returning customers. If you want to learn more about shopper marketing or are looking for specific ways to implement the method in your business, get in touch with us.
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