Shopper Marketing

 

Companies that have embraced shopper marketing as an integral part of the marketing mix are growing 50% faster than the categories in which they participate. The most advanced shopper marketers are growing at almost double the rate of their respective categories. 90% of manufacturers with more advanced shopper marketing capabilities report that the discipline helps them effectively meet retailer needs and boost top-line growth.

Most marketers agree that consumers don’t really buy products or brands. Consumers buy what those brands promise to do for them — how they make them look, feel and how they contribute to their own self-identity. Shopper marketing contributes to brand-building efforts among a targeted audience via the retail environment. In the old marketing scenario, budgeting decisions were based on sacrificing longer-term brand building for shorter-term volume gains. However, with shopper marketing, both objectives can be readily achieved simultaneously.

Much of our lives is spent living in a mosaic of messages from brands, products and other consumers. We filter out most of this noise, but in a moment of awakening, something breaks through the clutter and gets noticed. It is then that the shopper is ready to heed the call and embark upon her Journey.

The Shopper's Journey®

Phases of the Shopper's Journey®
Shopper Marketing: The Awakening The AWAKENING
A message breaks through the noise, snagging a consumer’s attention. Now the shopper is ready to heed the call and embark upon a journey.
Shopper Marketing: The Call THE CALL
The quest begins with the hero receiving a call to action,a new desire or a need that transforms her into a shopper—an individual with a purpose.
Shopper Marketing: The Crossing THE CROSSING
Our hero enters a world full of tasks, trials, temptations and decisions. The shopper pursues her quest, exploring, seeking, researching—perhaps even beyond her comfort level—ultimately entering the store.
Shopper Marketing: The Path THE PATH
The shopper now faces a succession of brand, retail and messaging distractions. She seeks cues to help navigate the path leading to her prize.
Shopper Marketing: The Reckoning THE RECKONING
Presented with various choices, the shopper becomes gradually more confident, and a decision is made. Her emotional pulse points are in synch as she reaches out.
Shopper Marketing: The Prize THE PRIZE
The ultimate moment when a shopper touches a brand. It's a sliver in time that no marketer can influence. This moment is solely about the shopper fulfilling her quest.
The Homecoming THE HOMECOMING
The shopper returns home with her prize, sometimes filled with excitement, or perhaps simply content with her mission. Now the brand must follow through on its promise, and the shopper's experience radiates outward to friends, family and coworkers.

The act of shopping contains all the elements of a great story — drama, emotion and action. However, in this story, the shopper is the heroSM, the retailer is the stage and the brand is the prize awaiting the shopper at Journey's end.

This great adventure, the shopper’s journeySM, contains seven distinct phases that capture the universal experience of shopping: The Awakening, The Call, The Crossing, The Path, The Reckoning, The Prize and The Homecoming.

The gestation period for purchases in different categories can take days or months with a majority of time spent in the initial phases of the journey. This is where less formal shopping takes place by way of researching professional and user reviews, and consulting friends and family. It also involves sleuthing shopping conglomeration websites in an attempt to “shop” on one’s own terms before entering a physical store.

The amount of time and level of consciousness afforded each stage varies significantly for different types of purchases. For many low-price and low-involvement categories, the journey is highly subconscious and nearly instantaneous, needing only a spark in the form of a reminder or usage suggestion to ignite a purchase.

Six Shopper Archetypes of Shopper Marketing

We have identified six broad “shopper archetypes” that relate to the shopper’s purchasing motivation and behavioral patterns:

  • Task Shoppers don’t necessarily enjoy the shopping trip, and view it mostly as a means to procure the items on their lists.
  • Bargain Shoppers approach shopping as a strategic game to be mastered, and attempt to maximize the return on a personal “value equation.”
  • Price Shoppers view shopping as a zero-sum endeavor that’s focused narrowly on cash outlays and choosing brands and retailers that meet the need-of-the-moment.
  • Discovery Shoppers may know their needs, but often rely on the store environment as a catalyst for purchases and are open to new products.
  • Comfort Shoppers are focused on mitigating any frustration or anxiety associated with shopping, and have a stronger aesthetic orientation. They are often willing to compromise on price and selection for a more enjoyable experience.
  • Experiential Shoppers are much more engaged while shopping and seek to become immersed in the culture of the category while shopping.

The primary driver for behavior during the shopping journey is the role that the category being shopped plays in a given consumer’s life. An individual’s general orientation to shopping, defined by which archetype he or she tends to reflect, is a strong secondary influencer.

The combination of these two drivers has significant influence on retailer and brand selection. Shoppers ultimately not only choose brands that align with their value systems but also choose to shop for those brands at retailers that optimize the experience associated with that brand. This can occur through sales associate knowledge and interaction, floor layout or merchandising practices.

One’s orientation to shopping also has a dynamic quality, depending on one’s enjoyment and involvement of the product being purchased — whether it’s a need or a want. Decisions are made and trips planned either to mitigate the experience of shopping for rote needs or enhance the experience of the product for emotionally driven wants.

Shopper Marketing at MARS

In today's interconnected transmedia marketplace, your message must be personalized to the individual as much as feasibly possible in order for it to be heard. Relevancy is no longer a luxury. It's a key component to any great marketing program.

At MARS, we not only understand the core questions, we have answers.

Working closely with forward-thinking brands and retailers, MARS creates nothing short of pure shopper delight, an invitation for shoppers to do more than just buy brands, but to share their lives with them.

MARS fuses information and instinct into a dynamic, magnetic marketing force that helps brands and retailers make profound connections with shoppers. We layer emotional intelligence upon a foundation of solid data to speak to who shoppers really are. As people. As heroes.

We begin each project by amassing and analyzing all research, segmenting data and then applying the latest trends and insights. But MARS doesn't stop there. With the Shopper as HeroSM model, MARS breathes life into who a shopper truly is. It's a new perspective. It's how MARS changes the playing field to create more opportunity.

So how do you relevantly engage that single individual, reaching to them through the noise, and have a conversation? Easy: Call MARS.