Here's the MARS take on the definition of shopper marketing:

It's become so much more complex, and the way we think about it today really blurs the formerly clear lines between marketing and sales. It challenges the boundaries of in-store marketing, co-marketing, customer marketing and even traditional consumer marketing. We acknowledge that control has shifted to the consumer; we define it through her lens.

We think of shopper marketing as a subset of consumer marketing, focused on the target consumer when activated as a shopper. Importantly, that transition can happen anywhere, and it launches both a mindset shift and a series of behaviors that we strive to understand and react to as a solution supplier. If we work to uncover what shoppers do and why, we then have the basis of real insights that drive the creation of more relevant solutions to help grow our clients' businesses in subtle or even profound ways across all the shopper connection points, not just in the store itself.

Thus we define shopper marketing as the discipline of interpreting authentic shopper motivation and insights within the context of both specific retailer and brand business objectives, to bring forth actionable strategies, ideas and solutions that enhance both the shopper's experience and the business outcome for brand and retailer.

- Ken Barnett, MARS Chief Executive Officer