Dissecting the Downturn Generation

A new report was released by Information Resources Inc., titled “Dissecting the Downturn Generation,” in which they discuss the changing attitude of individuals growing up in the recession and how the recession will influence their purchases even when the economy picks up. According to the report, there are three types of shoppers emerging from the recession.

Optimists - Consumers who believe "things will get better during the next 12 months," are spending wisely, cutting back selectively and making sacrifices as a last resort.

Maintainers - Consumers who agree that, "the economy won't get worse, but it won't get better either," and are also spending wisely, but are more aggressive about making cutbacks.

Pessimists - Consumers who identify with the direst predictions, believing, "if you think times are hard now, next year will be worse," and are cutting back wherever possible and hunting tirelessly to find deals.

For the full report, please click here.

What will this mean for shopper marketing? How will you change or sustain your marketing to cater to these new shoppers?

Land O Lakes Puts Shopper Marketing Focus on Cheese

According to PROMO, Land O Lakes crunched some of its shopper marketing data to come up with its first in-store program specifically designed to boost sales of its premium deli cheeses. PROMO staff writer, Patricia Odell reports that the company and its agency, MarketingLab, took a close look at the profile of its target and the typical deli shopper: a stay-at-home mom in her 40s with a high household income and children still living in the home. The analysis also found that this mom is saving money by cooking and eating at home rather than dinning out, but would like to prepare something special. Land O Lakes is capitalizing on the shopper who is looking to cook more, if not better at home--even if the recession's crunch has yet to hit their family. Land O Lakes decision to roll out a new product amid the financial crisis may be a risky gamble. What do you think?

Benefits of manufacturers working with retailers

Earlier this month, we posted about what the benefits were if manufacturers and retailers worked together. I wanted to know more about this topic, so I turned to LinkedIn to ask the question. Vivek V. Krishnan responded with a great answer I'd like to share with you:


It is easy to see the benefits for the retailer and the manufacturers have in coming together, sharing information, possibly resources and streamlining the entire supply chain to get the product right up to the shopper. ( By the term shopper I think you mean the buyer of the product. Typically, a shopper is not necessarily one who buys the product but one who simply spends some time interacting with a product or the retail environment). One would think that the most common benefit to the streamlining of the supply chain to the buyer of the product is reduced prices. A good lean supply chain would reduce various costs for the retailer and the manufacturer the benefits of which one would hope would pass on to the end buyer. Simple enough!!

I strongly believe however that there are other benefits to the union of the two parties for the end buyer.

Before exploring the benefits, one would have to outline certain assumptions on the coming together of the two said parts of the value chain. The union has been carefully put together in accordance to the best practices prevalent in the industry today and that the information and resource sharing is whole. The retailer is willing to share the benefits gained from the partnership with the manufacturer with the end buyer.

The benefits to the end buyer then are as follows:

1) The price of the products would come down as a result of lowered inventory holdings, shorter supply chains, increased margins, better forecasting capabilities etc. This as I had said earlier would be the most obvious outcome of such a partnership.

2) The diffusion of new products would be quicker. Today, the buyers find out about the launch of a product much before the actual arrival of the product on retail shelves, which results in many days of frustrated waiting and decreased interest levels. Such a collaboration will greatly shorten the time to market for new products and the buyers will benefit. Please note that while this may be novel during the first few times, there is a risk that this short time to market will soon become a hygiene factor and buyers will begin to expect it.

3) As Reno before me said, information and training about the new products can be given to the end users and buyers more effectively through the retail channel partners.

4) The retail store can act as a single point of contact for the buyers for all things relating to the product manufacturers, such as after sales services, replacement of faulty products, sourcing of product related accessories, promotions, upgradation, servicing of warranties and guarantees etc.

These are few of the benefits that I think would affect the buyers greatly with a very effective collaboration between the retailers and manufacturers.

Shopper Insights in Action 2009 Chair Heads Up Coca-Cola Sponsored Commission on Shopper Marketing

According to Promomagazine.com, Coca-Cola North America is sponsoring the creation of a commission dedicated to shopper marketing. Diane Wallace, Vice President, Shopper Marketing, said, “Our strategy is to provide leadership to our retail customers in the area of shopper insight-driven shopper merchandising and marketing solutions in store,” Diane Wallace, vice president of shopper marketing, Coca-Cola North America, said. “Our objective is to drive more beverage sell through to shoppers, and to do this by connecting with shoppers in store through relevant shopper insight-driven ideas and solutions that include our brands.”

Diane Wallace is speaking at our upcoming Shopper Insights in Action 2009 conference this July in Chicago. For more information about the conference and about Diane, please visit our Shopper Insights in Action 2009 event page.

Online consumers spending less time shopping

According to Digital Media Traffic, UK users are shifting their time online from shopping to new media in the forms of Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. According to the article, consumers in the UK spend 8.6% of their time on line shopping while spending 9.8% of their time using social media. The article suggests that retailers should shift some of their marketing to new media efforts. What do you think about this?

Shopper do, Shopper don't

BrandWeek has a new article up about the do's and don'ts of shopper marketing.

Do talk to the shoppers, engage the shareholders, push the boundaries, and measure and evaluate.

Don't focus exclusively on the shelf, apply traditional creative rules, think retail is the same as traditional media, think all shoppers are alike, limit your thinking to your brand or even category.

Take an in-depth look at the items above here.

Shopper Insights in Action Speaker Profile: Chris Borek, Target

Chris is a Senior Manager at Target in charge of external sales and partnerships for the retailer’s multi-channel digital marketing division. His current role focuses on in-store digital marketing, online, as well as emerging technologies. Chris works with agencies, brands and partners to determine how to most effectively message to Target’s affluent Guest. During Chris’ 10 years at Target he has held roles in Finance, Merchandising, Technology and has also managed a SuperTarget store. Prior to coming to Target, Chris spent time at West Publishing Company in a variety of Finance and Accounting roles.

Chris received his MBA from the University of Minnesota focusing on Finance and IT and also has his CPA.

Chris is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


For more information about the speakers at Shopper Insights in Action 2009, please visit our speaker page.

About Shopper Insights in Action:

The event is the industry’s #1 event focused on driving change at retail by truly understanding shopper behavior. This is where the brightest in the retail and brand world converge to stimulate game-changing ideas through actionable case studies and uncensored peer-to-peer conversations. It tackles today’s mission-critical topics covered by those leading the charge. Topics include shopper marketing. green at retail, shopper psychology, collaboration techniques, virtual shopping, shopping trends, engagement, shopper loyalty, retail activation, shopper marketing and more. 2009 is all about CHANGE. Take control of your brand, your category and your business.

Luxury Brands Focus on Outlet Shops

This post on RetailWire highlights how several luxury brands are beginning to shift their focus from their retail mall locations to outlet shops which include overstocks, canceled orders, and many of the same goods found at retail mall locations but of lesser quality.

Outlet malls are seeing much more traffic now and companies like Kate Spade, Lucky Brand Jeans, Juicy Couture and True Religion are among some of the high end brands that are moving into the outlet space to get a piece of the action. Will these companies see the tremendous success that Coach has seen in their outlets?

Piggly Wiggly conforming to their customers needs

Don't have time to shop at the grocery store? No problem if you live in South Carolina and there's a Piggly Wiggly near by. Seeing that the grocery shopping trend was headed online, they created a program called Click N' Shop. Click N' Shop is a way for customers to order what they want online from home, and pick it up at the grocery store at a later time.

Source: SCNow.Com

What Makes Shoppers Buy?

According to Brandweek.com, Point of Purchase Advertising International, a global retail marketing association, launched a study last week to gauge the effectiveness of shopper marketing techniques in major retail outlets.

The study, dubbed Marketing at Retail Initiative (MARI), will leverage retail research across the supermarket, drug and convenience store and mass merchandise channels. The goal is to determine which shopper marketing displays work best, and, more importantly, how and why these techniques influence consumers to buy.

Major companies and retailers participating in the research include 7-Eleven, Ahold, Frito-Lay North America, Pepsi-Cola North American Beverages and Walgreens. U.K.-based retail research firm SheridanGlobal Group is conducting the study.

What do you hope will be the major findings of the MARI study? Will the results directly impact your decisions moving forward? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

How to Increase Consumer Spending in Troubling Times

This article in the NY Times highlights that as shoppers are becoming more and more reluctant to open their wallets, retailers are starting to adjust their advertising and marketing to play up the aspects of value of what they sell.

Companies like Whole Foods, and J.C. Penny have even changed their campaign approaches to emphasize more saving and better pricing on their products. For example, Home Depot recently changed their slogan from “You can do it. We can help” to “More saving. More doing.” As these campaigns roll out over the next couple of months it will be interesting to see the effect it will have on consumer spending.

Shoppers to access in-store coupons on their iPhone and iPod Touch

According to Tulsa Today, shoppers will now have the ability to look up and use coupons while they shop. No more paper clutter and scissors--both economically and environmentally friendly.

Approved by Apple, Coupon Sherpa (http://www.couponsherpa.com/) is available at the iPhone App Store. Finish Line, Zales Jewelers, Coldwater Creek, Gordon’s Jewelers, CompUSA, Jackson-Hewitt and Tiger Direct are among the over 100 retailers that shoppers can find coupons for on the application. Shoppers can find coupons for men’s and women’s clothing, electronics, restaurants, pet supplies, sporting goods, and local services.

For the full article from Tulsa Today, please click here.

Impulse Shopping is Alive and Well

This post on RetailWire highlights even though consumers are making shopping lists and trying to stick closely to it more than ever now, research shows that about 90% of those shoppers who create lists stray away from it and making impulse purchases once they get to the store.

The research, conducted by Miller Zell, also shows that the Generation Y is most likely to make impulse purchases based on advertising messages and end-caps. Curt Johnson, SVP for Miller Zell, mentions, "People talk so much about this generation researching everything online before they buy it, but this study showed that they actually index much higher than other age groups in terms of finding all advertising -- both in-store and outside the store -- as 'very effective'. Gen Y is, in fact, a lot more malleable inside the store than many marketers think."

What are your thoughts?

Manufacturers and retailers want to work together

According to The Gourmet Retailer, both manufacturers and retailers both want to commit to capturing today's retail shopper. However, a new study by Miller Zell looks at the relationship between the two members of the party and finds that they understand their business challenges and the shoppers, however fails to see the same in the opposite party.

One hundred percent of the participants want a high level of involvement in the development of in-store marketing strategies; however, the perception is that there is not enough meaningful dialogue and co-creation solutions.

How can these two parties come together to make a better experience for today's shopper? What are the benefits of today's shopper if manufactures and retailers work together?

Kimberly-Clark Shares Tried-And-True Shopper Marketing Tactics

Elaine Wong of Brandweek reports that Kimberly-Clark's Mark Scott is ready to share their shopper marketing tactics. Check out Wong's interview with Scott here. Of particular note for Shopper 360 readers, check out this exchange:

BW: What portion of Kimberly-Clark’s total ad budget does shopper marketing currently make up? Have you increased spending in this regard since the recession began? Why so?

MS: [We don’t break down marketing spend.] Having said that, we did in December actually formalize a shopper marketing structure in North America, where we’ve got some folks out in the field on some of our customer teams and some dedicated shopper marketing resources imbedded into our brand teams. All of that is intended to make sure we have the right shopper and customer choice at the right time as we build integrated marketing plans. Because we really want to put the consumer and the shopper—who, in many instances are the same—at the center of everything we do and we get deep insights [from] them.

What do you think a dedicated shopper marketing team should cost?

Linens n' Things Drives Consumers to their Website

Interestingly enough, it seems as if Linens 'n Things will not be closing shop anytime soon. According to this post on RetailWire discusses how the brand has been revitalized through its brand new website (www.lnt.com) which carries over 200,000 top brand products for the entire home with items in baby, bath, bedding, home décor, kitchen, and many more. Will we see trend of increased online shopping across different retail industries?

Walgreens making changes to be customer centric

In a new interview at the In Store Marketing Institute, three Walgreens executives discuss their efforts to become more customer-centric, with their new focus on "customer centric retailing".

Shopper Marketing: What is the new CCR initiative?

Bryan Pugh: We are working to elevate purchasing into a merchandising business, putting the customer at the center of everything we do. Our first change is all of the adjacencies. Instead of laying out the store by how buyers buy the store, we lay it out by how a customer shops. We began rolling out 40 new departments in mid-March.

Read the full interview here.