Putting Marketing Back Into Shopper

The emerging and evolving practice of shopper marketing can be segmented into Brand Shopper Marketing (with the focus on the brand), Customer Shopper Marketing (with account teams working with individual retailers) and Category Shopper Marketing (with bigger ideas for the category across many retailers).

Jonathan Philips of Glendenning US says most CPG manufacturers are in the muddy middle. To get to the Promised Land of Category Shopper Marketing, manufacturers need leadership and traction. They need to integrate their brand and shopper teams.

Winning companies have Singularity (focus on a big idea like P&G and its First Moment of Truth), Leadership (Unilever's CEO declares that success calls for deep shopper insights), Traction (P&G's got it after a 10-year journey with a focus on the shopper), and External Focus (focus on shoppers like at Kroger, Target and Whole Foods).

Who owns the shopper? Whoever evolves shopper marketing to focus on the category. That is the way to get and keep the attention of the retailer.

John