In-Store Exposed: What will appeal to tomorrow’s shoppers in this new world?

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Panelists:
Candace Adams, SmartRevenue
Chris Borek, Target
Tom McCann, Staples
Ryan Mathews, FedEx

Moderator:
John Dranow, SmartRevenue

What this evening’s discussion will focus on is the future, product proliferation, media fragmentation and unlimited information (and how these elements) have created an environment in which 50% of decisions are made at the point of purchase. There has been a paradigm shift from big brands, big media and traditional research working to the challenging present where differentiation is essential, impulsivity is required and smart media is a winner. We now have skeptical and highly informed consumers.
Now it seems that economic volatility and changing values have created an uncertain future that has an identity defined by non-tangible assets and the conspicuous accumulation and consumption of goods.
First Panel Question:
“What do you think the future is going to be?”
Candace Adams: We are on the edge of radical change with retail. We will begin to see a huge push. Retailers will be required to lead, to follow or to move out of the way. Thinking about a mall, how many more customers can be brought if I am collocated with other retailers? Some retailers try to tap into the fact that customers are time starved, so we’ll see more retailers following suit. So many retailers have been pushed out of the way, Linens&Things, Lord&Taylor and the auto industry, for example. Consumers are becoming very savvy and we’ll being to see a proliferation of in-store messaging.
Chris Borek: At Target we look at a few different things, we are looking to become more transparent and we think about presenting the shopper with what she wants. Specifically from a store and from a retailer perspective, she wants to know what is on sale, what is new and what things matter the most. Don’t be complacent because your brand needs to evolve.
Tom McCann: The retailing world of the near and possibly distant future means that we will see about 35% of shoppers will have money and be ready for luxury but the majority of customers will look for value. We can’t see the credit card crunch ending soon, and it makes shoppers think more about the purchases that they are going to make.
Ryan Mathews: I live in Detroit, we have been in a recession for 30 years now. I think that we will see more people living under one roof and I don’t think that they will necessarily be all family. The idea of family will evolve and change as people cut back and look for ways to stretch their money. We are on the verge of perpetual change at retailing. Things will never be the same—ever and change will accelerate like a “snowball down the mountain.”


Second Panel Question:
“How are you preparing for the future or how would you recommend others prepare for the future?”
Candace Adams: One of the things that should be done is to enhance customer loyalty and moving away from just wanting to turn a product. By doing so, competitors will become more savvy and steal those customers from you. No longer are we students of commerce, we are students of psychology and behavior. It’s important to embrace technology as customer’s become even savvier. It’s also important that you take ownership in your retail space. You should make your shopper’s experience clean and clutter-free. Be true to your brand and don’t go off strategy.
Chris Borek: We are doing things that we haven’t done in the past, but providing price points in advertising. There has been a departure from shiny glossy figures to the affluent, savvy soccer mom who is the CEO of her family. Target is looking to a multi-channel focus to create a guest experience; Target provides information where she wants it when she wants it.
Tom McCann: It’s about brand, how you treat your brand and using technology to connect with your shoppers. Being where your shoppers are when they want to hear from you. Over the future, small business people are very conscious about value and will be continually interested in value and quality and making sure that they understand how much Staples values them and their role as business owners.
Ryan Mathews: Uncertain does not mean unknowable. The future will be science and social science and art. We should create sustainable relationships with customers, a lifetime relationship with a customer. “You have to own your own identity as a retailer,” Candace Adams and Mathews is in agreement. In a retail environment you create your identity around the things that you have available to your customer and that is an art form. Information, in and of itself can be dangerous.
Candace Adams: It will be crucially important moving forward to be instilled in the digital technology around us, to connect with shoppers.
Ryan Mathews: Increasingly, customers will be agnostic about platform they will enter and exit wherever they see fit. Digital media will make it easy for everyone to be a marketer of a particular product. You should use these tools in the digital space but use them naturally.
Chris Borek: It’s about earning her trust, it’s about figuring out how she really feels when she thinks of Target first and then other retailers second.
“What about bad online reviews?”
Tom McCann: When you open up your websites for reviews, you have to accept that sometimes customer comments may be bad or detrimental to products.
Ryan Mathews: You are either open or you’re not.
Chris Borek: You have to be a part of the conversation, you just can’t avoid it.
Final Thoughts:
Candace Adams: You must continually work to evolve yourselves. It should never be static.
Chris Borek: Knowing what you stand for and knowing what you don’t stand for. Figure out what is appropriate to evolve and not deviating from that evolution.
Tom McCann: Your brand and your customers, how you are going to relate to your customers and looking at how to adjust your strategies to those things around you is so important.
Ryan Mathews: Challenging times produce great successes.

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*Updated* Keynote: Shopper Marketing Strategies in a Challenging Economy

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Diane Wallace, SVP, Shopper Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company

Diane Wallace comes with a bevy of shopper marketing knowledge as she walks us through key strategies of shopper marketing. From making a look of success at the store to recreating the family meal by increasing awareness of the value that Coke can bring to the family meal, Diane offered great insights in what we can do in this current environment to make sure that we create as much efficiency and productivity with the shopper.

Below are a few highlights from Diane’s presentation:

What does shopper marketing mean for the Coca-Cola Company?

The Coca-Cola Company believes that they have been doing shopper marketing for over 100 years, in that they connect with their customers on personal level. Knowing your shopper and creating an irresistible experience is key to successful shopper marketing .

Shopper marketing strategies in a challenging economy:

“How can we sell our products and connect with shoppers, when those shoppers are under a lot of pressure?” Execs at The Coca-Cola Company.
Are the changes that we’re seeing with shoppers temporary or will they last? We know that trips are changing from grocery to dollar stores, people are looking for private label—we believe that these pressures are real and they will not change instantly when the economy picks up.
What are we hearing from our customers?

Retailers are asking Coca-Cola to look at these points to create relevance and return to the bottom line:
• Maximize shopper relevance
• Create easy-to-shop environments
• Provide shopper solutions
• Create efficiencies

The Coca-Cola Company, being a global giant, has seen economic roller coasters with other markets. Its an advantage for Coca-Cola as they are able to study from these countries and apply working strategies to the US market.

Coca-Cola’s Shopper Marketing Strategies

It is critical that we go back to basics of foundational and time tested strategies during this economic environment.

Creating irresistible shopper experiences through our (Coca-Cola’s)Leading Beverage Portfolio: Create & Grow leadership brands in each beverage segment. Enhance consumer relevance and trade sales and profit via product and package innovation…to drive profitable growth and value for our customers.
Distinctive Shopper Solutions
Enhance portfolio relevance & performance via distinctive shopper services. Drive excellence in commercial execution to maximized joint value creation.

Leadership Brands & Shopper Solutions
Diane briefly covered different solutions that Coca-Cola utilizes when they work with retailers and shopper marketing.
1. Occasion Based Approach
Focusing on relevant occasions to drive shopper & consumer connections by segmenting consumer drinking occasion—the two largest for Coca-Cola are “Chilling Out/Watching TV’ and “Family Home Meals”
2. Segmented merchandising
Each store serves a different mix of shoppers, occasions & needs. It’s the store’s “shopper DNA”. We know that we have to figure out a way to get the right brands, the right occasion messaging and the right price within the store.
Instead of creating one solution for millions of shoppers, develop smaller shopper segments and tailor solutions to these segments.
3. Shopper bundles
Bundle for shoppers to create convenience, minimize shopping time and increase value.
4. Packaging solutions
Matching packages, occasions and shopper/retail value.
All elements come together to create a look of success.

Case Study: Family Home Meals
Family home meals are one of the largest beverage drinking occasions in the USA. Family home meals include the quality of life for family members, coke and meals make for a catalyst of social interaction and nothing beats the taste of Coke with meals.
Coke has driving incidence and frequency of Coke brands with Mom.
Coke is now working to create television ads that embrace the experience of the family meal, the home meal by making Coke an integral part of the family meal—showing it to be a member of the family.

Three key takeaways:
“Looking at the shopper’s DNA as one of the first steps in this process is critically important”
“There is so much science before figuring out the DNA, but we want to make sure that is transparent to the shopper and make sure that its done is a simple way”
“Shoppers do not shop at random, they shop within occasions”

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The Art of the Possible: Strategies for Achieving the Phenomenal

David Plouffe, Campaign Manager, Obama’s Presidential Campaign 2008

David discusses how using grass roots organizations and online campaigns can make the impossible happen. Changing over time, they created websites and utilized social networks to raise money – and they did, in the billions. Also, the Obama campaign used grass roots to organize—they changed the elective. Using online and grassroots instilled in younger votes, also having a candidate who appealed to the younger population helped, too. Utilizing community involvement was critical but this involvement came from friends/family of individuals to spread like wildfire for the Obama campaign.

Volunteers organized themselves using, mybarackobama.com, allowing the movement to expand in ways that campaign couldn’t imagine. These volunteers, who were organizing themselves, contacted the campaign headquarters as they demanded information, data, etc to enhance their efforts.

In turn, campaign headquarters was able to feed videos and information directly to the volunteers and to the people interested and supportive of the campaign. By using videos online, they were able to create their own television station.
“When you talk about politics, people tune you out.” But during their campaign, 50% of their supporters/volunteers had never been involved in politics before, which proved to be an advantage to the campaign as people started listening to those who were passionate about Obama—not about politics.

What the campaign used primarily was very “old school” visual tactics. The campaign did not utilize Twitter as it was not yet popular, nor did they use texting. The technology was not yet there to connect with individuals on that platform. The issue came to make mybarackobama.com a home for all of the information that volunteers and supporters would need.
However, they announced Joe Biden’s appointment as VP pick via text.

People should get information direct to them; it makes it valid and more authentic. In our businesses, we should work to connect with shoppers and with our employees on a direct and authentic manner to build up a solid relationship and achieve growth.
98% percent of organizations out there do too little communication to employees and clients about changes to the company and it’s important, again, to achieve authenticity and ensure a solid foundation for future growth.

You don’t want people spending time during their day, worrying about direction and strategy. You have to be clear and communicative about strategy, doing so allows members of the organization to feel secure in their position so that they can do their job effectively. Communication is key, on all levels, for a company’s growth.

If you are trying to empower people, they have to understand how important they are to the achievement of the company/brand. Because the Obama campaign relied so heavily on volunteers, it was integral that they encourage and empower people on a personal level.
Anytime that the campaign did not follow a “traditional playbook on how to win the Presidency” in the USA, they succeeded. Go against the grain, the status quo and be confident in making these changes—doing so can mean success. This does not mean that it’s important to be needlessly risky but every time that the campaign became stagnate, failure followed. It’s important to have a daily briefing on trajectory to ensure that the strategy stays the same.

*Updated* Convert More Shoppers to Buyers by Improving and Integrating the On-line In-store and On-ad Experiences

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Sheila McKay, Customer & Channel Insights, Hewlett Packard

Sheila took participants through an innovative session that focused on how consumers purchase products from Hewlett Packard.

McKay placed the different types of shoppers into five categories:

Purchaser Profiles and the Shopper Journey

Convenience Retail Buyer
“Quick, easy and fast” These shoppers know exactly what they want, they don’t want to research or give much fuss into the decision. The best way to reach these customers is through in-store marketing

Retail Enthusiasts
Absolutely love to shop, they like shopping for technology process. Will try demos and talk to the sales associates. There path is much longer; however, they spend the most in comparison to other shoppers.

Researchers
These shoppers must know everything about a product before they can make a purchase. Their path is very long, confusing and very hard to nail down. These individuals will make their purchase either online or in-store.

One Stop, Web Stop
This is the second most lucrative group for retailers. These shoppers will not shop around.

Online Only
They visit a ton of websites before they make up their minds. They are willing to trade off brands for the best price.

Exploring the Shopper Journey for Consumer Electronics

Shopper frustrations, misleading signs and procedures in hard to shop places can be difficult for shoppers to access the products. By working with the retailers, its important to see how the products are being displayed in store. Sometimes the stores will provide not enough information or display the products in hard to reach areas, behind lock and key or in some cases, simply a box could appear.

Another issue that HP has seen is online there is way too much information available for consumers making simple products seem very advanced. Also, be vigilant with regard to search tactics. If a shopper searches for your product online, what other products appear in their search?

Finding the right supplies to go with a particular product can be very difficult for the shopper as they navigate the tricky store experiences and online searches.

Customers love big overhead directional signage, cross-merchandising and organized/clean retail spaces.

Ultimately, customers are trying to simplify the shopping process by matching their needs to the right product.

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* Updated * Large Company Perspective: Putting the Marketing Back into Shopper

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Jon Troy, Director of Category Management & Shopper Insights, Johnson & Johnson

We were thrilled to hear from Jon Troy today as he discussed the role of shopper marketing from Johnson & Johnson’s perspective.

Today, shoppers have all the power and your consumers are in a buying mindset.

“Now, with so many vehicles out there and consumer consuming media in so many different ways I really don’t know where they are. The one place I know they are is in the store. They’re in the store and in Buy mode.” –VP, Marketing of Johnson & Johnson.

Troy discussed how today’s shopper challenge is being blinded by the clutter. We must use shopper marketing to inform, engage and inspire the customer. In store marketing has to have an emotional connection—leading the customer to purchase. The path to purchase a particular product starts at home, with circulars, online and by word of mouth.

Troy also noted that it’s important that we manage the path to purchase as a shared responsibility. The most successful organizations are communicating with consumers along the entire pathway to purchase. They are doing this holistically, from Marketing to Sales as a Consumer transforms to a Shopper.

Below are a few more highlights from Jon Troy’s presentation today:

Johnson & Johnson Shopper Marketing—Organizational Alignment
Building J&J brands and categories through identifying and understanding relevant shopper targets and informing, engaging and inspiring them along the path to purchase.

Core principles of Johnson & Johnson:
Insights to strategy to activation
Enterprise wide, not just Sales
One J&J capability

Troy relays that organizations should want to define the category as broad as possible. With the case study of Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson decided to not go into the Tylenol business—they went into the pill business. Instead of focusing on the pain business, the business of relief, Johnson & Johnson focused on the pill business. Leveraging their brand equity and providing more for their customers.


What Your Organization Should Know
All functions of the organization must have focus on and commitment to consumers and shoppers Organizations must look through a category lends before putting on their brand hats
Organizational alignment begins with a common planning process that starts at the category level and considers consumer and shopper.

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