Aligning the Minds

The key to shopper marketing success is organizational alignment among marketing, sales and research. Organization alignment builds brand equity and strong partnerships, drives category and brand sales, and leverages the store as a marketing medium.

As practiced at Johnson and Johnson, shopper marketing is a umbrealla over category management, shopper insights and retail activation. It informs, engages and inspires consumers along the parth to purchase. It creates a purchase intent or need in the mind of the consumers.

John Troy, director of category management and shopper insights, says the core principles of shopper marketing are: one, insight to strategy to activation; two, enterprise wide, not just sales; three, one Jand J capability.

John

*Updated* The Return to “Personal Selling” at Retail

Videoclip Below

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D., Global Scientific Director, Retail & Shopper, TNS SORENSEN

The Return to “Personal Selling” at Retail

Dr. Sorensen starts off this evening discussing “there are those who make it happen,” “those who watch it happen,” and “those who wonder what did happen.” As retailers, we should be the ones that make it happen to move the multi-trillion dollar industry forward.

Moving to the basic human needs of air, water and food (clothing and shelter could be optional) what we have is that people have needs but also people have wants. Retailing actually drives the aspirations of the human race. People learn about these things through retail, and retailing builds upon the wants and needs of humans to drive the industry. If you create something that humans want and need, humans (customers/shoppers) will come and get it.

There are three components to retailing:
1. The mental process (wanting and/or needing a product)
2. Money
3. The actual delivery of the goods to the customer/shopper

Through the centuries retailing has gone from a medieval marketplace, to an outpost for services to merchants selling products (creating a middleman). Historically, retailing was always a personal selling, someone always had something else that an individual wanted. The induction of the mediator (the retailer) is a fairly new construct.

Massification: Going from a cobbler making shoes to a shoe factory making mass quantities of shoes.
Mass production – factories
Mass distribution – supply chain (waterways, airliners, railways, etc)
Mass retailing – self-service (developed about 100 years ago, we don’t have to sell to the shopper, the shopper sells to themselves)

The fundamental thing behind this mass productivity was a huge benefit to not only the retailers but to the shoppers. This massification also drove people’s perception of what they need. Initially shopper’s have a vague idea “a vague wish” that they’d like to have/purchase something. But as shoppers are fed this product, its available, the shopper goes from a vague desire to a need.
Think: “I wish. I want. I need. I got."

Dr. Sorensen shares this quote with us to sum up the historical change of retailing.

“One hundred years ago, retailers ran their stores by watching their customers closely. Somewhere during the last hundred years, spread sheets, slotting allowances, and quarterly performance replaced the basic principles of the business.” Norm Myhr, Group VP Sales Promotions and Marketing, FredMeyer

Passive Retailing: Merchants vs. Salesman
There is a major problem as stores are becoming a “black box,” because retailers/sellers think that because they have all of the data, retailers have all that they need to know about selling and about the customer/shopper. Below, Dr. Sorensen discusses strategies that will not work, but are still in place by many (unnamed) retailers.
Strategy:
Keep shopper prisoner to get a reward of frustrated shoppers
Making items hard to find, means losing profits
No help in making the choices, default to price to “sell”

Massification of Communication
Massification of communication includes advertising to consumers/shoppers outside of the retail space; from roadside signs to TV commercials. This approach really took off about 100 years ago with radio and TV as Proctor and Gamble’s creation of Soap Operas so that they could sell soap. There was an entire industry that grew up focusing on the mind of the shopper.
The mechanism for selling in mass media, the mental states that go on in mass communication are very different than personal selling, but it’s the closest thing that we have to personal selling. Personal selling, in this context refers to connecting two human beings (individuals at the ad agency to the individual shopper).

Mass Media Fragments
In 1995, 3 commercials reached 80% of women 18-49 years of age
In 2000, it takes over 92 commercials to reach the same amount of people
This means that the mass media, as we knew it is gone, replaced with fragments of media.
Now, we’ve realized that the people that retailers should sell to are in the store. There is an increased focus on in-store experience, packaging.

“The number one media in the store is the package.” Dr Sorensen

The ability to sell, the lack of accountability of the ad agencies and marketers not knowing what worked and what did—so throwing money at the situation is not the solution. The people who are selling, out in the mass media, largely, didn’t involve the immediate palpable feedback from the shopper/customer. Most of the people who know the most about personal selling are out there selling. There is a massive intellectual deficit in terms of how to do what it is that we should be doing: selling to shoppers, fulfilling their needs.

The “Amazonification” of Retail
There is a great deal about personal selling that the offline retailers could learn from online retailers, because online retailers are really involved in personal selling. Using Amazon.com to illustrate his point, Dr. Sorensen discusses that Amazon’s first goal is to sell a Kindle but the second goal is to show the shopper’s other items that were purchased by shoppers on Amazon. Also, Amazon is readily available to take your money through one click. Online merchants have learned a lot of the art of personal selling and brick and mortar store could definitely learn from online retailers.

Dr. Sorensen recommends a 1980 report by the Harvard Business Review, “Retailing Without Stores” by Larry J. Rosenberg and Elizabeth C. Hirschman. This kind of thinking, outside of brick and mortar stores has gone on for many years prior to the rise in online shopping.
“Internet” in the Store?

Will retailers succeed by putting the internet in the store? Using carts equipped with internet devices allowing shoppers to have an “Amazon-like” experience in-store could be beneficial to the shopper and to the retailers. Now, with internet enabled phones, customers are able to compare prices on items in-store. How far and how fast will this move the industry?

The single biggest sin that brands and retailers make is failing to tell shoppers what to buy.
Encourage retailers to call out top selling products by using a simple 4x4 inch card that plainly says “top seller.” Busy shoppers, used to Amazon experiences will purchase these items. There was an increase in grocery sales by 4% for the 1st quarter of 2009 over the 4th quarter of 2008.
Ice cream saw a 116% increase in sales.

How can you help return “personal selling” to your store, your brand and to the industry?

Be sure to check out Dr. Sorensen’s book Inside the Mind of the Shopper

Updated

*Updated* Finding the Right Shopper at the Right Time Online

Video Clip Below

Jim Lecinski

Managing Director, U.S. Sales & Service, GOOGLE, INC.

Just attended a great session with Jim Lecinski and learned what retailers must do in order to get the optimum results of search engines to point customers to their products. From creating innovative ways to corner the market on “New Information Buyers” to learning that every product no matter the price is being reviewed online, Lencinki’s presentation laid the groundwork for what’s really next for marketers/retailers looking to enhance their search engine presence. Jim worked to build the evidence that it’s not just about cars and big purchases, but about smaller purchases as well. The decision to buy even the smallest item is a decision based at home, through the consumer, using search engines and other customer reviews.

Here are a few takeaways that we’d like to share:

People who are watching every dollar spend more time researching purchases. 78% supplement their purchasing decisions with research, 34% plan to purchase more online

People are researching deodorant and shampoo, 20 millions searches were done for deodorant last year.

GOOGLE asked U.S. Consumers how their shopping habits have changed since the downturn in the economy.

54% spend more time researching products online before they buy them in a store

53% use search engines more to research purchases

39% buy more products online (rather than in-store)

Eight words or more search queries are up nearly 20% in the last year.

How should you be challenging your teams to work with these new “info shoppers”?

Updated

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

Videoclip below

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.

Updated

*Updated* Think Green. Act Green. Convey Green. Sell Green.

videoclip below

Greentailing in Tough Times…
How are Consumers Reacting and Retailers Responding?
Neil Stern, McMillianDoolittle
Author, Greentailing

“Earth Friendly products won’t save the Earth if they don’t save people money.” Wal*Mart (1997)

Green-tailing is broad-based.
Drivers of change
“An Inconvient Truth”
External factors
Wal*Marts move in 2005 to use 100% renewable resources
Competitive Factors
Embracing green because its been success for competitors
Internal Factors
Demographic and behavioral shifts

“It Isn’t Easy Being Green…”
“Greenwashing” is a danger, the act of misleading customers.
Cadillac Hybrid Escalade
Frozen food vendors using a green factory but not green ingredients

The Consumer’s View on Green
Green began gaining real traction with consumers in 2007. Green continues to grow in importance to consumers. Importance of environmentally-friendly stores and products since economic climate has changed. The green performance stigma is disappearing.
Supermarkets and discount stores made headway in 2008 in communicating green—especially supermarket/grocery stores and discount stores. Apparel specialty retailers are not keeping up with other industries to appeal to green focused customers.
Greentailing 2.0: conscientious retailing built on environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and economically profitable business practices.
Think Green. Act Green. Convey Green. Sell Green.
Think Green
Green as a mission or core value, it will not happen in a company unless its built into the mission of the company. Greentailers set tangible goals.
Mark’s and Spencer’s Plan
1. Become carbon neutral
2. Send no waste to landfills
3. Extend sustainable sourcing
4. Help improve the lives of people in our supply chain
5. Help customers and employees live a healthier lifestyle
In your companies, who has a green officer—sustainable officer? Sustainability experts polled predict that 25% of Fortune 500 will appoint executive level Chief Sustainability Officers in 2009.

LEED certified retail buildings and using green technology within the retail space can prove to be beneficial to the consumer retail experience and the customer understanding of the retailer.
Greener packaging, smaller size, less transportation, less for the consumer to haul home has started to pop up on retail shelves.
Sustainable packaging to grab 32% of market by 2014.
Politics of plastic bags. CT, NYC and Seattle may impose five to twenty-cent tax on plastic bags. Tough, as we’re trying to change 50 years of habits with people, will take time.
Recycling programs have been nearly over-successful as they try to deal with the demand that retailers have to recycle products. Best Buy and Crocs dealing with these issues and supporting recycling efforts now. Staples is offering rewards for people to recycle items with them—
Green Housekeeping “Green” Seal of Approval, stepping in where the Gov’t has yet to regulate green products. Tesco, product labels shows a figure that measures the total emission of greenhouse gases during the production, distribution, storage and use of item.
Organic products growing double digits; but economy has taken an impact, consumers have moved away from organic products as they tighten their belts during rough economy.
Green cleaning, companies like Method have bridged the gap between cool, effective and green—a trifecta of branding.
Local has become the new organic. Local implies small, natural production process. Local means supporting fellow neighbors and the local economy.
Sears will begin selling men’s suits made of fabric blend of wool and polyester spun from recycled fabrics.
Conveying Green:
“We believe in being a good neighbor who cares about the environment” says Fresh & Easy in the UK
Buffalo Exchange
The clothing retailer donates to local nonprofit agencies in the community through its Tokens for Bags program, generating nearly $285,000 for local charities.

Updated

*Updated* “My Western Family”

Videoclip below

Learning from Roger White, Director of Marketing, Associated Food Stores, Inc.

How love, laughter and store brand products come together. White discusses how the use of a quirky family attached to Associated’s private label helped to fuel purchases and to create quite a following online via “Mommy blogs” and chatter.

Creating innovative ways to connect with customers is integral to moving your brand forward, with “My Western Family,” shoppers now have a valid, real connection with Associated’s private label, “Western Family.”

By creating webisodes of “My Western Family” they offered $1000 to anyone who was able to finish the ending of the webisodes—they had over 60 entries. Winning entry was done by a high school drama department who moved next door to “My Western Family” as the “Leading Brands.”

Making a drama out of the differences between private labels and leading brands, played out in witty satire. But what other drama must families go through when deciding to purchase a store brand over a leading brand?

Facebook offered Associated more chatter as participants in the $1000 “My Western Family” challenge solicited the votes of friends/family to Associated’s sites.
How can your private brand go viral to aid in store brand growth?

Updated

Inspiration for Innovation & Design *Updated with videoclip*

Peter Dixon, Senior Partner, Creative Director, PROPHET
Andy Stefanovich, in charge of what's next, PLAY

Imaginary thirteen second cocktail party! Ask the person next to you, “What inspires you?”

Audience reactions:

“Greatness”
“Children”
“Curiosity”
“Play”
“Kids”

We are creating artificial barriers of inspiration, it’s important to let the barriers be gone. One client is building an inspiration policy, it’s an HR directive to be inspiring.

• Inspiration is essential
• Inspiration is a corporate responsibility
• If you are not feeding your employees with new inputs…you cannot expect new outputs

Applying personal inspirations to business output will provide huge benefit.
Inspiration + Design = Innovation

What would inspiration mean for your business?
“Ethnography”
“Artifacts, symbols and richness”
“Access, language and an entry point for the topic”

Where does inspiration come from?
Context.

What can only your business accomplish?

What is the truly unique thing that only your business can accomplish?

Framing things in really powerful ways; frame and set up constructs for people to access inspiration for a topic.

To create a truly unique shopping experience, you must infuse the entire process with inspiration.

A holistic process for creating the retail experience

Look at more stuff:
Important to develop a regular discipline for seeking direct and indirect inspiration

Design thinking:

A transparent process, iterative ideation and fast-prototyping; an openness to experimentation, failure and continual improvement

Make it real & really matter:
Make the business case, fact-based evaluations of trials, prototypes and in-market improvements

6 sources of inspiration:
1. Company capabilities
New stuff you can do
2. Customer insights
What they didn’t know they needed
Direct
Indirect
Tangential
3. Cultural & industry trends
It’s happening out there
4. Challenging conventions
“The Costanza principle”
Doing everything opposite that you think you should do—with success
5. Experiential analogs
“Its like ________ + ______”
6. Brand
It can tell you where to look

The world is the source of inspiration. What is the world thinking, saying and needing right now?

Innovation is not related to brand, innovation without an ability to create value is not really innovation. The marrying of innovation processes with economic indicators makes a success.

Case Study: Infiniti
Infinti brand cars: To create a differentiated customer experience, basic car dealership conventions were challenged.
New showroom for Infiniti: enter—lobby—lounge—gallery
A process to bring process—building desire was integral to the customer experience success of Infiniti.
Garnered to create focus but to build an environment of modern luxury.

Case Study: Conoco
Materials, finishes, icons and featuring reflected the analogous sources.

Case Study: Wal*Mart
To try to expand on an already successful model, the new brand promise, “Save Money Live Better,” meant that the store experience needed to change the dialog with the shopper.
Making the dialogue, “Inspiration for what she wants.”
Inform and inspire at the shelf and in the aisle

You need inspiration. She (the customer) needs inspiration. The world needs inspiration.

Follow us for live updates via Twitter: www.twitter.com/shopper360 use hashtag #shopperinsights to join the conversation!


Updated

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

Videoclip below

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.

Updated

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

Finding the "Right Shopper at the Right Time"...Online

Jim Lencinski of Google educated us on how we can use digital ads to find the shopper we want to talk to. This is an important task nowadays since many target demographic groups are spending as much time online as they are in front of the TV sets.

In the current economy, people are watching every dollar they spend. Consequently, they research the purchases they intend to make very thoroughly before they buy -- and see online searches as the best way to conduct this research.

Jim advocates the use of both search as well as display (banner) online ads to reach shoppers. Online search ads can communicate deals when they are keyed to search query words; they can keep your brand top-of-mind with a 'virtual end cap'; and can utilize hot-links within the ads to drive qualified leads to your advertorial websites.

Jim also encouraged CPG manufacturers to work together with trade managers, brand reps, customer reps and retailers to unify efforts to dominate search result pages. He also advocates including paid search as a line item in all sales trade collateral budgets.

Global Consumer Trends: Individualism

Good trend-watching is about taking the bigger-picture approach. Adopting a broader global perspective to trend-tracking facilitates better decision making by overcoming 'category myopia'. Monitoring the broader FMCG environment will enable bigger picture learning that can be applied more specifically.

Today’s increasingly individualistic consumers place considerable value on self-expression and asserting their individual identity. This also includes exerting their power and control as consumers. The Individualism mega-trend represents consumers’ desires to be themselves and be recognized as having personal needs rather than being part of the mass market. Consumers seek products that make them stand out from the crowd and provide them with (or at least reinforce) a sense of personal and social identity. This mega-trend represents values such as “being me”, “trusting myself”, “finding my own answers” and “making my mark on the world” in a world of opportunity and liberating freedom where people can live their lives as they please. The desire for individuality is not new. It has just become more attainable for more people due to rising prosperity in society and the fact that technological advances facilitate easier, more cost effective personalized products and services. With rising prosperity there has also been a growth of post-materialist societies where values emphasizing self expressing and individuality have grown.

Individualism is one of 10 mega-trends Datamonitor has identified as having a substantive impact on the marketing landscape. An intuitive understanding of these mega-trends is fundamental because they set the pre-conditions for marketplace success. Use this report to understand global consumers’ individualistic and self expressive attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles and how this translates into marketing opportunities.

Greentailing in Tough Times

It's not easy being "green," but retailers and manufacturers better start if they haven't already. It may wind up being a distinct competitive advantage. Going green and reducing costs can go together. According to studies, the current recession has not hurt the green movement that much. Six of ten consumers say green affects their shopping behavior -- where they shop and what products they buy. However, seven of ten consumers won't pay more than 5% more for a green product.

So maybe it's time to embrace Greentailing 2.0, the latest generation of going green (the first in the early 1990s fizzled). Neil Stern says the types of green products are: organic, local, natural, recyclable, energy efficient and ethically sourced. The elements of green are: Think Green (must be a core value of the company like at Wal-Mart and Whole Foods), Act Green (in supply chain, packaging), Sell Green (Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Tesco), Convey Green (corporate responsibility).

Go green or be left behind.

John

Inspiration for Innovation & Design (Opening General Session Presentation)

The opening presentation this morning at the Shoper Insights Summit dealt with how to get inspired and then use that inspiration to innovate. Peter Dixon and Andy Stefanovich told us to always remember that ""You need inspiration; She [the shopper] needs inspiration; and The world needs inspiration."

Where does inspiration come from: There are six sources:
(1) Company Capabilities -- new stuff you can do
(2) Customer Insights -- what they didn't they needed until you pointed out the need for them
(3) Cultural & Indudstry Trends -- what's happening out there
(4) Challenging Conventions -- utilizing "The Costanza Principle" a la the Seinfield TV Show: Sometimes it's best to do the exact opposite of what your instincts tell you to do
(5) Experiental Analogs -- combine two opposing ideas, as in "it's like ___ + _____"
(6) Brand -- a 'dated' concept, perhaps, but it can tell you where to look.

Using these concepts, we can become innovative when we first get inspired, then experiment with new ideas, and finally implement what we've come up with.

All in all, an inspiring presentation on inspiration!

Guest Blogger: Director of Advertising, CPGmatters

Happy to be here in Chicago and looking forward to the Shopper Insight Summit which begins tomorrow. I'll be attending the Online Channel track and sharing highlights of those sessions with you.

Virtual Shopping

Tuesday's afternoon workshop on Creating Successful Retail Stories Featuring Virtual Shopping was informative, interactive and entertaining. Decision Insights's virtual shopping platform enables product manufacturers to test options on the shelf. The program measures actual behavior by testing tactical approaches in the context of an actual shopping experience.
Why virtual shopping? It's time- and budget-sensitive, behavior based, validated and actionable.

The speakers outlined three case studies of virtual shopping in action. In the first, Frito-Lay's marketing objective was to increase sales of family size bags through optimal shelf placement. The research objective was to evaluate shelf placement alternatives to identify which might increase sales the most. The result: Locate family size bags on the end of the shelf, an approach that was validated in store. Overall category sales increased by 7%

Other case studies on Heinz studied SKU rationalization and one about Kellogg focused on improving sales through new packaging.

Attendees divided into three groups and competed against each other on the same carbonated soft drink case study exercise: evaluate which of two pricing strategies is more effective ($3.99 per 12-pack or three 12-packs for $12) and the effectiveness of blade signage on purchase behavior. They each tried to convince and "retailer" to make the recommended changes (the "retailer" was Cathy Allin, president of DI, and two of her executives.

The winner? The group that focused most on the lift in category sales. The real winner: the virtual shopping platform.

John

Shopper Insights in Action 2009 Speaker: Jon Troy

Jon Troy,
Global Shopper Marketing, Johnson & Johnson

Jon Troy is the Director of Global Shopper Marketing for Johnson & Johnson’s Sales & Logistics Company. He is responsible for creating the vision and strategy for Shopper Marketing enabling processes and tools for J&J’s Global Shopper Marketing capability. Jon has spent the last twenty years in the industry in various Sales, Research, Technology and Category Management roles. He most recently led Shopper Insights and Category Management for J&J’s US Center of Excellence, where he helped develop the Shopper Marketing capability for the US business.

Jon began his career in Sales at General Foods Corporation and soon made the transition to Category Management, in the very early stages, when the majority of the work completed was focused on Shelf Management. Through his career Jon has created the vision for and developed and deployed Category Management and Shopper Insights capabilities in three different organizations. First with a national food broker, then with The Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) and most recently at Johnson & Johnson. Jon’s focus has always been on driving insights to action and tangible results. His presentation today will focus on the key components necessary to successfully develop a Shopper Marketing capability in an organization.

Shopper Insights in Action 2009 Speaker: Jim Lencinski

Jim Lencinski,
Head of Trade Promotions, Director, Trade Promotions Industry Development Google, Inc.

Utilizing almost 20 years of integrated marketing and online advertising experience, Mr. Lecinski leads the advertising business with Google's major Central Region clients and media agency partners. He has expertise in brand and creative strategy, marketing plan development, consumer lead generation, marketing analysis, optimization and consumer insights. Additionally, he has a strong background in retail and consumer packaged goods.

Mr. Lecinski has held leadership positions at DDB, marchFirst, Young & Rubicam, and EuroRSCG. In addition to his advertising and marketing experience, he is a vintage jazz music collector; he has an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois and a bachelor of arts from the University of Notre Dame.


Jim will be speaking on Wednesday, July 15 at the 11:30am presentation, "Finding the "Right Shopper at the Right Time".. Online." This presentation is part of The Online Channel Summit, in Continental Room C.



Biography courtesy of Mplanet.

Guest Blogger: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of CPGmatters.com

This will be my fourth year attending the Shopper Insights Conference. I am looking forward to the sessions. They get better each year and enable me to stay on top of trends and key developments in this exciting area.

Shoppers still looking online at cars

According to a new article at Fox News, shoppers aren't slowing down that much online when looking for new cars. The number of people shopping for new cars online has only dropped 9%. This shows that many consumers can't afford to buy a car just yet, but they are still looking. The cars that saw the most web traffic were SUVs, with Kia's Sorenta being the biggest hit. Read the full article here.

Shopper Insights in Action 2009 Speaker: Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.,
Global Scientific Director,
Shopper Insights, TNS Sorensen

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D. is a pre-eminent authority on observing and measuring shopping behavior and attitudes. He is the Global Scientific Director, TNS Shopper Insights, serving Fortune 100 retailers and consumer packaged goods manufacturers in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America for over 35 years.

Dr. Sorensen, Ph.D. biochemist, looks at consumer behavior from a scientific viewpoint but clearly explains the impact for the bottom line of merchants. Dr. Sorensen and Paco Underhill have been called the "Yin and Yang" of observational research. Dr. Sorensen's unique perspective, based on tracking millions of shopping trips throughout the world is the subject of Inside The Mind of the Shopper published by Wharton School Publishing, and released May 2009.

Dr. Sorensen will be speaking at the 5:30 Kick-Off Conference Keynote presentation "Retailing: The Return To Personal Selling."



Biography courtesy of www.herbsorensen.com

Shopper Insights in Action Conference taking place next week – 12 new speakers & 7 new sessions just announced.

Hi Everyone:

Hard to believe that July is already here and the 9th annual Shopper Insights in Action Conference is taking place next week, July 14-17, 2009 at the Hilton Chicago. We’re excited to announce that the show is going to be a hit, with hundreds of best-in-class brands, retailers and industry thought-leaders attending.

The event producers are busy adding new speakers and sessions as well as developing new onsite elements that add value to your experience. It is our goal to ensure everyone who attends leaves with a plethora of contacts, insights and ideas.

We’re excited to announce 12 new speakers and 7 new sessions have been added to the program totaling over 50 educational sessions with 75+ speakers.

NEW SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
• Candace Adams, former Senior Director, In-Store Experience, WalMart joined the retail panel on Thursday afternoon. She will join fellow panelists Chris Borek, Manager, In-Store Digital Marketing for Target, Mark Heckman, Vice President of Marketing for Marsh Supermarkets and Ryan Mathews, Consultant for FedEx Kinko’s. As seasoned retailers, they will discuss their perspectives on how the in-store shopping environment will evolve in the next 5, 10 and 20 years to meet shopper needs. Candace recently left WalMart and has joined shopper-centric research consultancy, SmartRevenue.

• Candace Adams will also participate in a breakout session on Thursday afternoon featuring brand executives from Unilever, Sara Lee and Kimberly Clark. This session will feature how WalMart worked with their brand partners using virtual reality technology to improve the shopping experience of their SuperCenter stores.

• Stephen Day, Global Consumer Insights for Electronic Arts along with Brand Cruz, VP of Retail and eCommerce Practice Leader for Chadwick Martin Bailey will discuss “The Evolution of the “Gamer” Market and How Segmentation Helped EA Develop a Groundbreaking Strategy”

For a complete list of new speakers and updates, click here http://bit.ly/SLYdV

To download the full event agenda, visit http://bit.ly/C9ZhC .

Plus, Shopper Insights producers have added 3 NEW RESOURCES AVAILABLE to Attendees Only
• Everyone who attends will have access to the POST-CONFERENCE REPORT, written by Socratic Technologies. This report will synthesize key findings from the event.

• Attendees will also get access to a USER-GENERATED POST-CONFERENCE REPORT, a collection of key takeaways by various participants at the event. This report will be made available to all attendees 2 weeks following the event.

• Everyone who walks in will be given an ROA, Return on Attendance Toolkit to ensure they get the valuable information needed to prove their return on attendance.

If you haven’t already registered, don’t worry, it’s not too late! And because of how important you are to us, our LinkedIn group members receive a 20% discount to attend. Use my personal code AMANDASHOP09 when you register. To register visithttp://bit.ly/epBbm.

I hope to see you there!

All the best,
Amanda

Amanda Powers
Shopper Insights in Action Conference Director

The last place to mass market: In the store

AME Info takes a look at the current state of marketing, and points out that in-store is really the last place that marketers have left to market to everyone.

• - Marketers and retailers must find the right mix of creative content and technology to reach consumers in a meaningful way.
• - Second, the metrics that measure in-store advertising effectiveness need to reach the same level of sophistication and standardization that exist with more established media.
• - Finally, marketers must integrate in-store advertising programs with other promotions and media campaigns.

Read the full article about the last mass marketing avenue here.

Stop & Shop Sues Big Lots' over 'real deal' Slogan

In tough economic times, shoppers are searching for the best deal--maybe the 'real deal' when it comes to home goods and groceries and grocer Stop & Shop wants to make sure that anyone searching for a 'real deal' thinks of Stop & Shop. Discount retailer Big Lots' has been using the slogan, 'real deal' in its advertising and Stop & Shop wants them to, well--stop. Stop & Shop charges that Big Lots’ use of a logo similar to its 'real deal' slogan, above, violates its trademark. According to the Boston Herald, "The Quincy supermarket company, which operates 382 stores in the Northeast, claims in a federal lawsuit that Big Lots’ use of a similar logo for its advertising circulars, Web site, signs and national TV campaign will likely cause confusion among shoppers who’ve come to identify 'real deal' with Stop & Shop.

The grocer introduced its 'real deal' campaign in May 2008 to point out discounted items and promotions to consumers looking to stretch their dollars while shopping in its stores"

This isn't the first time that Stop & Shop has sued a competitor, just last month they settled with Whole Foods, who has now switched their slogan to "The Whole Deal."

So what do you think? Should Stop & Shop continue to sue competitors over use of an easy catch phrase?


Stop & Shop sues co. over ‘Real Deal’ slogan

The Private Label Conference 2009

Redefining Brand: Engaging Retailers and CPG's in Shared Growth

Join us!

October 27-28, 2009 • Chicago Marriott • Chicago, IL

The private label movement has undoubtedly evolved into a greater variety of unique and superior products. And the expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, in the United Kingdom the private label share is double that of the United States - is that a sign of times to come?

Welcome to Private Label Impact – from the producers of FUSE and Shopper Insights in Action. This is the only event that tackles the new realities of the private label market and the business implications for manufacturers, CPGs and retailers. You are well aware of the pressing issues, now what are the key strategies for all players to peacefully and profitably co-exist? What makes this event so different is the foundation on which the content was built - to promote collaboration and integration. Developing healthy partnerships is the most effective way to take part in shared growth.

• Download the brochure
• Pricing and Venue
• Register

Specialty shops in department stores

RetailWire recently looked at the effect specialty stores have on the department stores which host them. The article claims that they lead to cluttered stores and loss of brand identity, but the store gains the specialty store feel due to the fancy appeal of the different in-store setups. What do you think? What are the positives and negatives of having an in-store specialty shop within your department store?