The End(game) is Insights

Understand shopper behaviour in order to influence or change it…

“Am I marketing to consumers or shoppers?” It’s long been a favourite ‘science’ of the marketer or agency to try to define the difference between the two. Shopper marketing has to a large degree been seen particularly by agencies, as a rather more direct and intrusive activity than “proper” marketing and too often been labelled “sales promotion”.

If there ever was a distinction between consumers and shoppers, the ability today to engage shoppers when they’re not actually in a store has effectively blurred any line that might have existed to the point of invisibility. Discerning insights from data that can be turned into actionable strategies has never been more important in reaching those shoppers at the right time, in the right place with the right message and this is particularly true (and pertinent to) mobile as a channel.

Legacy thinking though, leads to Brands and agencies being focused on the ‘universe’ of consumers while retailers want to understand their shoppers. This in-turn leads to seemingly incompatible discussions about brand equity and consumer segmentation on the one hand and baskets, list-making and trip-types on the other.

Fundamentally, people who buy stuff don’t see themselves as consumers or shoppers and here at Shopitize we take the same view. Shopper marketing is about change and getting shoppers to do something they aren’t currently doing and this is most effectively realised through insights.

Whilst a wealth of data exists around shoppers and shopping drawn from a wide range of sources from retailers to research specialists, it is overwhelmingly focused on statistics showing what shoppers are doing today,. This I would clearly define as “data” or “statistics”. I think our position at Shopitize and that of most shopper insights users and buyers (given an option) is that valuable “insights” go further and not only tell you what shoppers are going to do tomorrow but how they might do things differently if you engage with them differently. To that end, the Shopitize shopper marketing proposition has been designed to be about ‘change’ and getting shoppers to do something that they aren’t currently doing.

Discerning insights from data that can be turned into actionable strategies has never been more important;

Shrinking families, increasing commodity prices, more products, discount and convenience store growth and technology will require a shift from a supply chain, efficiency oriented model to one driven more by fragmented pockets of demand that demand faster speed-to-market and a more dynamic feedback loop once launched. We are already seeing the growth of “shopping-on-the-go” that these and other social factors are driving and this dynamic and challenging marketing landscape represents the ‘sweetspot’ of Shopitize (smart)phone shopper marketing.