The curious case of investment in Shopper Marketing

Curiouser and curiouser

This is a fascinating phenomenon, firstly because shoppers have been around for an awfully long time and it is strange we still don't understand them and secondly, given the perceived value of Shopper Marketing, the lack of actual implementation that happens as a result of it.

It is as if brands and retailers cannot really believe that this strange new knowledge can turn decades of established thinking on its head. But I hear you cry, "We take shopper marketing seriously in our brand!", and I have no doubt that you do on some levels.

However if we look at the true investment in shopper marketing personnel in South Africa, it paints a rather different picture.

Where's the shopper marketing?

Based on a small survey recently conducted we found that some companies have no shopper marketing function; some have it as part of Consumer Research or similar; and some do have a specific shopper marketing department. It is, however, likely to be significantly smaller than such vital functions as security or facilities management.

Not that I have anything against the legion of security and facilities management staff employed in South Africa. I just think that having a few more shopper marketers might actually increase bottom line profit significantly.

This should not be taken as a Brit (as that is what I am) having a go at South Africa, the situation in the UK and Europe is equally dire.

Importance of insight

It has to be said that a key constituent of Shopper Marketing knowledge is Insight (capital "I" again).

In most places around the world, the role of Insight and its relationship to Shopper Marketing and getting things actually done is not understood at all.

There are several reasons for this mainly based around the principles of "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it". Put simply, when brands can clearly define their Shopper marketing activity, in many cases objectives, goals, KPI's - call them what you like - have not been set. Or if they have, they have not been followed, and there are therefore no real learnings from whatever activity has taken place.

This perpetuates the culture of "let's do what we did last year". Which, whilst it might be the correct thing to do, is leaving quite a lot to chance.

Seeing the light

The light at the end of the tunnel, is that brands are actually starting to investigate what works in-store with the shopper and as far as is possible, why this is. I find it significant that having been involved in Shopper Insight for hundreds of years, there is now a desire from both brands and retailers to get this knowledge and act upon it.

I have been involved in several projects recently where both brands and retailers have taken the decision to understand their total investment in in-store display. Whilst this doesn't account for all Shopper Marketing given the new path to purchase models being developed, it does account for a significant part of the spend.

The critical part of all this is the clients actually do something with the Insight generated, not just say, "That's quite interesting". Happily in the cases I am talking about, significant change has taken place both in the split and overall total of spend on display.

Not all lessons from abroad are good ones, but I truly believe this one is.