FROM THE CONSUMER... From the consumer...
Every issue, Danielle Pinnington from Shoppercentric tells us how the consumer is behaving to help you stay competitive
Hi readers! The subject of multi-channel retail is a hot topic at the moment, and it is clear that the retail environment is undergoing a period of substantial change.
O
ne of the biggest shifts is surely in the way we think about
communicating with a target audience. We used to talk about a line existing in relation to which marketing was either above or below, the difference essentially being pre-store vs in-store communication tools. In the brave new world of multi-channel retail, however, this line has been wiped out. In fact it feels out of date to even use phrases like pre-store and in-store when a large proportion of shopping takes place nowhere near a physical store. Amongst all this upheaval is an
huge opportunity for FMCG brands to create better and direct lines of communication with shoppers, outside of the confines of a retailer’s environment. E- commerce was the first real chance for brands to emerge from
Social networking and QR codes are great ideas, says Danielle, but without interesting content, what’s the point?
the retailer box, and start to interact with shoppers/consumer directly. More recently S- commerce (Facebook/Twitter), and M-commerce (Apps/Mobile enabled websites/QR codes/Blippar/NFC etc) have added new potential strings to the marketers bow. Yet in the same way that
simply setting up a website wasn’t enough in the early days of E-commerce, so too would it be misguided to think that just having a Facebook page, or an app for you, is enough. Just as with any piece of marketing it is important to have a clear role in mind when developing new touchpoints. Clarity of the purpose and intended impact will mean that the investment in terms of time and cost is more likely to pay dividend. And that clarity is most likely to be achieved by understanding how shoppers are approaching or utilising these touchpoints. In a recent study a respondent
told us that “I haven’t used QR codes, mainly because there isn’t anything interesting
“In the same way that simply setting up a website wasn’t enough in the early days of E-commerce, so too would it be misguided to think that just having a Facebook page, or an app for you, is enough. Just as with any piece of marketing it is important to have a clear role in mind when developing new touchpoints”
enough to bother with yet”. This highlights a fundamental issue at the heart of our brave new shopping world. There may well be a myriad of different touchpoints business can use to communicate with shoppers, but if the tone or content isn’t interesting or relevant, then the opportunity is at best wasted, and at worst lowers opinions of the brand involved. So, what do shoppers want?
Well, that depends where they are in their purchase journey: • In the early stages, let’s call it ‘window shopping’, they are after ideas and inspiration; • If they are considering their options, they need to know details of the range available and relevant product information; • If they are buying, they want
to know about offers or price comparisons; • And if you want to trigger a purchase out of the blue, then content needs to make an impact to create the impulse. It is fair to say there are more touchpoints than ever, which marketing teams can use to try and change shopper behaviour to the benefit of a brand. The trick is to know what to
use, when, and how - and that means understanding what shoppers need.
Danielle Pinnington is the founder & owner of Shoppercentric, specialists in shopper insight and trends research. For more information, visit
www.shoppercentric.com.
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