Shopper Marketing [shop-er mahr-ki-ting] – noun. 1. In-store advertising, promotion and design initiatives that align with and extend supplier equity-building objectives while simultaneously creating a source of differentiation for participating retailers through tailored executions that address specific shopper need-states and activate purchase at the point-of-sale.  Source: Marketing Leadership Council

The concept of Shopper Marketing is a relatively new tactic in the marketing toolkit.  It is only since the mid 1990’s that agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi X, Arc Worldwide, DraftFCB, and Integer have emerged under the premise of turning shoppers into buyers by tapping into the so-called First Moment of Truth.  And it’s no wonder this discipline has emerged when you consider these facts about the store:

• Each week, over 127 million customers walk through a Walmart in the US, versus 68 million people who watch ABC, CBS or NBC Evening News on average.
• Studies estimate that 70 percent of purchase decisions are made in-store and 68 percent of in-store purchase are “impulse buys.”
• Shoppers make up their mind about a product in between 3 to 7 seconds.

It is easy to see why investment in Shopper Marketing is estimated to be growing 21 percent annually when brands need to account for these factors.

But for all the positives of Shopper Marketing, a Brand Manager also has these factors to consider:

• 41 percent of online shoppers say they always or often consult consumer reviews before making a purchase decision and 70 percent cite them as extremely or very important factors in their decision-making process.
• More than 25 percent of the search results on Google for the world’s 20 largest brands are consumer generated content (Nielsen Buzz Metrics).
• The number of retail channels has more than doubled in just 50 years and online retail sales are growing 5x faster than offline.
• The web is projected to influence 50 percent of offline sales by 2012, up from 38 percent in 2007.

This means that if a Brand Manager only thinks about the in-store environment for Shopper Marketing, they are missing a tremendous opportunity to turn shoppers into buyers.

Brand Managers Need Everywhere Shopper Marketing

“The web is not an advertising medium…it is a buying medium…the user controls, the user experiences.” – Jakob Nielsen

In the years to come, Brand Managers need to evolve from focusing on Shopper Marketing In-Store and instead focus on “Everywhere Shopper Marketing.”  Today, the shopper marketing cycle is offline and online, all at the same time.  Brand Managers need to “close the sale” at every marketing touchpoint, giving consumers the chance to be shoppers AND buyers.

“Everywhere Shopper Marketing” means you will start focusing beyond just the store aisle.  Instead, a Brand Manager will think about how a Banner Ad can be a sales channel… something HP has done well in the past.  They will think about how to drive sales through the “Database of Intentions” that exists in Search.  They will think about how the role of mobile in the Shopper Journey, much like Amazon has done with Amazon Remembers.  And they will think about how to create a Social Shopping experience, much like the latest experiment from Zappos.

Everywhere Shopper Marketing is a mindshift for marketers and agencies alike.  But the fact remains it is a necessary change if we hope to keep up with the changing shopping habits of consumers.

Want to see how Microsoft views the world in 10 years?  Check out this amazing compilation video that was previewed at the Wharton Business Technology Conference courtesy of Microsoft Labs (if in RSS, click through to see):

If you visit the Microsoft Labs, you can also see longer videos for:

• Retail Future Vision (featured below)
• Manufacturing Future Vision
• Banking Future Vision
• Health Future Vision

Thanks to the FEED: Digital Design Blog for the lead

Related articles by Zemanta

• Microsoft 2019 (blogs.msdn.com)
• A Glimpse into the Future with Microsoft. If they pull this off, I’m a future PC [video] (thenextweb.com)
• Vision of the future according to Microsoft (jkontherun.com)

So I can officially announce that as of October 1st, I will be P&G’s new Global Marketing Digital Brand Strategist.

So what exactly is a Digital Brand Strategist?  Well frankly a lot of that is going to be figured out on the job since this is a completely new position for P&G Marketing.   At the highest levels, the job will be helping drive P&G’s capability in digital marketing, branded content, social media, mobile and a host of other “digital areas”.  My job will be helping guide and equip my fellow Procter & Gamble Brand Managers / Marketers across the company with the tools to develop their digital marketing strategy.  Here is part of the job description:

Accelerating the company’s Digitial Marketing expertise and efforts across the globe is one of the current top priorities. Our commitment is to equip our brand building community with the knowledge and capabilities to create and execute a Digital Marketing Strategy.  Specific responsibilities will include:
- building & running the global digital marketing network
- leading digital marketing training program (content & delivery)
- ‘collect & connect’ of best practices & inspirational case studies
- demonstrating use new digital capabilities for internal communications

This role will involve strong external networking and communication to bring the outside in and keep us in close touch with leading edge capabilities and expertise.

I am super excited about this new role because it allows me to dive headfirst into two areas that I love: Digital Marketing and Brand Building.  It will also allow me to meet and work with many of the people in the online community who I have grown to respect and admire while writing Hard Knox Life.  And with our changes at the top of our marketing leadership, the job will be even more interesting.

As part of the job I will be relocating back to Cincinnati so I’ll be getting ready for that move over the coming 2 months while finishing up some major projects on the Walmart Team.  If anyone is looking/wanting to buy a house in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I can get you a great deal on mine!

Over on The Hub, I came across a great article by Stuart Armstrong on where retail will play in the marketing mix.  Armstrong writes:

“Which means that the future of marketing—the convergence of retail, the emergence of digital media networks and the cellphone as the linchpin—is not really the future at all. Because, as Geoffrey Frost noted, in a nod to science-fiction writer William Gibson’s famous quote, “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

I find this point on convergence/emergence really interesting.  While P&G has placed increasing importance on Shopper Marketing, it is an area that is still in its infancy.  The same holds true for experts in digital (not interactive…but digital).  Digital experts are learning the world of not just interactive (ie traditional media applied to online) but also social media, mobile, consumer generated media and everything else that is digital today. 

The case can be made that the worlds of retail and digital are going to collide and they are going to collide very soon.  But I’m not sure if many clients OR agencies are recognizing this fact.  If you look at the major agency holding companies, most of them have their digital shops AND their shopper marketing shops.  Likewise you arent going to find many marketers that have spanned the world of both digital and shopper marketing during their careers.  Sure many have taken traditional brand / mass media backgrounds and layered on shopper marketing.  And many have done the same thing with digital. 

But it is only a handful of marketers that have thought how to take a traditional background and layer on expertise in both shopper AND digital.  It made sense just a few years ago when they were seperate worlds.  But these worlds are now converging and we all need to change…we need to change fast.  We need to understand that consumers can now become shoppers at any moment.  They no longer have to step into a store to shop.  It can happen online, on their cell phone or even on Xbox Live.  Those transactions taking place outside of traditional retail might be small now but that wont be the case in several years (ask the music industry about how fast iTunes made that happen).  Sounds like now is the time to start thinking about how shopper marketing and digital expertise are going to play together.  Will your brand be ready?  Your agency(s)?  You?