Shopper Marketing is a new area of focus for agency head honchos these days. With organised retailing becoming big in the country and increasingly contributing more to the GDP, Shopper Marketing is seen as the potential growth area for agency business. Yes, after Digital, it's Shopper Marketing now. Agencies are gearing up to set up specialized units and teams to deliver more values for their clients. Paco Underhill's 'Why we buy' is nicely stacked in the bookshelves of most agency heads.
Even big retailers are trying to understand the science behind Shopper Marketing. So the top boss from a client's office calls up and asks if I could spend sometime with his young team and explain them in simple words what is the meaning of shopper marketing. Honestly, with my little knowledge on the subject I did manage to put a quick ppt and presented it to the team. In the process, we had a healthy discussion about the changing face of retailing in Indian metros, future shopping habits and trends to watch out for in the tier II/III cities, dabbled on the eternal debate of kirana store vs organised retailing, how Walmart will bring changes in the existing retail clutter, how futuristic is Future Group, new areas of retailing etc. etc. A long and a hectic day, but a fruitful one because in the process I got to learn lots.
So here are few slides from the presentation. Go ahead and feel free to use them in-case it helps you for similar exercises:
Please do share your thoughts and comments on the same. Let me know what is your take on Shopper Marketing? How will it bring a change in the way retailing is seen in India? What are the things we should look out for? Are there any hidden opportunities that can be explored? Or you can point me to some interesting articles and topics on the same subject. Basically, enlighten me.
4 comments:
Shopper marketing isn't anything new - it's just ad agencies have finally stopped being so arrogant and appreciated its role in driving brand volume.
The best thing any ad agency can do is buy/talk to a promotional marketing agency. They might not know the intricacies of brand building [but some do] but they know more about what motivates purchase than 99% of ad agencies - and I'm not just talking about 1-for-1 offers :)
Great post.
So true. After spending sometime with the team members out there, I understood, it is so important for agencies and in particular halfwits like me to take the subject of shopper marketing more seriously. It's not always about creative brand campaigns or kickass strategies. It can be as simple as motivating people at the last mile into buying your brand that can do wonders. Yes, agencies have started appreciating Shopper Marketing and I think it is a good start for the future especially in India where Retailing has just started showing its monster size.
I disagree with cynical Rob. Retail promotions aren't anything new, but real marketing with the shopper in mind is an emerging force that we should all pay attention to.
We, as shopper marketing professionals have the ability to bring creativity that can radically change the way people feel about shopping. Nirvana is that CPG's create better, more differentiated products and retailers create more enjoyable shopping experiences that meet their customers' needs. This requires more than points of interruption and meaningless consumer offers. It requires us to think like advertisers, create drama in the aisles and deep shopper insights. Shopper Marketing is the future, not just a bolt on function.
Read my blog shoppermarketing talkfest, let's have a conversation!
http://shoppermarketingtalk.blogspot.com
Hi Marketing Talkfest (sorry I couldn't figure out your name). Good to have you over at my blog. Well, I don't think what Rob is saying is anything different. Shopper marketing is the future and no one's denying it. As matter of fact for so many years, agencies haven't focused on SMP particularly in Asia maybe because the market wasn't ready yet. I mean the SAARC nations except maybe Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand which evolved pretty early. But given the present boom in modern retail both in India and China, Shopper Marketing is the future and agencies should/must create specialised units to cater the needs of our clients. And that's exactly where ageny heads are focusing on at the moment.
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