Designing a Better Shopping Experience: Making Shopper Marketing Work

MAKING SHOPPER MARKETING WORK FOR CONSUMERS AND BRANDS

DESIGNING A BETTER

SHOPPINGEXPERIENCE:

/2DESIGNING A BETTER SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

REALITY CHECK IN AISLE THREE: SHOPPERS WANT MORE

Liz Bigham

SHOPPER THROUGH A BRAND EXPERIENCE LENS

Richard Vincent

WHO’S AFRAID OF SHOWROOMING?

Hanah Holpe

SHOPPERS DON’T COME FIRST – RETAILERS COME FIRST

Matt Pensinger

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Page 18TALK TO JACK

ABOUT JACK Page 19


At various points I’ve heard predictions about how a new innovation would make an old experience obsolete. Email was going to make FedEx go out of business; webcasts and virtual events were going to be the death of event marketing; and user-generated ads were going to expose agencies as dinosaurs.

In fact, new innovations force people, brands and companies to ask what their core value is – and give them a chance to recommit to providing that core value in new and better ways. So FedEx still delivers assurance (even if it dramatically expanded from the delivery business); event marketers balanced what can only happen live (visceral connection, networking, serendipity) and enhanced that experience with new media; and agencies have refocused on the enduring value they uniquely offer – strategic brand and consumer insight and brilliant creativity. Another favorite adaptive example: National Public Radio (NPR) was one of the most prolific contributors of iTunes podcasts and has generally been ahead-of-the-curve in bringing their content to digital and all kinds of

Reality check in aisle three: Shoppers want moreLiz Bigham

New innovations force

people, brands and companies

to ask what their core value is.


other platforms. Because they define their value through great content, not a channel (“radio”), they’ve been hugely successful where other media brands have struggled to stay relevant or even stay in business (the fact that NPR isn’t an ad revenue model does help).

In each instance, a “threatened” category or brand re-aligned around its core value and had the confidence to define that value as broadly as possible.

Behind the marketing industry’s current focus on “shopper marketing” there’s a similar opportunity for both retail brands and brands that sell through retail channels – and that’s a lot of brands.

Take this reality check: focus on the value you uniquely deliver, and figure out how to do that better. Because as our research shows, consumers aren’t satisfied with the shopping experience – they want more.

Last year, as part of Jack Morton’s first Best Experience Brands report, we learned that among all the categories of experience, two areas had the biggest gaps between how important consumers said they were and how well they said brands were actually delivering. Those two areas? How brands treat consumers when they’re in market (the shopper experience) and how brands treat them after they’ve bought (the customer experience). Some of the biggest pain points in the shopping experience should be the easy ones: “providing an easy and efficient shopping experience”, “making it easy to shop whenever and wherever I want”, “understanding my needs”.

Reality check in aisle three: Shoppers want more


There’s no question: experience is important to consumers. Almost nine in ten participants in our research said the uniqueness and differentiation of brands’ experiences matter when it comes to consideration – the fundamental “shopper” mindset. Even better, 78% said they’d pay more for a unique experience.

Fixing the shopper marketing gap – understanding that shoppers want more and redesigning your experience to provide it – is a signal opportunity for both retail brands and brands that sell through retail channels.

To help brands address this gap in aisle three, a focus of Jack Morton’s forthcoming Best Experience Brands research (due in January 2013) will be probing the factors that most influence positive outcomes in shopper experience. Stay tuned – and read on for recommendations and best practices from Richard Vincent, Hanah Holpe and Matt Pensinger.

If you’d like to receive early notification of our next Best Experience Brands global consumer research, reach me at [email protected].

Reality check in aisle three: Shoppers want more

There’s no question: experience is important to consumers.

Liz Bigham is SVP Director of Brand Marketing, based in Jack Morton’s New York office


It seems you can’t turn around these days without someone hailing the importance of shopper marketing. Pretty much every brand has their own shopper journey model, and in a world of big data they are seeking to understand the interconnectivity of communications on that journey. But talk to marketers and you’ll hear a multitude of definitions of just what shopper marketing is. Speak to marketing agencies and you’ll find an even wider and truly confusing array of definitions.

It’s “the last three feet”, “the moment of truth”, “the aisle engagement”, “all about sales”, “the promotional messaging to seal the deal”. All of these definitions are partially right if taken within a wider context – that of the consumer state of mind, motivation and behaviour.

Shopper through a brand experience lensRichard Vincent

Talk to marketers and you’ll hear a multitude of definitions of just what shopper marketing is.


But as a brand experience agency we have a simple definition of shopper. It goes something like this:

Shopper marketing is all touch points, at any stage of a consumer journey that help a consumer move towards a sale. And that has at least two important implications that shift us from traditional definitions of shopper.

First, it’s not just about shopping aisles and in-store. Mobile and tablets will continue to completely reshape the definition of shopping “environments” beyond standard e-commerce thinking. And by our definition, “shopper” is as relevant to search and location-based mobile strategy as it is to aisle messaging and retail incentives. It’s about all the engagements and the experiences that move a person towards a sale.

Second, shopper marketing is not just about a particular sector such as CPG or FMCG. Shopper thinking, moving a consumer towards a sale, is relevant across all categories. To use a personal example, I drive a BMW; I’ve had three over the past 10 years. I consume BMW marketing messages but I’m not in the market at present so I’m not on a shopper journey, just in brand consumption mode. Next year I’ll probably replace my car and buy something newer. Between now and then I’ll move from brand consumption mode to shopper mode and start my journey towards my next purchase. When I move into shopper mode I will have a new level of interest and engagement over my general brand consumption. I’ll be looking for engagement that moves me towards my next vehicle.

So what does this mean for marketing planning? It means that we need to map consumer engagement and experience from both a brand and a shopper perspective. Comprehension and engagement with messaging will change depending on which state of mind the consumer is in and their place in the journey. The trick is to understand the most influential route and the black holes that will take

Shopper through a brand experience lens


a shopper in the wrong direction (away from your brand and towards a competitor). If a consumer is in shopper mode the online searches they make will differ from when they are in brand mode, as will the questions they ask friends or information they consume and seek in social media. The areas of the web site they will focus in on will change and so too will their likelihood of getting involved with the brand at an event or in store.

Why is a brand experience agency talking shopper?

We know that personal experience has the most impact on consumer decisions. If I have a brand experience that gives me the opportunity to interact with a product, it can move me from brand consumption into shopper mode with remarkable speed. If I’m already in shopper mode, that experience can close off any black holes that might send me to a competitor. And in the absence of that personal experience, receiving a recommendation from a friend who has had such a personal experience is the next best spark. After that is recommendations from third parties (90% of which is not happening online but rather face-to-face).

We also know that brand experiences go deeper and last longer, meaning that consumers carry experiences into their shopper state. We also know that by linking experiences with other engagement media in a consumer journey creates a multiplying effect on impact.



Richard Vincent is Head of Consumer in Jack Morton’s London office.

So we can immediately see the relevance of brand experience to shopper marketing: experience helps to cement and inform purchase decisions quickly and decisively. Consequently, as a brand experience agency with a focus on shopper we need to do three things:


1. We must seek to understand the consumer journey and the key points of consumer influence. We need to recognize the “black holes” in the journey to ensure these are plugged.

2. We need to ensure the brand experience within the shopping environment, whether physical or digital, serves to enhance the message and crystalize the offer. An experience is 3D, real and immediate and can therefore significantly impact sales metrics.

3. We must build experiences away from the store (physical and virtual) that are designed to drive consumers along their consumer journey towards their purchase moment their “first moment of truth”.

We must build experiences away from the store...to drive consumers along their journey to purchase.


Recently there’s been much ado about the threats to brick-and-mortar retail of so-called “showrooming” – consumers looking at merchandise in-store, leaving empty-handed, then buying online for less money – leading some marketers to panic (needlessly, I’d argue) about how technology will affect their business rather than embracing change. Yes, the change is dramatic, and change can be scary. But even as “traditional brick-and-mortar” becomes obsolete, “retail” will grow ever stronger if retail brands apply the lesson of other major business model disruptions: adapt or die.

Retailers need to stop fearing new technologies that threaten their existing business models and start focusing more on integrating them in their core brand experience. Consumers aren’t going to stop using technology to source product reviews, receive offers, and find better deals. What retailers need to think about is how their entire brand experience (both in-store and online) can shorten the path to purchase via a differentiated and empowered experience – one that will incentivize consumers to not only buy in-store, but also to buy now and return to buy more.

Who’s afraid of showrooming?Hanah Holpe

Change can be scary.


This means that retailers need to go further to ensure that they offer consumers the absolute best and frictionless shopping experience. Everything matters: smartphone app, merchandising, employee interaction, lighting, smell, music, check-out experience. According to Forbes, 82% of consumers prefer to shop in-store where they can touch, feel, and interact with the products they’re looking to buy. The challenge now is to leverage the newest technologies to give consumers all they need to make an informed purchase and incentivize the immediate gratification of buying now. Instead of seeing technologies such as Amazon’s PriceCheck as a threat, retailers should think about how they can create similar technology-enhanced shopping experiences that steward consumers through the entire shopping journey.

Thinking about a consumer’s path to purchase is a great place to start. More and more, it’s not a straight path at all: it’s a circular journey of brand engagement that generates both loyalty and ultimately sales. At best, all along that journey are seamless, additive experiences that reinforce core brand attributes.

Take Walmart: their proprietary app allows consumers to build a shopping list before their trip, discover and “clip” coupons, map the aisle-by-aisle journey once in the store, scan items in-aisle to check the price, and integrates with WalMart.com to ship any items to the consumer that aren’t currently in stock. Consumers can use their phone to pay and bypass the check-out line. By taking a holistic approach and leveraging technology to enhance the in-store experience, Walmart can drive consumers through the front door and all the way to checkout (and back again).

And it’s not just about sales, specials, and daily deals. Jack Morton research shows that 75% of consumers would actually pay more if they knew the brand they were engaging with would give them a differentiated experience. Consumers become loyal to a retail brand not just because of the products you carry but also because of the experience they have while they’re engaging with you.

Who’s afraid of showrooming?


So what are some ways retail brands could create differentiated shopper experiences? As a marketer and a shopper, here are some of my recommendations of better in-store shopping experiences that could drive sales:


Focus on service: Educated staff that work with consumers to find solutions and provide guidance will drive sales and loyalty.

Provide price guarantees: Don’t lose a sale due to cheaper prices from Internet retailers. Create policies that allow for immediate price matches if a consumer shows you a place where they can get it more cheaply.

Invest in product training to drive sales: People that genuinely “get” products will sell more of them. For items like consumer devices, it’s a no-brainer to provide focused product training. For example, we’ve created programs for a mobile device maker to train its carriers’ retail employees on new devices; those employees’ sales were 25-50% higher than other staff.

Act as a brand butler: Anticipate shoppers’ needs from start to finish. For example: my local grocer has dedicated parking spots for expectant and new mothers (great) but not a dedicated checkout line (not as great).

Be present for (all) the occasions that matter to (all) your shoppers: Many retailers do a great job of building experiences around obvious occasions like weddings, sporting events and holidays. But there are a lot of other life occasions – quinceañeras, graduations, first jobs, first homes – when brands can be present.

Make life easier – especially for holiday shopping: Every year I dread carrying presents (which for security reasons can’t be wrapped) on flights to visit family and friends. There must be millions of shoppers out there who’d be truly grateful to retail brands that would allow them to buy online at home, then pick-up in-store at their final destination. Variations on this theme would also work. What if urban consumers were given better local delivery options? What if you could both buy and ship from the brick-and-mortar retail store in a more seamless, time-efficient way?

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Retail brands don’t really have a choice about embracing change. From my conversations, I sense they know that. Still many are fearful and moving too slowly to create evolved, holistic shopping experiences like those I’ve described. Let’s look to history for instruction. What happened when companies reacted to past disruptions with fear? Not pretty. But, for example, what if the US Postal Service had had the foresight to embrace email as the future of communication and weave that into its core experience? At the time, it would have been radical, but now it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Retail brands should embrace the technologies they fear and focus on creating a better shopper experience.

Hanah Holpe is a Creative Strategist in Jack Morton’s Chicago office.


Act as a brand butler: Anticipate shoppers’ needs from start to finish.


I once heard a very smart marketer say that “Customers don’t come first – employees come first.” I believe he meant that if you don’t treat your people right and give them the tools to promote your brand, your customer experience will suffer.

Arguably, this analogy also works in the realm of shopper. Because behind every compelling consumer shopping journey there are a myriad of trade and retail channel touchpoints that brands must navigate in order to get their products on a physical or virtual shelf at the right time,

in the right way, to the right shoppers. And all that depends on brands’ success in first engaging retail partners – treating them right and giving retailers the tools to promote products.

In our view, the first step to success in shopper marketing is engaging the retail channel and taking smart steps to build a differentiating brand position with the range of retail stakeholders from buyers to sales associates.

Shoppers don’t come first – retailers come firstMatt Pensinger

Brands and retailers need to build on their partnerships now more than ever.


Today’s brutal environment means retailers are tremendously hungry for growth – and ready to partner. Brick-and-mortar retailers are pressured to improve margins and revenue per square foot, and they’re constantly evaluating ways to reset their product assortments to find any edge. Online, retailers face challenges to differentiate and drive consistent traffic and shopping cart checkouts beyond flash sales and free shipping offers. And retailers of every kind are working harder to ensure that shoppers feel connected to the customer experience they provide – not just to the brands they sell.

All of this creates a world where retailers, from grocery to dollar and big box, are demanding more and more from their suppliers. Looked at more optimistically, it also means that they’re open for new ideas. Brands and retailers need to build on their partnerships now more than ever, and find ways to merge their interests in ways that speak to shoppers by enhancing their experience – pre- store, in-store and post-purchase.

Shoppers don’t come first – retailers come first

The first step to success in shopper marketing is engaging the retail channel and taking smart steps to build a differentiating brand position with the range of retail stakeholders.


The most successful brands work with their retailers to build a better experience for shoppers at the point of purchase by embracing the following principles:


1. Lead with insights about your shared target consumer — Retailers are not at a loss for consumer and shopper data, but sifting through it to unearth the actionable insights that drive sales is an unending task. They’re always looking to further understand their shoppers, and to make connections between their pre-store behavior and what will delight them in their aisles. More and more, manufacturers are sharing deeper explorations into their consumers as a way to not only show how their actionable insights drive brand and product innovations but to also educate retailers about category growth opportunities (even outside their brands), demonstrating a committed partnership to the retailer while also differentiating from the competition.

2. Build plans around your mutual interest in growth – Reactionary and generic price promotions have been replaced with customized, long-term planning between brand manufacturers and retailers designed to fulfill each side’s need to cultivate consumer loyalty over time. Acknowledging the shared mission of building brand equity and ongoing shopper loyalty is now allowing a new level of shopper marketing partnership that is centered on delivering holistic value (retail experience + brand experience) to the consumer. In addition, smart brands are looking for opportunities to launch big initiatives to their retailer customers outside of line reviews and annual planning sessions in order to stand out as partners who can deliver new growth opportunities.



– The success of shopper marketing is defined by the process and experience for how a consumer finds, compares and ultimately transacts for a product. By building and deepening partnerships across the retail channel, brands have the opportunity to fully articulate their value proposition and build advocacy in the process.

Matt Pensinger is SVP, Managing Director in Jack Morton’s Chicago office.

3. Invest in people to create in-store advocates It’s time to look beyond product assortment and merchandising to the critical role people play in delivering a great shopper experience. More brands are partnering with retailers to develop and deliver training and front-line associate brand engagement programs that drive sales conversion. These efforts improve the shopper experience by allowing retailer employees to better (and more passionately) educate consumers on products and their benefit (think of the task of quickly helping a consumer to differentiate features and benefits of today’s smart phones) and communicate facts such as ingredients or other product benefits.

TALK TO JACK

Liz BighamE: [email protected]: +1-212-401-7212

Read our blog at blog.jackmorton.com

Follow us on twitter @jackmorton

Visit us online at jackmorton.com

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ABOUT JACK MORTON JACK MORTON WORLDWIDE IS A GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE AGENCY WITH OFFICES ON FIVE CONTINENTS. OUR AGENCY CULTURE PROMOTES BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS ABOUT HOW EXPERIENCES CONNECT BRANDS AND PEOPLE – IN PERSON, ONLINE, AT RETAIL AND THROUGH THE POWER OF DIGITAL AND WORD OF MOUTH INFLUENCE. WE WORK WITH BOTH BTOC AND BTOB CLIENTS TO CREATE POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES THAT ENGAGE CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS, LAUNCH PRODUCTS, ALIGN EMPLOYEES AND BUILD STRONG EXPERIENCE BRANDS. RANKED AT THE TOP OF OUR FIELD, WE EARNED OVER 50 AWARDS FOR CREATIVITY, EXECUTION AND EFFECTIVENESS LAST YEAR. JACK MORTON IS PART OF THE INTERPUBLIC GROUP OF COMPANIES, INC. (NYSE: IPG).

Designing a Better Shopping Experience: Making Shopper Marketing Work

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