General learnings from the world of shopper insight are shared in this presentation in order to give the audience an understanding of how tangible shopper insight can be, and the commonality that exists between markets in terms of shopper needs. At a CEE level the unbranded learnings are referenced that demonstrate how shoppers' generic perceptions and needs are surprisingly similar- although activation in-store needs to reflect different contexts. The markets may be different, but there is often a common shopper language, common issues, and common shopper needs.
Great change is now unfolding in the retail sector, with social media and mobile commerce driving whole new opportunities for the businesses involved in retail. With great innovation, however, comes great uncertainty. Many businesses are struggling to identify the appropriate role that these new technologies or channels can have in driving sales. Based on original research this paper seeks to provide a framework for thinking that can be utilised by brands and retailers, in order to harness the potential opening up before them.
The store is a communication channel: every aspect of layout, range, and merchandising communicates something to the shoppers who choose to visit the store. Taking the example of a relatively innocuous piece of merchandising, originally developed to aid the supply chain process, we will highlight how shoppers react both consciously and sub-consciously to the store environment, and how a real understanding of shoppers can maximise the opportunity for brands or retailers alike.
Over the last ten years the amount of information that consumers receive each day has increased. Consumers are more sophisticated and acknowledge advertising but remain highly averse to irrelevant messages. Marketing, however, has hardly changed. How will marketing develop over the next ten years? Incite Marketing Planning has completed major research into this question. Marketing will be easier and more enjoyable once marketers stop banging their heads against the wall of consumer indifference and realise that people like advertising and are happy to watch it - but it has to be good advertising. As a result, our approach to marketing will change. We will: find more ways to interact with our consumers; concentrate on developing proper relationships with our consumers; focus on satisfying our most important consumers; and use the company's own employees as its best salespeople. In turn the average marketing department will have a broader remit. It will become more complex, and marketers will become more specialised. Finally it will become more powerful and influential.
Category Management is essentially a partnership between retailers and suppliers, leading to the manufacturer driving a category through the retailer's stores rather than an individual brand. Manufacturers share information with retailers to help identify target consumers for their category, understand these consumers needs, and develop strategies to drive the category. Drawing on information from interviews with key players engaged in Category Management, this paper identifies the issues and information requirements relating to the partnership. It then goes on to illustrate two research techniques used by manufacturers to support Category Management and facilitate a profitable business partnership with the retailer.