Definition of Shopper Marketing
The most universal definition of shopper marketing is proposed by Chris Hoyt, founder of the Path to Purchase Institute:
“Shopper marketing refers to brand marketing within a retail environment.” This approach encompasses a wide range of marketing techniques, often considered separately: category management, merchandising, sales, packaging, promotion, research, and marketing. The goal is to understand customer behavior across various channels and formats.
Due to the multitude of touchpoints throughout the shopping journey, different disciplines must be considered to communicate relevant messages, particularly through promotional, experiential, mobile, digital, social, and word-of-mouth channels.
When developing a shopper marketing program, it is extremely important for the brand to express itself through various disciplines. These should also interact with each other to maintain brand positioning consistency. However, the message does not necessarily have to remain the same. Each message should be tailored to each shopper marketing channel.
Knowing how to differentiate Shopper Marketing
Unlike promotional marketing and experiential marketing, shopper marketing separates the user from the buyer.
Indeed, while the consumer and the buyer can often be the same person in many situations, this is not always the case.
For example, children’s cereals are generally purchased by parents. In other words, the child only influences their parents’ choice. While the taste, mascot, gifts, or games printed on the box may be deciding factors for the child, parents are likely to consider other purchasing criteria, such as nutritional values, price, and the product’s utility.
Shopper marketing focuses on the buyers, making this a significant distinction, as the actual user/consumer may only be an influencing factor in the decision.
Today, shopper marketing therefore involves more of an integrated process rather than a one-time event. An effective program studies the factors that influence behavior and suggests ways to impact them. This requires the ability to interpret buyers’ needs while considering the places where they shop, the stores that influence their decisions, and the activities that motivate their purchases.
