Shopper Culture

Barbie's Risky Business

There’s been a lot of gossip about Barbie this week. Her latest antics are trending on Twitter. Bloggers and news outlets are profiling her. She even landed herself on the cover of Time magazine.

Why? (Though likely you’ve already heard…)

Because the 55-year old doll is getting a dramatic makeover by Mattel – one that comes with three new body shapes as well as various skin tones, hair colors, and make-up. The announcement comes after two years of top-secret development by the company to design a Barbie that was a greater "reflection of the times” – as Kim Culmone, VP Design, is quoted in the aforementioned Time cover story.

Cultural literacy has long been important for brands, but in today’s always-on and hyper-connected world, staying in step with culture is even more an imperative. Along every moment of the path to purchase, shopper marketers must employ cultural insights to help their brands maximize relevancy within an overwhelmingly cluttered market place.

There’s been a lot of gossip about Barbie this week. Her latest antics are trending on Twitter. Bloggers and news outlets are profiling her. She even landed herself on the cover of Time magazine.

Why? (Though likely you’ve already heard…)

Because the 55-year old doll is getting a dramatic makeover by Mattel – one that comes with three new body shapes as well as various skin tones, hair colors, and make-up. The announcement comes after two years of top-secret development by the company to design a Barbie that was a greater "reflection of the times” – as Kim Culmone, VP Design, is quoted in the aforementioned Time cover story.

Cultural literacy has long been important for brands, but in today’s always-on and hyper-connected world, staying in step with culture is even more an imperative. Along every moment of the path to purchase, shopper marketers must employ cultural insights to help their brands maximize relevancy within an overwhelmingly cluttered market place.

A New Generation of Moms

Get ready! The Millennial generation is taking over as parents. Roughly one in five moms is a Millennial, and nine million of them are raising kids at this very moment. This recent article "8 Things You Need to Know About Millennial Moms" in Pop Sugar highlights eight characteristics of Millennial moms. Below we discuss three of these new Millennial mom traits and share some considerations as they apply to the world of shopping.

 

They have been shaped by technology.

Millennial moms have been shaped by technology since the day they were born. Internet, iPhones and social media are a regular part of their daily diet. They use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and You Tube and average of 17 hours a week, four more hours each week than the average mom according to a report from Weber Shandwick.

Disruption in the Booster Seat Category

Life in today’s world is busy! This is a point of view shared by most. More often than not, it’s a point of view voiced by many of today’s working parents. As a result, parents are on the continual hunt for new and innovative ways to make their lives easier. Topping the list is travel, with the need to have a large car seat or booster seat to keep their children safe. mifold is a new and innovative booster seat that shows promise of disrupting the booster market. Why? Because they’ve found an innovative way to create a booster without actually boosting your child.

Grocery Shoppers Are as Unique as Snowflakes

Photo Source: The Integer Group

Zero.

That's how many homes in the US buy exactly the same groceries as any other home.

It's an amazing statistic that was uncovered in an analysis by Catalina Marketing of their massive POS shopper database.

32 million shoppers were included in the analysis, each of which shopped at least once a month over the year. The 10,000 stores in the study had on average about 35,000 UPCs to choose from.

New Issue of The Urbanist

The new issue of the Urbanist is kicking off 2016 with the best of what's happening in the world of urban retail.

 

It's covered happenings including: 

— Pop-Ups Becoming More Permanent (e.g., Lands End)

— Innovative Out Of Home Campaigns (e.g., Kit Kat)

— Manuquin Make-overs

— Color Trends

And don't forget to follow us on Twitter (@_The_Urbanist) for even more updates. 

Is French Toast The Best Defense?

We have long known that shoppers are predictably irrational. Sometimes shoppers say and do different things and then can’t explain why they behaved that way. However, few examples make this shopper truth more undeniably obvious than when the weathermen call for inclement weather.

There’s hurricanes, severe storms, or lots of snow and suddenly, the grocery stores are essentially battle zones with shoppers fighting to get their carts down the aisles or fill their baskets as fast as possible. Most notably, the bread, milk, and egg aisles are mad houses of irrational behavior. The sense of urgency and fear of running out drives shoppers into frenzies. But why? It can't be that those are coincidentally the ingredients to make french toast. 

Foodtail

A new generation of chefs is leading daring and innovative culinary associations beyond traditional food pairings. Foodtail is the science of creating surprising and refined associations between delicate food ingredients such as mushrooms, butternut squash, oysters and mandarin orange with spirits including Gin, Cointreau, Absinthe, Martini, Champagne. Foodtail is a source of inspiration for brands in search of product innovations or new brand’ s partnerships. And for shoppers craving for novelty and expertise, foodtail offers ways to discover new flavors and surprising brand's associations.

 Photo Source: Lox Loaded, Buffalo & Burgen, Wasghinton, DC, USA - NellyrodiLab, Paris, France

OMG GMOs: Campbell’s and the GMO Label

While many major food companies are reinventing their supply chains to omit GMOs, Campbell’s has decided to take a different approach. In a convention-breaking move, it will become first major food company to voluntarily label its food as containing GMOs.

There’s no scientific proof that GMOs are a health risk. Yet, despite this, consumers are hungry to know if GMOs are present in their foods. In fact, according to Nielsen, 43% of consumers say that non-GMO labeling is the most important factor when making purchase decisions.

Raising Our Image-Consciousness

Visual communication is becoming a larger and larger part of our cultural vocabulary. In fact, there are some indicators that visual communication is eclipsing the written word. Instagram rises as Twitter declines. A surprisingly comprehensive range of emotions, reactions and assertions can be expressed through custom avatars with Bitmoji. And in November, the Oxford English Dictionary declared the word of the year was an emojii.

While marketers have been practicing the art of visual communication since the dawn of advertising, the difference is that now shoppers are fluent in this language as well. So as we mine for insight and solicit feedback, we should take advantage of visual fluency. Trolling Instagram and Pinterest to understand what’s on our audience’s minds. Using image-based research techniques to get at underlying feelings and emotions. Listening with our eyes can be a way to learn new things about what people want and need.

Photo source: author's Bitmoji

New Checkout Study: The Evolution of Shopping

The Checkout started in 2009 not only to understand shopping behaviors of the moment, but with the specific intention of tracking these behaviors over time. This issue is an extensive first look at current vs. historic data from 2009 until today.

The Five-Year Shopper Evolution Checkout study investigates shopping trends over the past five years regarding some broad behaviors and attitudes in the arenas of store choice, private label vs. name brand, and savings methods.

One interesting finding was the influence of social pressure. In fact, shoppers today feel more social pressure than they did five years ago.

Want to find out more about how shopping behavior has evolved? Click here to download the Five-Year Shopper Evolution Checkout.

In-Store Digital: How Much is Too Much?

Over the past year Whole Foods has made its Atlanta Flagship store a digital playground. Their view of retail "tech-tainment" has now expanded to include a plethora of digital solutions designed to enhance and complement the shopping experience. They've introduced a virtual concierge and several digital screens that share stories about their commitment to local farmers and sustainability. The beer, wine, and cheese sections now include digital displays that include product education, recipes and pairing ideas. They even have a digital mirror that encourages shoppers to strike different poses, which trigger images of recommended health products like vitamins and protein shakes. 

What can Shopper Promotions Learn From Powerball?

If you have a pulse, chances are you've heard by now about the lucky three winners of the $1.6Billion Powerball jackpot. Chances are you played, and may have played with a group of people like an office pool. I know I did.

Experts say we have a better chance of being bitten by a shark, becoming president of the United States, or being hit by lightening – twice. We know this. We've heard it all before. Yet we still play. Why? Because $2 is not that much to risk for a chance, however slim it may be, of winning a life-changing, epic prize.   

This cultural Powerball frenzy has me thinking about brand sweepstakes and promotions at retail.

The Importance of Community Building

For brands, cultivating and nurturing a strong community has never been more critical than it is today. With the proliferation of products, services, and brands, it’s not news that consumers increasingly want to support brands that identify with their lifestyles and values. What is new is that brands need to tap into audiences that are passionate about the same shared values and beliefs with the brand in order to earn long-term loyalty.

Communities like Lululemon and Starbucks transcend a singular product; it becomes about the brand experience as a whole. Yet many brands continue to treat community building as a piece of their marketing strategy vs. a high-level, integral part of their overarching strategy. Starbucks community building efforts empowered its members to be advocates for the brand but also idea-generators. For example, the My Starbucks Idea online community encourages members to post new ideas and suggestions to better enhance the overall experience, making members a pertinent piece of Starbucks’ innovation strategy.

SoulCycle and Target Are Helping Us "Find Our Souls"

What happens when you combine the behavioral economics principles of scarcity and social proof? It can help brands become unstoppable forces. SoulCycle is said to have revolutionized indoor cycling, also known as spinning. But not everyone knows that because SoulCycle is only currently in select U.S. cities. Even if you don’t have a SoulCycle studio in your city, odds are good that you’ve heard of them…most likely because those who have joined SoulCycle studios are not shy about sharing why it’s amazing. If spinning is your thing, doesn’t it make you feel like you’re missing out?

To mitigate the FOMO (fear of missing out), and to create killer industry buzz, SoulCycle and Target are teaming up to feed the hungry masses. From January 22 to February 14, the two companies are bringing free pop up classes to 10 cities around the country. With limited space available, it will be a frenzy to get into a class and with such great social buzz out there, it won’t matter that most consumers will have never been to a SoulCycle class before (and may not even like it). It’s just the excitement of trying something you don’t always have available to you and something that everyone seems to be talking about.

But, what about after the pop up class? If SoulCycle creates new brand advocates but doesn’t expand to their cities, will they stay brand advocates?

Photo credit: SoulCycle

How To Become A Company That Matters

Many companies exist to fulfill shoppers’ needs, but what if a company really mattered to them? Stood out in their mind as the company and had an impact on their daily lives?

Integer and The ShopperCulture team are proud to be part of Peter Sheahan’s new book, Matter: Move Beyond the Competition, Create More Value, and Become the Obvious Choice. In this latest book, he explores how companies have elevated themselves above their competition to become an obvious choice in their markets. The book is the result of an extensive research study undertaken by Peter and his writing partner Julie Williamson looking at companies both large and small that have developed innovative approaches to their business which have helped them win in our radically changing world. There are many fascinating cases in the book, one of which is the story of the birth and growth of ShopperCulture.

We are very proud of the distinctiveness that ShopperCulture has created for The Integer Group over the last nine years. Our continual mission of driving “a global conversation about the impact of shopping culture on brand strategy” has helped us stand out amongst agencies around the world, and we are excited to have been asked by Peter to take part in this project. As Peter says: