Shopper Culture

What's in your handbag?

Cause and effect

A few of us sat through a presentation today that started with a bit of a love story. It involves Louis, a giant Pacific octopus who lives at the Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium in Cornwall, UK.  We were told that Louis had been pretty miserable, until at Christmas he was given a Mr. Potato Head to play with in his tank. He loves it.

Louis was used in this presentation in the context of shopping in order to demonstrate how a small change in our environment can lead to a dramatic change in behaviour. However, when you look into the story some more, it turns out Mr. Potato Head is not only an interesting, colorful, tactile toy to enrich his existence in a tank, but it is also a way to deliver tasty treats to Louis. There was further license taken in the story told as it's not exactly clear that he was that miserable before hand! Among the brightest of the cephalopods, Louis needs mental stimulation and Mr. Potato Head delivers.  So what has caused his excitement and interest is under question. Was it the addition of the interesting toy, or the addition of the treats? 

Either way, it was an interesting metaphor (in the context of the presentation, perhaps less so here) for us to consider in shopping environments, where we need to introduce new stimuli in order to engage people and change behaviours. This little story also highlights the difficulty of isolating effects when more than one variable is changed at the same time.  We also need to be mindful that in changing one thing, we may have another as yet unknown or undesirable affect somewhere else in close proximity - after all, we don't know how his other tank mates feel that he gets all the great toys!

- Image courtesy of bluereefaquarium.co.uk

Family and friends have greatest influence over our shopping

In an article in Advertising Age today, Zenith Optimedia are about to release some data that shows:

a) Friends and family are the most influential touchpoint when it comes to influencing our shopping decisions

b) TV is still top dog for creating brand associations.

What Zenith have done is create a database of all the studies they have undertaken using the Market Contact Audit (MCA) methodology, a proprietary research and analytics methodology belonging to Integration Marketing Communications that is used by many brands around the world (many agency groups have licenses to sell and use the MCA).

Being one of those agencies and having used the MCA with a number of clients as part of our Connections Planning approach (we're fans), these aggregated findings that Zenith are going to make available don't really surprise.  The level of detail they share though will be interesting.

One mistake that I've seen clients make when using the MCA is to look only at the surface level measures - like those shared in the AdAge article. What gives the most 'clout' in this category? How is our brand performing in each channel (through the association measure)? This is to miss a great deal of the value in the methodology and is a superficial look at the findings. The MCA delivers so much rich insight into the return that channels are generating, messaging effectiveness and competitor strategies amongst other things. It is a great single source approach when you know how to read it and apply it properly.  If you have any interest into how your marketing is performing and the return it is bringing, you should consider it.

Really looking forward to what the is shared by Zenith and their aggregation exercise

White Paper: Point of View on the Impact of P.R.I.S.M. on the In-store Media Landscape

Each year billions of marketing dollars are spent in-store despite the lack of any significant industry metrics or standard gauge of effectiveness. The P.R.I.S.M. initiative, led by Nielsen and the In-Store Marketing Institute, aims to change that.

As we look back at the history of all major media today, we see that industry metrics have played a critical role in the adoption and maturation of every media vehicle.

So with this white paper, we take a look at the next frontier: in-store media and the impact of the development of the P.R.I.S.M. research approach. How will this marketplace evolve as we move ever closer to the standardization of language and measurement?

Download the White Paper here.

Macy's push poll

I recently made a purchase at the Macy's here in Denver's Cherry Creek Shopping Center. Everything was seamless and expected, including an overly cheery clerk at a cosmetics counter (the registers at the Men's Store were all occupied). 

But things went slightly south when, at the end of the transaction, the clerk urged me to fill out a survey that rated her performance.  She openly told me that if she received high scores she would receive a $25 gift certificate to Macy's.  She presented me with a laminated sample of the survey that highlighted Overall Shopping Experience with a red X in the box for Outstanding (see picture).

Perhaps what I saw was the handiwork of a renegade store clerk and a laminating machine.  Or maybe it was actually a store-issued program. 

Whatever the case, it feels emblematic of a larger abuse of customer service "research" that is growing in line with consumers' demand for high quality service. 

Another example from my own experience is at the dealership where I get my car serviced.  They must call me twice a month reminding me how much they are committed to my full satisfaction.  Urging me to be on the lookout for a survey call in the future.  Bludgeoning me with kindness. 

Not only is the research that comes of these studies flawed, but it must have a boomerang effect for some shoppers. 

So what's going on here? Are political research's infamous push polls leaking into the retail satisfaction space?  Where's a good brand cop when you need one?

I suspect it's a natural byproduct of the separation of sales and marketing.  And the simple fact that these are large companies, and it's no one's explicit job to be the enforcer.

But it all serves as a warning to those brand stewards working the floor, manning the counter, making the sales calls, designing the online checkouts: Beware the blurry line between serving and selling.

Retail Surveillance

As I was reading the December 6, 2007 issue of the Economist, I couldn’t help but think of the irony involved as retailers attempt to create more personal environments for their customers.  The article, Watching As You Shop, points out the very impersonal technologies being developed and utilized by retailers around the world to learn more about their customers in order to provide them with a better shopping experience.

Customer monitoring software can now measure how long queue lines are at registers, which parts of the store are the most traveled, and how long customers stay in one place.  From Tesco in the UK to Walgreens, Best Buy, or Abercrombie & Fitch in the US, the channel is irrelevant as retailers are employing the technology to create a point of difference, and for good reason. 

In addition to a more pleasurable experience for customers, retailers are hoping to increase sales by learning what types of promotions are working and what areas are “hot spots” in the store for traffic flow.  Combine increased sales with more efficient staffing and retailers are not only increasing sales, they are cutting costs.

The players specializing in customer monitoring software range from companies such as Irisys and Brickstream to a consortium including manufacturers such as Coke and Procter & Gamble (P.R.I.S.M.) to university initiatives like VideoMining a spin-off from Penn State.

With this kind of focus already placed on how we shop, the technology to understand our actions in-store is only going to get more specific and actionable, begging the question: As consumers become aware of the technologies used to study their behavior, will they care? 

There is a lesson to be learned here from American Express.  When they openly discussed how they review cardholders' spending patterns to tailor offers to them, they faced a significant consumer backlash.  Even though they had been doing this for years, their cardholders felt betrayed.  My guess is that we as a culture are getting more comfortable with this type of information being gathered about us and as long as we believe we are getting a better deal or experience we won’t mind too much.

[Image: Irisys]

- Contributed by Todd Cameron

Impulse Shopping

We marketers love the impulse buyer, but the feeling isn't always mutual. In most categories, retailers and manufacturers create point-of-purchase advertising that encourages the shopper to buy something that wasn't on their mind or on their list when they entered the store. Many Americans are happy with this, but many others are not, but oblige anyway. So if you are in a category that relies on impulse purchase it would be important to understand the distinction between shoppers for whom such purchases are guilty pleasures and those who just feel guilty.

Certain types of retailers will see more impulse buyers than others. Things like clothing, toys and sports stores are more likely to see things bought on impulse as a guilty pleasure. So the cues that are given to shoppers need to help make them feel OK about buying on impulse.

In most categories, especially low-cost items such as a bar of chocolate, is often easily justified at the checkout. Those who often buy on impulse against their better judgment may resent retail advertising and store communication that encourages them to buy.

According to some Gfk Roper research from June 2006, sales are a good way to assuage those shoppers who feel guilty about buying on impulse. Everyone loves a bargain. But advertising (or most likely product placement to maximise unplanned purchases) that persuades people to buy things they don't need or can't afford also evokes some of the most negative feelings people have about advertising. So the need to address consumers' mixed feelings is critical.

Observing shoppers

Interesting piece that is being reported about an artists' cooperative whose leader has been sentenced to probation because they built an apartment in a shopping mall as part of a project. (Courtesy of AP)

- The 7 artists made a 750 square apartment in the parking garage and lived in it at three weeks at a time
- They used a non descript utility door to hide it from the outside world.
- It was fully furnished inside but had no running water - they used the facilities in the mall

It was built...

"...out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper."

The project was inspired by the advertising for the mall as it was being built during the Christmas season of 2003 and 2004. Radio ads for the Providence Place Mall...

"....featured an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall."

According to Peter Townsend's blog 'Apartment at the Mall'

"The central theme of the ads was that the mall not only provided a rich shopping experience, but also had all the things that one would need to survive and lead a healthy life. This, along with a wide variety of theoretical musings about my relationship to the mall - as a citizen and public artists - provided the final catalyst for making the apartment."

The artists plan to offer up some observations and share some experiences in the future about their time at the mall. Which should be interesting as the artist states:

"The mall made me think very carefully about what we buy."

Should be interesting.

Was your Wal-Mart clean today?

Months ago I was at a Wal-Mart outside of Des Moines and noticed that upon checkout, the credit card payment screen asked me "Was your store clean today?" Not sure what to make of it, but since that transaction I haven't seen the retailer use the checkout terminal for self-reported consumer opinions. 

Consumers Sip, Rather than Gulp, Green Kool-Aid

Interesting article found today on Marketing VOX regarding the world of Green and how much consumers actually care. Based on a new Yankelovich study, the article points out that despite a glut of media coverage, a relatively small percentage of consumers are really passionate about being Green.

Yankelovich illustrates the degree to which all consumers - from “Green-less” to “Green-Enthusiasts” - are likely to buy a product based on its green features:

• Green-less (29%) Unmoved by environmental issues and alarms
• Green-bits (19%) Don’t care but doing a few things
• Green-steps (25%) Aware, concerned taking steps
• Green-speaks (15%) Talk the talk more than walk the walk
• Green-thusiasts (13%) Environment is a passionate concern

While the largest percentage of Americans are “unmoved”, those “passionate” can still be a valuable niche.  At 30 million strong they are nothing to snicker at, they simply should not be viewed as a mass audience.

Further, this is, to a large degree, a corporate driven movement based on good PR, and the reality is that as “organizations are required to meet strict federal and state environmental regulations - often at huge expense - it makes sense to try and leverage “new and improved” green product to consumers.”

As more marketers are finding Green is not just the color of money anymore, it'll be interesting to see which campaigns hit on the right message for the right audience and which just throw it out to the masses , to find the message falling mostly on deaf ears.

Post-Shopping Regret

This quote came into today on an email from the Henley Centre HeadlightVision. Dr. Michelle Harrison was quoted in an article in The Daily Mail entitled Beware post-shopping regret as saying ...

“Consumption is becoming laced with guilt. Going forward, I suspect that shoppers will continue to feel ‘I’m entitled’, but they will begin to feel guilty about overdoing it. We’re still a long way from women wanting fewer shoes, but I can see changes in the way we feel about shopping.”

The article talks about a growing phenomenon that is gripping the shires in the UK called Post-Shopping Regret - or PSR. The article was a particular dive into the world of dresses and shoes, but it got me wondering as to in how many other categories this particular phenomenon might bubble up? How many Apple iPhone users for example are starting to feel it now that their first bills are turning up from at&t in a box?

How far do we push our need for indulgence and when do we begin to feel some regret of our actions? By creating engaging and exciting store environements, discovery, exploration and theatre, could we push shoppers too far, get them too carried away and find we're growing a new field of opportunity for theropists?

So what do you find you shop for and then feel a twinge of regret afterwards?

Body Language in Shopping

Neilsen has just released a new consumer insight piece on modes of shopping. Entitled 'Body language: A study of shopper modality' it brings together two data sources (Neilsen Scantrack data and some customized research) to identify 4 typologies (or modes) of shopping and the categories where we are to see that behavior most likely occurring. The article attests that the modes create definite 'body language' that consumers adopt and that marketers need to read correctly so as to not waste promotional dollars.

I don't think any of these modes will be a surprise, but Nielsen have given them a neat little moniker that would help us all think about how shoppers are acting when they shop a given category. It also provides some useful insight for the packaged good manufacturer on how they should behave in the category, depending upon their position.

I think the fusion of this kind of data is extremely useful. To understand, from the perspective of past behavior, how a shopper is likely to walk the isle, view the shelf-set and make brand choices provides useful insight into how to engage the consumer most appropriately in-store to build strategies for growth. To do so from a longitudinal data perspective also makes that conversation with brands much simpler.

How we get over the issues of in-store distraction, like this ...

we've still got to work on.