Do you see that guy walking down the street with smartphone in hand? He may be texting a friend. Or he may be window-shopping for a new pair of shoes.

The distinction between consumers and shoppers used to be clearer. Consumers could be reached through a few traditional media, their interests and behaviors could be tracked, understood and anticipated to a good degree of certainty, and their steps down the path-to-purchase were fairly predictable.

That meant brands and retailers got away with looking at consumers and shoppers as distinct entities to be dealt with separately, first by brand advertising and later through shopper marketing. Then life got messy.

Today, the pace of our lives, driven by technology, has created a new fluidity where people now go back-and-forth and in-and-out of consumer and shopper modes all the time. Instead of existing in the distinct boxes of consumer or shopper, today’s empowered consumers and shoppers are everywhere, all the time, and taking many different paths-to-purchase.

This relentless fluctuation now exists not just within the human mindset, but also in the fast-changing media landscape, where technology creates new marketing avenues while simultaneously rendering previous ones obsolete. As a result, many brands suddenly find themselves losing ground by remaining rooted in separate conversations with consumers and shoppers, effectively unable to recognize and navigate the complexities of this new consumer-shopper continuum.

The old structure — separate marketing and sales departments on the manufacturer side, working with separate brand and shopper marketing agencies — is increasingly ill-equipped to maneuver within the new, fluid, environment, creating a disconnect with the lifestyles and desires of today’s technology-enabled consumers. Brand and retail strategies can no longer be separated, and successful brands of the future will be those able to deliver a truly seamless, end-to-end approach.

The challenge for manufacturers is to understand the dynamics of this new, fluid reality: acknowledge and address the limitations of the existing framework; embrace new flexibility within their marketing efforts; and ride the wave of technology and social media to take full advantage of the powerful growth opportunities they offer. It’s time to switch gears and closely examine and understand the messy overlap of the two modes. In the new world of fluid mindsets and media, the winners will be the fluid brands.

Fluid Mindsets

To get a handle on the reality of how we shop today, we recruited a cross-section of people to keep shopper diaries and had them document the times when they flip in and out of shopping mode. We asked them to record their real-life situations of how they travel the path-to-purchase journey. The data revealed five general buckets of insights:

1. Behaviors mitigated by others: Anthony’s friend suggested dinner and movie destinations. Barry does online research about tablets prompted by his wife’s interest in an iPad. Jennifer’s trip to the library with her kids results in an unplanned stop at a local sandwich shop.

2. Need for change: Ryan isn’t sure he’s getting the best service from his auto dealer and elects to shop for others. Barry decides to supplement his trusty work shoes with another pair in a different style and color. Wendy decides she really doesn’t like her bed linens and makes a plan to replace them.

3. Reliance on the internet: While watching an Ohio State basketball game, Barry starts searching online for “gray” Buckeye apparel. Anthony uses Netflix Instant View to watch a film instead of going to a theater. Laura grabs a Groupon offer for a half-price massage, followed by a local search for deals on an oil change.

4. Transition through exhaustion of stock: Anthony runs out of lunch food and goes to the grocery store. Nicole takes her last cough drop and heads to the drug store. Wendy runs out of fabric softener and adds it to the weekly shopping list.

5. Spur-of-the-moment shopping: Katie goes online to buy her boyfriend a birthday present and ends up ordering a shirt for herself. Upon exiting the mall movie theater, Ryan and family unexpectedly pick up a couple of items at other mall stores. Anthony has no intention to buy when he accompanies a friend to a club store, but ends up getting bathroom tissue because it’s on sale.

These insights illustrate the fluidity of the consumer-shopper mindset, and the complexity of the shift from one mode to the other. We also found there are a number of different dimensions to the same audience: Participants came across as something of a “shop-sumer” hybrid, where the same person has a number of distinctly different mindsets.

When shoppers are in traditional consumer mode, marketers need to know who they are, understand how to get into their mind, give them a reason to buy, and create marketing content that leads with emotion and is supported by practical benefits. When considering the same people in shopper mode, we need to know how they shop, understand how to get in their cart, give them a reason to buy right now,
and put practical content out front, followed by emotional validation.

As mindsets became fluid, the new complexity highlights the limitations of the industry’s current rigid framework and calls into question the existing tools, structure and approaches that no longer effectively capture today’s consumer.

Fluid Media

The evolution of media has played a large role in facilitating these changes. Technology has turbocharged the world of media, producing numerous new channels and ways to reach shop-sumers around the clock, wherever they might be. It has led to an interconnected media environment, creating new, fluid, touchpoints and resources that inform, promote engagement and drive decision-making. Shoppers have clearly embraced this new digital world as part of their pre-store ritual: Sixty-two percent of shoppers now search for deals online before at least half of their shopping trips, according to a report by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Booz & Co.

As we use technology and social media to track behaviors and learn more about a person’s lifestyle and interests, we can provide more relevant content and make highly customized offers at a time when we know shoppers will be most interested. Personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets, enable us to target people while they’re on-the-go, and also act as shopping tools for shoppers to get information about goods while they are shopping. Recent research from Google finds that 70 percent of smartphone owners use their phones in some capacity to help them shop while in-store.

Fluid media, coupled with the fluid mindset, makes today’s path-to-purchase more complex and dynamic. It also means the path isn’t the same for everyone. Instead of a linear progression, it’s a hyperactive, back-and-forth zigzag between a growing number of old and new media: National print ads can carry a digital tie-in; social media might offer promotions; experiential marketing and product sampling might be promoted by local media; retailer advertising, email marketing, or any combination of the three; and more. Conversations that are started online can carry over to in-store, and the list goes on.

A Big Brand Idea

How do brands then navigate the mess? Traditional path-to-purchase no longer captures the full detail in a world of fluid mindset and media. The new environment makes it more difficult to identify where conversations happen and when decisions are made. Shoppers can get informed, be influenced and potentially make buying decisions at many points along the way, at a time and place of their choosing. And they might make their next buying decision in an entirely different way.

What’s needed to tackle this new fluidity is a big brand idea, informed by shopper and retail insight across the span between “need” and “purchase.” In stark contrast to the traditional approaches (and organizational structures) of both manufacturers and agencies that target the two modes separately, we now see an emerging need to rethink the consumer-versus-shopper framework.

We need to understand and work across the entire consumer-shopper continuum, from one to the other (and back again). Our efforts must have continuity across many crisscrossing and interacting touchpoints and resources, and they must address the entire continuum from the emotional to the practical — from first communicating the benefits and value of the brand to later motivating the shopper actually to buy a specific product.

Some brands are leading the way in embracing the new fluidity, and gaining sales and market share as a result. The Kotex brand, for example, last year reinvented and reinvigorated the feminine-care category with the launch of U by Kotex, increasing awareness and building loyalty with 14- to 22-year-old women. The category had become a complacent sea of pink-and-white sameness with no true innovation or product difference, and every brand making essentially identical claims. It didn’t help matters that Kotex was also considered a tired, old-school brand and a distant third-place contender.

The brand realized this young consumer segment is no longer in her mom’s medicine cabinet, and is instead searching to create her own feminine identity. It’s the stage where she is making her own feminine-care choices, representing a prime opportunity. In addition, once a consumer reaches her mid-twenties, she becomes fiercely brand loyal.

A program called “U by Kotex” set out to liberate the category from its 1950s-era conventions of hiding the issue by championing real, honest conversations. The category was completely out of sync with the lifestyles and attitudes of Millennial girls, and the brand needed to connect with them in a fluid fashion to drive sales in its new super-premium product line.

The first step was to redesign the way period protection looks, with hipper, bolder packaging colors and graphics emphasizing the cool factor. Kotex then reached out to begin an honest dialogue, hosting dinner parties for young women to hear what they had to say about their current period norms. They created a micro-site providing real answers about periods, quotes from teens about their anxieties around the topic, coupons, free samples and a place to join the campaign to “Break the Cycle” and become brand advocates.

A design challenge, created to highlight new U by Kotex colors and designs, got women to express themselves by showing the world what inspires them, and offered them a chance to work with the Kotex design partner on future product designs. Consumer design entries were showcased through social media and public relations efforts, where women could choose what they thought should inspire the brand design team.

The effort was supported by targeted direct mail and e-blast in-home outreach, consumer print and television ads, paid search on Google, social media content on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and retailer-specific splash pages linked to UbyKotex.com providing retailers with the opportunity to participate in the conversation. Kotex also broke category conventions at retail with placement of 200,000 new eye-catching displays in other areas where the target shopped, such as cosmetics.

In the end, Kotex created a whole new conversation within the category, and remained connected to the target audience throughout the consumer-shopper continuum by providing young women with a voice and a choice in feminine care, and an opportunity to express themselves.

Mastering the “Mess”

Successful brands of tomorrow will need to identify key emotional drivers, develop content that builds trust and bonds with consumers, and use multiple, intersecting touchpoints to stay connected across the new, consumer-shopper continuum. They will be able to navigate the “mess” only if they comprehend the complexity of the new, fluid mindsets and media.

Doing so requires a new way of looking at the market — not as separate compartments of consumers and shoppers, but as a composite of the two. This approach enables brands to better understand their empowered audience and develop programs that effectively connect with them across the continuum. Most important, these brands will find that working across the entire length of the new, fluid path-to-purchase is where the next great opportunities exist.

This is the reality in which we live. It’s new, uncharted, a bit scary, and the industry is still grappling with how best to resolve the issues and challenges. At the same time, there’s something invigorating about questioning old paradigms and jumping into this new “mess” feet-first. Brands that do so now will be the ones best positioned to grow and lead in the future.