Brand marketers are generally accustomed to letting data-driven consumer insight inform decision-making. They’re used to creating brand affinity with consumers. And, in the past, a sales-driven initiative was often executed through trade and discount promotion tactics. That was enough.
Today, brand marketers must apply data and develop insights about their brand’s shoppers. These include insights into their transition from consumer to shopper mindset; shopper mission and media behaviors; and how behavior changes when they shop a particular category or brand at different channels or retailers.
As people shift from “consumer” to “shopper” mode, their pre-store and trip-mission planning behavior is determined on simultaneous dimensions (online, coupon clipping, list-making, etc.). Like snowflakes, no two shopper approaches are the same. Shoppers are now determining their own value equations — is the price for a brand justified based on how it meets their needs? While we know this value goes beyond price, we’re finding out that it has much more to do with risk. Shoppers can now determine these equations not only as individuals but also as groups, given the rise of Groupon and other social-shopping resources.
Technology certainly has enhanced the investigation phase of the shopper journey, and this is spurring new behaviors. Among the most significant is that the shopper expects extensive product and brand information on brand and retailer websites. According to Pete LaFond of Walmart, 53 million unique visitors visit Walmart.com each month.
New influencers are also always on the horizon. Think about the rise of product reviews, bloggers who distribute coupons and samples, and social websites. Retailers have reacted by developing powerful media channels with multimedia properties and robust digital content to influence purchase decisions on any platform the consumer prefers. Of course, all of this occurs before a shopper even arrives at the store! In a world this complex, marketers need a road map that cuts a clear path and pinpoints the opportunity to reach and connect with shoppers every step of the way.
To capitalize on this opportunity, we must aggregate data on penetration, share, sales and shopper demographics, along with insights into brand, category, media and channel mindset and behaviors. This creates a dimensional “roadmap” that tracks shoppers from their consideration phase right through to a retailer-specific choice.
Using this roadmap, we can identify the contact points and messages that reach the shopper at the right time and place for maximum effect. Most important, we can identify the gap between the shoppers’ behavior and the brand’s communications. From here we can determine whether the actions the brand is taking align with the shopper’s mindset and behavior.
By identifying the strategies that align the brand’s behaviors with the shopper’s, we can turn this gap into an opportunity for growth. It’s like finding out what was making that noise under the hood, and fixing it to get the engine running smoothly again. Through such analysis, we can identify where a brand or category can impact and propel a shopper farther along the purchase cycle and assign messaging and strategies to those points. We can provide specific insights to drive creative strategy and develop success metrics and analytic tools to measure the program’s performance.
This requires aggregating data from numerous sources: business objectives, sales data, volumetrics and consumer and shopper behavior. All this data is compiled to study who, when, where and with what influence shoppers evaluate a purchase decision. This is fundamentally a data-based exercise in lateral thinking, yielding breakthroughs.
For example, suppose there was a premium line of tools used by both professional builders and do-it-yourself homeowners. As a category leader, the brand is sold through a network of dealers and retailers. Unfortunately, this leadership hasn’t prevented the brand from losing consideration and share to competitors.
The goal is to keep the brand’s prospects in the purchase funnel and drive them, with a very high conversion rate, to their dealers. Finding the gap — the point at which the brand message and shopper behavior disconnect — is essential. The process doesn’t end there, however, because we must know how to react accordingly to keep prospects in that funnel.
In this hypothetical case, we applied a combination of WPP research tools, syndicated MRI and Mintel research, as well as our own proprietary research tools to perform an in-depth review of brand tracking, sales analytics, dealer studies, media plans and shopper profiles.
The result? We found the gap, and because of this also discovered ways to impact shopper behavior: Although the brand enjoyed high awareness (90 percent), a favorable reputation (80 percent) and consideration (70 percent), when the prospect moved to “investigation,” there was a significant drop (to 60 percent) in the brand’s scores as a “good value” and “meets my needs.” This drop is the “gap” we were looking for.
While a majority of shoppers (74 percent; higher than their brand measures) saw the dealer as a good source of information that helped them “meet their needs,” a significant number of shoppers reported being intimidated by the dealer, and only connected with them after they had made their purchase decision.
The gap we found corresponded with a low-level of media and online investment. Repurchase rates and high levels of engagement with the dealer created an opportunity for existing customer recommendations and referrals.
So what were the best solutions based on this finding? How did we fix the “noise” under the hood? First, we included needs-based and value messaging in the premium branding communications. We also invested more in search, online tools, social media and influencer programs during the investigation phase, both nationally and locally — not just seasonally, but also consistently throughout the year.
The dealer was positioned as a resource for information during this phase — and not solely as a purchase destination — to drive more prospects to the dealer to influence the final decision. Finally, we leveraged high-value customer relationships and created referral programs so we could mine word-of-mouth online recommendations.
To measure results, we added needs-based measures to brand tracking. We also measured dealer inquiries, web-based information and tool downloads, visits to the dealer sites and retailer locations, as well as total sales. Finally, we measured referral-based sales, re-purchase rates and the number of online recommendations.
The key to success is when brand marketers work with brand, shopper and communications strategists, and form a core team that addresses the purchaser in the context of the entire relationship a brand has with its users and purchasers. 
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SIDEBAR: Shopper Behavior Drives Sales
