To some, shopper marketing is no more than an in-store way of persuading shoppers to pick a particular brand from the shelves. But the discipline has evolved into a broader understanding of how target customers behave in different circumstances, and how to apply this knowledge on behalf of brands. It's not quite the pursuit of individual consumers, but more personalised than traditional mass marketing.
The growth of online shopping and the increased use of mobile phones and other technologies to influence consumers is expanding the scope of shopper marketing. "Shopping used to mean going to a shop during opening hours," says Labstore SA strategic director Sarah Britten. "Now you can shop with nearly anyone at any time."
Some years ago, a study found that consumers are hit with up to 3,000 marketing messages daily. Creative director Brian Ferns says consumers are "bored into buying".
Labstore, the retail and shopper marketing specialist in the Young & Rubicam group, operates in 20 countries and opened in SA last week. Australian-born Bird, who runs the network from New York, says it intends to integrate technology and social media to "become SA's first digitally and socially driven shopper marketing agency".
He sees SA's mix of First- and Third-World retail as Labstore's stepping stone to the rest of Africa and other emerging markets. "What we learn here, we can apply elsewhere." India, he says, is an obvious place to take those lessons to eventually, but so too, surprisingly, is the US. "There are a lot of low-income households there that may share the same challenges as here." He adds: "In principle, there is no level of shopping you can't influence."
It includes SA's informal shopping sector, which, says Ferns, is not so much informal as "disorganised". Local business director Carolyn White says: "If we go there, we mustn't attempt to change [people] but try to understand them." Bird adds: "Whatever we do, we must look at everything through the consumers' eyes," he says. "What do they need?"
Y&R SA CEO Andrew Welch says many global retail groups are seeking guidance as they enter new markets, notably in Africa. "They are asking for a strong sense of what is happening locally." Though international shopper marketing principles can help in SA, "they are relevant only if they resonate locally. No matter how global the experience, the local aspect never goes away."
Source: Financial Mail
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