Understand your shopper: A journey to win in-stroe (part II)

Hi FMCGers,

I will start by apologising for delay and lateness in posting this blog, it has been almost a month since last post (part I) I have been extremely busy in the last couple of weeks.

Last time we started discussing the different types of shoppers' characteristics and what are their winning strategies, in summary they are:

1. Loyal Shoppers      (discussed in part I, Link)
2. Bargain seekers      (discussed in part I, Link)
3. Impulse shoppers
4. Need-base shopper
5. Browsing shoppers

Today we will continue discussing the other 3 types, but before that I just want to emphasis that these discussions will give thinking framework not an absolute final solutions, as FMCGers your personal skills and experiences inputs will complete the cycle and make the plan more likely to deliver on its objectives. The reason I am saying this is that I have received a couple of questions on how these types are applicable to industries like beauty or pharmaceutical, if you add your personal input to this thinking framework, you can find that not all types are applicable for you and you will consider 3-4 types only

Going back to the topic :) 

Type 3:  Impulse Shopper: 

• This shopper will rarely consider buying the product as it is not on top of their minds or needs, these can very applicable to industries like chocolate, gums, etc, where the FMCGers need to make sure to remind the consumer about the product and quickly make them buying, they usually need to consider 2 critical points:

1. Strong call to action message: to make the different between seeing & noticing the product, it is impulse purchase they shopper may see the product but the shopper needs to notice it also, the shopper must see why he/she needs to make a quick (impulse) decision and purchase the product.
2. Easy access: very important point where so many FMCGers don't put this as a high priority, understanding the shoppers way of thinking will make this an essential part of any plan. To further clarify the point let's take an example from the chocolate industry: imagine that you are shopping in the supermarket and after doing a great job by completing a long shopping list between all the long isles in the outlet, and while you are waiting on the cashier line you noticed a small AD or you just remembered a chocolate brand you love and decided to reward yourself with a small bite, but guess what ?? the chocolate isle is  all the way back at the store end, and there is no way to make before your time for the cashier, you will immediately drop the idea, after all it was an idea to reward yourself not make your life harder. A strong yet a simple plan for example will introduce a small stand filled with the product at the cashier waiting area to deliver on both; the strong call to action message and easy access for the product, such elements will always add value to the impulse purchase shopper 

note: Retailers are becoming more knowledgable & stronger; they understand the important of such spots to these types of shopper and they are fully aware that companies are willing to pay more to get such spaces, to avoid being over charged a strong and unique customer plan is needed when approaching the customers. Convincing customers without paying pace rental money is an art that any strong Trade Marketeer/ customer marketeer should master.

 Type 4: Need Base Shopper:  

• This type of shoppers don't have strong brands' preferences, they purchase based on need, for example, the will go shopping for coffee not for brand X for example, they will go the coffee shelf and start looking for the brand they want, this type if they only want coffee, they will enter the store go directly to the coffee shelf get the coffee and go out of the store without and further steps; they just buy what they want.
• It might be easy to attract these shoppers to your brand but again it is very difficult to maintain them, and that's why the FMCGers need to fully and throughly understand the purchase habits and the shopper decision making tree, these 2 will put a strong base to put a strong strategies for the brand. (it is a topic we can discuss on a later posts)
• In summary, the need base shopper cares about their needs at the first place, brands should be positioned on how to address thees needs, or even to convince the shopper that they have these needs while the actually don't :) :)                                                                                                                     

 Type 5: Broswing Shopper: 

• A mix of all, these shoppers love shopping, they enjoy going to store and browse they may not buy anything put they want to see what's out there, and that's way I said they are mix of all.
• If you have any in-stroe communication; this type will be the first to notice, you have a new brand launched they will notice.
• This type of shoppers love comparing stuff, they enjoy looking at different brands and compare them, they even like this about themselves, this gave them the satisfaction of being a smart shopper and these 2 words are the key to win this type, FMCGers need to communicate how it is the right decision to purchase their product, again understanding shopper purchase habits is very important.  
• Also, these shoppers need to be entertained in their store visit, entertaining shoppers has so many benefits, it increases awareness, positive referrals, happy feeling linked to the brands and ofcourse increases the purchase decision probabilities.

Understanding your brand / category different types of shoppers is a very important task to any FMCGers in any brand or any project, it will always have positive impact on your strategy building, route-to-market plan and delivering different action touch points a long the project life cycle.

as simple as the differentiation may sounds above (I hope) the difficult part will be the brain storming sessions to apply them in a real brand or product, but from my experience strong understanding will result into strong action plan / project and will always lead to amazing results. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog and found it helpful, please let me know what you think on the subject it self or on the blog overall in the comments sections or over emails, any feedback is highly appreciated, also, please share with your friends and colleagues, it is matter of icon click below :)

Hasan Bashammakh

Follow @HasanBash

  

Understand your shopper: A journey to win in-store (Part I)

Hi FMCGers,

I'd like to start by sharing my happiness of the great support & interest the blog is getting, I wasn't expecting to get more than 1,000 views in less than a month specially that we only have been discussing a focused part of the FMCG world (Trade Marketing), it is also shows how important Trade Marketing and Shopper Marketing is getting to all FMCGers year on year,  actually I have received a couple of emails and calls asking about how to implement the concept correctly within the the companies' structure, and some asked on what are the Arabic translation of this concept ( I will soon post a blog in Arabic to address these request). Again thanks all :) :)

After we shared the pillars of trade marketing & shopper marketing; meaning (Link) , classification (Link) and importance (Link), we need to start discussing how to win the shoppers' hearts, trust and purchases decisions.

There was a time where FMCGers only cared about understanding consumers habits and how to direct them to love their brands, these days are long gone, also nowadays the retailers are bigger in size and power, 100's of brands are available in the store and the competition is getting severe. 
Every brand want to stand out for the shoppers and starting to spend more time and efforts to understand shoppers behaviours and how to win in-store by addressing their shopper needs, but who are these shoppers ? we will start by classifying the different types of shoppers.

Shoppers types:

1. Loyal Shoppers
2. Bargain seekers
3. Impulse shoppers
4. Need-base shopper
5. Browsing shopper

Going into the details of each type we will find the following:   

Loyal Customers: FMCGers favourite type, 

• This shopper will go for the brand no matter what, for them the rest of the shelf is just a black box they don't care about it, it is the highest level of brands equities.
• This type makes 20% of the brands' shoppers however the make 50% of the sales which is without a doubt an excellent figure
• The sad news this type is shrinking with the time due to cost of living getting higher and higher, and they start considering other options.  
• This type is high in the cosmetics products, medium in food & beverages and low in home care products.
• This type preferred to be recognised by the brands by getting special gifts (promo packs)
• The key winning strategy to keep this shoppers is to make the brand easy to find and visible in style. 

Bargain seekers: A volume generator but a continuos risk

• This type have higher care for the price and managing their grocery budget carefully.  
• they may keep the brand equity in mind but they will always look for the best value deal. 
• In Saudi Arabia this type is getting bigger & bigger, go to any retailer in Saudi Arabia and see the number of people browsing around carrying thy customer weekly leaflet looking for the best deal, also, look at the crazy offer some retailers put to attract these types of shoppers, some retailer they may go to the extreme of losing in some key products to attract shoppers to their outlets and making up for that lost from other products. 
• The key winning strategy is to keep promoting your high volume products with good offer that will keep the cash flow running and avoid high share loss to other competitive brands

We will park for now and continue the topic in the next blog to go through the other 3 types and also we will support that by another blog discussing how to know which type your categories shopper follow.

 Meanwhile I'd really appreciate your feedback and comments to make the discussion and next blog stronger and more beneficial, take care for now.

>>>>>> Link to part II <<<<<<<

Hasan Bashammakh

Follow @HasanBash

   

Why Shopper Marketing is important: the 1st moment of truth

Hi FMCGers,

     "I'd like to start by thanking all my friends who congratulated me and supported me on the blog, it is really motivating & inspiring for me to keep the blog going. Also, I got a couple of request to define (or translate) the terms and titles into Arabic which is something I am currently working on and I will share very soon."

   over the last couple of post we started by defining what is trade marketing, shopper marketing and customer marketing, which was mainly the base for this blog and future discussion, the 2nd pillar is to understand why these functions are important and how FMCGers can benefit from them.

So, why shopper marketing is important ?

well to start it called the 1st moment of truth :) 

Most shoppers are claiming that they know what they are purchasing before entering the stores, however, researches show that shoppers only plan to purchase 20% of their actual store basket, if you added another fact which the average basket size in the saudi market is SR 500 = $ 130; you will have another SR 400 (80%) to be an impulse/unplanned purchase, which is a quite attractive number to capture.  

Further to that researches also show that 76% of shopper purchase decisions are made in store that means that there is also a chance to eat from the 20% already planned purchase.  

another important factor is that In Saudi Arabia shopping is becoming to be an entertaining process for the family rather than a duty for the parents, entertaining this family in the store is becoming an effective tool to attract them to the different brands. Reachers show that the average shopping time in UK is 12-15 mins, in the US 18-24 mins and in Saudi Arabia (believe it or not) the number jumps to 70-90 mins, which is by far much more than the entire family watching TV's ads time. Shopper marketing is not only a tool to increase purchase, shopper marketing can be very affective tool in brand communication and awareness building.

But why companies are investing more in shopper marketing now?

"According to Deloitte FMCG companies like P&G are growing their shopper marketing budget by 21% annually, which a quite interesting number in a time where companies are cutting budgets."

It is for a fact that FMCGers and marketers are not considering shopper marketing as sexy as direct consumer marketing (above the line activity), also, shopper marketing can be a more dynamic and complicated process than direct marketing. the reason for that is the fact that there is another medium / step to take, which the our friends the retailers, the retailers are growing stronger and more greedy and they understand their role and power in the brand shopper marketing communication. Managing to manage retailers is a difficult task, also the shoppers within the different retailers behave differently, for example, what might work with Panda (biggest retails chain in Saudi Arabia) may not work with Danube (another retailer), what might work with Panda's shoppers may not work with Danube's shoppers and even what might work with Panda's shoppers in Jeddah might not work with Panda's shoppers in Qassim. 

Trade marketers should know their customers (retailers), the customers' shoppers and also the different behaviours of shopper between the different regions and some time between the different area within the same city. While it may sound like a difficult and complicated process the reality is that it can be much easier with the right knowledge, experiences and approaches. which is what will be talking about in the future posts :).

I hope that you benefited & enjoyed the article, please share your thoughts and experiences on shopper marketing on the comments section below, also, I'd really like to hear if you have any recommendation on how to make the blog better, sharing with your friend is a much appreciated support. 

Hasan Bashammakh

Follow @HasanBash