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Chapter 14 – Current Events
‘Targeting Consumers Where Decisions are Made: Marketers look InStore’
LEAD STORY – DATELINE: New Zealand Marketing Magazine, May 2007
You’re walking down the aisle in your local supermarket and see an in-store display for a new
flavour of chocolate bar, complete with flashing lights and coupons offering $1 off – so you buy
one. At the end of the aisle there’s a booth offering free samples of a new fat-free, sugar-free,
dairy-free ice cream – after tasting, you buy some. You’re attracted to another section of the store
by the aroma of melting cheese, salsa and fried beef – after tasting the nachos you buy the sauce
used. You wash the ice cream and nachos down with a small glass of Australian wine, while noting
the video playing short ads for a new cheese variety. Yep… the wine and cheese also make it into
your shopping cart. None of these items were on your shopping list and you’re not sure what
you’re going to do with the sauce.
Increasingly consumers are making decisions in-store. According to John Duncan of FieldForce
marketers need to take note, lest they miss the opportunity to communicate with a highly targeted
audience at the point where they are about to make decisions.
Companies are increasingly recognising the importance of product presentation to buyer behaviour.
According to Martin Fowler of New Zealand’s Display Group, in-store Battery Centres displaying a
range of Energizer products led to a 34% increase in sales.
Creative marketers are now communicating with consumers via electronic in-store displays. For
example, noting that consumers are disinclined to view in-store television when screens are placed
above their heads, some companies now advertise on battery-powered video units. These units sit
on shelves, are triggered by infrared sensing of consumer activity and when activated play 15
second commercials. Not only do these units solve the perennial problem of getting power to
supermarket shelves, consumers are more likely to look at them, being at eye level. And the
messages are being presented at the point where consumers are making decisions, having the
potential to directly affect consumer choice. Such units can be also be programmed to respond to
consumer actions, encouraging additional purchases through cross-selling. For example, a
consumer putting cough syrup in their cart may be shown ads for tissues, cough lollies and pain
relievers – all complementary products. Video units can also be used at the checkout, to
encourage repeat purchase, provide purchase assurance for current purchases, promote methods
of payments or loyalty programs, and provide messages targeted to consumers’ personal
purchasing profiles for future purchases. For example, in the United States, Reebok flashed up its
logo every time a consumer purchased Nike in an attempt to influence future purchases.
A major challenge to marketers is to ‘wake up’ the ‘unconscious shopper’ – those doing routine
shopping, who see the shopping as a chore rather than a pleasure and who often go straight to
where products on their list are located, potentially missing all the marketing communication
enroute. One way to ‘wake’ them up is to provide sensory stimulation. Enter product sampling –
where small samples of the product can be tried risk-free. Next time you are in a supermarket,
take note of all the free samples on offer, especially on high-volume shopping days. Note also how
these samples appeal to the senses.
While retail environments are ideal for creative communication of marketing messages, aggressive
marketing can detract from consumers’ shopping experiences so careful planning is required.
Marketers need to not only understand their consumers but also the environments in which
purchase occurs. Increasingly, marketers are moving budgets from advertising to in-store,
targeting consumers where they make decisions.
TALKING IT OVER AND THINKING IT THROUGH
1.
How can in-store communication positively affect the consumer decision making process?
2.
How might in-store communication negatively affect the consumer decision making
process?
SOURCE: Zirk van den Berg, ‘Show me the money: consumers are tending to make more
purchase decisions in-store but marketers are reluctant to devote a greater share of marketing
spend to this important area’, New Zealand Marketing Magazine, May 2007, pp. 28 – 34.
Jan Charbonneau