Whoops! The most common mistakes at POP.
By Shopportunity: TorchMedia's shopper behaviour and marketing partners. Visit www.sh-opportunity.com.au
Nobody likes feeling foolish! Here's our heads up on the four most common point of purchase marketing mistakes, so you never have a 'whoops' moment yourself !
That much-bandied-about statistic about 70% of decisions being made at point of purchase has been used to justify all manner of in-store marketing programs. Some work a treat and achieve major sales uplifts; others just don't seem to make an impact. There's no doubt that more companies are spending more money in store, and this is a good thing - people are realising that shoppers are not always the same people as consumers, and you need a shopper marketing strategy as well as consumer. Some things to avoid:
1. Whoops - Made the wrong stuff!
Some in-store campaigns fail because the people who design the creative weren't familiar with the reality of how the channel works or the nature of the environment.
Here's a classic: a new food product that is distributed in supermarkets, petrol stations, food courts and some cafes. The promotions people decide a nice, speccy poster would be a good thing. Big bucks are spent.
Guess what? The supermarkets won't take the poster, neither will the service station (ok, maybe one or two independent convenience stores might), there is no room for posters in any of the food court outlets and the cafes like to look nice and don't want to clutter their walls with advertising.
And now there's a whole pile of posters sitting in a warehouse. Whoops.
How to avoid the whoops:
Map out which channels and channel segments your campaign needs to work in, get out in field and look at them, and talk to retailers about what kinds of things work there. And get on board with production and media companies that have good relationships with those retailers so you can be sure your campaign will get up.
Keep it simple - find out the top three things that work the best in the channel segments you're in, and only produce those. This keeps your ROI at the maximum and helps guarantee your budget for next year.
2. Whoops - Looks great, doesn't get any action out of shoppers!
This one is a big one. Don't blame your promotions / media agency if your campaign didn't work because the messaging your company insisted on using didn't resonate with shoppers.
Many companies are still bending their heads around the difference between shoppers and consumers, and trying to make their consumer or straight branding campaigns work in-store. Sometimes this can work in instances where the shopper and consumer are the same or when the branding execution is tailored to suit the environment - but many times it just uses up your precious budget and doesn't really achieve the intended result.
How to avoid the whoops:
Be crystal clear on exactly what you want the retail media to achieve. Is it driving trial of a new product? Education to get over misperceptions of the product and buy? Brand switch within a category? Reminder e.g. during top up shop? Prompt impulse buys? Keep in mind that in-store marketing is about conversion, where before-store marketing is about awareness. A clear call-to-action is needed. Tell your shoppers what they are supposed to do about it.
Understand the shopper purchase decision hierarchy for your particular product (do some shopper research). Is brand more important than price for your shoppers, or the other way around? Is flavour variant the key decision-making factor first? Why do you need to know this? Firstly, so you can determine whether a price promotion will actually work for your particular product - many companies assume in-store marketing is always about price points - not necessarily (especially for premium products). Classic example: a holiday promotion wrap around a can, that actually covered the flavour variant indicator on the pack. Sales went down. Whoops. Solution - use in-store media.
A picture paints a thousand words! The more you can deliver your message through pictures, the better. Shoppers don't have time in-store to read lots of text - and 'lots of text' on retail media equals more than about four words!
3. Whoops - Nobody saw it!
Another biggie. Great idea, wrong place. Very common!
How to avoid the whoops:
Back to knowing how shoppers shop in your channel and category. Most often, your efforts need to be focused where your category is located, which is where the majority of your shoppers are. For example, in the aisle at supermarkets - which is also where shoppers spend the most decision-making time. Next most important is on the path to purchase between your category and the counter e.g. back to the supermarket scenario. gondola ends at front of store near the checkouts (if you can afford them! - also think about relevant category adjacencies for your off-location displays and complimentary media placement in-store - places where your shoppers might look for a similar product). Then at the counter / checkout itself, for impulse items you can purchase there. Then path to purchase between the entry and your category, and entry altogether (of shopping mall, car park etc.). The main thing to remember is to put most of your money where most of your shoppers are: at the category.
Don't do wallpaper. Shoppers generally have a repertoire of stores they visit very regularly. If your campaign is up longer than a month it will become wallpaper - invisible - consider creative/copy changes.
4. Whoops - It didn't make any impact!
Ok, now here's the biggest one of the lot. If you have eliminated all of the above reasons for this - you made the right stuff, messaged it correctly, put it in the right place and followed through to ensure it got up. But it doesn't seem to be doing a hell of a lot.
How to avoid the whoops:
What was your budget for this campaign? And how does that compare to your before-store consumer promotions? If you're expecting miraculous sales uplifts for 5% of what you spend on other forms of advertising, think again. A couple of bits and bobs in-store for a couple of weeks just won't cut the mustard. Have a think about where your marketing budget priorities lie. If shoppers actually buy your product in-store, but your in-store marketing budget is the very poor cousin of your broader consumer-based marketing program, why is that? Does it need to change? Don't abandon your shoppers when they are in store - this is where the rubber actually hits the road, right? Avoid a no-impact whoops and allocate a decent retail media budget.
So, here's to whoops-free marketing in the retail space for the rest of the year!
Nobody likes feeling foolish! Here's our heads up on the four most common point of purchase marketing mistakes, so you never have a 'whoops' moment yourself !
That much-bandied-about statistic about 70% of decisions being made at point of purchase has been used to justify all manner of in-store marketing programs. Some work a treat and achieve major sales uplifts; others just don't seem to make an impact. There's no doubt that more companies are spending more money in store, and this is a good thing - people are realising that shoppers are not always the same people as consumers, and you need a shopper marketing strategy as well as consumer. Some things to avoid:
1. Whoops - Made the wrong stuff!
Some in-store campaigns fail because the people who design the creative weren't familiar with the reality of how the channel works or the nature of the environment.
Here's a classic: a new food product that is distributed in supermarkets, petrol stations, food courts and some cafes. The promotions people decide a nice, speccy poster would be a good thing. Big bucks are spent.
Guess what? The supermarkets won't take the poster, neither will the service station (ok, maybe one or two independent convenience stores might), there is no room for posters in any of the food court outlets and the cafes like to look nice and don't want to clutter their walls with advertising.
And now there's a whole pile of posters sitting in a warehouse. Whoops.
How to avoid the whoops:
Map out which channels and channel segments your campaign needs to work in, get out in field and look at them, and talk to retailers about what kinds of things work there. And get on board with production and media companies that have good relationships with those retailers so you can be sure your campaign will get up.
Keep it simple - find out the top three things that work the best in the channel segments you're in, and only produce those. This keeps your ROI at the maximum and helps guarantee your budget for next year.
2. Whoops - Looks great, doesn't get any action out of shoppers!
This one is a big one. Don't blame your promotions / media agency if your campaign didn't work because the messaging your company insisted on using didn't resonate with shoppers.
Many companies are still bending their heads around the difference between shoppers and consumers, and trying to make their consumer or straight branding campaigns work in-store. Sometimes this can work in instances where the shopper and consumer are the same or when the branding execution is tailored to suit the environment - but many times it just uses up your precious budget and doesn't really achieve the intended result.
How to avoid the whoops:
Be crystal clear on exactly what you want the retail media to achieve. Is it driving trial of a new product? Education to get over misperceptions of the product and buy? Brand switch within a category? Reminder e.g. during top up shop? Prompt impulse buys? Keep in mind that in-store marketing is about conversion, where before-store marketing is about awareness. A clear call-to-action is needed. Tell your shoppers what they are supposed to do about it.
Understand the shopper purchase decision hierarchy for your particular product (do some shopper research). Is brand more important than price for your shoppers, or the other way around? Is flavour variant the key decision-making factor first? Why do you need to know this? Firstly, so you can determine whether a price promotion will actually work for your particular product - many companies assume in-store marketing is always about price points - not necessarily (especially for premium products). Classic example: a holiday promotion wrap around a can, that actually covered the flavour variant indicator on the pack. Sales went down. Whoops. Solution - use in-store media.
A picture paints a thousand words! The more you can deliver your message through pictures, the better. Shoppers don't have time in-store to read lots of text - and 'lots of text' on retail media equals more than about four words!
3. Whoops - Nobody saw it!
Another biggie. Great idea, wrong place. Very common!
How to avoid the whoops:
Back to knowing how shoppers shop in your channel and category. Most often, your efforts need to be focused where your category is located, which is where the majority of your shoppers are. For example, in the aisle at supermarkets - which is also where shoppers spend the most decision-making time. Next most important is on the path to purchase between your category and the counter e.g. back to the supermarket scenario. gondola ends at front of store near the checkouts (if you can afford them! - also think about relevant category adjacencies for your off-location displays and complimentary media placement in-store - places where your shoppers might look for a similar product). Then at the counter / checkout itself, for impulse items you can purchase there. Then path to purchase between the entry and your category, and entry altogether (of shopping mall, car park etc.). The main thing to remember is to put most of your money where most of your shoppers are: at the category.
Don't do wallpaper. Shoppers generally have a repertoire of stores they visit very regularly. If your campaign is up longer than a month it will become wallpaper - invisible - consider creative/copy changes.
4. Whoops - It didn't make any impact!
Ok, now here's the biggest one of the lot. If you have eliminated all of the above reasons for this - you made the right stuff, messaged it correctly, put it in the right place and followed through to ensure it got up. But it doesn't seem to be doing a hell of a lot.
How to avoid the whoops:
What was your budget for this campaign? And how does that compare to your before-store consumer promotions? If you're expecting miraculous sales uplifts for 5% of what you spend on other forms of advertising, think again. A couple of bits and bobs in-store for a couple of weeks just won't cut the mustard. Have a think about where your marketing budget priorities lie. If shoppers actually buy your product in-store, but your in-store marketing budget is the very poor cousin of your broader consumer-based marketing program, why is that? Does it need to change? Don't abandon your shoppers when they are in store - this is where the rubber actually hits the road, right? Avoid a no-impact whoops and allocate a decent retail media budget.
So, here's to whoops-free marketing in the retail space for the rest of the year!
posted by Shopaholic at
5:09 pm
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