Guest Post: How to leverage the in-store opportunity.

By Shopportunity.

www.sh-opportunity.com.au

Shopportunity are specialists in shopper research and behaviour. They provide Shopper, FMCG and Retail intelligence, strategies and training for major clients including Foster’s Group, Nestle, Sony and Coca Cola. Shopportunity works closely with TorchMedia, providing channel intelligence and shopper behaviour insights to underpin effective retail media solutions.

In-store promotion is a different beast than before-store. Why? How do we get the most out of it?

Contrary to marketing’s greatest sacred cow: beware the ‘integrated’ campaign (read: rolling out the same concept in store as you put on the telly). Unless ‘integrated’ means significantly morphed for the retail environment, your classic ‘fluffy brand campaign’ simply won’t work in store.

Why? For starters, the shopper and the consumer are not always the same person, television advertising campaigns don’t require the sort of retailer buy-in that in-store promotion does, and the role of in-store promotion is conversion not awareness-building.

The ‘holy trinity’ of promotional bang-for-buck:

1. Retail-Ability
2. Knowledge-Ability
3. Shop-Ability

Let’s look at each.

RetailAbility

The Retail-ability of your promotion is about your retail rationale. What is the business case for the retailer to get on board your promotion? How is it going to meet their objectives as well as yours? Without retailer buy in, you don’t have an in-store promotion. Here’s how to get it:

· Have a clearly developed retailer business case for the promotion

· Demonstrate a vision for growing the whole category (and therefore their whole store), not just your brand (switch alone to your brand offers no incentive to the retailer to get on board, it doesn’t necessarily increase their profit)

· Tailor your promotional offer for the channel and specifically for their chain or store. Retailers always prefer exclusive promotions, why should they get behind you if you’re doing exactly the same promotion in their competition?

· Add value to the retailer by offering insight about shopper behaviour in your category and channel, and why the promotion will work based on this (see point 2: knowledge-ability)

· Be aware of retailer policies (such as ‘clean store) and match your recommendations to them

· Link your promotional mechanic and ‘big idea’ clearly to retailer objectives. For example, is this promotion designed to increase frequency of purchase within the category? Or grow average weight of purchase? If you’re not clear on what retailer objectives are visit http://www.sh-opportunity.com.au/2009/leveraging-retail-objectives-to-drive-growth-frequency-and-inter-purchase-interval/

KnowledgeAbility

The Knowledge-ability of your promotion is about the depth of insight that underpins it. Promotions that really deliver at the cash register are in-store focussed rather than ‘extensions’ of broader branding campaigns. Some key points:
· Differentiate between the roles of mainstream media and the in-store marketing opportunity. In-store is about conversion not about awareness. Before-store promotion is about awareness. If your campaign is not designed specifically and compellingly to encourage shoppers to pick that item up and put it in their shopping basket, it’s a waste of your money.

· Understand shoppers vs consumers, missions vs occasions. This is the great divide between consumer brand marketing and shopper in-store marketing. Consumption occasions differ from shopper missions – the mission is the kind of shopping trip the shopper is on. It affects all their behaviour in-store, in particular shopper movement, which is critical when designing your retail promotion. There is a tome to be written here in itself, but for a snapshot of shopper trip types visit http://www.sh-opportunity.com.au/2008/its-a-trip/

· Know your category. What is the role of the category? Destination? Impulse? What is the purchase decision hierarchy – how important is quality versus price versus ‘newness’ versus other factors? If you are in a category where price is nowhere near as important as quality and ‘newness’ or ‘buzz’ factor, you wouldn’t run a price promotion, for example. There is also a tome to be written on ‘don’t drop your pants on price because the retailer tells you it’s ALWAYS the most important thing’. It’s not, always. Knowing shopper behaviour in your category also affects the logical locations and adjancencies for your promotions in store.

ShopAbility

This part is where the rubber hits the road: how your promotion is received by shoppers in store. Key things to remember:

· Activate appropriately for the channel. Back to point 1 ‘Retail-ability’. Grocery is different to pharmacy is different to liquor is different to convenience. Shoppers behave differently in each channel. Make sure your promotion demonstrates this knowledge. TorchMedia have been working with Shopportunity for many years on channel intelligence – it’s a key point of difference for their promotions. Ensure your other point of purchase applications are also channel specific.

· Clear messaging. Good point of purchase promotions have a clear and compelling offer, an obvious call to action and ideally a focus on the occasion to establish relevance to the shopper (e.g. ‘dinner tonight’ or ‘entertaining’ or ‘gifting’ etc).

· Placement - Right things for right channels in right places. Again this is about relevance to the shopper. You will need to prioritise; where your product is is most important? You may not be able to have a presence on every step of the shopper’s path to purchase, but at a minimum you do need to be where the key decision is made. Most often that is exactly where your product is located in store.Keep it fresh. Most shoppers visit the same store at least every 2 – 4 weeks depending on the channel. Avoid becoming ‘wallpaper’ – stay visible by changing your promotions frequently.

So in summary, by improving your Retail-Ability, Knowledge-Ability and Shop-Ability, you can expect your next promotion to deliver Profit-Ability at the register! We hope this article has been useful. Feedback and questions are welcome: enquiries@sh-opportunity.com.au or illuminate@torchmedia.com.au