Measuring the effectiveness of Shopper Marketing requires collaboration between brand and retailer to exploit the mass of transactional and consumer behavioural data available.

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Shopper Marketing’s RoI
Measuring the effectiveness of Shopper Marketing requires collaboration
between brand and retailer to exploit the mass of transactional and
consumer behavioural data available, writes OgilvyAction’s Manita Khuller
A
new norm of protracted of small budgets. And any new movement successful shopper programmes demonstrate
economic recession in the meets organisational inertia to change increased brand sales and superior shopper
developed markets of the existing behaviour until proven metrics are satisfaction, together with increased sales
world combined with volatile deployed. Which is a bit chicken and egg, you and profits for the retailer. Hence, growth
consumer demand in developing might say. A total brand investment model is driven by collaboration between brands
markets has placed new emphasis on value is something we should see more of in the and retailers towards common goals and not
in marketing investment. Every CEO is future that targets the brands’ consumers conflict.
seeking greater RoI. Unilever’s CFO has and shoppers – who are often not the same Typically, mass marketing has meant
announced a worldwide drive on RoI. Jean- people – through their path to purchase. broadcast media and large-scale brand
Marc Huet said: “Our efforts are focused on Historically, brands and retailers have marketing programmes measured by
a programme we call ‘Return on Marketing had different and conflicting agendas. macro measures, such as awareness, reach,
Investment’.” A frequent refrain, we will hear Unlike brand marketing activities, Shopper frequency and brand equity enhancement.
more of as markets and companies struggle Marketing is most effective when done The units of measurement are in millions
back to growth. However, sound investment in collaboration with retailers. The best reached, % of total adults aged 18-55 and
in Shopper Marketing can help here. Shopper Marketing programmes that benefit so on. Measurement in Shopper Marketing
Measurement of marketing investments from scale adoption and implementation have is a major departure from the marketing
has always been a challenge. Traditionally, been engineered with retailer strategies and measurement norm. There is a whole new
brand marketing has targeted the objectives in mind, not a purely brand focus. framework on what, how and where we
consumer masses, and proving direct causal Retailers engage with programmes that drive measure for effectiveness. The DNA of
relationships has been difficult, while shoppers to their stores, to spend more and shopper marketing offers great scope for
Shopper Marketing, as the newest addition more often than their competitors. measurability. This is because it is
to the marketing family of investments, has The metrics of that strategy are very ‘micro-marketing’ not mass, executed much
some different challenges, as we explore quantifiable and transparent, sometimes closer to the point of purchase, and within
here. disconnected, with brand-centric and often retail. In fact, it is micro-marketing done on a
Investment in Shopper Marketing soft measures, such as brand awareness, large scale. Large scale is important if we are
programmes is often seen as a ‘rob from equity enhancement or brand market share. to significantly impact the bottom line and
Peter to pay Paul’ story. This prevents Shopper Marketing presents an opportunity revenues. If something huge happens in one
programmes from achieving a scale that can for a common meeting ground of the two store on one day, it may be amazing, but will
deliver real bottom-line impact. As budgets camps and a common measurement. Really hardly impact the overall result for a brand.
have typically been held in either a marketing
or sales bucket, siphoning off large scale
funds from either to invest in other newer FIGURE 1
types of activity programmes gets mixed
support – a common casualty of a lack of Short term Long term
integration in marketing.
A fear of uncharted waters also plays Shopper Attitudinal
Shopper Transaction Shopper Behaviour
into this, leading to too little and too late in Data Data Data
the funding of Shopper Marketing initiatives.
Hence, though Shopper Marketing promises
much in terms of driving demand at the point
of purchase, it often fails to deliver because
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WHAT TO MEASURE AND HOW
FIGURE 2
Typically, Shopper Marketing measurement
falls into three buckets and can be short term Measurement Brand objectives Retailer objectives
or longer term (Figure 1). There is a parallel
to consumers and brands, where short-term
Shopper Units or value sales, Same store
behaviour is measured in units and sales, Transaction + Share of sales uplift,
whereas attitudes towards brands are formed Data occasions, share cross-category sales,
and measured in the longer term. of total category basket size and
Alongside all the consumer behavioural spend, brand loyalty, profit per square
and attitudinal data, market shares, programme RoI foot
penetration etc, which marketing teams have
traditionally measured, a complementary set
of shopper data points are now available to Shopper Shopping list Trip frequency,
those who want to measure their shopper Behaviour inclusion, Shopper aisle penetration,
programmes. There is more data available Data consideration, loyalty card
now that retailers have vast amounts of Shopper penetration and
transaction data through electronic point-of- engagement, engagement
sale systems and loyalty cards. Shopper advocacy
Shopper Marketing activities generate
new types of data, beyond macro-marketing
data and it needs fresh analytical skills. Linked Shopper Shopping list Shopping list
closely to shopper programme objectives, Attitudinal inclusion, Shopper inclusion, Shopper
Shopper Marketing success can be assessed Data consideration consideration
with both short-term and long-term benefits. and engagement, and engagement,
In the short term, shopper data relates Shopper advocacy Shopper advocacy
to one of the following, either units sold,
percentage uplift in sales or behaviour data,
which measures changes in how shoppers
behave. In the longer term, shopper attitudes
and perceptions can be monitored. corresponding objective for a retailer often in their shopping lists, or show more
To be meaningful, the measurement of could be same-store sales year on year and engagement at the point of purchase, then it
anything has to be closely related to what the increased basket spend. is more likely that they will buy your brand.
initial objective is. As Shopper Marketing is Typically, a brand marketing measurement Here, the retailer’s objectives have more
essentially executed in a retail environment, programme would not consider retailers’ in common with the brand, as they seek to
most often not owned by the brand, the same-stores sales impacts or overall deliver greater satisfaction to their shoppers
retailer’s objectives need to form part of the basket-spend. But good Shopper Marketing Increasingly, larger organisations have
benchmarks for success. That is, if you want practice usually does. Every comprehensive Shopper Marketing teams, who devise
longer-term sustainable programmes and not Shopper Marketing measurement programme programmes in conjunction with retailers
a series of one-offs. should incorporate both brand and retailer and their retail account teams. The shopper
Brands and companies who proactively performance measures (Figure 2). marketer would define the initial shopper
develop win-win programmes with retailers, A new and interesting measure of shopper objectives, both short-term and longer-term
setting a new growth agenda are proven programme success is longer-term ‘share of – aligned with the brand’s larger objectives.
to deliver more longer-term, sustainable wallet’ or total spend on a category or within Often such shopper teams are quite lean and
business gains, aside from enhance trading a specific retailer. Measured per shopper as: do not have the resources to do large-scale
relationships with their retailers. Shopper Share of Wallet = spend on a brand data analytics independently. In the spirit of
A mutuality of objectives should be anywhere; divided by total spend on the integrated marketing, the shopper analytical
sought, challenging though that is. Usually, brand’s category or segment. It’s a bit like capability can rest anywhere within the
Shopper Marketing teams, representing the brand market share per individual shopper, data and analytics teams. They can integrate
brand’s agenda, do the setting of win-win but a lot harder to measure as the data shopper thinking and success criteria
business objectives, working closely with comes from multiple sources. into their analytics set, as this requires a
the sales teams who negotiate with retailer Shopper marketers also look to measure somewhat different focus, using different
organisations. the underlying behaviour that leads to sales kinds of data. Rather than be divisive here,
Often, a brand may set its objective increases. So, for example, if shoppers can it pays dividends to build capabilities of the
as increased unit sales or value sales, the be influenced to include your brand more overall data team to take on board shopper
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metrics and data sources. as brands do. The difference being that productivity and business results. Increasingly,
Shopper Marketing agency partners retailers want shoppers who are advocates of Shopper Marketing is not just what happens
should also be challenged with delivering them (their retail brand); the supplier brand in the store for all categories – especially
clearly measurable results on programmes in is the conduit. Though this does not overjoy for categories with long purchase cycles.
conjunction with brand leads. The incentive brand custodians, this does not necessarily The rapid acceleration of new digital
here is longer-term sustainable agency place brands and retailers at opposite ends, shopping behaviours is impacting brands,
partnerships. it just means a broader approach is required, and in some categories over 10% of total
not a narrow parochial one. sales (and growing) are anticipated from
METHODOLOGIES FOR MEASUREMENT In the US, new ‘single source’ shopper shopper e-commerce. That also means new
behaviour measurement methodologies multichannel shopping data and the need
Typical data sources for consumer marketing are being worked on which could provide for a seamless brand and shopping
look at ad hoc and continuous studies, interesting findings, marrying media experience. The need to look at total
likewise shopper data can be found in consumption with purchase behaviour. Very shopper satisfaction and performance, not
largely four ways: ad hoc shopper studies: to simplistically, single-source methodologies just online cannibalising offline and vice versa.
measure shopper behaviour (often within ‘tag’ each shopper and track the entire Increasingly, shoppers search and plan
specific retailers), including eye-tracking path-to-purchase behaviour of each shopper, both offline and online before making their
studies; continuous data: through additional linking with media consumption and online/ purchases. Shopper decisions made at the
point of purchase are influenced by factors
beyond brand and media influences, based on
convenience and suitability to consumption
occasions and value. Measurement of planning
intention and actual behaviour shifts will
become increasingly possible and necessary
to respond to new shopping needs.
This has been completely the case in
the recent divergent retail performances
in the UK of some big players. One of the
winners in the Christmas 2012 retailer league
table of performance was the upmarket
department store chain, House of Fraser,
which recognised and answered to the way
shoppers want a seamless experience online
and offline. Making shopping easy, but also
collection and no-quibble returns at multiple
store locations. Other retailers that did not
recognise this new online shopper need
and behaviours paid the price with business
failure, such as electronics chain Comet.
The Tesco Online and Waitrose (Ocado)
questions added into brand-tracking studies; offline behaviour, right up to the point of success stories in the UK also show that
retailer scanning systems or self-scanning; and purchase. These developments are some things are changing rapidly in grocery
retailer loyalty cards. way off reaching other countries, but the shopping too, which has traditionally been
Different methodologies can be deployed vision for measuring shopper programme more about the physical retail store and
depending upon budget, scale and timings of effectiveness is an exciting one. environment.
the programmes being measured. A potential There is a compelling argument and
hurdle here is that retailers own the sales THE FUTURE urgency to drive Shopper Marketing
scanning data. They may be reluctant to measurement before scepticism sets in.
share this with suppliers without a cost or “The future is here, just unevenly Clear benefits should be quickly established
a good business reason. The key to unlock distributed…” This is certainly true of for Shopper Marketing, as this could vastly
the access to the data is often embarking on shopper marketing and its measurement. increase the overall effectiveness of the
a mutual growth agenda. Essentially, because There are pockets of expertise, but many totality of brand marketing efforts.
there is more common ground than is usually organisations still need to embed an
expected. understanding of what Shopper Marketing more on shopper
Commonality stems from retailers wanting is and how it brings a new set of challenges marketing at
more loyal shoppers and advocates as much and data points, which can yield greater www.warc.com
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