The Homa Files

TakeAway:  It’s unclear whether CPG manufacturers should blame themselves or the retailers, but the CPGs better blame something for their lack of adhering to a key marketing success pillar – integrate your marketing mix.

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Excerpted from Marketing Daily, “GMA Study: Shopper Marketing Still Siloed,” By Karlene Lukovitz, November 3, 2009

Shopper marketing continues to grow in importance for CPGs and retailers, but its effectiveness is being limited by insufficient integration with out-of-store marketing and media channels …

Overall investment in shopper marketing ( … in-store advertising, promotion and design initiatives intended to extend brand equity and provide the retailer with differentiation) is estimated to be growing at 21% annually …

Study concludes that CPG manufacturers have yet to align shopper marketing initiatives with the advertising and promotions that reach consumers at home and on the go. That results in disconnected marketing messages, wasted spending and missed opportunities to drive purchases …

Integrating and quantifying results from shopper marketing is becoming even more critical. Retailers increasingly seek to tap into CPGs’ budgets beyond trade promotions, pushing manufacturers to shift spending into ads on retailer Web sites and in-store video networks, as well as participate in retailer database marketing programs …

Study found brand preference to be the most important out-of-store factor influencing which products go on a shopping list …

The study also found that nearly half of food and beverage shoppers and nearly 60% of health/beauty and household goods shoppers purchase their preferred brands even when a less expensive alternative is available. And, 48% of food and beverage shoppers, 58% of household product shoppers and 59% of health and beauty shoppers — use coupons or price promotions to “justify buying the brands they want” rather than as the key factor driving their decision making …

Shoppers choose 59% of the brands they buy in the store, and 41% before they enter the store. This points to opportunities, even in the current down economy, to influence their brand choices before they go shopping.

For the 59% of items for which brands are selected in-store, 85% of shoppers perceive in-store factors as more influential than out-of-store marketing. After price, communicating benefits on packaging is most influential, whether for reinforcing existing brand preferences, driving competitive switching, capturing purchase when there is no strong brand preference, or creating impulse sales.

While confirming that most shoppers (81%) do research before shopping … 77% of shoppers do not take detailed shopping lists into the store. Instead, most shoppers have “mental lists” that include “brand consideration sets,” but evolve as they are exposed to more marketing at home, in transit and in the store.

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116719

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This entry was posted on January 14, 2010 at 6:52 am and is filed under Mktg - Brand Management, Mktg - Consumer Behavior, Mktg - Marketing Mix. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.