TakeAway: As shoppers research their grocery lists online before going to the store, shopper marketing begins at home. In-store marketing traditionally consisted of flashy product displays, special promotions at the end of the aisle and attention-grabbing packaging on the shelf.
No longer.
Given how inundated consumers are with information via multiple media, the right marketing mix is even more challenging.
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Excerpted from WSJ, “In-Store Sales Begin at Home” By Ellen Byron, April 25, 2011
Determined to find the best deals, more shoppers are researching their grocery lists online before going to the store. For marketers, that means big changes in how and when they tempt consumers to buy.
It’s well known that consumers research expensive products like electronics online, but coming out of the recession, consumers are more scrupulous about researching their everyday products such as diapers and detergent, too. More than a fifth of them also research food and beverages, nearly a third research pet products and 39% research baby products, even though they ultimately tend to buy those products in stores, according to WSL Strategic Retail, a consulting firm. That has led retailers and brands to target customers via blogs, social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and campaigns on retail sites, in addition to in-store campaigns.
A 2010 campaign for Procter & Gamble Co.’s new CoverGirl "Smoky Eye Look" makeup kit illustrates the more complex route marketers are taking. To drum up hype for the product launch online, P&G, with Saatchi X, shipped the packs of mascara, eyeliner and eye shadow to makeup bloggers before they were available in stores. The "Makeup Master" kit also included application instructions, blogging tips, product photographs and a CoverGirl-emblazoned director’s chair. Inside stores, CoverGirl drew attention to its kits with live product demonstrations, its co-branded print ads with Wal-Mart Stores and cardboard trays that carried the kits on the shelf while highlighting the product’s features. After a purchase, shoppers were encouraged via Facebook and other online campaigns to write a review of the product, thus spreading the word to more customers researching makeup online.
The digital shift is a particular challenge for food and household-product companies, which typically aren’t as advanced online as their electronics and apparel counterparts. They have been deterred by the cost of shipping bulky but low-value items like paper towels, detergent and canned soup, especially given the ubiquity of brick-and-mortar stores selling the products for about the same price.
Wal-Mart is banking on the trend to accelerate. Lately, it has made its online circulars more user-friendly. It is also developing ways to offer more customizable circulars online, based on a shopper’s interests or needs.
To be sure, the shift hasn’t eliminated the need for effective campaigns inside stores. In-store marketing gained appeal and sophistication amid the fragmentation of television and print audiences, and accelerated during the recession, when marketers believed cash-strapped shoppers made even more purchasing decisions when looking at the store shelf.
Edit by AMW
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The Homa Files 
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