FROM RETAILWIRE:
A new survey by Accenture on how consumers use mobile devices to shop shows that a large majority prefer to get information they need on products and pricing from their smartphone rather than talk to a store employee. In what ways do you think smartphones will most affect how consumers shop?
MY COMMENTARY:
I join others here with the cautions about how far and how fast this Convergence of Online, Mobile and Bricks-and-mortar (COMB) will go and when, but it does seem inevitable. However, in my practice I act as if it will NEVER happen. This is because this is a $14 trillion global industry (retailing,) that is quite conservative, and we need solutions that are good for a million stores, right now.
The fact that anyone presuming to advise this industry thinks that the big role of smart phones will be to provide information to shoppers–or pay them to buy something, AKA coupon or discount–confirms the title of Neale Martin’s book: “Habit: The 95% of Behavior that MARKETERS IGNORE.”
Shopping is mostly NOT a cognitive process, but an instinctive and emotional process. If Spock is your target market, you richly deserve the mediocrity of your sales.
About the Author
Dr. Herb Sorensen - Guest Blogger for Phenomena
Dr. Herb Sorensen is global scientific director of shopper insights at TNS Sorensen.Since the late 1970s his market research has focused on shoppers at their points of purchase. TNS Sorensen, the in-store research company®, captures shopper behaviour, motivations and perceptions at the point of purchase.
Dr. Herb Sorensen,
TNS Sorensen
http://insidethemindoftheshopper.com/
herb.sorensen@tns-sorensen.com Twitter: herbsorensen
Published on
November 29, 2010 in
Herb Sorensen.
Tags: collaboration, cpg suppliers, creative trade promotions, discount, herb, mobile marketing, phenomena, retailers, sorensen, trade promotions.
FROM RETAILWIRE:
The rising discipline of mobile marketing brings with it a chance for retailers and CPG suppliers to usher in a new consumer-centric era of compelling, creative trade promotions. Do you see retailers and manufacturers recognizing mobile as an opportunity for beginning a new era of collaboration “from a clean slate”?
MY COMMENTARY:
This statement, “new consumer-centric era of compelling, creative trade promotions that step up discounts,” presages the continuing idiocy of thinking shopping is all about “discounts.” Trade funding is all about moving profits from the bottom-line of suppliers to the bottom line of retailers, PERIOD.
Until retailers (and others) get more serious about understanding exactly how shoppers shop in their stores, there will continue to be a barrage of “mud on the wall” research, where many things will be tried and some will be more effective than others. Since price is nearly certain to be the focal component of all this research, PRICE will be credited for any positive effects. And retailers will be at the fore to insure that that is the conclusion.
About the Author
Dr. Herb Sorensen - Guest Blogger for Phenomena
Dr. Herb Sorensen is global scientific director of shopper insights at TNS Sorensen.Since the late 1970s his market research has focused on shoppers at their points of purchase. TNS Sorensen, the in-store research company®, captures shopper behaviour, motivations and perceptions at the point of purchase.
Dr. Herb Sorensen,
TNS Sorensen
http://insidethemindoftheshopper.com/
herb.sorensen@tns-sorensen.com Twitter: herbsorensen
I would NEVER tell shoppers to buy something they are not already predisposed to buy. Way too much retailing is really desperate hectoring of shoppers, hoping they will buy something more. Suppliers have literally millions of items they would like to sell. But as we noted, shoppers have a massive filter in place to ignore the vast majority of what is in the store. It’s a matter of shopper-survival. Continue reading ‘Telling Shoppers which to buy’
