Retailer Receptivity to In-Store Tactics 2013

The Path to Purchase Institute presents this guide — "Retailer Receptivity to In-Store Marketing Tactics" — as a downloadable wall chart (see attached file at right), as an iPad App available on Apple's iTunes, and a series of articles linking to examples of common merchandising vehicles at 14 leading retailers.The original wall chart, published in the May issue of Shopper Marketing, was created with assistance from Arc Worldwide and sponsored by Great Northern Corp. We also present a related In-Store Media Network Guide as a companion to this report.The Strategy Behind In-Store TacticsShoppers respond to various P-O-P elements differently; so do retailersBy Peter BreenWhat’s the strategic objective behind using a Mylar balloon in a shopper marketing program?Marketers who answered, “To help drive awareness and trial,” should pat themselves on the back. Those who simply professed ignorance are excused. But anyone who said, “There isn’t any,” needs to get his head out of the dump bin.It’s long been understood that the sales impact of different P-O-P elements varies greatly. To be sure, the difference is heavily influenced by many other important factors such as brand, category, channel, location within the store and creative appeal. But it’s also driven by the nature of the vehicles themselves and how shoppers react to them.This disparity is even more obvious now that shopper marketers are routinely developing in-store programs that also are intended to drive product awareness or trial, or to handle more of the work on a new product launch or consumer-education effort. That’s because tactics that effectively increase sales aren’t necessarily equally as good at achieving these objectives.“Each in-store element plays a role in the shopper journey, but those roles can be very different,” explains April Carlisle, senior vice president of global shopper marketing at Arc Worldwide, Chicago. “You have to consider the shopper challenge that you need to overcome, and which tactics can deliver the content you need to convey in the right context.”Context includes the retail environment in question. “The shopper journey is significantly different in drug and supermarket, for instance,” says Carlisle, who analyzed this topic extensively during her decades-long time at Procter & Gamble (which she left last November to join Arc). “When you get to the retailer level, a tactic can perform differently depending on how the retailer has trained its own shoppers.”Therefore, shopper marketers utilizing the accompanying “Retailer Receptivity” charts must keep two very important considerations in mind – the first being that not all P-O-P materials are created equally in either form or function.One straightforward example would be the aforementioned balloon, which is known to help drive awareness for a new product or program (as part of a more extensive campaign, naturally) but isn’t exactly ideal for presenting a list of key benefits. Similarly, “You can’t take a print ad and put it on a 3-by-5 card,” Carlisle says.Of course, identifying the merits of specific P-O-P elements isn’t always that simple, and therefore requires a fair amount of research and analysis on the part of marketers — a pain point, to be sure, but one that can pay off in the long run.Some industry-wide research has been conducted in this area, most notably by POPAI, Chicago, through its periodic shopper studies. (Here’s a nugget from the association’s 2012 effort: because shoppers use endcaps as category markers, they’re effective at closing planned purchases; in-aisle floorstands are better at interrupting the trip and, consequently, inspiring impulse buys.)But marketers will have to do most of the work themselves, in recognition of all those other influences noted earlier. And they shouldn’t expect much assistance from retail partners, whose dedication to in-store control – and the tactical choices that result – is primarily driven by operational concerns or financial goals. “There often is very little understanding of the shopper driving these decisions,” notes Carlisle.Thus, a brand’s blueprint for success sometimes can be sidetracked by an operations team that has banned a particular tactic or — even worse — by a category buyer who needs to meet his sales quota for a paid advertising vehicle.“Sometimes you will have to do things that you know aren’t going to drive value” for the brand, Carlisle acknowledges. But while such tactics are more beneficial to the retailer, their use does grease the wheels of collaboration – and, if understood and used effectively, might benefit the brand, too.However, that doesn’t mean brand marketers should consider themselves hamstrung in the store, which leads to the second key consideration for our “Retailer Receptivity” chart: None of the listed tactics are identified as “never used,” because few retailers are completely inflexible about specific tactics.For example, while few retailers have established any formal rules, “most are open to interactivity” when it’s presented well, according to Carlisle, who often saw P&G do just that to gain approval for attention-grabbing efforts such as snoring shelf trays for Vicks Zzzquil’s 2012 launch.She also cites the corrugate aisle archways that are now commonplace at Walgreens but originally were pitched to the chain by Unilever’s Axe in 2009. “That was a breakthrough concept,” she praises.Resourceful marketers armed with actionable data or even just a cool idea should never assume that the answer will always be no, even if all evidence and historical precedence suggests that it will.“You should never be afraid to take a chance. Just make sure you can support your idea,” advises Carlisle. “The better informed you are, the more receptive they’ll be.”

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