Shopper service or shopper disservice?

A shopper marketing focus follows the shopper journey all the way to the critical final purchase. What happens along this journey, what motivates the shopper and how the shopper behaves and interacts with others is crucial.

One could argue that these interactions become more important as we get to the actual purchase. Customer Service staff are the last line of defence. So what is the standard of 'customer' (meaning shopper) service and does it provide a service or a disservice?

I don't believe that the retail sector is attracting or retaining 'A grade' staff. Retail staff in Australia tend to be lower paid, part time, after school jobs. Most retailers view employees as an expense rather than an investment. Low paid, poorly trained front of house service staff says a lot about an organisations culture and priorities. The result is clear shopper disservice.

At the most crucial stage in the purchasing decision, brands and retailers are making a colossal mistake.

Well established consumer brand loyalty and shopper purchasing intentions developed throughout the shopper journey are simply wasted. And the reason? Brand and retailers on behalf of the brands want to keep staff costs low. Shopper service quickly becomes shopper disservice. And the loser is the brand, the retailer, the shopper and probably the 17 year old kid who never enjoyed his job anyway.

This is possibly why some brands have taken control of this crucial last step of the customer journey. These brands recognise the importance of Shopper Marketing at the retail level. They have taken shopper service to a new level with well trained staff who are motivated and passionate about their brand. The staff are not only advocates of the brand, they are the brand.

The best example I can think of is the Apple Store. There would not be many people who have had a bad shopper experience in the Apple Store. Apple currently has over 250 retail stores which contribute to more than a quarter of the company's profits. The iconic stores and 16,000 employees give Apple a public face and serve as training centres as well as retail outlets. The branded stores have been so successful that Microsoft has announced plans to dive into the retail business with its own corporate-branded stores to take on Apple's growing visibility among consumers.

The Apple Store in Sydney reflects the brand

The staff at the Apple Store live the brand

Other brand entering the retail the retail channel are Nike and Adidas, where the store and the staff in the store clearly reflect the brand. It is a consumer branding campaign broadcasting from the retail channel. Shopper marking is now affecting overall brand recognition.

Nike Store in Germany is all about Nike

Adidas Store in Tokyo takes brand to the streets

There are also some retailers who are doing a great job with shopper service on behalf of the brands they sell. I don't think this is the norm, but those retailers that do it well, use their service offer as a point of difference.

The staff in JB Hi-Fi are probably not paid a premium, but they do appear to be advocates and passionate about their products.

JB Hi-Fi may be positioned as a low cost retailer, however...

there is investment in staff who are advocates of the products and it shows

The Apple Store, Nike, Adidas and JB Hi-Fi are extremely successful brands and retailers. Today Apple announced a 50 per cent increase in quarterly net profit to $A3.74 billion.

Perhaps their retail led branding and shopper service culture is paying dividends. Literally.

How to sell air to shoppers - Telecommunications in retail

When Alexander Bell invented the telephone in 1876, I don’t think he realised that his invention would create an industry worth of $1.2 trillion USD per year or account for 3% of the gross world product.

The Telecommunications industry is a giant, impacting on every sector of the economy as well as playing a significant role on social and cultural relationships.

Telecommunication companies in Australia have built a massive empire, but there is also a massive problem...

How does such a huge industry remain relevant and communicate with you and me – the shopper?

I was in a shopping centre on the weekend and noticed a few Telecommunication retail stores that are attempting to develop a better shopper focus. The three stores I visited all have modern, bright fitouts and contain a number of shopper initiatives, which are positive, relevant and clearly based on shopper needs.

These include;

• Areas to sit down – to discuss plans and products with staff
• Well trained, helpful staff - some stores do much better than others here
• Dummy product devices - allowing customers to physically touch and feel the products
• Devices that actually work - which do an even better job than dummy devices, until that embarrassing security alarm goes off because you’ve detached the device from the wire
• Well themed service areas – a good idea as long as there is staff there to help you
• Interactive TV screens to play with the products and investigate plans - silent sales displays areas are a great way of keeping shoppers busy if there is a wait for a real human to help you.
• Displays segmented by customer – segmentation is important because these stores carry a large range of products across segmented customer uses
• Hang-out zones for kids – keeps kids busy while parents decide which toy to buy for themselves

While each store incorporated some of these initiatives, there was one stand out for me. Can you identify which of the following stores was my standout and why?

Optus Store

Telstra T life

Vodafone store

Vodafone store

For me Vodafone is the clear winner. This is because of the clever use of customer/product segmentation by colour.

Colour blocking is a tool that is used to make it easier to shop due to a logical layout based on colour and visual consistency. Fashion retailers use colour blocking as a matter of course.

The Vodafone store I visited uses colour in the fitout design, fixtures and point-of sale to effectively segment their products. Products for Business shoppers are themed green, Special Offers are red, Prepaid is purple, Cap Plans are yellow and Mobile Broadband is blue.

It is interesting to compare Vodafone to the Telstra Store and Optus shop who don’t use any colour segmentation.

One clever initiative based on shopper insights has made all the difference for Vodafone.

Alexander Bell would be proud!

It doesn’t matter what we think, it only matters what the shopper thinks.

Welcome to Sharketing.

Sharketing = Shopper Marketing.

I recently scored a great job with a forward thinking marketing agency called The Marketing Store. My position - Channel Planner. The role - To implement the Shopper Marketing phenomenon for the agency and their clients.

Actually to be fair the word 'implement' is not quite accurate, because I believe the agency has always had a terrific retail focus, but maybe not a formal, defined one. Which brings me to my first question. One of definition and language.

What exactly is shopper marketing? What language should I use when developing a shopper marketing focus? Who are we talking about and is the consumer the same as the shopper?

Shopper marketing is an emerging field, it's the new 'online' or 'social media' of marketing. All you need to do is google the term and see the revolution for yourself.

There doesn't however appear to be a standard accepted definition for Shopper Marketing. This may be due to the fact that there are different approaches to marketing in retail, heaps of products, channels and retail outlets, and infinite ways that customers behave.

To me Shopper Marketing is part of the natural evolution of marketing. As mass brand advertising shifts to online and to social media, the interaction, dialogue and permutations with the 'customer' has increased in complexity. In much the same way the science of traditional branding and of the 'consumer' is evolving into a study of the 'shopper' in a retail environment, where infinite permutations exist.

Shopper marketing also has a lot to do with the definition of the customer and the distinction between the customer and the shopper. The ‘customer’ is a person who has purchased a product in the past or may purchase in the future, while the ‘shopper’ is someone who is engaged in the act of purchasing the product, typically in a retail environment. Consumers are relatively simple while shoppers are extremely complex. To put it another way the customer is the product companies 'customer' while the shopper is the retailer's 'customer'.

Coming back to a definition of Shopper Marketing that I am comfortable with:

Shopper Marketing is the research of all relevant stimuli to uncover insights into how shoppers behave, in order to convert them into customers.

My plan is to continue to explore the language of shopper marketing in a theoretical framework.

But don't be worried, I also plan on spending a whole lot of time in market (retail market of course) gaining real examples of trends and insight and having lots of fun Sharking along the way.