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.