The Branded Pantry

In part one of my Shopper Marketing review, we discussed definitions, benefits, progress and some of the hurdles standing in the way of even the most advanced practitioners.   The two central hurdles commonly acknowledged are in-store execution and the measurement and compliance confirmation of that execution.

Organizations are not able to calculate the impact of their Shopper Marketing efforts or identify which programs, partners or tactics are the most successful.  While most organizations plan to employ rigorous performance measurements in the future, less than half of them are able to measure impact today. 

Even the organizations most  advanced in the science of Shopper Marketing find that execution is their Achilles Heel.  Plans fall flat if:

• Tools and data for uncovering insights and measuring results are unavailable or ineffective
• Compliance cannot be tracked confidently

Establishing the committed, collaborative relationships between trading partners require trust and transparency.  The most valuable long-term relationships can only be established if both sides can credibly demonstrate their genuine intentions.  The GMA/Deloitte Study examines Shopper Marketing Measurement Tools and finds that measurement of execution is devoid of any meaningful tools or suppliers.  These findings agree with the In-Store Implementation Sharegroup White Paper  published this spring. 

Early efforts to capture execution compliance confirmation in-store have fallen a bit short.

• P.R.I.S.M. has proven that it can measure and project results for traffic within store.  However, projecting marketing execution in-store, has never been close to precise nor complete.  Execution needs to be precise, indisputable and at a census level for effective measurement.
• A variety of companies have tried to use POS sales data, transaction data and POS pricing data to estimate what marketing stimuli might exist in the store.  This technique has never been very successful and has been the source of a good deal of trade partner friction even before marketing and trade dollars were on the line. 
• There have been a number of efforts to measure marketing placements in-store involving RFID,  weight-sensitive  pads on shelves,  heat sensors (to track customers) and PDA/checkout systems.  None of these appear to offer a sensible, cost-effective, capable method for collecting Shopper Marketing or other marketing efforts in-store, at scale. 

Developing a robust execution measurement and evaluation plan is critical to directing resources to the programs and partners that drive the significant Shopper Marketing impact.  Even the most advanced practitioners do not have evaluation figured out.  Data is not available to a deep enough level to determine causality.  The perceived cost of data collection, analysis and technology challenges stop most companies cold.  The level of analysis requires granular data at the account, store, program and tactic level. 

Execution compliance measurement is absolutely critical to the success of Shopper Marketing.  Manufacturers are still largely expected to provide the resources for this expensive effort.  They become frustrated after bearing the expense of developing deep shopper insights and producing a promising retailer specific plan, only to see the retailer haphazardly implement or scale back the the program.  According to the study the manufacturer is frustrated with retailers who do not have the human capital to ensure consistent in-store execution and will move their resources to retailers who can  perform.  Retailers recognize this as the study quotes this grocer, “If we do not show manufacturers that we collaborate well, we will be at a disadvantage to our competing retailers.”

Luckily, technology is beginning to step in to fill the in-store intelligence void.  Remember, to accurately access the impact of Shopper Marketing execution must be reviewed at the census or store by store level.  Tools to complete this store by store review are becoming available at a cost that is affordable to virtually all retailers and manufacturers. 

ShelfSnap, for example, enables the measurement of display, new item and planogram compliance utilizing image recognition technology to generate comparisons of in-store plan vs. execution compliance.  Digital technology and Internet data exchanges resulting in actionable, store-level feedback provides both the retailer and manufacturer a view into the store.

ShelfMeter reports the stock level on a upc by upc basis in each and every store installation.  Using an electromagnetic item signature, ShelfMeter identifies item count and depletion to monitor the stock condition and issue store level alerts when products hit an out of stock range.  The technology driving this reporting is very cost effective and within reach of most retailers unlike other solutions such as RFID which requires a large investment in equipment and infrastructure.

The impact and benefits of Shopper Marketing will be understood and can be effectively capitalized on once these store by store evaluations become a routine part of the Shopper Marketing process.