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PROFIT IDEAS Simple Truths
A simpler time ¾ filled with shopper insights. It wasn’t so long ago that “Doc” at the corner drugstore knew every customer by name and understood their needs and wants with keen intuition and thorough knowledge of his patients. In fact, these home-grown shopper insights formed the foundation of “Doc’s” product assortment, shelf arrangement, store layout, promotions and hours of operation. His customers knew what to expect. More importantly, they knew that their favorite products would be available, priced fairly and, generally speaking, placed in a predictable location on the shelf for easy and convenient access. The pharmacist was ready to counsel, comfort and offer advice to the patients he serviced. And this was all accomplished without the aid of a computer system, large databases or a posse of staffers. Getting Closer to the Shopper Fast forward to today’s market demands. Everyone is striving to get closer to the shopper ¾ to understand what makes him tick. Some refer to it as “shopper marketing” or “consumer insights,” but regardless of the moniker, the goal is the same: understand how to cater to the needs of customers and increase the size of their market basket. Algorithms have been developed. Think tanks have been created to analyze, dissect, discern and predict consumer behavior. Countless focus groups and surveys have been conducted to understand why consumers buy the items they select and what they truly want from a shopping experience. Truth be known, I’m not sure consumers know how to articulate what they want. But their behavior suggests they know it when they see it. Does that mean we should stop asking questions and seeking to understand what’s inside a shopper’s head? No, but we must also freely admit that no ideal answer exists for manufacturers nor retailers as they chase this Holy Grail. Moving in the Right Direction Sure progress has been made. And the evolution toward an improved consumer experience is underway. But just when a retailer thinks they have it figured out, some dynamic ¾ generally out of their direct control ¾ changes the status quo and the approach loses its relevance and its original luster. Keeping in mind that consumers are individuals with unique needs, wants and desires, trying to create the one size that will fit the “ideal” customer is impractical at best and perhaps unachievable. Sure, I’ll ask clients that I work with to describe their marketing goals and their target consumer. However, I’ll often go a step farther and ask them to truly identify the shoppers. Their names, lifestyles, behaviors and what encourages them to take action. Long gone are the generic marketing profiles that define a consumer to fit a specific demographic profile. That is far too wide a brush with which to paint today’s shopping landscape. So, what do I recommend? Continue the pursuit. Continue the reinvention. And, by all means, don’t give up on the mission. Perhaps the answer is simpler than it appears. Perhaps looking back at history will teach us much more about the future. After all, one thing that has remained the same throughout the course of time is that there have always been those who desire to purchase or obtain something and those that want to develop and make it available to them. Insights are everywhere if we open our eyes and observe them. If we can turn those insights about our unique customer into action, we can once again get close enough to the shopper to indeed win at retail. 09/02/09 Dave Wendland, vice president, Hamacher Resource Group, Inc. The experts at HRG bring their unique balance of art and science to the retail health care supply chain to deliver customized marketing services, category management, strategic market research and business development consulting, data analysis and aggregation, and a portfolio of complementary capabilities to clients across the retail health care value chain. Contact them at (800) 888-0889, or visit www.hamacher.com for more information.
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