Marketing at-Retail - Just the Facts, Ma’am

A lot of blog entries, mine included, are written from a certain point-of-view. A theory or topic is stated, and then the remainder of the post essentially argues for or against the theory. Sure blogs contain observations, anecdotes, data points and examples, but rarely are blogs simply statements of facts.  This blog contains information from almost 40 available sources. My analysis and comments will be kept to a minimum. Here goes.

Shopper Marketing a Key Point of Differentiation

According to a study by Deloitte for the Grocery Manufacturers Association:

• Marketing at-Retail, also called Shopper Marketing, is a medium as important as the Internet, mobile or gaming.  

• Shopper Marketing is growing faster than Internet advertising - and is on pace for a compound annual growth rate of 21%.

The following statistics, from a variety of scholarly sources, are part of the reasons for the shift to Shopper Marketing at the point-of-sale:

• 70% of brand/product selections are made at-retail, while the shopper is literally standing in front of the available product choices

• 68% of buying decisions are “unplanned”

• Brand loyalty has dropped to 5% overall within a product group (alcohol beverages, for example)

• Marketing at-Retail consultants, experts and retail-practitioners have concluded that effective Marketing at-Retail is increasing in its importance because it has been proven to provide “sales lift” in the retail trade

Alcohol beverage suppliers, distributors and retailers have a vested, significant, financial interest in Marketing at-Retail, even if they don’t know it — yet.

All of us here at OnTrak Software invite your continued participation in learning how to best manage, control and measure the rapidly growing and increasingly important Marketing at-Retail approaches and associated business intelligence tools. Hopefully, the facts above are a succinct and valuable introduction to why Marketing at-Retail should be managed and given the same attention as your other core businesses processes.

— Mark Fullerton