Remember to Use Shopper Marketing

“Shopper marketing” is a relatively new retailing term, but the concept is as old as retailing itself. Shopper marketing means increasing sales by understanding how the shopper behaves right when considering what to buy. The term slices off for attention the part of consumer behavior that has to do with making the purchase.
     I’ve noticed industry experts using two “elephant” phrases when discussing the importance of shopper marketing. Some talk about “the elephant in the room.” That idiom describes a reality everyone knows is important, but nobody brings up because doing so could cause difficulties.
     Shopper marketing is the elephant in the room because retailers often sidestep the fact that the users of our products and services may not be the same as the ones who make the purchase or the ones who handle final disposition of the product. The guy or gal who buys the elephant food aims to know how elephants think, even though he or she isn’t thinking like an elephant. That approach requires a twist of merchandising.
     People also talk about shopper marketing as being like the blind men and the elephant. This idiom—based on a story found in various forms in various cultures—refers to how different people will come to widely different conclusions because each individual senses only part of the whole reality.
     Applied to shopper marketing, the story of the blind men and the elephant can remind us that although we are aiming to increase sales by understanding how the shopper behaves at the time of considering what to buy, much more than point of purchase is involved. Using shopper marketing helps time-starved and over-informed retailers keep the focus on building sales.
     So here’s another tie-in to pachyderms: Focus is a great tool for improving memory, and elephants never forget, you know.