Co-locate Items to Fit Shopper Concepts

We know that the way in which items within a product category are arranged on a set of store shelves influences how well those items sell. Researchers at Columbia University and Erasmus University say the arrangements should be influenced by how shoppers mentally configure the alternatives. A chief advantage of doing this, the researchers find, is that shoppers will perceive the assortment variety to be larger. Although consumers want to simplify filtering through alternatives, they’re attracted by ample variety at the start.
     But how to determine the way in which shoppers mentally organize the assortment? Survey a sample of them. In laboratory studies, the researchers instructed consumers to move images of items on a computer screen to fit their preferred arrangement. In a field study, grocery store shoppers were invited to arrange cards, each card with an image of an item, on a sorting table.
     In these studies, the researchers found considerable differences among people’s mental arrangements. Familiarity with the product category accounted for a good part of this difference. This indicates that in your own surveys, you should include your product categories with different levels of likely shopper familiarity.
     The heterogeneity in favored arrangements also indicates that you won’t be able to please everybody. Recognize that the principles shoppers use to organize the assortment inside their brains is influenced by whatever arrangement you and stores similar to yours typically use. Then incorporate recommendations from other research about item co-location.
     For example, a shopper’s judgments of the quality and price of an item depend on what surrounds the item on the shelf. Researchers at University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University explored results of consumers being exposed to multiple brands in situations where the selection of an item did not hold high importance for the consumer. Such a purchase might be laundry detergent rather than perfume.
     In these situations, the person was most likely to select an item if the surrounding brands had different brand personalities from the item selected. The most commonly accepted classification of brand personality was devised by researchers at Stanford University: 

• Sincere. Down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful  
• Exciting. Daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date 
• Competent. Reliable, intelligent, successful 
• Sophisticated. Upper class, charming 
• Rugged. Outdoorsy, tough

     If it would fulfill your objectives to have a particular item selected, have the personality of that brand stand out from the personality of a surrounding brand.

Successfully influence the most prosperous & most loyal consumer age group. For the specific strategies & tactics you need, click here.

Click for more…

Organize Shelves & Racks to Portray Variety 

Funnel Purchase Alternatives Maturely 

Note Familiarity for Adjacency Effects 

Split Your Pants for Hedonic Shoppers