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Th i s w h i t e p a p e r h a s b e e n c o m p i l e d t o g i v e t h e r e a d e r a s h o r t i n t ro d u c t i o n t o S h o p p e r M a r ke t i n g a n d i t s i m p a c t o n p a c k a g i n g a n d p a c k a g i n g d e s i g n . D i s c u s s i o n p o i n t s a n d f o c u s a r e a s a r e s h a re d t o h e l p yo u g e t yo u r p a c k a g i n g s t r a t e g y r i g h t .

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Today, marketing is in the midst of a dramatic transformation characterized by the digitization of media and the resurgence of place. Digitization of media, featuring e-commerce, online, mobile advertising, and interactivity of communications garner a great deal of attention. The resurgence of place is occurring more quietly. Shopper Marketing is becoming more central to marketing practice because of the following:

• The retail chains are places where people go not just to make purchas-es, but to have experiences.

• Stores have a role as place media, providing marketers with enormous reach for disseminating messages and interacting with shoppers.

• Stores are evolving into social communities where people interact with each other.

• The rise of online shopping makes the development of the physical store a question of survival.

Numerous definitions have been put forward, and shopper marketing is changing over time. Shopper Marketing is the combination of all the in-fluences a marketer can bring to bear on target shoppers. The shopper decides what, when and where to purchase. It requires an understanding of the consumer as a shopper, of what it takes to influence that shopper, and the most effective means of doing so. It also requires an understanding of retail and how it works.

Shopper Marketing is neither a niche nor an add-on. It has become an in-tegral part of marketing today. It got started in response to the realization by both manufacturers and retailers that traditional marketing and mer-chandising approaches were no longer working. It has evolved to become a collaborative effort between retailers and brands to reach out and provide a superior shopping experience to the mutually targeted shopper. In this context, the store emerges as one of the most important places where shoppers and brands interact. This could be in the digital and/or physical world(s).

Shopper Marketing has in practice been with us for a long time. Industry experts just did not call it that, and it was not always conducted in a strate-gically holistic way, the way it is today is by world class shopper marketing organizations. Shopper marketing has exploded, and it is having a major influence on brand manufacturers and retailers alike. The marketplace for consumer goods, branding, retailing, and shopping is extremely dynamic. However, successful processes exist for consistently developing impactful and profitable shopper marketing programmes and initiatives, and, in partic-ular, programmes that include packaging and packaging design.

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When you think of a really strong brand, there is a very good chance that an image of their packaging comes top of mind. Think Coca-Cola, Absolut or M&M’s. When packages like these become visual icons and such an im-portant part of the brand’s overall DNA, how can we argue that packaging cannot be one of your brand’s most important investments? Not only will the packaging chosen by a strong brand have a longer shelf life than adver-tising or promotion programmes, but more people in shopping mode will also see it. The package is the silent salesman that is on duty all the time in the home and in the store. The role of the package as the silent salesman is to make products more visible on the shelves to get the shopper’s atten-tion.

The average consumer is bombarded with thousands of messages each day. Consumers have more choices than ever due to media fragmentation and digitalization. It has become challenging to connect with your consumer through any one medium, making it that much more difficult to reach your level of media impression. With statistics like these, it is no wonder that the mortality of newly launched products is high. Procter and Gamble is widely cited for coining the phrase “first moment of truth” (FMOT) to describe the importance of where a shopper is standing in front of a package or brand in the aisle ready to make a purchase. Before consumers can con-sume the brand, they have to choose it off the shelf. The package makes that first important impression on the shopper in the store. Shoppers’ brains are looking for shape, colour, and fonts, and they will often decide whether they are going to buy your product based on the first impression.

The package is also a key to creating long-term relationship with the brand. Is there any other vehicle that shoppers and consumers interact with 24/7 than the packaging? From the time they notice your product on the shelf and purchases it, all the way through storage at home to opening, handling and up to the point of disposal, you form a personal relationship with and an attachment to the brand through the package. Packaging is the one medium that really can result in a physical relation with the shopper and consumer.

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The package is both one of the most important in-store marketing components for a brand and also the only component over which the manufacturer has complete control. Hence, because you do not control the retail environment or your shoppers’ choic-es regarding the way your packaging is designed, your packaging should effectively tell shoppers what the product is, what it does, and why to buy it. You can easily evaluate the power of your packaging by considering these five questions:

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Does the package stand out on the shelf and visually engage the shopper?

Is the shopper drawn to engage with the product? Is the message relevant?

Is the package persuasive enough to induce purchase?

Is the package easy to handle and take from the shelf or cart? Are the most important messages visible?

Is the package easy to handle at home? Is it easy to open and, for example, pour from?

Is the package persuasive enough to induce purchase?

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It might sound obvious, but too often the packaging design process is led by marketing, with input from the supply chain and legal departments. But packaging needs to do more than that, and it needs to work on the shelf in front of a shopper. So, it stands to reason, surely, that if there is shopper expertise in the organization; it should be accessed during the packaging design process. The involvement of trade and shopper marketing is crucial to being successful.

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Packaging is one of the most important, and yet often most undervalued elements of the marketing communications mix for a FMCG company. It needs to resonate with consumers and deliver a great consumer experience. Packaging needs to protect the product and communicate all of the legal requirements, too. It has to meet logistics and retail standards so as to be accepted throughout the value chain, as well as being aware of its environmental responsibilities.

But, the most important part: it has to work for shoppers. It is on the shelf that pack-aging design has to communicate the most – if the product does not work on the shelf, is not visible to shoppers, does not attract them, and does not give them the message they need, then it isn’t working hard enough. Packaging is a remarkably efficient shop-per communication tool, taking your message to every outlet where your product is available. Despite that, often when the in-store marketing mix is being defined, packag-ing as a communication tool is often forgotten.

5 P R I N C I P L E S F O R E F F I C I E N T P A C K A G I N G T H AT C R E AT E

I N - S T O R E AT T E N T I O NThe package is central to providing both a positive usage experience and driving sales. Follow these five tips on what you should do in order to get your packaging strategy right, and start seeing results.

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Often the person consuming the product is also the shopper, but that is not always the case. If the shopper is not the consumer, does the packaging design also work for them? Different shoppers buy in different channels, and different channels deliver quite different shopping experiences. To a considerable extent, shopper understanding cannot be discerned by showing concepts to consumers in focus groups. If the shopper perspective has not been built into packaging design process, it is likely that performance is not being optimized in terms of visibility or communication in the store.

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Testing packaging designs for shoppers used to be a complicated, as well as expensive, exercise. These days virtual store technology and digital eye tracking are useful and cost-effective tools for packaging tests. Every shopper in every store will see the packaging design, hopefully for many years, and that makes it worth spending time and effort on this from the beginning.

Packaging design arguably is, or should be, part of the shopper marketing lexicon. At the very least, packaging development (and that includes design) should be a collaborative ef-fort involving both consumer and shopper teams and not just the purchasing department.

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Even in more standardised outlets, there is a fair number of variations which might impact the way packaging should be developed. The width of the aisle may influence how close a shopper is to the shelf and the package. The amount of space dedicated to the category may influence the number of facings, which will completely change the way a shopper sees your product. Also, the competing products in the same space will greatly affect the visibility. Which packaging format is the competitor using? Which colour coding?

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The potential of shopper marketing is immense, and the future will demand more and more of the brand in order to be competitive. We hope that this white paper will inspire you to learn more about shopper marketing and to develop adequate strategies that will support your brand in the future competition – both online and offline.

For further reading, please look at the references.

Shopper Marketing Insights by Ecolean provides interesting shopper insights from the FMCG world with focus on why packaging is an essential marketing tool and how brands and retailers can reach the ever-evolving shopper.

Contact us now and discover how your brand can capture the attention of the fast-moving and easily distracted consumers of today.

S O M E F I N A L W O R D S

R E F E R E N C E S

- Managing packaging design for sustainable development, Hellström & Olsson 2017- Designing for behavior change, Wendel 2014- Shopper Marketing revolution, Desforges & Anthony 2013- Decoded, Barden, 2013- Shopper Marketing, 5.0 GMA 2011

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