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Written by: Ashley Randall
Customer experience for CPG brands is the new battlefield in grocery retail! In fact, most CPG brands are breaking away from trade marketing and moving into shopper marketing to give their consumers the best experience possible.
With that being said, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, according to a study by PwC. There are a million products for consumers to choose from, so how do you plan to stand out against the competitors? It’s simple, you need to invest and implement a shopper marketing strategy for your CPG brand.
Within this article, we are going to discuss different ways to build a shopper marketing strategy.
In store shopper marketing is a variety of marketing tactics to help engage consumers through their path to purchase journey in the retail store. It’s the overall experience a consumer has in a store while shopping for your product. To ensure that their experience is a great one, you must get personal with them.
Consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that they connect with on a personal, emotional, or spiritual level. And in order to do this, you and your consumers must get well acquainted.
As a CPG brand, it is important to think about the retailer’s store when creating a distributor strategy. You want to make sure that the store has a positive effect on the consumer. That plays a big part in the shopper’s experience. Not only will this help build your brand, it will also increase your sales velocity. Read more about sales velocity and why you should measure it here, “What is Sales Velocity in CPG?”
Here are some in store shopper marketing strategies to consider.
The ambiance of a retail store can make or break your sales velocity. When walking into a store, consumers want to feel safe, welcomed, and invited. Are the employees friendly? Is the store’s lights well lit? What kind of music do they play? Take all of this in consideration in choosing your retailers.
Having a display next to your product is a sure way to grab your consumer’s attention. It could be a promotional display, or a discount display that’s a shelf talker or an end cap. Some brands even use floor displays that are placed next to your product. This is great for the awareness stage in their path to purchase journey. Samples
Who doesn’t love free samples? This method is a great way to introduce your product to new consumers. Now that we are in a post COVID world and everything is now digital, retail solutions like Sampoll, helps connect consumers to CPG brands by offering product trials with a cashback reward. This way, consumers will have a chance to try your product, before making the commitment of a purchase.
Consumers want the royal treatment while shopping in retail stores. If you partner with a retailer that implements a loyalty program, your brand will have a higher conversion rate than at a retailer who doesn’t. Most retailers offer cashback incentives, points per purchase, or additional coupons to help encourage consumers to buy certain items.
Speaking of coupons, this is another way to set your brand apart from others. Consumers are more likely to purchase your brand over the competition just because you offered a coupon. This way, the consumer feels like they purchased a good deal that also fits their budget.
Building your brand with a purpose to contribute to the consumer’s quality of life is essential. Not only do they want to feel connected with your brand, they also want your products to make their day-to-day lives easier.
Your brand build will help raise awareness, while letting consumers get to know you. They want to know if they can trust you and if your products will be beneficial to them. They may have heard of your brand through Google or social media channels, but they haven’t personally interacted with you.
So when they are in the store and come across your product, they will remember how they initially felt when they saw your ad. Using an in store shopper marketing tactic will help seal the deal when considering a purchase. This is also considered experiential marketing.
Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that fully engages with the consumer and gives them an unique and memorable experience. Building personalized engagement will create a positive and strong connection between the consumer and your brand.
Sampoll can help with your in-store shopper marketing efforts by eliminating in-store demos, yet providing product sampling through cashback rewards. Our AI-powered chat ambassador, “Sam”, mimics your CPG brand’s tone of voice, and sense of humor to communicate with your consumers, while educating them on your products.
And if they are interested to try, “Sam” will send them a cashback reward for sampling your product. Not only will it increase your sales velocity, your brand will gain new loyal consumers.
This is a great experiential marketing strategy to implement, especially since COVID is stopping the majority of in-store demos from happening in major retailers across North America.
A typical path to purchase journey takes the consumer from awareness (seeing your product), to consideration (comparing your product amongst other options), to conversion (purchasing your product). Each consumer’s path could vary, so it is important to make each stage as engaging as possible to them.
The consumer walks in a store, and the ambiance is great. They have a want or need, and are looking for a product that will satisfy their problem. They are in the right aisle, but they see many products on the shelf. There is your product and from here, many things could happen.
Either they have no idea about your brand nor what your product can do for them, or maybe they’ve seen it before but haven’t tried it yet. Displays and samples can help during this stage to bring awareness to your brand.
They are looking at your product against the others and are now weighing out their options. Is your product on sale? Do they have a coupon for your product? Will they receive loyalty points if they purchase your product? Even if they have little to no awareness of your product, having an incentive will convince the consumer to purchase.
After evaluating their options, they have decided the best product to satisfy their wants and needs. Hopefully, it’s your product that they will have in their shopping cart.
Sampoll is here to ensure that your brand campaigns are an effective and fun experience for your consumers. If you are a CPG brand looking for an innovative way to provide a personalized consumer experience, click here to request a demo.