Amongst all the diversity of perspective in the industry on ‘where to shopper marketing?’ – in the broadest sense, there is one thing upon which everyone seems to agree – the need for a genuinely holistic approach; resulting in real integration. Between supplier and retailer, consumer and shopper, among currently disparate marketing tactics, and around concepts of value.

Within that, four key areas are standing out in the current landscape:

1. 1.       Digital and mobile – the new black
2. 2.       Holistic marketing – from consumer to shopper and back
3. 3.       Language and vision – supplier versus retailer
4. 4.       What ‘value’ means now

The first one, in particular, is the biggest ‘buzzword’ around, and consequently gets the most attention!

1.       Digital and mobile – the new black

Speaking of flat-earthing, up until recently in Australia the importance of digital and mobile has been pooh-poohed to some extent by the argument that 90% of sales are still physical. Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the technologies to influence and create the sale, not just to transact.

Digital/mobile is under still utilised in Australia for influence. Referencing Google’s ‘Zero moment of truth’ approach,  we’re currently undercooked at all points (Stimulus, Zero Moment of Truth, First Moment of Truth, Second Moment of Truth) given we are approximately 60% smartphone penetration in this country.

As a result of this lag, many of the Path to Purchase presentations focused very much on digital.

It is evident that many companies aren’t using digital very well. If they have it tends to be something like “hey let’s put our brand on Facebook” with little thought on how can we communicate with our audience and more importantly what do we want to communicate with this medium.

One company that is using digital media particularly effectively is Coopers. Here is a family-owned company rooted in tradition (in fact celebrating 150 yrs in 2012!) that has embraced digital and in the process shown the bigger players in the industry that you don’t need a big budget to be effective. Their Coopers Clear campaign used augmented reality to make a connection with both male and female shoppers but it was much more than that – it is one of the first examples in this country where a manufacturer has effectively utilised digital media to promote and bypass the retailer. (http://digitalmarketinglab.com.au/index.php/2011/07/17/augmented-reality-on-the-rise-in-oz/coopers-clear-ar-campaign/). One simply scans their smartphone over a symbol on the pack to see if they’ve won. Even better is that they didn’t even have to educate their shoppers on how to access the promotion. Coopers sales reps simply showed the store manager how to do it and got them so excited they were showing shoppers how to do it. “Clean store policy?” –  not a problem. They’ve also used their “order of Coopers” website to make a fantastic connection with consumers. In fact, I feel like a Coopers now.

While some are using digital effectively (Coopers obviously, Supre and Debenhams come to mind), examples of integrating it in a combined effort with other forms of marketing have historically been light on. Toby Desforges made a good point when he said that in the same way that marketing isn’t just advertising, promotions isn’t just shopper marketing. The point is that a marketing campaign needs to encompass digital, print, TV and in-store – and in fact whichever are the most appropriate marketing tactics to bring the bigger picture to life. Ann Mooney, ex P&G, shared some excellent examples of how they have been able to achieve this in the USA – which relate also to the need for a holistic and integrated approach, so we’ll discuss them under those points.

Moving forward, one of the ‘holy grails’ will be how to effectively measure the impact of digital media in the shopper process. There are lots of models around but the ones that are measured really focus solely on in-store.  Speaker Ben Grill who made a good point about the traditional ‘pathway’ approach, suggesting “we should call this the path to purchase and repurchase”.  Indeed. And this is where digital can potentially help to keep the connection with the shopper and consumer so as to encourage repurchase.

A cautionary word on social media, however…

‘Social media’ and ‘shopper’ have now become buzz words that are bandied with gay abandon but a lack of depth of understanding and strategic rationale. John Bastistich from Westfield made the point that some of the biggest brands have either closed down their Facebook online store or view it purely as brand engagement with no commercial expectations from it. Companies need a meaningful reason beyond ‘having a presence’ behind where they invest in the social media landscape, and what they invest with. When it comes to forums like Facebook, the gulf between awareness and purchase is wide.  Back to the point around influence – the acid test is how can each element of the mix influence the shopper decision-making process?

2.       Holistic marketing – from consumer to shopper and back

Back to this business of a 360 degree view.  In this era of rapid change and a fragmented marketing environment, it’s clear that a holistic whole-of-customer view is required, from consumer to shopper and back again (pre/in/post store) rather than shopper in isolation.

This is a re-emerging theme that also came up strongly in the POPAI / ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Survey. That shopper is not just about in-store, and nor is it ‘just a mindset’ (as clearly stated by Ann Mooney at the Summit).

Shopper marketing involves pre, in and post-store and we need to understand the relationship between consumer and shopper.

Consumer needs and desires drive shopper purchase. At the point where those consumer desires and needs become purchase choices and decisions, we’re speaking to the shopper, whether or not they’re in-store at that point.  And there is any number of influences along this ‘path’, which is somehow no longer the right word to use, since it’s clearly not linear.  And to that point, when the shopper becomes the consumer again; using the product is also an ongoing expression of their choice.  And then there’s post purchase.

Post purchase is also currently underutilised (expressions versus impressions, to quote Ben Grill from Google).Post purchase hasn’t really been thought about for repurchase and transactions, just for ‘loyalty’.

This all points to the importance of tailoring offers based on an understanding of individuals as whole-of-customer. And technology enables us to do this now. We can find out more about our customers than ever in the history of marketing. The era of ‘mass communications’ is over, for those of us who still haven’t got the message and cling to our TVCs.

3.       Language and vision – supplier versus retailer

Another theme is the need for a common language for suppliers and retailers (and within suppliers) by putting shopper and store back, or ‘store first’, as Ann Mooney from P&G likes to call it.

It’s not just about ‘doing shopper marketing’, which isn’t a term retailers use anyway; all shoppers are ‘customers’ to a retailer.

From the successful examples given at the conference, it seems internal structure dedicated to shopper is less important than having a common language, clear vision and clearly understood process for getting things to market and using insights.

Several of the speakers, and in particular Ann Mooney (formerly of P&G), spoke of the need for genuine integration in shopper-led marketing initiatives. In order for all facets of a campaign to sing from the same hymn book (including digital) with shopper-focused messaging, this integration needs to be built in to process before a single campaign light bulb goes ‘bing’. Ann spoke to the realities involved in making that happen, including:

• Nominating lead agencies to coordinate other agencies (and the politics of that)
• Ensuring that Insights not only have a seat at the table, but that shopper insights actually inform all integrated marketing initiatives
• Building in processes for Retailer engagement from the outset (i.e. during the insights gathering stage) and a seat at the table for every stage

At this stage, the Australian market is still very tactical and for many working in the industry, the task feels overwhelming to get from where they are operating now and where they would like to be. There is a real need to get the attitude and processes (including who holds particular budgets and how they work together) within businesses right to ensure that the strategy (or in many cases tactics disguised as strategy) are not determined by company structure.

What ‘value’ means now

Low price is not a differentiator anymore, it’s a given. There is a need to define the types of value different shoppers look for, and this  means retailers will need to move away from a ‘lowest price’ to defining what ‘value’ actually means or find a different platform altogether.

Jon Bird of Ideaworks delivered a brilliant presentation which spoke to 8 Paths to Value; being:

1. Basic Buys
2. Proven Performer
3. Creative Solutions
4. Expert Advice
5. Built to Last
6. Affordable Chic
7. Small Indulgences
8. Everyday Heroes

Arnaud Frade from TNS also spoke to Values and Concepts being beyond price, and certainly in our own experience of category strategy and the development of category drivers, there is a need for a holistic approach to what value means to our customers, just as there is a need for a 360 degree view on the points we’ve mentioned earlier.

Ann Mooney also made the valid point that packaging is underleveraged for shopper communications and activations, not just as a brand platform. Packaging is often the only guaranteed communication medium there is. So, what are we communicating on it and how does that address this broader concept of ‘value beyond price’?

And… finally, back to being human.

Simon Small of Nestle Switzerland reminded us of the fundamental truth that ultimately it’s all about emotional connection. Which can be easily forgotten while trying to navigate what ‘shopper’ means now in an increasingly fragmented and complex communication world. Simon’s stories of powerful emotional connections between shoppers and brands in surprising environments, such as developing nations where retail channels are unsophisticated at best and chaotic at worst, prove that when you hit the emotional ‘sweet spot’ with shoppers, the dividends can be enormous.

So, in summary:

1. All tactics need good reasons
2. Shopper marketing is about whole human beings, who are consumers, shoppers and seek ‘value’ (whatever that means for them), and are influenced by a wide range of communication mediums before, during and after purchase
3. Real integration happens via common language, vision and meaningful process change
4. Emotion is at the heart of all good shopper marketing.  Actually, at the heart of everything, really.

Hosted by the US Path to Purchase Institute, the 2012 Shopper Marketing Summit was held in Chicago on the 16-18 April 2012. The summit boasted “a boat load of critical insights, information and solutions to help better connect with shoppers”. I attended the conference to gain a greater understanding of the level of sophistication of the US market in the discipline of Shopper Marketing, to uncover examples of best practice and evaluate how the Australian market compares. While I came back confident in the level of skill, thinking and leadership within the Australian market I do think there are things we can learn from our American counterparts especially in the areas of integration, execution and measurement of Shopper Marketing initiatives.

The Shift from Trade to Shopper

To set the scene for the three days the first session of the conference, a panel based discussion, explored the key differences between traditional Trade Marketing and Shopper Marketing. The panel included representatives of thought-leading manufacturers and agencies such as Nestle USA, Kimberly-Clark, Millward Brown and JWT. They outlined the key differences as per the following table.

The panel acknowledged that the increased complexity associated with a shopper-centric activities meant that campaigns involved a greater number of stakeholders, required longer lead times, required a new approach to budget allocation and in many cases were more difficult to measure. They did however also acknowledge that, if executed well, shopper-led campaigns had the ability to deliver more than just increased sales (e.g. improved retailer relationships, new occasions for a particular category or brand, increased household penetration, increased incidence of trip types, increased foot traffic, etc.).

The first day of the conference focused on two key elements of Shopper Marketing: Insights and Measurement, which are the bookends of any good Shopper Marketing campaign. Yet, these two elements are often those that are glossed over in the race to bring an activity to market. The truth is these elements are vital and can make the difference in elevating a basic trade marketing initiative to a true shopper marketing campaign, delivering exceptional results for a brand, category and/or retailer.

Throughout the conference the importance of quality insights was highlighted through the case studies presented by market leading organisations, including The Coca Cola Co, Pepsi Beverages Co., Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark Corp. These companies demonstrated how insights into shopper attitudes and behaviours helped them to develop new products and campaigns that had been highly successful meeting, and in many cases, exceeding their campaign objectives.

The Path to Integration

While Shopper Marketing has existed in the US longer than it has here in Australia it is encouraging to know that we are keeping up with the level of thinking the US is demonstrating. That said, the head start the US market had in the field of Shopper Marketing has meant forward-thinking organisations have had the time to experience initial success of activating against shopper-related insights and have now set about fully integrating shopper into their business. Some have progressed further down the path of integration than others but all of the organisations presenting at the summit indicated that full integration was their end goal. Many spoke of the challenges in making such a fundamental change within their business but all recognised the benefit that would result once it had been achieved.

It is important to note that those organisations who have integrated shopper have not walked away from traditional consumer marketing, and nor will they. Rather, they have built shopper into the strategic business, category, brand and channel plans alongside consumer marketing, understanding that there is a place and need for both to sit side by side.

The more sophisticated have realised that their budgets are through-the-line rather than above and/or below. They believe that funds should be allocated to the points along the path to purchase where they will have maximum effect, driving business efficiencies. For many businesses this requires a fundamental shift in thinking which must take place from the top-down with cultural change led by a determined senior management team. Those who have made it work are singing the praises of a fully integrated strategy that elevates the shopper to the same status consumers have long held in the hearts and minds of marketers.

The Impact of Technology on the Path to Purchase

The two subsequent days split sessions into four streams:

• Digital Path to Purchase
• Big Picture
• Insights into Activation
• Mobile Solutions

It will be no surprise, given that two of the four streams relate to technology, that the impact of digital and mobile on the path to purchase was a hot topic with many manufacturers and retailers seeking to understand the impact that technology is having on the way shoppers interact with their stores and brands. It was encouraging though to hear repeatedly that the shopper path to purchase is not isolated to the four walls of the store with universal acknowledgement that the shopper exists pre, in and post store.

The idea that technology has meant that active search (otherwise defined as ZMOT or Zero Moment of Truth by Google) is crashing with the FMOT (First Moment of Truth, a phrase coined by Proctor & Gamble) is being embraced by some who are working on ways to encourage the use of technology at the shelf.

Piers Fawkes, President of PSFK, who spoke on the topic ‘The Future of Retail’ gave the example of retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Mercedes Benz and Burberry who have digitally enabled their staff to enhance the shopping experience making them better equipped to address any questions their customers may have regarding product availability, technical specifications, etc. as well as to help them customize the shopping experience of their regular customers.

Aligning Manufacturer and Retailer Objectives

Often it is easy for manufacturers to concern themselves wholly and solely with their driving growth and sales of their brand, creating activations that deliver on their internal objectives with limited consideration for the retailer, their objectives and how this activity may fit into the retail environment.

A number of speakers at the conference spoke about the importance of aligning the manufacturer and retailer goals. April Carlisle, a Leader of Shopper Marketing at Proctor & Gamble said, “it has to work for everyone, or it works for no one”. She gave the example of Tide laundry detergent within mass merchants.

P&G recognised that laundry detergent category was a low priority for these retailers who were much more concerned with achieving growth in higher margin categories such as apparel. With this retailer objective in mind, they developed a campaign which supported the positioning of their brand, based on a shopper insight relating to the shoppers desire to get longevity out of their clothes.

They created a campaign for Walmart, in conjunction with Levis jeans, which communicated to shoppers that Tide was the washing detergent they should buy to protect their new jeans. They achieved off-location displays in the apparel section of the store and saw a dramatic increase in the sales and trial of Tide laundry liquid. This campaign was initially executed in Walmart but was extended to Target, linked with an alternative brand of jeans, once the results of the Walmart activation proved so successful. This campaign has been repeated a further three times in Target based on the success and the link to a retailer-critical category.

Another session presented by Kellogg, Proctor & Gamble and Ubisoft emphasized the huge opportunity that exists in cross-category promotions. They identified six key principles for a successful partnership:

1. Start early and be transparent
2. Align shopper targets
3. Bring a valuable offer
4. Leverage unique partner assets
5. Activate around the path to purchase
6. Execute with excellence

They gave examples of two campaigns that linked the release of gaming titles Madden NFL and Just Dance 3 with Gillette and Kellogg cereal brands respectively. Both campaigns were hugely successfully in driving awareness of the release of the game, which was the objective for Ubisoft, and achieving the brand objectives for Gillette and Kellogg.

The Future of Shopper Marketing

When asked what the future held for Shopper Marketing, speakers observed a number of trends and challenges they thought have an impact in the next few years. Amongst these were the rise of digital technology, the emergence of a multichannel shopper, shoppers who expect access and engagement wherever they might be, further embedding shopper into the DNA of business, retail-tainment, price transparency and a more holistic approach to the path to purchase. If this short but diverse list is anything to go by, the world of shopper is only going to get more interesting and the one thing that was made abundantly clear at the summit was that those who are along for the ride and are taking shopper seriously are those who will reap the rewards in the future.

Until next time!

Well this is the 2015 store and the largest in the Group, their ‘Coles response’, their ‘Costco response’ and the general footprint moving forward, Phew, that’s quite a bit to live up to!

So did it? Not in my opinion or that of another three long-term experienced industry executives.

Sure it was BIG, sure it was neat and tidy and well stocked for opening day. But where were the new initiatives, where was the theatre, where was the step change that pushes Woolworths past Coles? A nice store but the changes were certainly not evident to us.

Fresh was good but not great, and at least Woolworths know how to cross merchandise using barrels and baskets. The layout is crisp and clean, but does it have  a market place feel to it – no.

Sure it is a bigger store but with more facings of a larger store range fixes the “what do I do with the added space” question.

My Kitchen (thanks for the idea Bernie) was good but hardly “new”.

One chilled case for seafood looked undercooked, especially when:

• There is no specialist seafood retailer in the entire complex apart from Costco
• Coles do it way better

Chilled/ Dairy adjacent to Fresh is not new, but sliding doors for Butter and Margarine? Then leaving Frozens all by itself at the end of the store looked incongruous.

Health and Beauty had the same purple treatment and included the shop-within- a-shop concept readily seen in many (and not just Woolworths) stores including Big W and Target.

There are larger pack sizes available with due deference to the Costso competition, but for all intensive purposes it was  a regular Woolworths revisited.

Visiting Woolworths Eastgardens one week later, which is a recent refurbishment, the theatre of the Sushi  Shop and the Berry Farm was missing , and the Seafood offer at Eastgardens was better merchandised and more interactive than the 2015 offer at Majura Park – a couple of good examples of what is sorely needed to drive the point of difference between them and Costco and Coles.

Keeping in mind it was opening day, but it appeared to be a soft opening possibly due to the rest of the centre not being completely ready. But photocopied tickets advertising their new Fresh Guarantee would not have been tolerated under previous regimes.

Nor would Dick Smith being closed (again on opening day) at 5.30pm, no doubt because that was the time on the trading hours ticket at the front entrance. There was a day…..

In both cases you get what you accept and in the latter case, maybe Elvis has already left the building!

By comparison, we were there around 6pm on opening evening, the competing Costco was trading hard with most registers open and a good flow of trolleys in the store. Woolies had idle cashiers – and one thing missing – Shoppers with big trolleys willing to part with their hard-earned cash!

Apparently the weekend trade was much better, with a very high basket size driving a good sales result. The impact and draw has been more local rather than across Canberra which is alos interesting, as Majura Park is seen as a real destination site.

We’ll see how it’s trading after a month or two and things have settled down to a steady rhythm.

Meanwhile, for a change of pace, I revisited La Mana last week whilst in Melbourne after a disappointing visit mid last year.

How things have changed, what a great offer and a dynamic place to shop. The Fresh was sensational with fabulous displays, tastings, recipe suggestions, creative menus, different ranges and stock….and the size of the baskets!

Do yourself a favour and visit the next time you are down there, it out-trades the Coles opposite in the carpark, and you can see why. Try to leave without being sorely tempted to buy something!

During a recent trip to New York I visited the Whole Foods store on Union Square (on advice of a local who said it was a “must see”). In a busy city filled with young professionals this Whole Foods store definitely hits the mark offering an extensive range of meal solutions, with a focus throughout the store on health and wellbeing, service and the environment.

This store is set over 3 levels. The top floor is a dining room, ground floor (street level) is filled with convenience offers while the basement level houses traditional grocery categories.

The selection of ready made and self serve food is seriously impressive with the majority of the ground floor dedicated to meal solutions which include ready-to-eat fruit salads, sandwiches, wraps, a self serve soup bar, make your own salad bar, a wide selection of prepared hot dishes offering everything from noodles to curries and roasts.

While not cheap, these food offers represent good value for SINK/DINK households who would find it more expensive to purchase all of the ingredients required to make these meals at home. They are also extremely convenient to pick up to eat on the go or take home for an easy dinner…not to mention the fact you could easily eat something different every day for a year with the huge selection on offer.

The basement houses a full range of grocery categories with everything from traditional centre store categories to a wide selection of fresh fruit, cheese, meat and seafood. The focus is on better-for-you offers with a 10% discount on offer for members of the Whole Foods Wellness Club. Even the health and beauty aisle has a health food feel about it with the focus on ‘Whole Body’.

The entire store has a delicatessen or market ambience that engages the shopper and encouraging them to try new things and discover new foods. There are expert staff and sampling areas located throughout the store adding to the experience.

The registers, all 35 of them, are located on the ground floor and allow shoppers to get out of the store quickly, further emphasising the focus this retailer has placed on convenience in an effort to satisfy its shoppers.

Oh, and for those of you wondering how you get a full trolley from the basement to the registers on the ground floor, they’ve thought of that too. There is a purpose-built trolley escalator that transports your trolley up to the ground floor as you ride the regular escalator beside your groceries.

Coles and Woolworths may be slowly embracing the idea of ready-made meals and convenience based offers but they have a long way to go before they are even close to the same league as Whole Foods.

The launch comes after industry intelligence suggested there was a need for a locally based operation covering end-to-end shopper research, shopper strategy and related industry training.

“Both our manufacturer and retailer clients told us that just servicing NZ from Australia by flying back and forth across the ditch wasn’t enough”, said Norrelle Goldring, joint director of ShopAbility in Australia and NZ. “They want locals on the ground who know the market and how NZ culture influences shopping behaviour here. We are thrilled to have appointed someone of the calibre of Annette Piercy to head up our NZ division. She has a depth and breadth of senior experience across multiple roles, categories and channels. She also understands the specific trends, directions and needs FMCG and retail environment in NZ , so she’s the perfect person to head up the division’.

Annette Piercy has a background in shopper marketing campaign activation, in shopper data with Nielsen and client side experience in liquor with Corbans wines, among others. VIEW ANNETTE PIERCY’S PROFILE HERE.

ShopAbility specializes in activatable shopper and trade research and translating it into sound category, channel and point of purchase strategy based on how shoppers think and behave.

As originators of the annual POPAI/ShopAbility Shopper Marketing Industry Benchmark Survey, ShopAbility are thought leaders in shopper marketing theory in Australia. Team members regularly attend shopper marketing and shopper insights events across the globe, continually scouring for shopper marketing best practice case studies to bring back to the local market.

ShopAbility will be bringing some of this global information to New Zealand in July. Team member Alison Sinclair recently attended the US Shopper Marketing Summit in Chicago, and joint director Peter Huskins was one of a select few on the Westfield World Retail Study tour covering best practice retailing in destinations as diverse as Tokyo, New York, Paris, Milan and London. Alison and Peter will debrief participants on the key takeouts for successful shopper marketing programs and best practice retailing.

Furthering the success of its shopper marketing training programs running in Australia and throughout Asia the past 12 months, ShopAbility will run its first NZ shopper marketing training course in Auckland in August.

The course features numerous local and global best practice case studies, including up-to-the-minute examples of use of emerging shopper marketing technologies such as QR codes and Augmented Reality. Modules covered in the course span topics such as shopper marketing scope, the path to purchase cycle, touchpoint prioritization and messaging, shopper behaviour fundamentals, shopper insight development, measurement, and integrating shopper marketing in your organization.

Expressions of interest for either of these events can be made to Annette Piercy annette@shop-ability.com There are discounts for FMCG magazine readers (see breakout box).

ShopAbility started as a category and channel strategy and training consultancy in Australia in 2007 and quickly added shopper research to its portfolio, becoming one of the more well known players in the Australian space in the process. Company director Norrelle Goldring has been involved in shopper research for 12 years, which is nearly as long as the discipline has been around (according to Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy in 1999 and generally considered the ‘father’ of shopper research).

ShopAbility team members are from the trade, with a variety of backgrounds in sales, marketing, category and channel roles with retailers, with manufacturers and in agency. Being from the trade means that recommendations are kept real and applicable.

ShopAbility works cross channel with both manufacturers and retailers and has a broad offer but all focused on the shopper. Group Account Director NZ, Annette Piercy, said she was excited to be able to bring an end to end offer to NZ clients.

“There are companies who specialize in research, companies who do training, and companies who do various aspects of strategy, but there are very few who offer them all seamlessly like we do as experts in shopper,” she said.

“We look forward to working with clients to exploit the idiosyncrasies of the NZ market and tailoring our offer to suit”.

UPCOMING NZ SHOPABILITY EVENTS – REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

Register your expression of interest for either of both of the following value add events with Annette Piercy, email annette@shop-ability.com or call her on 027 300 8010.

When you register Annette will send you more detailed information.

1. 1.    Shopper Marketing Summit/Westfield Retail Study Tour Debrief

July, Auckland

Free for FMCG magazine readers when you quote code ‘FMCG’

1. 2.    Shopper Marketing Training

1 day course $795

August, Auckland

10% off for FMCG magazine readers when you quote code ‘FMCG’

CONTACT DETAILS

Annette Piercy : NZ                                Norrelle Goldring: AU

M: 027 300 8010                                    M: + 61 411 735 190

Freecall: 0800 300 8010

E: annette@shop-ability.com          E: norrelle@shopability.com.au

W: www.shop-ability.com                       W: www.shoability.com.au

Going down to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in Mid-March, I had a chance to come face to face with Melbourne’s food trucks. What started as 1 or 2 mini-kitchens in a truck driving around the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne (c’mon south of the river Councils!) has now turned into something quite remarkable. At last count there were 10 different trucks including: Beatbox Kitchen, Cornutopia, Taco Truck, Gumbo Kitchen, Dhaba, Grub Food Van, Le Sausage, Massive Weiners and Grill’d Airstream.

Fortunately for me, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival managed to organise Food-Trucks-Unite. On the day I went, the Taco Truck, Dhaba and the Beatbox Kitchen all converged in the same place on the Northbank for an afternoon of food tasting.

While the Curry Truck and Beatbox Kitchen looked inviting, there was only one place I was interested in – the taco truck. Unfortunately, so was everyone else! Luckily I just beat the rush because by 3pm they had sold out of fish tacos, by 4pm there was no chicken and by 4:30pm they had sold out of absolutely everything.

So what is it that makes these so attractive, is it the new format? Is it just a fad? Well not in my opinion. There are a number of reasons that the Taco truck has every reason to succeed. The food is fresh, it’s made right in front of you and the lemon and limes are right in front of you. It feels reasonably healthy, well, better than our other take away friends anyway. It feels authentic – fish tacos, chipotle mayo, Tapatio salsa all on the menu. It’s simple, there are 5 things you can order and that’s it. You can customise your heat for those of you that like your habanero sauce. And yes there is something intangibly cool about being able to park on the side of the road and serve food.

Oh and they are also fully integrated with social media, if you want to know where they are at during the week get onto Facebook or twitter. You can even try www.wherethetruck.at, which looks like it is trying to assemble them under one roof.

Now to find that Gumbo Kitchen…

Introducing Shopper Snapshot.

Get more leverage with retailers by supplying them with robust shopper insights about your category, in the context of their business, to speak their language.

Shopper Snapshot encompasses:

• Why they buy
• How they buy and make decisions
• Where your category sits relative to others
• What levers to pull to influence them, where

Shopper snapshot is an affordable solution especially designed for smaller companies who may be the third or fourth player in their category.

To find out more, download our Shopper Snapshot brochure here, and feel free to contact Norrelle Goldring of ShopAbility or Simon Ford of Shopper Tracker (details on the brochure). We’re excited to bring you a viable alternative, for a section of the industry with unmet needs. We’d love to chat with you about it.

Here’s the brochure:

Shopability-Shoppertracker Flyer FEB12_sml

Don’t miss this opportunity to attend one of the only major Shopper Marketing events this year. Starts this Wednesday 22 February – we’ll see you on stand 8 and in the keynote sessions. Enjoy!

Download your ShopAbility Path to Purchase Summit Brochure here, and use the promotional code at the top when booking your seat to receive 10% discount.

PathtoPurchase2012_shopability

As part of the conference program, ShopAbility’s Norrelle Goldring will be speaking on:

Leveraging the growing amounts of shopper data for in-store activation:
• Differentiating information from insight and understanding the types
of insights to be gained from data
• Analysing the uses of insights across sales, category, trade marketing,
brand marketing and externally
• How to gain insight and leverage results for category strategy

As Gold Sponsors, ShopAbilitly will also have a stand at the conference so feel free to come and say hello!

With the launch of the Mix clothing range within selected Coles stores we thought it was worth visiting Coles Epping to see how they would incorporate the new category into their store layout.

The first thing you notice when entering is a lack of traditional security barriers and trolley bays clogging the front entrance. The trolley bay is neatly located outside the store and there are no obvious barriers directing traffic giving the store an open and expansive feel.

As usual you enter into the fresh food department with all of the offers you would expect to see. There is a baker onsite and the offer is extensive.  The meat, poultry and seafood offer is not as pronounced as it is in other new format stores but there is a reasonable specialty cheese selection available.

The fresh food offer is presented in the market style which both Coles and Woolworths have been rolling out across new format stores. With chalkboard style signage this section is nothing new. However, the main difference between the Coles offer and the recent Woolworths rollouts is the lighting. This store is well lit and feels much more open than the dark moody style Woolworths have been executing.

The next thing you notice in this store are the wide aisles. They give the store a feeling of space and make it very easy to shop and even browse. Multiple facings within a wide selection of categories helps shoppers navigate the shelf and find what they are looking for. There is also a store map attached to the fixture at both ends of each aisle helping shoppers find categories within the store.

The most obvious difference in this store is the Mix clothing offer which is located in the middle of the store offering predominately women’s clothing, some men’s and even some accessories. You feel like you are in a Big W store when you reach this section. The POS is even blue replicating the Big W offer. The clothes are basic as you would expect but there are people shopping the section so it is either appealing to them or they are just curious to see what is available.

There are two glaring omissions from this section. The first is children’s wear which is puzzling. I had definitely expected to find a children’s offer and would have thought it would be more popular than an adults range. The catalogue does not show any children’s wear but perhaps it is available in other stores. The second is a change room. While it is difficult to imagine someone pulling up their trolley full of groceries and heading into a change room within a supermarket to try something on it does seem strange not to have the option.

There are a number of new category executions in the store including extensive stationery, mobile phone and home entertainment offers as well as some exercise equipment not noticed previously in other stores.

The health and beauty aisle has interchangeable POS that feels like it belongs in a Priceline or Mass Merchant cosmetic section.

The freezer section at the far end of the store has signage to assist with navigation signposting the various frozen categories in shopper friendly segments (e.g. treats, entertaining and main meals).

Overall the store feels spacious with some great initiatives to help shoppers locate aisles, categories and products within the store. It is well lit and feels clean and pleasant to shop. There was however a lot of empty shelves for a Thursday morning indicating that there is either too much space allocated to some categories or poor shelf replenishment procedures in place. It’s a nice store and if you’re keen to see the Mix offer in store it is worth a visit.

It’s 6pm on a cold Canberra Monday evening, one week after Costco opened, and surprisingly the car park is relatively empty.

Plenty of people pushing trolleys within the store, but only 3 registers open, that says it all.

This format is the same as many of us have seen in Melbourne, Sydney and overseas with the normal mix of Food, General Merchandise  and outstanding stunt lines – same layout, same merchandising, same POD. You know what you expect to find in a Costco and they deliver.

The interesting element to this Canberra store is not the internal dynamics but what Costco’s arrival will cause in this conservative town of 330,000 people.

Apparently a full line Woolies, Big W and Dick Smith are all planned for an adjoining mini centre in January 2012, supposedly supporting a ‘Costco competitive’ range and pricing structure (apparently they outbid Coles for the privilege of opening there). Both of the majors have implemented competitive strategies in an attempt to counter the Costco effect (larger pack sizes, price reductions etc).

There is already a Jim Murphy liquor super store there so the expectation I would think is that the central car park will draw from a huge catchment – think Goulburn, Wagga and the coastal strip right up to Wollongong, around 200kms/ 2 hours, as well as from the existing neighbourhood and destination centres around Canberra. Costco would be looking at $75-100m pa, Woolies at least $50m and that type of turnover just does not happen. It is about changing current shopping habits away from the local retailers and drawing big country style baskets from a very wide catchment.

The quote “everything in Canberra is only 20 minutes away” certainly puts the above into perspective.

So what will be the long term impact of a combined offer such as this on the current offers servicing Canberra population and the ripple effect into the wider catchment?  Think about the WalMart effect on regional US A – possibly, but  it certainly has the potential.

Watch this space for further developments. If successful it could come to a town near you!