According to MEI Trade Insight, 87% of CPG brand marketers intend to increase or maintain their spend on trade activities in the year ahead. This stems from a belief that, in these recessionary times, moving more money closer to the shopper is a better way to get more bang for the buck. We have no argument with the “closer-to-the-shopper” philosophy. But in order to make this approach actually work, you have to know what closer to the shopper actually means —and “in the store” ain’t necessarily the whole story.
Tag Archives: path-to-purchase
Archives for Tag: path-to-purchase
As an agency focused on CPG marketing, we’re growing more troubled by retailers’ aggressive private label marketing efforts. Retailers are doing it well. And it’s working. Most alarming, though, is that CPG brands seem to be bankrolling retailers’ private label marketing with the investments in trade and shopper marketing that they are obligated to devote to their retail partners. How do CPG marketers change direction and regain control?
Background
CPG marketers know that retailers have realized tremendous success in developing private label brands and that it is a real threat. Among the facts illustrating private label success, Mintel reports:
- Since 2008, the number of premium-positioned private label product introductions has outpaced new premium-positioned products introduced by brand marketers.
- Seven of ten shoppers say they perceive the store-brand food products they buy to be the same or better quality than name brands.
- Over half of shoppers say they will shop a specific retailer because it has good store brands.
What CPG marketers may not wish to acknowledge is the hostile nature of many private label marketing campaigns and their own role in funding them.
Coming to the end of summer, I can’t help take notice of Google’s push to influence what shopper marketing professionals call the “path-to-purchase”. The path-to-purchase is the route that shoppers take from discovery of a product to the actual purchase of a product. This may include several steps such as consulting research or product reviews on the internet, discussing products with friends, being exposed to media advertising, traveling to a store, and examining the product on shelf or display before buying. Google recently published and is heavily promoting an eBook titled Zero Moment of Truth that boldly marks their proprietary spot on the path-to-purchase.
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