Contributing Blogger – Sue Nosworthy, Past Vice President ESOMAR
First up after the break was Lluis Martinez-Ribes, ESADE, Spain who introduced us to an innovative retail business model using philosophy-based insights. He made a very strong case for retail innovation through a real change of mind-set on the part of the retailer – away from just short term profits, towards a more customer-centric approach aimed at maximizing the satisfaction of the lifetime customer.
Lluis illustrated his talk with a case study involving the regional Spanish grocery retailer, Aqui é, with a strong neighbourhood customer base. A key insight uncovered was that the major pre-occupation of these customers was what they were going to prepare for their meals each day. Building on that and using very innovative design solutions, Aqui é introduced a section of the store devoted to daily changing produce, recipe suggestions etc. The results were dramatic, with the increase in performance 28% better even than predicted.
A key take away from this presentation was that the insights came, not from the shoppers in-store behavior but from an understanding of their lives outside the store. As Lluis so eloquently put it “There is life beyond shopper marketing, we need to move to customer-life marketing”.
Orlando Wood from Brainjuicer and Wendy Lanchin, the Marketing Store, both from the UK, then introduced us to the Emotional shopper. Using a Benny Hill style video to illustrate the general perception of the typical grocery shopping journey, they then urged us to re-consider. A person buying products in a supermarket is in touch with his deepest emotions. Those emotions drive behavior and behaviour drives profit.
They therefore set out to measure the emotional journey rather than the physical one – to measure emotional response before during and after a shopping trip. Using Brainjuicer’s proprietary methodology, FaceTrace – based on the work of Paul Ekman – they measured both the flavour of emotion and the strength of that emotion among shoppers in different retail environments.
The findings revealed what an emotional rollercoaster shopping can be, particularly grocery shopping. Although we are largely a nation of happy shoppers, our emotions change constantly throughout the shopper journey, as was illustrated by a very entertaining video. The intensity of emotion varies by retail channel and by individual retailer. Orlando and Wendy were sadly unable to dispel any of the stereotypes about shopping. Women were generally happier shoppers, even in grocery. Perhaps most interesting were the gender differences in DIY stores – men tended to be much more angry and frustrated as their shopping missions were largely more targeted. Women, by contrast, were much more likely to be “window shopping” and imagining what the products would look like in their homes.
In terms of general learnings, Orlando and Wendy suggested that there is an emotional path to profit, and that retailers should be aiming for a positive emotional response from their customers.
Two very interesting papers to end the morning session, and some very strong complementary themes emerging.
