Theory House likes to keep an eye on the shopper marketing space and below are some of the key trends identified in the latest TREND. Dissect report: The Third Place.
- Shopper Marketing Channel: Shopper marketing is the fastest growing advertising category globally.
- Value Mart: Price matters, but so does value. You need to enrich the lives of your consumers, either through a superior product experience, information, or a pleasant shopping environment.
- I ‘Heart’ You: You need to care and the consumer needs to believe that you do. Not just about them and their needs and the needs of their family, but about the environment they live in, that their children will grow up in, what they consume and where products are sourced and how they are made/grown/harvested.
- Price Point: The majority of grocery shoppers in South Africa display strong store and brand loyalty, but rising food prices and economic uncertainty is driving store brand popularity and a decline in non-essential purchases. South Africans have become cautious, price sensitive grocery shoppers.
- Loyalty Legion: South African shoppers demonstrate high levels of store loyalty and brand loyalty and don’t switch shops or brands necessarily for price only.
- Shopper Tribes: There are new “tribes” of shoppers following on the recession, as identified by trend forecaster Dion Chang: notably the ‘Forever-frugal Shopper’.
- What’s in it for me? If you want brand fans for your social media channel, you have to give them something in exchange, consumers want something back for supporting their retailers and brands and they are quite mercenary about it.
- Experiential: Offering shoppers instant rewards in store or on loyalty cards or via mobile couponing; or providing ‘solutions’, like meal combinations for dinner.
TREND is a South African trendwatching portal
