Buying the retail space?

Promotional Marketing November 2010

Mindi Chahal explores how retailers have become media owners, and what it means for brands and marketers

The UK’s supermarkets – and other large national retail chains – have effectively become media owners. Indeed, some would argue that the fragmentation of traditional media audiences means retailers now offer the last real mass communications channel available to marketers – which could explain the explosion of interest in shopper marketing as a discipline. Guy Soar, business development director at Brandspace, explains why: “Shopping remains an activity enjoyed by the whole of the society, young and old, rich and poor, and you can target people en masse or tactically as required. Not even advertising in the middle of Coronation Street gives you that mix of demographics and flexibility.”

As a result, shopper marketing can reach a range of demographics. As Dominic Rowbotham, head of business development at Retail Marketing International (RMI), says: “For many brands, retail marketing is one of the most important channels available to them, as it offers the most direct route to their customers. What I think retail gives in terms of a mass marketing channel, is larger audience numbers and frequency, as people shop on a regular basis, which delivers great value.” Working in the retail environment also offers marketers a “double whammy”, says David Ringer, general manager for UK & Ireland at TCC. He argues: “In-store sales promotions offer a legitimate reason to communicate with your audience and an opportunity to sell.” So shopper marketing offers brands the chance to reach audiences in the right mindset: but brands must achieve standout to succeed in what has become a hugely cluttered space. Alex Johns, managing director of Brandnew Corporation, comments: “Retail is indeed a great place for brands to communicate: but with everyone wanting a piece of the action competition is fierce – with manufacturer brands and own brands screaming for the consumers’ attention via ceiling hangs, wobblers, shelf talkers, billboards, shopping trolleys, in-store radio and more.” Johns adds: “Research has shown that the danger with all this is that the consumer switches to ad avoidance mode and defaults to what they have always purchased.” He believes the solution is to start at the till and, working backwards, to map the shopper’s behavioural journey and provide the kind of clues necessary to be ‘interruptive’.  But Johns acknowledges that such a philosophy “presents challenges, as the media packs available from most major retail groups simply don’t meet the requirements we often identify for killer campaigns. That’s why working intimately as partners with the retail team is essential in creating a campaign that bends the rules, a proprietary campaign that both retailer and brand get to own.” But retailers are also becoming savvier about the value of the space they hold. Andy Jarvis, group account director and shopper marketing expert at Billington Cartmell comments: “Retailers are certainly mass media owners, with Tesco reaching in excess of 20 million [people] per week. Importantly, they are now also brand owners and they have a unique understanding of both their media and their consumers. Both these points are frequently overlooked by supplier brands seeking to use the power of the grocery store.” One example of how retailers are flexing their muscles as media owners is the recent announcement of a partnership between customer publishing agency Publicis Blueprint and Asda. The two have created the Asda Media Centre which includes 15 media channels claiming to reach 70% of all UK households. The AMC covers all the touch points of the customer journey from home to store and includes press, online, out-of-home and POS channels, including what the two partners claim is Britain’s biggest women’s monthly, Asda magazine, and an in-store radio station that reaches over 18 million customers every week.

With everyone wanting a piece of the action competition is fierce

Such an approach to marketing in the retail space recognises the need to communicate with audiences at the right time and in a unified way, with the brand stamped on all media channels, to drive the message through to consumers and turn them into shoppers. “Supplier teams must break out of brand silos,” says Andy Jarvis at Billington Cartmell. “Brands need to learn to better understand the retailer approach, joining in the conversation with shoppers and aligning and exploiting where brand synergies are strong.”

That means brands need to think beyond – or perhaps before – the point of purchase and work in partnership with retailers who already have a grasp on their own media channels in-store. Field marketing group CPM manages all sampling in ASDA stores. Mark Williams, CPM’s ASDA business unit director, observes: “When planning any campaign in the retail environment, you need to be focused on not only the objectives of your business and your brand, but with those of the retailer as well. And it’s this dynamic that is often alien to brands and difficult to achieve. To make the most of any investment in this area you need to be aligning your activity with the retailer’s agenda and plans, and that of their shoppers, to provide that crucial stand-out.” In-store or near-to-store activity is also easily measurable. As Williams adds: “The use of retail space for marketing is an eminently measurable discipline, since traffic and footfall are directly related to sales. The reach cuts through most demographics and provides the scope for mass hits during the customer journey from the car park to the check-out. Comparing the cost of providing consumers with the opportunity to see a 30 second TV ad, against the dwell time and repeat viewings in-store over a three-week period, makes the comparative value indisputable.” C Interactive’s Centre Radio operates a range of in-mall radio stations in 240 malls in the UK and Ireland, and apparently delivers 150 million footfalls per month. Daniel Graham, managing director of Centre Radio, says: “If you’re looking for value for money, these types of media opportunities are more effective and are becoming increasingly available.

There are a number of barriers that make marketing in the retail environment difficult for marketers to access, such as the fragmented nature of what media formats retailer each retailer has, the multiple routes to accessing the media and retailers’ ‘clean store’ policies. According to Dominic Rowbotham of RMI, the Co-operative Group offers one of the best examples of how a retailer has sought to minimize these barriers by setting up a centrally-run retail media centre with a database of all retail media inventory and a web-based booking system. The Co-operative media centre, powered by planmymedia, allows advertisers to have direct access to all the retail media options available to them at a press of a button, saving a huge amount of time and effort in planning and booking their retail-based communications. It also enables the retailer to have flexibility and control over what messaging goes out and where, ensuring consistency and cohesion in its delivery of its central in-store marketing plan.

The Co-operative Media centre

It is important that you deliver an effective campaign which is linked to the call to action and going direct to the shopper at point of purchase is an appealing opportunity.” Going straight to the shopper may be the solution – but achieving this can be problematic, as Dominic Rowbotham at RMI says: “It takes 15 to 20 telephone calls to find out what brands can deliver in sampling in five different retailers. It should be easier than that.” Rachel Deacon, client services director at integrated agency Life, concludes: “Shopper marketing is not as easy as it looks. To ensure value for money, clients need in-house people that can talk the talk in that market, driving down price and maximising the impact from the work done by category teams.” Deacon adds: “We have seen that reflected in the emergence of shopper marketing teams across many of our clients over the past 18 months. The other way to ensure you get standout at the right price is to really get under the teeth of what works. The value of media is in the quality of the reach.”