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Repeat After Me : Shopper Marketing : All Together Now:)

Erik Hauser June 2nd, 2009

Ladies and Gents readers of the BFMB - I present to you the word that you will hear from now until eternity. There’s a good reason. It’s actually a practice that smart marketer’s have been practicing for years. It delves deep into the mindset of the consumers and breaks down the mechanics of their daily life -w hen and where they make decisions. It’s what I’ve simply referred to as following your audience - It’s where I get to play the part of a social anthropologist - So much fun.;)

The question is why now?

The answer is easy. The systemic meltdown of the foundation of everything that consumers thought to be real has had a profound effect on their shopping behavior. Things that were very effective a year ago yield little results today. The clipping of coupons and e-coupons is way up, and smart brands are taking good advice from smart marketers about how to actively monitor the situation and to adjust their approach to the marketplace? Why - you ask? Well - simply put - the marketplace has drastically changed. The behaviors of our intended audiences have changed drastically.

This is going to make brands make some hard decisions and learn how to continue to maintain their brand equity while fully recognizing that certain things are just going to have to change. This isn’t like the effect that the price of gas on the market place has as it fluctuates. When the public seems to have the attention span of a small mouth bass.

This one is going to stick, and it’s going to take playing your cards right to emerge the victor. To stand idly by - to fail to recognize this drastic change - to say it can’t happen to my global brand……. Well - you will undoubtedly learn the hard lessons of complacency - get ahead of the issues - they are coming, and they are here to last.

I, personally welcome the more in depth analysis of behavior - I look forward to people taking this approach as it is now the new marketing landscape. So, perhaps one last chorus with me…..Shopper marketing…..Follow your audience - the path to staying on top!