Nov 11

Written by: IRI Blog
11/11/2009 12:23 PM

Understanding the evolving behavior around how shoppers learn about, plan for, and execute their CPG shopping trips is imperative to CPG marketers. This knowledge enables CPG marketers to appropriately respond to the complex consumer process – from the recognition of a need (i.e. what they want to purchase) all the way through post-purchase evaluation.  No doubt, much has changed during the past two years.  

As of late 2007, 60 percent of shoppers made their CPG purchase decisions at home, while the rest made their decisions in the store. By this July, though, 83 percent of shoppers stated their purchase decisions were being made at home – a 23 point increase during a very short period of time. This dramatic shift is just one example of the changes consumers have made vis-à-vis CPG shopping rituals. CPG marketers must understand and adapt to the new CPG shopper.  It is essential for CPG companies to rework their marketing and merchandising strategies to begin impacting the consumer while they are at home making their shopping lists.

IRI recently published a new Times & Trends report, “Zero-Moment of Truth: Redefining the Consumer Decision-Making Process,” which delves into how CPG marketers can maximize the effect of price, promotion, and merchandising strategies by addressing the constantly changing consumer decision-making process. Highlights of the report include:

• Broadening communication efforts to include rapidly evolving, home-based technologies, such as e-mail
• Creating collaborative strategies with key retailer/manufacturer partners to understand the key trip missions and ensure product variety reflects dominant purchase patterns
• Rewiring strategies in order to tie in-store efforts with externally-targeted promotional campaigns to impact purchase decisions made prior to entering the retail environment

Have you felt the change in consumer behavior as a result of the ongoing economic transformation? What have you done to shift your marketing efforts to address and adapt to this situation?

We’d love to hear your thoughts about this issue, so feel free to comment or provide feedback to this blog post.

Best,
Susan Viamari

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