MARKETING TO THE MULTI-TASKING CONSUMER:
END-USER, SHOPPER, BUYER
 EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
JUNE 2007

IRI's Times & Trends highlights new developments and critical events across all major CPG categories and channels, providing powerful benchmarking data to help guide your strategic decisions. This issue provides insights into consumer behavior across each of three major roles: end-user, shopper and buyer and details resulting marketing and merchandising opportunities.
This free summary is also accessible via the GMA/FPA Web site at  http://www.gmabrands.com/publications/gmairi.cfm

INTRODUCTION
Consumers are the ultimate multi-taskers. While marketers often view a consumer narrowly as a potential purchaser of their product or shopper of their stores, the reality is that consumers fulfill multiple roles -- end user, shopper and buyer -- all of which are interrelated.

To influence consumer behavior, marketers who focus on the total consumer will have an edge. An edge that is sorely needed in markets in which demand is not growing on its own, traditional methods of increasing demand are losing their efficacy and the competition for a piece of the pie is intensifying.

This report shares new global insights into consumer behavior across these three roles to form the foundation of marketing and merchandising strategies that drive increased store traffic, larger baskets and brand and category growth.


 KEY FINDINGS

End-user versus purchaser dynamics impact optimal pricing and promotion. Multiple end-users in a household influence purchase decisions, but the primary shopper makes the final call; as shoppers are more price-sensitive when buying for others versus themselves, optimal price, promotion and premium product opportunity will vary accordingly.

A focus on broad appeal across shopping trip types may give way to specialization as retailers seek new avenues to growth. Consumers’ trip missions (i.e., pantry stocking, fill-in, special purpose and quick trips) heavily influence store choice; after years of broadening assortment to meet a wider range of consumer needs, most major channels and retailers have a large stake in at least three of the four trip missions, but future growth may come from specialization.

 

Consumer shopping patterns vary by country, necessitating unique marketing and merchandising strategies. Differences in trip mission mix across countries illustrate the impact of retail industry structure on existing shopping patterns and the resulting need for unique shopper-insight-based marketing and merchandising strategies across global markets.

How a consumer shops for a category is a critical consideration in merchandising plans. A category’s typical trip mix (i.e., percent purchased on pantry stocking versus quick trips, etc.) will dictate distinct product adjacency, promotion, and advertising requirements to grow category sales and attract and build the trip types that retailers have targeted for growth.

The proportion of brand decisions made at -home versus in-store varies dramatically by category. Brand predetermination, or the extent to which brand decisions are made before shopping versus in front of the shelf, varies widely across categories, as the influence of brand marketing, category concentration and price sensitivity come into play. Brand predetermination significantly impacts in-store promotion opportunity.


 

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Source: IRI's Times & Trends Reports
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) is the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services to the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, and healthcare industries.