Market researchers have often used segmentation to understand different groups of consumers and to understand which groups to target. Historically, segmentations are category-focused and brands develop different target groups for their category, while trips are looked at from a retail perspective, being defined on a total basket such as stock-up or fill-in trips. We took a different approach and looked at shoppers across all of the things they buy, and then built trips up from different categories. What we got was a true shopper lens of a person’s motivations and how they buy different products on the same shopping trip.
We layered on behaviors, emotions, and motivations to understand what is motivating different shopper groups. What this created is a roadmap for growth that we call our Shopper Activation Framework (SAF).
Before we get too far, let’s look at two common examples that help illustrate where existing segmentation methods fall short.
Example 1: Between Channels
Bob buys his toilet paper and paper towels from a big box store. Here, he is cost-conscious. He knows what he needs, and gets in and out of the store. However, when he buys his favorite sparkling water and vegan microwave dinners, he visits a high-end specialty grocery. In this store, he knows he’s going to spend a little more money. He’s more engaged, open to surprises, and looking for little splurges. Bob has two distinct mindsets and behavioral patterns in these two different stores.
Example 2: Between Categories
Julia does all her shopping at a large general merchandise retailer. For the majority of her shopping trips, she is relatively unengaged, focused on completing her checklist quickly. But Julia has a dog and takes great joy in exhaustively looking for new treats and toys to take home. Suddenly, time is no longer a consideration. The difference of one aisle causes a dramatic change in the motivations driving Julia’s behavior.
To group Bob or Julia in one overarching segmentation based on a single attribute of their buying behavior would result in missed opportunities for both brands and retailers. For brands looking to grow portfolios, categories, or specific brands, it’s critical to account for the inherent fluidity that shoppers exhibit across channels and categories.
To this end, we created the Explorer Research Shopper Activation Framework. The SAF provides a holistic behavioral perspective that takes both rational and emotional drivers into consideration, providing a full retail landscape view.
It identifies purchase motivations at a category level, on a specific trip for a category, in order to develop natural clusters of similar mindsets. In this way, the SAF provides insights that break out of the restrictive box built by traditional segmentation.
These insights can be used to help design the path to purchase, to help planograms come to life, and to determine what products should be promoted (and in which channels). It spans all of the touch points along the consumer journey and can be used either as a standalone tool or as a supplement that can refine existing segmentation.
Contact us to learn more about how the SAF facilitates better shopper understanding to drive meaningful engagement and increased revenue.
