Why the lazy summer is a myth. For working parents, BTS means relief from "the summer gap."

We talked with a group of working parents here at SBC Advertising about the upcoming BTS (back-to-school) season and what they shared with us about their summertime reality was eye-opening. To be cliche, it's no picnic.

Do you recall that BTS spot from Staples a few years back? It featured an overly excited parent with equally unexcited children meandering through a Staples school supply aisle. I think Staples was trying to say that parents were glad to get their offspring back to school and out of their hair thus making the season the true "most wonderful time of the year" instead of Christmas.

Yes, the commercial is an exaggeration but Staples is on to something. There's truth in the analogy because the idea of a lazy summer is a myth for the working parents we interviewed. And the return to a structured school year means relief for many of them. Parents told us their lives calm down once school begins because their households revert to a more predictable routine whereas the summertime schedule is, well, kind of crazy.

Are brands missing out on a big opportunity? 
Retailers and marketers are so heavily focused on the BTS season that we think they're missing out on a key opportunity to connect with parents. It's not all backyard barbeques and sleepovers throughout the months of June and July. Working parents have to do more to ensure their kids are safe and keeping productively busy during the hours they would normally be at school. More scheduling. More activities. More expenses. More meal planning. More communication. More. More. More. Oh yeah, and they still have to work too.

We think that brands from food retailers and restaurants to communication providers (smart phones and otherwise) could benefit greatly by addressing the "Summer gap" as we're calling it. Help busy, working parents navigate their crazy summer season and you might earn a loyal advocate the whole school year too.

So, how's your summer going?

[photo credit: Flickr/Emilyonasunday]

The Rise of Shopper Marketing, or How I Learned to Pay Attention to the Shopper, Not Just the Consumer

Here at SBC Advertising, we've been doing some thinking about Shopper Marketing, an emerging discipline that is becoming increasingly more important for retailers.


What is Shopper Marketing, you ask?

Essentially, it studies, targets and caters to the shopper, and, more importantly, seeks to understand how individuals act when they're actually in the store or on the website making a purchase. While this may sound like the same thing as traditional consumer research, it is in fact as different as night and day.

For example, when asked during consumer research, an individual may tell you they prefer a certain brand and are loyal to a fault. But when the shopper gets into the store, it can be a different story. That loyal consumer suddenly decides to buy a competing product. What happened?

Shopper Marketing will tell you that the decision was, in fact, not sudden at all. Identifying what influences and drives a sale when a consumer becomes a shopper is what shopper marketing is all about.

Does a shopper just want to get in and get out? Is a shopper looking for the best value? Is a shopper trying to find the lowest price? Understanding these purchasing drivers is the key to driving growth. It's so important, in fact, that many of the world's largest consumer products companies are spending time and money to delve into the issue. InStoreMarketer.org reports that, for the last year a group of leading retail and industry supporters have been working together on the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing. The commission has tasked itself with the goal of developing a blueprint for Shopper Marketing best practices. Industry-leading retailers Campbell Soup Co., Coca-Cola Co., Giant Eagle, Kellogg Co. and Walmart, among many others, signed on to be a part of this effort.

Meanwhile, according to a study from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, 83% of consumer package goods companies surveyed expect to increase their shopper-marketing investment over the next three years, while 55% of those companies expect their investment in shopper marketing will exceed all other marketing spending, including Internet and social media.

At SBC, we believe that while delving into shopper marketing is valuable, it's important to realize that consumers aren't as easy to influence as they used to be, at the store level or elsewhere. They are much savvier and they have access to instant information about goods and services they purchase because of the indispensable smart phone. As a result, spur-of-the moment purchase decisions have decreased in frequency. That's why it's important to engage shoppers on a regular basis, in places or scenarios where they are progressing down the path from consumer to shopper.

Today a well-crafted marketing plan will not only cover shopper marketing but include mobile as a key component of the plan as cell phones, especially smart phones, and now tablets have increasingly become a source of easily accessible information for consumers and shoppers.

Image: Ambro/freedigitalphotos.net

Sources: 
Shopper Marketing: Racing Along the Path to Purchase, Advertising Age, 2010 
Retail Commission: A "Road Map" to Shopper Marketing, InStoreMarketer.Org, February 2010 (registration required)