Politics aside, Mrs. R. and I are real Americans in one important way. We like to shop. Not shop as in "buy." We couldn't afford that. Shop as in entertainment. We like each other's company (we've had many years to get used to it), so when we go to a new place we wander in and out of shops, looking at things. Maybe not the most uplifting of pursuits -- better we should be going to museums, I suppose -- but we like it. So a new study by The Nielsen Company (TV ratings) piqued our interest. Essentially it wanted to know what went into brand loyalty and why that loyalty seemed to be more important for some products than others. People seem to be brand conscious for coffee, soda and mayonnaise but not chocolate and smoothies, for example. It turns out that most shopping isn't like the entertainment variety but the necessity variety, especially at the supermarket. It's not supposed to be fun and consumers try to minimize the work. They don't want to waste a lot of time deciding. It's not only about small things; they seem to be content to let The Decider do it for the big things, like War. But we'll stick to the small things here:
The new study reviewed consumers' shopping behavior across 30 different food categories, and placed each item into one of the four shopping 'modes' that it identified.The first mode - 'auto-pilot' or 'grab-and-go' - is when consumers are making everyday, habitual decisions driven by brand choices and they are usually not in the market to try anything new, said Nielsen.
Items chosen in this mode include coffee, hot cereal, cheese, margarine, bottled water, mayonnaise, nuts, popcorn, sodas, and cold cuts.
"The implication for marketers in auto-pilot categories is that if you are a leader, avoid radical changes to your brand message or packaging. Otherwise you may risk disrupting habitual behavior driving brand choice in your favor," said Nielsen's Deepak Varma.
The second shopping mode - 'variety-seeking' - sees consumers actively browsing shelves and on the lookout for new tastes as well as interesting product innovations.
The category includes cookies, salad dressing, chewing gum, salty snacks, breakfast bars, frozen snacks, cold cereal, frozen desserts, candy and frozen dinners or entrees.
"Consumers seem to get bored with the same choices in certain categories," said Varma.
"We found shoppers on the lookout for a change of pace when shopping in the frozen food and cold cereal aisles, as well as for biscuits, salad dressings and chewing gum. In this context, customers' decisions to purchase products were greatly influenced by informative and exciting packaging."
The 'buzz' mode is so named as purchasing decisions in the category tend to be 'buzz-activated', with people most likely to be influenced by catchy advertising, new product introductions and the original packaging that "leaps off the shelves and grabs interest and attention", according to Nielsen.
Products in this group include ready-to-drink teas, smoothies and yogurt drinks, sports and energy drinks, and chocolate.
The final shopping mode - 'bargain-hunting' - is driven purely by price comparison and promotions, said the study.
"Consumers in this shopping mode are on a mission and the mission is savings," said Varma.
The category includes canned tuna, canned tomatoes, canned fruit and pasta sauce. (FoodNavigator-USA)
One consequence of the the Nielsen Shopper Modality Study is that the experts in supermarket marketing may not be so expert after all. Of all people you would think would know how to promote their inventory it would be people who have all the data (if they wanted to use it). But they continue to do the same things over and over again, whether it works or not, like offering in-store deals for products that aren't bargain driven:
"Consumers choosing sports drinks aren't looking for a bargain. In-store deals for these products go largely unnoticed. Marketers would be better off redirecting their wasted promo dollars to investing in advertising and new product introductions," said Khandelwal.
If the experts with all the data you could want and for whom even a tiny advantage or disadvantage gets translated into large profits or losses aren't really so expert, what about our policy experts?
You know, the ones telling us, "Buy this!"
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Huh. I'm surprised how well that models my shopping habits.
It doesn't model mine at all... but I'm not an American.
Most of my shopping is the auto-pilot and cost-saving kind and primarily in grocery stores or big box places where standing in line is an ordeal. I always compare prices and look for bargains - mainly in store brands (which often are of equal or better quality than the name brand products). The main difference is in the packaging.
When I buy by brand name, it's because I have already proven by experimentation that the name brand product is superior to others I have tried.
And as a prepper, of course I buy in quantity....
It galls me no end to come into a store and find that they have changed the shelving and layout, as well as changing packaging. I only have so much life left to find that damn can of tuna!
As for what we used to call window shopping - I'd still like to do that, especially around the holidays when the decorations are up, but just going into a mall drives DH into a cold sweat. No much fun anymore so I stick with WalMart. They put up their Christmas decorations in July.
I shop for price, always, which means I carry a calculator.
Well, probably the creative or ecological style haven't been part of this study for some reason.