Earlier this month, we wrote a column for Point-Of-Purchase, a Shopper Marketing Magazine. This article details what we learnt from our recent experiment to halt trespassing deaths while crossing the tracks, and how these can be translated into the retail space. ——————————————————- “Consumers claim 70% of their final purchase decisions are made at the store shelf, but we don’t know as much as we would like to about how these purchase decisions are really made. So we’re in th

We talked a little bit about closing the loop when we dissected the Zoozoos campaign sometime back. Now, P&G is leading the charge in closing the loop with all its advertising campaigns – if it doesn’t work at the store, it’s no longer a good marketing idea. P&G is propagating this “store back” concept with all its agencies, not just its shopper marketing agencies. According to P&G, shopper marketing should not be seen as yet another process, but as a change in mindset. If ag

Jeff Atwood read Predictably Irrational. And he has a few words of caution. If we don’t understand our irrational behaviour, those “vicious marketing weasels” will use it against us. Here’s his take on the book to help us save ourselves from the stealth of marketing. While his post explains all his corollaries from reading the book, here are a few that we all see all the time. Realize that some premium options exist as decoys — that is, they are there only to make the less ex

Next time you are standing at the aisle wondering which brand of juice you’d like to pick up, keep your iPhone handy. The Goodguide app on the iPhone will let you dig past the marketing spiel of the product and discover its real health, environmental and social impacts, which is more likely to influence which brand of juice you might buy. Sure, all along, companies were teling you what to believe, and no one questioned their motives or interests. But now, with tools like Good

The best part of the Zoozoos phenomenon is that no one is surprised at their success. From the first spot it was clear that this is going to be huge. It’s one of the best campaigns in recent times, can’t remember anything that comes close. The communication is clear, refreshing, good connect to the service and needless to say clutter-breaking and memorable, clearly the best campaign money can buy. The campaign has many legs and the PR frenzy is more than understandable. One c

This Monday in the Economic Times, we looked at how organizations may benefit by rethinking their organization structures to reach consumers at the local level. Currently, most clients are still operating in a headquartered structure mindset. That structure worked well with mass media, where one message was broadcasted to many. But today, the hugely fragmented nature of the Indian consumer base is questioning the inability of mass media vehicles to effectively deliver brand m

Go, stand outside your local kirana store during peak hours and see how people are buying. Everyone’s in a hurry, they come prepared, pick up their stuff, pay for it, and leave. And even when it’s not crowded, people come prepared, pick up their stuff, pay for it, and leave. In such a transactional environment, where is the opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue with the shopper? Moreover, under the guise of “providing consumers with a more personalised and fulfiling shopp

Slowly but surely, our beliefs about a new wave in marketing are getting vindicated. The article in today’s Brand Equity, Economic Times shows further proof that consumers are now making most of their purchase decisions in the store; marketers are following suit. The GMA/Deloitte Report, “Delivering the Promise of Shopper Marketing” validates this sentiments in its 2008 report on how than 60% of the retailers and manufacturers plan to invest more in non-trade in-store program