P&G Likes Path-2-Purchase Concept

Filed Under Advertising, Digital Signage, digital ooh

I’ve been harping on for some time now about how media is no longer “Couch to Store” and that media and creatives needed to start looking at connecting with consumers on the path-2-purchase and at the “point-of-purchase”. See past links here:

there are more but that’s a start.

While P&G doesn’t call it the same thing I/ADCENTRICITY does, it has its own name for the way in which you need to consider creative and media executions when trying to speak to the consumer: Store Back

From the article on Ad Age:

store back is meant to be “a mind-set,” not another process in a company that already has plenty. But it’s also clear the mind-set could have a substantial impact on process, elevating the role of shopper marketing to also become a creative gatekeeper. “It means you have to have the end in mind when you’re coming up with the [marketing] idea,” she said. “If it doesn’t work at the store, it’s a miss.”

As Andy Murray from Saatchi & Saatchi X notes:

Andy Murray, CEO of Publicis Groupe shopper-marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi X, said he sees store back elevating the role of shopper marketing at P&G and elsewhere. “It will bring more shopper-marketing insight work into the upstream ideation process,” he said.

He’s sometimes seen initiatives where Saatchi X “has to do some rework to make it work at the store level, and we can probably eliminate that by having better insights about the store built into the front end.”

It’s easy to tack on a shopper-marketing component to most ideas, such as through an adaptation of an ad that runs on in-store TV or a packaging blurb. But store back is supposed to be about ideas designed from the start to resonate with shoppers.

Interesting how this whole shopper marketing and shopper insights stuff is being driven in at the agency level on all fronts.

Many in traditional media have a very hard time wrapping their heads around this whole concept, preferring to stay with what they know. Shopper marketing, digital and anything that helps facilitate it are coming in strong. As Andy also says:

“Search advertising is shopper marketing done online,”

The keys to why these changes are coming on so strong can be read in the Ad Age article, but the highlights are:

PERCEIVED ROI IS UP
SHOPPER-MARKETING DEPARTMENTS ON THE RIS
CONVERGENCE WITH DIGITAL
CONVERGENCE OF CONSUMER AND TRADE BUDGETS
CONVERGENCE OF CONSUMER AND SHOPPER RESEARCH
RETAILERS TAKE CHARGE

I recommend reading this article several times…very good insight and Coke and P&G are pushing hard for this type of approach and if you do business with P&G and don’t buy in to the concept of end-to-end creative and media plans, you’ll understand why business with them doesn’t get won as often