You walk into the room with your brand story.
Ten minutes later, you’re back to talking price and promos.
We’ve all been there, and it’s not that your buyer doesn’t want to talk profitable growth. It’s because true growth comes from applying consumer and shopper knowledge.
Shopper Intelligence gives you what your buyer really needs to drive change: what their shoppers think, want and do at the fixture, so the conversation moves beyond price and onto sustainable category growth.
The industry's default response
Faced with tighter household budgets and thinner margins, the channel's instinct has been to cut prices. Promotional activity is up, shelf tickets are multiplying, and ‘value’ is the loudest word in the aisle. It's an understandable reaction. But it’s not getting the results the industry needs.
What shoppers are saying
Older, higher-income shoppers record the highest overall satisfaction of any group, but price isn't what's driving it. At the other end of the spectrum, younger shoppers aged 18 to 24 rate product attributes like healthy choices, authenticity and pack options as more important than price. Yet those are exactly the attributes the channel delivers worst for them.
The opportunity gap
Two very different shopper groups, telling you the same thing in different ways: though important, price is rarely the deal-breaker in today’s market.
Suppliers who can show retailers precisely where the range, the story or the in-store execution is falling short have a fundamentally different conversation available to them, one that doesn't start and end with discounts.
Where this leaves your conversation
It’s hard, it takes long-term commitment and it won’t change overnight, but it can change.
Your buyer doesn’t want to ignore profitable growth. They just need the evidence to try something different. They need your expertise in applying your consumer and your shopper knowledge.
When you know what their shoppers think, want and do at the fixture, your conversation moves naturally beyond price and onto sustainable category growth.
I wrote more on this in a recent article on discounting into the dark: what off-premise liquor is missing
If you want to set your team up for a different outcome tomorrow, you need to be having a different conversation today.
Shopper Intelligence is a Platinum Partner of the Drinks Association.