FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shopper Marketing ROI Driving Rapid Investment and Expansion within Consumer Packaged Goods Industry
Contact:
Scott Openshaw, Director, Communications, 202-295-3957
Brian Kennedy, Director, Communications, 202-639-5994
September 22, 2008
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA – Seventy-three percent of participating consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and 86 percent of retailers ranked shopper marketing programs among the top four activities that deliver meaningful return on investment, according to a new study conducted by Deloitte Consulting LLP on behalf of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and released at the association’s Merchandising, Sales and Marketing Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. The study, titled Delivering the Promise of Shopper Marketing: Mastering Execution for Competitive Advantage, also shows that the percentage of manufacturers and retailers that have significant shopper marketing organizations dramatically increased from 6 percent in 2007 to as high as 60 percent in 2008. Respondents expect shopper marketing investments, as a percentage of the overall marketing mix, to continue to increase for at least three years.
“Nearly every major manufacturer and retailer in the industry is dedicating resources to shopper marketing,” said Brian Lynch, GMA director of sales and sales promotion. “This report outlines lessons learned to date and puts forth a game plan to help companies become more sophisticated in their operations and thus more fully realize the enormous potential of shopper marketing.”
Successful shopper marketing programs evolve through a three stage lifecycle, according to the report. While many companies have allocated resources and established pilot programs (stage one- incubating), they often fail to build the capabilities required to perform with scale (stage two- scaling), and rarely, so far, succeed in culturally embedding this new way of thinking and working (stage three- embedding).
"Retailers and manufacturers who are embracing shopper marketing and executing against a core set of principles are growing 50 percent faster than the categories in which they participate," said Rob Holston, Deloitte's shopper marketing practice leader. "This speaks to the promise shopper marketing holds for those who do it well."
Critical to the long term success of shopper marketing industry-wide will be the development of tools to measure performance. There are numerous perceived resource and constraint obstacles to measurement, but 60 percent of retailers cited insufficient technology as their biggest roadblock, while 70 percent of manufacturers said the cost of data collection and analysis is their greatest impediment. Regardless of the specific challenge, companies must plan for and work around these obstacles to ensure they do not stall overall shopper marketing progress.
Delivering the Promise of Shopper Marketing: Mastering Execution for Competitive is based on the input of more than 100 CPG companies, including interviews with more than 40 shopper marketing professionals and an online survey of more than 100 shopper marketing managers and executives. The report follows the widely-cited 2007 GMA-Deloitte study Shopper Marketing: Capturing a Shopper’s Mind, Heart and Wallet. Both studies are available online at www.gmaonline.org/publications/index.cfm and www.deloitte.com.
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Based in Washington, D.C., the Grocery Manufacturers Association is the voice of more than 300 leading food, beverage and consumer product companies that sustain and enhance the quality of life for hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the globe. Founded in 1908, GMA is an active, vocal advocate for its member companies and a trusted source of information about the industry and the products consumers rely on and enjoy every day. The association and its member companies are committed to meeting the needs of consumers through product innovation, responsible business practices and effective public policy solutions developed through a genuine partnership with policymakers and other stakeholders. In keeping with its founding principles, GMA helps its members produce safe products through a strong and ongoing commitment to scientific research, testing and evaluation and to providing consumers with the products, tools and information they need to achieve a healthy diet and an active lifestyle. The food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry in the United States generates sales of $2.1 trillion annually, employs 14 million workers and contributes $1 trillion in added value to the economy every year.
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