ABOUT US
TELLING THE RETAIL STORY
A Home for Two Stories
The Shopper story is two-fold: First, it is the story of how individual brand and retail initiatives are planned, designed, implemented and measured. Second, it is the story of how those initiatives are brought to life — what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Shopper Stories is a home for both stories. It delivers a succinct, online how-to handbook (Shopper DIY) for organizing and building a world-class organization, complete with all the tools and templates needed to succeed. It also presents real-world stories (Shopper FYI) about specific initiatives and issues, told in the voices of those who are living through the vagaries of realizing brand and retail as a single idea. It presents research, news and other reports.
A Worldview of Brand & Retail Success
Our worldview is that in today’s digital, always-on society, brand and retail are now one and the same and must be view holistically. Success requires building enduring working relationships with retailers based on mutual goals and objectives. It means working with brand teams to bring a retail focus to the brand strategy on a long-term, sustained basis. This depends on infusing the brand essence with a keen understanding of why people do what they do while they are shopping.
SHOPPER FYI
A NETWORK OF INSIGHTS & IDEAS
A trove of stories, interviews, research, and news featuring the insights, ideas and information that bring theories to life, through the voices of our network of visionaries:
Vignettes: Success stories are presented in a brief, engaging, narrative style. Emphasis is on the larger context of how specific initiatives contributed to the brand’s long-term growth and health, what makes a success and why, how conflicts are resolved, as well as what can be improved.
Insights: Brief interviews with, or statements by, network members and other leaders on an array of issues relevant to achieving excellence in brand and retail strategy, on topics such as organization, culture, innovation/design, implementation, measurement, and more.
Intelligence: Results of industry surveys that capture a) the overall state of brand and retail strategy from year-to-year – how it is organized, executed implemented, funded and measured; and b) deep dive research into hot-button topics, such as digital, global, innovation and insights.
Confab Reports: Summaries and analyses of proceedings of our face-to-face confabs.
Brand X Journal: A two-minute read on news items that provide insight into the brand and retail experience.
SHOPPER DIY
A COMPLETE HOW-TO GUIDE
A comprehensive guide to the organization and staffing of the brand/retail function, as well as planning, design, implementation and measurement, including tools and templates. Written in a lean and accessible style, even someone who is new to the brand/retail world (from the most junior person to the CEO) can understand it and appreciate its contribution to the overall success of the brand organization.
Shopper strategy, explained. What is a brand and retail strategy? Where does it come from? Why does it matter? Everything you need to understand about brand and retail strategy is nailed in a two-minute read.
Organizing. How should your brand/retail function be organized and staffed? Why is retail strategy so critical to brand success? How should your team work with brand teams and retailers?
Planning. How do you identify opportunities? How do you know who your shopper is? What are insights and how do you find them?
Strategy. What makes brand/retail a strategy and not a tactic? How do you develop your strategy? What is the most important thing about message development? How do you write your plan?
Implementation. How do you collaborate with retailers? How do you get the best from your agency? Why is supply chain management so important to success?
Measurement. What are the three key issues with measurement? What are the three phases of the measurement process? Which measures are most important to your retailers?