Situation Assessment involves analysis of five areas: socioeconomic trends; brand understanding; consumer understanding; retailer understanding; and shopper understanding.
Socioeconomic Trends Analysis considers any and all external factors that may influence shopper behavior: population; aging; economics; social; retail; ethnic; health; eating; shopping; technology; competition. Such trends can affect the degree to which shoppers are price-sensitive, their preference for private-label brands or choice of retailer, for example.
Brand Understanding is an analysis of your brand’s image, equities and its perception among both shoppers and retailers. For example, how the brand is positioned, its points-of-difference, personality, the degree to which it is responsive to merchandising, how it is priced, how often it is purchased, seasonality, and how it influences market-basket size, must be considered among other factors. Each of these factors must be assessed and factored into an overall evaluation of the brand’s equity, what it stands for in the marketplace, and its long-term vision.
Consumer Understanding is essential, as it is an indicator of likely shopper behavior. This identifies which consumers are most likely to buy your brand, and affects how best to present the brand in the retail environment. This information also helps align the brand’s highest-potential consumers with the retailer’s most loyal shoppers.
Shopper Understanding homes in on how the brand’s consumers behave as shoppers, analyzing how and why they shop and make decisions about which brands to buy (a.k.a. “need states”). Key factors include how shoppers navigate the store and respond to any barriers to purchase. This determines the best way to communicate, connect and persuade within the retail environment.
Retailer Understanding centers on identifying unique ways in which the brand can help the retailer achieve its business objectives. This requires an analysis of the retailer’s positioning and the strategies it is pursuing to realize its goals. It considers the retailer’s favored media platforms, advertising strategies and merchandising protocols. And it aligns insights into shopper behavior with available merchandising and messaging opportunities.
It is critical that all five of the above areas are considered in total, with an eye toward patterns or connections between each of the elements. The idea is to arrive at opportunities to build equity and sales for your brand while also aligning with the goals and objectives of each retailer.
Extra Important: Take care to evaluate each retailer individually and tailor your initiatives to its specific situation. This is critical because helping each retailer differentiate itself from its competitors is a fundamental principle of Shopper. Differentiation is essential to Shopper success.