Shopper Marketing Glossary: The Basics
As major global marketing agencies like Publicis and IPG recognize the potential revenue of consolidating shopper marketing agencies under their umbrellas or adding shopper marketing capabilities alongside their brand marketing capabilities, we thought it would be useful to pull together a list of fundamental shopper marketing terms. While the broad discipline goals have largely remained the same--driving trial and getting closer to the path to purchase with lower funnel tactics--the breadth and the platform has changed. Now, it’s all about the mix between offline and online. So, while shopper marketers previously had to think about how shoppers move through stores or physical merchandising, they’re now also needing to think about geotargeting and on-platform sponsored tactics.
As such, here are the basic terms and concepts that shopper marketers should be concerned with. In the following part, we cover the more advanced concepts, along with the metrics that shopper marketers use.
Above-the-Line Advertising: advertising for which a commission or fee is paid to an agency operating on behalf of a client. This most commonly refers to mass media advertising through television, radio and print and is also used to compare brand-building advertising strategies with sales-driving promotional tactics, or below-the-line advertising. See also: Below-the-Line Advertising
Ad Break Date: the day of the week a retailer’s weekly sale items go live.
Active Shoppers: households who have purchased target products or promoted products within a set period of time ago (e.g.: within 26 weeks from the start of a campaign). See also: New shoppers, Return/Lapsed Shoppers
Below-the-Line Advertising: tactics that do not earn a commission for advertising agencies, and therefore are viewed more as pass-through expenses than revenue generators. They include P-O-P advertising, direct mail and all types of consumer promotion and refer to tactics that focus on driving sales rather than building brands. See also: Above-the-Line Advertising, Point-of-Purchase Advertising
Buy One Get One (BOGO): a type of trade promotion that offers customers another item of the same type, free or for a reduced price with a purchase of that item.
Buy Online, Pickup In Store (BOPIS): a type of last-mile fulfillment through which consumers place online orders, which are then fulfilled by the retailer in-store for in-store or curbside pickup.
Center Store: the categories that are placed along the rows of shelves in the middle of the supermarket. These typically include shelf-stable goods, frozen food, paper products, etc. See also: Perimeter Departments
Conversion: when a customer completes a desired goal. For shopper marketers, conversion most frequently equals a sale.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Shows how often people who see your ad end up clicking on it. CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on an ad by the number of impressions served.
Cut-In: the introduction of a new product into the shelf set, which involves a change to the existing planogram. A cut-in usually occurs between major shelf resets.
End Cap: merchandising space at the end of store aisles, used to prominently display products on sale or other special items. This is considered to be prime store real estate, offering great potential for incremental sales.
Everyday Low Price (EDLP): a pricing strategy that promises consumers a low price without the need to wait for sale pricing or comparison shopping. This tactic is most commonly used by Walmart.
Feature: the ad space given to a product in the retailer’s circular, typically negotiated between buyer and seller and funded with trade promotion dollars.
Impression: An opportunity to serve an ad to a consumer on a digital device.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI): The target or result you want to achieve. In other words, it’s how you measure the success of a campaign. Common KPIs are ROAS, COS, CPL, and CPV.
Native Ads: Ads that look and feel like the surrounding content in an attempt to improve consumers' experience by letting ads blend into the content backdrop. Ads on Pinterest (such as Promoted Pins) are a good example of native ads.
New Shoppers: households who have not purchased any target products or promoted products within a set time period (e.g.: within the last 52 weeks at the start of a campaign). A new shopper may be a prior customer who has not made a purchase within a certain period of time. See also: Active Shoppers, Return/Lapsed Shoppers
Own Brand: a brand with a line of products packaged and marketed under the brand name of a particular retailer. Also known as: Private Label (products manufactured by one company that are packaged and marketed under another company's brand), Store Brand
Perimeter Departments: the food categories that are placed along the perimeter walls of supermarkets. These typically include produce, meat, dairy, eggs, etc. See also: Center Store
Point-of-Purchase (POP) Advertising: in-store advertising that catches the attention of shoppers while they're in-store. This may include end caps, banners and shelf signage. See also: End Cap
Premium Ad Inventory: Ad inventory that is considered to be of high quality and is therefore valued at a higher price.
Programmatic Advertising: Programmatic advertising is an automated form of advertising where ad placements are bought and sold by software/computers.
Promotion Allowance: reductions in the price of products that brands offer retailers to carry out additional promotional activity in support of the brands' products.
Reach: Share of the marketer's audience exposed to at least one ad.
Return/Lapsed Shoppers: households whose last purchase of any target products or promoted products occurred over a set period of time ago (e.g.: over 26 weeks ago at the start of a campaign). After a set period of time without making a purchase, a prior shopper, although they may have previously purchased a brand’s product, is considered a new shopper again. See also: Active Shoppers, New Shoppers
Shipper: a display that includes pre-packed merchandise and the display structure all in one carton, usually designed for quick and easy setup in the store.
Static Ad: Unlike dynamic banners, the content of static banners is pre-prepared.
Stock Keeping Unit (SKU): an internal inventory management/stock-keeping system that enables brands to track products in inventory.
Temporary Price Reduction (TPR): a price discount of short duration most often facilitated by a product manufacturer’s trade promotion funds (i.e. “on sale”).
Trade Promotion: a wide variety of marketing activities that are funded by brand marketers in order to have their products merchandised and promoted by retailers, thereby increasing sales. Among the more common practices are feature advertising in weekly circulars, display placement in-stores and temporary price reductions. See also: Feature, Temporary Price Reductions
Universal Product Code (UPC): a scannable barcode on product labels to enable retailers to track inventory movement.
And make sure to check out part 2, which will cover the more advanced concepts, as well as metrics that shopper marketers use to measure programs and performance.
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