There is No Such Thing as Customer Marketing

I apologize if that headline causes anyone to scream in rage, or, worse still, think poorly of me. What I will say is, if it helps, there is a very important thing, and that is Shopper Marketing.

Marketing is the pursuit of emotional connectivity between consumer (or gatekeeper, in the case of brands in categories like pet or baby food) and brand, and quite frankly, any Category Manager worth his or her salt is not driven by an emotional connectivity, nor are they driven at the brand level. Customers are driven by delivery of strategic and financial metrics which exist at the category level. I do not say this in a disparaging way. On the contrary, I would do the exact same.

So, we do not market to Customers. We sell to them. We service them. We negotiate and transact with them. We sometimes disagree and get thrown out of their offices. We can have a professional relationship with them. But we do not market to them. Who we do market to, is Shoppers.

Shoppers are, wait for it, Consumers at the first moment of truth. Before they can consume, they have to buy. This means the act of emotional connectivity begins before the act of consumption. And while there are evolutionary steps prior, the first tangible point of commitment, is at the point of purchase. And that is with the Shopper.

That is why the successful organizations are building leveragable competencies in Shopper Marketing. They are investing in research to understand the "Shopper Journey" - how he or she goes from empty cart to the check-out aisle. What changed from the time they entered the store, and the time they left. Where the points of influence reside and how best to use them to push the Shopper toward their brands.

Where Shopper and Consumer Marketing intersect with the greatest venn is in a bar or restaurant, where decision-to-purchase and consume are tied by time and location. Here is where the Brand Team needs to do double duty - to understand what motivates a patron to order, and how the total experience aggregates to build an emotional loyalty.

In most cases, Shopper Marketing and Consumer Market are linked, but separated by time and location. What this means is, we need distinct and unique expertise in each, but a close tie between the two, lest our brand appear schizophrenic. From a structural standpoint, I believe Shopper Marketing should be part of the Sales function. The location of activity, the store, drives that recommendation. This said, I believe organizations are best served by having Consumer Marketing staff the Shopper Marketing position. My rationale is two-fold:

- it provides a tremendous training and broadening for the Consumer Marketers, who will be far better for the experience,

- the Sales function will benefit from the closer interaction with Consumer Marketing.

Look to the Customer as the world within which your Consumer decides to make the first, and many would say, most critical decision - as a Shopper, the decision to purchase. With that as the context, the Shopper is the person to whom we market.